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The subject says it all. I just got the starter set and while i love the Lord of the Nazgul i have wanted the Balrog from day one that i laid eye's on his sexy, beastly self. My question (especially since I'm still waiting on the army book) is.... Is this a viable fighting force? Is the Balrog worth it? I'm going to get it for my love of the model anyway.... But do i want to use it in the game? Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

I haven’t gotten the new books yet but the Balrog did get a revised profile with new rules and seems like it’s much improved.


https://www.warhammer-community.com/2018/08/22/21st-big-rules-changes-profiles-middle-earthgw-homepage-post-2fw-homepage-post-2/

One of the most terrifying creatures in Middle-earth, the Balrog often struggled to make an impact in Matched Play games – until now! Whilst its characteristics have remained the same, the Balrog has had a series of special rules added to its profile. Now the Balrog can utilise its flaming lash in battle, declare a Heroic Combat each turn for free, ignore the effects of any flame-based attacks against it, and halve the number of wounds it would suffer from an ability that would slay it outright. On top of this, the Balrog has had a points reduction. These are significant changes designed to make this mighty creature the truly terrifying monster that it should be!

Balrog is sooooooo good in the new edition. If you are new to the game he's a great blunt object, but as your skill improves, he now offers all kinds of positioning trickery that could make him really tournament competitive in fun ways too.

Moria in general has lots of odd and fun unit choices. I say go for it!

Thank you guys

So, as a NON balrog player, how the hell does one deal with the Balrog. He seems pretty much unstoppable.

Defense 9 and 10 Wounds means he's pretty much unkillable, even if you do win a Fight against him (and at F10 that's unlikely).

Magic Resistant and 10 Will means he's pretty much immune to magic.

With Heroic Combat free each turn, you can pretty much count on him killing at least 2 models per turn.

Rocmistro wrote:
So, as a NON balrog player, how the hell does one deal with the Balrog. He seems pretty much unstoppable.

Defense 9 and 10 Wounds means he's pretty much unkillable, even if you do win a Fight against him (and at F10 that's unlikely).

Magic Resistant and 10 Will means he's pretty much immune to magic.

With Heroic Combat free each turn, you can pretty much count on him killing at least 2 models per turn.

You don't fight the Balrog. You run, fool.

 Galas wrote:

Rocmistro wrote:
So, as a NON balrog player, how the hell does one deal with the Balrog. He seems pretty much unstoppable.

Defense 9 and 10 Wounds means he's pretty much unkillable, even if you do win a Fight against him (and at F10 that's unlikely).

Magic Resistant and 10 Will means he's pretty much immune to magic.

With Heroic Combat free each turn, you can pretty much count on him killing at least 2 models per turn.

You don't fight the Balrog. You run, fool.

You FLY, you fools.

Lol. Sure, that works in a movie or a book but in a game one must have a plan for stuff like that or else it becomes an auto-win and I don't think GW wants that.

Try what works in other games with big tough unkillable models. Ignore it and play the scenario. 2 models a turn? Just trible feed him 2 models a turn and kill rest/aim for scenario.

Warhound titan in 40k looks scary as well and for orks is as good as unkillable. But it's just one model so short of scenario where you win only by holding one point nothing he can really do.

Now albeit if you run into scenario where balrog can win just by sitting at one point it's tougher.

The balrog can literally yoink any model on the board into combat with him within 18 inches. Couple that with his free heroic combat every turn and you cannot just "avoid him".

tneva82 wrote:
Try what works in other games with big tough unkillable models. Ignore it and play the scenario. 2 models a turn? Just trible feed him 2 models a turn and kill rest/aim for scenario.

Warhound titan in 40k looks scary as well and for orks is as good as unkillable. But it's just one model so short of scenario where you win only by holding one point nothing he can really do.

Now albeit if you run into scenario where balrog can win just by sitting at one point it's tougher.

The balrog isn’t a titan. A titan is actively unplayable in most matches play games

As for the balrog, siege weapons maybe.

stratigo wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
Try what works in other games with big tough unkillable models. Ignore it and play the scenario. 2 models a turn? Just trible feed him 2 models a turn and kill rest/aim for scenario.

Warhound titan in 40k looks scary as well and for orks is as good as unkillable. But it's just one model so short of scenario where you win only by holding one point nothing he can really do.

Now albeit if you run into scenario where balrog can win just by sitting at one point it's tougher.

The balrog isn’t a titan. A titan is actively unplayable in most matches play games

As for the balrog, siege weapons maybe.

Yes but principle still applies. If titan isn't your cup of tea compare to knights which can be also defeated by playing scenario and minimizing what damage they can do. And balrog is easier to deal with in that there's less models it can reach(no guns of shoot 12 times etc)

Or other cases like bloodthirster in 40k 2nd ed(just feed 1-2 guardsmen a turn and it's useless). As long as your army isn't based on few high value models the big bad model is struggling to make anything useful. Sure bloodthirster killed any character it got into combat. Not much help if you made sure it only got basic guys into combat where it could only kill those it got into b2b contact with. So you simply fed 1-2 guardsmen. Squad of 10 guardsmen=5 turns minimum bloodthirster took to clear them all out.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Sledgehammer wrote:
The balrog can literally yoink any model on the board into combat with him within 18 inches. Couple that with his free heroic combat every turn and you cannot just "avoid him".

So provide him choise of "do I yoink this gondor infantryman #1432432 or #213342432 into combat with me". Ability to yoink models into combat isn't much to cheer if all he has available is cheap run of the mill. Of course if your army is like Elendil+Aragon+Boromir style of super friends that's more of Balrog's field of course. He's basically rock of uber heroes scissors.

tneva82 wrote:

stratigo wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
Try what works in other games with big tough unkillable models. Ignore it and play the scenario. 2 models a turn? Just trible feed him 2 models a turn and kill rest/aim for scenario.

Warhound titan in 40k looks scary as well and for orks is as good as unkillable. But it's just one model so short of scenario where you win only by holding one point nothing he can really do.

Now albeit if you run into scenario where balrog can win just by sitting at one point it's tougher.

The balrog isn’t a titan. A titan is actively unplayable in most matches play games

As for the balrog, siege weapons maybe.

Yes but principle still applies. If titan isn't your cup of tea compare to knights which can be also defeated by playing scenario and minimizing what damage they can do. And balrog is easier to deal with in that there's less models it can reach(no guns of shoot 12 times etc)

Or other cases like bloodthirster in 40k 2nd ed(just feed 1-2 guardsmen a turn and it's useless). As long as your army isn't based on few high value models the big bad model is struggling to make anything useful. Sure bloodthirster killed any character it got into combat. Not much help if you made sure it only got basic guys into combat where it could only kill those it got into b2b contact with. So you simply fed 1-2 guardsmen. Squad of 10 guardsmen=5 turns minimum bloodthirster took to clear them all out.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Sledgehammer wrote:
The balrog can literally yoink any model on the board into combat with him within 18 inches. Couple that with his free heroic combat every turn and you cannot just "avoid him".

So provide him choise of "do I yoink this gondor infantryman #1432432 or #213342432 into combat with me". Ability to yoink models into combat isn't much to cheer if all he has available is cheap run of the mill. Of course if your army is like Elendil+Aragon+Boromir style of super friends that's more of Balrog's field of course. He's basically rock of uber heroes scissors.

Must feel good to win priority every turn and always have the initiative to try and swarm the balrog.

I would love to build upon my 40 goblins and play Moria, but I cannot even get a beastcaller model right now. So much is out of print, I will probably have to just stick to Mordor.

Moria is allies with Angmar, so this is all giving me ideas. Evil ideas. (Insert evil cackle)