The Stuff of Legends: Assault On Lothlorien

Good morning gamers,

Defence of the North brought us six new Legendary Legions and today we're digging into the one that I was the most excited about when I heard about it (and I know I'm not the only one out there who was anxious to give it a whirl) - the Assault On Lothlorien LL. I started playing the game with Lothlorien and Moria - and this list features elements of Moria, Mordor, and Angmar - all of which have been top-tier lists since the current rules set was released (and allying them together just hasn't worked that well - until now). While the profiles you have access to are . . . not the usual competitive staples (or at least, not the way you'd usually rely on them), the list is incredibly strong and fun to play (and while definitely fun for you, it doesn't have to be a slog for your opponent). So let's dig in and take a look at the list!

Part 1: What Do You Need?

Legion Tax: 120-160pts

The list requires you to take Muzgur, Orc Shaman, a new Orc "shaman" profile released with Defence of the North. Additionally, you need to take at least one of the two named Goblin Shamans (Druzhag or Ashrak) - both of which give you access to spiders (and are the only heroes who can bring spiders in your army). This list, like the Cirith Ungol, Men of the West, and Ugluk's Scouts Legendary Legions, has race-based warband constraints (Orcs can only be led by Orc heroes, Goblins can only be led by Goblin heroes, Spiders can only be led by Druzhag/Ashrak), which makes your warband construction a little complicated, but not overly so.

From the Mordor/Orc side of the house, you have access to Muzgur, Orc Captains, and Orc Shamans - all of which lead 12-15 warriors, thanks to a boost to Hero of Valor for Muzgur and a boost to Hero of Fortitude for the Shamans. This boost gives you the option to run the list Orc-heavy, with Orc Warriors, Warg Riders (maybe - more on that in a minute), and possibly a few Orc Trackers (more on them in a minute too).

From the Moria/Goblin side of the house, you have access to Ashrak, Druzhag, Moria Goblin Captains, and Moria Goblin Shamans - all of which can, again, lead 12-15 guys thanks to the boost to Valor for the named guys and the boost to Fortitude for the Shamans. If you don't want to pay +1pt/model for F3 Orc Warriors, you could lean hard into these guys. For warriors, you have access to Moria Goblin Warriors (their bows are good, spears/shields are fine - though Orcs generally speaking make better front-line guys), Moria Goblin Prowlers (epic throwing daggers in this Legion and potentially +3 To Wound if the situation is right - more on that in the tactics section), Warg Marauders (simply amazing), Giant Spiders (who are sort-of-kind-of Moria units, can only be fielded by Druzhag/Ashrak, and get a free upgrade to Venom-backed Spiders if Ashrak is in your force), possibly Fell Wargs (who aren't in the Legion list, but ARE listed in Druzhag's profile - I was a little surprised that WASN'T handled in the August 2022 FAQ), and Bat Swarms (which anyone can lead and are awesome). This list gives you access to Moria's two innate fast models (Warg Marauders and Bat Swarms - if you don't count Wild Wargs, Fell Wargs, and Giant Spiders led by the named shamans) and while they aren't NEEDED in this list, they do provide some very nice options for dealing with certain scenarios and big enemy heroes (so you'll probably always see them).

Finally, on the Angmar side of the house, we have Wild Warg Chieftains (who I love) and Wild Wargs (who I also love). The Wild Warg Chieftain can only lead Wild Wargs and Bat Swarms, so that's . . . probably what he's doing if you bring him. :-) As your only killy hero option, having at least one of these guys is essential (I think) to making this list work (though more on that later). Not only can you pair him with a Bat Swarm to deal with something big (passing Courage tests easily with the Bat Swarms if Druzhag on the board - Fury or Druzhag's base C4 if he's within 12" of the Bat), but you can also use Druzhag to Enrage Beast the Wild Warg Chieftain so he gets to F7 (unbeatable FV if a Bat is in the same fight), S8 (wounds most heroes on 4s or 3s), and 5 Attacks (ridiculous). He will take a S10 hit at the end of the round, though - so just hope you get a 1 or 2 and you'll be fine (or just take it - he's got 3 Wounds and 1 Fate).

Once you've picked Muzgur and at least one of the named Moria heroes (I opt for Druzhag - we'll hash through the differences between Druzhag and Ashrak later in this post), I think you ACTUALLY need to take a Shaman of some kind (depending on your preference for Orcs vs. Goblins), you need to take a Wild Warg Chieftain (or 3-4 spiders), and at least one Bat Swarm. These five elements will run you ~320-325pts - which means that even in a 500pt game, you have 175pts to spend on up to 37-53 troops (depending on whether you picked up the Wild Warg Chieftain or the spiders). We'll dig into this later, but hopefully it's clear here: this list can pack in the models if it wants them.

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

As a general rule, you probably don't ally Mordor, Moria, and Angmar together (Impossible Alliances aren't great the more factions you ally in). However, Mordor with Moria or Angmar with Moria can be really powerful alliances - or running any of these armies pure would be a strong contender too. So let's see what the Legion lacks that you can get from any of these five options - and what it gets in return by forcing the alliance.

Weakness #1: No Heavy Infantry

While Angmar doesn't have heavy infantry (besides Cave Trolls, that is) and Moria's access to heavy infantry is limited (just Blackshields, who are forced to pay for Hatred (Dwarf) - something that's nice when you can actually use it and worthless when you're not fighting Dwarves), Mordor has no lack of heavy infantry - and both Black Numenoreans and Morannon Orcs are VERY competitive warrior options for Mordor armies. Whether you're looking at running pure Mordor or an alliance, adding in some D6 warriors is always nice.

This list has no D6 warrior options - and with wargs and shield-less Goblins and Orcs being D4, enemy archery could deal massive damage to your army once they're within 12" of you (since shooting attacks against your non-Goblin models get +1 To Wound AND your Defense is trash).

Strength #1: Great Archery and Archery Resilience

Did I mention that you're fighting at night all the time? Enemy archery won't be able to target your models until they are within 12" of you, which means your Defense might be low, but but it won't matter until you've nearly closed with the enemy.

Additionally, if you lean heavily into the Moria Goblin archer models who have Cave Dweller (Moria Goblin Warriors and Warg Marauders), you can shoot from 18" away and your opponent's archery won't get the +1 To Wound against you. That's awesome, no?

Weakness #2: No (Really) Big Heroes

Most lists (especially Legions) have at least one big hero for you to smash enemy models and epically duel the enemy's champion. This list has Wild Warg Chieftains (who can't call Strike or Defense) but no other power heroes. Their named heroes are shamans and while two of them are 2A models, they're not very killy heroes.

Strength #2: Unrivaled Shamanic Augmenting Power

So about those Wild Warg Chieftains: they may not have Strike and they may not have Defense, but with Druzhag in your corner, you don't need Strike. Wild Warg Chieftains begin at F5/S6/3A and if you cast Enrage Beast on one, it will become F7/S8/5A, which is better than most heroes who can't Strike (tied with Quickbeam). If you channel Enrage Beast, it becomes F8/S9/6A, which is just insane. Pair this with a Bat Swarm and you can have the FV advantage over anyone in the game (with or without the channel).

Weakness #3: None of the Usual Devastating Spellcasters

Usually, Mordor armies have a ringwraith or two to suppress enemy heroes or do other weird shenanigans. They also have some pinch-hitter casters like Kardush or the Mouth of Sauron depending on what kind of casting you want. In Moria, Blackshield Shamans can deal a nasty punch to a big hero with only one weapon (or a cool piece of gear). This list has none of these options.

Strength #3: More Reliable Casting

The casters this list does have are MUCH better than in their normal lists because they get to reroll a casting die. If you followed our Mastering Magic series, you may recall that my rule of thumb for casting is at least a 50% chance of success when casting on a friendly figure, at least a 70% chance of success when casting on an enemy figure, and to throw an extra die when channelling. In this list, you can reliably channel Fury on 2 Will with your Goblin shamans, Orc shamans, and Druzhag/Ashrak, you can reliably cast any of Muzgur's spells on a single die, and spells like Shroud of Shadows or Enrage Beast can similarly be cast reliably on one die.

Strength #4: Better Wounding Capabilities

In a few Legions, models can get +1 To Wound bonuses. Sometimes this requires two different groups of models to be engaged in the same fight (like the Animosity rules from Ugluk's Scouts or the Cirith Ungol Legions). This can be really tricky to pull off. In this Legion (and the Black Gate Opens), all you need is to outnumber the enemy . . . which isn't that hard to pull off with cheap troops. Since you also get +1 To Wound with your shooting attacks against most foes, your doing a tremendous amount of damage to your opponent's army with your Orcs, creatures, and Goblins.

This is especially true of Prowlers, who have throwing daggers that get +1 To Wound when they harass/charge and two-handed axes that force them to get -1 to their dueling roll to get +1 To Wound. If they can get someone else in the fight, these guys will go up to +2 To Wound, which is pretty lethal. If you can trap the enemy, you trigger Backstabbers, which gives you +3 To Wound . . . on a 7pt model . . . which is just insane . . .

Part 3: Legendary Legion Improvements

I have two slight improvements for this Legion - there are no profiles that are wasted and there are several ways to build the list, which is good. The first thing I'd consider adding, however, is access to Fell Wargs. The debate about whether Druzhag can take them begged the question of whether they were in the list in the first place. Frankly, I'd rather that they be listed and if they could only be fielded by Druzhag, then tack that onto the list building rule for spiders. 

I also think that Kardush should be in the list - as the other/original Mordor named shaman, he would fit in really well with the rest of the gang and would give the list some offensive magic. Besides that, I love everything about this list.

Part 4: Army Strategies

Ok, our first decision point is what to do with Muzgur's warband. As it happens, in this list Muzgur can lead five kinds of units: Orc Warriors, Warg Riders, Orc Trackers, Wild Wargs, and Bat Swarms. While you can run Orc Trackers, your Goblins will benefit far more from the archery (since they aren't limited to a 12" range), so you're probably skipping on them UNLESS you want that 4+ shoot value. You should just skip on the Warg Riders with Orc bows entirely - Warg Marauders are much better options.

Since yo have to take Muzgur and since he can lead 15 guys, I've defaulted to taking the following warband every time I've played - and yes, these guys get shot up by enemy archery since the +1 To Wound will affect them, but they also hold the line a bit better than Moria Goblins who can't get above F2 (unless they're Prowlers):

• Muzgur, Orc Shaman
• 8 Orc Warriors with shields
• 6 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner

This warband costs 192pts and gets you an 8-file, 2-rank shieldwall that can advance against the enemy and potentially debuff a hero's Strength or Transfix the hero so they can't do anything. Muzgur can start spear-supporting in the second rank so he doesn't get shot, but can change-up to being engaged if you want to benefit from his 2 Attacks and the potential to get Will points back by killing. I will note that like most 2A heroes, you really want to manage the fights he's in - he's not actually a killing piece.

But if you're going to go hard into the Orc shieldwall, you want your second purchase to be an Orc Shaman. Not only does this Shaman allow you to take up to 12 additional Orcs in your shieldwall (or maybe 11 guys in the shieldwall and a mounted Orc Tracker as a flanker), but he also makes all those Orcs unafraid of charging the worst of Terror walls. Yes, they may still die, but if you can use the engage-one-double-up-on-one approach with shieldwalls (showcased here), you can hopefully crack through the enemy lines quickly with these guys.

Once you know what you're doing with Muzgur's warband, it's time to look at the Goblin heroes. I always take Druzhag and he's always my army leader - not only can he give Fury to your Wargs, Bats, and Spiders, but he can make any of those things much better combattants. My usual units to buff with Enrage Beast are Wild Wargs (who go from F3/S4/1A to F5/S6/3A) and Wild Warg Chieftains (who go from F5/S6/3A to F7/S8/5A). I wouldn't channel Enrage Beast - ever: even with the reroll to cast, you want to make sure this thing goes off. As a result save your Might for boosting. If, at the end of five casts, it worked every time, you have 2 Might for Heroic Moves/boosting combat rolls (though you want him FAR from the action).

In his warband, you want to take as many Goblins with Orc bows as you can - these have become quite good archers at long last and if you've got up to 15 guys in Muzgur's warband, up to 12 guys in an Orc Shaman's warband, and up to 12 creatures in a Wild Warg Chieftain's warband, you can make sure everyone in Druzhag's warband has an Orc bow - either Moria Goblin Warriors with Orc bows or Warg Marauders (who don't count towards your bow limit, by the way).

Speaking of Wild Warg Chieftains, you should get a Wild Warg Chieftain - even before getting a Shaman. These guys are the power of the list and since they can be augmented by Druzhag, they can be absolute wrecking balls in this list. As was already mentioned, they can be F7 heroes and able to wound most things on a 4+ or a 3+, which makes them on-par with a lot of monsters DESPITE not having Heroic Strike. Yes, these guys will take a S10 hit at the end of the round (3+ to wound), but with 3 Wounds and a Fate point, they can take that beating pretty well if they've won their fight (which they probably have). I go crazy with the Heroic Combats when I buff these guys - gotta take advantage of that profile while you have it! If you don't like these guys, though, a few Giant Spiders can get similar stats when enraged (but without Might to boost their rolls/call Combats).

I would also accompany any Wild Warg Chieftain (or Spiders) with a Bat Swarm. Since all of your other units are low Fight Value, I haven't seen much benefit to taking 2 Bat Swarms, so I'd default to 1 and run more Warg Marauders if you have extra points. Bat Swarms are great with Wild Warg Chieftains (since the Warg Chieftain will have at least the same FV as the opponent, but usually a higher one). With Fury cast by Druzhag, Bat Swarms and Wild Warg Chieftains won't have a problem stalling out the worst heroes the enemy has to offer - and even if they lose, you've only committed 115pts to dealing with something that probably out-costs you by 2x or 3x. Both units are also devilishly hard to kill without a Morgul Blade/other insta-kill rule. Yep, they're a very effective combo - and they're really, REALLY fast.

Next, we need to talk about Wild Wargs. Wild Wargs are great units - they're the cheapest fast infantry in the game, they dig up objectives well, they take up lots of space (which is a problem for shieldwalls), they can be buffed by Druzhag, and they're one of two units that a Wild Warg Chieftain can lead (them and Bat Swarms - and ANY hero can take them in their warbands). So take a lot of these guys. If your opponent has lots of shooting, a few of these guys can be an effective meat shield to protect your Orcs - and with 10" movement, these guys can hide behind the main line and run in front of it to replace losses if need be. They can also race wide around the flanks of the army in scenarios like Storm the Camp or Reconnoitre, forcing the opponent to direct resources against your main body to deal with them (or face losing). And if you can get two of them into the same fight, they're S4 with +1 To Wound (and you may very well trap your foe because of how big their bases are). Yep, they're great troops - get lots of them.

Finally, we need to talk about Ashrak, Warg Riders, and Spiders. This may be incredibly controversial, but here it is: I don't run Ashrak, Warg Riders, or Giant Spiders in this list. I don't. I just don't. Spiders are 20pts/model, have a high-Offense profile, and look really cool - but to get the most out of them you have to run them en masse and I don't think they're better than Warg Marauders (30pts/model). A 7pt Enraged Wild Warg will have a better profile (except for the 2 Wounds and the impending S10 hit - and while the free upgrade to venom isn't nothing, 3 Attacks at S6 is also not nothing) - so I'd rather have lots of those guys running around than a few spiders. I'd rather have 6 Wild Wargs and a Bat Swarm for 77pts than 4 Spiders for 80pts - and the more spiders you feel you need to bring, the lower your model count gets and the less likely you are to be able to trigger the +1 To Wound when outnumbering rule. So I don't run spiders.

Because I don't run spiders, I don't run Ashrak - but even if I did run spiders, I could get Fury for those spiders with Druzhag and while I can't turn them invisible, I can half Fight Value with a Bat Swarm instead of a channelled Shroud of Shadows and if I can keep a good distance between my Wargs and the enemy bowmen, they won't be able to shoot at me. Ashrak costs about the same as whatever Shaman you're bringing, but doesn't help Orcs or Goblins pass Courage tests. Yes, you're giving up 3-4 turns of turning a spider Invisible (one turn of which the spider could be halving the Fight Value of the guy he's fighting) - but I just don't think it's worth giving up another hero or a lot of guys to run. So I don't run Ashrak.

Warg Riders are in a tough spot here, since you have Warg Marauders in the Goblin warbands who get more attacks, can shoot even if they move their full distance, and have a higher Courage value. You also have Orc Trackers who can shoot better than Warg Riders and cost the exact same amount of points (their Defense is a little lower, but neither have great Defense). The only advantage these guys would have is if they are equipped with throwing spears (one shot after full move, 8" range, S3), but with Warg Marauders that can move full and still shoot (two shots after full move, 18" range, S2), even this doesn't have that much appeal. I'm glad Warg Riders are an option for continuity in the list, but you don't need them. So I don't run Warg Riders.

Okay, with the controversy behind us, let's look at some lists!

Part 5: Army Showcase

Our first list is a 41 model, 500-point list that has three heroes in it - Muzgur, Druzhag, and a Wild Warg Chieftain. I have a Warg Marauder, 11 other wargs, a Bat Swarm, 13 Goblins with bows, and a 6-file shieldwall block (led by Muzgur). All told, it's a nasty team to have to fight (and probably has 10+ models more than its opponent at this points level):

• Muzgur, Orc Shaman
• 6 Orc Warriors with shields
• 6 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• Druzhag the Beastcaller [ARMY LEADER]
• 13 Moria Goblin Warriors with Orc bows
• 1 Moria Goblin Warrior with spear
• Wild Warg Chieftain
• 11 Wild Wargs
  
• 1 Bat Swarm
  

At low points levels, shooting is a big deal - and we have 13 Orc bows that can shoot from 18" away with +1 To Wound. As we discussed above, getting more bodies into the list increases your damage output if you can double-up in fights - and with 41 models and lots of shooting, we have a good chance of getting a lot of multiple combats. We have our Wild Warg Chieftain, Bat Swarm, and the Wild Wargs to super-buff with Druzhag, which gives us a lot of options for dealing with whatever is "big" on the other side of the board (for five rounds, at least).

You are lacking a banner and a Shaman in this list, but at 500pts, we'd really be undercutting our numbers if we had both of them in there. While I generally think the Shaman will be valuable to you, at this points level, I think you can rely on the shooting and NOT engage Terror models, so the Shaman is more optional than at higher points levels. You can also have Druzhag cast (or even channel?) Fury if you know Terror is going to be an issue - that makes your Orcs still blunder about, but the Wargs, Warg Chieftain, and Bat Swarm are going to be just fine. That said, every list has to give up something at 500pts - and the Shaman (and banner) was my choice here.

The final thing this list is actually missing is Heroic March, but since we don't have to worry about running down an enemy gunline (thanks to nighttime and stuff) and since we have 13 fast models, I don't think it matters. We also don't have any spiders, but frankly at this points level, we'd be hard-pressed to get more than one or two anyway.

As we scale the list up to 700 points, we get a lot of the stuff we've been missing (and get to a WHOPPING 54 models):

• Muzgur, Orc Shaman
• 8 Orc Warriors with shields
• 6 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
  
• Orc Shaman
  
• 6 Orc Warriors with shields
• 5 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Orc Tracker on warg
• Druzhag the Beastcaller [ARMY LEADER]
• 10 Moria Goblin Warriors with Orc bows
• 3 Moria Goblin Warriors with Orc bows and spears
• 2 Warg Marauders
  
• Wild Warg Chieftain
• 6 Wild Wargs
• 1 Bat Swarm
  

We've nearly maxed out our warbands (we have 4 slots free in the Wild Warg Chieftain's warband) and we only added one new hero (the Shaman). We added a banner, another Warg Marauders for speed, an Orc Tracker on warg (for fast supporting archery or to turn off a cavalry charge bonus), and only lost a few Wild Wargs from the Wild Warg Chieftain's warband. We actually don't have max bow limit, but you could get it easily if you wanted to get a few Orc Trackers instead of Orc Warriors (we have no space in Druzhag's warband for more Goblins).

I am sad that this list doesn't have any Prowlers - if we ran a Moria Goblin Shaman instead of an Orc Shaman, we'd have Prowlers in there for sure. Several Prowlers would augment the Orc anvil - especially if they're interspersed with the Orcs so that you can double-up with them (and trap the enemy with Wargs/Bats). I did something like this (adding a Goblin Captain, some Prowlers, and some spearmen) for my 800pt force when I helped Centaur/Rythbyrt prepare for NOVA. Yeah, that was fun.

But ultimately, I'm counting on the Orc warbands engaging - and for that, I need an Orc Shaman. Both Orc warbands can join together for a 14-file, 2-rank shieldwall and the banner near the middle to get as many rerolls as possible. Muzgur isn't our army leader and CAN fight if you want him to - but as was mentioned above, you need to manage his fights well (engaging does boost your Attacks and makes him more likely to regain Will points, but it also exposes him). But since he's not your Army Leader, it'll probably be fine if he fights.

We've still got the Wild Warg Chieftain, a Bat Swarm, and some Wild Wargs to buff out with Druzhag. EDIT: Devin commented on YouTube that the text of Enrage Beast only allows unridden Warg models to be targeted by Enrage Beast, so while I originally had something written up about Warg Marauders becoming mega-bombs, you can't do that - just super-size the Wild Wargs or their Chieftain.

Army Summary

This is a really fun list to run - and while it could murder an enemy army, more than likely you're going to suffer some heavy losses once the enemy engages. So long as you can manage your losses once you're within 12" of the enemy and keep your numbers high, I think you've got a solid chance of winning with these guys. But the being-able-to-be-murdered part is what makes this list fine for matched play in my opinion - as a long-time Wood Elf Warrior spam player, I can tell you that it is frustrating for opponents to face mass-shooting armies that tear them apart before they can get into melee. But when facing Wood Elves (or this list), you know that if you can just make it into them and beat them in a duel, they're probably dead. So you press on anyway, enduring the slings and arrows of outrageous Goblins (stealing/mangling a quote from Hamlet), so that you can grind them into tiny bits at the end. And if it doesn't work, oh well.

Next week we turn to the other Creature-Orc combo Legion from Defence of the North: the Fell Beings of Mirkwood. While the Assault on Lothlorien Legion is a really strong competitive choice, this Legion . . . doesn't look that way at all. In fact, this Legion has some stiff competition from a pure Mordor list or even a convenient alliance with the Dark Denizens of Mirkwood, but there are some great reasons to take the Legion - even if you're not fighting Elves. Find out the benefits of running this Legion next time - until then, happy hobbying!