The Bare Necessities, Part XLI: The Dark Denizens of Mirkwood

Good morning gamers,

We've talked about a lot of armies in this series that have a variety of models available to them - fast units, banner-carrying units, etc. However, in today's post, we're looking at an army that has no problem being fast, but struggles with having low defense, no spears, large bases, and average Fight Value (for the most part). We're talking about the Dark Denizens of Mirkwood - an iconic monster-mash army (that has only one monster - but lots of scary things) that features creatures of all shapes and sizes. Can you make a balanced list with this army? Well, let's see what we can whip up, shall we?

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The Dark Denizens of Mirkwood: What Creatures Do You Need (And How Do You Keep Them From Dying)?

The models available to the Dark Denizens of Mirkwood list has access to several different creatures and each has a different role to play in the army. The Spider Queen is your only hero option and she's a very offensive-heavy hero. Paired with a Bat Swarm, she's capable of toppling anyone's Fight Value if you can get the Spider Queen and a Bat Swarm in the same fight, so her Heroic Defense can be used as insurance against a bad match-up.

You have two other Spider options in your army: Mirkwood Spiders have a terrible Fight Value, but can use their Spider Webs to Paralyze warrior models (and hero models who have run out of Fate or fail a Fate save) and so skip straight to the wounding roll. Giant Spiders, by contrast, are F4 with a good Strength value - miniature versions of the Spider Queen and designed for getting locked in and smashing through things.

Bat Swarms and Fell Wargs have more tactical uses - Bat Swarms aren't great in fights on their own, but since they half Fight Values, they can be deadly when paired in a fight with a Giant Spider (since Bat Swarms half your Fight Value rounding down, your opponents will need to be F10 if they want to have a higher Fight Value) or the Spider Queen (who will always have the higher Fight Value). Even if paired with Fell Wargs (who are F3), enemy models will need to be F8+ in order to have the higher Fight Value - AGAINST WARGS!!!!

Speaking of Wargs, Fell Wargs are great for grabbing objectives, charging models that are hiding behind terrain, and theoretically are good for boosting your numbers. However, since they are your only 1 Wound model and only about half the cost of Spiders (and one-fourth the cost of Bats), your total wound count isn't much different by spamming Fell Wargs than it is spamming Spiders or Bat Swarms - and I think the tactical utility of these units is much better. Having a few of these guys to dig up Prizes/Heirlooms or sitting on objectives isn't a bad thing though, so use them appropriately.

This is a light bench and you're locked in at D4 or less (even on the Spider Queen), so your number one objective is to figure out how to keep your units from dying. You don't have any Historical allies and your Convenient allies list is short but has a surprising amount of options. While allying with Smaug is probably a pipe-dream, allying with Azog's Hunters, Azog's Legion, Goblin-town, Mordor, and Moria give you options for spamming numbers and adding in heroes who can distract from the Spider Queen's danger.

The List

• The Spider Queen [ARMY LEADER]
• 2 Giant Spiders
• 1 Bat Swarm
  
• 2 Mirkwood Spiders
• The Shadow Lord on Fell Beast
• 6 Black Numenoreans
• 1 Morannon Orc with shield
  
• 6 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
• 1 Morannon Orc with shield, spear, and banner
• Orc Commander on Great Beast of Gorgoroth
• 9 Orc Crewmen with Orc bows
  

32 models (+3 Broodlings), 9 Orc bows hitting on a 5+ (no move-and-shoot penalties though), 16 D6+ models (including the Great Beast, but not the Fell Beast), 2 fliers + 1 war beast + 5-8 fast infantry, 7 Might points

The purchases required to get these units are as follows:

• You need to buy a Spider Queen
• You'll need two packs of Spiders ($70)
  
• You'll also need one Bat Swarm ($13)
  
• You'll need a Fell Beast (which you probably already have if you own the Battle for Pelennor Fields box set) - just say it's the Shadow Lord and you should be fine;
• You'll need two packs of Black Numenoreans ($53 or convert your own)
• You'll need 8 Morannon Orcs (which, again, you probably already have if you own the Battle for Pelennor Fields box set); and
• You'll need a Great Beast of Gorgoroth - which is expensive ($71) and takes a LONG time to build. 
  

We need to wait for the Spider Queen to come back to the web store (which was announced recently), but when she is available, it'll probably be about $250 to own this army (which is on-point with what we've seen from a lot of the armies recently). Let's see what our three warbands do!

Warband #1: The Queen

The Spider Queen is a powerful piece that provides tactical options with her Broodlings, her Swift Movement special rule, and Venom for extra damage. Like Gwaihir, having 2 Attacks base, no Fate, and Defense 4 might make her look like a fragile piece - and she is. But if you can get her locked into combat, the option to either call Heroic Strike or Heroic Defense (or Heroic Combat) gives her options against all foes. She's joined in this army by five creatures - four spiders (two of each kind) and a Bat Swarm (so you hopefully don't have to call Strike).

Warband #2: The Archery Protection

If you know that you have models that are vulnerable to archery, bringing the Shadow Lord is a pretty good option. Mounted on a Fell Beast, the Shadow Lord can protect your army early in the game from archery, keep up with the creatures you have, AND lend an extra hand to the Spider Queen/creatures in the army. While the Bat Swarm may make Heroic Strike unnecessary for the Spider Queen, having Transfix available through the Shadow Lord gives you a second way to make the Spider Queen more effective (or lock down a second threat).

With him are 14 heavy infantry from Mordor - 6 Black Numenoreans and 8 Morannon Orcs. These infantry provide a reliable Terror wall (to supplement the 5 Spiders that cause Terror and the Shadow Lord) and can carve through enemy shieldwalls thanks to the Morannon supporting attacks. If you need bodies to hold a position, this will do the job - as will . . .

Warband #3: The Distraction

Yep, we have a Great Beast in tow. Not only does this War Beast draw attention from your opponent's army away from the Shadow Lord and the Spider Queen, but it's fast enough to keep up with the other creatures in the list, really boosts your numbers (and gives you a credible shooting deterrent thanks to having lots of free, rubbish archers). If your opponent has the choice of targeting Giant Spiders who don't deal impact hits or a Great Beast of Gorgoroth that does deal impact hits, I wonder what he'll choose . . . honestly, I don't know what the answer is (especially if BOTH are protected by the Pall of Darkness from the Shadow Lord).

Scenario Overview

Okay - let's see how this list approaches each scenario from the main rulebook.

• Domination: Our anvil from Mordor should deploy near the center of the map, allowing our creatures to float on the periphery, holding 1-2 objectives from the get-go and harassing other objectives that are left abandoned after the Great Beast passes through. The Shadow Lord should be able to provide support to your anvil with the Fell Beast - his need to provide archery protection is likely to be lower in this scenario since you'll probably get locked in early (or your opponent will cede you the center objective), so you can rely on him to fight if you need to. Supported by the Spider Queen, the center should hold.
  
• Capture and Control: Once again, your Mordor division should begin on the center to drive your opponent away. Your faster troops should hang back, able to strike to the right or left and support your main troop (but also guard your rear objective). If you can hem off three of the objectives from being touched, you can win the game by breaking your opponent quickly.
  
• Hold Ground: Maelstrom - you've only got three warbands and one of them can walk into enemy models if they race for the center instead of hugging the board edge (your Great Beast). Ideally you'll be able to walk on second with your Great Beast and the Shadow Lord in more-or-less the same place, using your Great Beast's Trample damage to get a few kills, compel a warrior into the Shadow Lord, add another kill with your bowmen on the back of the Great Beast, and have the Fell Beast Hurl the model down the ranks (to slow models down by knocking them Prone, if not kill them). Your spiders, on the other hand, should start near the Shadow Lord if they can, but otherwise you can high-tail it towards the objective with the Spider Queen leading the, deploying all three Broodlings on the first turn (the Queen can move 10", deploy the Broodlings within 3" of her, then they can move an additional 10" for a grand total of . . . basically being on the objective on the first turn). With the Bat Swarm right behind the Broodlings and 5 big, nasty spiders 1-2 turns later (and a Fell Beast somewhere on the board), I think you can get to the center quickly and try to break the enemy quickly with lots of models in the center. Eventually, get the Great Beast in the center - with all the guys on his back in range if he's standing right on/near the objective, you should outnumber your opponent pretty well.
  
• Seize the Prize: Well, all those spiders (and your Bat Swarm) are infantry, so you can get your Broodlings into the action quickly, having three changes with them to pick up the Prize (potentially a fourth chance if the Bat Swarm is positioned right) and if your opponent gets Priority and races for it first, you can still have a LOT of models ready to pounce on the center. Add in the Fell Beast, Great Beast (who lumbers straight forward with all those bows), and a wall of Terror-causing, heavily-armored infantry and you've got a full-court press in the center of the board. Any number of the fast animals can pick up the Prize and so long as the Bat Swarm and Fell Beast don't end their movement in a wooded terrain piece, they can go over whatever terrain they want with impunity.
  
• To The Death: Well, you're holding back and forcing your opponent to come to you. With anti-archery protection from the Shadow Lord, he will have to come to you - and you're pretty devastating on the charge. So use that to your advantage and take the day when your opponent comes.
  
• Lords of Battle: Well . . . this one's gonna bite. Yes, you have a lot of latent power in your units. Yes, you can be devastating on the first turn if your opponent deploys on the center line, but most of your units are incredibly squishy (archers on the Great Beast, Spiders/Bats, Spider Queen). Can you do more wounds to your opponent than he does to you before the game randomly ends when one side is broken? Possible. But risky - very risky.
  
• Contest of Champions: You have the Spider Queen to rack up kills against troops, a spell-caster to Transfix the enemy leader, Mirkwood Spiders who might be able to Paralyze the leader, and a Great Beast who might run him over . . . not much to worry about, I think.
  
• Reconnoitre: Well, you're fast - and you can get the Broodlings off pretty easily (ideally the Spider Queen too so you won't cough up victory points), and you'll still have plenty of models to harass the enemy. The key will be hemming them in towards your Great Beast (which may be incredibly difficult). You can make a thin red line, though, with your Mordor Infantry that will cover a good section of the board (and if the other side has a Great Beast on it, you can back up the thin red line with big creatures and a Fell Beast). Alternatively, you can rush your creatures, your Fell Beast, and your Great Beast towards the board edge and try to get 21 models (3 Broodlings + 6 Dark Denizens + 1 Ringwraith + 1 Great Beast + 10 crew) off the board. You can't be quartered, but if your opponent can't double your number and you kill enough guys to break him, you're good.
  
• Storm the Camp: Get the Broodlings into the camp, protect the Spider Queen with the Shadow Lord, walk on stuff with your Great Beast, keep your fast creatures within range of your own camp. Pretty straight-forward.
  
• Heirlooms of Ages Past: You can't plan for this one at all - though you do have lots of fast infantry to get to objectives quickly. Deploy your three objectives as clustered together as you can near the center of the board, spending Might if you need to for the Spider Queen to arrive near them and attempt to pick them up with the Broodlings (remember the 23" range you have with those guys?). The other objectives can be threatened by the Great Beast and/or Shadow Lord's warbands if you want.
  
• Fog of War: Your opponent might remember that the Great Beast of Gorgoroth has a hero on it - and THAT will be his target in Fog of War. If he forgets, though, he'll have to pick the Shadow Lord. If he hangs in the back, that shouldn't be that much of a risk. You probably want to keep the Shadow Lord alive (since shooting him will be hard for most models and he's on a Fell Beast which should discourage others). Pick a target that you can run over with the Great Beast, a few Spiders, or a Fell Beast if you're feeling risky. The terrain piece should probably be near the center and something you can park the Great Beast in if possible - otherwise, you have the Mordor Anvil you can rely on. You COULD choose something remote and rely on your spiders, but I'm not sure that's a good idea (they're so squishy).
  
• Clash By Moonlight: Well crap - your anti-archery bubble doesn't illuminate your troops (so that's good), but your archery isn't good in this list. Your heroes are also on the squishy side, so you could lose all three of them (potentially). So hit hard and hit fast but try to maneuver the army so that you get to make the decisions about where you fight.
  

Modifications

This army would be fun to use, but there are lots of ways to use the Dark Denizens of Mirkwood - let's look at a few!

• Run "Pure" Dark Denizens of Mirkwood – So this list gives us lots of ways to get models into the list without heroes - 2+ Spiders, 6+ Wargs, or 10+ warriors of any kind. While you don't have spears or ways to auto-pass Courage tests, this list does hit hard if it can get charges off. With 34 models (10 of which are Mirkwood Spiders and 3 of which are Bat Swarms), you have a lot of tools for dealing with big heroes and whopping 10 Giant Spiders for F4/S6/2A combat killing machines. Be careful where you engage - use your speed to get two-on-one fights and do your best to hammer through your opponent's force piece-meal. Oh, and don't worry if you don't get the charge - unlike all-cav armies, you don't need the charge to be lethal.
  
• The Spider Queen [ARMY LEADER]
• 3 Giant Spiders
• 3 Mirkwood Spiders
• 1 Bat Swarm
• 1 Bat Swarm
• 5 Fell Wargs
• 2 Giant Spiders
• 2 Mirkwood Spiders
• 1 Bat Swarm
• 5 Fell Wargs
• 2 Giant Spiders
• 2 Mirkwood Spiders
• 1 Giant Spider
• 1 Mirkwood Spider
• 1 Giant Spider
• 1 Mirkwood Spider
• 1 Giant Spider
• 1 Mirkwood Spider
  
• Ally with Moria – Moria is convenient allies with almost all evil factions - and with a 70-point Hero of Valor, you can ally in a LOT of troops for not a lot of money by taking Durburz in your army. Two named Goblin heroes - Ashrak and Druzhag the Beastcaller - open some interesting options for your spiders. As we mentioned earlier in the article, dealing with Terror can be difficult for Spiders (who are Courage 2-3), but both Ashrak and Druzhag can help spiders auto-pass Courage tests with Fury (and Druzhag lets them borrow his Courage 4 if they're within 12" of him). Alternatively, Ashrak could choose to skip Fury and instead cast Shroud of Shadows on a Spider or two during the game to make them harder to hit (if they're carrying a prize or guarding an objective) OR to make the Spider Queen more deadly on the charge (since counter-charging her will be harder and she can half the enemy Fight Value if the spell is channelled). Druzhag can turn the spiders in this list (any of the FOURTEEN Spiders in this list - five of which are Venom-backed Giant Spiders) into absolute grenades with Enrage Beast (which grants +2 Fight, +2 Strength, +2 Attacks, and +2 Courage to the target spider). This is probably best used on Mirkwood Spiders who have charged a paralyzed hero (they become S7 with 4 Attacks against a prone model) or on Giant Spiders who have charged multiple warriors (since they become F6 with S7 and 4 Attacks). Oh, and all of those Mirkwood Spiders are rerolling 1s thanks to poison, while the Giant Spiders reroll all failed To Wound rolls . . . so, there's that. This army has 39 models at 700 points, which is plenty large (despite having lots of expensive spiders) - part of the benefits of running Moria, I guess.
  
• The Spider Queen [ARMY LEADER]
• 2 Venom-backed Giant Spiders
• 8 Mirkwood Spiders
  
• CONVENIENT ALLY - MORIA: Durburz, the Goblin King of Moria
• 4 Moria Goblin Warriors with shields
• 4 Moria Goblin Warriors with spears
  
• CONVENIENT ALLY - MORIA: Ashrak
• 3 Moria Goblin Warriors with shields
• 3 Moria Goblin Warriors with spears
  
• CONVENIENT ALLY - MORIA: Druzhag the Beastcaller
• 3 Moria Goblin Warriors with shields
• 3 Moria Goblin Warriors with spears
• 3 Venom-backed Giant Spiders
  
• The Fast-Paced Mordor Build - We already looked at running a Mordor-Denizens alliance today, but what if we wanted to avoid the slow-moving infantry blocks and just go with fast models? While we could certainly keep the Great Beast in the list, I've opted to showcase a different list that brings the Spider Queen, Shelob (because why not have another big spider hero), and the Dwimmerlaik on a Fell Beast. The Dwimmerlaik leads a host of Morgul Knights (one with a banner - because your heroes will want banners) and the Spider Queen leads a small pack of spiders (I've gone 50/50 between the Giant Spiders and Mirkwood Spiders). You could swap Morgul Knights for Warg Riders if you wanted to bulk out your numbers (or take the savings to get more Spiders/Fell Wargs/a Bat Swarm or two), but the Terror on the Morgul Knights plays well with the Harbinger of Evil you get from the Dwimmerlaik. Speaking of the Dwimmerlaik, we've gone with him instead of the Shadow Lord because a) we have lots D6 warriors with D5 mounts to screen our spiders and we have one Spider in particular (Shelob) who would really love for the models she faces to think twice about calling a Heroic Strike/Defense (the Spider Queen won't mind either). If you call Heroic Strike with the knowledge that the Dwimmerlaik might make you spend an extra Might point for the Strike to work, that's a good day for your spiders. Similarly, if a Mirkwood Spider gets its web shooting off and you have to pass a Fate roll to avoid being Paralyzed, having the Dwimmerlaik around makes that a lot harder for most heroes to pass - and THAT'S very good.
  
• The Spider Queen [ARMY LEADER]
• 3 Giant Spiders
• 3 Mirkwood Spiders
• The Dwimmerlaik on Fell Beast
• 9 Morgul Knights
• 1 Morgul Knight with banner
• Shelob

Well, that was something different.  Hopefully you enjoyed that discussion of the Dark Denizens of Mirkwood and if you have your own strategies for using this faction, let us know! Our next post takes us back to Lake-town to see how the rag-tag army of refugees that return to Dale work vis-a-vis the Army of Lake-town we viewed last week. The Survivors of Lake-town are a very different faction from their predecessors, despite sharing a few units. So what do we have cooking for next week? Find out here - the answer may be a bit surprising. Until then, happy hobbying!