Defence of the North Inspired Lists: Azog's Legion Revisited

Good morning gamers,

We're almost done looking at different armies you can make with the scenario participants from Defence of the North. Today we turn to a faction entirely represented by models required for scenarios from the Appendices: Azog's Legion. While not a "Legion" in the "Legendary Legion" sense, this faction has an incredible array of models from the scenarios, mostly because they are the only evil faction in the Battle of Five Armies scenario. Regardless of what kind of models you like to run in Azog's Legion, chances are good you'll have the models you want if you collect what's in this book (unless you're like me and you're intrigued by a double-Catapult-Troll list):

• Azog with everything (including the Signal Tower)
• Bolg (on foot)
• 5 Gundabad Orc Captains
• 2 Goblin Mercenary Captains
• 30 Gundabad Orc Warriors with shields
• 30 Gundabad Orc Warriors with spears
• 24 Gundabad Berserkers
• 24 Goblin Mercenaries
  
• 4 Ogres
• 6 War Bats
• 2 Gundabad Trolls with Crushing Clubs
• 2 Gundabad Trolls with Scythe Gauntlets
• 1 Catapult Troll

Photo Credit: the Armies of the Hobbit 

You can actually run an Azog's Hunters allied contingent led by Bolg and featuring a mix of 12 Hunter Orcs (but you probably have a box of 24) and 12 Fell Wargs, which is pretty cool. Since you have no other heroes, though, you'll have a max of 16 models from that allied contingent (Bolg and 15 followers). You could also use all those Gundabad Orc Captains to ally in the Hunter Orcs, the Fell Wargs, and up to 8 Mirkwood Spiders from the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur (your choice of Azog or Bolg to lead the Azog's Legion force - either will pick up Master of Battle). This would, admittedly, be quite good too.

However, our list today is going to be pure Azog's Legion because there's one really neat piece I want to use . . . and it won't help the Azog's Hunters units and most of the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur units at all . . .

The List (and lots of other lists)

If you read our post on Azog's Legion in our Bare Necessities series, you probably know that I've worked on and off on a Signal Tower. The list below does something really simple: get Azog, get a Mercenary Captain with a few guys to back him up, get the Signal Tower, and then fill Azog's warband with Gundabad Orcs:

• Azog on the White Warg with heavy armor and the Stone Flail
• 13 Gundabad Orc Warriors with shields
• 7 Gundabad Orc Warriors with spears
  
• Goblin Mercenary Captain
• 5 Goblin Mercenaries
• The Signal Tower
• 7 Azog's Lieutenants
  

700 points, 34 models, no shooting, 14 D6+ model, 1 cavalry but 6 ambush models and free Heroic Marches, 15+ Might points

Did you catch that - we have 15 Might points! Having 34 models at 700pts isn't shabby - especially when most will benefit from a global banner rule and a 6+ save. The army has lots of deployment-based shenanigans and relies on the brute force you can bring to bear with 20 higher-Courage Morannon Orcs and one of the biggest beater heroes in the game. Let's see what the army does!

Army Theory

In an army like this, there's no better place to start than with the Signal Tower. I've talked about this before - and top American players like Matt Iverson have talked about it too - but it bears repeating again: the Signal Tower gives you INSANE value if you have the bodies to support it. At 200pts (and with no official model), the Signal Tower is a hefty price tag on an already expensive model - but with it, you get 7 models (all Battle Companies-style mini-heroes, roughly equivalent to Dunedain) and four "elements" (all of which count as banners for scenarios where banners give you VPs . . . even though one is a horn).

These elements are very hard to kill (D10 with 3 Wounds) and grant all Gundabad models a 6+ save (which improves the 6+ save that a Gundabad Berserker gets for Oblivious to Pain), free Heroic Marches for your Gundabad heroes (all of which have March as an option), a battlefield-wide banner rule for all Gundabad models, and a war horn (+1 Courage for all friendly models) that gives -1 Courage to all enemy models. That's crazy good value if you've already got roughly 175pts of models with the purchase.

But did you notice something about these buffs? Most of them (not the horn) benefit only Gundabad models, which means the heroes in Azog's Legion, the Trolls, the Ogres, the War Bats, and the Gundabad Orcs/Berserkers will all be fine, but the Goblin Mercenaries and basically anyone you ally in will be unaffected. This is . . . a big change in the way you want to play. In theory, allying in Bolg with 8 Hunter Orcs with Orc bows and 7 Fell Wargs is really good (gives you lots of fast troops and bowmen - something the Azog's Legion list is missing), but these 15 warriors aren't going to have a banner helping them out and won't get a 6+ save (though Bolg will get all the buffs and everyone will benefit from +1 Courage).

While we could ally in the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur to get Gundabad Orc Captains/Warriors in our list that would benefit from the Signal Tower, the things that we'd actually want from that list that Azog's Legion doesn't have (Hunter Orcs, Fell Wargs, Spiders, possibly Castellans) won't benefit at all either. So while the Signal Tower is good value, it's pretty much good value for Azog's Legion only, and not really anything else. It's well-designed that way, I guess . . .

Back to the list though: we know if we have at least 3 elements of the Signal Tower manned (always manning the war horn and the 6+ save, alternating between the banner and the Marches since we will usually need one or the other but not both), we can have 24-25 models on the ground, ready to fight with the enemy. Each of these models will have a 6+ save (which isn't reliably, but also isn't nothing), get a free banner reroll (allowing some of our Gundabad to defend by shielding and get more dice than your average shieldwall file), and get a boost of extra speed from Azog and 3-4 Azog's Lieutenants in the early stages of the game. While the Signal Tower deploys independently of Azog, most of these models will come down with the big man himself - and that's HUGE.

I did want to talk briefly about my choice of war gear for the Gundabad Orcs: since we get banner rerolls on everyone, I was tempted to take 20 Gundabad Orcs with shields - we have 30 at our disposal, after all. 30 F3/S4/D6 models that become C4 with the war horn is . . . well, pretty insane - they cost as much as Dwarf Warriors with shields, but get +1" of movement and +1 Strength in exchange for -1 Fight Value and -1 Defense (and those guys are ridiculously well-priced for what you get). Having 20 guys who can defend by shielding with 3 dice (effectively, when you factor in the reroll from the global banner flipping your lowest roll) or attempt to win normally with 1 rerollable die is pretty good, especially if we've got a smashy, smashy hero like Azog in our army. I wanted part of the battle line to be able to be supported, so I included a few D5 spearmen, but mostly I wanted my guys to be D6 shield lads, able to hold positions for a while until Azog comes in to save the day.

Speaking of Azog, we have Azog in our list - and what comes as no surprise to veteran Azog's Legion players is that we've included the White Warg (extra movement, Might/Will/Fate, and Terror is really good) and the heavy armor (D7 is almost always better than D5). Master of Battle with 6 Might is awesome, and it's what makes Azog such a feared opponent once you've had a bout with him or two. But the surprise addition that we've gone for here is the Stone Flail.

I get asked about the Stone Flail from time to time when I defend it on Facebook - and to be honest, I thought it was neat but not necessary until my son started running Azog . . . and by "started running Azog," I mean to say that he runs Azog all the time. And every time he takes him, he takes the Stone Flail. If you intend for Azog to be slicing up heroes, there will be very few situations where the Stone Flail will help you since the Stone Flail allows you to wound with S5 and +1 To Wound (no penalty) at a max of F6, but you also have I Am the Master that makes you never wound Hero models on worse than a 3+. The Stone Flail CAN help you if you find yourself up against a D3 hero (who is ideally F5 and below, since the Stone Flail drops you down to an unmodifiable F6) in order to wound on better than a 3+ (S5 with +1 To Wound against D3 is a 2+). Sure, you could face a D4-5 hero and wound on a 3+ and still benefit from the knock-down benefits of the Stone Flail if they survive your onslaught, but if you plan to run into D6+ heroes, it's not really doing anything for you, right?

Well, yes - you're right. It isn't. But . . . most players aren't going to WANT their D6+ hero to fight a F7 hero who has 6 Might points, Heroic Strike, and Master of Battle, now are they? Sure, there are SOME heroes who are feeling better about that match-up than others, but even the likes of Sauron, Gwaihir, or the Balrog don't really want to go up against Azog for more than a few rounds (and Sauron is likely to try cheating with magic if he does). Instead, your opponent is probably going to look for a warrior that's D6+ (wounded on 5s or 6s) to tie up the big man - and if he does that, you probably want to have the option to get +1 To Wound against that guy . . . and for that, you need the Stone Flail.

If your opponent has lightly-armored troops, he may opt for a different approach to dealing with Azog: charge him with more models than Azog has Attacks. This would, ordinarily, keep him from being able to successfully call a Heroic Combat and charge into more guys (including heroes who didn't call Heroic Strike and are F6 or below). If you can charge him, you really only need 4 models to tie the big guy down . . . but that ALL changes if he uses the Whirl special strike (which, with the Stone Flail, doesn't affect his unmodifiable F6 - neato) and gets to hit each and every one of those lightly-armored guys once . . . and if you're below D6, he's wounding you on 3s if not 2s . . . with 6 Might points . . . yeah, that Combat's going off.

Azog is a beast - and he's really good in this list. With 20 guys to support him and a really fast mount (and my choice for second-best mount in the game), Azog can absolutely crush the enemy lines wherever he wants and can rely on his warriors to buy time until he can crush the enemy bit by bit. And while he can be a bit squishy with only 1-2 Fate points (depending on whether he borrows the White Warg's Fate point), that 6+ save is really handy for him - he's really, REALLY hard to hold down that way.

But the best thing about this list is the shenanigans you can play with the placement of the Signal Tower itself and the warband of ambushing Goblins that we brought. The Signal Tower doesn't deploy normally - you place it somewhere on the table (in your deployment zone or your opponent's deployment zone - literally wherever you like). In some scenarios, this can give you a tremendous early-game advantage and can turn into a really powerful late-game advantage too. We'll talk about that more in the strategy section below.

But we also have 6 Goblins that can arrive on a board edge of our choosing OR in a wood or a "building" . . . you know, like the building we're going to place at the beginning of the game (aka, the Signal Tower)! If we've positioned our Signal Tower to be in a strategically valuable position, our Goblins are able to deploy to support it, further swinging whatever deployment-based advantage we sought to gain. There will be times, of course, when deploying off a board edge (or some other piece of terrain) will be more valuable (we'll get into that later, too), but having the OPTION to deploy with the tower is really good.

Okay, enough chat about this list - let's get into the strategy section!

Gameplay Strategy

Maelstrom & Object Missions (Pools 1 & 3)

The Maelstrom missions all require you to be somewhere - so good news, we're going to start by placing the Signal Tower in order to get an advantage from the get-go! In Hold Ground, we want to place the Signal Tower right in the center of the map with 4 Lieutenants at the top of the tower (one manning each element, since we might need to both fight AND March from the get-go) and 3 Lieutenants near the bottom of the tower. Depending on how your Signal Tower is built, you want these three Lieutenants to stall anyone's attempt to rush the top of the tower (or the center, I guess). Azog can arrive wherever he wants on the first turn and will want to March his boys (for free) towards the center on Turn 2 if he's not near anyone. Honestly, I don't know that it matters where he appears - just THAT he appears - on the first turn, since you're not trying to rendezvous with any other warbands that will arrive on a board edge and you can March for free/fight wherever you show up. The Goblins will, of course, deploy in the Signal Tower to give you up to 13 models in the center by Turn 3 of the game. If Azog tears apart a chunk of the enemy army and then Marches his boys to the center, having 13 models in the center should give you enough time to keep the enemy busy until you can swarm the center with your Gundabads.

In Heirlooms of Ages Past, it's unclear to me whether the Signal Tower gets deployed before the objective markers or after - if before, place your markers as close to the Signal Tower as possible; if after, place it between three (or more) markers. With four models at the top of the tower manning the elements, the other three models can each call a March (without calling "At The Double!" - by affecting only themselves, they don't restrict where their friends can move) to get to three different markers on the first turn (ideally). If you find it, race it up the Signal Tower and March to the center to defend it with Azog as quickly as possible. Even if the guy carrying it gets shot, you'll have more models around it if you've got it at the top of the tower and a host of troops (including Goblins) keeping the enemy from getting to it.

Because the center of the board doesn't score you anything in Command the Battlefield, the placement of the Signal Tower is a bit tricky. Deploying in the center of the board (or near the center of the board) has value, though: anyone your opponent sends towards it will be out of scoring range! With 3 models at the bottom calling Heroic Marches (assuming it's in one of the four quadrants and within 3" of the center of the board), you should be able to contest three quadrants on the first turn of the game with Azog arriving (paying 1 Might point to promote a 1 into a 2 - or a 3 into a 4) to support them. If Azog walks on second, pay whatever Might points you need in order to arrive near the largest contingent of enemy models you can - even if you have to convert a 1 into a 4 with 3 Might, there's value in having Azog show up near/relatively near the enemy's largest group of troops. You have the option of moving the Goblins onto a board edge that tips a quadrant in your favor OR deploying to the Signal Tower to protect it/dump more models into the nearby quadrants after a turn or two of walking.

When it comes to the object missions, we again begin with the deployment of the Signal Tower. In Seize the Prize, we don't have a gunline to stare at the Prize - but we don't need it. With the Signal Tower in the very center of the map, we can March with Azog on the first turn while up to 3 Lieutenants attempt to dig up the Prize. If they get it, they'll want to give it to Azog, who will then race around our ranks and towards the enemy board edge. We can then send our remaining Lieutenants back up the tower to defend it. If Azog has free Heroic Marches and can get clear of the enemy, we're going to get it off the board for sure. Our Goblins will want to be deployed in the Signal Tower if it's being assaulted, but can also be deployed in a terrain piece on our opponent's half of the board (or walk on from our opponent's rear board edge) to assist Azog in getting it off. Some extra Might to call a Heroic Move to keep someone from catching Azog will be welcome (even if it means Azog needs to cut back a little to charge someone and call a Heroic Combat to slingshot back towards the board edge, that's fine).

Destroy the Supplies will see the Signal Tower deployed on an enemy supply marker, probably with most of our Lieutenants deployed on the bottom of the tower. We'll want the banner element and the 6+ save element manned, with five combatants at the bottom of the tower - all touching the supply marker (and ideally so one of them can't be charged on the first turn). Why? Because we want our opponent to feel the pressure to defend their supply marker at the start of the game with a ton of resources, giving Azog some time to race ahead and bring the battle away from our supplies and fight almost entirely on his side of the board. Our opponent could deploy models at the top of the Signal Tower, but anyone who starts that high up isn't coming down quickly, so we're okay with that on some level. Yes, we probably want to leave a few Gundabads to defend our supply markers, but knowing that we have Goblins who can arrive in the tower or walk on behind the enemy's supply markers (or defend one of ours) means we have lots of options at our disposal, even if we have all our Gundabads advancing. Make sure at least one of the elements of the Signal Tower make it to the end of the scenario - they count for banner VPs!

In Retrieval, we could camp the Signal Tower in the enemy zone, but it would probably be better to play defense with it and defend our own. We'll want at least three elements manned (war horn, banner, 6+ save) with 4 models defending our "flag" at the base of the tower. This should also keep flying models from jumping on it as easily. Azog will be pressing the charge ahead, hopefully breaking away to carry off the enemy flag while the Gundabads hold the mid-field. If he can't get away, we have Goblins to help with that; if he can, well, the Goblins can play defense.

Control Missions (Pools 2 & 5)

Okay, so our deployment strategy for the Signal Tower is different based on the scenario we have: in Breakthrough and Capture and Control, we have objectives placed at cardinal points on the board, which means we know that one objective marker will be 12" into our side of the board. That's where the Signal Tower is going. With 3 models at the bottom and 4 models at the top (this gives you redundancy up top in case your opponent shoots one of your Lieutenants), you should be able to hold your rear objective for a while. Azog's warband will be deploying up front on the centerline in all three scenarios, contesting the center right away.

In Domination, we place the objectives before we pick board edges (and the Signal Tower is deployed once we know the board edges but before any models are deployed), so we have two options: we can either deploy it just barely on our side of the center line so we can contest the center (and because our other guys will be there), or we can deploy it on one of the other objectives on our side so we know we have it under our control at the start. I would personally do the latter, but do what you feel. Azog needs to be pressing to clear objectives as quickly as possible, securing at least three of the objectives by Heroic Combatting from one to the other to ensure you maintain control.

When it comes to getting places, we've got a TON of tricks up our sleeves (much of this has been documented in our previous post in the Bare Necessities series). Heroic Marches are essential for infantry-heavy armies in Reconnoitre, but we can do one better than that in this list: we can start with the Signal Tower on our opponent's board edge! With 4 models at the base of the tower (and the remaining three manning the 6+ save, the free Heroic Marches, and the global banner), we can call 4 Heroic Moves (without any "With Me!" being called so our guys can move independently of each other), we can get four models off the board at the start of the game before anyone else shows up. This is unstoppable by our opponent UNLESS he has the Wolves of Isengard Legendary Legion (which also gets models on the board at the start of the game - but I don't think they can charge us with their early arrival movement). If we can get all four of these guys off the board and no one else, our opponent needs to get 2 models off by the end of the game to keep us from getting 7 VPs. Azog should spend Might to arrive on the first turn and then use his free Heroic Marches to get up the field quickly to intercept the enemy. Our Goblins can either arrive in a terrain feature to help intercept enemy troops trying to get off our board edge or in the Signal Tower (potentially getting more models off the board - we can get up to 4 more models off while still being able to quarter ourselves, though we probably don't want more than 3 Goblins to get off because we don't want Azog to have to die).

Storm the Camp can be played similarly, though we want the Signal Tower near the enemy camp, not in it (else he'll get to deploy guys in it, which we don't want). By having it near it (say 12" away from the edge of our opponent's deployment zone), our opponent will be tempted to send troops to take it - and that will cause their forces to split and weaken the troops that can take on Azog's crew. Our Goblins will want to walk onto the board in the enemy's camp so we have 6 models to immediately challenge whoever they have defending it. Alternatively, if your opponent has a few straggling warriors racing for our camp, we can have them walk on to defend it.

Finally, in Divide and Conquer, we want the Signal Tower right in the center where we can not only start with control of all three objectives, but we can reinforce the central objective with 6 Goblins starting on Turn 2. Man all four elements and have Azog March from one of the corners to the center as quickly as possible. Push the attack and hedge up around the Signal Tower as much as possible.

Killing Missions (Pools 4 & 6)

Well, our strategy is simple for these: use Azog to the hilt! Azog gives us nearly unparalleled damage potential in Contest of Champions, but since we only have one power hero, curbing enemy heroes is going to be tough. Hopefully we can get some free Heroics with Master of Battle, countering Heroic Combats with Heroic Combats of our own if our opponent's army leader tries to crash through our ranks. Where possible, feed the enemy army leader one model each turn - until Azog can break through and kill the leader. The Signal Tower should be far away from the action and the Goblins probably want to deploy on our board edge to make sure a good chunk of our models are nowhere near the fight.

We also have an advantage in To The Death, since each element of the Signal Tower can give us VPs and we've got a big hero to carve up the enemy. Gundabads don't look like much, but they're efficient killing machines when they win fights. Our Goblins are a bit of a liability in this scenario unless they can reinforce a flank where we already have an advantage, so be strategic with their use (commit them where they'll tip the scales). Similarly, we run the risk with only one big hero of giving up a lot of wounds in Lords of Battle, but if Azog can kill a lot of stuff (and help manage the fights of the Gundabads), we'll be okay.

In the hero-slaying missions, we're either really happy or really not: in Assassination, our assassin will probably be assumed to be the Goblin Mercenary Captain, but technically, we could choose any of our Lieutenants OR the White Warg! Personally, I'd be okay with Azog dismounting if you can get him and the Warg into the target hero, dealing a powerful blow with the White Warg to finish him off after Azog's has a good swing at him. If you want to keep Azog mounted and settle for 5VPs, that's fine too. Your opponent will have 9 possible targets - keep all your Lieutenants and the Goblin Mercenary Captain with the Signal Tower so your opponent will have to walk towards it (and the Signal Tower should be on your board edge at the very, very back of the board).

In Fog of War, choose one of your Lieutenants to keep alive and hide him at the top of the Tower (lying down is great if your opponent doesn't have fliers). The Tower itself should be at the very, very back (seeing a pattern?). Pick any hero to kill that Azog can run over (which is basically anyone) and make sure Azog is screened properly with plenty of Gundabads or terrain. When it comes to a piece of terrain that you want to capture, pick somewhere that your Goblin Mercenaries can arrive in - and then march away from that piece with Azog so your opponent doesn't have a lot of forces to challenge them. Most of your goal is going to be breaking your opponent's force as quickly as possible to get the clock ticking - if you have 13 models that are unengaged by the enemy (7 lieutenants and 6 Goblins), your opponent will have to kill almost everyone with Azog . . . tough ask if Azog is killing stuff.

Finally, we have Clash by Moonlight . . . um, we have no shooting, but we're pretty fast. We don't want our opponent killing a lot of heroes, so we're going to stick all 7 lieutenants at the top of the tower, getting as many in-the-ways as we can to protect them from harm. Similarly, we want our Goblins to show up safely in the tower UNLESS there's an opportunity to flank-attack a vulnerable enemy hero who is hiding behind our opponent's ranks. We'll need to endure one round of enemy archery, but with 20 Gundabads, we should be fine. Get locked in fast and do your best to break the enemy (ideally with Azog).

Conclusion

That does it for Azog's Legion. Next week is our last post in this series - and it features another surprise faction you can run from this sourcebook. While Azog's Legion only appears in the appendices, the list we'll talk about next time has elements of its army scattered across the appendices, the Mirkwood missions, and the Lothlorien missions. What you get at the end is one of my least favorite kinds of armies to fight - find out what it is next time. Until then, happy hobbying!