500 Under 50: Azog's Hunters

 Steve: Here at DC HQ we've been hearing the call for more 500 Under 50 articles and we have answered! With the remaining armies we've yet to touch however there are a few issues that have been tripping us up - this boils largely down to the money cost to points cost of the models available. On good conscience we can't recommend starting some armies for under £50 because in some cases you would only end up with a couple hundred points worth of miniatures - way off what you'd need for a decent force. So with the next few we will be taking a few liberties; some may come in a little under 500pts, some may cost a little more than £50 and some may be both! We do have a few cunning ways however to get that points value up however whilst keeping it as cheap as possible...

Without further ado, let's jump into todays army of Azog's Hunters! 

So what are we buying for this army?

Azog (ft & mtd) - £25
Hunter Orcs - £30 

At a total of £55, we can fit 484pts worth of miniatures into the list. How do we go about this? So the top image is a little misleading...the lack of wargs is pretty key to keeping the cost of this army low but certainly something to look into in a Follow on 500! We are however going to be taking the big man, Azog himself. Why other than the namesake of the army? He is a juggernaut of a character who has great potential, even at lower points to carve through armies with an impressive stat line and his accompanying White Warg - boost his potential might store to a whopping 6! 

For the main bulk of troops we'll be picking up a box of Hunter Orcs. As far as regular troops go, these aren't the most defence driven, but they make up for that with an extra attack when on foot! We'll also be keeping the box with their standard weapons as they are on the sprue (six bows and four two-handed picks) to give a little variety. If we were to leave it at this, there are simply too many orcs for Azog alone to command! How do we get around this? Well, we convert two of the Hunter Orcs into a Captain. This can be done very simply, let's have a look at what GW have done to separate out one of their Isenguard Captains from the rest:

If in doubt, stick them on a rock! Grab any stone from the great outdoors, some foam if you have some knocking around or maybe a spare bit of scenery kits. If they stand out amongst your other Orcs they'll be easy to tell apart that they are the Captain. If you're feeling a little braver as well, sculpting a cloak can always easily differentiate them as well.

With all our components good to go, let's make a list:

Warband One - 283pts
Azog w/White Warg, Stone Flail, Heavy Armour 215pts
2 Hunter Orcs w/Orc Bow 18pts
2 Hunter Orcs w/Two-Handed Picks 18pts
4 Hunter Orcs 32pts

Warband Two - 113pts
Hunter Orc Captain 45pts
2 Hunter Orcs w/Orc Bow 18pts
1 Hunter Orcs w/Two-Handed Picks 18pts
4 Hunter Orcs 32pts

Warband Three - 104pts
Hunter Orc Captain 45pts
2 Hunter Orcs w/Orc Bow 18pts
4 Hunter Orcs 32pts

Army Total: 492Pts, 25 Models, 6 Bows

Admittedly, there's not a lot of variation you can get from this list with a budget, but you do get a great powerful hero who can dominate at lower points levels a long with a decent supply of multiple attack orcs and a few bows for good measure. On top of this you always great a huge store of might for lower points games. With the Hunter Orcs being a plastic kit as well, you don't need to necessarily stick to the equipment that comes on the model as they're all relatively easy to convert to what you need!  

Edit: Originally, we equipped Azog with a Stone Flail and Heavy armour. This is only allowed in Azog's Legion however so we have re-wrote the article to account for this.

Ardacon Top 5 Lists

Today we are looking at the top 5 placing lists at Ardacon, a 600 point tournament held in Manchester, UK during August. For info, the scenarios used in this event were Lords of Battle, Domination, Control the Battlefield, Destroy the Supplies, Recon and Fog of War. The tables were pretty densely terrained and the Oaths from the Mathced Play Guide were used and were worth 1 TP. Let's jump straight in:

5th Place: Survivors of Laketown

Bard, horse, armour
Sigrid and Tilda
7 Lake Town Militia, spears
7 Lake Town Militia, shields

Percy
6 Lake Town Militia, spears, bows
6 Lake Town Militia, bows

Lake Town Militia Captain, shield
4 Lake Town Militia, spears
2 Lake Town Militia, shields, spears
2 Lake Town Militia

Alfrid

Bilbo

45 Models, 11 Might (+3 possible extra), 13 Bows

This has all the classic Lake Town shenanigans. The standard Beast-Bard Package of the girls and Alfrid, along with an absolute horde of cheap troops that punch way above their weight when in range of Bard's 12" aura. A couple of unusual choices of Percy and Bilbo but they both bring 3 Might to the table, allowing this list to out-Might most people. Bilbo will also have the Ring to help deal with any particularly nasty models.

4th Place: Angmar

The Witch King, horse, Crown, 3/14/3
7 Orcs, shields
8 Orcs, spears
1 Orc, shield, banner
1 Warg Rider
1 Warg

Gulavhar
6 Orcs, shields
6 Orcs, spears
1 Dead Marsh Spectre
1 Warg Rider
1 Warg

35 Models, 6 Might, 0 Bows

The classic 1-2 punch of the Witch King and Gulavhar will assassinate virtually any hero you point them at. They are backed up by a big chunk of terror causing Orcs, some fast support in the Wargs and a bit of control through the Spectre. It is unusual to see no Barrow Wights but the points limit does make it a struggle to fit them in while keeping your numbers up. 

3rd Place: Erebor Reclaimed

Dwalin
9 Iron Hills Dwarves, spears
1 Iron Hills Dwarf, banner
1 Iron Hills Dwarf
4 Goat Riders

Gloin
10 Iron Hills Dwarves, spears
2 Goat Riders

29 Models, 6 Might, 0 Bows

This is an unusual list which relies heavily on the sheer efficiency of Iron Hills Dwarves. 21 of them in a shield wall formation is going to be very difficult to crack, and having a large amount of Goats to protect your flanks can really let you spear blocks do what they do best without being overwhelmed. The Goats also make up for the Dwarves innate disadvantage in movement scenarios. The two characters are underrated killing machines in my opinion. They are not the kind of characters that will mince an army single handed but for their points they are excellent. 

2nd Place: Halls of Thranduil and Survivors of Lake Town

Legolas, Elven cloak, horse
6 Mirkwood Elves, shields
5 Mirkwood Elves, bows, glaives
1 Mirkwood Elf, glaive
1 Mirkwood Elf, shield, banner

Lake Town Militia Captain
6 Lake Town Militia, bows
6 Lake Town Militia, bows, spears

Lake Town Militia Captain
6 Lake Town Militia
6 Lake Town Militia, spears

Lake Town Militia Captain
5 Lake Town Militia
5 Lake Town Militia, spears

51 Models, 9 Might, 18 Bows

Well, quantity is a quality all of its own in this list. We have a core of elite elven troops that would normally be outnumbered except they have brought an absolute horde of their human buddies. There is a lot of high quality shooting in this list that I would imagine is used to soften up heroes and other threats before the lines meet. Strangely this list is not affected by either of its Army Bonuses as it doesn't have any of the relevant characters. It does have a pretty big bucket of Might that I would imagine is mostly used on Marches to get the foot-slogging army where it needs to be quickly. A very unusual list all round.

EDIT: Apparently this list and 1st place were from the same team and so could not share any heroes. This explains the unusual choice of list to some extent! 

1st Place: Army of Lake Town
Bard, horse, armour
Sigrid and Tilda
13 Lake Town Guard, bows

The Master of Lake Town
7 Lake Town Guard
8 Lake Town Guard, spears

Alfrid
5 Lake Town Guard
7 Lake Town Guard, spears

Braga
5 Lake Town Guard
7 Lake Town Guard, spears

58 Models (!), 8 Might (+3 more possible), 14 Bows

Well. You remember what we said about quantity? 58 Models is truly insane, it is only really Goblin Town who would have a chance of matching that. Here Beast-Bard is his usual self, however he no longer has the much needed aura tied to him, instead it belongs to the Master which means Bard can be a bit more reckless. So you've got your scary hero as well as a truly enormous amount of buffed up troops. Honestly every weakness that I can think of is immediately met with "yeah but... 58 models". A very scary list.

Overall thoughts

So 4 Hobbit armies in the Top 5. Also four Good armies, three of which feature Lake Town. Obviously this is a small sample but there are definite trends. Lake Town are pretty uniquely able to throw a large amount of cheap troops down, but then buff those troops to respectable stats over a large range. There aren't many other armies that can do that. Overall though I think these lists speak to player skill more than gimmicks as each one has deficiencies that need to be made up for in play style. Well done to everyone involved!

Valourbowl I: Tournament Report & Stats

Valourbowl, the tournament run by Drawn Combat and Top Table Gaming was run this past Saturday the 24th of July and we all know what you want - lists and stats! However, we would just like to say a massive thank you to everyone who turned up to make it such a successful event. Valourbowl is entirely in aid of charity, and our chosen one this year was Mind, in aid of mental health and well being. Overall we managed to raise an incredible £850 for an incredible cause. Hopefully next year we'll see more of you to raise even more! Now back to the tournament itself: The goal of Valourbowl was to nominate a hero of valour in your list to rack up as many kills as possible over the course of 4 games. The heroes that people chose to bring are below:

Bolg (Azog's Legion)	3
Aragorn Strider	3
Black Gate Troll Chieftain	3
None	2
Theodred	2
Boromir, Captain of the White Tower	2
Spider Queen	1
Khandish King	1
Legolas	1
The Tainted w/Felbeast	1
Gothmog	1
Thrain	1
Eomer	1
Boromir of Gondor	1
Lurtz	1
Isildur	1
Dwalin, Champion of Erebor	1

Although it’s unsurprising to see certain heroes over represented, with the likes of the beastly Bolg and Mighty Hero Aragorn being very tempting, there was a wide range of heroes and factions represented. A couple of people chose not to bring Heroes of Valour, but were still in the running for tournament winner. Read on for the top three player’s lists and their chosen heroes of valour!

First Place (37 Kills). Austin Barrett. Minas Tirith

Boromir, Captain of the White Tower w/ shield, lance, and horse (Valourbowl Champion)

5 Knight of MT w/ shield

1 Knight of MT w/ banner

2 Guard of the Fountain Court

Ingold

5 Warriors of MT w/ shield

6 Warriors of MT w/ spear and shield

1 Warrior of MT w/ banner

Austin’s list has the might heavy Boromir as his nominated Valourbowl champion and it certainly makes a lot of sense to us, we named him as our top hero of valour for the forces of good (Good Heroes of Valour article). Interestingly we thought that Boromir would be best used with his banner, but Austin chose to use his lance instead for sheer punching power. The rest of the list makes sense for Valourbowl - sturdy troops to anchor Boromir and let him put those 6 might points to work. 

Second Place (34 Kills). Joe Grocutt. Azog’s Legion

Bolg w/ Fell Warg (Valourbowl Champion)

Warbat

Berserker w/ 2 Handed Axe

3 Gundabad Orcs w/ Spear and Shield

2 Gundabad Orcs w/ Spear

1 Gundabad Orcs w/ Shield

Gundabad Orc w/ Banner

Gundabad Orc Captain w/ Shield

Warbat

Berserker

4 Gundabad Orcs w/ Shield

4 Gundabad Orcs w/ Spear

Joe’s list is very similar to Austin’s. A sturdy group of troops with some versatile/quick options there to support the big bad of Bolg. He doesn’t have the 6 might of Bozza, but he does have Master of Battle so will feel freer than most to call as many heroic combats as he would like. He also has his Bringer of Death special rule that powers him up as he claims kills, even getting the Mighty Hero special rule if he gets as high as ten. This isn’t too common, but Joe managed to get 16 kills with Bolg in just a single game. Terrifying!

Third Place (29 Kills). Jono Chetwynd-Diggle. Rangers & The Shire (Green Alliance)

Aragorn Strider w/ Anduril, Horse, Armour, Bow (Valourbowl Champion)

Halbarad w/ Banner of Arwen Evenstar, Horse

Dunedain w/ Spear

Dunedain w/ Spear

Bandobras Took

7 Hobbit Shirriff

2 Hobbit Militia w/ Axes

5 Hobbit Archers

No offense to anyone else who came to Valourbowl, but Jono definitely had the best list. Bandobras Took! For a brief moment I thought Bandobras was Jono’s champion and I nearly fell off my chair (whoever brings him to Valourbowl II and uses him as their champ will have a special place in my heart). Aragorn appearing in the top three is no big surprise -  the combined killing power of Mighty Hero and Anduril have to be respected. 

As well as competing for kills players were also just trying to maximise VPs over their four games and come out as tournament champ. This was done by Nicky Myland using Erebor Reclaimed. 

Tournament Champion - Nicky Myland. Erebor Reclaimed.

Dwalin, Champion of Erebor (Valourbowl Champion)

11 Iron Hills Dwarves w/ Spears

1 Iron Hills Goat Rider

Nori, Champion of Erebor

11 Iron Hills Dwarves w/ Spears

1 Iron Hills Goat Rider

This is a very hard to kill collection of models! It has the sturdy line of D8 dwarves , two fighty champions, and a little bit of speed with the goat riders. It only has 5 might so Nicky must have been very reserved in how he utilised his resources. He also didn’t bring a banner, opting instead for a few extra dwarves, but it didn’t seem to do him any harm with the scenarios drawn (Seize the Prize, Domination, Command the Battlefield, and To the Death) even though one awarded VPs for having a banner.

Nicky also did quite well at scoring in the Valourbowl contest with Dwalin coming in joint 5th with 24 kills. This begs the question as to how placement in the kill contest compares to tournament position i.e. if you doggedly pursue victory points, do you cost yourself your ability to get a high number of kills?. We've prepared a quick graph that shows each player's total VPs (blue line) compared to Valourbowl kills (red line). There clearly isn’t the strongest correlation, but it seems if you want the heftiest headcount you maybe need to put some other objectives on the back burner.

As mentioned at the beginning of the article this tournament was in aid of Mind, a charity set up in aid of anyone suffering from mental health issues. If you or a loved one are experiencing any mental health problems do not hesitate to get in touch with Mind, who are dedicated to aiding you in getting the help that you need and have helped countless others.