The Stuff of Legends: the Rise of the Necromancer

Good morning gamers,

Two weeks ago, Centaur brought us back to our Stuff of Legends series with a look at the Army of Dale. Today we'll be reviewing one of the Legions that I haven't had a chance to test out until recently: the Rise of the Necromancer. I was a big fan of the Necromancer in our Evil Spellcaster pod and you can get detailed reviews of this Legion from Asgarod's blog and a hot-take from Sharbie on his blog - check out their stuff if you haven't already, they're really good! This Legion, like few others, is all about one model: the Necromancer. Amazingly though, it hasn't gone overboard on what he can do and even gives some nice bonuses to the other models in the list so that they can do what they already did even better. I kind of hope this Legion forms a template for whatever Sauron-based second-age army gets released in the ever-hoped-for-but-not-announced-yet Last Alliance supplement that is made. Let's get right into it!

Part 1: What Do You Need?

Photo Credit: TheForce.Net
Legion Tax: 250pts

The Legion requires you to take the Necromancer of Dol Guldur - which, let's face it, we all saw coming. The Necromancer is an older model (some complain that he should have gotten a new model with the book release) but has solid rules for a caster. With 25 Will points to cast/resist spells, participate in combats, use as Fate points, and stay alive, he's got a LOT of time to cast spells (and can even fight for a while if he's not facing anything that will wound him easily).

Beyond him, you have access to three models: Nazgul of Dol Guldur (we all saw that coming), the Keeper of the Dungeons (some of you may have seen that coming - I didn't), and Castellans of Dol Guldur (I don't think anyone saw that coming). Me and Rythbyrt were both excited when we saw Castellans were in the list, in part because they're the only non-75pt models that you can buy for the army, which gives you some army building choices for different points levels (and also, we really like Castellans).

While you need to take the Necromancer, the list of models that you ACTUALLY need to take varies from player to player (and scenario to scenario). Nazgul of Dol Guldur are really good at closing on ranged threats (since they will come back on a 2+ with a potential 6" advance from their resurrection - spells like Sorcerous Blast or Banishment will make them come back on a 3+) and provide Might for Heroic Actions (Moves and Combats mostly) and thanks to their Unholy Resurrection ability, it's hard to actually kill them. Castellans have no Might and are not mobile, but can hold ground longer than Nazgul can and won't give up kills in games like Contest of Champions easily. Castellans also kill things easily (2 Attacks at S5 with potentially a Morgul Blade), while most of the Nazgul of Dol Guldur can struggle to kill stuff (2 Attacks at S4 - Khamul and the Slayers of Men are the exceptions).

The Rise of the Necromancer Bonuses

Legion Bonuses

The Rise of the Necromancer Legion gives the Necromancer the standard Dark Powers of Dol Guldur army bonus of +1 die to his casting attempts if the Necromancer uses at least 1 Will point. This gives you the ability to spend 1 Will point from your store each time you cast and have a roughly 56% chance of casting your 5+ spells (Chill Soul, Sap Will - spend 2 Will to get above my recommended 70% threshold), a 75% chance of casting your 4+ spells (Compel, Instill Fear, Curse, Shroud of Shadows, Your Staff is Broken), and a 97% chance of casting your 2+ spells (Drain Courage, Transfix).

You then pick up the ability for the Necromancer to cast two spells a turn so long as a) he doesn't cast the same spell more than once, and b) he doesn't target the same model more than once. While this means you can't Immobilize-then-Compel a hero to drain all their Will away in a single turn, it DOES mean that you can do something that most one-caster armies struggle with: deal with two heroes at the same time. With 25 Will and a reliable chance of casting most of them on 1 die, you can easily hold down 2 heroes for ~5 turns before you start running into trouble. We'll talk about different ways to do this in the tactics section later on.

The Necromancer gets a THIRD buff - he gets 2 Attacks instead of just 1. Amazing - and paired with F7, the ability to cast Immobilize/Compel/Channel-Shroud-of-Shadows, and Drain Soul (paired with Curse), this guy can absolutely WRECK a big hero. And considering that he can slam a hero with one spell then buff himself with Shroud of Shadows to reach him . . . oh no, life is horrible for someone (but we'll get into this more when we get to the strategy section of the post).

Finally, everyone in the army (including the Necromancer) gets Resistant to Magic - which isn't that reliable if it's the only die you get and your opponent cast the spell successfully on a 4-high or better, but is really great when you have lots of Will on your character (like Castellans and the Necromancer do). For Nazgul of Dol Guldur, your starting 1 Will isn't going to stop much magic on its own, but if thrown in with a free Will point, you're probably stopping at least 1 spells more than you otherwise would. Keep in mind with any of these models that you want your Resistant to Magic die to be a different color than your Will points, since a Will point that gets a natural 6 is restored to your Will pool, while a free die doesn't do that.

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

The Dark Powers of Dol Guldur is the most flexible of the evil armies in the Armies of the Hobbit and gives you a lot of different options (both because of its diverse profiles and because of its historical alliance options with Azog's Hunters and Azog's Legion). Let's look at what the trades are for this Legion relative to the original list.

Weakness #1: Bye-bye Warrior Options

It should go without saying that this list doesn't have any warriors in it. All-hero armies will usually have fewer numbers than their opponents and since many of the scenarios require you to control one or more places on the board, having a lower model count means you have to work harder to take away your opponent's 2:1 or 3:1 advantage on objectives.

Strength #1: MUCH Better Necromancer

The Necromancer got three additional buffs in this Legion - Resistant to Magic, 2 Attacks, and two casts/turn. All three of these are useful in their own way (reducing the Will you need to spend to stop enemy spells targeting you, higher probability of winning fights/wounding your opponent, and the ability to deal with two threats instead of one with your magic). This Legion is all about the Necromancer and buying him time to do things - and boy can he do things!

Weakness #2: No Fast Models

All of the models in this list have 6" movement and they are all affected by difficult terrain. With the only ranged attack being Chill Soul from the Necromancer (12" range), your army could have problems catching fast enemy models, getting across the map, and navigating around choke points. Without a March hero in the list, the army will always be moving 6" each turn, slowly plodding towards the enemy.

Strength #2: Shenanigans Everywhere

I was very half-hearted with my previous paragraph, since the Nazgul in this list can appear 6" ahead of where they died - so having your Nazgul be the archery meatshields to get +6" of "blink" movement before starting their normal 6" movement can mean that these guys can catch the enemy if they're trying to play "keep away." The Lingering Shadow (aka "Blinky") gets an extra 3" of "blink" movement after he resurrects, which gives him an effective travel range of 15" on the turn after he dies . . . which is kind of insane. The Nazgul's Resurrection rolls will be on a 2+ while the Necromancer is on the board (or a 3+ if they were killed by magic/an Elven-made weapon and the Necromancer is on the board), which should succeed with 0-1 Might points (save 1 Might/Nazgul if you're worried).

The Castellans can all be given Morgul Blades too (if you have the points for it), which can turn a F5/S5/2A hero into another hero's worst nightmare (especially if that hero is D5 or below and has only 1 Fate point). The Necromancer has Drain Soul, which is like having a Morgul Blade all the time instead of just once per game. Yeah, these guys are a pain to deal with in combat if they win (and the Blades are cheap ways to make them far more deadly than their profile would appear to be).

Weakness #3: Poor Deployment Knowledge

I didn't mention this above, but this army deploys as a single warband, which means you have to place all of your pieces on the board when your opponent has only committed 0-1 of his own warbands. Normally in a Dark Powers list, you can deploy a warband or two (or five if you're spamming Castellans) before you have to commit where your power piece is going - not so here. Deploying as one warband can be a boon in a maelstrom scenario (since you know everyone will be together), but it can also mean that your opponent starts with his models spread out across the map (maybe controlling multiple quadrants in Command the Battlefield), making you trudge across the map trying to root them out.

Strength #3: Only One Weak Piece (And Nothing Dies)

Besides the Keeper of the Dungeons, your Nazgul are pretty immune to dying with their 2+ Resurrection roll and D6. Yes, they can be used to trigger Heroic Combats if you're not careful (save your Might, people), but they're probably coming back. So long as their death doesn't cause problems for the Necromancer, you should be fine. While you don't get Resurrection saves on your Castellans or the Necromancer, you do have 12-25 Will points that can be spent as Fate points. If you've read my post on multi-purpose Will Spell Casters, you know that you don't actually have 11-24 Fate points on these models, but you still are a bear to deal with and to clear from the board. 

Castellans aren't casters (the article above is specifically about casters), but they have to split their Will three ways between fighting enemy models, passing Fate rolls, and staying alive - and if you assume you'll be fighting for 5 rounds (5 Will) and staying alive (1 Will), you only have 6 Will for Fate points. Naturally, you're going to spend as much Will as you need to block incoming damage, but assume you have 6 before you need to start adjusting your game plan. 

The Necromancer needs 1 Will to stay alive and with double-casting, you probably want to assume that he'll spend 10-12 Will casting for 5-6 turns (if you're charged, you won't be casting). You also want to fight some (in very managed fights, so not every round), so if you save 5-6 Will for 5-6 turns of fighting, you only have 6-9 Will left to use as Fate points. That's still a lot (and with S6, he won't be knocked down by Cavalry, so most heroes will struggle to gronk him), but not as much Fate as you'd think.

Part III: Legendary Legion Improvements

The first thing I wish this Legion had was a way to have a banner rule. Rerolls are important - especially for Castellans who can't boost their rolls with Might. Nazgul can win a close duel here or there if they spend Might, but having the Necromancer count as a banner would be really handy. The Necromancer himself only gets 2 dice (which I'm grateful for - really, I am), and when most of your army (not Khamul) has 2 Attacks, you can struggle to kill things. Getting to 3 dice with a banner reroll would make the army a lot better (and if it were 6" from the Necromancer, the army would need to hang close to him in order to benefit from it).

The other thing that I wish they had was the ability for the Castellans to not spend Will for being engaged in combat from the Will of Evil special rule while within 6" of the Necromancer. These guys are supposed to be servants of the Necromancer and it would be nice if he could keep them around longer by his presence - and it would make it so that you're not worried about being "just charged to death" (something you don't have to worry about in the Black Riders LL). Unlike the Black Riders (who get a carte blanche "we don't spend Will when we fight"), this would be situationally tailored to a specific application of Castellans: as a hedge around the Necromancer.

Honestly, I don't think this list needs anything else - I like it a lot. This isn't to say that it doesn't have its problems (we'll get to managing those in a minute), but it seems complete and I can't think of anything else that I'd want it to do.

Part 4: Army Strategies

Let's start with the mix of Nazgul and Castellans. In the games I've played with this Legion, I think a mix of these guys is great - what that mix is will vary from player to player. Since you can get almost 2 Castellans for every 1 Nazgul you take, you're going to shrink your army size (and limit your ability to control objectives) by taking lots of Nazgul, but the more Castellans you take means you've got less Might to call Heroic actions (you don't want the Necromancer calling them - his Might is far too valuable) and your Castellans get stuck in place. My go-to has become roughly 1 Nazgul for every 2 Castellans, which gives you a nice mix of Might/shenanigans and line-holding capabilities.

Regardless of whether you like Castellans or not, there's a big question about what Nazgul to bring. As has already been mentioned (repeatedly), Nazgul provide you with the shenanigans your army needs to really mess up the enemy's game. At the core of it, you need your Nazgul to kill things and probably to get/hold places, so here's my ranking of "best" Nazgul to get in this Legion:

#1: Khamul - yes, a controversial start (and one my son heartily disagrees with after a disappointing go with him), but hear me out: Khamul is the only 3 Attack model in this list and he gets +1 To Wound (albeit with a dueling penalty), so treat him like a 0-Might Castellan when it comes to calling heroic actions and save his Might for boosting dueling rolls. When he wins, he'll kill stuff - and chances are good your opponent may throw models into him hoping to drag him down thanks to that dueling penalty. If he does die, so what - he's coming back! Keep him harassing your opponent when he dies, slaying lots of models when he wins, and you won't be disappointed.

#2 & #3: Slayers of Men - probably another controversial choice, but you need to kill things with this army (depending on your points level, you might have 5-12 models) and these guys do just that. They are the only Nazgul who compare to Castellans in killing power (besides Khamul, who you should take) and unlike the Castellans, they have 2 Might. I highly recommend saving their Might to call Heroic Moves (or boosting dueling rolls) and use them to escort your Castellans where they need to go.

#4 & #5: Abyssal Knights - I've used "blinky" and liked his tactical redeploying, but a 3" blink every Priority phase isn't going to win you a game of Reconnoitre. For the low-low cost of one extra Nazgul (which is quite pricey in this list, admittedly), you can get TWO Nazgul who can hop over to each other and make pursuing them REALLY difficult. In objective games of all kinds, this means you can escort a few Castellans to one objective with one of these guys, skulk around with the other, and then "magically" surprise your opponent with Castellans that are locked in place on one objective and some Elven-made weapon-wielding Castellans on another objective. It's pretty great.

#6: The Witch-King of Angmar - Extra Might is great, but ultimately less useful in this list than if you were to pick a single Nazgul (or maybe two) for a standard Dol Guldur list. Still, having 3 Might around to call Heroic Moves is great, so I'll put him solidly at #6. 

#7: The Lingering Shadow - I struggled with whether the Lingering Shadow should come before or after the Forsaken and ultimately gave it to him by a ribbon of cloth - having the 3" blink move during each Priority phase to threaten enemy spearmen and get traps can be really helpful for your army and occasionally it can help you get across the board faster (to chase down archers/cavalry or get off a board edge). He's not a great fighter, so having a single model that can pop up somewhere faster isn't THAT useful, but can still be useful.

#8: The Forsaken - Having a spear (the only spear in this list) that can reroll all failed To Wounds is really good - but not good overall on a 2 Attack S4 model (who might be making 1 supporting Attack at S4). Rerolling failed To Wounds becomes much better as your Strength gets higher and as your Attack stat goes up, but he's got the stock-standard 2 Attacks at S4 - better than five of these guys at killing (four if you think the next guy has any merit), but only marginally so and that's all he brings to the table.

#9: The Dark Headsman - You know how I put the other models with +1 To Wound high on the list? Well, I left one of them for the very bottom - the Dark Headsman. While potentially the most dangerous of the Nazgul against a multi-wound model (able to turn natural 6s To Wound into D3 wounds), his ability to trigger this rule requires that a) he wins the duel with a -1 penalty and only 2 Attack dice, b) gets a natural 6 to wound on 2 Attacks (30% chance without a trap, 50% chance with a trap - and it means he didn't need his two-handed axe regardless of whether there was a trap), and c) b) your opponent doesn't save that wound with Fate. With only 2 Attacks, his likelihood of getting a good dueling roll without spending Might is not great low and so he really needs to be fighting with another friendly model to be effective (and while you could make this work in a Dark Powers of Dol Guldur list by spear-supporting/spider webbing the target, I just don't think you will have anyone free to fight with him because your numbers are so low). So yeah, he gets last spot . . . perhaps unsurprisingly. Honestly, I wished he and the Forsaken had their rules swapped (D3 wounds from a natural 6 on a model that doesn't have +1 To Wound and could support would be great, while rerolling all failed To Wound rolls with +1 To Wound would be awesome).  

NOTE: It was pointed out in the comments that the Dark Headsman doesn't have a two-handed axe - and that's good because he is more reliable without it. However, he still has a 30% chance of triggering his rule, which means the only draw for him is Piercing Strike - and frankly, he's a bit too much like a Castellan if he's S5 (but without the staying power if a big hero runs into him).

Next, we need to talk about those Morgul Blades on your Castellans. While Morgul Blades were talked up in Rythbyrt's review of Castellans in our In Defense Of series, Castellans in this list are probably up against warriors most of the time. Taking Morgul Blades on these guys sounds good (and I think taking a few of them is fine if you'd be wasting points otherwise), but if you do take them, heroes are encouraged to smash through your Nazgul (maybe even combatting off of them into the Necromancer) if they're afraid of a Castellan. So I would recommend that most of your Castellans skip the blade and just be 40-point anti-warrior weapons (but again, take them if you would be wasting points otherwise).

All of these guys (Nazgul and Castellans) are better than the Keeper of the Dungeons because you're not worried about anyone else dying quickly in this list. You CAN keep the Keeper alive if you cast Shroud of Shadows on him every turn, but let's face it: we don't want to commit the Necromancer to casting one of his spells every turn to probably keep the Keeper alive. With 2 Attacks and +1 To Wound without penalty, he's not much different from a Slayer of Men (except that they're going to come back in most cases, while the Keeper can be S5-6 . . . if he's alive). Just get another Nazgul (or two Castellans) and leave this guy at home. While some models become more viable as the points level increases (because you have no other options), you have no model cap and you have generic Castellans to take, so even as the points level increases, just take more Castellans.

NOTE: for those of you who like the Keeper, we'll be covering him in a few weeks in the post on the Pits of Dol Guldur LL - and he gets lots of time in the sun in that list. In this list, he just doesn't seem to be worth it, but don't think I don't like the guy!

Finally, we need to talk about the Necromancer and five different spell-casting-combos you can use depending on the occasion. The Necromancer has one of the most flexible magical arrays in the game (in many ways better than his former self, though many of them are cast on a harder difficulty level) and in this Legion he gets to pick two spells to cast each turn. To avoid being "that guy" who stares at a long list and hees-and-haws about what spell to cast first and then what spell to cast second, let's go into a game with a few strategies already in our back pocket that we can fall back on:

• Double Low-Will Target Neutering (Transfix & Compel): when you have two important models that have 0-1 Will that are coming at you, the Necromancer has a good chance of locking them down with Transfix and Compel. If they've already charged your other units, Transfix/Compel will make sure they can't call a Heroic Strike against you (if they can) and won't be able to make Strikes against you (which is always useful). If they haven't charged you, they either become non-factors for your army to ignore, or the Compelled model becomes someone you can rush with lots of models, call a Heroic Combat and a Heroic Strike, and then slam into the Transfixed guy. Pretty nasty stuff with very little effort from the Necromancer (and the rest of your army).
• Objective Clearing (pick two of Chill Soul, Compel, & Instill Fear): Instill Fear is a great spell for clearing an objective that the Necromancer is moving to/standing on - scattering enemy models directly away from you and keeping them from moving on the following turn is really great. If someone passes their Courage test (or if there's another objective within range), you can use Chill Soul to kill them (or Compel if they're a multi-wound model and "you just want them off your objective"). For a low-model-count army, clearing objectives is an important part of most games - and the Necromancer could be handling several objectives for you with this strategy.
• Single Hero Nuke (Heroic Channelling with Curse & Shroud of Shadows): Curse is one of the nastiest spells when channelled - it eats up all your Fate points, no matter how many you have. This will, of course, have no effect on heroes like Castellans who use Will as Fate and will have no added effect when channeled against heroes with 1 Fate point (since an unchannelled Curse removes 1 Fate point). However, if you cast Curse on a 2+ Fate hero and then target yourself with Shroud of Shadows, you have the ability to leave your opponent vulnerable to death if he takes a single Wound AND you're guaranteed to have the higher Fight Value. Nasty and simple, very effective and dangerous.
• Wizard Crippler (Sap Will & Your Staff Is Broken): Most of the time, Sap Will isn't that necessary to cast - if your target has 1-3 Will points, he's probably spending most of them to stop a Transfix, Compel, or Chill Soul. If you Sap Will, he may say, "yeah, I let it through" and you're like, "well, I hope I get a good roll then." Since Sap Will is cast on a 5+, it's going to be more reliable (and may cost you less Will points to cast it reliably) by going with something else. But Wizards are different - whether it's one of the three Istari (Gandalf, Saruman, or Radagast) or "just another caster" (of which Galadriel, Ringwraiths, Barrow-Wights, and Cirdan are the best targets), targeting a caster's will store with Sap Will means that there is potentially less action that they get to do if they "just ignore the spell." If the target is a wizard OR has a staff as their weapon (like the Undying does), you can use Your Staff Is Broken to make them unarmed if that's their only weapon and remove that free Will point each turn (if it's a Staff of Power), further reducing their effectiveness.
• Long-Term Resource Drain (Drain Courage & Curse/Chill Soul): Drain Courage is ridiculously easy for the Necromancer to cast - and since everyone in your army causes Terror, chances are good you're going to find a use for reduced Courage in your games. If the target is a 1-Will hero and your army has time before the hero arrives, you can throw a 1-die Drain Courage at the guy and he needs to weigh the cost of losing 1 Courage (in addition to the -1 Courage penalty from any of the Ancient Evil/Harbinger of Evil you have) and NOT having any Will to stop a Transfix/Curse/Chill Soul later. Similarly, if you see a 1-2 Fate hero making its way up the board, you can target that hero with a Curse or Chill Soul (the Curse will cost you less Will to have a >70% chance of passing, but the Chill Soul is likely to be more painful in the long run). This is intended to be a "chip resources away" strategy and is best employed early in the game.

The important thing to keep in mind with these five strategies is that each turn you need to figure out what you actually need to do to win. On the first few turns, you may not have a lot of options, but as your opponent draws nearer to you, you need to choose between a Long-term Resource Drain, a Wizard Crippler (if he has one), or a Double Low-Will Target Neutering to slow down the advance of two heroes (or just drain their resources). When your opponent begins to engage, you need to figure out if you're going all-in on a hero with a Single Hero Nuke or do a Double Low-Will Target Neuter. As you move into the late-game, you may need to focus on Objective Clearing or continue the Double Low-Will Target Neutering that you were doing at the start of the game (or possibly throughout).

Part 5: Army Showcase

At 500 points, this list is going to struggle just because of their numbers - and while it might be tempting to throw yourself into the Nazgul of Dol Guldur, I think the actual strategy at low points level is to lean into the Castellans. Since half of your points are wrapped up in the Necromancer, your ratio of Nazgul to "vanilla" Castellans to Castellans with Morgul Blades would look like this:

While I think there might be a case for 1 Nazgul and 4 Castellans (3 with Morgul Blades), I like having the extra body and running 6 Castellans with the Necromancer - that list won't be fast and it won't be resurrecting, but it will be a PAIN to kill (which could keep you from coughing up points for being broken):

• The Necromancer of Dol Guldur
• 4 Castellans of Dol Guldur
• 2 Castellans of Dol Guldur with Morgul Blades

As we scale up to 700 points, we can get a good mix of Nazgul and Castellans and follow our 1:2 "rule" for Nazgul to Castellans. The list below is full of killing machines with the Necromancer, Khamul, 2 Slayers of Men, and 5 Castellans with Morgul Blades. If you'd prefer to have Abyssal Knights instead of Slayers of Men (or if you're not sold on Khamul and want to sub him out), fine by me. While 5 Morgul Blades might look a bit excessive, with 450pts to play with, we risk wasting a lot of points if we do anything else:

For me, the 3:0:5 configuration seems to work pretty well - pick your preferred Nazgul as a season-to-taste (though I chose the three wounding guys in my list, I would also consider running Khamul and the Abyssal Knights, as mentioned above):

• The Necromancer of Dol Guldur [ARMY LEADER]
• Nazgul of Dol Guldur (Khamul the Easterling)
• 2 Nazgul of Dol Guldur (Slayers of Men)
• 5 Castellans with Morgul Blades

Army Summary

I don't think this is a competitive army out of the box - and I think even a veteran player with it could struggle against high-Courage/auto-pass-Courage horde armies - but I really like the Legion and have enjoyed the games I've played with it. Not dying (or coming back to life) really makes the list exciting to play with, since you aren't THAT worried about the damage you're taking until it gets REALLY bad. If you haven't tried this Legion, I highly recommend it - and if you have played with this Legion, let us know in the comments below if any of this was helpful. 

In our next post, we delve into the foil of this list: the Vanquishers of the Necromancer. When the Fall of the Necromancer sourcebook was released, this Legion dominated the tables and prompted a few necessary (and not necessarily crippling) erratas. Given the changes that were made, how does the list function? And what's the best way to think about playing with it now that you HAVE to take Gandalf? Find out next time - until then, happy hobbying!