Workbench Update: Mordor

Good morning gamers,

I’ve been spending time recently updating my Rivendell and Numenor armies (giving them the tender loving care they deserve). Last time, we gave some tender loving care to my Angmar forces. Today, our attention turns to an army that I’ve enjoyed playing, and will enjoy using a lot more now: Mordor. Mordor is seeing a new model, as well as some conversions and weapon swaps, so let’s get into it!

Conversions: Morannon Orcs into Morgul Stalkers

Okay, I’ll admit: I was tempted to pick up some Morgul Stalkers when they were available on made-to-order. While my son likes the idea of Morgul Stalkers (who wouldn’t want a two-attack warrior model?), I can’t get passed the F3/D4. They’re good models, I’m sure (and Stalk Unseen does help a bit with their resiliency), but I just can’t see myself paying $5/model to get some. So…I’m converting a few. 

I acquired 36 Morannon Orcs from Centaur at the turn of the year after the release of the new core set (he’s not a Mordor guy), so I find myself with a bunch of Morannon Orcs to use. While Morannon Orcs are good troops, it’s their access to maces/axes that make them really good – not their statline per se (if they’re wielding swords, you’re probably better off with a Black Numenorean, Mordor Uruks, or Black Guard JUST because of the F4 on all those models, though you won’t get S4 with Black Numenoreans, D6 with Mordor Uruks, or 8 pts/model with Black Guard…Morannon Orcs have their niche spot). So, while I’m planning on keeping all my spearmen as Morannon Orcs (sans two – more on that in a bit) and ten Morannon Orcs with shields for front-liners (all with maces or axes – more on them in a bit too), I have eight Morannon Orcs that need some kind of improvement. So, I decided to convert two of them into Morgul Stalkers.

The original models have these tattered cloaks...I prefer Gambesons. While originally red, they're both mottled in grey or black from wear and skulking.

Morgul Stalkers are distinctive in two key ways: their teeth are sharp and they’re wrapped in cloaks. The lack of shields means that I only have a few Morannon Orc models that will make a good proxy without cutting shields off (which I don’t want/need to do to myself), but with three copies of each one, I wasn’t worried about having enough. I applied some putty originally to be cloaks, but if these guys were hanging around outside in all weather, they  wouldn't want a cloak - they'd want comfortable armor (hence the Gambesons). Mine have helms – the one un-helmeted face wasn’t that appealing to me.

Conversions: Morannon Orcs into Black Numenoreans

As I said above, Black Numenoreans may serve as better front-line troops over Morannon Orcs (F4/C4/Terror vs. S4) – particularly if they’re the first line of protection for a Ringwraith (Harbinger of Evil + Terror = Awesome). Since I own 9 Ringwraiths (and love to field them), having Terror troops was a given and I’ve been eyeing Black Numenoreans for a while. At $7/model, I’m not interested at all in the actual models (plus they look flat, unrealistic, and don’t hold their shields out in front of them). So…I’m grabbing six more Morannon Orcs and getting cracking!

Three basic models: three with spikey antlers, two with a single horn coming out of the top, and one with spikey shoulder plates...kind of like the guys in the original blister, actually.

Personally, I like these guys more than the Morgul Stalkers, but I think it’s because their place in the army is simpler: stand up front, take a beating, and hopefully root a few people who fail to charge them. We’ve got less work to do here, but ragged cloaks show up again. No problem – more putty! The other distinctive quality of Black Numenoreans are their helmets – their faces are obscured and they have scary shapes. If you look at the GW models, there are three kinds of helms: one with two horns flaring out, one with one horn poking out the front, and one with a massive hood hiding whatever else is there. In our case, that’s easy – Morannon Orc helms are pretty wacky to start out with (just needs a little adornment). The adornment came in the form of Moria Goblin bows and swords (all part of conversion work we’ll cover later in our update on Moria). All told, not that hard. I’ve decided not to do any weapon swaps on these guys – if you want axes/maces, you should just go with Morannon Orcs who benefit from a higher base Strength and don’t require paying for the weapon swap…

Weapon Work: Banners and Weapon Swaps

If you want Morannon Orcs to work, you need to have banners/banner-equivalents – Fight 3 is just not good enough to win a straight fight against Fight 4 (or Fight 5) battle lines. As such, I knew I needed a banner. And so I made one. But there are other weapon swaps I wanted as well.

Similar to the banner conversions I did last time for Angmar - sometimes, you just need a little tape.

The banner was simple – equip someone holding a spear with a banner. In this case, I wanted a spear still on the model to show he had both, but I wanted that banner to be distinctive on the field. The crossbar of the banner comes from another Morannon Orc spear and draped over the top is some electrical tape. At some point, I'll probably try free-handing the Mordor symbol (and the Angmar symbol on those ones too, probably), but that day is not today.

Nine of my 10 Morannon Orcs - the other one was hanging out with my son's collection...

I like the poses of the Morannon Orcs a lot – they all look great. Because I wanted axes/maces on all of them, I knew that my sword poses had a risk of falling off the wagon entirely – so I swapped a few weapons in order to keep the models as Morannon Orcs – perfect for adding some variation to your army while still maximizing rules. For the astute observer who sees three sword-wielding Morannon Orcs…those guys will be getting weapon swaps with some other models (AXES) I hope to acquire next year. For now, I have 30% sword-wielding Morannons, which I think is “fine” (Stab isn’t bad when you’re D5+, but hopefully the Mordor Army Bonus gives us the benefits of Stab without any of the risk).

Heroes: Morannon Orc Captain and Shagrat

You know how I said earlier that I kept all but two of my Morannon Orcs with spears? Well, one got turned into a banner guy, but the other had a pose that made me think, “I’ve GOT to get a two-handed captain out of this lot!” So I did – here he is…

The head of the hammer is courtesy of my old Dwalin conversion - I've since turned him back to a "normal" Dwarf Ranger, so the hammer was needed somewhere else...it looks very Orcish, no?

Morannon Orc Captains (like precious few other models in the game) have access to a “two-handed weapon” – so you can pick the type you wield. While a base Strength 5 model has lots of options for the weapon he wants, access to Bash made immediate sense to me (not only could you have a +2/+3 bonus when bashing over your opponent, but getting to Strength 6 with +1 to Wound with a two-handed axe/pick is just not THAT necessary – and who wants to Stab/Whirl/Stun when you could Bash/Piercing Strike with all that Strength?). The pose is great and was easy to do – the heavy armor on this guy makes him Defense 6, which is reasonable protection should he lose a fight against normal troops.

Old model, still a beauty - and now kitted out with a BEASTLY profile to boot. Can't wait to try him out on the field!

I also acquired Shagrat recently (the old model) – he’s a great hero, though I don’t run him with the shield. Heavy armor is good (so is his shield, by the way), but the Mordor lists I’m planning on running use both the Witch-King of Angmar and the Dark Marshal, so kitting out more gear on Shagrat comes at the expense of numbers or the Witch-King’s capability in a game. I’ll probably change my mind on this, but for starters, I’ll be trying him out without the shield.

What’s Next?

I’ll be getting more Morannon Orcs painted up over the next few weeks (mostly spears, they’ll all stay Morannon Orcs), but we’re pretty much done with Mordor once they are all painted and done. The three Morannon Orcs I’ve kept around with swords will be getting weapons swaps next year when we start Dunharrow (don’t need those axes on dudes with spectral blades – more axes on Morannons!).

All of the Orc Warriors I own could also supplement the numbers of this army, but I’m leaning away from them in favor of stronger troops and using them more in my Angmar army (which we covered recently). Our next journey takes us to Moria, where we’ll look at some hero and warrior conversions based on Goblin archer sculpts because we ALL have far too many Goblin archers than we know what to do with. While Goblins will feature prominently in the post, there's a new centerpiece model that I'm particularly pleased with and am dying to share. Interested? Stay tuned and happy hobbying!