Good morning gamers,
A while back, Centaur walked through the Azog's Hunters/Azog's Legion elements of Gundabad and Dol Guldur and today, I'm wrapping up the discussion on these new profiles with those that appear exclusively in the Rise of the Necromancer army list. Back in the old edition, this was an all-hero list that sported the Necromancer, the nine Nazgul of Dol Guldur, the Keeper of the Dungeons, and an unlimited number of Castellans of Dol Guldur. The list has lost access to Castellans (at least until the Legacies document tells us otherwise), but has gained some very interesting things in trade. Let's dig in and see how this spooky list looks in the new edition!
Sauron, the Necromancer: How Have He "Changed?"
The most profound change to this profile has got to be the no-spoiler-alert-given nature of outright naming "The Necromancer of Dol Guldur" "Sauron, the Necromancer." I mean, if I've only read the Hobbit and I read a casual reference or two to some necromancer who has set up shop in some castle called Dol Guldur in the south of Mirkwood that Gandalf apparently sends packing while the Dwarves are blundering in the Lonely Mountain without him and haven't read the second chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring since its release seventy-one years ago . . . okay, I hope everyone catches the sarcasm here because I can't flag it any better - the name change is good, moving on. :)
Besides the name change, the Necromancer went down 50pts to a jaw-droppingly-low 200pts and can lead Fell Wargs, Hunter Orcs (on or off Fell Wargs), and Spiders just like he used to be able to do in the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur faction during the last edition. Being able to set up a cheap wall of guys to screen him from danger, protect the flanks of his minions (who can also lead these troops), buff out your numbers, and give you access to things like raw speed and bows (but not banners) is super, SUPER helpful.
He also picked up the base 2 Attacks, free casting die when he spends at least one casting die, the ability to cast two different spells against two different targets each round, and Resistant to Magic rules that he had in the Rise of the Necromancer Legendary Legion, which makes him both a reliable caster, but also fairly resilient to enemy magic and can stand his own in combat (especially since he retained Drain Soul and Curse . . . and can be fielded with Mirkwood Spiders who can Paralyze enemies or sap them of their Fate points - more on these guys later).