A Noobs Perspective: Angmar

One of the things I love most about war games is list writing. I love trying to find undiscovered synergies and putting together killer combos. I find myself writing army lists constantly so I thought since I’m doing them anyway I might as well blog about it! There are lots of faction reviews out there so I’m not going to be looking at what individual units are good or bad at, rather I’m going to write a list or 2 for each faction and explain why I’ve put it together. Now I have very little experience with the game, even with Minas Tirith I’ve only really played Boromir, hence the name of this series. I’m going to end up missing some things due to lack of experience, but maybe I can bring a fresh perspective to some armies too!

To kick this series off, I’m going to start with Angmar. This is mostly because they are completely different from the Minas Tirith lists I’ve been playing. While MT is fairly grindy with its high Defence but low Strength, Angmar is all about control. There basic troops are nothing to write home about but they have a load of tricks to make them better or the enemy worse. I also wanted to think about Magic and Monsters as I haven’t used either of those yet! So the list I’ve come up with is:

The Witch King (3/15/3) Armoured Horse, Crown of Morgul

7 Orcs, shields

7 Orcs, spears

4 Orcs, bows

1 Orc, Banner

Shade

4 Orcs, shields

4 Orcs, spears

2 Warg Riders, shields

Gulavhar 

2 Dead Marsh Spectres

700 Points

Control, Magic, Monsters. I’ve tried to hit all 3 of these in a big way. Control comes from having 3 spirit heroes (so I’ll have a tonne of terror causing orcs), 2 Spectres combined with 2 Harbinger of Evil models for those courage tests, and a Shade to blunt the enemy’s offence. Magic comes from the Witch King. He’s got loads of spells to chose from (many of which also provide good control) and the Crown for the casting rerolls. I have him 15 Will too so that he doesn’t have to be stingy about throwing spells around. The Monster element obviously comes form Gulavhar! This guy has got to be the ultimate glass cannon. F7 S8 and (hopefully) 5 attacks on the charge but only D5! He’s got to be used carefully but if done well he seems like a beast! 

The rest of the list is filled in with standard Orcs with a variety of weapons and a couple of Warg Riders for objectives. This is not the most interesting set of troops on the world but after spending 460 points on heroes I just needed some bodies! Luckily Orcs are delightfully cheap and will hopeful be causing Terror most of the time. 

I really wanted to include a Barrow Wight for Paralyse as this is even more Control and Magic, but I just can’t justify a 4th hero when my other 3 are so expensive and pretty non-negotiable. 

Angmar can go pretty heavy into any one of the 3 themes I’ve aimed for (Triple Ringwraith, Bhurdur and Trolls, Wight spam) but I wanted to try to keep the list balanced too so hopefully what I’ve come up with can be semi-competitive! I’m actually working my way towards completing this very army as my Evil force so hopefully I will be Abel to let you know how it does some time in the future! What do you think of my list? Any improvements or comments would be greatly received! Next time, fellow noob Dave is going to dive into The Defenders of The Shire! Thanks for reading!

First big-boy games

On Monday Colm, Steve and I had our first practice 700 point games. I used the following list

Boromir, horse, shield, Banner of Minas Tirith

8 FCG, shields4 Warriors, spears, shields2 Knights, shields

Madril7 Rangers, spears3 Warriors, shields

Angbor9 Clansmen6 Axemen

700 Points, 42 Models, 11 Might, 3 Horses, 8 Bows

Game 1: Heirlooms of Ages Past vs Colm

Necromancer

Lingering Shadow

Narzug

4 Hunter orcs with bow on warg

9 Hunter orcs (4 with bow)

10 Gundabad orcs with shields (1 banner and 4 spears)

3 Berserkers (these were technically not allowed in the list but we used them anyway)

Colm got initial priority and rolled for both his Necromancer and Lingering Shadow to come on on the right hand side of the board. He put them either side of the lake so that he could cover several objectives. Narzug came on from Colm’s side of the board. I made liberal use of Madril’s ability to have all of my war bands come on from my side. My plan was to try  and smash the Necromancer’s war and quickly with Boromir and co while the others went to look for the Heirloom. 

My side of the board is on the right of this picture so when I describe places on the board it is from that perspective 

With that in mind Boromir went straight towards the Necromancer who quickly organised a fighting retreat. Angbor and Madril’s went towards the centre objective and the one on the roof respectively. I didn’t find the Heirloom in the bottom right but unfortunately the Lingering Shadow found it very soon after in the top right. I knew that I had to get it to win so I started advancing up the board as quickly as I could while Madril’s established a fire base on the roof. 

Madril heads to the roof, he hasn’t yet noticed that 2 of his Rangers look suspiciously like Uruk Hai

Hunting down some Orcs

Bird’s eye view 

The lines clashed and Angbor and his men made short work of the hunter orcs on the right but the Gundabad orcs proved tougher as my S3 men struggled to wound them. I was grinding them down but very slowly. So far the Necromancer has struggled to cast anything notable or I had resisted whatever he threw at me. It was becoming apparent though that the only way I would catch the Lingering Shadow was with someone mounted and both my Knights were already dead. Boromir’s horse become public enemy number 1 and the Necromancer threw a load of Will into killing it. The game was pretty much over at that point as I had virtually no way to catch the Lingering Shadow with his essentially 9” move. I gave it a go with Boromir, Angbor and some others trying to pincer him but it was not to be as Colm’s forces were soon quartered mostly thanks to failing break tests (I was shielding a lot to prolong the game). 

These Hunter orcs never really had a chance

The grind begins 

The Wargs try to help but have their heads chopped off

Boromir starts heading around the top building

Angbor comes to try and help the pincer

This was as far as Boromir got before the game ended. He did win 1 round of combat against the Necromancer but never stood a chance of actually wounding him.

It was a fun game overall but it felt a bit skewed by the Heirloom being found by the Lingering Shadow so early as then I never really had a chance to catch him so I could never really win. That being said, there was no way Colm was ever going to beat me in a straight fight so it was good that he had a way of winning! I was fairly happy with the list here although my lack of cavalry did hurt me. 

Game 2: Contest if Champions vs Steve

Lurtz

8 Warriors with shields 

6 Warriors with pikes

1 Warrior with banner

Mauhur

4 Marauders with shields

1 Marauder

Isenguard Troll

Vrasku

3 Warriors with crossbows

2 Warg Riders with throwing spears and shields

2 Warg Riders with shields

2 Warg Riders with bows

3 Berserkers

With the scenario being Contest of Champions this was never really going to be anything but a big brawl in the centre of the map. With me being a lot of D7 and Steve having a lot of D6 it was going to  be a grind and boy was it! The left hand side of the line just ground each other down over the course of the game but eventually my superior Fight value took its toll. 

Boromir got held up by some sacrificial Uruks for a few turns but eventually found Lurtz and took his revenge for the movies! After Lurtz died a sneaky crossbow bolt did manage to unhorse Boromir but he continued to smash up Uruks despite being on foot. 

The right hand side was a bit more interesting as it was my Fiefdoms guys vs the Marauders, Wargs, Berserkers and Troll. This initially seemed to go my way as I killed all the Berserkers and even drove back the Troll but then I didn’t win a fight for about 3 turns in a row and the low defence of the Clansmen really hurt. My right flank crumbled but luckily I had managed to kill enough that the only things coming over to help were Mauhur and a 1 wound Troll. Boromir dispatched the Troll with no problems and the game ended before I could see if my last encounter with Mauhur would repeat itself!

Another fun game but the scenario meant there was very little subtlety to this game. I’m not a big fan of this scenario as it always seems to just be throwing dice at each other but nonetheless it was a fun game. 

This has already been a very long read but some quick thoughts on the list. I feel I have been misusing Madril, the Rangers and the Knights in every game I’ve played so far. I need to get better with these as I can see their value but I’m definitely not getting the most out of them. The Fiefdoms warband performed great in the first game but not very well in the second. When they have a higher Fight value they are great but when it is equal or lower they die in droves. Also the synergy I talked about in my previous post about the list is much harder to pull off than I imagined. Even though Boromir’s flag has a huge range it’s still hard to encompass everything when you have a large battle line. Maybe I need to stop using the warbands as separate entities and try to mix them together. Finally Angbor provides some excellent benefits for his 65 points (fearless and a banner) but he is not a brilliant combat beatstick like Boromir and he actually dies surprisingly quickly. I think more testing is needed but I am leaning towards wanting another mounted hero. Maybe I will take another look at Madril and his Rangers since I am struggling to use him well anyway. 

Thanks for reading!

Top Table Legacy Weekender

This past weekend I attended the Top Table Legacy Weekender with fellow noobs Colm and Steve. This is the second event of its type and is a fun semi-competitive event with an emphasis on trying new games and meeting new people. They were holding two 1-day MESBG events; a 500 point tournament on the Saturday and a Battle Companies event on the Sunday. I was originally signed up to both but unfortunately real life got in the way and I could only attend the Saturday. They had some beautiful boards to play on so we were all very excited:

My List:
Boromir with Shield, Horse, Banner: 215
8 Fountain Court Guard with Shields: 88
4 Warriors with Spears and Shields: 36
2 Knights with Shields: 28

Madril: 55
5 Rangers with Spears: 45
3 Warriors with Shields: 24
1 Warrior with Spear and Shield: 9

Total 500, 25 Models, 9 Might, 5 Bows, 3 Horses
The thought process behind this list can be found here.

Game 1: Capture and Control
My first game was against Gaz with his Rohan Legendary Legion. His army was something like:

Theoden
Eomer
Dernhelm
10 Riders
6 Royal Guard

We played on a ruined city of Dale board which looked awesome but I think gave me a distinct advantage!

It meant that I could pick a passageway and wall it off with my FCG so that I would have control of 3 of the objectives. This is exactly what I did, deploying Boromir in the centre and Madril off to the right. Gaz deployed his whole army on the left hand side of the board ready to sweep in to the central courtyard. I quickly advanced to just ahead of the centre objective so I could put my plan into effect.

The objective by my troops is the centre one. You can see the top objective just ahead of them. My rangers control the right hand objective.

Here you can see the left hand objective.

Gaz charged his Royal Guard into my line but my practice games with Steve had taught me how this would go and the results were similar. Meanwhile my Rangers were shooting from their higher vantage point and managed to unhorse Dernhelm. Gaz got super unlucky a few turns later when they also managed to unhorse Eomer (who was trying to flank me) when he failed all 3 of his Fate! My Knights promptly pounced on him and skewered him.

The lines clash

Meanwhile Dernhelm and some riders tried to attack my Rangers and Warriors.

Eomer was in the space between these two Knights.

My main line pushes forward to capture the top objective while Boromir goes to support the Rangers and Warriors.

Gaz was well and truly broken by this point and the game ended on our very first roll with me controlling 4 of the 5 objectives. I got very lucky during this game but I think I also had a distinct advantage because of the board we played on. I think if Gaz had gone into my line with all of his heroes and called Death! rather than using his Royal Guard then it might have gone differently.

Game 2: Lords of Battle
My second game was against Tom and his Isengard Scouts. This time we played on an open field with a burnt out house in the centre. Tom had something like:

Lurtz
Ugluk
Mauhur
3 Drummers
19 Scouts/Marauders with a variety of shields/bows

We both started on the right hand side of the board, with Boromir more central. Boromir advanced up the field to take advantage of a wall, with the house and cliff face to protect the flanks. The Rangers stayed up on the cliff to have a good vantage point. Tom immediately moved all of his scouts toward the centre of the board, skirting around my central line. He sent about half of his forces around the house to try and come up on my rear. Meanwhile the Rangers and the Uruks shot at each other, doing a few kills each.

Tom made liberal use of the drummers to move quickly.

I made a mistake and moved my Knights to be able to charge his bowmen but lost the next priority and they got swamped.

 Unfortunately in this game Boromir decided that he didn't want to have any impact at all. I charged Ugluk with him, confident that I could take him out. We both called a Strike and Ugluk got a 4 going up to F9. All Boromir had to do to match him was not roll a 1... I imagine you can guess what he rolled. Ugluk won the fight and then not only killed Boromir's horse but used up a point of Fate too!
Boromir then killed Ugluk in the next round but had to use several points of Might to do so!

Despite Boromir letting the side down, the fight above the wall went my way due to my higher fight values.

The Warriors hold off the Scouts, Mauhur and Lurtz

After the picture above Mauhur and Lurtz Heroic Combat-ed into the Rangers. Boromir went over to sort them out but once again he let me down. Despite winning the Strike-off this time he lost the fight in such a dramatic fashion that I didn't even have the Might points left to make it a draw. Mauhur took advantage and chopped his head off. Sigh. At least it wasn't Lurtz this time! My force was also broken around this time but Madril was right in amongst all of my troops so as long as he passes I am fine... So obviously Madril rolled snake eyes and ran away. Sigh. Luckily most of my other troops passed.

At this point I am 4 or 5 kills ahead but my leader is dead so Tom is only 2 points behind me. Unfortunately the game took a turn here because both me and Tom were under the impression that if models failed a courage test and ran off they don't count towards the kill count (true) so that means if all of your models run away and you are ahead then you win the game (false). We were both playing under this impression for the rest of the game so I was running away with lots of models to try to preserve the kill count difference. We rolled to end the game probably 6 or 7 times but it just kept going! We eventually found out that the scenario didn't work like we thought it did during the second to last turn when most of my troops had fled. This was a bit annoying as I would have played completely differently had we realised how the scenario actually worked but hey-ho, lesson learned! Read the scenario properly!

The FCG covered the Warriors who were running away to what they thought was victory...

In the end I lost the game because all of my models had left the board. Despite feeling a bit down about the ending this was still a really fun game. I definitely shouldn't have let the Uruks surround me, instead I should have gotten Boromir involved earlier so that the top force was completely smashed by the time the flanking force got to me. I do think I got pretty unlucky at times though, Boromir in particular had several pretty unlikely things happen to him and then Madril fled on the first courage test! However I also learnt some good tactics from Tom. Several times he shot at Boromir despite multiple In The Way tests, but he didn't care because even if he failed an In The Way he would still hit one of my troops. This was also the first time I have played against War Drums, they make troops go really fast, especially Mauhur's Marauders!

Game 3: To the Death
My third game was against Rob with his Gundabad force. The board had a big hill in the middle and a river cutting off a corner on my side, with only two bridges and some stepping stomes as crossing points.

Bolg on Warg
Gundabad Troll with Scything Gauntlets
15-ish Orcs with Shields or Spears
3 Berserkers

I saw the Troll and Bolg and I was scared. I knew both of them would mince anything except Boromir in my army so my tactic was to deploy behind the river and hold the bridges 300-style while Boromit dealt with the threats one at a time.

This plan worked really well as the bridges could only fit 3 models across so I could wall them off fairly easily. Rob sent his troops down the left of the board while the Troll and Bolg came around the right of the hill. He then split the Troll and Bolg up, with the Troll heading for the bridge while Bolg went across the stepping stones. I think this was a mistake as I could hold the bridge for a while whereas if he sent them both across the stepping stones there would be nothing I could do to hold them both back. My archers went absolutely nuts on the incoming troops and managed to kill 2 Berserkers  (thanks to the tactic I learnt from Tom!) and a few Orcs too. Madril, however, missed every single one of his shots so the first time I hit something I immediately spent all 3 of his Might to get a kill!

Meanwhile Bolg had come around and charged a poor Warrior so Boromir and a Knight rode in to help him out. We drew the combat but the roll went my way and they managed to do a couple of wounds and use up his Fate point. By this time the Troll and the Orcs had gotten to the bridges and were trying to fight their way across. The orcs just couldn't grind through my higher Fight and Defence and were held up there for the rest of the game while the Rangers shot at the rear of the column. The Troll was a different matter and proceeded to chop his way through my FCG (including one turn where he lopped off all 3 of their heads in one swing!). I did manage to win a couple of the combats though which gave Boromir and both of the Knights time to polish off Bolg.

The Troll and Orcs try to break through the bridges while Bolg meets his end at the hands of Boromir.

Fairly soon after this Rob's forces broke and the Troll immediately ran away. From there it was just a case of finishing off the Orcs on the lower bridge.

This was a fun game but I think I got lucky in places. Winning the combat against Bolg wasn't super unlikely (I had 5 dice to his 3) but killing him off in two turns was probably faster than you'd expect. Also holding the bridge against the Troll went well as I did manage to win a few combats to keep him stuck there until Boromir was done with Bolg. Having said that I think my tactics were pretty perfect, neutering the big threats until Boromir could deal with them one at a time.

Overall it was a really fun day. I'm not sure where I ended up in the standings as I had to run off after my third game but I think I must have done pretty well. I got 25 VPs altogether and the overall winner had 31. I have no idea how MESBG standings are usually spread but that feels fairly close.

The winner of the tournament was fellow noob Colm Browne with his Legion/Hunters alliance, beating out Moria, Mordor and Azog's Hunters in 3 fairly decisive games:

Azog on Warg with Heavy Armour
Narzug on Warg
4 Hunter Orcs on Wargs with Bows
5 Hunter Orcs
4 Gundabad Orcs with Spears and Shields
4 Gundabad Orcs with Shields
2 Berserkers

A terrible picture of Colm's army. It is actually beautifully painted.

Prizes for Colm

The 500 point level was a great place to start as I didn't have to remember too many rules for my army and I could concentrate on thinking about my opponents' forces. However I am looking forward to ramping up to 700 to get a few more exciting toys in there. Thanks again to Jay, Steve and Sam for running a great event, I strongly recommend you check out the Top Table Weekender when it comes back around.

Bonus pictures from Colm and Steve's games: