Nemesis: How to Fight Against the Dark Lord Sauron

Good morning gamers,

We're back with a how-to-counter-tough-models post today and since we covered the "big four" heroes of the Last Alliance, it seemed fitting that we'd also cover Sauron in the discussion - especially since he showed up on most of their countering lists. If you make a short list of models that are a) great in combat, b) hard to kill, and c) great at casting magic, Sauron is probably very, VERY high on the list. He's expensive, but he also does it all. So if you see him on the other side of the table, what on Middle-Earth are you supposed to do? Well, let's dig into what makes this guy good - and then we'll look at how to beat him.

What Makes The Dark Lord Sauron So Hated?

Any discussion about Sauron has to begin with his profile - he's got a beastly combat profile with F9, S8, 4 Attacks, and 3 Might with the option to call Heroic Strike (though when you start from F9, there's a real risk against F5-6 heroes that you don't need it). If his offense was great and his defense was poor (like Gulavhar), he probably wouldn't be worth his cost, but with Defense 10 (the only hero in the game with a Defense rating that high), 5 Wounds, and a 2+ mightable save against the final wound he suffers thanks to his modified One Ring rules, wounding Sauron is hard - and killing Sauron is all but impossible. 

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

If you'd like to see a rather hilarious science experiment about how hard it is to kill Sauron, you should check out the Conquest Creations video that Jacob Lucas did earlier in the year - if you don't mind spoilers, Sauron managed to kill 532 Hobbit Militia over 157 turns and died after making 17 One Ring saves . . . no game is going to last that long, of course - and it's very rare that you'll see over 500 Hobbits on the board . . . or that all you'll be facing are Hobbit Militia with axes. :)

He's also got a great spell array - arguably the greatest in the game (I certainly think so). Most of his spells have an 18" range (6" longer than most other casters), and he can cast Drain Courage/Transfix on a 2+, Compel on a 3+, and Chill Soul/Sap Will on a 4+, giving him the ability to neutralize low-Will heroes while they're a long way off to slow their advance, weaken Ringwraiths with either of his 4+ spells from beyond a Fly-able charge range, and he can pluck wounds off army leaders or banner-bearers far before they get into combat with him. Oh, and he casts Instill Fear on a 3+, which can be great for clearing out objectives (especially when paired with his Ancient Evil special rule).

Sauron also has the Lord of the Rings special rule, which gives him a free Will point each turn that isn't tied to a Staff of Power. Paired with his 6 Will points and the Resistant to Magic special rule, Sauron can cast all game long and always has a chance of resisting magical powers. While his 4+ spells might not always go off on a single die, as you get into the late game, Sauron can STILL threaten enemy models from 18" away if he gets to move first, which is just crazy.

Sauron also has the One Ring - and while he doesn't get the usual benefits of the Ring, he is first on the hierarchy chart, so you don't have to worry about Ringbearer shenanigans from your opponent. While there are other models that can halve Sauron's Fight Value (see our post on Isildur for more on these guys), these units are usually susceptible to his magical attacks, so if you're careful about his engagements, you can deal with these threats pretty easily.

Instead of the normal One Ring rules, Sauron gets a mightable 2+ save against his last wound, which means that, in general, it should require your opponent to deal a LOT of wounds in order to kill you. While Sauron has no Fate points, losing VPs for killing the enemy army leader is very, VERY difficult if Sauron is on the board (and since he must be your army leader if he's in your army, those VPs are quite secure).

Sauron also has the Monster keyword and a high Strength stat, which makes him pretty immune to knock-down attempts, unless you run into Beorn and Grimbeorn in their Legion and one declares a Heroic Strength while the other declares a Heroic Strike. Sauron can declare a Heroic Strength as well - and on a 3+, he won't be knocked over and will wound the impudent bears on 3s - but he could also just declare a Strike and hope for the roll-off to go his way (or for the Strike attempt by the bears to come short of F10).

While the Monster keyword gives him access to the usual array of brutal power attacks (BPAs) - Barge is good for getting into a fight with more than one model when you've been "tagged", Hurl is great if you want to slow down a group of models and potentially kill some, and Rend is a great option against low-Strength/high-Defense heroes - he also adds two specialized BPAs. Unstoppable is a great anti-spam BPA, allowing Sauron to forego his 4 Attacks at S8 to deal one S8 hit to all enemy models engaged with him and all enemy supporting models that are engaged with him. My experience with this BPA is that its presence makes most opponents loathe to send more than 1-2 models against him - and certainly not more than 4. He also has The Flames of Evil BPA, which is basically a long-term-focused version of Rend . . . it's not as good and you should just Rend instead.

If Sauron was in a limited army, he might not be that good - and I expect if he gets a Legendary Legion whenever the rules writers attempt to tackle a Last Alliance sourcebook, his army will be much more limited than it is in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplement. However, when fielded in a Barad-Dur list, Sauron has an astounding array of cheap, light warriors and more expensive, elite warriors - as well as cheap, light heroes and expensive, elite heroes. Oh, and there are monsters and siege engines in there too, but chances are good you won't have the points to field them. All told, after you've paid the 400-point tax to field Sauron, your list building options can go in several directions, unlike most pure Numenor and Rivendell lists.

Finally, Sauron gains a lot from the Barad-Dur army bonus, which is one of those bonuses you really don't want to lose. For starters, Sauron can add +6 warriors to his warband (24 in total), which makes him particularly dangerous in any of the scenarios from Pool 6 at points levels between 500 and 650, since he will probably be the only hero you can choose in Assassination or Fog of War and he only needs to kill 1 hero to have the advantage in Clash by Moonlight. Additionally, until Sauron has suffered 3 wounds, your army cannot count as being broken, which means end-game conditions for breaking the enemy cannot be triggered until your opponent has deal with Sauron (not to mention VPs for breaking the enemy), though you can be quartered without having to deal with Sauron. The Barad-Dur army list is very much like a Legendary Legion because its army bonus is so good, that virtually any alliance with it is going to detract from what the pure list gains (though I've heard that running Sauron and the Balrog at 750 points is fun).

Wow, this guy's got a lot going for him - so how can we fight against the Lord of the Rings? Well, there are several strategies you can try . . .

How Do You Fight Back Against The Dark Lord Sauron?

The first thing you can do is to find heroes with big Will stores - and preferably heroes who get free Will points to resist magical powers. Sauron's points don't just cover his impressive statline - they also factor in how good he is at spell-casting. If your heroes (or at least your most important heroes) are good at shutting down magic, then Sauron's value goes down quite a bit. While wizards and Ringwraiths have lots of Will (6+ Will in their stores and sometimes free Will points or rerolls), these heroes also want to DO things with their Will points, so we're actually talking about heroes like the Watcher in the Water, the King of the Dead, Shelob, or the Balrog - all models that have excessively large Will stores to make sure they aren't stun-locked by magic. Most of these heroes, however, have very limited Might stores (0-1), so beware a spell cast by Sauron a 5-high or a 6-high.

Getting free dice to resist is pretty easy for Forces of Good armies that aren't Legendary Legions, since virtually all factions can ally in Galadriel, Lady of Light with a Valour friend from the White Council as a convenient ally (and Rivendell can add her by herself as a historical ally). Those that want to bring in some troops could instead turn to Gandalf the White, who can bring a dozen high-Fight/high-Defense troops with him for around 350 points, which is not too far off what you'd pay for getting Galadriel and a friend from the White Council. Both of these heroes come with the Fortify Spirit spell, which gives its target 2 free Will points to resist all magical powers while the caster has at least 1 Will point left.

A second tactic you can us is to include heroes who are likely to be able to deal 3 Wounds to Sauron. This is . . . well, pretty uninspired, but it's true: you need to be able to break the Barad-Dur army in order to get access to a good chunk of the VPs in most scenarios (and in Pool 6, this is a non-trivial requirement to score ANY VPs in the scenario). Heroes like Galadriel, Lady of Light and Gandalf the White might be able to do this with the Banishment magical power, while others might have to rely on high Strength stats, bonuses To Wound, and trapping Sauron. Heroic Strike on multiple heroes (and declaring multiple Heroic Strikes in a fight with him) are likely to be part of this equation, though don't sleep on other options, like Heroic Strength and two-handed weapons. This usually takes time, but if you can do it right just once, you can get the 3 Wounds you need and then move on with your life.

Speaking of moving on, once you've deal 3 wounds to Sauron, you can do your best to ignore him. Killing the army leader is usually worth more VPs than just wounding him, but honestly, killing Sauron is virtually impossible without a concentrated effort - and in some scenarios, you just won't be able to do that. If you're facing Sauron, settle for just getting 3 wounds in, then work to break/quarter the army. If Sauron is left unwounded, he could be the last model left on the board from his army and STILL win the game (assuming the end conditions require one army to be broken), so you have to deal with him until you don't. And then . . . just don't.

One of the best ways to make sure that the Barad-Dur army does break is with threat saturation - Sauron can only target one model with magic each turn (unless he's casting Instill Fear) and with a 6" move, he may not be able to charge the models that he wants (unless he Compels them closer), which means that having lots of beater units is better than having one big beater unit. If the only model Sauron has to worry about is the Balrog (sorry, buddy, but it's been demonstrated time and again that Sauron can probably beat you if he wants to), then a good Transfix that doesn't get ignored can keep that one piece from doing anything and Sauron and his buddies can go to town on the rest of the army. If he can do this a few turns in a row, the game can pivot very quickly in his favor. With multiple threats to deal with, however, he'll be hard-pressed to stop them all - and once they start tearing through his troops, he'll need to focus on not taking damage.

Finally, force Sauron to spend Might. If Sauron can save all his Might for Ring saves, he's never going down. If Sauron is forced to call Heroic Moves, boost an important casting roll, or call a Heroic Combat to get somewhere/to someone, you're winning on some level. An experienced Sauron player will do everything possible to avoid having to burn Might (usually by including a fodder hero or two in his list), but sometimes, he has no choice . . . and that's a good thing if you're the one fighting against Sauron.

Okay, let's get out of the theoretical realm and into practical ways to beat Sauron . . .

Tiberius's Top 5 Models To Counter The Dark Lord Sauron

My honorable and dishonorable methods of beating Sauron are going to seem like old hats, but I declare, if I'm fielding Sauron, these are the two guys I don't want to see on the other side of the board . . .

Honorable Mention: Floi Stonehand (and Ori the Dwarf)

Ah, Floi - I just love this guy. Ironically, there are few rules that Floi can negate from Sauron's profile with his Loremaster special rule (since it can only target Active/Passive special rules and wargear that isn't the One Ring), but there are two important rules that Floi can target: Terror and the Lord of the Rings. Loremaster has to be used during Floi's move, so if Sauron goes before Floi and casts a spell, then negating the Lord of the Rings doesn't help him much. However, if Sauron hasn't gone yet, being able to say, "No free Will point for you" from anywhere on the board that has line of sight to Sauron is pretty handy.

If you've got Dwarf heroes closing in on Sauron, negating Terror is a great way to make sure that all your heroes make it in - or that some poor grunt charges in valiantly . . . and is perhaps Barged away instead of becoming a smear on Sauron's mace. Floi can be an incredibly strong asset, but because there are likely to be very few heroes or monsters for you to kill besides Sauron on the other side of the table, you'll probably need to bring Bombur or Gandalf in the list to give Floi more than 3 Will points.

Another neat, traditional way to cheat some wounds off Sauron is with Ori the Dwarf, who is NOT a dangerous threat to Sauron on paper, but in one game I successfully got 2 wounds on my son's Sauron model on natural 6s To Hit with Ori's slingshot and the Dead Eye special rule. Despite the fact that S1 weapons can't actually wound a D10 target, Ori's Deadeye rule allows him to deal a wound to the target (skipping the To Wound roll) on a natural 6 To Hit . . . which is all you need to soften him up before your bigger heroes roll in. You can do similar tricks with heroes who have Banishment, which leads us to . . .

Dishonorable Mention: Tom Bombadil

Yep, this guy is banned from some tournaments for a reason. It's been a while since I covered this guy because most of the models we've been talking about recently have had mounts or can fly - and Tom Bombadil is going to be hard-pressed to catch those heroes. Sauron is a lumbering giant, however, so catching Sauron with Tom Bombadil isn't that hard.

Tom can cast Banishment on a 3+ to deal a wound to Sauron unless it's resisted, which is a great way to force out Will points (and possibly Might points) as the armies start brawling. If Tom charges into Sauron, he can automatically win the fight with no one making Strikes - which isn't a great way to get wounds on Sauron, but is an effective way of making sure he doesn't kill anyone either. Tom also has Refreshing Song, which is a great way to remove the effects of a Transfix/Compel, as well as restoring lost Might/Will/Fate/Wounds to the heroes that Sauron has been trying to kill. With a 3" auto-pass Courage test bubble as well, Tom is pretty potent against Sauron. He can't do all of these things for very long, though, so make sure he gets some support (or bring his wife along). 

Okay, now for the real list . . .

Pick #5: Siege Engines (but specifically volley fire siege engines)

Sauron is going to want to manage when he engages - and since he's got D10, siege engines that would insta-kill him will instead only deal half of his wounds to him. This is fine, since half of 5 wounds is 3 wounds, which is our bare-minimum for being able to a) get VPs for wounding the enemy army leader, and b) being able to break his army normally. One lucky on-target shot (or a shot that manages to hit and has no alternate model to scatter onto) and one successful To Wound roll later (usually on a 4+ or 5+), and BOOM - you can start to ignore Sauron (and he has to get to work).

I would specifically recommend volley fire siege engines, since Sauron is likely to have a wall of guys between him and any non-volley-fire siege engines to avoid being hit directly by the shot. These siege engines include Mordor War Catapults, Gondor Battlecry Trebuchets, Catapult Trolls, and Iron Hills Ballistas (you can get the full taxonomy of siege engines here). These siege engines happen to be available in lists for both Forces of Good and Forces of Evil armies in both the Armies of the Lord of the Rings and Armies of the Hobbit supplements . . . or put differently, basically any army you can field have access to this option if they're willing to ally (and there is even a Mordor Legendary Legion with access to these options).

Depending on the scenario, shooting with a siege engine might not be an option for you. As such, a more traditional response to Sauron would probably be to include . . .

Pick #4: Heroes with one or more +1 To Wound buffs (but specifically Aragorn, Azog, Dain, Dwalin, Dori, Gloin, and Gimli)

Sauron is a tank - but with enough oomph in your list, you can crack through his defenses (at least three times, one would hope). A S4 hero with no bonuses To Wound is unlikely to deal with Sauron by the end of the game without a LOT of help (he only wounds on a 6/5+, or roughly 6% of the times he wins), but a S4 hero with +1 To Wound can wound Sauron on a 5/4+, or roughly 17% of the time. If a S4/3A hero with +1 To Wound manages to trap Sauron, he should expect to get 1 Wound naturally - and he might want to burn a Might point to get in a second wound as well.

Ideally, however, you'll have multiple heroes that can do this in your army - and if you can get them all in a fight with Sauron at the same time, you increase your likelihood of beating him AND dealing 3 wounds to him. Some heroes can do this reliably just on their own (like Aragorn and Azog, both of whom can wound Sauron on 3s), but there are a lot of Dwarf heroes who are particularly dangerous to Sauron - any version of Dain/Dwalin, Thrain, Champ-Dori, and Champ-Gloin immediately come to mind. Evil is pretty limited when it comes to affordable beat-stick heroes who can reliably wound a D10 hero, but Thrydan definitely qualifies (a Piercing Strike with his two-handed axe can wound Sauron on 5s, each wound doubling to two wounds with Mighty Blow).

But there are a few heroes who can stack multiple To Wound bonuses - the most notable is Gimli, who can fight two-handed with his master-forged two-handed axe, Piercing Strike up to S5, and if he's being out-killed by Legolas, will get an additional +1 To Wound. For the full run-down of how well Gimli can wound Sauron, you should check out what happens when he declares a Heroic Strength (ideally, while in the same fight as Aragorn or someone else that's big) here.

These strategies tend to require you to get multiple beater heroes in the same fight as Sauron - and that can be challenging. This will also be difficult for Evil armies to pull off, since most of their affordable beater heroes aren't going to be able to wound Sauron well. As such, if you like Evil armies, you might want to look into . . .

Pick #3: Magical Threat Saturation (specifically a LOT of Barrow-Wights or the Black Riders LL)

We never saw how long Sauron would last against 8 Barrow-Wights (the Balrog had a rough go against 7 Barrow-Wights), but I expect Sauron would eventually fall as well. 6 Will looks like a lot - and Resistant to Magic is great and all - but against a prolonged magic assault, it just doesn't hold up. There are two common ways to get more than 2 casters in a list - spam out Barrow-Wights (50pt Fortitude heroes) or spam out Ringwraiths (either with the Undying or in the Black Riders Legendary Legion).

Barrow-Wights are close-range models, but from experience helping my son use Sauron against Rythbyrt's Witch-King + 3 Barrow-Wight Angmar list, Sauron needs time to work down all the Barrow-Wights - and if any of them get a look on him and he flubs a roll, your army will fall apart fast. Last year, I fielded 4 Barrow-Wights - and while I struggled at 623pts to beat hordes of Uruk-Hai and Elves (and a Half-Troll + Black Numenorean concoction), I can tell you that if Sauron was on the other side, I would have been feeling pretty good. 4 Barrow-Wights is excessive, sure, but 2-3 Barrow-Wights are enough to distract Sauron's magical attentions or threaten to neutralize him for who-knows-how-long (or make him spend Might, which is always good).

Now I wouldn't generally recommend relying on Ringwraiths to deal with Sauron, but if you're using the Legion, each of those Ringwraiths has a once-per-game auto-cast Channelled Transfix that goes off on a 6 . . . that's going to be costly for Sauron to shrug off - and that can buy your Ringwraiths time to kill off whatever other heroes Sauron brought in tow and kill off troops that Sauron is relying on to win the objective game. Once his Will store is depleted, you can always risk throwing Black Darts at him (if they succeed, you know they'll need to be resisted on a 5 or 6, which is hard to do with a single die), but I wouldn't EVER try to engage him. Not even with a Morgul Blade on the Witch-King. Speaking of Morgul Blades, you should also check out . . .

Pick #2: Castellans of Dol Guldur with Morgul Blades

I misspoke earlier when I said Evil didn't have affordable heroes who could deal with Sauron - they actually do, but you have to go one very particular route. A S5 Castellan of Dol Guldur will wound Sauron on a 6/4+, or roughly 8% of the time, but with a Morgul Blade, only a single wound needs to go through in order for Sauron to start taking Ring saves (and for you to break his army normally). This means that if two Castellans and any other model can get a trap on Sauron, they're expected on 8 dice to have a 67% chance of wounding Sauron at least once . . . that's pretty crazy - and for only 90 points, I think that's pretty cool.

The resiliency of these guys is what REALLY helps them out - with 12 Will points that are used for staying alive, participating in fights, resisting magical powers, and blocking Wounds, these guys won't be able to fight Sauron for long, but they also won't die if they lose a round or two. With no Might and no access to Heroic Strike, they're often viewed as sub-par options for dealing with . . . well, anything. But if Sauron avoids them, they'll carve up those D5 Orcs (and even D6 Black Numenoreans) with ease - and if fielded in large numbers, Sauron may always have one on his back . . . and then it's just one luckly roll and his army will be able to break normally. Ick . . .

Castellans are great and castellans are good, but the real guys you need to watch out for with Sauron are . . .

Pick #1: Models with Fortify Spirit (but specifically Gandalf the White)

Fortify Spirit is the bane of Sauron's existence - and while you could run Elendil and Glorfindel (possibly together) who have this innately, you gain more flexibility by running Gandalf the White or Galadriel, Lady of Light. If you're running an army from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings sourcebook, it's quite likely that Minas Tirith is a convenient or historical ally - and since the Minas Tirith army bonus only gives its units +1 Courage, they probably don't mind if the army bonus goes away. If you're from the Armies of the Hobbit book, you might have to rely on Galadriel instead - but both will give you both Fortify Spirit to keep your heroes in fine shape AND Banishment to chip wounds off Sauron. The trick is mostly delaying the engagement long enough to get the buffs on all your heroes or important units . . . or you can just punt on that and rush Sauron before he can deal with everyone.

Gandalf the White is particularly good as a counter to Sauron because he can bring troops - and as was mentioned above, he doesn't need to bring yet-another-expensive-hero to the party (like Galadriel usually does). For less than 400 points, you could bring Gandalf and 15 Minas Tirith warriors, which should give you good numbers compared to what Sauron is packing. Since Minas Tirith has easy access to F4 and D6 (sometimes on the same model), this can give you a good anvil to work with to fend off the Orcs while whatever your other allied contingent is deals with Sauron.

Okay, let's get into some lists!

Sample Lists

We've actually seen several Sauron lists in the last few posts, but what's one more, am I right? I've made this list a 28-model, 650-point list, since that seems to be a more popular points level internationally and here in the States for major tournaments - and because we've seen 700-point lists in this series already. I also think that Sauron, like the Black Gate Opens Legion, is much better at lower points levels than higher points levels (ironically enough) because the ability for your opponent to bring answers to him goes down:

• The Dark Lord Sauron [ARMY LEADER]
• 6 Orc Warriors with shields
  
• 4 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
  
• 1 Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
  
• 6 Orc Trackers
  
• Ringwraith with 2M/7W/1F
• 3 Orc Warriors with shields
  
• 3 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
  
• 3 Orc Trackers

This list doesn't have the Ringwraith on a horse (he's only 70pts in this configuration) and it's "just Orcs," but I needed to make some concessions somewhere. If you wanted a mounted hero, an Orc Captain on Warg (50-55pts depending on whether you want a shield on him or not) is probably your best bet, but as we discussed above, it's harder to deal with threat saturation when you just have a lowly Orc Captain as Sauron's wingman. I also couldn't get any Black Numenoreans in the list without a serious hit to our numbers (though if you have 15-20pts lying around because you ditched the Ringwraith for the Orc Captain, you could upgrade 5-7 of your Orcs with shields to Black Numenoreans).

I did think about running a different list at 650, which dropped the Ringwraith and some of the Orcs and added a Mordor Troll with war drum instead - we'd still get the speed we would have gotten from March in the previous list, but Sauron would be our only hero AND we'd have a second beater model to distract the enemy heroes from Sauron. The bonus list looks like this - and boy am I tempted to try it sometime (though I'd really like a banner in it - I do have a banner in my 700-point variant of this list . . . TMAT team, be very afraid):

• The Dark Lord Sauron [ARMY LEADER]
• 6 Orc Warriors with shields
• 7 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 7 Orc Trackers
• 1 Mordor Troll with war drum

Our first list to counter Sauron is a spam list from Erebor Reclaimed - it features four heroes who can chop through the Orcs with ease and if they can get one good turn against Sauron, they are quite likely to deal 3 Wounds to him and then avoid him for the rest of the game. We could have made our heroes more punchy (and saved a few points) by swapping Thorin for King Dain, but we'd lose our only fast model, who happens to also get free Heroic Combats . . . which is very helpful for tearing through Orcs, who will treat him as causing Terror:

• Thorin Oakenshield, King Under the Mountain on war goat with Orcrist [ARMY LEADER]
• 2 Iron Hills Dwarves
• 2 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears
• 3 Iron Hills Dwarves with crossbows
  
• Gloin the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
• 2 Iron Hills Dwarves
• 3 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears
• Bifur the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
• 2 Iron Hills Dwarves
• 3 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears
• Iron Hills Captain with mattock
• 2 Iron Hills Dwarves
• 3 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears
• 2 Iron Hills Dwarves with crossbows

650 points, 28 models, 5 crossbows hitting on a 4+, 28 D6+ models, 1 cavalry and 2 Might for Heroic March, 10 Might

Our second list is a Third Age army, which isn't a great thematic foe for Sauron, but it represents the stalwart defenders of Minas Tirith from Sauron's forces. Oh, and it features both Gandalf the White and two trebuchets to deal with such a big target . . .

• Denethor, Steward of Gondor [ARMY LEADER]
• 2 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with shield, spear, and banner
• 4 Rangers of Gondor with spears
• 4 Guards of the Fountain Court
  
• Gandalf the White on Shadowfax
• 5 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 5 Rangers of Gondor with spears
  
• Siege Veteran with Gondor Battlecry Trebuchet
• 2 Crew
  
• Siege Veteran with Gondor Battlecry Trebuchet
• 2 Crew
  

650 points, 29 models, 9 bows hitting on a 3+ AND 2 trebuchets hitting on a 4+, 13 D6+ models, 2 cavalry and 1 Might for Heroic March, 1 Might

The two armies are about the same size as the Barad-Dur list and have focused on heroes and siege engines to deal with Sauron. If you want to see a much larger army that poses a HUGE threat to Sauron and his cronies, perhaps Evil is the way to go . . .

• Nazgul of Dol Guldur (Abyssal Knight) [ARMY LEADER]
  
• 3 Hunter Orcs with Orc bows
• 3 Gundabad Orcs with shields and spears
• 1 Fell Warg
  
• Nazgul of Dol Guldur (Abyssal Knight)
• 3 Hunter Orcs with Orc bows
• 3 Gundabad Orcs with shields and spears
• 1 Fell Warg
  
• Hunter Orc Captain with two-handed pick
  
• 3 Hunter Orcs with Orc bows
• 3 Gundabad Orcs with shields and spears
• 1 Gundabad Orc with shield, spear, and banner
• 1 Fell Warg
  
• Castellan of Dol Guldur with Morgul Blade
• 1 Gundabad Orc with shield and spear
  
• Castellan of Dol Guldur with Morgul Blade
• 1 Gundabad Orc with shield and spear
  
• Castellan of Dol Guldur with Morgul Blade
• 1 Gundabad Orc with shield and spear
  
• Castellan of Dol Guldur with Morgul Blade
• 1 Gundabad Orc with shield and spear
  

650 points, 33 models, 9 Orc bows hitting on a 5+, 20 D6+ models, 3 fast infantry and 2 Might for Heroic March and 2 Nazgul of Dol Guldur shenanigans, 6 Might

This army does the threat saturation that the others do - but does so with 45-point heroes, any of whom can reduce Sauron to a single wound if they can just get a 6/4+ with their Morgul Blade. If you can get a trap with three of these guys, they're statistically supposed to get one successful wound in on their 12 dice . . . that's not bad at all. 

The Castellans and Hunter Orcs, backed by Gundabads, should shred any Orcs that try to manage the space around Sauron and your army leader Abyssal Knight can hide in the back, waiting to join his brother at an opportune moment when Sauron is engaged.

Conclusion

Sauron is, by no means, an easy model to beat up - but he's also not as oppressive as some models in the game. Speaking of which, our next post will be on the banes of my existence - and models that I've come to respect more in the last few years since Rythbyrt started spamming them (and since I started looking into the Rise of the Necromancer Legion): Castellans of Dol Guldur. This will be the second unit that crosses over between our In Defense Of series and our Nemesis series, because these guys are really good - in large numbers. Find out how to beat a horde of these guys (read 4-8 of them) next time - and until then, happy hobbying!