Moria vs Easterlings/Khand Battle Report

"The veiling shadow that glowers in the East takes shape" - Gandalf in The Two Towers

The time has come for a battle report! This time it is a play test game with my 500pt Moria Horde which I outlined here.

I was playing against at my local store vs a really fun army themed around a Shadow in the East/Evil Men. I have played against his Easterling force before and a very scary Serpent Horde poison list but have never played against his Khand chariots before.

The Shadow in the East list:

Amdur on Ft

13 Easterling pikeblock (mix of black dragons and standard warriors)

Khand King on Chariot

Khand Chieftain on Chariot

3 Khandish Horsemen

Looking at the list as we started the game I knew I would be in trouble, he can out maneuver me with the chariots and horsemen and the pike block would be tough for me to deal with.

Scenario
Rolled up the scenario and it was Heirlooms of Ages Past. Not the best scenario for either of us but the Shadow in the East list had the movement advantage. The objectives were placed around the board mainly in open ground, except for one that I placed on a hill outcropping, hoping that would prevent me getting attacked by the chariots and cavalry.


Turn #1

Priority: Shadow in the East

Movement:
The maelstrom of battle deployment really changed how the game went from turn #1. Easterling pike block was placed on west board edge while the Khandish King and 3 horsemen deployed on the eastern board edge, the Chieftain failed to enter the board turn #1.

Moria maelstrom was not what I had planned at all when it came to this army list. Groblog's unit failed to enter the board, Shaman was placed on the eastern board edge 6" from the corner. The captain's warband which included the drum was unfortunately placed a little more than 6" from the south-west corner so I was facing down the scary pike block right away! I then rolled east/west and was able to put my Durburz warband on the opposite side of the pike block on the western board edge. I was hoping I would be able to attack the pike block from both sides and make use out of the Moria army bonus for trapped models and the prowlers I had on the list.


Turn #2
Priority: Shadow in the East

Movement:
The Chariot and the horsemen started moving from east to west across the board toward the pikeblock and my 2 warbands. The chariot that didn't make it onto the board, made it on started moving it's way across the board with the other chariot.

Moria movement, I started to move Durburz toward the pikeblock, as fast as I could which is so slow with moria! The Captains warband shuffled over to 1" away from the pikeblock so they could avoid the chariots for at least another turn and prepare for the pikeblocks attack. The drum also moved to the corner to try and survive.

Shamans warband split up to try and dig up heirloms in the next turn while Groblog made it onto the board and was dropped in the middle of the north board edge, selected by the opponent.


Shooting:
The Khanish King and horsemen were able to kill a goblin spearmen and a shield goblin with shooting in the first turn. The first casualties!


Turn #3
Priority: Moria

Movement:
Moria - I needed to decide what to do, the pike block was a big threat to my Captains warband and the chariots were coming across the battlefield very quickly. I decided to leave the drum in place and charge my Captains warband into the pike block, since I wanted to stop them from moving any further away from Durburz's warband. I needed to be able to catch the rear with Durburz's warband so I moved his warband up and put a few goblins behind a wall of a small building and left a prowler out to the side to try and get a lucky shot on the Kings chariot with my throwing weapon.

Start of Turn #3 - The shamn's warband is just out of the photo behind that large rock outcropping

The Moria Shamans group was able to get to the one objective atop the rock outcropping and dug it up, not the Heirloom. There was 2 more objectives out of the frame in the above photo on just to the bottom left of the photo and another just on the flat terrain on the other side of the rock outcropping. The goblins remaining in the shamans warband began to move towards those two objectives.

The Easterling pike block slammed into the Moria Captains line and the two chariots turned towards the rear of Durburz's warband.

End of movement turn #3. The single prowler is ready to take on the Khandish king!

Shooting:
It is the prowlers time to shine as he stands in the face of a Khanish King on his menacing Chariot!
Turns into a flop roll and he can't even hit with his throwing weapon. My other 2 prowlers also attempted to throw their throwing daggers at the back of the pike block, one missing completely and the other throwing through 2 friendly goblins, passing both in the ways but failing to wound an Easterling.

Combat:
I decided to shield with my captain who was facing up against Amdur and in a single turn Amdur completely demolished my captain so he was gone. The rest of the pike block won all but 1 combat and was able to kill a number of goblins. The one combat that my goblins one failed to wound.

Turn #4
Priority: Shadow in the East

Movement:
This is where the power of chariots and lack of D6 for goblins turned out well for the evil men. The chariots moved and crushed a number of my goblins, including my brave prowler! The King on chariot was able to destroy a fair amount of Durburz's warband, 3 or 4 goblins just through movement.

Moria - Durburz was able to tri-point the Khandish King and one goblin tagged the chieftain to allow this by taking away his control zone.
The shaman and Groblogs crew began moving up the board and was able to uncover 2 more objectives, both were not the relic. The one goblin from Durburz's crew tagged on as well and it was not the relic. That left 2 objectives left, both in the open field.

Turn #4 after all moves were done the moria lines were depleted. My only hope was to kill the Khandish King and heroic combat into the Chieftains chariot.

Combat:
Durburz called a heroic combat to try and neutralize the Khandish King, no other heroics were called.
Durburz and a single prowler with a spear support went up against the King, with a reroll from the drum, I hoped I would be able to squeak out a win! Unfortunately for me I couldn't match the rolls of the Khandish King and Druburz had to use his two fate rolls, failing one so Durburz took a wound (+1 VP for Shadow in the East)

The rest of the combat went as expected with the Easterlings killing a ton of goblins, even when shielding with a reroll from the drum, and the chieftain destroying my lone goblin with a spear.

End of combat in Turn #4

Turn #5
Priority: Shadow in the East

Movement:
Durburz called a heroic move to attempt to stop the chariots from destroying my remaining goblins on his side of the table. The Kahnish King countered with a move of his own. The rolloff goooooes tooooo......MORIA!
I was able to move Durburz into the Chieftain along with a prowler and spearmen to tripoint him and trap him. The other goblins were able to tripoint the King as well.

Evil men movement turned out bad for Moria. The Easterlings counter charged and a key play was the Khandish horsemen being able to make its way to Durburz! The third Khandish horsemen charged a lowly goblin with a spear in the centre of the table.

Moria then was able to move and turnover the second last objective, which was not the relic either! Thta mean the relic was near the centre of the board, out in the wide open!

The end of movement on Turn #5 meant Durburz was no longer going to be attacking the Khandish Chieftain but a lowly horsemen instead.

Combat:
Durburz only had 1 Might left in his store so Moria called no heroics and the armies of the Shaodw in the East didn't call any either since Amdur was facing off against a single goblin with a spear and the Khandish King was up against a single prowler who would be fighting at -1 with his 2 handed axe.

Durburz after his move onto the Khandish Chieftain and the charge by the horsemen

Lots of dead goblins in this turn but Moria scored it's first kill when Durburz was able to kill the horsemen he was against.

Turn #6
Priority: Shadow in the East

Movement:
The evil men lines clashed with the goblins again, this time targeting the drum, Durburz and the rest of the goblins.

Groblog and the Shamans warbands both moved towards the center objective and one of the goblins from the shamans warband was able to uncover and grab the relic.

Combat:
Durburz was killed, the drummers were both killed and every other goblin near the Easterlings were killed except one poor goblin with a spear was left!

Turn #7
Priority: Shadow in the East
Goblin holding the objective rolled a 3 so was good to move normally

Movement: 
The Khanish chariots and horsemen were bearing down on the Moria lines, Moria was broken but both heroes were able to make their stand fasts but both Groblog and the Shaman had to expend one Will each, meaning Groblog was down to 0 will. The lone goblin with a spear was charged by a pair of Easterlings.

The goblins hold the objective but the chariots are about the destroy my goblin line!

Shooting:
Khandish horsemen attempted to shot the goblin holding the objective but failed to hit. The two remaining prowlers attempted to throw a few daggers at the chieftain but failed to even hit.

Combat:
There was a lone goblin spearmen who attempted to get into combat against 2 Easterlings in the far corner of the board and the goblin somehow survived.

Turn #8
Priority: Shadow in the East
The goblin holding the objective rolled a 6 and was luckily not transfixed

Movement:
Knowing I held the objective and that my force was close to breaking I decided to not call a heroic move with Durburz to allow the chariots to come in and destroy my lines.
The chariots moved in and were able to kill about half of Groblog's warband.
I was able to make a stand fast with both Groblog and the Shaman and I moved the object back towards the rock outcropping.

Shooting:
Khandish horsemen tried to shoot the objective holding goblin and again were unable to hit.

Combat:
Moria scored it's SECOND kill of the game by killing the Khandish horsemen. The Chariots killed almost my entire goblin line leaving only Groblog and a single goblin on that flank remaining.

Turn #9
Priority: Shadow in the East
Moria was 1 model away from 25% so turn #9 would be the last turn. The goblin holding the objective rolled a 5 and was not transfixed again.

Movement:
Both chariots moved into Groblog and a few of the goblins, killing one and stopping on another.
The pikeblock and Amdur were coming for the objective.
Moria's movment. The spearmen in the far corner failed it's courage test and fled the board cutting the army below 25%, this was the final game turn. The shaman was able to make his standfast, using another Will point to succeed. Two of his goblins charged Amdur and the rest fell back.

Groblogs Final Stand!

Combat:
Somehow Groblog survived combat but failed to wound the Khandish cheiftain. The Khandish King rolled over the single goblin in his combat. In the Amdur combat I decided to stab with the two goblins, just for fun and they were both cut down by Amdur!

END OF THE GAME!

Final VPs 6-4 for Moria

Shadow in the East: 4 VP total (2 for breaking Moria and being unbroken, 2 for killing Moria's leader)
Moria: 6 VP total for holding the relic

Endgame Discussion:
This game was a wild game, first time facing chariots and also first time playing as a full horde Moria list. The chariots were devastating against my army, especially since goblins with shields are only D5 the chariots wound on 5s which happened quite a bit.
The goblins were dropping like flies to a stiff breeze, which is fine considering I had 49 models

The Shadow in the East list had low numbers but they had the defense and movement to be able to destroy my army. I also found that the goblins 5" move was a big detriment, giving the 6" move Easterlings advantage on charges and it took one turn too many for the Moria goblins to get to the rear of the pike block.

I was extremely lucky that my goblin heroes were able to make their stand fasts to keep the relic on the board, if the Shaman failed I am 99% sure my remaining goblins would have ran away which may have meant a Shadow in the East victory.

I think the Moria list really needs at least one or two bigger threats. Both Durburz and Groblog aren't a big threat but having a troll in there would have been beneficial. The shaman didn't need to use his Fury during this game but I think it is still a worthwhile investment just in case, although in this game having him roll for deployment on the opposite side of the other warbands wasn't great.

Overall I think it was a fun list to play and we were able to finish the game in about 1hr 40 minutes which was reasonable for the number of models in my army, I was thinking it would really slow my play down.
Next list to try out will be my Mordor list with the Great Beast of Gorgoroth, Kardush and Shagrat which will most likely be at the tournament since I don't have enough time to play test that list but I think it will stand a better chance than this Moria list.

Hope you enjoyed the battle report!

Tournament Prep - List Building

"The age of men is over, the time of the orc has come!" - Gothmog - The Return of the King

It has been some time since I have made a blog post, 2019 was a busy hobby year for me painting wise but didn't get too much of a chance to update the blog, but the time has come again to write a blog post!

The tournament is a small one, 500 points with most likely 6-8 people coming. I have quite a few armies to chose from and of course I am going to go with an evil force. After some list writing I narrowed my two prospective lists to Moria or Mordor.

The Moria horde list I wrote consists of the following:

Durburz

6 Goblins w Shields

6 Goblins w Spears

3 Prowlers

Shaman

3 Goblins w Shields

3 Goblins w Spears

Groblog

5 Goblins w Shields

5 Goblins w Spears

2 Prowlers

Goblin Captain

5 Goblins w Shields

5 Goblins w Spears

1 Moria Drum

Models: 49

Might: 8

50% Break: 25 dead

25%: 12 remaining

This list is a straight out horde army which I have not actually played before. My usual Moria list at least has some big hitters in a troll or two, the Balrog or a Cave Drake and some fast moving Marauders. 

This list has the numbers to beat out any other army in my local area so I would get the numbers advantage and be able to make good use of the army bonus and trap a fair number of models. That combined with Groblog's crown would bring my goblins up to F4 for standard warriors and F5 for the Prowlers.

Durburz makes for a good leader who can sit in the back to make use of his 12" stand fast when/if I break.

Generic Captain is in the list as a cheap way to get troops in and to hopefully make use of his heroic marches since the goblins speed is a weak spot.

Shaman is in there for the Fury against terror causing armies, this tournament will not be a good vs evil so I may face an evil army with lots of terror or I could face Army of the Dead.

The one focal point of the army is the drum. I just got one and I really wanted to play it in an army so I put it in the list. The rules are very unique that other armies are jealous of. it covers 36" of the board and serves as a banner for any fight with a moria goblin in it, which is every fight since I only have goblins. It also boosts the courage of my goblins (including heroes) by 1 over the entire battlefield, which may be useful vs armies with lots of terror and my shaman isn't in range. The -1 to enemy courage may not seem that useful since I have no terror, but late game it can cause the enemy to flee if I am able to break them.

This list seems pretty good to me but my main issue with it are speed. The goblins are terribly slow so in scenarios like reconnoiter I may be too slow. 49 models is also TONS of models so I may be clogging up the board where I won't be able to fit all my goblins in fights or be able to move them across the battlefield. This also brings up the issue of playtime, I haven't play tested but it will take a lot of time to move 49 models so I will need to really speed up my movement so I don't eat into my opponents time since games will be 1.5hrs.

I was able to playtest this list the day of writing this post, you can find it here.

While pondering this list lets go over my second potential list. Mordor!

Shagrat w Heavy Armour & Shield of Cirith Ungol

4 Black Guard of Barad-Dur

2 Morannon Orcs w Shields

6 Orcs w Spears

Kardush the Firecaller

5 Morannon Orcs w Shields

5 Orcs w Spears

1 Orc w Sword

Great Beast of Gorgoroth

Models: 36

Might: 6*

50% Break: 18 Dead (19 before rolling)

25% Break: 9 Remaining

Much different list that will play quite a bit differently.

Shagrat is the leader and he makes a very strong leader with heavy armor and shield with the ability to gain back Might if he kills an enemy hero (Blood and Glory rule) and the shield helps with his killing power, 3 attacks with knock to the ground turning into 6 dice is really really powerful.

Kardush is a great shaman who will cast fury and be able to keep it up all game with the sacrificial orc with a sword. He also has fireball which is good if I am facing a high defense monster. 

The Great Beast of Gorgoroth is one of the main reasons for writing this list. Mainly because I finally painted mine up so have been excited to try it out. It is truly a bargain model. You get a generic commander (no march though), 9 orcs with bows and then the beast itself. The bows don't count towards the bow limit, which doesn't matter in this army but could in another. Since it is a battle platform the orcs will be hitting on 5s which is nice when combined with an 8" move of the beast.

The beast gets 2 Str 6 hits on its trample which is pretty good for the price point. Str 6 means even against defense 7 or 8 models I will still be wounding on 5's and 4's vs the more standard D5 or 6.

Something to note: 7/12 matched play scenarios end the end of the turn in which an army goes to 25%. This army's 25% number is 9, which is important. The Great Beast, its Captain and the archers all count individually towards the model count so it is 11 models. That means the enemy has to kill the Great Beast and 1 additional model to quarter the army. All models within the howdah also auto-pass courage tests for broken as well so it has staying power late game.

The enemy archers could shoot the commander or the archers out, making in the way shots for the howdah. Now if they hit the howdah which is D8 so an archer hitting on 4s with Str 2 bows you would be wounding on 6/5's which equals a 2.78% chance of causing a wound to the howdah that has 4 wounds. Or a 8% chance of being able to hit, pass the in the way and then wound an archer. Pretty low chances but a chance nonetheless.

This may be a strong point or it could be a sour point when it comes to end game. The orcs within the howdah will auto-pass their courage tests for broken as I said which is great but they also cannot dismount so I will need to manage the movement late game and make sure I save a point of might for a late game heroic move if I need to.

So which army am I taking to the tournament?

Well that is the question now isn't it. After thinking about it for a long time I have decided to go with the Mordor force, which you may have guessed from the opening quote from Gothmog (even though I am not playing Gothmog). The main reason for choosing the Mordor force it that it has more strengths than the Moria list. 

The Mordor list has a strong leader in Shagrat who would be able to face off against most heroes at the 500pt level minus a few tougher ones. Shagrats warband alone is much stronger with 4 Black Guard for the F4 and Str5. The front line of my warriors is also all D6 so I will be able to withstand a fair fight, and I can shield if I am greatly outnumbered or need to stay on objectives.

The Great Beast is also going to be a big problem for my opponents since it has 8" move, has 9 bows and is a tough enemy to face up against since trample avoids taking courage tests since it counts as movement.

Kardush will also be invaluable if I face against Army of the Dead or anything with lots of terror while also being able to fireball high defense enemies on a 3+ wounding them on a 4 or 5 which is pretty great.

Both armies are fully painted, since I like to only play with fully painted armies, with the exception of bases being unfinished. Now it's time to playtest, although I don't know if I will have enough time to do that before the weekend!

Cirith Ungol Themed List

"A bell clanged; and from the Watchers there went up a high and dreadful wail. Far above in the darkness it was answered. Out of the black sky there came droping like a bolt a winged shape, rending the clouds with a ghastly shriek." - The Return of the King

The Dark Tower - John Howe

Cirith Ungol is one of my favorite locations in Lord of the Rings books and movies and with the next Games Workshop Made to Order featuring the old metal Mordor Orcs, some of the best orc sculpts, I thought it high time to start on a Cirith Ungol themed list.

The list I am going for will be 650 Points to start which will give me a good starting point to go up or down in points depending on the games I play in. Based on the description from the novels, Cirith Ungol is home to at least one of the nine on a flying mount but at 650 points I don't think I will include that just yet. Potentially at higher point levels I will include a nameless wraith on fellbeast for theme, which I am going for over competitiveness with this list.

Made to Order Orcs:

The MTO orcs are going to be up for pre-order this weekend so I was originally going to use them exclusively in the list since they go well with the Mordor Uruk-Hai aesthetically but there is one thing the pack doesn't have a lot of and that's spear supports.

The pack contains:

9 Orcs with shields and variety of weapons

3 Orcs with 2 handed axes

2 Orcs with spears

Made to Order Mordor Orcs

I am hoping, depending on price, to pick up two packs of these guys, but that will only give me 4 spears which will not be enough for the list. I have bucket loads of plastic orcs that I will use to supplement into this list to bring it up to a more competitive state since 4 spear supports in an army is very low.

Heroes

The heroes are a pretty straight forward for this army. In the movies we get some great scenes with Shagrat and Gorbag so those are auto includes. In the last MTO we also got Kardush, a great shaman spellcaster with flameburst and fury so I will be including him as well, a Mordor Orc shaman on warg and lastly, we can't forget who lurks in the mountain passage above Cirith Ungol...Shelob! 

Now you might be wondering why I am including a orc shaman on a warg when I already have Kardush, who is a shaman himself. The answer is simple and can be found below:

The model is AMAZING! This is my favorite sculpt in the entire range so I had to include it. It also will free up will points to have Kardush cast flameburst and then if he runs out of will he can sacrifice an orc to replenish his own will to cast MORE flameburst. The shaman on warg will also give me maneuverability to bring him where he is needed to have Fury up where it's most useful. The 12" transfix is nice as well but on a 5+ I would need to roll 2 dice to get it off effectively which would cause me to lose my fury so I will use him mainly for fury.

Troops

For the troops I am of course using the metal orcs from the MTO this weekend but will include 2 other troops. Mordor Uruk-hai and Morgul Stalkers. I only have 3 Mordor Uruk-hai right now as they are OOP and am still on the hunt for more so 3 will do for now. I am putting those in with Shagrat, I will convert them to have shields as well for the added defense. Back them all up with spears with a banner close by and this warband should munch through enemies, Fight 4 backed by spears with a banner is nice and with Shagrat around to heroic combat in and break enemy lines this will be a scary warband to face.

I have also included 4 Morgul Stalkers in the list, which I picked up last MTO. I like the aesthetic of them which fits in with the Cirith Ungol list and gives a bit more variety in troop types. Their 2 attacks at strength 4 will also be nice, placing them on the flanks of the warbands or to go out on their own to grab objectives.

Final Lists:

I have made 2 lists here, one that contained metal only models for theme or with spear supports for a more competitive force. Once I get more Mordor Uruk-hai I can put a few more in with Shagrat and potentially remove the shaman on warg for a solid 600pt list. Each 650 point list is 41 models with 8 might. It has good numbers and some great heroes.

Shagrat will be the leader in both armies, Fight 5, 3/3/3 plus heroic strike, knock to the ground with the shield on charges and Blood and Glory special rule makes him a real threat on the tabletop.

We also have Shelob who can pressure flanks and traverse the terrain will also be good if you keep her out of bow range and go against the correct targets.

At higher points values, for theme, I would be tempted to drop the shaman and take a nameless wraith on fellbeast with 2/14/1 would be a good thematic addition (see opening quote) although I don't think it would be the most competitive choice.

I will keep the blog updated with hobby progress for this list as I get to painting it all up! Currently just waiting for the Made to Order to open up and then I will place the order for the Orcs. I have everything else for the list but will have to get some paint on those models!

Without further ado the lists:

650pt - Plastic/Metal Mix

Warband #1

Shagrat with heavy armor and shield

3 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Shields

1 Orc with Banner

2 Orcs with Shields

6 Orcs with Spear

Warband #2

Gorbag with Shield

5 Orcs with Shields

5 Orcs with Spears

2 Morgul Stalkers

Warband #3

Kardush the Firecaller

5 Orcs with Shields

5 Orcs with Spears

2 Morgul Stalkers

Warband #4

Mordor Orc Shaman on Warg

Warband #5

Shelob

650pt - Metal Only MTO

Warband #1
Shagrat with heavy armor and shield
3 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Shields
1 Orc with Banner
4 Orc w Spears
2 Orcs with Shield
2 Orcs with Axes

Warband #2
Gorbag with Shield
8 Orcs with Shields
2 Orcs with Axes
2 Morgul Stalkers

Warband #3
Kardush the Firecaller
8 Orcs with Shields
2 Orcs with Axes
2 Morgul Stalkers

Warband #4
Mordor Orc Shaman on Warg

Warband #5
Shelob

Angmar Faction Review - MESBG

Overview:
Welcome to our very first faction review on The Nazgul Times! Today we are going to take a look at my personal favorite faction in Middle Earth SBG which is Angmar.

Angmar is the realm of the Witch-king, a dark corrupt place filled with many undying spirits. This force has a very unique feel to it as it is considered to be "shut down" army that debuffs enemy forces with tricky spells and abilities.

This army also has a fair number of unique heroes and monsters that really give the army a lot of flavor and are very fun to play!

Each hero and warrior unit will be rated and their name will be highlighted in a particular color to show how useful the unit is for the army.
Green - Auto include in any Angmar Army
Blue - Very good choice
Grey - This is a decent choice, not the optimal choice but a good middle of the road choice
Yellow - Situational, may be a good choice depending on how you are building your force but may also be a bad choice in some armies
Red - Bad choice, I would not recommend taking these units, they have very limited uses


Pros:

• Lots of unique units to choose from including wraiths and monsters
• Variety of potential list builds
• Debuffs enemy forces in unique ways
• The Shade

Cons:

• Warrior choices are lacking when comparing to Mordor or other evil armies
• Low Might
• Low Courage troops

Army Bonus:
The army bonus for Angmar is one of the better bonuses in the game in my opinion as it boosts the survivability of the lowly orcs within an army.

Friendly "Angmar Orc" models within 3" of a hero spirit model gain the Terror special rule. This special rule is great since most of your heroes will be spirit models and will help your orcs survive longer as they are less prone to being charged by cavalry and will be able to charge on their own merit. The abundance of Harbinger of Evil choices within the army also helps to make the Army Bonus even stronger.

Allies:
Angmar is a red alliance with everyone except Smaug and Moria, who are both yellow alliances. I don't think it is worth it to ally in another army as Angmar is pretty good on its own and the yellow alliances do not really offer much in terms of abilities that will really push Angmar into a top tier list and I would stick with a pure Angmar force. Avoid any red alliances, and the stink eyes that would go along with a red alliance.

Hero Profiles:

The Witch King of Angmar:
The big boy himself, Mr. Do-It-All! The Witch-King is always a very solid choice in any army that he can be taken in. With Angmar he gets the bonus of being a Hero of Legend, which helps if you don't want to play too many heroes. You can kit him out any which way you want to be either a caster or a combat wraith.

If you are going for a caster you can choose an armored horse with the Crown of Morgul, which gives you more attacks but also a free re-roll on cast and resist tests which can be BIG. As a caster I would put him at 2/16/2 with the crown but you can bump his M/W/F up depending on your play style. He is the best caster out of the wraiths, as you would expect, and has the ability to cast "Your Staff is Broken" which is very strong when facing Gandalf or Saruman.

If you choose to use him as a combat character I would give him 3/16/3 (or 3/18/3 if you have the points) with the crown and either on an armored horse OR a fell beast depending on the points you have available but with him being a Hero of Legend you can spend those extra points you would have needed to spend on another hero for his fell-beast.

I would avoid the flail at all costs, it is just not good. The Morgul Blade is situational and you really need to have the Crown (and not be on a Fell Beast) to make it work since you need to use the Witch-Kings attack and strength values vs the Fell Beasts strength.

Overall a very strong and thematic choice for an Angmar army but I would not consider him an auto-include because there are some other heroes with some fantastic abilities.

The Tainted:
Personally for me the Tainted is the perfect wraith and really highlights what Angmar is as a whole. He has the standard stat array for a wraith and is a 2/14/2 with two really cool special rules. I would consider him a utility wraith as he has enough of a Will store to be able to survive a couple combats if he needs to, cast some spells and has 2 fate points for survivability.

His Miasmatic Presence is a potential late game finisher for when an enemy force is broken and you don't want the enemy heroes to get off that all important Stand Fast. I would lay 1 Will point aside for this.

Seeping Decay is a pretty good bonus special rule, especially since it doesn't cost the Tainted any Will to use it, outside of the Will he has to spend for being in combat. A 16% chance to wound every model in base contact can be a savior if you get charged by a number of enemies.

Drain Courage is a Tainted bread and butter, casting on a 2+, when you combine the army bonus with drain courage on the enemies it helps to boost the effectiveness of your army as a whole. I would stick him on a armoured horse or a fell beast if you want to get into a few more combats.

The Dwimmerlaik:
I was teetering on the edge of giving the Dwimmerlaik a "situational" rating but I landed on the "bad" category and it is mainly because of his Sap Fortitude special rule.
He is not a combat wraith since he carries a two-handed sword and has 0 Might points so you would really only want to get him into combat if he is on a fell beast but then you still have 0 Might points to influence your dice rolls so is not a good combat wraith.

He casts all spells at the same efficiency as the Tainted with 2 more Will points but he will most likely be using those extra points for his Sap Fortitude special rule, below.

Sap Fortitude allows the Dwimmerlaik to spend a point of Will every time a enemy hero within 6" spends a point of Might, Will or Fate, if the Dwimmerlaik does the enemy has to spend an additional point of the same type of resource or else they lose the resource they were going to use. The Dwimmerlaik can do this multiple times if the opponent is using say, one will points to resist a Paralyse, the Dwimmerlaik can use this ability and force the opponent to use two, or if the enemy doesn't have two will points they lose their will and are now paralyzed. Sounds good right?

Here is the catch: after spending the will to pop this ability the Dwimmerlaik has to roll a 4+ for it to even work and he has no might to influence the roll. If it was automatically cast or even on a 3+. The roll can't be influenced. So this ends up being a slightly modified Sap Will (that can effect Might, Will or Fate) but with half range. This ability definitely fits with the whole "shut down" aspect of Angmar but I don't believe that it is worth taking vs the Tainted or Witch-King which are far better wraiths. I would leave the Dwimmerlaik at home.

Gulavhar, The Terror of Arnor:
A vampire?! In Lord of the Rings?! Yes you read that right, Gulavhar is the biggest baddest scardy cat in that game!
I personally love Gulavhar, he is very Angmar and is a big scary model on the table that forces your opponent to move to counter him. Fly, Harbinger of Evil, Monstrous Charge with F7, S8 3 Might (in an army with very few might options) and the ability to regenerate wounds he is a BEAST.

His weakness though, is his defense value. At defense 5 he is very vulnerable to shooting which really eats into his effectiveness since his attack and courage values are equal to the number of wounds he has left, which is why he is a scary cat because he could go down to courage 1. This means you need to get him into combat as soon as possible and start munching through your enemies. If he gets shot at and suffers a few wounds before getting into combat he will be far less effective in combat.

The way around this is with his Immortal Hunger special rule. Gulavhar regains wounds every time he kills a model using Rend, which with Strength 8 is very likely. You need to get into combat asap with him though so you don't even need to use your regen abilities.

The other downside to Gulavhar is his cost...he is super expensive for a model that might be shot off the board very quickly. I am a big fan of him and use him quite a bit but his points cost and defense value really lower him from a very good choice to just a decent choice.


Buhrdur, Troll Chieftain:
Buhrdur is a very solid choice for any Angmar player. Buhrdur is a troll chieftain with the stats to match, the same stats as a normal cave troll but with 3 Might, 1 Will and a single Fate point at his disposal and carries a big ol' pick.

Outside of the Witch-King he is the only Angmar hero with Heroic Strike which is a great option for him since he can Heroic Strike and also use piercing strike with less of an issue to really crack some heroes or tough enemies.

His special rules gives him a 6" banner to orcs and trolls. So if we break down his points cost you are essentially paying 10 points for a 6" banner and 5 points for each point of M/W/F which makes him a very effective use of points.
His downside is that he is not a Spirit model so models around him do not get terror, this is somewhat not as big of an issue since he himself causes terror and any Cave Trolls around him also do so you can pair his warband up with another warband to create a pretty solid terror battle line.

Shade:
The dreaded shade, this is one of the main reasons people play Angmar is to include this model. Looking at its stat line it doesn't look at that great, fight 1, 1 attack, no might, no fate model doesn't seem great but then you look at his special rule "Chill Aura". The shade is a debuff machine! The Shade has to spend one of his 8 will to activate this ability and any enemy model with 6" of it suffers a -1 to its duel roll! It can essentially makes your fight value higher than any basic enemy without might or forces the enemy heroes to use Might to win combats against basic troops!

The way to use a Shade is to surround him with orcs to give them the terror bubble and then pop his ability every turn the orcs are in combat. This, in addition to the army bonus, makes your lowly orcs a lot stronger than their face value. Include the shade in any Angmar force you are building.

Barrow-wight:
The spirits of leaders of men, corrupted by the Witch-king. These are going to be your captain models in your army. They are spirits so will help your orcs gain terror, they have 0 might but 6 Will to cast one of the most powerful spells in the game, Paralyse. This is what they were born (resurrected?) to do, they should be casting Paralyse on some of the big bad heroes you might come up against, pair that with Sap Will and you got yourself a scary combo. They also have decent survivability at defense 7 with 2 wounds and high courage for those late game stand fasts when you inevitable break.

I really like to cast Paralyse after draining courage of your desired target, bringing in a dead marsh spectre with its Fell Light is Within Them rule to move the enemy into an open area and then casting Paralyse and running a cave troll into the combat with a few orcs for the extra bang. Another option is to cast Sap Will on the target with a wraith one turn and then the next cast Compel the following turn. Paralyse is really hard to get off a hero if they don't have any friends in base contact with them.

Barrow-wights are excellent and I auto-include at least one for every Angmar army list I write.

Angmar Orc Captain:
Sub-optimal choice for an Angmar force. Low courage so they are not useful for any stand fasts, aren't spirit models so doesn't impact the army bonus.
They aren't bad per say, but the only reason I would take one is to get Heroic March since it is your only option in the list for that heroic ability (that will effect everyone at least).

Angmar Orc Shaman:
The all-mighty shaman and the awesome Fury spell...oh wait. The Angmar Shamans are not like their Mordor brethren, they don't get the Fury spell and they instead get Wither. I believe they are the only model able to cast the Wither spell and it is very Angmar flavored. It reduces an models STR which is pretty interesting and has a solid 12" range which boosts its effectiveness. Channeling this spell is a solid idea which will eat your single will point but it does cast on a 3+.

The Angmar Shaman also gets Instil Fear which is pretty meh since it casts on a 5+ so you want to be rolling this on 2 dice.
He is an OK choice but Angmar has better casters and better heroes to choose from.

Wild Warg Chieftain:
Are you taking Wild Wargs in your list? Then this is your hero! The Wild Warg Chieftain is overlooked in a lot of Angmar forces because you have a lot of other monsters, spirits and wraiths to choose from but let me tell you this hero is a solid choice!

The chieftain has a very respectable stat line (strong and a good number of attack) and gives Angmar some much needed mobility. He is a solid choice with some good killing power. His only downside is that his heroic actions and stand fasts only effect warg models, this doesn't include warg riders, so if you are going to run him I would recommend you put him with a strafing unit of Wild Wargs.

Warrior Profiles:

Angmar Orc Warriors:
The lowly orc warrior, a staple in any Angmar force. These guys will form the main battle line of your army and it is best to throw a mix of sword and board orcs backed by spear orcs. I normally always take a banner in my force, most of the time it will be in the Shades warband. I would avoid orc bows at all costs, orc shooting is really bad 6+ if you move and only 18" range is bad and not worth it.
The army bonus helps these guys last a little longer as they won't get charged as often so keep them close to your hero spirits!

Angmar Warg Riders:
Angmar's cavalry option. They aren't an amazing choice but they can be used fairly effectively, 2 attacks on the charge with the Wargs S4 is good. You also have the option for throwing spears which are a bit of a gamble but a very small investment. Put shields on these guys every time and use them to grab objectives or flank enemy lines.

Cave Troll:
Cave Troll with a hand-and-a-half hammer is a go to choice in an Angmar army. They are Burly so don't suffer the penalty for using the hammer two-handed. I pair these guys up with 1-2 dead marsh spectres who use their Fell Light ability to draw enemies out and break enemy lines. I wouldn't bother with the troll chain but it isn't terrible.

I usually include 1-2 Cave Trolls in my lists. They are not overly expensive and provide something scary for your opponent to deal with while also being line breakers themselves.

Dead Marsh Spectre:
Spectres are a great unit and synergise with the other parts of the faction quite well. They essentially get a free 12" spell that costs them nothing to cast. It forces an opponent to take a courage test or else the Angmar player gets to move the model its full distance anywhere they want. Combine this with a wraiths Drain Courage and Harbinger of Evil and you should get this off fairly easily. The way to use these are to either break up enemy shield walls and charge in with a cave troll or other hard hitter or to block enemies from moving if you use it in a choke point or on front ranks or moving them off key objectives late game.

They are a touch expensive points wise so don't take more than 1-2 per warband.

Wild Warg:
Like I said earlier, if you are bringing a Wild Warg Chieftain bring Wild Wargs and vice versa. They are okay and give your army some more maneuverability and flanking threats but they will die pretty quickly so I generally use them as cheap objective grabbers late game.

Army Lists:
I have mentioned in the unit reviews some of the tactics that I use when playing an Angmar force and these are based on how I build my armies. when building an Angmar force you have to first decide if you are going to build a Low Might army or try and fit more Might into your army. My personal preference is to use a Low Might force.

You have a pretty wide range of options for heroes and building out a list for Angmar, you can go Monster heavy and use Gulavhar, Buhrdur and Wild Warg Chieftains or go all spirit heroes in the Shade, a wraith and Barrow-wights. Below are two forces you can try out to get a feel for how Angmar plays. I built these armies the way I play Angmar but you could try a higher might army using Witch-king, Buhrdur and a Wild Warg Chieftain to get 8+ might.

600 Point List
Warband #1
Tainted on Armored Horse (Leader)
3 Wild Wargs
5 Orcs with Shields
5 Orcs with Spears

Warband #2
Shade
4 Orcs with Shields
4 Orcs with Spears
1 Orc with Banner & Spear
1 Cave Troll with Hand-and-a-half-hammer
1 Dead Marsh Spectre

Warband #3
Barrow-wight
5 Orcs with Shields
5 Orcs with Spears

Might: 2
Models: 37
Break Point: 18 models left

This list is a pretty good start to Angmar since you get your named wraith, a scary troll, lots of orcs and some other objective grabbing models.
You can re-arrange the points a bit if you would like to use 1 Dead Marsh Spectres in Warband #2 but when you have the Harbinger of Evil with the Tainted and then a few Drain Courage casts you can use the Spectre to target a few key models pretty effectively. Combine that with the paralyse with the barrow-wight or popping the shades ability and your opponent will have a pretty hard time.

800 Point List
Warband #1
Tainted on Armored Horse (Leader)
1 Orc with Sword
5 Orcs with Shields
6 Orcs with Spears

Warband #2
Barrow-wight
5 Orcs with Shields
5 Orcs with Spears
1 Dead Marsh Spectre
1 Cave Troll with Hand-and-a-half-hammer

Warband #3
Barrow-wight
5 Orcs with Shields
5 Orcs with Spears

Warband #4
Shade
1 Orc with banner
4 Orcs with Shields
5 Orcs with Spears
1 Dead Marsh Spectre
1 Cave Troll with Hand-and-a-half-hammer

Might: 2
Models: 50
Break: 24 Models left

This force is a classic horde of orcs that will all be causing terror within 3" of any of the heroes. You have two cave trolls that the opponent will have to deal with and combined with the Barrow-wights abilities and Shade this will be a good strong force.

Alternatively, if you are not a fan of playing with the wraith you could go Shade, Barrow-wight, Buhrdur and a Wild Warg Chieftain with 2 cave trolls and fill the rest out with orcs and wild wargs for a medium Might force with more maneuverability but still having a few terror bubbles.

The Factions!

There is a good reason why I called this blog The Nazgul Times...I love evil armies!
I own 13 factions and the majority of the painted ones are evil factions! My favorite faction is Angmar but I enjoy playing most evil armies, something about the monsters and expendable troops is much more enjoyable for me to play. The funny thing is I own more good armies than I do evil but I only have 1 good army painted!

List of factions I am working on are:
Good
The Fellowship
Minas Tirith
The Shire
Rangers
Rohan
Thorin's Company
The Dead of Dunharrow

Evil:
Angmar
Mordor
Moria
Isengard
The Serpent Horde
Dark Denizens of Mirkwood

My painted forces, the shelves are filled with many unpainted models

My goal is to paint a usable army list for each of my armies, most likely around 600 point lists except for the armies I bought for Battle Companies (The Shire). In the next few blog posts I will post up some lists that I am writing for each of my factions to try and set a solid painting list up.

Welcome to The Nazgul Times Blog!

Welcome to The Nazgul Times Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game blog!

This blog is an outlet to share my Middle Earth SBG hobby with all of you! I was a huge fan of Lord of the Rings as a kid, the movies were so amazing for me I watched them so many times over on VHS. One birthday I got the Mines of Moria boxset as a gift and was very excited about it, setup a small 2x2 board with a woodland scenic mat and played in my room with the minis! At the time I really had no idea how to play or even read the rulebook to be honest.

Moving on a few years later, I still had the Mines of Moria boxset but never did play a proper game or understand the rules, but my friends dad was really into Warhammer Fantasy. They had a 6x4 table all flocked up with ridges and rock and hundreds of miniatures on the shelf. That is when I really started playing wargames, the rulebook was DENSE and my friends had more experience than me playing so it was a steep learning curve and I ended up not collecting my own army since they had about 6 or 7 different factions I could use at their house.

A few years later I bought the Dark Vengence boxset to play 40k with, ended up painting them up and switching to Tau. Again, I rarely played many games with it since I was away for College at the time and the gaming scene was very small where I was. Eventually I bought into Warhammer Fantasy with a Skaven army and have since amassed around 5-6000 points of Skaven which I now mostly use for Kings of War.

I have recently gotten back into Lord of the Rings when the new edition released last year, I dusted off my old miniature collection and bought the Pelennor Fields Boxset. Since then I have collected a fair number of miniatures from 13 factions!

This blog will mainly focus on Lord of the Rings miniatures and hobbying, with some occasional posts for 40k, Fantasy or historical games.

There will be some discussion posts on factions, hobbying posts about terrain building and army focus posts where I post about progress on certain factions and lists. I hope you stick around and send some comments in when you can!

Enjoy!