Armies of Middle-Earth SBG: Countering Angmar, Part 1 -- Dealing with Terror

Photo Credit: ME!!!! (Thanks, me!)

Editor's Note: This article is part of a larger series on dealing with Angmar. Click the links for Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

It's still summer (which means I still have time to write :-P), so I'm back with another Armies of Middle-Earth! 

As you probably gleaned from the title, this one's a little special: instead of doing our usual blow-by-blow of a particular faction (there are a couple more of those in the pipeline that I think I'll get out before I start teaching again in the fall), this series will zero-in on how to counter a particular faction that seems to cause an inordinate amount of headaches for many players: Angmar.

If you're not familiar with Angmar (unlikely since you're reading this article, but still...), I'll be referring throughout to concepts that I discuss in our write-up on Angmar proper. If you need a refresher on the faction (and have an hour or so that you can devote to reading), I'd at least recommend looking at the discussion of strengths and weaknesses at the start (although the list of recommended community resources at the end may prove useful if you're interested in learning more about the faction). 

Finally, while this series will be keyed towards countering Angmar specifically, a lot of the list-building concepts and ideas we'll discuss will have applications beyond Angmar. So I hope it helps to get your creative juices flowing.

• Part 1: Dealing with Terror (July 2023)
• Part 2: Repelling the Shut-Down (July 2023)
• Part 3: Weathering Overwhelming Magic (July 2023)
• Part 4: Avoiding (Avoidable) Mistakes (March 2024)

Attacking the Weak, Avoiding the Strong

One of Sun Tzu's great principles in The Art of War is to attack where the opponent is weak, and to avoid where the opponent is strong. I often think about this principle when I'm thinking through list-building ideas for competitive play: is there anything I can throw into this list that will be able to exploit at least one weaknesses in common, competitive armies while perhaps blunting something that they typically excel in? Since Angmar is an army with a lot of strengths and weaknesses, I think this approach gives us a good chance of identifying both army lists and in-game tactics that can give us a competitive edge against most Angmar forces.

Over the course of these write-ups, we'll be working our way through several strengths that Angmar brings to the table. Using our original Armies post as a starting-point, and assuming that most Angmar lists you'll face will be what I will call "typical" Angmar lists (i.e., a pure force with the Army Bonus, at least one Ringwraith, 1-3 Barrow Wights, 1-2 Monsters, some Specters, and a decent chunk of Orcs who cause Terror -- as opposed to something weird like, say, Buhrdur with ten Cave Trolls), here's the strengths we'll be targeting:

• TERROR: There will likely be a lot of Terror (probably buffed by Harbinger of Evil). 
• SEEK, CONTROL, DESTROY: If you have a model that's essential to your army, Angmar can probably affect it, shut it down, or take it out before it does what you need it to do.
• MAGIC: The volume and potency of Angmar's magic attack is overwhelming and debilitating.
• MENTAL MISTAKES: Angmar has so many tools at its disposal, that it's easy to feel "oppressed" or "frustrated," resulting in avoidable mental mistakes.

We'll cover all of these strengths in upcoming articles (along with some articles on a taxonomy of heroes and the best factions for good/evil to combat Angmar), but I wanted to start the discussion today with Terror because it's the most obvious aspect (and, in some ways, the aspect that's easiest to deal with) of what makes Angmar such a hard match-up for many armies. 

First-off, a refresher of how this works: Spirit heroes are a staple of Angmar lists (playing a key role in Angmar's other two major strengths), and if the Army bonus is active, every Angmar Orc within 3" of a Spirit Hero gains the Terror special rule. Orcs are cheap as chips, their Defense 5 is good-enough against most ranged weapons (S2), and an orc with a shield / backed by a spear can be difficult to dislodge once they gain that Terror upgrade. Warg Riders also have the Angmar Orc keywords, so they also gain Terror through the army bonus. Finally, many models in Angmar have Terror built into their profiles (all three wraiths, Gulavhar, Buhrdur, the Shade, Barrow-Wights, Cave Trolls, and Dead Marsh Spectres), so they can be hard to charge regardless of where the Spirit Heroes are (or even how many of them are still alive). 

The Terror on these orcs, warg riders, and other models becomes even harder to deal with if at least one hero has the Harbinger of Evil special rule. Barrow Wights and Shades don't, and neither does Buhrdur or the Wild Warg Chieftain; but every other Spirit Hero in the list does (the Witch-King, Tainted, Dwimmerlaik, Gulavhar). For this reason, every competitive list will have at least one 12" -1 Courage bubble at average points levels (600+, and I've seen a budget Witch-King at even lower points levels). And because Orcs and Barrow Wights are cheap as chips, you should also expect to see a lot of Terror on the field.

If you don't plan accordingly, all this Terror can make it very difficult for you to exercise agency over your own models (and that's before we get to the debuffs, movement shenanigans, and magic that Angmar can throw at your models, which we'll discuss in the next three parts). So how do you prepare against this Terror wall? Here's some ideas to consider (that most lists can access if they wish):

COUNTER 1: Whenever possible, take at least some warriors with high courage stats. 

There are some ways to cheat around low-courage stats, like Fury or Bodyguard. We'll discuss those options in the next bullet point (because any answer to Terror is better than no answer to Terror), but the reason I led with this counter is because those Courage bypasses are almost always dependent on at least one particular model in your army (your leader for Bodyguard, a named model for Sworn Protector (X), or a caster for Fury / Aura of Command) being both alive and in the right spot for the whole game (or close to it). And as we'll dive into later in the series, Angmar excels at (1) moving models against their will out of the right spot (usually into a dangerous spot), and (2) assassinating priority models before the game ends. So while being able to auto-pass with Bodyguard is a good thing, you'll be in a more sustainable position to deal with Angmar's terror if at least some (6-8) of your bread-and-butter warriors also have at least decent courage stats (C4+), so you aren't dependent on a particular hero surviving the entire game (because he or she may not).

So why do I recommend Courage 4+? Friend-of-the-blog Sharbie did up a quick graph of the probabilities of successfully passing a courage test that's a helpful frame of reference. To summarize, while you obviously would prefer Courage 6-7 (a 92% / 97% chance of passing, respectively), your realistic Courage target should be Courage 4 (72% chance, up from 58% if you're C3 and a disheartening 42% if you're C2). Remember, too, that in Harbinger range that Courage drops by one, so if your C4 becomes C3, you'll still have favorable odds to pass your tests (58% instead of 42%). On the flip-side, if your troops are C2 base (i.e., orcs), their odds of passing tests plummets from 42% to 28% in Harbinger range--that's not good.

My new favorite boys... **

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** Proxy Sculpt by Quartermaster 3D (mine were purchased through Etsy.com)

So what does this look like? You might be surprised, because there's a surprising amount of C4+ troop options in a surprising number of army lists:

• For the forces of Good, there are some armies where C4+ is just a given (base C4 on all Dwarf warriors, C5+ on all Elf and Beorning warriors, and C6+ on all Ents and Eagles). For the rest, most can get at least some Courage 4 troops (or troop-like models, in the case of the Rangers): 
• The Rangers have C4 Rangers/Dunedain
• Numenor has C4 on all its Warriors via its army bonus (which is usually active, because Numenor's alliance matrix sucks)
• Minas Tirith has C4-5 Osgiliath Veterans (and C4 warriors of all stripes if their Army Bonus is active, which it sometimes is) 
• Fiefdoms has C4 Knights and C5 Clansmen of Lamedon (who are also Fearless within 6" of Angbor... plus, if the Army Bonus is active, all your Fiefdoms warriors are Fearless within 6" of Angbor)
• The Dead of Dunharrow have C6 Warriors / Riders of the Dead
• Rohan has C4 Sons of Eorl
• Dale now has the C4 Knights of Dale. 
• For the forces of Good, the notable exceptions are the Shire, Arnor, the Druadan, and the Survivors / Army of Lake-Town; and of those, only the Druadan and the two Lake-Town armies are entirely powerless to buff their Courage without allying-in some help (more on that in Counter 2, below).
• Most players assume that the Forces of Evil just struggle with Courage. And that certainly can be true if you only go with Orcs, Goblins, and beasts as your basic warriors. But like the forces of Good, Evil also has access to high-Courage warrior profiles in most factions: 
• Barad-Dur, Mordor, and Umbar have access to Black Numenoreans, which are base C4, can take a War Horn to get to C5, and in Mordor, the army bonus can push them all the way to C6 if you outnumber your opponent (which is pretty awesome).
• Barad-Dur and Mordor also have access to mounted Black Nums (Morgul Knights--can also get to C6 in a Mordor list), as well as Mordor Trolls (base C4, or C5 with the Mordor army bonus), and if your Mordor army bonus is active, you can get to C4 on your Black Guard of Barad-Dur, Mordor Uruk-Hai, and even Morgul Stalkers (because they're C3 base for some reason). 
• Moria can get C4 Blackshields if you have a Goblin Drum on the battlefield (as most Moria players will at average-to-high points levels). 
• Isengard has C4 Trolls, C5 Ferals, and of course C7 Berserkers. 
• Easterlings have both Black Dragons and Dragon Cult Acolytes (C4 base, C5 when they break with the army bonus, and potentially up to C6 if you ally in a War Horn from Mordor).
• The Serpent Horde has the Watchers of Karna (C3 base, but C5 when charging Terror models / defending against Blades of the Dead, plus they have Hatred (Spirit) for that juicy +1 to-wound). 
• Azog's Legion has C4 Trolls and C6 berserkers (plus Gundabad Orcs are C3 base, so with the addition of a War Horn or Azog's Signal Tower C4 is in reach).
• Even Angmar has the Dead Marsh Spectres, which aren't cheap but are a source of spammable C6. 
• That just leaves a handful of armies that don't have C4+ options for warriors (Khand, Far Harad, Sharkey's Rogues, Azog's Hunters, Dark Powers of Dol Guldur, Dark Denizens, Goblin-Town), and most of them have at least some of the tools described below for getting around that lower Courage (Khand / Far Harad have a Courage bypass, Azog's Hunters / Dol Guldur can bring war horns, and Goblin-Town / Sharkey's Rogues have enough models to keep re-taking failed Terror tests). 

Forward, my pretties!!!

Photo Credit: (C)Rythbryt

COUNTER 2: Bring some sort of Courage bypass (Fury, Bodyguard, Trample, etc.). 

As I said before, in my opinion, a higher base courage stat on at least some of your warriors is better than just going the courage-bypass route if you can do it. While Angmar has tools (namely, Drain Courage on their wraiths) to reduce courage stats on your warriors, it's generally far less efficient for Angmar to mitigate your troops in that way than it is to go after, say, a single hero who's essential to some sort of courage bypass (your leader for Bodyguard, your shaman for Fury). But if you're playing one of the lists described above where you don't really have access to high-courage warriors, some bypass is still better than no bypass... at least for as long as it lasts. And fortunately, most of the lists that don't have C4+ warrior options have at least one bypass option:

• For most Shire lists, Merry is an auto-include (and if you're not bringing Merry because you want some sort of pre-Fellowship Shire list with Gandalf, definitely look at allying with the Rangers so you can bring Halbarad and his Fearless banner). The +2 boost to Courage from Merry makes even a lowly, 4-point Hobbit Militia Courage 5 (plus they're Resistant to Magic, too, which is usually handy against Angmar).
• Rohan technically has Sons of Eorl at C4, so they're not strictly one of these bypass-only armies, but of course Royal Guards come with Bodyguard (plus they're F5/S4 on the charge if you have Theoden, and are D6 all the time). It's also worth mentioning Erkenbrand's +2C war horn here. I have played against Rohan with Erkenbrand many times, and I can tell you from personal experience that C5 Riders of Rohan, coupled with Bodyguard Rohan Royal Guards and C7 heroes will pass Terror tests very reliably. Yes, Erkenbrand doesn't have Strike (and if Buhrdur or Gulavhar get into him, you'll wish he had). But unless he's going toe-to-toe against a big hero--and let's be real, if your Rohan force has Erkenbrand in it, I guarantee you that you've also taken at least one other hero who's better-suited to go toe to toe with a troll or a vampire--you don't need Erkenbrand to fill that role of beater. So use him to call heroic moves, and keep him safe so the rest of your army can charge and charge again.
• For Arnor, the key is keeping Arvedui alive so all friendly Arnor models within 6" of him will auto-pass their Courage tests. That's easier said than done when Angmar can bring an assortment of monsters and magic to assassinate priority targets. Having said that, killing Arvedui is also easier said than done when Arvedui gets a 5+ save every time Angmar tries to gank him (because Malbeth is stupid). So it probably evens out.
• Far Harad's army bonus is similar to Arnor's, except that any Mahud Warriors within 6" of a Mahud Hero who is in combat will auto-pass. This can be somewhat tricky to pull off if you're dealing with Camels (i.e., if your hero charges an enemy more than 6" away from your camels), and the hero himself still has to pass his Courage test (C5 Mahud Kings can usually do it, but C3 Chieftains will flub, especially in Harbinger range). But at least it's some way to get your C2 Mahud / Half-Trolls into combat semi-reliably.
• Khand doesn't have a proper courage bypass, but assuming you have chariots (and let's be real--if you're playing Khand, you're going to have at least some chariots), chariots don't have to charge to deal impact hits (which means you never have to Courage test). It's a cheeky end-run around Terror, but hey--take what you can get, right?

Finally, most factions have the option to bring or ally-in a war horn. While I generally don't like spending 30 points a pop to bring one of these (and of course, Angmar has more tools than most armies for sniping them out), if your army is reliant on models that are C2-3 (or you like playing with horde armies where even the courage of your heroes is suspect), 30 points to increase your global percentage chance of charging into combats is usually worth it against Angmar, especially if you can boost your core models to that all-important Courage 4. 

• Nine good factions have troop options that can bring war horns: Minas Tirith (Warriors), Fiefdoms (Knights, Blackroot Vale Archers), Rohan (Warriors, Riders), Rivendell (Warriors, Knights), Lorien (Warriors), Khazad-Dum (Warriors), Army of Thror (Warriors, Grim Hammers), Dale (Warriors), and Halls of Thranduil (Palace Guard, Mirkwood Rangers). Additionally, since every good force (except Kingdom of Moria, which has war horns innately) is convenient allies with at least one of these factions (pick any of the elves), you can always bring a war horn in your good force if you wish, as long as you're willing to ally. 
• On the evil side, Moria has two options for drums (+1 Courage to all friendly Goblin models), while Sharkeys' Rogues and Angmar itself (more on that in our discussion of Counter #5, below) are the only LOTR-era armies that aren't yellow allies or better with at least one of Barad-Dur/Mordor (Black Numenoreans, Morgul Knights), Umbar (Black Nums), or Serpent Horde (Warriors). Meanwhile, every Hobbit-era army is at least yellow allies with Azog's Hunters (Hunter Orcs) or Dol Guldur (Hunter Orcs), so all of them can at least ally in a war horn if they want one. 

So,  to summarize, if you really want to boost your troops' global courage stat by +1 (or potentially +2, depending on your army bonus and hero options), there's only one faction that actually can't do it without an impossible alliance (Sharkey's Rogues), and one faction where you probably aren't doing it through a yellow alliance (Angmar, ironically... you can technically ally yellow with Moria for the Moria drum, but that alliance really isn't going to fix Angmar's courage issues (since Angmar doesn't have any Moria Goblins) while costing Angmar its own Terror wall army bonus--not a great trade, in my opinion).

We like our chances against Angmar

Photo Credit: Muaw again

COUNTER 3: Bring warriors with S3+ shooting. 

At the risk of stating the obvious, being able to charge Terror models is of course preferable to not being able to charge them. Having said that, you can still fight a model you cannot charge, as long as you can force that model to charge into you. And the sordid secret of Angmar's Terror wall is that because they're just standard orcs (i.e., they top out at D5), it's actually very easy to force them to charge you as long as you have a decent contingent of high-powered shooting--say, 8-12 ranged weapons that are S3+ (to wound Angmar's front-line on 5s), with a 4+ shoot value or better. 

With 12 ranged weapons of S3+ and a 4+ shoot value, you should average between 1-3 kills a round with shooting. And as long as you also have a front-line of D5 or above, that should be enough to win the shooting war with Angmar, since (1) Angmar's S2 bows will need 6s to wound D5 or above, and (2) most Angmar armies don't invest very heavily into orc archers. Sound like a tall order? Well, believe it or not, there's actually a decent number of armies that have access to that sort of shooting:

• Elves are the obvious winners here (Rivendell, Lorien, Halls of Thranduil). Most elf armies take 1/3 bows standard, and their bows (1) are always S3, and (2) are always on archers with a base shoot value of 3+. You can also take a decent number of heroes with ranged weapons (Legolas, Haldir, Thranduil, Tauriel, Elladan & Elrohir, Captains), cavalry archers in most factions (Rivendell and Lorien), and even some pseudo-heroes like Wood-Elf Sentinels (Lorien and Thranduil's Halls) that can shoot, fight, and also cause Terror / bypass Terror without needing to make any rolls. These archers will devastate an Angmar Orc battleline if they're allowed to stand back and shoot every turn, and every Angmar player knows it.
• Less obviously, Dwarves also have shooting that can level Angmar's battle lines. Consider: the least threatening dwarf list at range is the Army of Thror--and it's an army that, if it wants to, can take 100% S3 throwing weapons on its warriors (Grim Hammers with S3 throwing axes). Yes, they only hit on a 4+, and only have a 6" range. But Angmar's S2 bows aren't exactly a threat to D7 dwarves at range, either (6/4+ to wound); and if you get 1-2 turns to throw 30+ S3 throwing axes into an Angmar battle line (~15 hits, with ~5 wounds per shoot phase), you're going to tear some gashes into their front rank (or, if your shooting gets hot, decimate it). At the opposite end of the spectrum is Iron Hills / Erebor Reclaimed, with S4 crossbows (24" range, and lethal to any evil battle line), and potentially a S8 ballista that can auto-kill some of Angmar's most important models (Gulavhar, cave trolls, Barrow Wights, fell beasts, and even the Shade, none of whom have any Fate), while also knocking prone / killing Angmar's battle-line. And then there's Khazad-Dum / Kingdom of Moria, which have feet in both camps: S3 dwarf bows (18" range) that hit on a 4+ (Dwarf Warriors), S2 Dwarf Longbows (24" range) that hit on a 3+ (Dwarf Rangers), their own siege weapon (Dwarf Ballista) with an even harder hitting projectile that can cut entire swathes through Angmar's ranks (S9 weapon, D6" knock-back), and throwing weapons on both skirmish troops (Dwarf Rangers, F4/S3/D5, 3+ shoot) and elite shock troops (Iron Guard, F4/S4/D6/2A, 4+ shoot). Add in base C4 on all these troops, with options for a war horn (30 points on a Dwarf Warrior, or free on Durin) and/or rerolling failed Courage tests (Dwarf Shieldbearer) and you have a whole suite of models that are tailor-made to force Angmar into an engagement (which they'll probably win).
• While elves and dwarves are the gold standard for Good (of course they are), elite men can also give Angmar fits with their shooting: 
• The Rangers have the 3+ shoot value, and while their bows are only S2, the fact that each Ranger has Might and a Bow makes their archery surprisingly lethal, even to high-defense targets (which Angmar has very few of).
• Minas Tirith's Citadel Guard also have longbows (S3, 24", 4+ shoot), plus other tools that give them an edge against Angmar (Bodyguard, F4, and they can be mounted--what's not to like?). 
• The Fiefdoms' Blackroot Vale Archers only have S2 bows (3+ shoot though), but they can reroll failed to-wound rolls as part of a Heroic Shoot (that's a roughly 30% chance to wound if they need 6s to wound, which isn't amazing, but is at least in the ballpark of the normal 33% chance that elves have with a S3 bow). 
• Rohan can take S3 throwing spears on both their standard and elite cavalry units (Riders of Rohan and Royal Guards). They hit on 5s if they've moved, but 4s if they haven't (or when they are charging). Coupled with Erkenbrand / Bodyguard, a throwing-spear charge (which usually boosts the warriors to F4/F5 and makes them S4) is absolutely lethal to Angmar's ranks.
• Dale can take S3 bows with a base shoot of 4+ (3+ with the army bonus active). 
• Lastly, there's the Beornings--very expensive, but also very lethal against Angmar (S4 Great Bows, hitting on 4s, along with C5, S4 Burly with axes, and F5/2 Attacks).
• On the evil side, there are plenty of options, too:
• Isengard is the gold standard for elite shooting, with S3 Uruk-Hai bows and S4 crossbows (neither of which are slouches in combat), and of course both a ballista and a bomb team, either of which are pretty effective at cutting holes through an Angmar battle line. 
• Close behind is Umbar, which pairs its own crossbows (who are also D6 against ranged attacks) with mass S3 throwing daggers, all hitting on 4s. The top-end damage can't match what Isengard can bring (no siege weapons), but the total volume of shooting in a Corsairs list is usually higher (and shooting into combats at vulnerable heroes like Gulavhar is way easier for Umbar than Isengard). 
• Azog's Legion (Catapults), along with Barad-Dur, and Mordor (Siege Bows and Catapults) also have tools to cut through battle lines (lob some severed heads into an Angmar battle line, and watch severe panic / defections ensue). And while both only have limited access to S3 shooting (throwing spears on warg riders, because Mordor Uruk-Hai don't have Uruk-Hai bows for some reason), Mordor can accumulate enough cheap archery (S2 orc bows with 4+ shoot value on a 5-point orc tracker, or nine orc warriors with bows folded into the cost of a Great Beast of Gorgoroth) that the volume of S2 bow shots can occasionally compensate for the quality of the projectile.
• The Easterlings now have Dragon Cult Acolytes (4+ shoot, S3 throwing daggers, who are also F4/2 Attacks in combat). The more I play with these guys, the more I like them, as they basically function like mini-heroes (especially if they get the bump to Fight 5 within 6" of the Dragon Emperor). Plus, the option to shrug off a cavalry charge (4+ roll from Unyielding Combat Stance) and the +2 they get on their jump/leap/climb tests (full charge on a 4+) can actually lead to some surprisingly heroic moments.
• The Serpent Horde of course has a 50% bow limit with Poisoned bows (potentially powered by the Betrayer, to reroll all failed to-wound rolls). Basically, they're Blackroot archers with a slightly worse shoot value, who can reroll their failed to-wounds way longer than the Fiefdoms archers can (unless Aragorn's part of the Fiefdoms force, of course).
• And Far Harad can get 100% ranged weapons by putting blowpipes on all their models--also Poisoned, also can be powered by the Betrayer, and also only the sixth-most threatening component of a well-built Far Harad list (after, in some order, camels, half-trolls, camels, camel-heroes, and more camels).

That's a pretty good selection of lists which at least have some tools to force Angmar to engage (in which case your ability to pass Courage tests matters a lot less).

COUNTER 4: Bring offensive magic (specifically, Command / Compel). 

We covered Fury / Aura of Command above, and of course those are the obvious magical powers for getting into models with Terror. But you can also force models with Terror to engage you if you have access to a spell-caster with Command / Compel. Worst-case scenario, you can force an opposing player's model to charge into some of your lower-Courage models, so at least some of your guys are in combat. Best-case scenario, you can force an important opposing model into combat, which will likely force the rest of the Angmar army to engage you around that important model, lest you surround and trap it. 

Unfortunately, Command / Compel is the only way I know of to force an enemy model to charge into combat (Dead Marsh Spectres and Wood Elf Sentinels, which have pseudo Command spells, can't make models enter enemy model's control zones, so they can't do it). Having said that, most of those Command-like special rules allow you to move a model up to half its movement: since that's 3" for Angmar's standard orcs, you can generally pull an orc 3" away from a Spirit Hero (which is far enough to turn off the Terror), so there's still some utility in those other models (provided you can charge that model that turn to capitalize on the weakness you've created).

To further flesh out this option, there's a decent number of wizard-like models with Command / Compel, to the point where virtually every army could ally one in if they wanted to:

• For the forces of good, every good faction is at least convenient allies with Lothlorien, and therefore has access to Galadriel. Yes, this version of Galadriel makes for a tough enemy leader if you draw Contest of Champions. But outside that niche scenario, she offers a very affordable centerpiece hero at most points levels, with both some helpful buffs for countering not just Angmar, but lots of lists (Blinding Light, Immobilize, the Mirror), as well as lots of helpful troop options for further buffing your army against a potential Angmar match-up: F5/S3/D6/C5 front-line Galadhrim Warriors, wood elves with S3 throwing daggers / elf bows on a 3+ shoot, Wood Elf Sentinels with pseudo-magic, and even F6 Guard of the Galadhrim Court to counter Angmar's wraiths and most of its monsters.
• The Wood Elf Sentinels in particular (which you can also take from Halls of Thranduil) are also a solid choice. Their songs are generally useful in any sort of match-up, but the ability to pull around a few low-courage Orcs each turn can be especially handy. Plus, you might be able to, you know, get Gulavhar out of position / neutralize him for a turn, because his Courage is notoriously suspect (especially if you've been able to get a few pot-shots in with your S3 bows (5s to wound)).
• Sticking with good wizards, Gandalf the Grey can also be allied into most lists (everything but Arnor and Numenor), and he's actually native to a decent number of lists, too (the Shire if you don't take the named hobbits, the Fellowship, Thorin's Company, Survivors of Lake-Town, and of course the White Council). Plus you get access to Protection of the Valar, which is the best protection available against enemy magic (albeit limited to just one target, for just one turn). Fewer lists have access to Gandalf the White (no Hobbit-era armies, Khazad-Dum, or Numenor), and he's quite a bit more expensive; but like his Grey persona, you also get access to some other nice spells (Fortify Spirit, Strengthen Will, and Banishment, which we'll talk about shortly) in addition to the Command. Rounding out good's options is Saruman the White, who has both Command (4+) and Aura of Command (2+ cast, all friendly models within 6" pass all their Courage tests) in his spell arsenal. Arnor and Numenor are the only factions that aren't convenient allies or better with the White Council, so if you're not wedded to your army bonus, he's a very nice addition to most good lists.
• Evil also has access to Compel, which you can bring in virtually any force through a convenient alliance (if not native to the list). On the Lord of the Rings-era side of things, six of the eleven evil lists include at least one Ringwraith profile (Barad-Dur, Angmar, Mordor, Easterlings, Serpent Horde, Corsairs), two more are green allies with an army that has a wraith profile (Khand with Easterlings, and Far Harad with Serpent Horde), and two more (Isengard and Moria) are yellow allies with all six lists with wraiths, plus Isengard also has Command native in the list if you take Saruman. That really leaves only Sharkey's Rogues on the outside looking in (and we all agree they're just fine as a stand-alone list). Allying-in Compel with an evil Hobbit-era army is more expensive (it's just the Necromancer from Dark Powers of Dol Guldur), but Dol Guldur is green allies with Azog's Legion and Azog's Hunters, and yellow allies with all the other Hobbit-era armies (Dark Denizens of Mirkwood, Smaug, Goblin-Town, and The Trolls), so if you want it, you can get it.
• Lastly, while Command / Compel is the most obvious spell for "compelling" Angmar to charge into your models, there are other spells that can all but compel them to charge your models because they do damage at range to important Angmar models, or you can do nasty things to the opponent's models if they aren't engaged in combat. On the one hand are what Tiberius calls "precision spells" --these are spells like Banishment (Gandalf the White, Galadriel Lady of Light, Tom Bombadil), Chill Soul ("Banishment for everyone"--Sauron and the Necromancer), Flameburst (Kardush in Mordor and Saruman in Isengard), and of course Black Dart on all the aforementioned wraiths. Banishment in particular is a very nasty spell against Angmar (because their Spirit heroes are essential to keeping the Terror wall / Harbinger up), but spammable Chill Souls or Black Darts against priority targets (banners, monsters, etc.) can force Angmar to engage your army, too. On the other side of the spectrum are spells like Instill Fear, which can scatter Angmar's armies unless they're engaged in combat (thereby providing them with an incentive to charge you before you do so). So if you're creative--and as long as you can keep your heroes upright when spending their will to cast spells instead of resist them--you could force the enemy to engage you with more than just Command.

We're here for the pain! ***

Photo Credit: Me, myself, and I

*** My one critique of the Quartermaster 3d sculpts for Black Nums is that they're a tad undersized... but if they're standing side-by-side with a half-troll it actually kind of works.

  
COUNTER 5: Bring your own Terror (and, if possible, your own Courage debuff). 

I saved this one for last because it's both not an actual counter in theory (i.e., it doesn't actually help you charge Angmar's Terror models) and is absolutely the hardest counter to Angmar in practice. Because Angmar's army bonus confers the Terror special rule only on Angmar Orcs, this Counter exploits one of the many disadvantages of an Orc front line (their own Courage sucks) and one of the few holes in the Angmar list (they have no Fury shaman or access to a War Horn, so they have no way to fix their Orcs' poor courage). To be clear, having your own Terror wall won't win you the game against Angmar on its own: it only helps you crack the Angmar code if you pair your own Terror wall with one of the other counters discussed above (Terror on troops with decent-to-good courage, so you can stall a charge then counter-charge / charge and stall a counter-charge; or Terror backed by S3+ shooting / magic, so the enemy is forced to try to charge into you, and then stalls out on your Terror). 

Not every army can do this, but if you can get these two advantages to fire at once, you can really dictate the pace of the game against an Angmar army in a way that most lists will really struggle to do. Here's some combinations that can do it, just to get your creative juices flowing:

• We'll start with Good, both because it's tradition and because Terror on good warriors is pretty rare. 
• Until Red Jacket gets his wish and the Riders of Theoden Legendary Legion is buffed with the Terror special rule during the first turn that they charge (or I get my wish and the Rangers of the North pick up the Terror (Orc), Terror (Goblin), and Terror (Uruk-Hai) special rules on a turn in which they charge), the only way to get Terror standard on good warriors is to run / bring The Dead of Dunharrow who, for the record, are a very strong counter to Angmar in many ways. Their lack of big hitting heroes and average FV of 3 can be frustrating, but they have excellent Courage (C6) and Blades of the Dead to cut through Angmar (wound on 3s within the King's Harbinger bubble). As long as you have some answer for big heroes like Gulavhar or Buhrdur (and the Terror/Harbinger in your force is a pretty good answer to them), "they'll do work" as Centaur likes to say.
• Short of the Dead, the only other way to get Terror on good warriors is to take Thranduil (only with Circlet), Cirdan, or Radagast for Aura of Dismay. Radagast is a bit of a sunk cost unless you plan to bring multiple eagles (which will pretty reliably get into Angmar orcs with C6, and then throw them around like rag dolls with Hurls). But Halls of Thranduil (Thranduil) and Rivendell (Cirdan) have access to S3 bows with 3+ shoot values, that can be allied into any good army, regardless of era. Cirdan's a little harder to ally in (given that he's a minor hero, and Rivendell's Heroes of Valour--Gil-Galad, Elrond, Glorfindel--are all very expensive), but Cirdan also has Aura of Command, so you get basically double-Angmar protection from him if you can pull it off (your troops cause Terror and auto-pass their Courage tests, for as long as you can keep Cirdan alive with Will in his store).
• Terror is still rare on evil troops (it's on a lot of monsters, but not many warriors natively), but if you're running LOTR-era armies it's pretty easy to ally in (except for Sharkey's Rogues, of course): 
• Black Numenoreans are the most ubiquitous (Barad-Dur, Mordor, Umbar), and are exceptionally affordable compared to an Orc Warrior (+3 points vs. an orc with a shield gets you F4 instead of F3, D6 instead of D5, C4 instead of C2, and Terror--a real steal in my opinion). Best of all, since their Terror is built into their standard profile (instead of built into a bubble or spell), the only way the Angmar player can get rid of their Terror is to actually kill them (which, at F4/D6 with Terror, is actually hard for C2 orcs to do). As we discussed above, both Mordor and Barad-Dur can also pair Black Nums with siege weapons (siege bows and catapults), and Umbar can do the same thing with crossbows, so all three present real ranged threats that can draw an Angmar army into an engagement, only for the Terror on the Black Nums to freeze them out of that engagement (especially since all three factions can also take models with Harbinger of Evil or Ancient Evil). 
• Most Moria players are unlikely to use their Warg Marauders as front-line models, but as long as there are goblins aboard they cause Terror, and as long as you have your own Moria Shaman with Fury, Angmar may struggle to counter-charge them. 
• More likely, Giant Spiders (Moria, Dark Denizens) and Mirkwood Spiders (Dark Denizens, Mordor with Razgush) can be effective front-line units against Angmar when paired with Druzhag or Ashrak (for the Fury), where their 2 Attacks at S5 can carve holes very quickly. 
• Finally, there's my new favorite warrior profile coming off TMAT's 2023 Grand Tournament: Far Harad's Half-Trolls, which pair Terror with F5, S5, 2 Attacks, and 2 Wounds at D6. Yes, they'll fail to charge Angmar Orcs, too, due to poor Courage (C2). But take a decent contingent of ranged weapons to force an engage (100% blowpipes in a pure list, 50% poisoned bows in a green alliance with the Serpent Horde, or my personal favorite--Black Nums and Crossbows from Umbar) and you'll force the orcs to engage you (or try), and then cut through them like butter.

* * *

And there we are--my recommendations on how you might take the bite out of Angmar's Terror wall. We'll pick-up next time with a discussion of everyone's favorite part of dealing with Angmar: not playing with the wonderful stuff you brought because Angmar's shutting it down, moving it around, or sniping it off the table! (Believe it or not, there's more answers available than just "bring Galadriel, Lady of Light!"). 

As always, if you have any creative ideas for working around Terror (or thoughts on any of the ideas shared above), let us know in the comments!