Workbench Update: Angmar

Good morning gamers,

In our last workbench update (Numenor), I said we'd be going to Mordor next and talking about what's been going on for my Mordor army that I'm building. While I can say that Mordor has seen some work on the workbench, they were quickly eclipsed by my Angmar work. So...today we visit Angmar and see what’s been cooking up to help one of the weirdest factions in the Lord of the Rings game. While I’ve had some Ringwraiths, Wild Wargs, and Orc Warriors for a while (and even acquired some Barrow-Wights), Angmar as a civ has always evaded my attentions. Today changes all that: we focus hard on getting Angmar up to snuff with some enhancements that will help them sweep over the Elves and Men that challenge them. Some weapon swaps/additions will be at work, as will some conversions – lots of fun to be had, so let’s get to it!

Weapon Swaps: Banners and Picks

If you’re going to run Angmar, you’re limited (for the most part) to Fight 3. Any army that is limited to Fight 3 will find fighting Fight 4 shield walls very hard to assail – unless you have a banner around. So, we’re converting up two banners (from two-handed weapon Orc Warriors, of course).

As great as two-handed weapons are on F3/S3/D5 models, I think you get more from a shield, spear, and banner. The shields are still coming, but the banners are ready for use!

The banners are made of some spare wire I found in my attic – a simple rod with some colored electric tape on the top. The conversion is easy since their hands are already raised, but I didn’t see a good reason to give up some perfectly good picks from being used by front-liners. So, we swapped two swords for those picks (they hand-swaps are in a later picture). We also added some spears (from a Warlord Games Saxon Thegns box – that purchase has been a gold mine…) to the banner-carriers' backs, since you want the model to be able to do something actively in a fight instead of just passively because he's there (I depart from this montra in my Isengard army - more on them in a later update).

Unit Conversion: Shade

Shades are . . . annoying. While they lack Might/Fate (like Barrow-Wights), their Will store provides the ability to make it hard for nearby foes to win fights for several rounds (eight rounds if you don’t need to spend Will on anything else). If your army crumbles for some reason (shot before they can engage, perhaps), the Will is also a great way to ensure that the Shade sticks around for a turn or two (though if you’re being torn to pieces, that may not matter so much). As such, I wanted a shade - but didn’t want to pay $15-20 to get one . . . so I made my own.

If you're going to make a shade from a model other than a shade, a Twilight Ringwraith is probably a good choice. If you can find one, they're amazing sculpts (and much better than the original shade sculpt, I think).

 A while back, my good mate Centaur got me a Twilight Witch-King model which I used as a Ringwraith for a long time (I later got the Nine because the gaming store I used to buy LOTR minis from was having a clearance sale). When he wasn’t being used anymore, I decided to turn him into a shade – the biggest thing was setting up the base to be properly “shade-y”. This is my second try (first try was too fragile – see pictures here): PVA to join blocks of polystyrene, some gray paint to cover all the pink, and some wispy fog to surround the entire model. The billowing mist you see is actually made from some spare seat cushion stuffing I referenced in a different post – great addition to the model to make it feel more like a shade.

Unit Conversion: Spectres

A while back, I had about 10 spectres in my Angmar contingent (led by a Shade – more on him later). I then allied these guys with a Mordor army that fielded the Dark Marshal and ten Orc Warriors with shields and spears. Because of the way the old rules for spears worked, the spear would give the spectre an additional die with Blades of the Dead (giving you 2 dice to wound against Courage). With the new rules release (and the inability for Shades to work with the Dark Marshal without becoming Impossible Allies), I didn’t see much of a need for spectres (went back down to D5, spears are resolved on their own stats), but while I was working on my Numenor army, I found a few guys I didn’t need. So…spectres!

Woozy additions for the army - and more seat cushion fluff!

The actual spectre models include a Numenorean in them – so excess Numenoreans make sense as good spectre models. This is really just a paint job, though I added some gore where the shield-hole is on the models just to jazz things up a bit (one has a dagger from the Saxon Thegn set sticking out – couldn’t resist). While I don’t have as many as I used to, having a few scattered across your army can lend huge tactical dividends (both in moving models off of objectives and in wounding high-Defense, low Courage models). Always, always, ALWAYS keep these guys near Shades/Ringwraiths (preferably both) if you want the most out of them (and preferably, back them up with Orc spearmen – not as strong a combo as it used to be, but the higher Fight value is always nice to have).

Basing: Barrow-Wights and Wild Wargs

There are two models that I actually have the GW products for that have an important place in my Angmar army: Barrow-Wights and Wild Wargs. Barrow-Wights are some of the cheapest captains you’ll get (though unlike most captains, they can’t March your troops). What they really excel at is turning captain models (or strategic warrior models . . . or occasionally really BIG monster/hero models) into sleeping rocks. While a hero with Might can arouse himself from a paralysis-induced slumber pretty quickly (and certain other models can just get lucky), in general, you can count on Barrow-Wights sending a few models into a very vulnerable state right before you sweep in with your army. My Barrow-Wights have been painted for a while, but I haven’t done anything with their bases until today.

Hey there - want to lie down on a bed made of ancient cursed treasure? It's amazing...

The chapter from the Felllowship of the Ring that talks about Barrow-Wights is entitled Fog on the Barrow-Downs – and so, like the Shade above, I wanted to have an emerging from the fog motif. Once again, I relied on getting some good cushion fluff to do the job, adding some gray paint near the base to deepen the color a little.

My dear, beloved Wargs - formerly my fast attack options for Moria, now my fast attack options for Angmar.

 The other models that I’ve added here to bolster the army are Wild Wargs. While these blokes won’t cause Terror (like my Orcs), they do provide mobility at a fraction of the cost of Warg Riders (who are marginally more resilient, infinitely more terrifying, and far more flexible because of their wargear options). While Warg Riders would be a slightly more expensive addition to the army, Wild Wargs provide a nice stop-gap for now (and besides, I like them). Their bases, however, match my Moria team (because they used to fight in that army), so their bases didn’t require as much work as the Barrow-Wights, but did require some re-engineering. The fog covered most of that though...

So. Many. Orcs. Well, 32 isn't "so many" I guess, but it's enough to get the job started.

Orcs are the main-stay of any Angmar force - being able to grant these guys Terror if you keep your army bonus and have Spirit heroes (Barrow-Wights, Shades, and Ringwraiths) nearby is amazing. While it means they can play a very different kind of game (redeploying and waiting for your opponent to try to charge), Angmar Orcs are blissfully cheap and can be a pain to tag. Even Elven armies (with their obnoxiously high Courage) will find some of their models failing tests - and you can then move cheap Orcs to charge into exposed flanks, harass models that got left behind, or trap models that raced in ahead of their friends.

What’s Next?

As mentioned above, Warg Riders would be nice to get, but the immediate aims are a Wild Warg Chieftain and 6 more Wild Wargs (for a full Warg pack led by the Wild Warg Chieftain). These models aren’t just needed for my Angmar army – they’ll also be needed for the Fellowhship of the Ring campaign book that I own (the old one that was released by GW over 10 years ago – very fun to play). Besides that, my son wants me to get Buhrdur, but I don’t think I’m going that route – more inclined to get another WWC if I need the strength, to be honest. Our next stop will take us to Mordor (serious this time) and see the work that's being done on my Morannon Orcs - not all of them will be Morannons on the tabletop. Curious? Watch this space and happy hobbying!