The Stuff of Legends: Cirith Ungol

Good morning gamers,

Today we're back in the new Quest of the Ringbearer sourcebook to look at another Legendary Legion: Cirith Ungol. We've already looked at Lurtz's Scouts, which is a fast army that has average Defense. In this list, we'll look at an army that is also average Defense, but not as fast (and you must work at making it fast, while Lurtz's Scouts come by it honestly).

Part 1: What Do You Need?

Legion Tax: 155-175pts

You NEED to include both Shagrat and Gorbag in your army (Shagrat is always your Leader). With Shagrat's max cost being 115 points (with heavy armor and his special shield) and Gorbag's max cost being 60 points (with his not-so-special shield), your maximum Legion tax is only 175 points. That's higher than most Legions we've looked at, but not that high for most point levels.

Before we go into what you ACTUALLY need, let's go over something really quickly: you have two warrior profiles (Orc Warriors and Mordor Uruk-Hai) and they both have specialized jobs, as well as common jobs (where you can use either of them more-or-less equally well). Orc Warriors can take spears, while Mordor Uruk-Hai cannot - this means any second rank you have will be Orc Warriors. Mordor Uruk-Hai, by contrast, are more reliable archers than Orc Warriors (both come with Orc bows, but the Mordor Uruk-Hai have a 4+ shoot value). If you need front-line troops, BOTH Orc Warriors and Mordor Uruk-Hai make good choices, as both types of warriors can take shields (going from D4 to D5) and both types of warriors can take two-handed weapons. Both types of units can also take banners - you can give Orc Warriors spears as well (and shields if you like), while the Mordor Uruk-Hai can pair a banner with an Orc bow and be a shooting bannerman instead of a supporting bannerman.

With this in mind, the first thing you'll want to also include in your army after Shagrat and Gorbag is at least one banner, but probably two banners. Shagrat and Gorbag have a mini-game you play between them in each game, counting how many kills each of them has (like Legolas and Gimli do). While one of them is losing, they get to reroll a die to win the fight, which means if each of them is in range of a banner, they can reroll two dice to win the fight. Since Shagrat starts with 3 Attacks, having him within range of a banner means he'll get to roll 3 dice to win the fight and reroll the lowest two (effectively having 5 dice to win the fight)! Gorbag starts with 2 Attacks, but if he's fighting outnumbered (e.g. when he charges two models), he gets +1 Fight Value (F5) and +1 Attack (3A). That means Gorbag can also roll 5 dice to win the fight when he's outnumbered if Shagrat is out-killing him and he's near a banner. If you can't afford two banners in your army, make sure your banner is near Shagrat - he can use it more reliably!

Cirith Ungol Bonuses

After a banner (maybe two), you will want either an Orc Captain or a Mordor Uruk-Hai Captain. Which one you prefer depends on how important spear supports are to you: since your only warrior options are Orc Warriors (who can only be led by Gorbag, Orc Captains, and Orc Shamans) and Mordor Uruk-Hai (who can only be led by Shagrat and Mordor Uruk-Hai Captains), your only access to spears is from the Orc Warriors you bring. If you take 12 Orc Warriors with spears and shields in Gorbag's warband and 10 Mordor Uruk-Hai with shields or Orc bows or two-handed weapons (or Orc bows AND two-handed weapons), you can spear-support both heroes and all of the Mordor Uruk-Hai. Adding that next warband will either mean a) getting more Uruk-Hai and not having spear supports for everyone, or b) having spears for everyone and some melee Orcs to join the fight as well. Personally, I think a 3:2 or 2:1 ratio of Orcs to Uruks is best.

Regardless of whether you pick an Orc Captain or an Uruk-Hai Captain, their place in the army is simple: you've got average Defense and no cavalry (and only 1 fast model), so you need to be able to March. March isn't on either of the named heroes, so you need to bring an unnamed hero to move the army along. With Orc Captains not able to take Wargs, you're taking a profile hit with the Orc Captain, but you also save yourself 10-20 points and you get savings from the Orcs you bring (which will be cheaper than the Mordor Uruk-Hai you bring along).

Your third addition should be an Orc Shaman: Orc Warriors are only C2, Mordor Uruk-Hai are only C3, and your heroes top out at C4. If you run into a Terror-causing army, you're tanked without a Shaman. Shamans allow you to bring along 6 additional Orcs, which means you can have more spears in your army if you need them (which is good if you've chosen the Mordor Uruk-Hai Captain over the Orc Captain).

Finally, it helps to have Shelob. The Legion gives her special rules, which are really nice (extra Attack against Men/Elves/Dwarves/Hobbits) and she's your only real fast model. As good as Shagrat is for being an evil hero, he can be out-classed quite easily by big enemy heroes and monsters, so having Shelob around gives you not only a second threat, but another piece that isn't your army leader for dealing with big threats. Still, I don't think she's good to include in your list until you have a banner, a March Captain, and in most cases a Shaman.

Part 2: Why Take This Legion Over "Normal" Allied Forces?

Mordor is arguably the most well-rounded faction in the game - and that makes sense since they have more profiles than any list in the game. By taking any Mordor Legendary Legion, you're choosing to give up the versatility of the normal Mordor list and instead take on a more thematic army type. Let's look at some of the strengths and weaknesses that are incurred by taking this Legion over "vanilla Mordor".

Weakness #1: Only Two Big Heroes

Mordor has no lack of big heroes it can summon: any Ringwraith on Fell Beast can be brutal, Mordor Troll Chieftains are some of the most deadly generic heroes in the game, Shelob is great for her cost, and you've got access to a lot of Orc and Uruk-Hai heroes who are scary in combat (we've already seen Gothmog/Guritz/Goroth/Zagdush in our review of the Army of Gothmog, Shagrat is in today's post, Kardush is pretty nasty too). This ignores all of the other nasty monsters you can bring (like Great Beasts of Gorgoroth and warrior Trolls that either do or don't accompany siege engines) - take your pick, Mordor's got someone big for you to bring.

This Legion . . . doesn't really have good big heroes. Shelob is great for her cost, but not REALLY good for being a monster (she's very similar to a Mordor Troll in this Legion, faster and healthier and possibly with the same number of Attacks). For 50 more points, I think the Uber Troll Chieftain from the Black Gate Opens LL is a much better choice (especially since you're paying 45+ points to get a hero in your army who can lead 12 soldiers). Shelob is good, but not great.

Similarly, you have Shagrat - who is good, but not great. While Shagrat is certainly good compared to heroes from the Forces of Evil, he's not THAT great compared to many similar-costed heroes (e.g. a fully maxed Eomer/Theodred, a King's Champion, Gimli/Boromir of Gondor). Though Shagrat can hold his own against these guys for a while, he's your army leader in this Legion, so using him risks giving up victory points in most scenarios. You'll wish you had another beater sometimes. . . .

Strength #1: Good Generic Unit Profiles

Orc Warriors are nothing to write home about - and to be honest, Mordor Uruk-Hai aren't much to write about either. Sure, Orc Warriors don't have as great of a profile as Morannon Orcs (who get +1 Strength and +1 Defense for +2 points) and Mordor Uruk-Hai are basically Isengard Uruk-Hai Scouts with weaker bows and the option to take two-handed weapons. The generic heroes in this list (Orc and Uruk-Hai Captains) are also not that impressive. While these generic units are not great, they are good - and they do a few things that every army needs:

• You have spears: as opposed to the Lurtz's Scouts LL we looked at last time, you can have Orc Warriors supporting Mordor Uruk-Hai (or other Orc Warriors) with spears, which brings the weight of your numbers to bear more easily than having to engage with all your models;
• You have decent archers: Mordor Uruk-Hai have a 4+ Shoot value and bows that deal S2 hits up to 18" away (which is not as good as having 24" range, but will not make a difference against some armies or in some scenarios);
• All warrior types can take banners: though I think Orc Warriors with banners are better than Mordor Uruk-Hai with banners, both unit types can take banners, so you can guarantee that your heroes have the banner support that they need if you're concerned about maelstrom deployments.
• Access to two-handed weapons on almost all generic units: two-handed weapons get a bad wrap, but with an army bonus that gives you +1 To Wound if you're engaged in a fight alongside a friendly model of a different race, you can get +2 To Wound with your two-handed weapon troops. If that two-handed weapon is on a Mordor Uruk-Hai Captain, you can take it as a two-handed axe/pick so you can deal LOADS of damage (wounding D5/6 models on a 2+ if you want OR automatically wound D3/D4 models). Pretty sick that . . .
  

Weakness #2: No Mounted Models (and only 1 fast troop)

As has already been alluded to, this army has exactly one fast model (Shelob) - everyone else has a 6" move. With many scenarios requiring you to get somewhere (and many factions having access to cavalry models), lacking cavalry means you will probably show up second to an important part of the map AND you won't be able to take way charge bonuses from enemy cavalry when they slam into your ranks. Coupled with your average Defense, this could be really bad for most commanders (especially when facing an all-mounted shooting army, like Rivendell Knights and Riders of Rohan).

Strength #2: "Easy" Access to March

While your units are (except for Shelob) 6" move, you do have easy access to March. Because both Orc Captains (who can lead Orc Warriors) and Mordor Uruk-Hai Captains (who can lead Mordor Uruk-Hai) are available to you, you can choose which hero you want to bring based on how many Uruk-Hai or Orcs you think you need (see our discussion above for what the benefits are of taking one over the other). Based on how good Shelob is (and how useful an Orc Shaman can be), I imagine you won't see one of each Captain until the points level gets above 750 points.

Weakness #3: Surprisingly Expensive

When you consider the cost of buying these miniatures, there are parts of this army that aren't that expensive - batches of Mordor Orcs routinely show up on second-hand markets and even when bought directly from GW, you pay less than $2/model for the Orc Warriors. If you buy directly from the GW webstore, you'll pay $35 to get Shagrat and Gorbag, an additional $40 for the command blister (for the Orc Captain, bannerman, and Shaman), $35 for the Clutches of Shelob set, $42 for 24 Orc Warriors, and $70 (yes, $70) for two blisters of Mordor Uruk-Hai. This "basic" Cirith Ungol force comes in at an astounding . . . $222, plus tax (if you buy it all at once, the shipping's free). Half of the cost of this army are wound up in the 12 Mordor Uruk-Hai you're picking up and Shelob, so a frugal starter player of this army might just get Orcs with Shagrat being his only Uruk-Hai model for a while (and no spider). This army won't be much fun to play though - you're going to pass up on the Shelob-based rules, as well as almost any application of Animosity (whoever can get into a fight with Shagrat, really).

The thing that really gets me is that if you like the Mordor Uruk-Hai Captain over the Orc Captain, you'll want to actually buy FOUR boxes of Mordor Uruk-Hai if you use the second Shagrat model as your Captain (and possibly five boxes if you don't want to use the extra Shagrat model) . . .  tack on an extra $70-105 why don't you . . .

Strength #3: Cheap Units = Horde Army

While most players wouldn't consider Uruk-Hai to be particularly cheap, your "elite" warrior units only cost you 9-10 points each (without a banner). Your "basic" units cost you 5-7 points each (without a banner), which is cheap by anyone's standards. Your generic heroes vary from 40-60 points, while your named heroes vary from 55-115 points. No matter how you build this army, it's easy to get LOTS of units in!

My armies for this Legion are particularly large, since I think Mordor Uruk-Hai are good as archers who happen to fight well. For me, the desired makeup for this army is 1/3 of the warriors (rounded up) are Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bows (some with two-handed weapons), 1/2 of the warriors are Orc Warriors with shields and spears, and 1/6 of the warriors are Orc Warriors with shields. This makes Orc Captains more desirable to me than Mordor Uruk-Hai Captains (which might also be an economical solution too).

Part 3: Legendary Legion Improvements

To be honest, most of my predictions for the Quest of the Ringbearer Legions were more fluffy than we got - and that's probably good. My recommendation that there be some kind of competition between Orcs and Uruks was included via Animosity (and a bigger competition is present between Shagrat and Gorbag), but other things that would have made the army fight itself (and Shagrat/Gorbag not being able to affect each other with their heroic actions) were excluded. The army is otherwise how I expected it to be.

The only changes I would recommend is first that Shelob get +1 Might and +1 Fate. The extra Attack against certain kinds of models is good (I predicted that, though not exactly how it was implemented), but not being able to modify her own rolls is problematic. I don't think she needs Strike - she's F7 with Monstrous Charge/Venom and can Paralyze people. She's fine - but being able to boost a 5 into a 6 to win a fight is a big deal (and sure, you can eat your own models to get yourself a reroll, but there's a chance that with that reroll you don't get what you need). Similarly, Shelob is very vulnerable to insta-kills - and being such a big model (especially if you have her rearing up on her hind legs like she was meant to be), she's hard to hide behind terrain to shield from siege engines. Come on - give her a Fate point!

The second change I would make is allow for the army to attack itself (Orcs vs. Uruk-Hai). Such a mechanic already exists in the Corsairs of Umbar faction, where Reavers who are not near a Bosun can be forced to charge friendly models if they fail a Courage test and have no enemy models that they can charge. A similar mechanic where warriors who are not near a hero of the same race would need to test would be thematically appropriate for the Cirith Ungol bar fight we see in the movies - and would make protecting your heroes a VERY important task. I also think it would be good fun . . .

Part 4: Army Strategies

So let's get this out of the way from the get-go: getting Animosity to trigger requires skill and patience. While any player (veteran or novice) will see benefits to getting +1 To Wound, getting two models into base contact with a single model is difficult (since models pair off into one-on-one fights when possible). Since a model loses its control zone when it has been charged (and you have the charge the model that has the first control zone you enter), getting two models into one enemy model is all but impossible when there's a battle line to engage. However, here's how you do it.

Picture the following Battle line, preparing to charge into a hedge of Minas Tirith spears:

Charge two models near the middle of the enemy battle line with one model (Gorbag is the perfect choice):

Skip two of your own models (one Orc, one Uruk-Hai) to choose another friendly model and charge two more models in the enemy battle line with one model:

Take the two models you skipped and charge them into one unengaged enemy model, careful not to touch any of the four enemy models that have already been engaged.

What this will do is engage 5 enemy models with only 4 friendly models, so this can be used to artificially extend your battle line. 

While spear-supporting (with a banner) will help you get a decent die roll, the two guys you charge into two models are going to have a tough time winning if they're warriors, so I recommend that you use Gorbag and whatever Captain you want to be the one to charge the other pair of models (F4/2A or F5/2A depending on the captain you choose).

You want Shelob to operate on the periphery, eventually engaging near some Orcs so you can eat them to get banner bonuses. This is optional, based on what units you're facing and what roll you get, but having a few Orcs who have a job to rendezvous with her wherever she shows up is good. The Orcs can also screen for her if you need to beat a hasty retreat (or just to make sure she doesn't get trapped, in case the dice fail you).

Shagrat has more flexibility than the others, capable of smashing through warriors or heroes (though you want him to smash through low-level heroes first). Remember to use Heroic Challenge in this Legion - best used when he's in the same fight as an Orc Warrior of some kind (spear-supported and near a banner is good too) so your opponent is "encouraged" to "just accept". Nasty trick that. Focusing on heroes is not only good for Shagrat because of his Blood and Glory rule (and ability to challenge Fortitude heroes), but also because Gorbag is likely to be smashing through warriors, which means he'll be out-killing Shagrat and Shagrat will get an extra reroll on his Dueling rolls (paired with a banner, that gives him 3 Attacks and 2 rerolls . . . kind of crazy).

The rest of the army is pretty simple: cover for your heroes! Having some Orcs with a Shaman is good if you run into Terror, while having Uruks for shooting your opponent as he crosses the field can make sure you retain a numbers advantage as your opponent closes. Knowing whether to have your spearmen in front of your Uruks early in the game (to provide D4/5 protection from archery) and then flipping the battle line as your opponent closes is a balance that might be hard to find, but important to have.

Part 5: Army Showcase

Our 500 point list for today is a proper horde (with 36 models in it - pretty big for 500 points). We start with the compulsory inclusions of Shagrat (with everything) and Gorbag (with everything), alongside an Orc Captain with shield. The Uruks will provide our archers (as their Shoot value is better), the Orcs will provide the spears (as Uruk-Hai can't get them), and we'll have a banner in there too. We didn't get Shelob or the Shaman in - you could if you're willing to have basically no troops (our compulsory heroes are over 200 points and adding Shelob and a Shaman would be over 350pts):

• Shagrat, Captain of Cirith Ungol with heavy armor and the Shield of Cirith Ungol [AL]
• 4 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bows
• 6 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bows and two-handed maces
• 1 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bow and banner
  
• Gorbag, Orc Captain with shield
  
• 4 Orc Warriors with shields
• 6 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
  
• Orc Captain with shield
  
• 12 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
  

Taking this list up to 700 points, we add the other critical elements of our army (the second banner, the Shaman, and Shelob), and a few more troops to get our army up to 43 models (not that much larger, but we have a lot more options than we had before).

• Shagrat, Captain of Cirith Ungol with heavy armor and the Shield of Cirith Ungol [AL]
• 4 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bows
• 7 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bows and two-handed maces
• 1 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bow and banner
  
• Gorbag, Orc Captain with shield
  
• 4 Orc Warriors with shields
• 4 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
  
• Orc Captain with shield
  
• 12 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• Orc Shaman
  
• 3 Orc Warrior with shields
• 2 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
  
• Shelob
  

Both of the lists we've already viewed run a) more Orcs than Uruk-Hai, and b) run all of the Uruk-Hai as archers. While I think having lots of archers in this kind of army is important, I know most people put shields on their Uruks and sort of forego the archery game entirely. For those people, I present the following 700-point list, which runs a Mordor Uruk-Hai Captain and nearly as many Uruk-Hai as Orcs. You can see the numbers drop with this choice (-3 models), but we've managed to keep 19 spears (backing up 20 infantry models). If you need to charge a Terror wall, you will need to test for Courage with your Uruk-Hai OR charge with your spearmen (and still test with your Uruk-Hai) . . . which is kind of why I like having a 2:1 ratio of Orcs to Uruks (and LOTS of bows):

• Shagrat, Captain of Cirith Ungol with heavy armor and the Shield of Cirith Ungol [AL]
• 10 Mordor Uruk-Hai with shields
• 1 Mordor Uruk-Hai with shield and banner
  
• Gorbag, Orc Captain with shield
  
• 4 Orc Warriors with spears
• 1 Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
• 5 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
  
• Mordor Uruk-Hai Captain with shield
  
• 6 Mordor Uruk-Hai with shields
• Orc Shaman
• 6 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• Shelob

Okay, bonus list time - I was thinking the other day while mulling this Legion over that Shelob, while really great, MIGHT be able to be left at home. If you leave Shelob at home, you need an answer for the speed game (you're all 6" move at that point). I was also thinking about how difficult it would be to make one Mordor Uruk-Hai look different from the rest of his mates if you needed one Uruk-Hai Captain and the rest were "just normal Mordor Uruk-Hai." While thinking about these two things, I was reminded of an army that Kylie from the Green Dragon Podcast talked about recently in their discussion of Isengard: what if you spammed out Mordor Uruk-Hai Captains instead of running the spider? What if we took the pose from the book and said "All of these poses are Mordor Uruk-Hai Captains!" Well, this is the list you'd get if you owned 4 boxes of Mordor Uruks (20 Mordor Uruk-Hai + 4 Mordor Uruk-Hai Captains) and you also have Shagrat, Gorbag, and 12 Orc Warriors. The list has "only" 35 models, we're really short on spears (only one-third of our models have a spear) and our Defense is pretty bad (mostly D4), but we've got six heroes that can kill stuff (vs. the usual 3-4) and up to 4 Marches can be called without any of our heroes being depleted of Might . . . that's gonna pay off:

• Shagrat, Captain of Cirith Ungol with heavy armor and the Shield of Cirith Ungol [AL]
• 1 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bow and banner
• 3 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bows
  
• 1 Mordor Uruk-Hai with two-handed mace
  
• Gorbag, Orc Captain with shield
• 4 Orc Warriors with spears
• 7 Orc Warriors with spears and shields
• 1 Orc Warrior with spear, shield, and banner
  
• Mordor Uruk-Hai Captain with shield
• 1 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bow
• 2 Mordor Uruk-Hai with two-handed maces
  
• Mordor Uruk-Hai Captain with shield
• 1 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bow
• 2 Mordor Uruk-Hai with two-handed maces
  
• Mordor Uruk-Hai Captain with shield
• 1 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bow
• 1 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bow and two-handed mace
  
• 1 Mordor Uruk-Hai with two-handed mace
  
• Mordor Uruk-Hai Captain with shield
• 1 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bow
• 1 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bow and two-handed mace
  
• 1 Mordor Uruk-Hai with two-handed mace

Army Summary

Hopefully you found this discussion on Cirith Ungol interesting. For me personally, I "like" the Legion and I think it's one of the more competitive Legions from the Quest of the Ringbearer (though it's a tough competition with lists like the Depths of Moria and the reloaded Rangers of Ithilien - and a lot of people seem to like the Black Riders LL). Not having any cavalry, only having average Defense, and actually triggering Animosity will be difficult, but I think the Legion has at least a few ways to cover its weaknesses (which is good). Run those Uruks as archers though - I'm not that afraid of D5 Uruk-Hai if they have to come to my Elves or Dwarves.

Speaking of Animosity, in our next post we'll be checking in with Centaur on one of his favorite Legendary Legions: Ugluk's Scouts. As the only other Legion to have the Animosity rule (which provides some guidance for how the rule is supposed to work in the Cirith Ungol list), we see an army that looks like a melding of the fast Uruk-Hai from the Lurtz's Scouts Legendary Legion and the supporting Orcs from the Cirith Ungol Legendary Legion. With only four named heroes and no Shamans (like Lurtz's Scouts), this Legion requires some practice to deal with big threats and Terror armies. Join us as Centaur takes us through a Legion that represents the first Isengard army he ever ran (before it had cool rules) - until next time, happy hobbying!