Armies of Middle-Earth SBG: Angmar in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game

Photo Credit: Game Art on Pinterest

Yes, we're back from hibernation with another Armies of Middle-Earth write-up! The Fall semester is usually pretty full for me (because life), so I wouldn't get your hopes up for more of these in the near-future. But I thought I'd make an exception for everyone's favorite faction to play against (just kidding): Angmar.

Those of you who have been following this series probably noticed that we skipped over Angmar when we did our cadre of evil army reviews last year. That was intentional, because my own experience in Angmar was... basically non-existent. And while there's a lot of stuff in Angmar that looks good on-paper, I had a suspicion that to truly appreciate what it can do, you had to experience it. So that's what I did, over the course of this summer, as I got ready for TMAT's THRO tournament (where I took an Angmar army). Now that the tourney is over--and armed with all the things I learned--I finally feel like I can do Angmar justice.

Spoiler alert: this army is crazy good, and I'm hardly the first person to say that. You'll find our standard list of recommended resources in the back, but I'll flag a few that I particularly liked--and used a lot when preparing my own Angmar force for THRO--here at the outset. Taylor over at The Nazgul Times has a great break-down of all the profile choices in the army. My take is slightly different than his on some things (mostly the Dwimmerlaik and Warg Riders), but his insights are fantastic. For a panoply of list-building ideas, check out Mik's Fog of War post on Angmar with Dave Nolan (Dave's instincts are more in-line with mine--WK and barrow-wight spam--while Mik loves the trolls, wargs, and especially Gulavhar that can make Angmar particularly scary). Tiberius posted his own thoughts on balanced Angmar lists last Spring in his Bare Necessities Series. Lastly, if you have painting projects and are looking for something to play in the background, I would highly recommend the Green Dragon Podcast's recap of Ardacon 2019's Masters Tournament (featuring Kylie's Angmar army), supplemented if you like by video coverage of three of her rounds courtesy of STF Wargaming Studio (though I don't know that you'll get much painting done if you have that on in the background). Tiberius, Centaur, and I also talked about Angmar quite a bit in our lengthy recap of the THRO tournament (complete with some battle reports), in the highly unlikely event you want to hear anything more from me. Edit: And, as a special treat, you can now listen to the Green Dragon's full faction break-down of Angmar. Plus a whole bunch of other links to other community resources at the end!

Alright, here we go... 

(although for full thematic effect, you'll have to run this music track in the background)

Photo Credit: Fantasy City on Pinterest

Army Quick(ish) Hits

• Strength: All the spooks. Angmar isn't the only army that you can build around Terror shenanigans: Mordor and the Corsairs of Umbar have access to Black Numenoreans, Far Harad has the dreaded Half-Trolls, several elves (plus Radagast) can cast Aura of Dismay, and of course (as I forgot, until my sons reminded me) the Dead of Dunharrow. But I'm not sure any army does Terror better than Angmar, and there's absolutely no army that does Terror cheaper than Angmar. Your army bonus is the key: all Angmar Orc models within 3" of a Spirit Hero gain the Terror special rule, making it so that even a humble 5-point orc can cause real problems for certain armies (including their heroes). You also have access to four spectacular Spirit Heroes who also have the Harbinger of Evil special rule (the Witch-King, the Tainted, the Dwimmerlaik, and Gulavhar), so the odds are that however you decide to build your force, you'll have at least one -1 Courage bubble to make your run-of-the-mill orcs even harder to charge. You have options for non-Spirit Hero heroes, too, of course, both of whom also cause Terror (Buhrdur and the Wild Warg Chieftain), as do your Dead Marsh Spectres (who do other nasty things to your opponents), Barrow-Wights, and of course the dreaded Shade.
• Strength: You have list-building options to neutralize... well, pretty much everything in spurts (and occasionally everything at once).  
• Let's start with the front-line of defense: if you're doing things right, your orc grunts probably cause Terror. You'd be surprised how much that changes how your opponents play. If they're a low-courage army to start with (goblins, orcs, and even non-elite C3 men), you could find half the enemy army locked out of combat because they failed a courage test, leaving them unable to chew through your army--or unable to hold back your advance. And even mid-courage armies (like dwarves, elite men, elves, and armies with a War Horn) can find themselves in trouble (after all, a Courage 5 elf still needs a roll of "6" or more if he's within Harbinger range). It's particularly devastating for low-courage cavalry armies (Riders of Rohan, Haradrim/Mahud Raiders, Knights of Minas Tirith), who need to go first--and may even spend one or more points of Might to go first--only to find out that they can't get their charges off consistently.
• Next we have the precision pieces. Between Dead Marsh Spectres and a Ringwraith with Compel, you have ways to move your enemy around the battle (or plunge them heedlessly into the battle, or make them run away from the battle like a cowardly chicken), often to their disadvantage (if not danger). That random orc holding a banner in the center line? He may bolt six inches away from the fray. Or follow one of his friends into the midst of the no-man's land, to be ganked by a Fell Beast. And if you benefited from any movement buffs during your turn (like a Heroic March, a War Drum, or--God forbid--both on the same turn), you could move as far as 20" after you thought your movement was done.
• Then you have the blunt-force disruptors. Three wraiths means you have plenty of options for Instill Fear to scatter the middle of an enemy battle line, send spear-supports packing, or clear important objectives in the endgame. Monsters like Cave Trolls and their leader, Buhrdur, are always a threat to hurl cavalry models into their unsuspecting mates, and if you're packing any high-Strength Monsters with Fly (like Fell Beasts, or Gulavhar), it can be even worse. 
• And then... on top of all that... there's the Shade. -1 to any non-Angmar duel rolls within 6" is, frankly, disgusting. Your regular orcs out-fight Uruks. They out-fight Fiefdoms. They out-fight elves. They out-fight monsters. They out-fight heroes. They out-fight enormous heroes. If you want to win combats, you need to outroll regular orcs by 1+. If you can't--if the orcs roll a "6"--you may need to spend your precious Might to win the duel (just the duel, mind you--you could still fail to wound). And if you can't spend Might--because you're out, or you're just a warrior, not a hero--there's not a dang thing you can do about it. Which, like I said before, is frankly disgusting.
• Strength: Neutralizing "everything" includes big enemy heroes (and sometimes multiple heroes). Many armies are dependent on their heroes to do certain things--deal with big monsters, carve their way to objectives, or keep the enemy's big heroes in check. And for the vast majority of armies that aren't "all-hero" armies, they have access to only one or two "big" heroes who can put serious pressure on their opponents. Unfortunately, most of these big heroes are susceptible to magic (because they only have 1-3 Will, with no built-in defenses against magic like Resistant to Magic or Fortify Spirit), and have to be in-combat--and able to make strikes in combat--to make back their points. Angmar has some of those heroes, too (Buhrdur and the Wild Warg Chieftain are like that, and to a lesser extent Gulavhar, although he has Resistant to Magic). But most of its big heroes either have enormous will-pools and the ability to cast offensive magic against their opponents and have ways to make back their points without being in combat (the Tainted and the Dwimmerlaik, plus the Witch-King who is no worse than a top-5 caster in the entire game), or they have special abilities that are tailor-made to blunt the effectiveness of big combat heroes (the Shade, with 8 Will and a 6" -1 duel roll bubble; and Barrow-Wights with 5 Will and Paralyze on a 4+). Barrow-Wights in particular are an extremely cheap hard-counter (or at least a threat to hard-counter) even the most powerful combat hero whose Will is a little sketchy (there are plenty of 3/1/1 combat heroes running around), and even 3/3/3 heroes may find their Will (and even their Might) depleted if they're taking a Spectre test in Harbinger of Evil range, followed by a Compel from the Witch-King, followed by 2-3 Paralyzes from some barrow-wights. The constant threat of Paralyze may even mean that you let a random Drain Courage or Transfix through to conserve your Will... although if you do that too much, your hero may not be able to get into combat at all. Even armies who have 2 or even 3 big heroes may run into trouble, if the Angmar player has invested heavily in a Nazgul and some barrow-wights (who, again, are extremely cheap). And then there's the conventional threats Angmar can throw at big heroes--Burly cave trolls, a 3-Attack 10" move Warg, a Striking troll hero, a Wraith (or two) on flying monster, or a Fight 7, Strength 8, 4 Attack Monstrous Charge vampire demon.
• Strength: You fight most armies asymetrically. I forget who coined this phrase (I'll post a shout-out if I discover it, though I expect it was Kylie from the Green Dragon), but one of the things that makes Angmar so hard for most armies to deal with is that they do a lot of the things that other armies do, but they can go about doing those things in ways that are quite different from how other armies would do it. Consider this relatively common objective: "Neutralizing big heroes." Most armies neutralize big heroes by employing one or more of the following tactics. Option a: they avoid them entirely (the Green Dragon's "halo"/"bubble" tactic), or feed them a single model each turn so they either end up killing only one model per turn (not a great way to make back their points) or have to spend heroic resources like Might to do Heroic Combats (which, for any hero not named Aragorn, Helm Hammerhand, or powered-up Bolg, isn't a sustainable strategy). Option b, they shoot the hero to death, if they have a lot of bows, and if the hero's defense isn't so great that this becomes a futile endeavor. Option c, they use a wizard to transfix so it's not killing anything (or better yet, compel it away so it's not a threat to kill anything for a couple of turns). Option d, you send your biggest, baddest hero against it, and hope your biggest, baddest hero is bigger and badder than your opponent's. Now Angmar can do all those things if it wants to. But it can also has other options, too, which are weirdly enough almost the opposite of these tactics. Sure, you can keep your orcs backed by barrow-wight out of charge-range of a big hero if you want to. But if that hero is low-courage (or if you've been working on his courage), you may actually want to move toward that hero instead, essentially daring him to charge, and banking on the fact that since he doesn't want to be charged by you on the next turn, he'll probably decide to move away from you... accomplishing the Halo for you (whilst you're shrinking the battlefield, advancing on objectives, etc). You can peg enemy heroes with shooting as well, which is great (see our discussion of orcs below), but most of the time your window of shooting enemy heroes is limited to a couple of rounds, until they charge. Angmar, of course, like any evil army, can shoot into combat--so that's not the end of the world for you. But the combination of Terror, Spectre tests, Compel, and the threat of Paralyze when your opponent finally does charge your battle line means you may get a couple more rounds of shooting than most armies would. Speaking of Compel, you can always Compel or Transfix an enemy hero as a way of ignoring them, but if you have Paralyze your magical salvo can be far more debilitating: instead of just "neutralizing" an enemy hero for a round, you may be able to kill it outright (and the odds are that, eventually, you will be able to kill most heroes in most games). Which leads me to the final option: big-bad against big-bad. Again, Angmar can do this, too--the Witch-King (supported by his spells, Strike, and a Fell Beast) and Gulavhar (with Heroic Defense, Fly, F7/S8, and his ability to regenerate wounds) are beefy enough that they can take on most big-bads under any conditions, and Burhdur can take on most big bads under the right conditions. But you can also "neutralize" most big-bads with a contingent of Terror orcs and a Barrow-Wight. Or a contingent of Terror orcs and a Shade. Or, if the enemy hero is out of Might, a single orc and a shade. Or, if the enemy hero is Paralyzed, a single orc (or ten). All of which probably cost less points than the big bad you're trying to bring down, and all while your big bads are accomplishing other objectives. Asymmetry. You accomplish the same thing, but how you do so is vastly different. There's something special about your cheap stuff that lets it deal with your opponent's expensive stuff (with a decent chance that you'll come out on-top), so your expensive stuff can deal with your opponent's cheap stuff (where you expect to clean house). And it does so by making things that are usually pretty rare in most armies (Terror, magic, area buffs/debuffs, heroic resource drain) and makes them army-wide (or at least they have huge areas of effect). While the counters to those rare things (auto-passing courage tests, army-wide magic defense, regenerating heroic stats) remain, well, rare (and very expensive to ally in, if you can ally them in at all). And dealing with enemy heroes is just one example. Another is dealing with mass cavalry: for most armies, their best answer is to win priority a ton, and call Heroic Moves a ton, and win 50/50 heroic move-offs a ton. Angmar can do that, too (though the move-offs get old after a while), or it can cop a charge (especially if the enemy cav have poor courage) and then react by swarming whatever enemy cavalry managed to complete their charges (preferably with cavalry models of their own--more on that below). What makes it asymmetrical is that either winning or losing priority is an okay outcome for Angmar (it can survive either way, at least for a few turns), while neither outcome is particularly great for the enemy. Yes, you want to charge to unlock all your wonderful cavalry special rules that you paid so many points for, but going first also means you have to take Terror checks... and then you could be counter-charged or swarmed or hurled or transfixed or paralyzed or who knows what else. And if you go second... well, that's probably worse.
• Strength: Flexibility in play styles. There are some armies that just have to be played a certain way to reach their full potential. Armies that are all-cav without skirmishing options (heavy Royal Guards without throwing spears, Knights of Minas Tirith, or Serpent Riders) are like this: if they're not charging, they're not doing much of anything. Other armies are best when they're on the defensive: hyper-elite Iron Hills, with the Ballista, crossbows, and a heavy Shieldwall would prefer you charge them (and has enough ranged firepower and defensive staying power to make most armies do just that). Because Angmar is such a flexible and developed list, it's an army that can be tailored to different playing styles, either during list-building or mid-game. In my (albeit limited) experience, Angmar benefits a lot from being aggressive. You have so much stuff that's going to force your opponent into making hard choices anyway, that mental fatigue on the part of your opponent is almost a given. If you compliment those tough choices with aggressive play (your Terror orcs are always advancing, you're constantly pressuring the enemy's flanks or back line with your cav or Fly models, you piercing-strike anytime you have a model trapped, etc.), it can start to feel almost oppressive. If that's not who you are (or the situation calls for something different), you can also play more defensively and reactively, allowing you to get more use out of your Terror and Harbinger, get critical counter-charges in on enemy cavalry, and line up the perfect hurl. You can also do both at the same time, at different parts of the board (pressing the assault on one flank, while the other flank settles in to hold an objective for the next three turns). And unlike some armies, where your list-building choices may force you into one option or the other (Morgul Stalkers in Mordor favor offense, Black Nums favor defense), your core troops and heroes can do either (orcs backed by a Barrow-Wight or a Shade, and supported by some Warg Riders, can press an assault or blunt one as the situation demands).
• Weakness: The core of your army are basic orcs. This isn't a terrible weakness--"regular" orcs are quite solid troops, after all--but if you're used to playing armies built around "elite" troops like I am (Iron Hills, elves, armored men, Uruk-Hai--basically, anyone who's Fight 4+, S4, and/or D6+) it may take some getting used to. Fight 3 means you're usually drawing combats (best case scenario), Strength 3 means 6s to wound elite (D6 or above) troops, and Defense 5 means means average troops (S3 or above) wound you on 5s. It also means the bulk of your army is Courage 2 across the Board (Courage 1 in Harbinger range), with no Shamans who can cast Fury, so if your enemy has tons of Terror to match yours, you'll have a lot of trouble dealing with them. Even your archers--one of the best ways to deal with Terror armies--are sub-par, with one of the worst shoot values in the game (5+, unless you move, in which case you hit on 6s, paired with a S2, 18" range orc bow). Sometimes you can get around these limitations with raw numbers (just take courage tests until you succeed) or by playing to the scenario's objectives, but again--if you're used to playing with elite troops, this will take some getting used to. Thankfully...
• Strength: A pseudo-horde! (If you want it). I will caveat this by saying that you will probably never see--or want to run yourself--a full-on Angmar horde, because Angmar has so many cool/powerful elite troops (spectres, cave trolls) and heroes (the three wraiths (perhaps on fell beasts), Gulavhar, Burhdur, the Shade, and the Chieftain). In fact, with so many cool things to choose from, it's very easy to end up building a very elite force by accident (really, it's not hard to do at all: a 3/16/3 Witch-King on FB/horse with either Buhrdur or Gulavhar, plus a barrow-wight, banner, and three spectres costs between 400 and 500 points). As tempting as this is, my sense is that you generally want to have at least an average-size army (Jeremy Hunthor's Rule of 20 is a good barometer--at 700 points, 35 models is around average; 40 models at 800 points, 30 models at 600, etc.). The reason (as we discussed above) is that your core troops are just orcs, who have terrible courage that you can't augment (apart from Stand Fasts! with your heroes, assuming you have Priority so they aren't tagged before they get to courage test). When your army consists mostly of orcs, your best defense against failing courage tests for breaking is just not to break, which means you want to do everything you can to keep your model count is high. Which means you want to supplement your elite choices with a healthy smattering of orcs, wild wargs, warg riders, and barrow-wights, all of which are great value for what you get. At 700 points, it's possible to get over fifty models while still taking some of the fun goodies (a 3/16/3 Witch-King with crown on horse, an orc captain with shield on warg, three barrow-wights, three spectres, and five warg riders). Fifty models isn't a true horde (Goblin-Town can push 100 at 700 points, even with most of its heroes), but it's quite a bit larger than average, and most horde armies (which are low-fight and low-courage) will struggle to make much headway against it, especially if you anchor your army off of defensive terrain. Most armies will struggle to kill 26 models in two hours, especially if they don't auto-pass courage tests. If they can't do it, you won't break.
• Strength/Weakness: Defense 5. This sort of depends on how you look at it. On the one hand, Defense 5 on a pseudo-horde is pretty good (on-par with Moria Goblins and Warriors of Rohan/Lake-Town, better than Shire / Goblin-Town). On the other hand, it's not Defense 6... which means we'll be wounded on a 5+ by anything that's S3... which is a lot of things (most basic troops, elf-bows, and throwing spears in particular). It also means that we can't cop a cavalry charge, even from Easterlings (or other S3 cav with no +1 to-wound bonuses).
• Weakness: Allies. Very simple: you don't have any historic allies, and your only convenient allies are Moria (which is intriguing) and the Desolator of the North (who is not). Unless you really want a bat swarm, or Ashrak leading a bunch of venemous Giant Spiders, or Druzhag powering up your Wild Warg Chieftain, or the unholy unity of the Balrog and the Witch-King, don't bother. Because...
• Strength: Army Bonus. I'll caveat this by saying that courage bonuses (like Minas Tirith's and the Easterlings') are by definition situationally useful. If your opponent doesn't have Terror, and/or you never break, you won't need it. Both of those things are probably more likely than not (the former because Terror in armies is relatively rare, and the latter because Minas Tirith and Easterlings are pretty hearty factions, and in Minas Tirith's case, you can also pseudo-spam if you forego a lot of their elite troop and hero options). Having said that, ALWAYS TAKE THIS ARMY BONUS. Three reasons. First, like we mentioned before, Terror is rare, and army-wide Terror is extremely rare, unless you're the Army of the Dead--and let's face it, hardly anyone runs pure Army of the Dead anymore. So right off the bat, your army has a unique strength that opponents may not have planned for (in fact, there are many armies who will have hardly any tools to deal with it, without allying something else in). Second, while Terror is rare, Fearless / Sworn Protector / Bodyguard / Aura of Command / Fury are almost as rare (with the exception of Fury, they're almost always limited to elite armies), and any army that has army-wide auto-passes on courage tests is going to be hyper-elite (Iron Hills with Dain, full Minas Tirith Fountain Court / Citadel Guard, Mirkwood with heavy Palace Guard, Khazad-Dum with heavy Khazad Guard, etc.). Your army can be hyper-elite as well, but doesn't have to be (and probably shouldn't), which means you should have a numbers advantage against any auto-pass force, and most high-courage forces (i.e., you can field 5-6 orcs--or 3-4 orcs and a warg rider--for every 3 high elves with weapon upgrade(s) that your opponent takes). Third, while Sworn Protector, Bodyguard, Aura of Command, and Fury are fantastic abilities on paper, the thing about them in practice is that they only last as long as you can keep your army leader / person your protecting / wizard alive (and, in Aura of Command and Fury's case, with at least 1 Will left in their store). And if you have to kill a single model (or strip it of Will), Angmar may have more tools in its toolbox to kill that model than any other army in the game, especially if you outnumber your opponent (multiple barrow-wights for Paralyze, backed up by troops to swarm the paralyzed model and pin any nearby models or pull them into separate fights).
• Strength/Weakness: Buy-in cost. You can still get a decent amount of the Angmar range from Games Workshop (the Witch-King, Buhrdur, orcs, warg riders, and wild wargs are usually available; as of this writing, cave trolls and the Wild Warg Chieftain are out of stock), but a bunch of the elite models and heroes currently aren't (notably Barrow-Wights, spectres, and the Shade, in addition to Gulavhar). If you're very fortunate, you may be able to pick-up some of them from third-party sellers (watch out for price gouging, though). If your local tournament scene is open to proxies or conversions, you can probably find something that will suit your needs. The official spectres come in three variants--high elf, numenorean, and orc--so a pose conversion and glow-y paint job would probably do the trick. And there are plenty of other spirit miniatures (wights, banshees, and the like) who can step-in for your barrow-wights and shade if you wish (although if you leave the shade at home because you don't have the model, I don't think your opponents will mind much). If you're looking for creative ideas, Tiberius recently did some up, and you can check out my own conversions from TMAT's The Hunter's Red October Tournament here. Hopefully these classic models will make a come-back soon.

This is where I'd usually end my overview, and we'd jump into the profiles. Which we'll do momentarily. The vast majority of this (and most of what you're about to read, if you're still reading this) has been and is going to be incredibly positive about Angmar. And I think that's appropriate: despite its weaknesses, Angmar is a very strong, flexible, competitive list. But before going on, I felt I needed to make two additional observations that you should know if you're thinking about making Angmar one of your primary factions. 

• Weakness: "Fun-Level". If you're going to play Angmar, you need to be aware that playing against an optimized Angmar army is almost never a fun experience for your opponent. Like, at all. Now in competitive events, that's fine, because the expectations are different. But for casual games in a gaming group, you may want to stick with only some of Angmar's shut-down stuff (choose a Shade, or a couple Barrow-Wights, or the Dwimmerlaik, but not all three at once), build a list that's clearly thematic (maybe around Golfimbul, or a hill troll expedition built around Buhrdur), or steer clear of Angmar entirely (or at least give your opponent your list beforehand, and offer him or her a chance to build a list that can mitigate at least some of what it wants to do). There are plenty of armies where you can bring exactly what you want, and both you and your opponent will have fun. Angmar isn't one of them.
• Weakness: High Degree of Difficulty. After reading this through, you may be thinking: Angmar is awesome! Just a point-and-click kind of army that auto-wins! I gotta get into this! Make no mistake, Angmar is very powerful, especially when optimized. But it's not a particularly forgiving list--your basic troops are pretty squishy after all, and figuring out how to weave your barrow-wights in and out of your orc lines while maintaining their Terror bubbles, and what order to move your heroes/spectres, and when/when not to commit your monsters, and all the decisions that you have to make takes time and, frankly, can be really draining. Both players are usually fatigued (mentally, if not physically) after playing a game involving Angmar. At times, the sheer volume of things you can do can feel overwhelming (especially if you're not sure in what order to do them). Practice is your friend, especially practice against a lot of different kind of armies. So if you're looking at taking an Angmar army to a competitive event, try to convince a friend (probably a good one) to help you prepare by getting in the reps you'll need to learn your army. Let him build a force tailor-made to beat yours. Give him some extra points, or choose the scenario. Whatever it takes to get someone to play against you. You need those reps, and you need to build endurance to handle multiple games in a row where your brain is taxed and strained.

Named Hero Profiles

Photo Credit: One Wiki to Rule Them All

• The Witch-King of Angmar: We've already covered him extensively in the Barad-Dur and Mordor army lists, and all his stats, upgrade options, and spells are exactly the same in an Angmar list (and, of course, ALWAYS TAKE THE CROWN OF MORGUL!!!). That said, some of his tricks are worth highlighting, because they become even more effective in an Angmar list (if you can believe that): 
• Let's start with that 12" Harbinger of Evil bubble. Unless you're running a large contingent of Black Numenoreans in Barad-Dur (probably unlikely at low points levels, because Sauron costs so much) or Mordor (possible, although Mordor has so many great troop options that Black Nums are hardly the go-to in that list), you probably don't get much use out of Harbinger until you get to the end-game (where, don't get me wrong, it's great). For most of your Angmar games, that -1 courage penalty for enemy models will be huge from the opening jump, so make sure you keep your Witch-King near-ish to the center of your troops--at least to start with--to make those Terror checks as hard as possible for your opponent.
• Pairing Harbinger with Drain Courage is a very efficient way to put pressure on your opponent's combat heroes right from the jump (or their cavalry models, banners, or anything else that your opponent wants to control). It's only a 2+ to cast (rerollable if you take the Crown), which means your odds of getting it off on a single die are crazy high with the reroll. A single success is effectively a -2 penalty to your opponent's Courage (once you factor Harbinger in), which means Courage 6 heroes (like Boromir and Aragorn) are suddenly in that dicey Courage 4 range, while Courage 5 heroes like Eomer or Azog are now Courage 3 (or Courage 2 if you get a second cast off). You also have a 3+ Transfix and 4+ Compel to prevent an enemy hero from striking, calling Heroic Actions or Stand Fasts!, and potentially move that hero against his will into the open. If you're dealing with enemy Fury, you always have Sap Will in your back pocket (5+ to cast), Instill Fear on a 4+ is yet another weapon you can deploy against low-courage armies, and you have Your Staff is Broken (4+) to deal with enemy wizards. 
• While all these spells are exactly the same as they are in Mordor and Barad-Dur, I have found that they tend to go off a lot more in an Angmar army because of the secondary spell-threats posed by other models in your force (specifically, enemy heroes tend to let a Transfix cast on a "4" through, or to let a Drain Courage on a "2" go off uncontested, in order to save their Will for the 1-2 Barrow-Wights nearby who can still cast Paralyze). The result is that your Witch-King--who is already no worse than a top-5 caster in the whole game--gets to do almost anything he wants unless your opponent has brought the rare army with multiple wizards. 
• While you may be able to get by with a low-stat Witch-King in Barad-Dur (where Sauron will always be demanding the bulk of your enemy's attention), you probably want at least a 3/15/3 Witch-King in Angmar (and that 15 Will is probably low if you plan to run a Fell-Beast or fear you may hit an enemy wizard). You really don't want him fleeing before the battle is done (so give him lots of Will and Fate), and he's probably the most cost-effective of your 3 Might hero options (as he's a top-tier combat model/wizard with the Crown, a Spirit hero providing a 3" Terror bubble to friendly Angmar Orcs, and potentially an assassin if yout ake him on Fell-Beast). The only thing I'll add is that if you go heavy into Barrow-Wights (or pair him with Gulavhar), you probably won't need the Morgul Blade--and are probably better off with an extra two Will points (or two more orcs).
• Don't forget that the Crown also gives him a free reroll when resisting enemy spells and that if you resist a spell with a natural 6 you get that Will point back. That reroll means you won't always have to spend 2 Will to resist spells (you can get a 4+ to resist pretty reliably with just one Will, especially if you're willing to spend some Might), but if you do spend two Will ALWAYS attempt the reroll to resist on your lower die to hunt that natural 6, even if your high die roll is already enough to resist the spell (any Will you regain is another opportunity to cast, fight a combat, or stave off The Will of Evil). And ALWAYS TAKE THE CROWN!
• You may not always want a Fell-Beast but... if you're not taking Gulavhar, I think you should at least strongly consider it. The ability to duck over the top of an enemy line and get at an important model you've paralyzed on a critical turn can't be underestimated. If you've never played against a monster with Fly, you should try it sometime. Many of our conventional tactics assume that models move only on a two dimensional plane--so if I position my models just here, and have their control zones overlapping like so, no model can get to this point back here (and thus my army leader / wizard / banner / prize-carrier / etc. is safe). Those tactics work against the Witch-King on horse, or the Wild Warg Chieftain. And they're very effective against models like Buhrdur who, while fantastic, only moves 6" (maybe more if you Barge or Heroic Combat, provided your enemy's surrounding models leave gaps large enough for him to move through...) Models with Fly ignore much of that plane, because they can jump over control zones and get to that spot in the back where you'd usually be safe. Monster models with Fly can do that, and then wreak havoc on your army (hurling, rending, or just straight-up killing if they have Monstrous Charge, like Gulavhar and a Fell Beast do). And, of course, monster models with Fly and heroic stats can do all sorts of things on the way in (casting spells in the WK's case) or do it a couple times in the same round (via a Heroic Combat). Keeping your back models safe against fliers requires you to physically occupy the space around those models, so that the Flying model's base can't physically fit next to your base. Practically speaking, this either means you hang out in terrain all the time (and therefore your army becomes static, which Angmar likes and which the objectives may disfavor), or you have to keep other models in the back in an anti-fly formation (which means less models on your front line, which again, Angmar likes). Worst of all, the uncertainty posed by a flying model actually counsels against something you usually want: winning priority. Most armies prefer to win priority most of the time, because it gives you more control over your own pieces (nothing is tagged when you start moving), and of course there are some armies that depend on winning priority to function at max-capacity (all-cav armies in particular, though there are others). If Gulavhar or a Fell-Beast are exposed, going first isn't a problem (assuming you can get past their Terror to charge them, which some armies will struggle with). But if they aren't--they're still lurking behind the enemy's main battle line, and you're blocked from charging them due to Angmar's smart deployment with overlapping control zones--going first means you have to commit your models to combats (or non-combats) without having any idea where that flying monster is going to end up. So where do you move your banner? Where's Theoden going? Do we commit to a full-on charge on his suspiciously straight battle-line, which is screaming HURL! HURL! HURL!? Ironically, losing priority actually makes things simpler for us, because if the monster has already moved, we know exactly where it is, and what it's doing, and while we still have to watch out for Heroic Combats, at least we have more intel as we set-up our anti-fly formation. In sum, Gulavhar is a fantastic model, and pairing him with a Witch-King (who you probably don't need on Fell Beast at that point, but hey--if you want both flying monsters, do what you find fun) opens up all sorts of tricks for dealing with the biggest heroes in the game. But if you find your numbers are low, spending another 50 points for a Fell-Beast gets you 75% of what Gulavhar offers (S6 instead of S8, 3-4 attacks on the charge instead of 5 max for Gully) at 25% of the price. And having 75% of Gulavhar's threat as yet another thing your opponent has to worry about is well-worth 50 points.
• I hesitate to say any model is an auto-take in any army list (unless it's a list, like Barad-Dur, where there's no point in running it over, say, Mordor, if you're not including Sauron), but I kind of think the Witch-King is an auto-take in Angmar (even if he's not in Mordor or Barad-Dur). When you have him, he does so much for you just by being there. If you don't have him, I'm not sure your Angmar list will every live up to its full potential.
• The Tainted: He offers you a lot of what the Witch-King does (with 1 less Might/Fate, no reroll when casting/resisting spells), with Terror, Harbinger, and a 2+ Drain Courage. In addition, he offers you an added layer of protection with something Angmar struggles with--counter-calling Heroic Moves by your opponent. A spirit hero-heavy Angmar force tends to run low on Might (Shades and Barrow-Wights, both staples of competitive Angmar lists, have none), so every point you have is precious. If you win Priority (and need to keep it), being able to cut troops out of participating in a Heroic Move--or Heroic Combat in the Fight Phase--can go a long way to mitigating what your opponent wants to do. It does cost you a Will point (you only have 14 total) and will cut both ways (both friendly and enemy troops within 6" of the Tainted are barred from participating in Heroic Actions or Stand Fasts! for the duration of the turn) so you have to be slightly careful with that. But there's no roll to see if it works or not (like the Mumak War Leader's 4+ check to cancel Heroic Moves), and when deployed in a clutch moment it can win you the game.
• The Dwimmerlaik: Your standard-fare Angmar army (Witch-King, Barrow-Wight, Shade, and spectres) is plenty choke-y as-is, making it very hard for your opponent to do the things they want to do (and which are usually very easy to do). But if you don't particularly like your opponent, you could amp the difficulty level up to "11" (maybe higher) by taking the Dwimmerlaik. He has no Might, but gains 2 more Will (taking him to 16) which he'll mostly spend on Sap Fortitude... maybe (more on that in a minute). This rule is on par with the craziest special rules in the game because it's one of those rules that fundamentally alters a fundamental mechanic of the game: in this case, heroic resources. Every time an enemy hero spends a point of Might, Will, or Fate within 6” of the Dwimmerlaik, you can spend 1 point of Will to roll a D6, and if you roll a 4+ the hero must spend an additional point of Might, Will, or Fate to complete the deed; otherwise, the deed is cancelled and any heroic resources already spent are lost. In my write-up on Mordor I was somewhat down on this ability, writing that "It’s powerful when it works, but given that Will is also your life-force, it’s a real drain when it doesn’t." But that was more than a year ago, and I am wiser now (I hope). Two addenda in an Angmar list: first, most Mordor armies don't impose nearly the resource drain that most Angmar armies will. An Angmar opponent's hero may have to pass a Terror check to charge anything, shrug off a Spectre test, bat away a Compel, survive 1-3 Paralyzes, Heroic Strike against a Burly Cave Troll, have to boost their "6" in a duel back to a 6, and take a fate-save if they lose a 50/50 combat roll-off... all in one turn. And then rinse-and-repeat the following turn. Even if he rolls phenomenally well, that's a huge drain on his Will (and Might), and if he rolls badly, he may be out of both (or close to it) in a single round. Now stack a 50% chance that he'll have to spend double resources to do any--or most, or perhaps even all--of those things and... you get the point. Second, the dirty little secret about the Dwimmerlaik is that yes, if you Sap Fortitude all the time against every hero, the Dwimmerlaik will wink out fast. But the 15 Will available in his pool (we almost want to save the 1 to stay alive, of course) is probably more than the Might available in most opponent's armies (you need 5 heroes at 3 Might each to match it, which is pretty rare), and, depending on if he went with predominantly 3/1/1 heroes, may be more than his combined M/W/F stores. Practically, this often means that the mere threat of Sap Fortitude is enough to prevent heroes from spending Might or Will that they otherwise would spend without thinking about it. Every decision to Heroic Move, or Strike, or resist a spell (or more accurately, this particular spell... because I know more are coming...), is suddenly a complicated, mentally-taxing decision for your opponent because there's a 50% chance it'll either cost double, or not go off at all. And it's a decision they have to make first, before you have to decide anything. If they sweat it out for 2 minutes, then finally decide to commit to a Heroic Move, you can quickly decide not to do anything about it and move on (you could even say something ominous like "I guess I'll let that through... this time," and the head-games commence). In other words, while you can contest everything all the time, you can also save Sap Fortitude for the turn when you're bringing everything to bear on a single model--and make every successful courage test, effort to resist a spell, Might to win the duel, and fate save an enervating experience. So yeah... like the shade, you'll have more friends if you leave him at home.
• Gulavhar, the Terror of Arnor: Speaking of models your friends will want you to leave at home... Let's get the eyesore stats out of the way first (there are a few). Yes, he's only Defense 5 which looks bad (and, if he's trapped and loses a combat, is bad), but you can get around that if (a) you're careful not to plunge him heedlessly into the enemy army without screening him off, (b) you're playing a good shooting army and charge him into combat (because good armies can't shoot into combat), (c) you make sure he's killing a steady diet of troops, which regenerates any wounds he's lost earlier in the match, and (d) you pop Heroic Defense if you've ended up trapped and surrounded by the enemy (which, again, you should try not to do if possible). His Courage is also equal to the number of wounds he has remaining, which means he'll only ever top-out at Courage 4 (no war horn option in Angmar), or Courage 3 in Harbinger range. So if you're fighting enemies with Terror you may want to send him at something else. Third, while he's Fight 7 (phenomenal), he doesn't have Heroic Strike, so make sure you've taken something else in your list to drain your opponent's Might (like a shade), lock them out of calling Heroic Actions in the Fight Phase (any wraith with Transfix will do), or make them auto-lose fights (Barrow-Wights). He's also on a 60mm base, which isn't terrible but does mean you may not be able to get into quite the model you want if the area around him or her is densely covered with terrain or models. Lastly, he has no Fate, so any wounds you take will (a) de-power Gulavhar, and (b) push him closer to death. Again, you can mitigate this by munching on troops (it turns out he's pretty good at winning fights against warriors), but a siege engine can auto-kill him so make sure you keep him tucked away safely until you can eliminate that threat (if the siege engine is good, it's as simple as getting into combat range). Are all those shortcomings worth it? Heck yes. Once you get used to playing around those limitations, what's left may be, point-for-point, the most dangerous monster in the game. You get the Monster keyword like Buhrdur, the 12" fly of a Fell Beast, the Strength 8 of Sauron, the 4 Attacks of the Balrog, and the Monstrous Charge of a Dragon, for a steal points cost. The result is 5 dice to win the duel if you charge at full health, and ten dice to wound anything you knock prone at Strength 8 (which will wound all but the most elite troops and heroes on a 4+ or better, or Hurl a standard S3 model a minimum of 6 inches, or Rend a S6 hero on 3s). Add 3 Might and 3 Will, plus Resistant to Magic, backed up by a wraith and/or a Shade and/or a Barrow-Wight, and no enemy hero is feeling safe. Lastly, he's both a Hero of Valour and a Spirit Hero, so he can bring along a large contingent of Orc Warriors and give them a Terror bubble and has Harbinger of Evil. Win-win-win.
• Buhrdur, Troll Chieftain: Or, for the same points cost as Gulavhar, you can pick up Buhrdur and a full warband of orcs with weapon upgrade (he's also a Hero of Valour, so that's fifteen troops). He's a very different model from Gulavhar to be sure (for one, he's not a Spirit, so he doesn't provide nearby orcs with Terror, and for another he doesn't have nearly the threat range with just a 6" move). But he does have 3 Might, access to Heroic Strike (with a base Fight of 6), and is a Strength 6 monster (so he's Rending most heroes on a 3+, can Hurl S3 troops a minimum of 4 inches, and won't be knocked down by enemy cavalry). His special rule (he becomes a 6" banner for the remainder of any fight phase where he kills an enemy hero or monster) sounds good on paper, but would be better if it persisted into the following Fight Phase (if you don't have priority, your opponent just resolves his fight last, and his banner bonus never benefits you). But if you're looking to bulk up your numbers he's a hard-hitting hero who will bump up your Might and make enemy heroes think twice before they take him on (especially if you have a Shade or Barrow-Wight lurking), Buhrdur's your man! (Er, troll.)
• Golfimbul: Admit it--you totally forgot he was an Angmar hero, right? So did I... I was literally about to send this off to the interwebs to be published, thinking I was done, and then stumbled on a random internet resource that reminded me, hey, there's this random named orc in the Angmar list, too! So here he is. His statline is slightly de-powered for an orc captain (only F3 and D5, to go along with S4, 2 Attacks / Wounds, and 2/2/0 Heroic Stats), but he is Courage 4 (pretty good for an Orc hero), has the option to Heroic Strike (not great from a base FV of 3, but certainly better than being capped at F3), and has a 5+ save against any wounds not caused by magical powers (because of his impressiver girth). The other thing he has going for him is his cost: at just 40 points (50 mounted), he's a very inexpensive hero choice for Angmar, with the option to take up to twelve models in his warband (Hero of Fortitude). His lack of Heroic March and -1 Defense leaves the door open for a generic Orc Captain on Warg to take his spot, but if you have the model and want to build something thematic, he's available in an Angmar list (and will pick up Terror, too, if he's within 3" of a Spirit Hero).

Unnamed Hero Profiles

Photo Credit: Games Workshop Webstore on Pinterest

• The Shade: Spoiler alert--the Shade is so good / nasty that he topped not only our list of top-10 evil support models and our top-50 draft of evil magic/support models, but was recently nerfed hard to prevent other factions from bringing it as a one-drop impossible ally (which happened a lot, including the winning list at the Ardacon 2019 Grand Tournament). He's very much a one-trick pony: he can't fight (although with Blades of the Dead, he can wound things if someone else helps him win a fight), he's got abysmal courage, and no Might/Fate. But he's pretty hardy (Defense 8, 3 Wounds) and has 8 Will points to shrug off a spell or two from a mini-caster (a full-blown wizard will give him trouble, especially if it's a Nazgul or any other model with Sap Will). But 99% of the time, you'll use his Will for one purpose, and one purpose only: to make any non-Angmar models within 6" suffer a -1 penalty to their duel roll (friend or foe now--again, to discourage him as a one-drop impossible ally). If your enemy doesn't have any Might left (or is a warrior), they have to beat your duel roll to win the fight (which is another way of saying you auto-win the fight if you roll the 6). Which makes your orcs a lot tougher to deal with (and your big heroes, like Gulavhar, Buhrdur, or the Witch-King on Fell Beast, almost impossible to contain--and if you can contain them, you usually can't do it for long). Your greatest danger are enemy wizards (Compel, Sap Will, and Banishment in particular) or anything that can manipulate your courage to make you move that nasty 6" bubble away from the fight (like Wood Elf Sentinels, or Dead Marsh Spectres in an Angmar mirror match). You can mitigate the latter by bracketing your Shade with other friendly models (so the enemy has to move 2-3 orcs out of the way before they can move your shade. The former is much harder if you can't pull off the tried-and-true way of shrugging off any wizard for the entire game (roll natural 6s on all your dice every time to resist a spell, and you'll never suffer a spell or lose Will for resist tests). Realistically, your best chance is to go heavy-magic in your own list, so you can drain an enemy wizard by making him resist spells of your own. Again, taking the Witch-King (and his access to Your Staff is Broken) gives you a huge advantage here, unless you run into the rare wizard like Galadriel who doesn't have a staff.
• Barrow-Wights: If the Witch-King is an auto-include in any Angmar army (and I think he probably is), these guys are your next buy, every single time. Think about it this way: you get a 3" Terror bubble for your Angmar Orcs, a Courage 6 Stand Fast!, Defense 7 with two wounds, and 5 Will points to spend shrugging off enemy AOE spells (like Wrath of Bruinen or Nature's Wrath) or cast what may be the most devastating spell in the game if it goes off successfully (Paralyze on a freaking 4+). All for only 5 more points than a Moria shaman, who's got lower Fight, lower defense, only 3 Will--maybe less if you want to keep Fury up-- plus no Terror, abysmal courage, and whose spells are nowhere near as threatening. In other words, these guys are the second-cheapest spellcasters in the whole game, and certainly aren't the second-worst when it comes to threat. So for that reason alone, these guys are awesome. Here are some others:
• Another benefit Barrow-Wights have over similarly-priced shamans? They're Heroes of Fortitude (still), which means they can lead 12 warriors. A full-warband of these guys can cost as little as 110 points (if you take twelve five-point orcs), or under 140 if you take ten orcs with weapon of your choice, a spectre, and a warg rider with weapon upgrade. That's 400 points or so for three full warbands, chock-full of Terror infantry, spectre shenanigans, and some supporting cavalry (who may have Terror as well), on top of three rock-solid heroes to hold your main battle line (leaving 200-400 points for other goodies, depending on the points level you're playing at). That'd be crazy good value for any regular army with normal captains, who don't have Paralyze. 
• Factor the Paralyze in, and these guys are crazy, crazy efficient. 5 Will, with a 4+ cast, means you have a good shot at getting a single 3M/3W hero Paralyzed by the end of the game (and are almost guaranteed to get a 3M/1W hero Paralyzed by the end). Two barrow-wights can bring down almost any 3/3/3 hero at some point (and can even wear down bigger heroes with larger Might stores, or some built-in magic defense like Resistant to Magic). And 150 points of barrow-wights (with their 15 Will points) can hold off more than twice that number of points worth of heroes, either making them stay away from your army or punishing them when they close. They synergize really well with the Witch-King, because if your opponent has 8-10 Will points across his army for defending against magic, and you have 25 Will points across your army to cast magic (3/16/3 WK + two Barrow-Wights)... you're probably going to win. And if you have 40 points of Will to cast (3 barrows plus a 3/18/3 WK)... you get the idea. 
• The other advantage Barrow-Wights have over traditional shamans (and certainly any shamans at their price point) is that unlike most shamans (and wizards), they don't have to successfully cast their spells--or even cast spells at all--to benefit your Angmar force. If an enemy hero won't charge your army because he doesn't want to take Terror tests to charge a six-point orc, fantastic! Your basic, fodder-for-big-heroes-in-combat-anyway troops get to beat up on troops (which they like to do). If that big hero stays away because he doesn't want to be Paralyzed (thereby losing his mount, and not being able to move or fight, and probably getting swarmed by your normally-fodder-for-big-heroes-in-combat-but-now-invincible-orcs-who-are-all-now-recklessly-calling-piercing-strikes-with-two-handed-axes), that's awesome, too! (And if your barrow-wights are patrolling a core objective or keeping the enemy away from a model you have to protect in a scenario, it may be game-winning). Even if you never cast a Paralyze, you're still contributing all those things that make Angmar better: your orcs cause Terror, you're changing the way your enemy wants to play, and you're a Courage 6 Stand Fast! if you break (although that's going to be harder for your enemy to do to you if he won't charge your battle line with his big heroes). And even if you can't get the Paralyze to land, successful casts that are resisted usually drain your enemy's heroes of their precious Will Points (opening them up to the Witch-King's spells in the late-game, or vice-versa if you pressure them with the Witch-King early on), and occasionally Might points, too. If faced with the prospect of spending 1, 2, or even 3 Might to avoid being Paralyzed, or taking the Paralyze to hold the 1/2/3 Might in reserve for later... almost every opponent is going to fork over the Might points to block Paralyze immediately. That's 1/2/3 Might points that can't be used later for Heroic Moves, Combats, or Strikes, to do battle with your shade, to resist the Paralyze(s) you're going to throw next turn, or to pass a Fate Save. Those are all huge, game-altering wins. So yeah... take Barrow-Wights (plural)--they're well-worth it.
• Angmar Orc Shaman: So... normally shamans are great, and this one is great, too. But he's not great for the reason orc shamans are normally great, because this shaman doesn't have Fury (in fact, no one in Angmar does). Or Transfix, as it happens (although who casts Transfix with a shaman anyway, unless it's a desperate Hail Mary play?). Instead, he picks up two spells: Instill Fear on a 5+ (which you'd almost never cast with him as opposed to, say, a named nazgul or the Witch-King) and Wither on a 3+ (12" range). The Wither spell is fascinating, in that it's yet another very debilitating spell if it goes off (not quite Paralyze, but if you drop a big hero down from S4 to S2 over a couple of turns (maybe more if you channel the spell to drop him by d3 Strength), he'll usually struggle to kill things. The problem is that at most points levels, I don't think you'd want him over a Barrow-Wight, who costs the same amount of points (no in-built Terror, no Terror bubble, only 3W vs. 5W, D4 instead of D7, C3 instead of C6, and Paralyze is just so. dang. good.). You can take him on a warg, though... so there's that.
• Wild Warg Chieftains: This guy gets overlooked in Angmar lists (which makes Tiberius sad). I think there are three reasons for this. First, Angmar has so many other attractive mega-heroes who are actually Monsters (any wraith on Fell-Beast, Gulavhar, and Buhrdur), plus Burly Cave Trolls. The Wild Warg Chieftain isn't a Monster and doesn't have Monstrous Charge (even though he's Strength 6... again, don't get Tiberius started on this). This means he can't do the cool things that those other choices can do--mostly Rend and Hurl, though at S6 he's immune to cavalry knock-downs (except from S7+ Monstrous Charge models) and hurls-into-his-combat (plus, as long as he's not directly hit by the hurled model, he won't take any wounds from the Hurl either, which is awesome). Second, his two Might points can only be spent on Heroic Actions that benefit Warg models, and for some reason, (a) most Angmar armies don't field Wild Wargs, and (b) Warg Riders don't have the Warg keyword, even though they're clearly mounted on wargs (again, don't get Tiberius started). In an army that's usually low on Might anyway (because Barrow-Wights and Shades don't have any Might), losing out on two potential army-wide Heroic Marches, Moves, or Combats seems like a major penalty. Sometimes it is (I end up for the most part saving his Might to win fights and wound, which isn't the worst thing in the world), although if you do run a decent-sized contingent of Wild Wargs you can do some cool-stuff with it (like using a Heroic Move to lock-down part of an enemy's battle line--maybe his cav models--while still leaving the rest of your army free to counter-charge after he does his regular move... Angmar very much likes to react). Third, he doesn't have Heroic Strike. Now, like Gulavhar (who also can't Strike), this isn't actually as bad as it looks if you build your army smartly (some combination of Transfix/Compel from the Witch-King, and a Paralyze goes a long way toward mitigating your need to worry about Heroic Strike). But given that you have Burhdur sitting there, at slightly higher points but more Might, Strike, Defense, and the Monster keyword, I think the Chieftain gets overlooked. The case for the Chieftain is that he's 3 Attacks at Strength 6 for 80 points, and unlike Buhrdur, he's got a 10" move (while still keeping that 40mm base). Which means he's a budget version of what Gulavhar and the Witch-King on Fell Beast give you: a way to get into high-defense Paralyzed models and dispatch them (6 dice to-wound at S6 will take care of most heroes in one go, especially if you have other supporting orcs in the "combat" that you auto-win thanks to Paralyze). He can't Fly, so you still need to worry about control zones, but a 40mm base that moves 10" is better than a 40mm base that moves only 6" (and, if you pull off the Heroic Combat ahead of time, you may be able to move up to 20"--again, assuming your opponent has some control-zone gaps--which is crazy). While your WK with Crown is usually going to be your primary damage threat (especially on FB), you want to have a second option in your army in case you hit another wizard and your WK needs to spend the match keeping him at bay (instead of fighting). Gulavhar is definitely better in that role than the Chieftain (but at 120 more points, he certainly should be), but the Chieftain and Buhrdur are pretty even second choices (once you factor in their 30-point cost differential) and the Chieftain is a much bigger threat than your only other option: an Orc Captain on Warg (a 10" move F5/S6/3A model is better than a 10" move F4/S4/2-3A). Lastly, he's a good option for dealing with something your run-of-the-mill orcs will struggle with: enemy cavalry. Elf-cavalry pose some problems (F5 + an elven-made weapon, and they wound him on 5s), but generic cav (F4 or below) are nice targets for him because he almost always wounds them on 4s (Easterling Kataphracts with Gleaming Horde up would be the exception), and even if they manage to counter-charge him the following turn and beat him in a fight, they can't knock him down (so no double-dice to wound unless they trap him). I wouldn't send him off alone (because he doesn't like traps), but if he's the point-man (or Warg) of your Warg Rider contingent, you can deal with most cavalry contingents pretty well. 

Warrior Profiles

Photo Credit: Millennium Games

• Angmar Orc Warriors: Another profile we've talked about a ton in our discussions of Barad-Dur and Mordor (plus Isengard). F3, S3, and D5 (with shield) are all solid, dependable stats. Your Courage 2 (C1 in Harbinger range) is not, so you'll need some way to deal with enemy Terror models. My preferred solution is to take a larger-than-you'd-prefer contingent of Orc Warriors with orc bows than you'd prefer (think around 6-8 at 700 points), just so you have some way to force the enemy to come at you. Spears are also a good option--if you do manage to charge a Terror model, a spear gets an extra attack into the fight without needing to take another courage test. Both bows and spears are also useful additions in an army, even if the enemy doesn't have Terror. Even with a 5+ base shoot value, 6-8 bow shots over two rounds is probably enough to snipe an enemy hero's horse (or a few horses from under cav models in an all-mounted force), which can change how your opponent plays (and spears, of course, are always handy to have). And depending on the size of your orc horde you may be able to take quite a bit more than 8. A fifty-model Angmar force can get 15+ orc bows into a list--orc bows aren't scary on their own (S2, 18" range, 5+ to hit), but 10+ of any ranged weapon is a threat that your enemy will have to deal with eventually. They're also your only option if you want a banner in your army. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't need it... unless you're bringing the Shade, in which case you definitely want a banner to hunt that "6" that you need to win the fight (or "5," or "3," or "2"). Keeping your Spirit Heroes within 3" of our orc archers makes them cause Terror, which makes them harder to charge (upping their survivability). Backed by a Shade, they become extremely difficult to drive off objectives (it turns out that if the enemy has trouble charging you, and then can't beat you in duels, you tend not to die nearly as much...). Unlike Mordor and Isengard (and to a certain extent Barad-Dur), where generic orc warriors are almost always a part of your infantry army (mostly cheap supplements to your main-line troops), these guys are the mainstay of your Angmar battle line. Take lots of them, buff them, and watch them drive back enemy troops who would otherwise cut them to ribbons.
• Wild Wargs: These guys are more expensive than your orcs (the same if you give your orcs two weapon options, like a shield+spear or spear+bow), but still pretty economical. What they offer over your orcs are S4 (so 5s to wound D6, instead of 6s), a 40mm base to clog up space, and 10" of movement so you can get places fast. They're still Infantry models, so cavalry on the charge will knock them down, at at just D4 they can die pretty quickly. They're also only Courage 2, so they're not a reliable answer to enemy Terror walls. But they're pretty good objective runners as long as your break point is high. I would strongly consider at least a few of these in every force, if you're building for balance across the 18 matched play scenarios.
• Cave Trolls: We already covered these guys in our write-up on Moria, so I'll keep it simple: these are awesome in a scrap (with F6, S6, D6, 3 Attacks, and Burly if you take the hand-and-a-half hammer, which you should), and don't like anything that prevents them from scrapping (which is code for magic, especially Transfix and Compel, and occasionally concentrated ranged shots from things like crossbows), or mega-heroes who are F6+ with Strike and elven-made weapons. The bad news is that ranged attacks are still a problem in Angmar (your solution is the same as Moria's--put lots of cheap warriors in the way, and hope). They also don't have the Angmar keyword, so if you're bringing the Shade along, just be aware that your cave troll suffers the -1 duel penalty, too, under the new errata (although if you have plenty of Angmar Orcs or Warg Riders in the fight, you should be okay). The good news is that Angmar is far less worried about mega-combat heroes than Moria, provided you've brought the auto-includes (the Witch-King and Barrow-Wights). A cave troll by himself can be singled out by an enemy hero. Most heroes have no interest in charging a cave troll if they could be transfixed when their opponent moves next. And the few who do are probably second-guessing themselves if they might have to brush off 1-3 Paralyzes after the Transfix. Long-story short: your cave trolls are almost never going to be the most threatening thing to your opponent, even if they're doing the most damage to their army. That gives them a tremendous amount of cover to do what they do best: smash, rend, and hurl.
• Angmar Warg Riders: I feel like my list of "auto-includes" keeps growing, but I'd include these guys on it. Why them over, say, a Burly cave troll who's likely to skate through without getting much attention from my opponent's heroes? Well, because they're substantially cheaper. 11 points base is really good value, and if you pay the point for the shield (for D5), you essentially get a Wild Warg, plus an Orc, who either gets the shield for free (7+5 = 12) or gets throwing spears for free. I don't personally bother with orc bows on them (I take orc bows on infantry), but if you wanted an option to kite you could do so (they won't be great at kiting, but if your opponent has no kiting troops of his own, bad kiting troops is still better than no kiting troops). The thing that makes them auto-includes for me is that cheap cavalry troops are your best defense against the bane of your orcs' existence: mass cavalry charges by high-fight Fearless / Bodyguard cavalry (i.e., Rohan). At just D5, your orcs can't cop more than a couple charges by Black Dragon Kataphracts (who are rolling 4 dice to-wound, needing a single 5+), much less the heavy-hitters like Knights of Minas Tirith, Mahud Raiders, or Iron Hills Goat Riders (who will all wound if they score a single 4+ on four dice). Counter-charging a cavalry model your own cavalry model strips them of their extra attack bonus on the charge (so they go from having 2 dice to win the duel to just 1), and more importantly prevents them from knocking your orc down even if they do win the fight (so they go from 4 dice to-wound to just 1). It turns out, your odds of surviving the fight go up substantially if you halve the opponent's duel dice, and quarter his to-wound dice. And that's before you factor in the additional attack you're gaining from your own cavalry model: your orc goes from 1 attack to win the fight to 2 with the warg rider (potentially 3 if your infantry orc is supported by a friendly spear), which is at least as good as he would have had otherwise (say, if he shields). Better still, you'll have at least 2 dice to-wound if you win the combat (something else you couldn't do if you just shielded), one of which is going to be S4 (enough to wound most horses on 4s, and most riders on 5s). Even better still (yes, there's more), if you can manage to trap that cavalry model with your charging warg rider, you may be able to skew the wounding dice severely in your favor: instead of having 4 dice to wound your shielding orc (versus 0 dice to wound if you prevail, because shielding), your opponent now has only a single die to wound if he wins... if you win, you'll have four dice to wound him). That swing--going from likely losing an orc to likely killing a cavalry model--is well worth 12 points. So take at least some of these guys every time... and if you're like me, you may find out that the more you play, the more you keep adding to your force.
• Dead Marsh Spectres: And now my auto-include list is complete. They're not great in a scrap (S3 with Blades of the Dead is good, F2 and D5 are not), and as with the army bonus in general, the effectiveness of anything courage-related is going to fluctuate depending on what your opponent brings. If the only courage shenanigan you could run as Angmar was spectres, I don't know that I'd take them all the time. But they're not the only courage shenanigan you can run in Angmar, and as annoying as they'll prove to your opponent, the reality is that they're just nowhere near the top of the list when it comes to "threats your opponent has to deal with" (and if they are, as opposed to your nazgul, or your barrow-wights, or your Shade, or Gulavhar, or Burhdur, or your cave troll(s), or your cavalry models, or the fourteen orcs you have walling off the center objective... that's probably a good thing for you). The other thing they do is they help with the escalation (and eventually overload) of threat that you can bring to bear on your opponent. Every time a spectre targets your enemy army leader, or his banner, or that model he's tried to position to keep you from pulling Shagrat out of a fight with your Witch-King, your opponent cringes. Because if he flubs, you may create a seam in his otherwise well-laid plans. And that's part of the psychological game: like flubbing Terror tests, or failing resist rolls on spells, the outcome is ultimately in his hands, not yours. He rolls the dice to fall victim to the spectre, or not. And if he flubbs, he has to decide if he's spending Will, or Might, or occasionally both--with all the lost opportunity costs that come with doing that--or let his model make a full move, under your control. And he's making that decision in the midst of 5-10 other decisions he's already had to make, and 5-10 more decisions he'll have to make in the next round or two. And so the pressure builds. And builds. And builds. Until at last something breaks. Most of the time, it's your opponent's hero. Or his banner. Or her prize-runner. Or the final model who could contest or control the objective he needs to secure a win or force a tie. 

About those Legendary Legions

Just kidding... there aren't any for Angmar (as of this writing, at any rate). Centaur is still hoping for one, mostly because he wants a named Barrow-Wight with Might who can finally throw a channeled Paralyze...

(For the good of the universe, I hope we don't get one.)

Concluding Thoughts

I'll be honest--this section is usually something pretty generic about why such-and-such an army is great, and here's what's coming next, and don't forget to check out the links at the end that I've spent hours collecting just for you (I did do that by the way, and you should check them out--there's a ton of great community resources on Angmar). But I don't think you need much convincing that I think Angmar is great, I have no idea what we're covering next or when (I will consider requests, though), and I've already tipped the major resources you should check out above.

So instead, I'll say this: if you've never played Angmar before, you should really try it. 

Now I know everyone says that about every army, but I mean it in the not-cliche way. Because I think with this army in particular, there's a huge difference between knowing what it can do, and experiencing what it can do. To feel the safety that comes from army-wide Terror; the freedom you gain when you can move enemy models around at will; the confidence your generic orcs gain as they fight in the Shade; the impending inevitability as you fire spell after spell after devastating spell at a single, embattled enemy hero; the resignation in your opponent's eyes as you pick up ten dice to wound their paralyzed army leader; the tingling excitement you get as you unleash your flying monster, knowing your enemy has already moved and can't do a dang thing to stop it; and the sense of exhaustion and accomplishment you feel when a match is over, win, lose, or draw. Then, do yourself a favor, and flip the table. Give your opponent the experience of playing with all of Angmar's toys, while challenging yourself to endure the depths of its doom and gloom.

Like, do it now. Odds are you already have most of the models you need to proxy a game. You probably have orcs of some sort, wargs or warg riders (if not, any cavalry model will do), some Warriors of the Dead to stand-in for your spirit heroes, a Witch-King on Fell Beast, and maybe a troll from the Starter Box on a 60mm base. Throw something together, and see. Experience. Feel. Because if your first experience with Angmar is across the table in a tournament, you have no idea what's coming... even if you know what's coming. 

Just give your true friends a little warning first.

More from the TMAT Team

• MESBG Christmas Lists: Angmar (December 2023)
• Nemesis: How to Fight against Ringwraiths (November 2023)
• Nemesis: How to Fight against Gulavhar (October 2023)
• Armies of Middle-Earth SBG: Countering Angmar Series
• Part 1 -- Dealing with Terror (July 2023)
• Part 2 -- Repelling the Shut-Down (July 2023)
• Part 3 -- Weathering Overwhelming Magic (July 2023)
• Part 4 -- Avoiding (Avoidable) Mistakes (March 2024)
• The Road to the Winter Whirlwind Tournament (February 2023)
• The Scouring of the Shire Inspired Lists: Angmar Revisited (January 2023)
• The Season of Giving: The Barrows of Cardolan Fan-Made Legendary Legion! (December 2022)
• Quest of the Ringbearer Inspired Lists: Angmar Revisited (November 2021)
• TMAT Talks, Episode 7: The Hunters Red October (THRO) 2020 (October 2020)
• TMAT Talks, Episode 3: Top-10 Spell-Casters (Evil) (March 2020)
• The Bare Necessities, Part XI: Angmar (March 2020)
• Armies of Middle-Earth: Updated Errata and Rules Summaries (February 2020)
• Workbench Update: Angmar (August 2019)
• Using/Fighting Spellcasters: Multi-Purpose Will Mages, Revisited (August 2019)
• New Rules, Part III: Angmar and Moria (November 2018)
• A "Shade-y" Subject (March 2015, *Pre-MESBG)
• Forge Update: The Horde of Angmar (aka "The Halloween Army") (April 2014, *Pre-MESBG)

Support your Hobby

• Angmar Model Range (Games Workshop)

Recommended Resources

• PODCAST: Episode 88: Angmar (The Green Dragon Podcast)
• PODCAST: Episode 65: Ardacon 2019, Part 1 (The Green Dragon Podcast)
• PODCAST: Mustering an Army, Ep. 1: Angmar (The Green Dragon Podcast, *Pre-MESBG)
• PODCAST: Entmoot Ep. 62: Snoopy Times at Angmar High (Entmoot Podcast)
• IN PRINT: Angmar Faction Review (The Nazgul Times)
• IN PRINT: Fog of War, Part 8: Angmar (VeniViniDouble)
• IN PRINT: Angmar (Middle Earth SBG France) 
• IN PRINT: 500 Under 50: Angmar (Drawn Combat)
• IN PRINT: Who Rides with the Lord of the Nazgul? (Warhammer Community)
• YOUTUBE: Faction Review: Angmar (Live) (Top Table Gaming)
• YOUTUBE: Armies of the Lord of the Rings, Part 18: Angmar (STF Wargaming Studio)
• YOUTUBE: Shadow Wraith Tactical Series
• Shadow Reviews - Angmar! Competitive Breakdown (June 2021)
• How to Beat Angmar: MESBG Competitive Chat (July 2020)
• How to Beat Angmar (June 2021)
• How to use the Witch-King (February 2022)
• How to Buy Angmar (February 2022)
• YOUTUBE: Tier List: Angmar (The Last Alliance of Noobs and Men / W.A.R.G.)
• YOUTUBE: MESBG ARmy Focus Part 10: Angmar & Mordor (Critical Focus Channel)
• YOUTUBE: Getting Started with Middle-Earth SBG: Angmar (Cinderfall Gaming)
• YOUTUBE: Heroes of Angmar (GBHL Podcast, *Pre-MESBG)
• ARMY SHOWCASE: Build Me an Army Worthy of Angmar (Mid Sussex Wargamers)
• ARMY SHOWCASE: Angmar, by Generation Shift, Jamie's Hobby VLOG: No Might Angmar (GBHL Podcast)
• ARMY SHOWCASE: Angmar Showcase (Suffolk Hobbit)
• ARMY SHOWCASE: The Fell Kingdom of Angmar, New Year, New Nazgul (Michael Hanns)
• ARMY SHOWCASE: Angmar-Truppe Fur Saga (Wraith's Crypt)
• ARMY SHOWCASE: Army Showcase: Angmar (Windrush Wargamers)
• ARMY SHOWCASE: WOTR: Angmar Army (East Grinstead Wargamers, *Pre-MESBG)
• BATTLE REPORT: Ardacon Master's Invitational 2019 -- Angmar v. Rivendell/Iron Hills/Lake-Town, Angmar v. Lake-Town/Thranduil's Halls/Gwaihir, Angmar v. Rivendell [Witch-King, Gulavhar, Barrow-Wight] (STF Wargaming Stuido)
• BATTLE REPORT: Angmar v. Minas Tirith [Witch-King, Shade, Barrow-Wights] (The D6 Fix)
• BATTLE REPORT: Angmar v. Misty Mountains [Buhrdur, Shade], Angmar v. Thranduil's Halls [Witch-King, Barrow-Wight], Angmar v. Rangers [Buhrdur, Barrow-Wights, Shade] (Blackfyre Productions)
• BATTLE REPORT: Angmar v. Minas Tirith [Gulavhar, Wild Warg Chieftain] (Top Table Gaming)
• BATTLE REPORT: Angmar v. Rivendell [Witch-King, Buhrdur, Shade] (Venemous War Gaming)
• BATTLE REPORT: Angmar v. Dead of Dunharrow [Witch-King, Tainted, Gulavhar] (Windrush Wargamers)
• BATTLE REPORT: Angmar v. Moria (800 points) (Buchan Duck)
• BATTLE REPORT: Angmar v. Thranduil's Halls [Witch-King, Buhrdur] (Magical Magnus)
• BATTLE REPORT: Angmar v. Moria [Witch-King, Shade, Barrow-Wights] (No Payne No Game)
• HOBBYING: Angmar Terrain (Dwellers in the Dark)
• HOBBYING: Painting the Witch-King on Fell Beast (Pete the Wargamer)
• HOBBYING: Painting the Witch-King on Fell Beast (7th Son)