In Defense of: Castellans of Dol Guldur

This is a sweet paint job (not mine...)

Photo Credit: Azazel's Bitz Box

Tiberius: Today Rythbyrt is back with a defense of one of his favorite units: Castellans of Dol Guldur. I know what you're thinking: Castellans are horrible heroes who can't be defended - not even by the TMAT team. While I could attempt a defense of the units, my experience has been tied to fighting them, not running them. So, I leave you to Rythbyrt to learn how these guys work.

Rythbryt: I'll be honest: when Tiberius asked me to do this write-up, I had two instant thoughts:

1. Absolutely, 1000% YES!

2. Wait, people don't like Castellans?

Apparently, people don't like Castellans. And I'm not sure why. They're one of the most unique profiles in the game. They're incredibly flexible. They pack a surprising whallop. They're spooky. I think the models are dope (although I admit the one with two blades is a tad flat). And they even have their own fight song!* So why all the hate?

No idea. But if your local meta isn't a fan of Castellans, yet loves all sorts of stupid, popular list ideas (like pretty elves, slogged dwarves, a mounted horse king, massed rangers, or five magical wizards storming a spooky castle), have I got some a LOT of thoughts for you!

(Gosh, I've missed this...)

Why NOT to take Castellans

(You can skip this part if you like... ;-) )

I admit, I had trouble writing this part. But if you're looking for an alternative view, I'd recommend the Green Dragon's discussion of Castellans (which begins at the 49:14 mark, and runs for about 10 minutes). Here's what I came up with (some of which I borrowed liberally from Jeremy and Andreas):

No Might. If you have to pick an eyesore in the profile itself, this is it. They're Hero models after all, and one of the key things heroes contribute to this game are those extremely useful, flexible Might points. Yes, Castellans are on the cheap side as far as heroes go (40-45 points), but most other comparably-costed heroes (Denethor excepted) offer at least one Might, and some (like Orc Captains, or Grinnah) offer even more than that. The lack of Might means they can't fix botches in combat (which stinks), and also means that once they get locked into combat they tend to get stuck (no heroic moves to get out of trouble, and no heroic combats to keep moving). 

The "Infantry" Keyword. The lack of Might might be less noticeable if Castellans weren't ground-bound infantry. But given that they cost about the same points as a Hunter Orc or Gundabad Orc Captain (both of whom have 2 Might with Heroic March, and one of whom can also be mounted on a 10" move Fell Warg), this is hard to ignore. Unmolested, a force of Castellans can get where you want them... eventually. But if they are charged, they can be pinned down--and when they're pinned down, their lack of Might (which means they can't call Heroic Combats) hurts. Also, the Infantry keyword means cavalry models can knock them down on the charge (because S5, while excellent in many respects, isn't high enough to resist a cavalry charge) and eventually even a Castellan will go down if it's knocked prone too many times (and if an especially big hero like Aragorn knocks them down, they can even be one-shotted).

The Will of Evil. In my experience, this is less of an issue in practice than it looks on paper (more on that in a minute). But it does mean that your Castellans (like your generic LOTR-era Nazgul) are on a timer. For each turn they fight, they lose one Will; and if their Will ever reaches 0, they instantly disappear. Given that they (a) want to be fighting at all times (because what else do they contribute to your army?), and (b) may need to use their Will for other things (like saving wounds so they don't die earlier), this means you're generally looking at 4-8 turns of combat with your Castellans (depending on how good you are at winning fights and/or how good you are at flubbing Fate rolls). Yes, they have a lot more Fate than that Gundabad Orc Captain; but at least your opponent has to kill that Gundabad Orc Captain to remove him from the table. He merely needs to outlast a Castellan, and wait for it to wink-out of existence.

Automatons. Courage 6 is definitely not a weakness (more on that in two minutes). But in an army list where the bulk of your troops probably consist of C2-3 orcs, C2 wargs, and C2-3 spiders, it'd be nice if you could use your Courage 6 to hold your army together if it breaks. The Automatons special rule prevents Castellans from sharing their Stand Fast! to nearby warriors, which is a bummer. So definitely bring a C6 Nazgul (or the Necromancer, if you can afford him) to keep those low-courage units on the table if you break.

Minor Heroes. Since Castellans have no Might, are just infantry, and can't share their Stand Fast! with other troops, it's kind of strange that they're Minor Heroes instead of Independent Heroes. No Might means they suffer some disadvantages in random-deployment scenarios (because they have no way to modify their rolls to come on the table, or to determine where they come on the table). If they were Independent Heroes (and could therefore be included in another hero's warband, like an Orc Drummer), this wouldn't be an issue. But as minor heroes, they have to be taken in their own warbands. So if you're taking a Castellan to bodyguard your Necromancer and you draw a Maelstrom scenario, better roll well (or your Castellan could end up on the other side of the board from his Dark Lord). 

Inter-List Competition. As Andreas and Jeremy note, these disadvantages wouldn't be such a big deal if Dol Guldur didn't have other cheap heroes at a similar price point. A D7 Gundabad Orc Captain trades 1 Fight for 1 Defense (which is better is entirely match-up dependent) plus the Might points and six warband slots. A Hunter Orc Captain on foot is arguably better in combat for basically the same price (more attack dice, less strength, defense, and Fight). And while the Dol Guldur Nazgul are almost twice as expensive, their Might, Strike, and special rules make them far more unpredictable in combat (while their Unholy Resurrection rule means they can outlast even Castellans in terms of raw turns on the board if you roll well). And that's before we factor in some of Dol Guldur's competitive troop options (is one Castellan better than five Gundabad Orcs with shields? Two Mirkwood Spiders?).

Bonus: The Alliance Matrix. While I do think the biggest knock against Castellans is that they face stiff competition from other heroes in their same list, a close second may be the alliance matrix. If you like playing Hobbit-era armies, they're great: Dol Guldur is green allies with Azog's Legion and Azog's Hunters (which means you can take Castellans and keep Master of Battle on Azog (or pair them with 50% hunter orcs with Morgul Arrows led by Bolg), and yellow armies with everything else in the Hobbit (if you want bat swarms, Giant Spiders, a swarm of goblins, or even the Three Trolls for some reason). But if you're more partial to LOTR-era armies, the pickings are really slim. Moria is the only Yellow alliance; everything else is Red. So if you want to run Castellans with, say, Mordor in a Minas Morgul-themed dark tower army, or alongside your Corsairs of Umbar and their Black Numenoreans, you can do that, but only if you're willing to forfeit shared banners, heroic actions, etc. (Although I held out hope for a long time that they’d make an appearance in Mordor's Defense of the North Dol-Guldur legion… sadly, they did not).

There. I think I covered everything, and fulfilled my Kylo Ren role admirably.**

Why TO take Castellans (plural)

(Definitely don't skip this part... ;-) )

Let me start by saying that if you're putting together a Dark Powers of Dol Guldur list, and you have a spare 40-45 points, and you're looking at plugging a single Castellan into that spot... I won't say don't do it, but I will say the argument's going to be harder. Unless you really need the resilience, a single Hunter Orc Captain (either on foot for 45 points, or on a warg for 55 points) is almost certainly better value because of the 2 Might and access to Heroic March / added speed on the warg. If you need the resilience, a Castellan is probably a better fit--but you should at least consider the Gundabad Captain with shield first (55 points, but he's Defense 7 with 2 Might and again, access to Heroic March).

Yes, Castellans are perfectly fine profiles on their own. But where they truly shine is in numbers. And I'm not talking about "rule of 3" type numbers (though there's nothing wrong with the rule of 3)--I'm talking real numbers (like, 6-10).

To explain why that is, let's take a short digression to consider a profile that almost everyone agrees is awesome: the Far Harad Half Troll.

When you say you love me, 

(I make sure) there's no one else alive! 

Unlike Castellans, Half Trolls are quite popular (or feared), and for good reason. On offense, their combat profile is almost perfect for slaying troops (and is quite good at giving more expensive heroes some pause). Fight 5 is almost always a boon: if you don't outright win drawn combats, you'll generally force roll-offs against almost all troops, and a decent number of heroes. Strength 5 is massive (D7 Dwarves? 5s to wound!), and two attacks at Strength 5 is downright brutal, especially when backed by a banner reroll and/or a S4 spear. And if you somehow manage to defeat a Half-Troll in a duel (a tall task), they're resilient as heck: Defense 6 is woundable, but poses a significant hurdle to any armies that are S3 or less (there are quite a few of those--more on that shortly) and any archery that is S3 or less (which is most archery). Plus they have a second wound just in case a lucky strike or arrow gets through, making it even harder to remove them--especially at range. Lastly, the Terror rule can make them difficult to charge, especially if you have a Wraith with Harbinger of Evil allied into your force.

Yes, they're expensive as far as warriors go: at 22-23 points, they're in the same points tier as Gundabad War Bats, Wood Elf Sentinels, and Riders of the Dead. But take them in numbers (say, 6-10), and they have the mix of offensive firepower and defensive staying-power to out-attrition virtually any enemy shieldwall. 

Except a Castellan shield-wall. A Castellan shield-wall will tear a Half-Troll shield-wall to pieces. 

Here's why.

A Top-Tier Combat Profile (at a Bargain Cost)

For starters, the basic combat profile of the Castellan is exactly the same as the profile of a Half-Troll (except the two-handed club option). In other words, everything that makes Half-Trolls great front-line fighters is also true of Castellans:

As I'm sure you noticed, the offensive stats are... exactly the same:

• Fight 5: Right off the bat, this is as good or better than the vast majority of evil heroes (and as good or better than a surprising number of good heroes). It's even better against troops: other than elves (and your occasional elite men, buffed by some sort of banner or special rule), it's unlikely that you'll tie Fight Value with core troops. For the other non-Nazgul heroes in Dol Guldur (Keeper of the Dungeons excepted), that's not a given.
• 2 Attacks: I know 2 attacks isn't 3 attacks, but this is really quite good. On one end of the spectrum, a lot of the heroes in the 30-40 point range only have one attack (Gondor's assortment of rangers, several Thorin's Company dwarves, Hilda Bianca, Bain, Alfrid, etc.). At the other end, there are a lot of two-attack heroes who cost a lot more than a Castellan (like Faramir, Theoden, or Erestor). Castellans are likewise capped at 2 attacks, but because of their bargain cost, you can field 2-3 of them for the cost of other two-attack heroes. And coupled with their Fight 5 (which matches a surprising number of more expensive heroes for both good and evil), a castellan can have a pretty good go at a hero who costs significantly more points than he does.
• Strength 5: Gundabad Captains can get there (although curiously, not Hunter Orc Captains), as can the Keeper of the Dungeons. But no other heroes in Dol Guldur can, and S5 is pretty rare for heroes in general (except for Uruk-Hai, Numenor / Dunland, and the occasional upper-tier dwarf lord). It also means the bane of normal heroes--Defense 7--is literally not a problem for you (you'll wound D6 and D7 equally, on 5s). And if you hit a D5 battle-line (there's a lot of them out there), you'll carve through them on 4s.

With the two attacks, a Castellan--just like a Half-Troll--has about a 30% chance (30.56%) of rolling at least one "6," and more than a 50% chance (55.56%) of rolling at least one "5" or "6." That 30% figure may seem low to you, and in a vacuum it is. But in reality, it's quite good, especially for a model that costs just 40-45 points. On the one-hand, if you have the Fight Value advantage (and at Fight 5, you will against most troops), a 30% chance of rolling a "6" means you win three-of-ten fights outright, no matter what your opponent rolls, or how many dice he rolls. And that 56% chance of rolling at least one 5? You win half of all fights outright, so long as your opponent doesn't roll at least one "6" (which, for a single-attack model only happens 17% of the time, and for a two-attack shieldwall (shield+spear) happens --you guessed it--only 30% of the time). 

Those are pretty good odds, and coupled with their high Strength, those wins have a pretty good chance of converting to kills, too. And if your opponent rolls low (say, a 4-high, which definitely happens), your odds of winning the fight with your two dice and higher fight only escalate.

(Almost) Unmatched Resilience and Flexibility

While Castellans have a similar combat profile to Half Trolls, they excel Half-Trolls in two important respects: their resilience and their flexibility.

Like Half-Trolls, Castellans are Defense 6. This isn't Defense 7 (which Castellans used to have), but it's still good enough against most things. There are plenty of S3 armies out there, and those armies will struggle to wound Castellans consistently (needing 6s). Most lance-based cavalry are S3 as well (Rivendell Knights, Knights of Minas Tirith, Knights of Dol Amroth, Morgul Knights, Haradrim Raiders, Serpent Riders), so Defense 6 offers you at least some protection against those (6s to wound become 5s, instead of 4s). It also means you're largely immune to bow fire: crossbows are still a problem, but elf bows are significantly less scary.

Unlike Half-Trolls, Castellans have only one 1 Wound (instead of 2). But they make up for this with their 12 Will points, which they can spend as Fate if they wish. The Will of Evil rule means that they aren't actually 12-Fate models (you spend 1 Will each turn they're in combat; and if they're ever reduced to 0 Will, they're gone). But it does mean that in normal games you'll have 4-6 Fate points, which is good for an extra 2-6 wounds (depending on how good you are at rolling a 4+). That's at least somewhat more resilient than a Half-Troll (and potentially much more resilient than a Half-Troll).

As far as heroes go, there are heroes who are more resilient than a Castellan (on paper, at least). Heroes with Heroic Defense come to mind, and of course there are beastly D9 heroes (like Durin or the Balrog) that are a pain to wound unless you have a really big beater. But all of them are substantially more expensive to field than a Castellan, and generally can't be fielded in multiples (which means you can't have substantial speed-bumps scattered around your army). And if you face something really scary--like, say, a Mumak--you might stop its Trample with Dain, or Beorn (you probably will with the Balrog), but you'd definitely prefer not to take that chance if you don't have to. But as I know from personal experience (don't ask), you almost certainly will stop a Mumak Trample with a full-stats Castellan--and definitely will stop its Trample with two (plus you have Fight 5 and a Morgul Blade to deliver some righteous retribution in the Fight Phase).

Speaking of that blade: while I’m generally iffy on the Morgul Blade for the Witch-King (sometimes it’s awesome, other times I wish I’d bought 2 more Will instead), I’ve played Castellans with and without blades before, and my advice is to always take the blade. In addition to Mumaks (and Great Beasts, trolls, bats, drakes, Palequins, chariots, catapults, etc), there’s a whole lot of 1-Fate heroes who are D7 or below. For those heroes, there’s just something unappetizing about fighting a two-attack, S5 hero who has a 55.56% chance of rolling at least one “5” that could insta-kill him or her. Put 2-3 Castellans within arms reach of each other, and suddenly you have a death zone. Most 1-Fate heroes are supposed to be combat heroes… if you have them second-guessing whether they want to be in combat, that’s usually a plus for you.

Terror (Causing it and Dealing with it)

Terror battle lines aren't a thing with every army, but they're common enough that--for competitive play, at least--you want at least some part of your army to be able to deal with Terror. If you want to / must charge Terror models, you need enough of those models with enough staying power that you can successfully charge again and again, even if you suffer losses. If you can't charge them, you need to be able to avoid--or shoot--the Terror models without charging them.

Neither Half-Trolls nor Castellans really help you with avoiding (or shooting) Terror models. And Half-Trolls can struggle to deal with other opponents with Terror, depending on whether you have the army bonus (and if so, how brave/reckless your Mahud King is feeling). Castellans, on the other hand, care naught for anything that causes Terror because their Courage 6--coupled with their enormous Will store--means they can reliably charge ANY Terror model (including those nasty Black Rider Nazgul with their -3 Courage rebuff). And when they get into that Terror causing model (like, say, a Half-Troll), they have an excellent chance of dispatching them—and dispatching them quickly.

Magic Defense

While you'll need your Will to stay alive (thanks to The Will of Evil), having 4-6 disposable Will points means that for the most part, your Castellans are unlikely to be targeted by magic (the bane of most combat models, including Half-Trolls) while offering your force significant magic protection against common area-of-effect spells like Nature's Wrath (or niche area-of-effect spells, like a channeled Panic Steed, to protect your all-important supporting cavalry models). 

If you just have one Castellan, your opponent can play around that (especially since Nature's Wrath doesn't have the 6" range it used to have). But if you have 6-10 Castellans mixed into your battle-line, it's very unlikely that any AoE spells will go off (at least without a significant resource investment from your opponent), and very unlikely that they'll go off more than once. In an army where a bunch of your other models are D4 (hunter orcs and fell wargs), that's tremendously comforting.

One Ring Counters

While The Will of Evil is generally not a boon (who enjoys their Nazgul winking out unceremoniously? Anyone?), one sneaky side-effect is that if the enemy has a ringbearer, and you can get into combat with that ringbearer, you negate the Ring's effects for that combat. The One Ring is even rarer than Terror in standard play, but if you're preparing for competitive play you want to prepare for everything, right?

Granted, Dol Guldur can also take cheap Nazgul (whom you generally want to take so that Harbinger of Evil makes your Terror Castellans even harder to charge), and they can fill the same role. But not every Nazgul of Dol Guldur wants to fight every ringbearer (half of whom probably have Elven Blades, which inflict nasty penalties on the Dol Guldur wraiths). A Castellan, on the other hand, can tank a Hobbit ringbearer (or Gollum) with the best of them, and even Isildur will have a hard time cutting through a Castellan quickly (because he can't have the Ring on and be mounted at the same time). If a 45 point model can tank the enemy's 35-130 point ringbearer for 4-5 turns, while your Nazgul are off dealing something more pressing, that's probably a win, right?

Warband Drops are a Thing

Last thing: technically, Castellans are minor heroes so they can lead troops. But since they're minor heroes, you can also deploy them in their own warbands if you like (they can't be deployed in another hero's warband, because they're not independent heroes). 

If you're running 4+ Castellans, I would almost always recommend this, because having an extra 4+ warband drops to see where your opponent deploys can be invaluable. And even in Maelstrom of battle scenarios--where single-drops of Castellans may seem dangerous--it's usually less of an issue in practice. Most Maelstrom scenarios want you to be in various parts of the board anyway (so spreading out your 6" move Castellans on the board isn't necessarily a bad thing). And even if they are "ganked" by a full warband, it's not necessarily the end of the world: deploying warbands can't generally charge on the turn they come down (The Wolves of Isengard LL and Warbeasts excepted... and you have a pretty good chance of surviving a contingent of those for a turn); a low-courage warband that deploys without its Shaman nearby may not be able to successful charge you at all; any warband that thinks it can successfully gank a Castellan is going to cost substantially more than 40-45 points (in which case, you've distracted enemy forces for at least one turn--and perhaps a lot more than one turn); and if you really don't want to lose that Castellan that easily, you're rolling enough other Maelstrom rolls for 6-10 Castellans--plus your other supporting warbands--that the odds are high that you'll be able to place at least one other Castellan / Warband in range to assist the Castellan if needed.

So yeah... Castellans. Flexibility in battle. Flexibility in deployment. What's not to like?

Have I piqued your interest? 

Cool. 

How about some lists?

Making it Work (Army Lists)

Best I can tell, there's no "standard" points level for SBG, but most "standard" games tend to fall somewhere in the 600-800 range. So with that in mind, I've built two different Castellan-type lists (one with a decent size "bodyguard" and the other with a dedicated battle-line) at two different points increments.

If that doesn't do it for you, I'm sorry.

In Clusters: A Formidable Bodyguard

As I mentioned earlier, I don't think a list like this fully takes advantage of all the Castellan offers you... but you'll definitely get more out of three Castellans than you will out of just one, and any forward movement is progress. So if you're looking to dip your toes into Castellans, here's what I'd recommend. We'll start at a conservative 600 points:

===========================

600 points, 36 models (Breaks at 19 Casualties, Quartered at 27 Casualties)

Warband 1: Gundabad Orc Captain with Shield {Army Leader}

     x1 Gundabad Orc with Shield, Spear, and Banner

     x9 Gundabad Orcs with Shields and Spears

     x2 Mirkwood Spiders

Warband 2: Hunter Orc Captain on Warg (55)

     x4 Gundabad Orcs with Shields

     x4 Hunter Orcs with Orc Bows

     x2 Hunter Orcs with Orc Bows on Fell Wargs

     x2 Fell Wargs

Warband 3: Castellan of Dol Guldur with Morgul Blade (45)

     x5 Gundabad Orcs with Shields and Spears

Warband 4: Castellan of Dol Guldur with Morgul Blade (45)

     x2 Fell Wargs

Warband 5: Castellan of Dol Guldur with Morgul Blade (45)

===========================

As with any 600 point list, there are a couple of eyesores to get out of the way: our Might store is a little low (4), and of course there's no one who can Heroic Strike. That's less of an issue at 600 than it would be at 700 or 800, but if you want that added dimension we can easily upgrade our Gundabad Captain or Hunter Orc Captain (or both) to Nazgul of Dol Guldur for an extra 20 points. Or we could upgrade one of them to Yazneg at no cost (if we don't take the lance) or Fimbul for +5 points (probably the better play). Our model-count is pretty good for 600 (36), so we can afford to drop a few troops to upgrade our hero suite if we want. 

This is also definitely not a "shooting" list (just 6 orc bows, with 5+ shoot values). But that's not uncommon for evil orc armies, and again: we have avenues to improve that slightly if we wish. Swapping the Hunter Orc Captain for Yazneg or Fimbul, for example, allows us to take advantage of our Green Alliance with Azog's Hunters (which improves the Hunter Orcs' shoot value to 4+, and also allows them to take 50% bows). We'll still only have 6 orc bows, but a 4+ shoot is always better than 5+. Alternatively, if we care less about Strike at this points level, we could run Narzug instead of Fimbul or Yazneg (also 60 points on Fell Warg) for basically a 3+ crossbow shot every turn (given his free Might each turn for shooting).

Other than the Might and shooting issues, though, this list covers a lot of bases. Most of the army (21 of 36 models) is S4/D6 or better, which sets us up well to face other shield walls. There are also spears everywhere--17 of them, in fact--so we can get the orcs' strength 4 in a lot of spots. And of course, we have a banner for those rerolls (and to juice up our Captain and Castellans).

Speaking of the Captain, I've opted for him as the hero here for two reasons: (1) at 600 points, it'll be harder to hide our army leader behind a bunch of troops, and (2) when it comes to toughness there's no competition between the Captain (D7, 2 Wounds, 1 Fate, and a Shield) and a Dol-Guldur Nazgul (D6, 1 Wound, no Fate). Yes, the Nazgul may not ultimately die; but unless he never fights, you're likely to cough up at least 1 VP for your leader being wounded (and why cough that up when you don't need to?). Getting that VP against the Gundabad Captain is much harder (plus he's just better at dealing with D7 troops and heroes than the Nazgul is, unless you're running a Slayer of Men). It also saves us 20 points (another 2 Gundabads with Spears, or a Mirkwood Spider), and in the 600 range, the most likely enemy heroes are likely to be F5 heroes with 2-3 Attacks, D7, and 2 wounds. Our Captain, properly supported and flanked, can deal with those... especially if he's flanked by a couple of Castellans (while the third is off anchoring another flank). The loss of Harbinger of Evil is a loss, but in this army only the three Castellans and two Spiders have Terror, so I was willing to live with it (but again--if you prefer a Nazgul, you can swap one in pretty easily).

Supplementing our core battle line is a suite of fast units: four Fell Wargs, two more Fell Wargs with Orcs on them, a mounted Captain for moving them around the table, and two Mirkwood Spiders (who can move swiftly through any sort of difficult terrain, while also bringing S5 and the possibility of Paralyze). They're vulnerable to shooting, of course, but if we have to get somewhere fast we have lots of models to call upon (and with Fell Sight on all the wargs and warg riders, we can take full advantage of terrain without sacrificing our ability to charge).

The Fell Wargs in general--and the mounted orcs and spiders in particular--are both in the list to guard against the Castellans' most serious vulnerability: being charged by a big hero on a mount (or even very punchy cavalry troops). The extra-attack coupled with double-dice to wound can do a number on Castellans quickly (especially if there's a lance or something else that allows the model to wound the Castellan on a 4+). Selective counter-charges with Warg Riders deprive those cavalry models of both the extra-attack and knock-down... and if a 3-Attack hero charges a Castellan backed by Spear, and then is counter-charged by a Warg Rider, suddenly the Castellan has the advantage in dice (4 vs. 3), and the hero may even be trapped by the counter-charging Warg rider (if you're D7 or below, and have only 1 Fate, being trapped against a Castellan is... bad).

Spiders aren't cavalry models, but their speed (10" through all difficult terrain), high Strength (S5), and ability to shoot webs as throwing weapons (Paralyze on a 5+, unless the target spends a Fate point) can disrupt a charge before it occurs (Paralyzed riders are instantly knocked prone, which is a S3 hit in addition to all the other nasty stuff Paralyze brings). They're obviously fragile (D3), so we want to keep them protected. But once the enemy gets locked-in, they can be extremely disruptive (plus, having a way to chip some Fate off of a hero is never a bad thing when you have Castellans with Morgul Blades lurking).

Which brings us, at last, to the Castellans themselves. While their primary function in the list (as in all lists) is to kill things without dying, our battle line is tough enough (and strong enough) that they should have some breathing room for other things. If we need to capture and then hold an objective that's not too far away, one or more can lead the strike force. I would also keep at least one within arms-reach of our Gundabad Captain, to keep mid-tier F5 heroes from getting too eager. And depending on the match-up, there may be other roles for them to play: if the enemy has a monster (or mumak), we can task them to tank that threat for a while (and perhaps even kill it). Cracking through the middle of a dwarf shield wall takes time, but a F5/S5 Castellan backed by a spear and banner will drill through it (and usually faster than you think). And then there's dealing with Terror threats, magic defense, etc. Three Castellans doesn't give us the ability to deal with those niche threats to the same degree as if we had 6+... but three Castellans is usually enough to deal with 1-2 of those threats (like a Cave Troll or Mumak) while the rest of our army focuses on other stuff.

That said, let's scale this up, shall we?

En Masse: An (almost) Unbreakable Battle Line

===========================

800/800, 40 Models (Breaks at 21 casualties, Quartered at 30 casualties)

Warband 1: Gundabad Orc Captain with Shield {Army Leader}

     x1 Gundabad Orc with Shield, Spear, and Banner

     x7 Gundabad Orcs with Shields and Spears

     x2 Mirkwood Spiders

Warband 2: Gundabad Orc Captain with Shield

     x7 Gundabad Orcs with Shields and Spears

     x1 Mirkwood Spider

Warband 3: Castellan of Dol Guldur with Morgul Blade

     x3 Fell Wargs

Warband 4: Castellan of Dol Guldur with Morgul Blade

Warband 5: Castellan of Dol Guldur with Morgul Blade

Warband 6: Castellan of Dol Guldur with Morgul Blade

Warband 7: Castellan of Dol Guldur with Morgul Blade

Warband 8: Castellan of Dol Guldur with Morgul Blade

Ally (Azog's Hunters): 

Warband 9: Fimbul the Hunter on Fell Warg

     x3 Hunter Orcs with Orc Bows

     x2 Hunter Orcs with Orc Bows on Fell Wargs

     x5 Fell Wargs

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Eyesore-time again: we've added 200 points to our list, and our model count has only improved by 4 (36 to 40). Now, of course, 40 is on the low-side of average for 800 points, so this isn't necessarily bad. Plus we've worked in some very nice quality-of-live improvements here that just were out of our price range at 600 (we now have the Fimbul upgrade plus a second Captain, and a third Spider). But if you're looking for a return on 200 points, you'd typically want to see more than 4 additional models. Might is also an issue again (only 7, which is low) and we only have one model who can Strike (Fimbul) who is... look, Fimbul's great and all that, but he's not exactly putting the fear of God into most enemy's big heroes at 800 points (plus he's not even the army leader). Neither, for that matter, are two Gundabad Captains.

Fortunately, this list is specifically designed so that other components can deal with those larger heroes. And front and center in that task are our Castellans... six of them.

Think about the "big heroes" you'll typically see at 800. There are definitely some who are a threat to one-shot a Castellan: Aragorn mounted with Anduril is exhibit A (personal experience talking), but there's also a bunch of other big, nasty, mounted heroes (Azog, Bolg, Dain, Dwalin, Elrond, Thranduil, Gil-Galad, Elendil, Uber Boromir with Lance) and any number of monsters (The Balrog, Gwaihir, Troll Chieftains, Dragons). And in a one-on-one fight, those heroes can absolutely wreck a Castellan. But put those big heroes on two Castellans (especially if they can't or haven't charged), and suddenly they get bogged down; maybe they even spend some Might to win fights, too (because if you lose a combat, two Strength 5 hits, with a Morgul Blade potentially lurking, hurts... or maybe the Castellan just goes after the hero's precious mount). And suddenly that hero's been rooted more or less in place for 2-3 turns, wearing the Castellans down, while the other Captain, 4 Castellans, Gundabad Orcs, Spiders, and Wargs have spent 2-3 turns wearing down the rest of the enemy's force. 

That's precisely why we've brought six of them in this list (plus the spare Gundabad Captain, who basically functions as a glorified Castellan with slightly better defense and 2 Might points): it allows us to tank what we need to tank (which Castellans are very good at doing) and still do what Castellans are ultimately exceptional at doing: grinding down high-defense shield walls (and obliterating average defense shield walls). We still have the core pieces the Castellan Shield Wall needs to thrive (16 S4 spears and a banner) and to keep them safe (three cavalry to counter-charge enemy riders, 5 orc bows to keep the enemy honest, and spiders to do spider things), only we've upgraded the number of them (more Fell Wargs, an extra spider, a second Gundabad Captain to call those key Heroic Moves in the front rank, and three more Morgul Blades for dealing with Mumaks, Great Beasts, Fell Beasts, Trolls, Bat Swarms... you name it). 

Once again, the Castellans have the freedom to tackle those alternate roles because the rest of our main battle line is solid: S4/D6 is phenomenal, and while F3 is meh, Courage 3 (on orcs!) means that we don't necessarily have to commit a Castellan to challenging every model with Terror. Don't underestimate that third Spider, either: the odds of rolling at least one 5+ on 3 dice is just north of 70%. No one's turning down a 70% chance to Paralyze at least one model each turn... and Castellans, in particular, are licking their lips (if they still have lips under those death masks).

I've also made some (perhaps) unconventional choices when it comes to warband breakdowns, so let me just say something quick about that. The Azog's Hunters contingent is (I think) pretty self-explanatory: all the Hunter Orcs are in that warband (to get the 4+ shoot value), as are a good chunk of our Fell Wargs (so the warband can go fast). I thought long and hard about putting the 3 Hunter Orcs on foot on Fell Wargs instead (and you could certainly do that--you have the Wargs to do it), but that messed with my nice, clean model count of "40" (even though you're not actually losing any models). Hunter Orcs on foot are no slouches in combat, either (2 attacks at S4, even if their defense and courage aren't great). I split the Spiders up mostly so I have fast models in more spots in the event of a Maelstrom scenario (specifically Heirlooms), but you could put them together if you wanted (there's plenty of space in both captains' warbands). The other weird warband is the three Fell Wargs with a single Castellan. This is, again, mostly for Maelstrom scenarios (specifically Heirlooms); but sometimes it's nice to have some fast models that you can drop in one particular spot away from your main battle-line to claim an objective that's in an awkward spot. This is that warband: three Fell Wargs can get to up to 3 objectives pretty fast, and there are very few models that will hold a contested objective longer than a Castellan, regardless of whether the rest of the army flees. Also, don't sleep on the five single-Castellan drops: even horde armies will be hard-pressed to have more than 9 warbands (and most conventional armies at 800points will be in the 3-5 warband range), and having a chance to see where your enemy is deploying before you commit your troops (or having a few Castellans you can drop in a random corner of the board in Command the Battlefield) can change the way a game plays out.

Finally, a word on the inclusion of Fimbul: our general strategy against high-Fight (6+) heroes is still going to be "tank and ignore" while killing the hero's surrounding troops (which, by the way, is a pretty safe strategy unless the hero is in Aragorn's damage tier--getting a successful Heroic Combat off a healthy Castellan is pretty hard, and getting a successful Heroic Combat off against two healthy Castellans is all but impossible). But for the mid-to-late game--after the enemy's heroes have spent Might (hopefully) to win fights (lest they be skewered by our S5/Morgul Blade Castellans)--it's good to have at least one model who's F5 and can Strike who can come in for the finishing blow. One of the Dol-Guldur wraiths could fill that role, too, if we were okay with having that somewhat fragile wraith be our army leader (I am not sure I'm ready to do that, but if you want to it's an easy swap: trade the second Captain and a spider for the Witch-King, Lingering Shadow, or other wraith of your choice). But I went with Fimbul because in addition to bringing the option to Strike, he also gives us another fast cavalry model, and his ability to run through all sorts of difficulty terrain without penalty is great on its own, and potentially devastating when he's running in tandem with three Mirkwood Spiders (who may be able to Paralyze the model he's charging into with their webs). In the end, I thought he was more flexible than the wraith option. But again... you do what you like (or run them both).

Conclusion

Tiberius: Thanks Rythbyrt for writing that! In our next post, we turn to the plains of Rohan to view a very controversial cavalry model: Sons of Eorl. Often viewed as limited to low points levels and fielded in quantities of 1-6 because of their synergy with Eorl the Young, these amazing cavalry models often disappear from most Rohan lists (they are also absent from all the Legendary Legions). Are Sons of Eorl only useful in lists with Eorl the Young (at the expense of most of Rohan's alliance options/Legendary Legions)? Do you need to keep their army bonus? Find out next time - until then, happy hobbying!

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* Okay, I admit it... that was low.

** Perhaps not every word... but close.