The Bare Necessities, Part XI: Angmar

Good morning gamers,

So far in our series on balanced lists, we’ve talked about how to maximize your potential for scoring victory points in the context of Minas Tirith, Isengard, Rivendell, Mordor, and Lothlorien. Today, we continue our discussion by viewing the ancient kingdom of Angmar. An Angmar list won the most recent Masters tournament in the UK (Kylie from the Green Dragon podcast at its head) and is a great example of how to make a flexible list (you should look up her list in the final game against Jay Clare on STF Wargaming for more info). Other Angmar lists that are well-balanced appear on Mik’s Veni Vidi Vici blog as well (one of those lists looks very similar to the one I wrote up here - so maybe that's a commendation?).

Angmar: How Much Might Do You Want?

Angmar has a very unique problem: depending on how you want to build your army, your Might point tally might be really low (see what I did there – “might” be low? That joke never gets old – blame my Dad card). While you can take Gulavhar, Buhrdur, or a maxed-Might Witch-King (which I think is the only way to run the Witch-King) who can all take 3 Might OR run Golfimbul, Angmar Orc Captains, the Tainted, or Wild Warg Chieftains who each have 2 Might (though the Wild Warg Chieftain’s Might has limited application for heroic actions), many of the “good” hero options (Shades and Barrow-Wights) and some of the “sorta-good” hero options (don’t underestimate the power of the Dwimmerlaik or an Angmar Orc Shaman) have 0-1 Might.

While you might say “Okay, I’ll just run the heroes with lots of Might and I’ll have 8-9 Might points, just like most other armies at my point level,” think again:  taking a reasonably kitted-out Witch-King will cost you at least 150 points, which will added to the 200-point Gulavhar and 110-point Buhrdur brings you over 450-points on just your three big heroes. That’s too much in a 700-point game, I think (even if your Orcs are cheap as chips). While taking all three of these heroes would be fun, it’s tempting to drop one of them to pick up 2-4 Barrow-Wights OR turn one of them into a Shade (and maybe pick up a Barrow-Wight or two on the side). Doing this, however, reduces your Might from 9 to 6.

In my opinion (and this thought is shared by most of the other lists provided around the community), you want a mixture of two units to flesh out your Might points: Angmar Orc Captains (who aren’t great heroes, but give you 2 Might to spend on Heroic Moves/Marches) and Wild Warg Chieftains (who are similar to Cave Trolls in many respects, but trade a Burly two-hander for Might/Will/Fate and speed). I don’t like the Angmar Orc Captain very much, so we’re going to be turning to the Wild Warg Chieftain instead in our list:

The List

700pts of Angmar: The Nightmare Horde - missing from this image are 5 spears on the Orc archers, a Wild Warg Chieftain, and 6 Wild Wargs, all of which I plan to remedy over the next year.

• The Witch-King of Angmar on horse with the Crown of Morgul, 3M/14W/2F [Army Leader]
• 1 Dead Marsh Spectre
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with Orc bows
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with Orc bows and spears
• Barrow-Wight
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with two-handed axe
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
• Barrow-Wight
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with two-handed axe
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
• Wild Warg Chieftain
• 12 Wild Wargs

51 models, 10 Orc bows hitting on a 5+, 3 D6+ models, 13 fast infantry + 1 cavalry, 5 Might points

This army has a lot more models than either of our other armies – predominantly because we’ve not focused on any of the elite warrior choices available to Angmar (we have 1 spectre) and instead have chosen to pile in as many warriors as we can with a handful of relatively cheap heroes. Terror Bubbles abound in this list, with the Witch-King and the Barrow-Wights able to make their warbands terrifying. The Wild Wargs are out of luck, but thanks to the Wild Warg Chieftain, they can choose to be out of reach of the enemy thanks to Heroic March. When the fighting starts, you’ll see your horde of Orcs racing upon the enemy and with the Wargs to harass the flanks (or at least one of them), you shouldn’t have much difficulty dealing with the blocks of units you face (especially since they’ll probably be better than yours). Let’s look at each of the army components then.

Warband #1: The Witch-King of Angmar

The Witch-King of Angmar: 230pts, lots of range-oriented flexibility thanks to bows and magic (or pseudo-magic).

If this Witch-King build looks similar to my Witch-King build in my Mordor list, there’s a reason for that: I really like that build. :-) 3 Might, some kind of mount (I prefer the horse), and the Crown are a must for the Witch-King, along with a few points of Will and probably a Fate point or two. I tend to not max his Fate out because I find most armies try to charge Ringwraiths to death instead of killing them because D8 is hard to break through. As such, given the choice between having an extra turn to cast Drain Courage/Transfix or an extra chance to save a Wound that may never be dealt, I’d rather have the Will point. In his warband is a large corps of archers that can be left at objectives or marched as a terrifying block across the board. I’ve also added in a Dead Marsh Spectre, because (as I mentioned at the end of my previous post on Lothlorien with regard to Wood Elf Sentinels) there are some rare units that have really low Courage that you want to be able to march around however you wish. With Drain Courage being easily cast on a single die by the Witch-King (2+ difficulty with a reroll from the Crown), you can make sure important units (combat units especially) can be neutralized by the Dead Marsh Spectre (or later wounded by the Dead Marsh Spectre or a Barrow-Wight). Speaking of Barrow-Wights . . .

Warbands #2 and #3: The Anvil

The Anvil: two warbands of 153pts

You wouldn’t think that F3/D5 models would make a good anvil, but they do: Angmar Orc Warriors near Barrow-Wights are remarkably good at holding positions because a) they cause Terror which could limit your opponent’s ability to bring his full force to bear against you, b) they are cheap and so you can have lots of them, and c) you have Barrow-Wights supporting the lines, which means enemy heroes will have to be extra careful when charging you (since you can Paralyze them after they charge). Even if Barrow-Wights don’t get Paralyze off, they still wound against their foe’s Courage stat instead of Defense, which means a few Drain Courage spells from the Witch-King are lethal (especially if the poor hero is lying on the ground Paralyzed and the Barrow-Wight gets double strikes).

I’ve included a banner in each squad because a) you need the extra dice in order to give Fight 3 a fighting chance (see what I did there?) against F4+ battle lines, but also b) because it’s harder to deprive your army of victory points they can gain from having a banner if there are two of them on the field (one could be tucked away in safety behind a small company of archers so it’s nowhere near the enemy and will last to the end of the game).

Warband #4: The WOLVES!

The WOLVES: 164pts of speedy S4/6 - and as I said before, I have WAY too few Wargs at the moment!

Wild Warg Chieftains are built for two things: speed and ripping up infantry. While they don’t have the Monster keyword (and so can’t Rend/Barge/Hurl), they are F5/S5 with 3 Attacks and 2 Might points, which makes killing things pretty easy (even without knock-down or Rend). On Defense, they are D5 with 3 Wounds and 1 Fate point, which is “fine” but not great. So, use his speed and any terrain you can find to keep him from taking hits before he gets engaged. Once he’s locked in combat, dealing with him is pretty tricky.

Alongside their fearless leader (or as fearless as Courage 4 is) are 12 Wild Wargs – perfect for racing to objectives, wrapping around battle lines to trap enemy models and pull off spear supports, and chewing up models that have been Paralyzed. While these models cost about the same as your Orcs and don’t get Terror, their additional speed and the promotion to Strength 4 is a big boon to the army. The fact that they can get 13” of movement off of Heroic March is also nice (and with such a large body of Wargs at your command, they’re really the only models you need to March).

Scenario Overview

Let’s take a look at each of the available scenarios and see some thoughts/considerations for using this list:

• Domination: You have three different blocks that are 12-13 models large and everyone causes Terror with a fourth block that has 13 models who are really fast – this makes Domination easy, since your opponent is probably splitting his force up between the objectives and so will meet yours with a smaller force (if he can split his army into four pieces). Even if you start breaking, with Courage 4 on the Wild Warg Chieftain (and 2 Will points) and Courage 5-6 on the Barrow-Wights and the Witch-King, it’s unlikely that your army falls away when you break unless your heroes get tagged (which, since they cause Terror, might be hard to do). Make sure the Witch-King is near the middle of the board so that his Harbinger bonus applies to as much of the field as possible (and if your opponent avoids the Witch-King, you can have his archers pelting enemy formations). Consider leaving a lone Dead Marsh Spectre behind at one of your starting objectives, since his high Courage will see him stay in the fight for a while (chances are) and he can push models away from him that try to race towards his objective. Should any models get close, you’ll want Wargs to sweep in and protect him (as F2/D5 won’t last very long).
• Capture and Control: Similar to the other armies we’ve viewed so far, use your fast models to tag objectives. This shouldn’t be hard, since you’ve got 13 of them – and running down lone defenders of an objective ought to be quite easy. Once again, use your blocks to dominate the center, keep enemy models from getting to the periphery objectives with your heroes and the Dead Marsh Spectre, and let a few Warg models hang nearby each objective to race in if the models that try to secure the objective choose to bunker down around it.
• Hold Ground: While this is the classic get-to-the-center scenario, remember your goal is to have more models in the center of the map at the end of the game. Since your only hero with Heroic March can only force-march on 13 of your 51 models, you have the choices of either a) getting your Wargs there quickly and holding out and doing damage before the rest of your force arrives, or b) taking it slow, letting your opponent get there first if he wants (perhaps spending some Might to get there first) and using your heroes to weaken them as your army strikes. The Wargs don’t need to take a direct route, but could instead look for ways to get behind the enemy, stretching their battle line thin (or risk getting flanked by 13 fast, strong infantry models). Unlike every other army I’ve covered so far, I’m going to recommend not racing to the center with this one.
• Seize the Prize: In this scenario, speed is everything – march the Wargs as fast as you can, dig up the prize as quickly as you can, then race off with it as best you can. You might have a better chance of getting it off the board if you run it back behind your lines first, then use your Orc Terror wall as a screen so you can get it off the board later. Keep a few Wargs as escorts to whoever has the prize, since you’ll need someone to pick it up (and retain that higher speed).
• To The Death: Play this one with caution: since it’s all about killing, any shooting-oriented armies will look for kill-zones to stake out and they will out-shoot you for sure. You’ll have to come to them. That being said, consider leaving one of your banners behind with some archers to guard it so you can gain the bonus points that come from having a banner (with the Witch-King able to race back to hold them in line should your army break). Use the Witch-King and the Wild Warg Chieftain to tear through enemy heroes (who hopefully the Barrow-Wights will have Paralyzed). Should your opponent cause Terror, move to just outside of the Control Zones of his models and let them try to find ways to charge you. If you have good numerical superiority, you might be able to risk a few charges. If you choose to go this route, be sure to charge into two models, leaving room for one of those models to be charged by someone else (but that way, you know where they’ll be fighting). Then, if you don’t get the charge off, you’ll still be in a bind, but one you chose and not one of your opponent’s choosing.
• Lords of Battle: This is a kill-fest mission and you’re an average Defense faction. Don’t get tied down in areas of the map where you could be decimated and make sure your opponent’s best killing pieces are Paralyzed. I’d very much recommend Paralyzing enemy cavalry models, as throwing them from their horses could lead to some quick points.
• Contest of Champions: The Witch-King is good at killing things and your pair of Barrow-Wights can wear down the enemy Army Leader pretty well. If you can kill him quickly, the Witch-King won’t need to kill much.
• Reconnoitre: While racing 4 Wild Wargs should be pretty easy (and breaking after that shouldn’t be hard at all), consider running the Witch-King off after getting some use out of him (see my post on Mordor for why that is). The Orcs in this alone can make a “Thin Red Line” to keep your opponent from getting units past you, so your Wargs are free to do what they want (pursuing enemy units that get past your ranks, scoring, whatever).
• Storm the Camp: Your Wargs are the rock stars of this mission, as they can get into an enemy camp quickly if given enough cover and slam your opponent's camp with LOADS of models (including a Wild Warg Chieftain, who will be hard for basic warriors to defeat). Unlike all of the other factions I’ve covered so far, this scenario really benefits your Wargs if you can give them cover - getting upwards of 10 fast S4 models in someone's camp is liable to cause major problems. Even if your Wargs are cut down to size, the army list is so large that you should be able to get one-to-one match-ups with your opponent and still have models to spare. Obviously you don't want to get in a prolonged shooting war with anyone (except maybe Moria?), but you can lose a few models and still do alright in this scenario.
• Heirlooms of Ages Past: With four large warbands that can deploy in maelstrom areas, none are in that much trouble should an enemy warband arrive near them (the Witch-King’s isn’t great, but it’s not bad). Where possible, deploy your units near each other and rely on your wargs to race and find the objective (and hold it). Once you get it, use their speed to keep it far away (and as much as possible, stay out of bow-fire range).
• Fog of War: Pick whatever terrain you want (you have enough Wargs to hold it if you arrive right before the game ends). Your opponent has to choose to kill one of your Barrow-Wights or your Wild Warg Chieftain, so just keep an eye on them and keep them as safe as you can while still getting good utility out of them. Go crazy with your Witch-King – what happens to him doesn’t matter. Finally, pick a hero who has limited Will, as the Paralyze barrage and the Wild Warg Chieftain/Witch-King combo should lead to a quick death.
• Clash By Moonlight: You don’t shoot well (but you do have a lot of bows), so if you can get shots, take them. Otherwise, you want to get locked into combat as quickly as possible, because armies with S2 bows will wound your army on 5s (or 4s) and armies with S3 bows will wound all of your troops on 4s (except your heroes, who are wounded on 5s or 5/3+) – this will rake you apart if you let it!

Modifications

While I really like the list provided above, I get that the play style of others probably means other units deserve a mention – here a few changes I expect people would like to make:

• Get A Shade – Shades really change the way your opponent plays. They’re hated for a reason – and that reason is that they’re really annoying to armies that paid for high Fight Value. Shades have four major weaknesses though: first and foremost, they can only penalize enemy dueling rolls for a limited number of turns – especially against armies that have magical powers (particularly Banishment) or armies that make you pass Courage tests or fall under their movement (like a Wood Elf Sentinel’s Eldamar Madrigal or a Dead Marsh Spectre’s Fell Light is in Them rule). Second, their Courage is really low, which not only makes them susceptible to Courage-oriented rules like the ones I mentioned above, but it also means that when you break, Shades are some of the first models to run. Third, Shades can only reduce the Duel roll of enemy models within a certain radius: armies that shoot/skirmish well can pick off Orcs before they get in range and just “refuse to play” when the Shade is near until the buffer zone between the Shade and the enemy has been worn down. When the Shade gets charged, it will fall pretty quickly. While staying outside of 6” might be difficult for some armies in certain scenarios, other armies will prove difficult to manage. Finally, the Shade reduces the duel rolls of friendly models who do not have the Angmar keyword, so that will reduce the dueling rolls of your Wild Warg Chieftain, Wild Wargs, and any Cave Trolls you choose to add into the list. So...keep him next to your Orcs - the list might look something like this (we're at 46 models now):
• The Witch-King of Angmar on horse with the Crown of Morgul, 3M/14W/2F [Army Leader]
• 2 Angmar Orc Warriors with Orc bows
• 4 Angmar Orc Warriors with Orc bows and spears
• 2 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields
• 2 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• Shade
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with two-handed axe
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
• Barrow-Wight
• 3 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with two-handed axe
• 3 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
• Wild Warg Chieftain
• 12 Wild Wargs
• Get Warg Riders – I’ve chosen a horde of cheap faux-cavalry (as I called them in my post on fast units earlier in this series). The problem with Wild Wargs is that you can’t make them Terrifying. If you dropped some of them, you could run them near the Witch-King as Warg Riders instead (who are very inexpensive – especially if you just give them shields). Since you can get roughly 5 Warg Riders for the cost of 7 Wild Wargs (and since an Angmar Orc Captain or Golfimbul are cheaper than the Wild Warg Chieftain), you could swap the Wild Warg Chieftain's warband with some warg-riding Orcs (run at least some of the Warg Riders with the Witch-King so they get Terror though!).
• The Witch-King of Angmar on horse with the Crown of Morgul, 3M/14W/2F [Army Leader]
• 5 Angmar Warg Riders with shields
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with Orc bows
• 6 Angmar Orc Warriors with Orc bows and spears
• Barrow-Wight
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with two-handed axe
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
• Barrow-Wight
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with two-handed axe
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
• Golfimbul, Orc Chieftain on Warg
• 6 Angmar Warg Riders with shields
• Get Some Monsters – While Wild Warg Chieftains are great, don’t underestimate the power of Gulavhar or Buhrdur – both are fantastic heroes and their Might is far more versatile. Buhrdur has gained quite a bit of notoriety in our gaming group in the past, but beware his “fine” Defense, Courage, Will, and Fate. While he’s a powerhouse on Offense, his Defense is really lacking. That said, if you prefer heroes who can really smash stuff (and occasionally act as another banner), he’s a good guy to use. Gulavhar’s greatest asset is that he’s a Spirit model who can fly: this means if there’s a part of your battle line that needs bolstering, you can fly Gulavhar to it, charge into something, and then surround him with Orcs who now cause Terror to keep him from being overwhelmed. Oh, and any models you kill heal you – that’s always nice. If I were bolstering this list up to 800 points, I’d definitely consider getting one of these heroes. If you raise the points level up to 800 points, some might also consider just getting a Cave Troll (or two) – while not heroes, they do pack a punch (anything that wounds Vault Warden Foe Shields on 5s must be really good). An 800-point list looks like this (and looks remarkably like Kylie's list from the Master's Tournament, though I've left the Angmar Orc Captain at home and brought more Warg Riders):
• The Witch-King of Angmar on horse with the Crown of Morgul, 3M/14W/2F [Army Leader]
• 4 Angmar Warg Riders with Orc bows
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with Orc bows
• 4 Angmar Orc Warriors with Orc bows and spears
• Barrow-Wight
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with two-handed axe
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
• Barrow-Wight
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with two-handed axe
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
• Gulavhar, the Terror of Arnor
• 4 Angmar Warg Riders with Orc bows
• Get more Spectres – There was a time when my whole front-line was spectres: back when Spears lended an extra attack to the model in front, you could have 2 dice wounding against Courage rather than one (which made them really nasty). Add that to the boost to D6 they got under the Warband rules, and Spectres were really dangerous. Then, they got reduced to D5 again, spears became more reasonable, and they just weren’t the fighting spirit they used to be (see what I did there? Okay, I'll stop). But are they bad nowadays? Consider that the Witch-King, leading 9 Spectres and 9 Orc Warriors with spears and shields could reduce the Courage of enemy hero models, making them more likely to fall to a nine-man Fell Light barrage so they don’t get to participate in anything and then the bodyguards of the hero get charged by 18 warriors and a cavalry hero (who keeps their Courage low so it’s easier to Wound them). Pretty nasty, but also pretty expensive - and the 700-point list below is at a healthy 45 models:
• The Witch-King of Angmar on horse with the Crown of Morgul, 3M/14W/2F [Army Leader]
• 9 Dead Marsh Spectres
• 9 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• Barrow-Wight
• 4 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with two-handed axe
• 4 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
• Barrow-Wight
• 3 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with two-handed axe
• 3 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
• Golfimbul, Orc Chieftain on Warg
• 2 Angmar Warg Riders with shields
• 3 Wild Wargs

In our next post, we will be traveling to the ancient kingdom of Gondor to see how to make a more balanced list with Numenor. Numenor suffers from not having a lot of profiles (hopefully, they'll get a few more warrior choices in a future supplement), but we'll look at ways you can get a balanced list that's good at playing to the scenario. Think you know how we're going to do it? The answer might surprise you. Until then, happy hobbying!