Armies of Middle-Earth SBG: Countering Angmar, Part 2 -- Repelling the Shut-Down

Still evil! Still spooky! Still mine!

Photo Credit: The author, himself

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.

If you're just joining us, this is an ongoing series about how to build forces that would feel reasonably comfortable countering Angmar. While there are definitely certain lists that have advantages against Angmar (more to come on that score in parts 5-8), my goal with this particular series is to help identify the tools that every faction (or at least almost every faction) has to deal with Angmar. Some have more tools than others, certainly; but when you dig in and drill down, it's surprising how many factions actually have multiple tools they can draw upon.

In Part 1, we talked about how to get around the Terror that Angmar generally brings to the table (as it turns out, there are a lot of strategies we could try). This time, we're turning to what may be the most oppressive aspect of an Angmar list: it's ability to shut down or take out your army's key pieces. We're focusing primarily on the non-magic ways Angmar does this, but don't worry: we still have plenty to talk about (plus, countering the magic is coming next time, so I've got you).

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.

One of the many practical problems that players face when facing Angmar (especially if it's your first time playing against Angmar) is that if you have something essential to your army, Angmar can probably take it out (and usually quickly). Exactly how it does this takes many different forms (depending on what exactly is in Angmar's list, and how many of a given profile are in it), but here's some of the many ways Angmar can mitigate / take out / depower your key models: 

• Terror front line / Harbinger of Evil / Drain Courage against low-courage heroes (so they cannot charge without burning Might or Will);
• Magical spells like Transfix / Paralyze to incapacitate a hero;
• Compel / Spectres to pull targets out of position / into dangerous positions; 
• Monsters (often flying monsters) to challenge enemy heroes, deal huge damage, and / or disrupt the opponent's battle lines; and
• Heroes who either neuter your heroic actions (the Tainted) or drain your resources (the Dwimmerlaik, Shades, and Barrow Wights)

Fortunately, Angmar can't take all of these things in a single list unless you're playing at absurdly high points levels. But Angmar can take most of these things at most points levels, and therein lies the problem. Most army lists have some sort of way to avoid, incapacitate, or assassinate at least one priority target in the opponent's army (even if that way is "Strike and hope"). If Angmar can take this model out of the equation through one (or multiple) of these mitigation tactics, however, your force may not be able to deal with everything else that Angmar has.

In the same vein, if you over-build your force to address one particular problem posed by Angmar, you may not have enough in your force to address other problems Angmar poses. By way of example, Terror is the primary problem that most opponents need to solve against Angmar. But if your entire game-plan is keyed around charging Terror models (especially if your solution rests on a single model sticking around), you may not have the tools you need to keep Angmar from assassinating that target (thereby depriving you of the tools you need). By the same token, most armies' solution to dealing with big enemy heroes is to have their own big hero deal with them. But if Angmar can tie up your own big hero with one or two of their smaller ones (i.e., a couple of Barrow Wights spend four turns casting two Paralyze spells a turn at your Aragorn), you may find yourself without any answers to Angmar's own big heroes (and there are some big heroes in Angmar which, left unchecked, will wreak havoc on most opponents).

If what you're seeking is a way to guarantee that your heroes are never shut down, then unfortunately you've come to the wrong place (unless you want me to say "always roll a 6 when resisting spells"--which isn't wrong, but also isn't helpful). What I can offer you are some strategies for slowing Angmar's roll, so you can hopefully do most of what you'd like to do before Angmar shuts everything down (in the hope that your heroes and troops can do enough damage to Angmar before the shut-down happens to weather the storm that follows, or perhaps prevent it from coming entirely).

Intrigued? Good. Here's the most important concept that motivates all of the strategies to come:

Because Angmar excels at shutting down multiple threats, you want to build as many threats as possible into your force (at least some of which should be non-hero threats). 

Simple, right? No? Let me try to explain: Angmar's ability to shut down your pieces is, like most aspects of MESBG, essentially a math game. Angmar can only do so many things at once, against so many targets, over so many turns. And part of what makes Angmar so difficult to play against in a competitive setting is the number of (bad) choices an effectively-built Angmar army can force its opponents into making. Do you call a Heroic Move, knowing that your supporting troops may fail their Terror tests? Do you resist a Transfix cast on a "3" when there are two Barrow Wights lurking? Do you fight in the Shade's bubble or avoid it entirely? After 3-4 turns of such decision-making, opponents get weary (and that's usually when Angmar lands the death blow). 

So how do you fight back against that? Well, there are many you can try (see the other counters listed below), but in my experience the most reliable way to prevent Angmar from shutting your army down is to give them as many targets as possible to shut down (because the math says they can't shut them all down, at least not all at once). Let's dig deeper into the multiple threats to Angmar that you can build into your list:

Counter 1: First and foremost, you want F4/S3/D6/C4 troops with spears if you can get them. 

We hinted at this several times in our discussion of Terror, but it's finally time to state it plainly: as long as you can charge them, orcs are pretty easy to kill if you have the right stats. And there's nothing remarkably secretive about the stats you need: Fight 4 or better (to win drawn combats), Strength 3 or better (wounds D5 on a 5+), Defense 6 or better (so the orcs need 6s to wound you), and Courage 4 or better (so you can get your troop charges off around 60% of the time, even in Harbinger range).

Of course, virtually every faction has stats like these available on its heroes. But since Angmar has plentiful tools to stun-lock, if not assassinate, 1-3 heroes in the course of a couple rounds, your best chance at killing Angmar's rank-and-file troops over the course of the game is to have the right stats on your troops (who will likely be left alone as Angmar focuses on your heroes). Now that stat-line we discussed may sound like an elite type of unit (it is), but it's actually more common than you might think:

• Minas Tirith with its army bonus active has all these stats on Fountain Court Guard (F4/S3/D7/C4 + Bodyguard), and can also get the functional equivalent of all these stats on Warriors of Minas Tirith / Osgiliath Veterans (S3/D6/C4-5) as long as you back them with spears on Rangers (F4/S3/C4) or Faramir/Boromir are nearby (F4-5 OsVets, depending on whether Boromir also has his banner). A WOMT+Ranger file isn't exactly cheap compared to their orc shield/spear compatriots (17 points vs. 12-13 points for the pair), but the jump to D6/D7 makes them considerably tougher to wound, and that's where you hope to make back your points in the long run. 
• Fiefdoms has a slightly more expensive version of the same set-up (F4/S3/D6/C4 Knights, backed by F4/S3/C3 Men-at-Arms or F3/S3/C2 Blackroot Archers for 20 points a pair). I'm not sure this is better than what Minas Tirith has to offer, but it's available (and if it's too rich for your blood, Green Alliance Baby!).
• Arnor actually has a cheaper version of this (two F4/S3/D6 Warriors of Arnor stacked on top of each other, for 16 points), and as long as Arvedui is around to make them Fearless they'll do the job admirably (especially if Malbeth is giving them 5+ saves). If Arvedui dies, however... well, if he dies you've probably lost, so whatever. :-P
• Armored Elves are great troops for doing this, too, though you're paying extra for stats you don't really need against Angmar's troops (the F5 is definitely overkill, but the C5 is nice). That said, most of Angmar's non-monster heroes also top out at F5 or below (all the wraiths, the Wild Warg Chieftain, and Golfimbul), so being able to match that Fight Value with your normal troops (who have elven-made weapons to boot) can be very handy. Plus, the access to S3 bows en masse offers another way to whittle down your opponent's Terror orcs. Keep in mind that if you retain your army bonus, Lorien models (heroes and warriors) pick up Resistant to Magic across your army, which is also a nice perk when facing Angmar.
• Dwarves also pay extra for some extra stats (D7 doesn't really come into play against Angmar, unless you're fighting heroes), and even the S4 buff on some dwarves doesn't really help you wound D5 orcs (although if your opponent hasn't bothered to put shields on his orc spearmen, it's nice). But Dwarves also tend to have troops with S3 throwing weapons at decent shoot values (which we'll talk about in the next Counter), and that something extra is very nice.
• New to the list is Dale, which now has one of these units thanks to the addition of the Knights of Dale (F4/S3/D6/C4). The added +1 to-wound bonus if they're charged (Wall of Spears) also means you can wound charging orcs on 4s, which is no joke. And of course, Dale can get S3 bows, too (which will force most Angmar armies to charge you), so this is a fantastic development all around.
• For evil LOTR-era armies, you have to be more creative. As a general taxonomy, Isengard's Uruk-Hai are good (F4/S4/D6/C3 for 10 points), Black Numenoreans from Barad-Dur/Mordor/Umbar are better (F4/S3/D6/C4-5 + Terror for 9 points is more than a bargain--it's a steal), Mordor's Black Guard of Barad-Dur are probably overkill (F4/S5/D6/C3-4 for 12 points), and Easterling Black Dragons are overpriced outside of the Dragon Emperor legion (F4/S3/D6/C4 for 1 point less than a Black Guard and 2 points more than a Black Num, without the Terror), but any of them will work. I'm partial to the Black Nums myself because the stat profile is so lean (again, Terror is the bane of Angmar's existence) and you can get them in two pretty flexible lists (Mordor and Umbar), but any of these are a solid core for an anti-Angmar force. 
• A few other LOTR-era armies have some hit-and-miss profiles that get most of the way there. Moria can get there occasionally, but only if conditions are right (Blackshields can get to F4/S3/D6/C4... if you have a war drum, they're fighting a trapped model within range of Groblog, and his ability actually fires). But of course, Moria can ally with basically any evil army, so if you want a rock-solid battle-line Moria has an embarrassment of options (personally, I'd opt for an alliance with Mordor/Umbar to ally in some Black Nums). The Dead of Dunharrow have a terrifying front line for Angmar to face (literally), although their cap at F3 means they'll lose a decent number of drawn combats. At large points levels, you can fix some of these issues with a Minas Tirith alliance centered around Aragorn (the Dead bring high-Courage models with Blades of the Dead, Aragorn brings F4 Rangers with spears and ranged attacks), but at other points levels, you rely on your D8 resilience and Terror to hold the orcs at bay (and pray that the Angmar player doesn't have a couple of heroes who can wound D8 easily). Finally, Far Harad has half-trolls, which are lacking in the Courage department (C2, unless your army bonus is active and you have a Mahud Hero in combat within 6" of them, in which case they become Fearless), but every other combat metric is exceptional for killing and outlasting Angmar orcs (F5/S5 with 2 attacks means you have a 75% chance of killing one orc, and a 25% chance of killing two, while D6 with 2 wounds makes it unlikely that you'll lose a half-troll in combat even against a shield and spear tag-team). Slap a spearman and a banner behind them (I prefer Haradrim Warriors with Suladan for the cheap spears, 6" banner range, and the option for Heroic Resolve to shield them from enemy magics), and they'll do real work.
• For Hobbit-era evil armies, there's not really any spammable troop options that fit the bill. Gundabad Orcs are probably the closest: their S4 / D6 get you on the right track, and their base C3 means that you can get them to C4 with a War Horn. But none of the evil armies in the Hobbit can take F4 / D6 warriors, or even F4 spears, so your options will be limited. In the end, Gundabad Orcs are probably still your best bet for most Hobbit-era armies given how the alliance matrix works, except for Dark Denizens, who can pair up with Mordor in a Yellow alliance (so you can run Black Nums alongside your spiders, as Shelob and the Spider-Queen tag-team, at which point all you need is Durburz and Druzhag from Moria for an unholy troika).

Be honest... you only use these models as dismounts, don't you?

Photo Credit: Rythbryt Stonehelm of the Dale-lands

Counter 2: If you can't get S3 spears, take S3 throwing weapons instead--and take them en masse. 

In my experience, when it comes to the power of shooting, most MESBG players fall somewhere along this continuum: (1) shooting is op and shooting armies should be nerfed/banned; or (2) shooting is stupid and you should never take more than a few "honesty bows." Personally, I've fallen all over the map, and I'm probably closer to the latter than the former at this precise moment (I've often said shooting is fickle, and if your plan-A is to kill the enemy in the shoot phase, I think you're more likely to be disappointed than thrilled with the results). But if your primary goal is to be able to deal with Angmar, leaning into certain kinds of shooting (if you have access to it) is a no-brainer.

Most of what I'm about to say would apply to S3 bows, too (Elf, Esgaroth, Uruk-Hai), but I'm focusing primarily on throwing weapons here for a couple of reasons. First, while throwing weapons can be used to skirmish, they're most effective when used on the charge, and I'm very much of the mind that if you can charge your troops into Angmar's battle line (which is just average orcs, after all) that's probably what you should be doing, especially if you have better combat stats (which is not hard, because they're orcs--F4/S3/D6 is what you want). Second, unlike ranged weapons (which are usually capped at 33%, and never more than 50% of your warriors unless you're running something very niche/expensive like Rivendell Knights with Elrond, or Mirkwood Rangers in a pure Halls of Thranduil list), you can take throwing weapons on up to 100% of your army, and most fickleness in dice rolls can be teased out if you roll a large enough quantity of dice (or at least that's how I understand probability theory to work). 

Just to be clear: when given the choice, I'd always rather have a S3 spear backing up a F4/S3/D6 shield than trust to ranged/throwing weapons, because there are generally fewer rolls that have to go your way (just duel/wound, not hit/in-the-way/wound), with more dice involved (2 dice in the combat, 1 die when shooting). But if your army can't take S3 spears for supporting (and there are several who can't) but can take S3 throwing weapons, definitely pay for the throwing weapons... and pay for lots of them:

• I'm probably in the minority here, but I'm a huge fan of dismounted Rohan Royal Guards. At F4, S3, and D6, they have three of the core stats you want for fighting orcs. Throw in Erkenbrand's horn, and suddenly they're C5 base after Bodyguard wears off (assuming you can keep Erkenbrand alive, of course--but again, target oversaturation: Angmar now has to kill both your army leader and Erkenbrand to reduce the Royal Guards to their standard Courage of 3, which is definitely harder than only needing to kill one... as long as both can't be ganked by a Heroic Combat from Gulavhar). At 12 points with throwing spears, they're expensive to be sure: but they present a dual-threat to Angmar's front-line (throwing spear on the way in / while skirmishing, then better stats in combat, needing 5s to wound both ways) and have the toughness to walk away (D6). If you can field them in a list where Rohan's throwing spears can also be used as real spears (Theodred's Guard, Helm's Guard), so much the better. Otherwise, take the throwing spears on these guys, whether they're on foot or on horse.
• Like Rohan, Khazad-Dum / Kingdom of Moria basically don't have access to spears (yes, I know Mardin and half a Vault Warden team exist), but you can soften the blow with a healthy contingent of Dwarf Rangers (3+ shoot, S3 throwing axes at D5) or better yet, Iron Guard (F4/S4/D6 with 2 attacks and throwing axes with a 4+ shoot). And the Army of Thror takes that up a notch, with Grim Hammers (F4/S3-4/D7/C4 with a 4+ shoot and S3 throwing axe) backed by Warriors of Erebor (F4/S3/D7/C4 with spears) for a devastating battle-line whether on the charge, receiving a charge, or skirmishing.
• Evil doesn't really have S3 throwing weapons en masse on hardy troops (Corsairs are only D3, Dragon Cult Acolytes cap out at D4), so there's no obvious contenders here. But I will say that if you can put a throwing weapon behind another D6 warrior (say, Corsairs with spears backing up Black Nums), you may be able to approximate at least some of this strategy with evil. But this is one of the rare strategies where Good has an actual list-building advantage over evil (as opposed to the many perceived advantages we debunked last time).

One final benefit of going the mass throwing-weapon route: in addition to giving you a way to consistently kill Angmar models (even if you don't have access to spears), it also gives you a way to continuously drain Angmar's resources. Most players are predisposed to call Heroic Moves if they lose priority anyway... but if the enemy wins priority and has 30+ Strength 3 throwing weapons that may come Angmar's way, the enemy player is almost forced to call a Heroic Move because the damage potential of copping a charge from throwing weapons is nuts. 

The best part? Even if you decide not to counter-call that heroic move (allowing the Angmar player to charge you), there's still added value (because now you don't have to take Terror tests, because the enemy charged you). Oh, and that's one less Might that Angmar can use later in the game (to boost or channel a spell, call a Heroic Combat, win a duel roll, etc.). So a win-win.

Counter 3: Siege Weapons (especially cheap ones) are a great way to distract Angmar's assassins. 

Angmar's Spirit Heroes have many traits in common. They're key to keeping Terror up on the orcs. They're usually the most effective counters to your heroes. And they absolutely hate being shot at by siege weapons. They knock them over (or out of position). They deal huge amounts of damage. They may even insta-kill them (Gulavhar, Barrow-Wights, and Shades have no Fate, after all; and even for the named wraiths, no Fate save is guaranteed once you're down to even 2 Might). 

Not every army can take siege weapons, of course. But if you have access to them, and want a distraction to buy time for your combat-oriented heroes, even a single siege weapon could buy you that time (especially if your army is evil, and you can shoot into combat). 

Again, Isengard is the gold standard with its cheap ballista (bomb teams can distract Angmar, too, although they're easier to disrupt with Spectres and Compels). But Mordor's Catapult (with rerolls to hits and scatters via the Troll upgrade) is no joke either, especially if it starts lobbing severed heads in Gulavhar's general direction... On the good side, really any good siege engine will force Angmar to come to you / keep their control pieces occupied, although the lost ability to shoot into combat can be a negative if Angmar is able to quickly close on your troops and heroes. So just watch out for that.

These models could not be less alike... except in their ability to hunt Barrow-Wights!

Photo Credit: Muah

Counter 4: Include at least a handful of "specialty" models who pose a special threat to Angmar's Spirit Heroes. 

I've already referenced Khazad-Dum's Iron Guard, who are a fantastic shock troop against Angmar's Orcs (with their base C4, potentially a reroll from a Shieldbearer, S3 throwing axes on the way in, 2 attacks at F4/S4 in combat, and D6 if they lose) and Rohan's Royal Guard (F4/S3/D6 with Bodyguard / C5 with Erkenbrand) who are a threat with their throwing spears whether mounted or dismounted. But eventually, you'll need to deal with Angmar's Spirit Heroes to crack them, and there are also some specialty troops who can help with that:

• Minas Tirith has several warrior options that are intriguing. The obvious one are the Knights of Minas Tirith: their courage isn't great (C3 base, C4 with the army bonus), and their Fight value (F3) is meh, but if you can get them in on the charge, S3 with a lance will wound a Barrow Wight on 5s (with 4 dice to wound). Or, you could opt for the less glamorous option, and shoot at them with the Bolt Thrower ("risk" the in-the-ways on the orcs in front--you'll wound them on 3s, so there's literally nothing risked). 
• Fiefdoms. At first glance, Knights of Dol Amroth don't look like they'd be good at mauling spirits, but at F4 they have a better Fight Value than Barrow Wights, Shades, and Spectres, and their S3 with a lance is enough to wound Spectres on 4s, Wights on 5s, and the Shade on a 5+/3+ (four dice to wound each, too, with the cavalry charge bonuses). Sticking with Fiefdoms, Clansmen of Lamedon are also brutal against Wights (S3 with a 2-handed weapon, plus they're Fearless within 6" of Angbor, plus they're base C5 if he's defeated).
• For Dwarves, Khazad-Guard are a threat to kill anything, and a two-handed Piercing Strike from S4 (effective S7) can wound a Barrow Wight on a 4+ (and Shades on 5s). Iron Hills Goat Riders (Fearless within 12" of Dain) have a 1-in-3 chance of knocking a Wight prone before combat even begins, then wound it on 5s (on four dice). And Grim Hammers with the Guardian of the King upgrade can wound on 5s if they wish (either using piercing strike or buffed by Thorin's To Arms! special rule), which then becomes 4s if they two-hand (plus their S3 throwing axes will wound wights on 6s, which is pretty good). 
• For Dale, if you can force a Wight to charge your Knights of Dale, they'll also wound them on 5s (+1 to-wound from Wall of Spears). Coupled with their other positive stats (F4, D6, C4), you have a pretty solid core profile to build the rest of your force around (either filling in with the windlance and S3 bows, or allying in dwarves from Erebor).
• And finally (of course), every Arnor profile has Hatred (Angmar), which is good for a free +1 to-wound all around, or 5s to wound a Barrow Wight. Hey, Angmar's not a particularly fleshed-out faction, and this rule almost never comes into play, so it deserves this (albeit brief, fleeting) moment in the sun!
• Moving over to evil, Black Guard of Barad-Dur (F4/S5/D6/C4 with the army bonus) will do a number on orcs, and then on the Barrow-Wights standing behind them (5s to wound). Giant Spiders and Mirkwood Spiders will, too (2 Attacks at S5, rerolling 1s to-wound, or all fails if the giant spiders have the Venomback upgrade), as long as you can get them into combat (Angmar's one of the few match-ups where a force with Druzhag and Ashrak would think about double-casting Fury to get some redundancy).
• Over in Moria, Goblin Prowlers are also dangerous if you can get them in on the charge (S3, +1 to-wound from a 2H weapon, and then another +1 to-wound from Backstabbers if the enemy is trapped, will wound Barrow-Wights on 4s and Gulavhar on 3s). Dwellers in the Dark are very expensive, and are usually left in the bin in favor of their Burly Cave Troll companions; but against Angmar, you actually want the Dwellers because their F7 gives you an answer to Gulavhar and Buhrdur, their S5 will rip through Barrow Wights, their Courage 7 is extremely reliable, they cause Terror (to keep the orc horde off of them), and they're Resistant to Magic (really???). Plus (and yes, there's a plus), because they're Monsters, you can actually charge them into Angmar's front lines, barge them 3" out of the way, and then potentially charge into a Barrow-Wight on the first turn you charge Angmar's front rank (wait, wut?).
• Uruk-Hai Berserkers and Gundabad Berserkers aren't exactly Dwellers, but their Courage (C7 and C6, respectively) is as-good or close, and both have the options for a two-handed weapon (a sword in the Uruk's case, and a two-handed pick in Gundabad's case, which can wound a Wight on 4s with a two-handed piercing strike).
• Then you have the tricky models who can deal wounds without engaging. Gundabad War Bats can wound Wights on 6s without engaging them (Pluck), or 5s if they can get the engage (they're weirdly C3 base, and their S4 wounds Wights on 5s thanks to their Piercing Talons special rule, which reduces the Wight's defense by 2). Meanwhile, Khand's Chariots can mow down enemy orcs and Wights without needing to Terror test (although the C5 Khandish Kings can charge them pretty reliably, too). 
• But my favorite two models for hunting enemy Wights are Watchers of Karna from the Serpent Horde (F4, 2 Attacks, effective C5 when charging Terror, Resistant to Magic, and they wound Wights on 5s thanks to Hatred (Spirit)) and Castellans of Dol Guldur (who are F5/S5 with 2 Attacks, D6, Courage 6, can each take a Morgul Blade, and have 12 Will they can use to resist spells or as Fate points). Apart from not being heroes with Might (which means they have to cut their way to a wight more slowly than a hero could), either is a real threat if you can get a couple of turns of priorities (although there's clearly a major difference in staying power between a D3/1 Wound Watcher of Karna and a D6/12 Will-Fate Castellan).

Do you have access to all these models in every list? No. But do most lists have access to at least some of these models? Yes. And that's something to ponder.

Counter 5: If you like building your armies around combat heroes (or monsters), bring at least two of them (and 3-4 would be better). 

We'll develop this concept more in Part 3 (next time), so this is mostly foreshadowing.

I've oscillated a lot in my approach to list-building over the years. I was originally drawn to armies with rock-solid troops (Iron Hills Dwarves were the first army I actually purchased--boy was that a steep introduction to the hobby--and they've remained one of my favorites thru the years), then moved to more hero-focused builds in the last two years (culminating in my obsession with Rangers, which are the apex of hero builds, at least for me). But when preparing to go to war against Angmar, I think you actually want a good mix of both: you need the dependable troops to carry the load if / when your heroes get stun-locked / assassinated, and you want multiple heroes so that stun-lock / assassination process is as difficult, long, and resource-intensive as possible for Angmar to pull off (more on that in Part 3--just to foreshadow, it's perhaps the best of the consistently-available list-building tools you have for countering Angmar's magic game). 

Obviously, which heroes you want to take depends greatly on how big Angmar's heaviest hitter is (fighting the Wild Warg Chieftain isn't the same thing as fighting Buhrdur, which isn't the same thing as fighting Gulavhar). We'll get into the specifics in future write-ups, but the basic gist is this: some heroes are better costed than others to get bang for your buck against Angmar, and having more heroes that can deal with Angmar is almost always better than having less. Again, more on that next time.

Counter 6: Remember that you don't need to make Angmar's job easier by making avoidable mistakes. 

We'll delve a lot more into specifics when we get to Part 4 (common mental mistakes), but the general concept is that while list-building can give you some tools with which to counter Angmar's strengths, there's no list-building substitute for good play on the table-top (plus, you know, rolling well). 

This, of course, cuts both ways. Just because an Angmar player incorporates all of the devastating pieces in its arsenal doesn't mean the player knows how to use them all at once (or has enough supporting pieces around them to counter what you will be trying to do... or enough orcs around those supporting pieces to keep them alive, especially if you've built a force that excels at killing orcs). At the same time, while Angmar may have enough tools to deal with your important models, the speed at which they can deal with them will vary widely--if you play smart, and make their job tough and resource-intensive, your models may still eventually succumb, but perhaps too late for the Angmar player to take advantage. Or, you can make things dramatically easier for the Angmar player by making avoidable movement and tactical mistakes (and then allowing those mistakes to snowball into other, avoidable mistakes--remember, a significant part of the Angmar game is the game-within-the-game mental challenge / fatigue that comes with playing against an Angmar that has so many options and moving parts).

There are lots of things you can do (usually unwittingly, but sometimes intentionally) to give an Angmar player unnecessary advantages. Having your heroes in the front-rank when Angmar has access to spectres, Compel, and a flying monster? Not a great play. Having your key heroes 2" behind your front rank on the approach? They're far more vulnerable to Paralyze than if they're 4.5-5" behind your front line. Are your high-Courage Watchers of Karna stuck behind some low-courage front rank troops (probably to shield them from some sort of archery threat)? Maybe don't have the front-rankers all take Courage tests (which, if they fail, will cut off your Watchers' charge lanes). Have your banner (with a spear) deployed as a normal spearman, with no one behind him? Unless he's Fearless, you're tempting fate. Have your Fury Shaman standing around in only one place (or moving early in a turn) all by his lonesome? Suddenly Angmar has multiple ways to get at that Shaman (some of which may be very easy), instead of just one difficult / dangerous way. Does Angmar have a flier? Better have an anti-fly formation up. 

So yeah--there's stuff to avoid, but there are also counters to play that can mean the difference between surviving an Angmar onslaught, and succumbing to it.

But more on that to come... 

* * *

Hopefully we've been able to identify at least some possibilities for the forces that you enjoy playing. In my experience, building a more well-rounded force that can deal with / bring the pain to Angmar even without major combat contributions from their heroes, is one of the best ways to mitigate the third big strength that we'll be hitting next time: Angmar's ability to throw wave after wave of magical spells at you, which begin by being annoying, then become problematic, then become deadly, and finally become overwhelming. 

Cracking that code is the hardest of all the topics we've looked at yet, but it can be done. How? Come back next time (and let us know what you think in the comments)!

For more in this series:

• 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)