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.