In Defense Of: Morannon Orc Captains

Good morning gamers,

When you think about the most developed lists in MESBG, Mordor is probably one of the first that you think of - and it definitely has more profiles in it than any other army list in the game. With a host of Orc, Spirit, Uruk-Hai, Men, and Monsters of various ilks in the mix, it's easy to get overwhelmed with your options for both heroes and warriors. Within the hero listing itself, you not only have a host of generic heroes to pick from, but you have TONS of named heroes to pick from. And within the list of generic heroes is a humble Orc profile that gets ignored by basically everyone: Morannon Orc Captains.

These guys show up in several scenarios within Gondor at War and War in Rohan (yes, it's true - check out Part 5 of the scenario participants post we did earlier this year for more info on this). If you don't play the scenarios much . . . you probably haven't looked too hard at these guys. Let's dig into some of the common objections as to why.

Why NOT To Take Morannon Orc Captains

For most generic heroes, their claim-to-fame in army lists is that they are the only heroes (or the only cheap heroes) with Heroic March. For some armies, you might have 1-2 named heroes (like Aragorn, Dain, or Balin) who have access to Heroic March, but in the main, if you want your infantry to race across the field, you probably need a generic hero.

For four factions, however, this is not true: Rohan, Isengard, Azog's Hunters, and Mordor. For Rohan, Azog's Hunters, and Isengard, there are a host of named heroes who have March - and as a result, unless you're running a Legendary Legion that limits your access to named heroes, you probably won't see a generic Captain in the mix (see my article defending Captains of Rohan for more information about this).

In Mordor, we don't just have some named Heroes with Heroic March, but we also have a slew of generic Heroes with Heroic March - and most of the March Hero options we have are either comparably the same as or better than the Morannon Orc Captain (who comes in at 55pts if given a shield or two-handed weapon). Consider the following options:

• Orc Captains come in at 10pts less than Morannon Orc Captains and have -1S and -1D (and have the option for an Orc Bow instead of a two-handed weapon), but the option for a Warg mount can make these guys deal far more damage (with far greater threat range) than their Morannon Orc brethren. In the Black Gate Opens LL, these guys are also the only cavalry options in the list (besides the Mouth of Sauron), so if you want speed, you might be okay with slightly lower stats (Strength and Defense have situational bonuses for increasing or decreasing the wounding difficulty) in order to have more tactical play options.
  
• Orc Taskmasters are arguably worse than Morannon Orc Captains, since they cost the same as a Morannon Orc Captain with no extra gear and have -1S, -1D, -1 Might, and have the opportunity for Heroic Moves/Marches (and Shoots, but who's calling those!?!?!?!?!) called within 6" of them to be free on the roll of a 4+. In some armies, however, this guy will serve you quite well (if most of the heroics you intend to call are Moves/Marches) and is at least a discussion point over a Morannon Orc Captain.
  
• Captains of the Black Guard come in at +10pts (if the Morannon Orc Captain has a shield) and have +1FV, +1C (or +3C if there's a Ringwraith on the board). While it's arguable that the comparison between the two is close, the presence of F5 is going to provide a lot of benefits over most troops (and some generic heroes) - and any additional Courage you get on an Evil model is really nice too.
  
• Mordor Uruk-Hai Captains cost 5pts more than Morannon Orc Captains, but have +1 FV, -1D (assuming that both Captains have the same additional gear), and +1C. While having higher Defense can have value, that boost to F5 (as discussed in the previous profile) is quite useful most of the time.
  
• Guritz, Master of the Reserves comes in at +5pts and gets +1 Might, has a two-handed pick (so he'll either do the same damage output or more overall damage with slightly lower Defense depending on what war gear you give to the Captain), and the Master of Reserves rule to modify your Reinforcement/arrival rolls. The special rule is probably free - but depending on your view of two-handing, the comparison between these guys is probably about even. All of this changes, however, if you're concerned about Maelstrom arrivals - if you are, then Guritz is the clear choice.
• Black Numenorean Marshals are often forgotten in the mix, but if taken on foot, they are +10pts over a Morannon Orc Captain with shield and have +1FV, -1S, +2C, and Terror. This profile is slightly better thanks to the boost to F5 and Terror, but if you're willing to pay +20pts for an armored horse and lance, the comparison between these guys and Morannon Orc Captains isn't close at all.
  
• The Mouth of Sauron costs 15-30pts more (depending on whether you give him a mount) and has +1FV, -1S, +2C, +3 Will, Heroic Channelling and 3 spells, and Terror - at least some of that is free.
• Ringwraiths have a variable cost and if given at least 2 Might/1 Fate, these guys come in at +15pts but get +1 FV, -1S, +1D (if the Captain took the shield), -1 Attack/Wound, +3 Courage, +6 Will, Heroic Channelling with 6 spells, Harbinger of Evil, Terror, The Will of Evil, with the option for increased speed/damage if you take the Fell Beast. The comparison is probably a bit muddled, but a mounted Ringwraith is likely to do a far better job of controlling the board than a Morannon Orc Captain (even if his damage output is slightly less - though investing in a horse can fix that).
  
• Gothmog, Lieutenant of Sauron has Heroic March and a much beefier profile with +1 FV, -1S, +1 Attack/Wound, +2C, +2 Will, Heroic Strike/Defense, Master of Battle, and two situational/temporary special rules (albeit for +80pts more if you don't take the Warg). Some of this is probably free but with the possible exception of Ringwraiths, this is by far and away the least straight-forward of the value-added comparisons.
  

The second critique opens up the field for all the OTHER heroes available to Mordor: if we're looking for a combat profile, there are a lot of F5 heroes (or F4 with Strike heroes) available in Mordor - and that makes a F4 Morannon Orc Captain just not as appealing. We've already mentioned the likes of Captains of the Black Guard, Mordor Uruk-Hai Captains, Black Numenorean Marshals, the Mouth of Sauron, Ringwraiths, and Gothmog in our discussion of March heroes, but when you include the combat options, we have Gorbag, Grishnakh, Zagdush, and Goroth who are F4/5 with Strike JUST in the 80pts and under category. Other heroes include Razgush, Shagrat, the Witch-King/other named Ringwraiths, Mordor Troll Chieftains, and Shelob - all of which are appealing options to those looking for a fighter hero . . . and somewhere near the bottom of the pile, you'll find Morannon Orc Captains.

Finally, Morannon Orc Captains show up in two Legendary Legions - both of which have a greatly trimmed list of heroes and warriors that can be taken. You'd think that if the normal Mordor list was too restrictive, THIS would be the place for this profile. Well, think again - both Legions that feature Morannon Orc Captains have a lot of competitive options vying for playing time. While Orc Captains don't appear in the Army of Gothmog LL, they do appear in the Black Gate Opens - and between the Orc Captain's Warg option and the presence of the Mouth of Sauron and generic Mordor Troll Chieftains, there's hardly a Black Gate Opens list that really NEEDS to run these guys.

When you spin over to the Army of Gothmog, you have Gothmog and four named Orc heroes (and a Shaman - don't forget about the shaman) that can vie for the Morannon Orc Captain's slot - and since three of those heroes (Guritz, Zagdush, and Gothmog's Enforcer) only cost 5pts more than a Morannon Orc Captain, it's arguable that at least two of these guys (I'm not sold on the Enforcer myself) are worth taking over a Morannon Orc Captain - and Goroth is probably worth taking for +25pts too (especially when compared to a Morannon Orc Captain with two-handed weapon).

So is the Morannon Orc Captain just a wasted profile, only to be used for scenario play? Well, it certainly looks like it - which is why we need to go back to basics a bit and view what the role of this profile is in the first place. Let's revisit this lowly profile and see the gems in the rough, shall we?

Why TO take Morannon Orc Captains

Let's start with this: Morannon Orc Captains with either a shield or a two-handed weapon are 55pts - this is "fine". All of the other hero options we're looking at around this guy's price point are either going to be +5pts or +10pts more and will give us extra Fight Value or extra Courage. While the Fight Value is pretty great, most of these hero options are lacking in one big category: Strength. Why does this matter? To answer that, we need to look at one of the most competitive warrior options Mordor has: Morannon Orcs.

Morannons are insanely good value - they cost the same as Warriors of Minas Tirith (both cost 8pts/model when equipped with a shield) but have +1 Strength and -1 Courage. While having low Courage can certainly ruin your day, most traditional armies are not going to cause Terror army-wide (especially from the Forces of Good - though if Cirdan, Radagast, or the King of the Dead is in play, you could be in for it). If you have a Shaman nearby (either Orc Shamans or Kardush), your Orc heroes and warriors don't worry about Terror/Harbinger armies that much so long as they can keep Fury up - you'll be able to charge them without much difficulty. Many competitive players see the trade for increased Strength on Morannon Orcs (especially if they're also equipped with axes) to be a welcome trade for reduced Courage - low Courage can often be worked around, but having average Strength can cause you to stall out when you reach a high-Defense shieldwall.

So what does this mean for Morannon Orc Captains? Morannon Orc Captains have one of three functions, based on their war gear: they are either a) your Heroic Move/March caddy that stalls heroes when equipped with a shield, or b) they chop through enemy warriors when equipped with a two-handed weapon, or c) they Bash enemy models to either increase the damage of a friendly Hero engaged in the same fight or to slow down the effectiveness of an enemy model by placing them on the ground.

Our first option is the "rock hero" - giving your Morannon Orc Captain a shield. While there are plenty of heroes who can be either S5+ or S4 with +1 To Wound, there are a surprising number of heroes who are "just S4", to include heroes like Thranduil, Glorfindel (unless he opts to two-hand - which he should), and most Man heroes from armies that are not Numenor or the Fiefdoms. Do you know what the annoying thing about being S4 against a D7 model who is shielding is? That D7 model will be wounded on 6s if you can manage to beat his highest die roll after he rolls 4 dice - and even if you manage to get past the D7 and kill a 2 Wound/1 Fate model, you only cleared out a 55pt Captain. If you spent any resources on that kill and there's someone like the Witch-King or a Troll Chieftain nearby, you're going to be sorry later. Would it be better to be F5? Sometimes, yes - but if your opponent started at F6+, all that FV you paid for is doing absolutely nothing for you - better to have it invested in more/better troops, if you ask me.

Our second build is our hatchet option, a hero who uses his two-handed weapon to slash through warriors. Using the principle of our last article, the more dice we roll in a fight, the less the penalty of using a two-handed weapon will be felt. If a Morannon Orc Captain is backed up by a spearman and within range of a banner, this guy will have effectively 4 dice in the fight (two of which will have two-hander penalties, but one die won't and could be rerolled). If we save our Might on this guy for winning fights, we can kill quite a large bit of stuff (I've seen similar stuff happen when fighting Hunter Orc Captains - the F4 limitation isn't a limitation if your opponent doesn't get a 6). If equipped with a two-handed axe (you get to pick the weapon type without having to pay for a weapon swap), you can be either S5 or S6 - and this makes them incredibly flexible at chopping through troops (and with Might to boost their dueling rolls, if you manage their match-ups and keep their dice counts high, they can clear out a flank).

Either of these builds, however, could be mimicked by other Captain options - particularly the first one. It's the support option (using your two-handed mace/hammer to Bash an important enemy model) where things really get interesting. There are only two other Captain models in the Mordor list (named or unnamed) that can Bash while fighting two-handed: Mordor Uruk-Hai Captains and Goroth, Captain of the Morannon. While you might choose to Bash with a Mordor Uruk-Hai Captain, the only benefit those extra +10pts are getting you is the F5 - which is probably redundant with the Fight Value of the OTHER hero in the fight. Sure, if you're just trying to knock a cavalry model off his mount to keep him from racing away, the F5 on the Mordor Uruk-Hai Captain might be worth it - but the D5 on that hero might be a liability that sees him get shot to death early. While Goroth is one of the best Bash heroes available to Mordor, most players would probably prefer to use that Burly rule to kill something, rather than just knock it over. All of these models are S5, but only the Morannon Orc Captain really seems like a worthwhile model to "waste" his Strikes on a Bash.

The models that would benefit from this kind of hero are found most often in the two Legendary Legions that have Morannon Orc Captains: in the Army of Gothmog, only Gothmog can be mounted (well, him and Shamans), but heroes like Goroth and Zagdush would love to fight someone who's on the ground. Would Goroth prefer to spend one turn knocking someone over (maybe) and then try to win ANOTHER fight against the same opponent the following round? Or should he go in with a Morannon Orc Captain at his armpit and be ready to pulverize the enemy whether or not he's knocked over? Similarly, that Uber-Troll Chieftain in the Black Gate Opens could benefit from a Warg-riding Orc Captain joining his fight, but with a huge base on the Troll Chieftain already, he's likely to get more utility out of a smaller-based Morannon Orc Captain than a cavalry-based Orc Captain - and you run less risk of trapping someone if you do this.

The final benefit to Morannon Orc Captains is ironically found in their greatest weakness: their low Fight Value. When you have invested in a F5+ hero (or a F4+ hero who can Strike), you care a lot about the matchups that hero gets - and as a result, you often spend Might calling Heroic Moves/Combats to get the most effectiveness out of said heroes. But Morannon Orc Captains are . . . well, they don't really care what they're fighting. They really don't - even if your "rock" hero isn't stalling an enemy hero, he's not likely to be killed outright by most things, so you let him get charged. Similarly, if your hatchet/support hero gets charged by something big, you have all that Might you've saved up to boost dueling rolls while two-handing to use to boost your dueling roll while one-handing - and if your opponent doesn't get a 6, you can make him pay dearly to win the fight . . . or let a 2 Attack S5 hero take a swing at him. This is probably the sneakiest thing about Morannon Orc Captains - they are so bland and boring that everyone forgets they're S5. And because they're cheap S5 heroes, they're incredibly valuable.

Making It Work

I'm not going to say that your vanilla Mordor lists will be greatly improved by adding these guys - Mordor just has too many options. However, if you're looking at building a Legion list, these guys are well worth a consideration. If you're running the Army of Gothmog as a spam list (and not running the double War Catapult list that I love so much), a Morannon Orc Captain is an excellent choice - mostly because your other hero options aren't good at stalling out big heroes. Gothmog is your only D7 hero and Zagdush/Goroth can Strike but if they lose, they're getting chopped up really fast (well, that or everyone around Goroth will get chopped up really fast so he can save his own skin). The following 700-point list has 47 models and 4 warbands of tough Orcs that can move SUPER fast (and you have a D7 Captain to shield with 4 dice in the face of the biggest enemy bruiser you can find):

• Gothmog, Lieutenant of Sauron on Warg with shield [ARMY LEADER]
  
• INDEPENDENT: Orc Drummer
• 3 Orc Warriors with Orc bows
• 5 Morannon Orcs with shields
• 5 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
  
• Zagdush
• 3 Orc Warriors with Orc bows
• 4 Morannon Orcs with shields
• 4 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
• 1 Morannon Orc with shield, spear, and banner
  
• Morannon Orc Captain with shield
• 3 Orc Warriors with Orc bows
• 4 Morannon Orcs with shields
• 5 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
• Orc Shaman
• 3 Morannon Orcs with shields
• 2 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
  

While a rock hero is an excellent choice for the Army of Gothmog, I like the support choice for the Black Gate Opens (so you can chop through tough heroes with the Uber-Troll Chieftain better). The two Trolls really limit what you can get in this list (Chieftain and Drummer), but at 700pts, we have a lot going on in this 37-model list (we could have gotten more models if we'd downgraded the Mouth of Sauron into an Orc Captain, but I think the magic support and better combat profile will be better):

• Uber-Mordor Troll Chieftain [ARMY LEADER]
• 3 Orc Warriors with Orc bows
  
• 4 Morannon Orcs with shields
• 1 Morannon Orc with spear
  
• 3 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
• 1 Mordor Troll with War Drum
  
• The Mouth of Sauron on armored horse
  
• 3 Orc Warriors with Orc bows
  
• 5 Morannon Orcs with shields
• 5 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
  
• Morannon Orc Captain with two-handed hammer
• 4 Morannon Orcs with shields
• 4 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
• 1 Morannon Orc Captain with shield, spear, and banner
  

Conclusion

Morannon Orc Captains have it where it counts - but finding good ways to use them really requires rethinking what is necessary in a hero (and what you want them to do). Hopefully you found this article helpful - and if you either agree or disagree with what you read, let us know in the comments below. Next time, Centaur will be taking the stage to defend one of his favorite models in the game - hope to see you next time (and until then, happy hobbying)!