Army List Review: Barad-dur

The sales pitch:

Barad-dur is about one guy and his name is Sauron. He basically never dies, he will outfight almost everything in the game, he stops your Orcs from breaking when they inevitably die in droves, he can take a tonne of them (24) and he makes them generally braver when he's around. It's a bit of a shame then that despite all this he just isn't that good. 

Credit Games Workshop

What makes it tick?

Don't get me wrong, he has some crazy impressive stats at F9 S8 D10 and a 2+ to stand back up again when he dies, but his problem is the same as it's always been in that those stats don't mean much when he is likely just being fed one model a turn. Imagine this guy if he got free Heroic Combats each turn, then we'd be interested but as he is, he just isn't going to pull his weight at 400 points. Chill Soul on a 4+ is pretty good since he gets a free point of Will each turn, but again it just isn't enough to justify his cost. Also once he's taken 3 wounds (no easy feat I concede) he's not even stopping your Orcs running away any more. To me this is a real shame as his 400 points could absolutely justify him being a monster. Think about how much damage the Mumak War Leader does when he tramples your line at the same points. I think his never dying rule has been way over valued and would have preferred to see him as a combat monster instead. "But Dan, he does a S8 hit to everyone including supports in combat" I hear you cry. Well if your opponent is stupid enough to put 10 guys into him then fair enough but if that's the case you probably already were going to win anyway.

You can also include the Witch King, Ringwraiths and Mordor Troll Chieftains, and while all of these are decent, you'd have to be playing a truly gigantic game to be able to afford to bring them. I think the strategy here has really got to be Captains and a huge mass of Orcs to make up for your 400 point big lad. 

I feel like I have been very negative in this review and honestly that's because when writing lists I found myself constantly disappointed in what I was getting. Sauron being Dominant (10) will win you some games (specifically Hold Ground) but otherwise it's just hard to see how you have a chance. Here is my spicy hot take: make Sauron 250 points. 400 is just way too much, and that extra 150 points could buy you a Troll Chieftain. Imagine if you just got a free Troll Chieftain with Sauron, he'd instantly be something you'd actually want to take. As it is I'm afraid this list is just a bit of a dud. 

Credit Games Workshop

Assembling your Army

If, despite that cavalcade of negativity, you still fancy giving Barad Dur a go, then you'll need Sauron and a bunch of Orcs. Both are easily available and actually it means you can get an army together really quite cheaply. After that you can add spice to taste. All the models in the list are pretty easy to get hold of and the majority are plastic too which is great. 

Possible Pivots

This is another place where I can be positive, in that once you have got a horde of Orcs there are a decent number of things you can do with them. Minas Morgul is the obvious one, where you can even use your Witch King, Ringwraiths and Trolls if you fancy. Your Orcs getting blades of the dead and not having to take Terror checks is pretty great! If you want to add some Mordor Uruk Hai you can pivot into Cirith Ungol where you can have Wish.com Legolas and Gimli (Shagrat and Gorbag) as well as Shelob. And let's not forget about the 3 Angmar armies too, Host of the Witch King, Shadows of Angmar and Buhrdur's Horde, all of which are great, thematic, and make good use of Orc warriors.

 

Pros:

Cheap to collect
You get to use the big bad of the franchise!

Cons:

You have to take Sauron and he is not worth 400 points.

What will happen to your army almost immediately

 

Lists & Discussion

As with all of these reviews, we’ll start with an ‘entry level’ list that you might want to aim for as you start collecting the army, and then move on to something more fleshed out.

These aren’t necessarily super-optimised lists, but they will be built in a sensible way that capitalizes on what think are the strengths of the list – and where possible, in a way that doesn’t mandate buying a whole box of infantry for a single model!

List #1:

Barad-dur at 500 points

To be fair, this isn't a terrible amount of models at 500 points, but considering the Orcs are F3 S3 D4 (or 5 with shield) they aren't going to last a long time. I umm-ed and ahh-ed about a banner but you'd have to go down to 13 models and that seems really bad. Sauron not being a gigantic banner himself is also a bit of a travesty to be honest. The strategy here is to walk Sauron in a straight line towards whatever heroes you opponent brought whilst Chill Soul-ing anything that looks at him funny (banners, cavalry, etc). Your Orcs are just body blockers that hopefully delay the game long enough for Sauron to actually make an impact . I think this could be ok but it is really going to depend on how long your Orcs last and that's generally not something you want to depend on.

 

List #2:

Barad-dur at 800 points

    

    

Yeesh man I really though we were going to get bigger numbers than this. I got bored of clicking on Orcs at one point and threw a Troll in before hastily taking him back out. Whilst it would be nice to have another big threat this list can't afford to take a 15-Orc hit to fit one in. The strategy is the same as before here, but at least now you can use your Captains to March everyone to the enemy quicker I guess.



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On to the scores! Each category is scored out of ten, and we’ll explain below each score what it is we’re looking for.

Theme: 9

How well does this army encapsulate a moment from the books or films? Are all the right models present and does it feel like the moment it’s based on?

Power: 3

How well does it fare against other armies? We’ll be assuming that this is based on the Army’s ‘preferred’ points range, as it’s not very useful to assess how Lurtz’s Scouts performs at 1000pts, or Barad Dur at 300pts.

Cost & Collectability: 8

We’re looking at entry level cost to the army, how many purchases are needed, and are the models available off the shelf?

Hobby factor: 4

How good are the models? Are we dealing with shiny new plastics or stinky old finecast? Does the army require any converting, and does it lend itself to cool and unique paintjobs?

Fun factor: 5

How fun is that army to play, and crucially, how fun is it to play against?

Total: 29/50

Sauron and a tonne of Orcs certainly feels like the opening scenes of the movies so the theme is good, as is cost as you only really need the big man and a box of Orcs to get going. However we lose points because the models are almost as old as me, and as discussed extensively, I just can't see how the list is good. Fun factor really depends on how much you like the power fantasy of being the lord of all darkness I suppose!

So come on then, what have I missed? There's got to be some reason to take this, theme aside. Let us know in the comments!