Hey Reader!
We're back, looking at more legendary legions, and today we're looking at The Army of Carn Dum from the Rise of Angmar supplement. This legion is interesting: it has very strong Dunland vibes, both in terms of warrior/hero profiles as well as in non-magical support characters. But the special rules do make it feel a bit different from Dunland, and by extension quite different from Vanilla Angmar as well.
Part 1: What Do You Need?
The Legion requires you to take Aldrac, Warlord of Carn Dum, which is 120pts. This is not a bad tax: it's not the smallest, but it's not the largest either. It's more than Theoden, but less than the Dragon Emperor, so not bad. It means I'd probably never play this legion below 400pts (and for reasons you'll see I'd probably not play it above 600pts), but the tax is not bad.
Of course, in reality, you need more than that: one of your special rules involves Fraecht's Incantations of Power, so if you don't take him (65pts), you're leaving special rules on the table. You also have a special rule (and a cool special rule!) involving banner ranges, so if you don't take a banner (25-50pts if you take 1-2 banners), you're also not taking full advantage of your special rules. So the "True Tax" of the legion is 210-235pts, not 120. Which...for a F3 army, is quite high. You get pretty good value out of this, but it is a high tax.
Legion Bonuses
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Now this means that, since the exact wording is, "If a Carn Dum Hero kills one or more enemy models in combat, then for the duration of the following turn they gain a bonus of +1 to their Fight value," this means that if you slay an enemy model as part of a Heroic Combat, it will not boost your Fight Value for the subsequent fight: the bonus kicks in on the following turn, not until the end of the following turn. So just FYI on that, as I could see that being an issue (and as you'll see below, this is one of the changes I'd make to the legion).
The second special rule is Banners of Carn Dum, and unsurprisingly for anyone who follows this channel, this is one of my favorite legion special rules of all time. It's simple, easy to read, easy to understand, and has vast applicability: "The range of banners in this force is increased to 6"." In a F3 army, this is awesome! Rerolls are likely how you'll win a large number of your fights, and having a wide radius means you can keep your banners safe while still aiding the troops.
The third and final special rule is Words of Power, and this one is also simple, easy to read, easy to understand, and pretty useful: "The range of all of Fraecht's Incantations of Power are increased to 6"." So if you want to give your force the ability for one turn to move through difficult terrain (other than water) unhindered, give your Carn Dum models (not orcs) reroll 1s to wound, or give your Carn Dum models (once again, not orcs) a 5+ Save against wounds, you can do this 4 times per game with a 6" radius instead of a 3" radius.
I love all three of these because it gives you a clear reason to take the legion over and against normal Angmar, which is where we turn next. But before we do, it's worth noting as a comparison to the Ugluk's Scouts legendary legion (which is also combining two keywords of units) and the Men of the West legendary legion (which combines SO MANY KEYWORDS of units), that this legion doesn't require orcs to lead orcs and Carn Dum models to lead Carn Dum models, so you can mix and match in the same warband. I count this as a soft fourth legion bonus, because it is helpful, as we'll discuss in greater depth below.
Part 3: Why Take This Legion Over "Normal" Allied Forces?
In this section we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of taking the legion over and against the Vanilla Faction, but fair warning: since Carn Dum is really a subset of the Angmar faction (similar to Dunland being a subset of the Isengard faction), there are going to be substantial limitations to the list on account of not having vast numbers of models (and especially heroes and monsters) from Angmar. But surprisingly it holds up pretty well, despite the back foot it starts on.
Weakness #1: Loss of Spirit Models
The hallmark of Angmar (much as I love Buhrdur) is their spirit models: the Witch-King of Angmar is unsurprisingly from Angmar, but he's accompanied by two other wraiths (the Dwimmerlaik and the Tainted), Gulavhar the Terror of Arnor, Shades, Barrow Wights, the newly-added Shadow of Rhudaur, and Dead Marsh Spectres/Werewolves (who are spirit warrior models). And this is a huge loss: a lot of the versatility, tricks, and punch in the case of the Witch-King and Gulavhar, is tied to spirits.
Being a D5 army is not nearly as squishy against shooting armies if you can inflict a -1 or -2 penalty to hit to their shooting near a Shade (as the -1 dueling roll thing has been removed from Shades). Adding +1 to the Courage of your orcs near a Shade is also useful, as is the suite of spells that the wraiths offer. But perhaps the biggest loss from not having spirit models is the loss of Paralyze: since Barrow Wights are probably the most reliable way you have of giving out the Paralyze condition, and Paralyze is the most reliable way to deal with high-end heroes, because they don't get to roll any dice to win a duel.
And this doesn't even touch on the wraith spell suite, special abilities of the wraiths, or even the Courage test abilities of the Dead Marsh Spectres, which are useful for getting banners to run out of range, spear supports out of range, sending casters out of range to cast spells, etc. You lose all of this by taking the legion.
Strength #1: Highly Efficient Banners
When you're running a F3 army, you are unlikely to win ties against most armies: you'll typically end up in a roll-off with your opponent or just lose outright. The easiest way to get past this is, if your opponent doesn't get a 6, your banner helps you reroll a dueling dice to headhunt that 6. But the biggest issue is that, since banners only have a 3" range, you typically need like 2-3 banners to get a banner effect in each fight.
But with 6" banners, you can take 2 and probably be okay: that's close to 26" of frontage covered by banners, and if you catch a warg rider at the end of each line, it's closer to 28" of frontage. And for 50pts (which is only 6-10 models that you lose), that's a bargain.
Weakness #2: No Monster Support
Now I'm aware that most of the Angmar meta players don't use a lot of monsters: cave trolls (which are now being replaced by hill trolls) have not been a common staple of the scene, Buhrdur is not the common take for heroes (typically behind the Witch-King, Gulavhar, orc captains, barrow wights, and shades), and the only real monsters you tend to see in Angmar armies are Gulavhar and a fell beast. And in the case of the fell beast, it's actually more common to see the Witch-King on a horse rather than a fell beast.
But the lack of it here is a weakness: Vanilla Angmar does great because it has magic spells and support abilities to lock down enemy heroes and slow down the grind through the ranks. Carn Dum doesn't have much of this: you get incantations - and rerolling 1s to wound and 5+ Saves against wounds is not bad, but it's not going to lock down an enemy hero. It's not going to stop the steady grind of an Aragorn, Boromir, Azog, Gulavhar, etc.
And monsters would help to solve these issues: they have high Fight Value, so the heroes engaged with them are more likely to call Heroic Strike rather than Heroic Combat, reducing the speed that they crush through your lines. They have high Strength, meaning that heroes and warriors that are thrown at them have to either win or risk being slain. And in the case of Hill Trolls, the fact that they can reroll a dueling dice against infantry (or two dice, if you're also in banner range), means that the chance you roll really low on all of them - effectively five dice - is unlikely.
Carn Dum's primary way to deal with power heroes is to throw Carn Dum Warriors into base contact with the hero (so that you can gain +1 to wound against them, starting at S4), back that up with spears (possibly Carn Dum Warriors again, but you can save points with Orc Warriors if you're comfortable with S3 instead of S4), make sure you have a banner nearby, hope you get a 6, hope they don't, and then roll high enough to wound the hero a few times. And that's not a bad plan, but if you've played this game for a while, you'll know that this is not a great plan. Sometimes it works, but a lot of the time you lose a lot of people in the process because "I rolled a 6" is coming from the other side of the table.
Strength #2: Non-Magical Support
A lot of the support abilities in the game involve magic: something you can cast that can potentially be resisted by the opponent. And this is especially true for Angmar in general: a lot of their spells are offensive in nature, designed to hinder enemies rather than boosting allies.
Fraecht offers support abilities that can't be dispelled: giving a 5+ Save - so Malbeth levels of saves - is incredibly good for a D5 army: most models are wounding them on 5s, so saving on 5s is fantastic. May not always save a life (suffering more than 1 wound against a model means that the model is likely to suffer a wound), but it is better than your average shaman (and worlds better than an Angmar Orc Shaman considering that THEY DON'T GET FURY!?!?!? End rant).
And his abilities are very versatile: reroll 1s to wound makes botching the wounding roll less likely to happen, the 5+ Save is integral to a mid-Defense army, and being able to move through rocky, woodland, and other non-water difficult terrain is very useful. It would be more useful if it applied to warg riders, but still very useful for getting you where you need to go.
Weakness #3: Fraecht's Will Store Limitations
The only downside to Fraecht's Incantations is that you have to spend a Will Point, they only last for a turn, he only has 4 Will Points, and he can't regain them like Muzgur can. This means that, to be honest, you don't actually have three Incantations of Power: you probably have one, maybe two. To be honest, as nice as reroll 1s to wound is, you're unlikely to prioritize that as one of your four Incantations for the game because if you don't roll a single one to wound in the 6" radius (which is possible, between losing fights and thus not striking wounds, and rolling 1-2 dice in most of the fights that are within range), you just threw away an Incantation.
So the #1 you are probably going to use is the 5+ Save, as dice rolls go south, even with banners, so having a 5+ chance to negate what is probably a 5+ to wound, is really good. Far more useful than reroll 1s to wound, especially if you lose a lot of the fights in range. And similarly, while difficult terrain does exist on most maps, there's typically not that much of it, and where it is may not be integral to the game. So in reality you don't really have three incantations: you have one, and you might find a situation where you're willing to take a chance on one of the others.
And since you don't even get access to the Angmar Orc Shaman, beyond banners there's really no other support in this army. So what you lose, compared to what you get, is pretty limited, mostly due to the limited Will Store for Fraecht.
But wait, there's more! You have to call the Incantation in the Priority Phase (which makes sense, as the Incantation of Swiftness involves movement), which means that if you were to, say, call the Incantation of Endurance (5+ Save), your opponent in the Move Phase now knows that you're providing a 5+ Save for the turn. This is useful since it means it can apply the save against Impact Hits, magical damage, shooting attacks, and close combat rolls to wound (which isn't true of every defensive ability), but it also means that you have to spend the Will Point to give yourself a benefit without knowing whether you'll be Compelled away from the front line, caused to move by a Dead Marsh Spectre, pulled into a fight with a Balrog's Fiery Whip, knocked over by a War Bat - lots of ways to be moved without your consent in this game. And if that happens, not only have you lost a Will Point of effectiveness, you're gimping your entire team as the sole support character in the list.
Weakness #4: Keyword Issues
On the one hand, Army of Carn Dum has the benefit of cheap orcs (5-7pts for an orc warrior, possibly more if you give it a banner, and 5-12pts for an orc tracker), which is nice for padding your numbers and getting cheap spear supports into your army. And when you're backing up Warriors of Carn Dum (which are just Dunlending Warriors with a special rule that kicks in when fighting enemy heroes), having a 6-7pt spearman backing up a 9pt D5 model is really nice, because you're going to need numbers to fill gaps when losses invariably happen.
The primary issue with the legion is that so many of the special rules apply to Carn Dum models, and the orcs don't gain the Carn Dum keyword. None of Fraecht's Incantations of power affect the orcs, so moving Warriors of Carn Dum backed up by orc spearmen through difficult terrain doesn't work, you can't save wounds on a 5+ for any of the orcs, and you can't give them reroll 1s to wound. The orc captains can't go up to F5 on turns after they kill an enemy model (which sucks, since they're the only heroes you can mount in that legion). And while yes, the 6" banner bonus applies to them (which is good!), if that's all they're getting in this legion, and they're losing causing Terror near a spirit model, there's a legitimate question of whether that's a good trade for taking orcs.
The alternative is that you don't run orcs at all: run every model as a Carn Dum model, so that your keywords all align. But if that's the case, 1) you have no cavalry, 2) you have no archery or throwing weapons (which sucks, since you have orc trackers, which are better than what Angmar typically gets!), and 3) you have lower numbers.
Part 4: Legendary Legion Improvements
There are two changes I'd recommend for this legion, both of which involve the orcs, as the orcs are currently just sitting on the bench compared to the Men of Carn Dum.
So the first change I'd make to this legendary legion is one I've hinted at above: we need to improve the synergy of the orcs with the Carn Dum models as regards Fraecht's Incantations of Power, seeing as it's the primary means of support in the army. So toward that end, I'd just slightly reword the Words of Power special rule:
Words of Power: The range of all of Fraecht's Incantations of Power are increased to 6", and benefit both Carn Dum and Angmar models.
Now if this change was made to Angmar generally it might be too powerful: being able to benefit wraiths, hill trolls, werewolves, orcs, etc., would probably be too powerful. But in this legion it's only benefitting orc captains, warg riders, orc warriors, and orc trackers, so I think it's fine. And it means that you don't have to worry about which units are in range, so it's easier to play by the rules and not cheat (which I'm a fan of).
In addition we're adding a new special rule, both because we need something for the orc side of the list to incentivize you taking them (other than a slightly reduced cost), but also because the Designer Notes for the legion say, "This Legendary Legion showcases the raw strength of the Men of Carn Dum combined with the cunning of the Angmar Orcs," and I just don't see any cunning going on here in the legion so far.
And considering that we've got some real estate for expanding the list lower on the page, I'd add the following special rule to boost the orcs:
Cunning Strike: When an Angmar Orc model is engaged in a fight with an enemy who is also engaged by a Carn Dum model, the Angmar Orc adds +1 to their wounding rolls. In addition, when an Angmar Orc is spear supporting in a fight that involves a friendly Carn Dum model, the Angmar Orc may reroll 1s to wound.
So what this does is it plays into the cunning of the Angmar Orcs: the brutish fighting style of the Carn Dum men create openings for the orcs to exploit, and helps to mitigate the downside of their S3. You cannot benefit from both rules on the same model at the same time (an orc will either be engaged in a fight or spear supporting), but it gives you a reason to take orcs with hand weapons, two-handed weapons, and spears, so there's a reason to use basically every loadout available (other than the orc bow - there's just not a lot of reason to take those over and against orc trackers, and that's fine).
Part 5: Army Strategies and Tactics
I think a lot of the strategic and tactical advice for this legion mirrors that of Dunland (which is not surprising, as I think they fill a similar niche with legendary legions): you need to get into melee as quickly as possible (so captains are important), you want your heroes in the fight as long as possible, and you need to speedbump power heroes long enough to thin out the enemy ranks, all while having D4-5 for all your warriors. So I'm not going to lie: it will require some finesse and cunning on your part to make this work.
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The trick with Aldrac is that you need to be planning two turns in advance. Per the legion bonus, his Fight Value goes up by +1 on a turn after he slays a model. So don't run straight into Eomer: run into a warrior first, slay the warrior, and on the next turn run into Eomer (or don't run into Eomer: slaying him is not as easy as it looks).
In addition, though, Aldrac can call free Heroic Combats on a turn after he slays a model, so you could potentially have a F6 free combat hero every turn after you slay your first model as long as the wound train doesn't stop. So make sure you're sending him into fights where he can win and slay something.
He also offers the useful buff of allowing Carn Dum models (heroes and warriors, but once again, not orcs) to reroll failed Courage tests within 6" of him, which is a useful bump as we transition to talking about captains and warriors.
Your captains are going to be doing a lot of the day-to-day heavy lifting for you: they give you access to Heroic March, which is very good, but also at 45-55pts an Orc or Carn Dum Captain is a good budget option for being F4 S4 D6 2 Attacks with 2 Might Points. While you'll want to take Fraecht as your second hero (because army special rules), you'll probably be running 2 or more captains in every force as well, both because you need them to bring the numbers you'll need to win, but also because without a true power hero in your list, you need to be steadily chipping away at the enemy, and these guys are serviceable in that role.
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I do generally recommend you save most of your Will Points for that 5+ Save, as breaking an army is consistent Victory Points, but there are useful situations for ignoring difficult terrain as well. In general, though, I don't think reroll 1s is worthwhile, so personally I'd pass on that.
Editor's Note: while I agree with Centaur that the options for heroes in this list are limited, many of the players who have brought Carn Dum to the table have found Fraecht's boosts to the army quite limited - there is a strong argument for leaving this guy at home and taking a Warg-Riding Orc Captain or a Captain of Carn Dum instead. ~Tiberius
For your warrior choices, I do think you want at least 4 Warg Riders, as you'll want the speed (and while you're at it, I'd mount the Orc Captain as well if you're taking one), but also because getting the knock down against enemy infantry can help your Carn Dum warriors to wound things. Keep them near the flanks to harass the end of the battle line, go after far-flung objectives, and counter enemy cavalry. I'd consider possibly taking throwing spears on them, but in general I'd just take the shield upgrade and call it a day at a 12pt charge cavalry unit. If you feel lucky, you can take the throwing spears, but you're unlikely to remove much with them, and may not even make back the points you spend on it. I'd definitely not take the bow upgrade, for reasons we'll talk about shortly.
As regards the breakdown of Warriors of Carn Dum and Orc Warriors, I think there's three rules of thumb to follow. First, your front rank is probably best comprised of Warriors of Carn Dum, as they get +1 to wound against enemy heroes, they have S4 for cracking through heavy armor, and their higher Courage (with a chance to reroll near Aldrac) means Terror isn't as big of an issue (still an issue, especially if there's a Harbinger of Evil character nearby, but not as bad as orcs with no reroll). Your Orc Warriors are better served in a spear-supporting role, some carrying banners (more on that later), and possibly some two-handed weapons as well for when you need to get through D7 troops. But I know that some people don't like two-handed weapons like I do, so if you pass on these, no worries.
A quick side note on the Warrior of Carn Dum with a spear (and to some extent with a banner and spear): in general I'd avoid this: what you're paying for when you pay +3pts for a Warrior of Carn Dum over an equivalent Angmar Orc Warrior is +1pt for +1 Strength (not bad on a spearman), +1pt for +1 Courage (mostly lost on spearmen except against some niche abilities, mostly from spirit models), and +1pt for a special rule that only applies when you're in base contact with an enemy hero (also lost on spearmen). So I kind of feel like a Warrior of Carn Dum with a spear is kind of like the Dunlending Huscarl: while yes, it can technically spear support, you're losing a lot of benefits by not having that model in the front rank, all while paying a premium for those benefits. So personally I'd run a front rank of Warriors of Carn Dum, and spear support with Angmar Orc Warriors, but that's up to you.
And that brings us to Orc Trackers: there aren't that many troop types in this army, but I'm glad they included these with the option to take wargs for them. Orc trackers are up there with Hunter Orcs for the best orc/goblin archers in the game, but that's not saying much: their 4+ Shoot Value makes them decent archers by comparison to their Forces of Good counterparts, but it puts them among the best archers for 5pts or cheaper. And that's the primary advantage in taking them: if you want some honesty bows to keep your opponent from just turtling in the back and shooting you on approach, orc trackers serve far better than their Orc Warrior counterparts. I'd definitely consider not mounting them, though; wargs are great, no argument there, but their cost does go up by a lot, so the only reason I'd take them mounted is if you were planning to spend 12pts on a Warg Rider with an orc bow, you might as well spend 12pts on an Orc Tracker on a warg.
Part 6: Army Showcase
As is tradition, we'll give you a sample 500pt list and a sample 700pt list of what you can get with this force. But before we do, because I mentioned it in passing, if you did find yourself at a 200pt "Speed Game" event, here's how I'd do that:
Warband 1
Aldrac (Army Leader): 120pts
3 Warriors of Carn Dum: 27pts
1 Angmar Orc Warrior with Shield, Spear, and Banner: 32pts
3 Angmar Orc Warriors with Shields and Spears: 21pts
TOTAL: 200pts, 8 models, 3 Might*
Now of course, this is a super niche points level and unlikely to come up, but when you compare this to comparable lists from other armies, this is actually really good: slay one model with Aldrac in the first round of combat, become F6 with a free Heroic Combat (or pay 1 Might for a Heroic Strike), and from that point on you're headhunting enemy heroes or chewing through their men to retain the F6 for the rest of the game. And you've got a banner and a decent cadre of men that can go 2 ranks x 4 files, and the whole army is D5-6 with a 6" banner effect. Not horrible! And if you're paying at 200pts, it's unlikely that the board will be larger than 24" x 24" so archery is unlikely to be a big issue.
So with that small shenanigan list out of the way, here's where we start at 500pts:
Warband 1
Aldrac (Army Leader): 120pts
4 Warriors of Carn Dum: 36pts
1 Angmar Orc Warrior with Shield, Spear, and Banner: 32pts
4 Angmar Orc Warriors with Shields and Spears: 28pts
Warband 2
Fraecht: 65pts
6 Warriors of Carn Dum: 54pts
1 Angmar Orc Warrior with Shield, Spear, and Banner: 32pts
3 Angmar Orc Warriors with Shields and Spears: 21pts
Warband 3
Orc Captain with Shield and Warg: 55pts
4 Warg Riders with Shields: 48pts
TOTAL: 500pts, 26 models, 6 Might*
Now this isn't that much all things considered: only 26 models (which is a shy bit on the low side for a F3 D5 army), but it gives us 5 fast models (including access to Heroic March), two 6" banners, our supporting hero (heroes, if you include Aldrac), and a frontline that does have S4 backed up by S3 spears (so there's no "cheating us out of points" by people running odd-numbered Defense to cancel out the benefits of S4, as our S3 guys still wound the same against those).
This army lacks archery - that's just due to the fact that I wanted more defensible cavalry instead of orc trackers. But if you were willing to shrink the front lines a bit, you could fit some trackers in and get the list closer to 30 models if you'd like.
At 700pts we're going more well-rounded: adding archery and another captain in the mix so that we don't need to call Heroic Moves and such with Aldrac. My list would look something like this:
Warband 1 (234)
Aldrac (Army Leader): 120pts
6 Warriors of Carn Dum: 54pts
1 Angmar Orc Warrior with Shield, Spear, and Banner: 32pts
6 Angmar Orc Warriors with Shields and Spears: 42pts
Warband 2 (141)
Fraecht: 65pts
4 Warriors of Carn Dum: 36pts
8 Orc Trackers: 40pts
Warband 3 151
Orc Captain with Shield and Warg: 55pts
4 Warg Riders with Shields: 48pts
4 Orc Trackers on Wargs: 48pts
Warband 4 (144)
Captain of Carn Dum: 55pts
5 Warriors of Carn Dum: 45pts
1 Angmar Orc Warrior with Shield, Spear, and Banner: 32pts
4 Angmar Orc Warriors with Shields and Spears: 28pts
TOTAL: 700pts, 47 models, 8 Might*
Now 47 models at 700pts is more of what I'd typically see and we were able to get to these numbers because we added 12 archers (8 dismounted, 4 mounted) to the list, which, while not the maximum number of archers we could add, is I think the amount you'd probably want: your shooting isn't that great, and these archers are so fragile that you need to keep them safe, probably behind terrain, so I'd forego taking too many of them lest you find some caught in the open or not having good shots with those 18" bows. But this gives us a fast squad of 9 warg riders (with access to Heroic March), two big squads of rank-and-file with Aldrac and the Captain of Carn Dum, and additional men in support wiht Fraecht, including the archer corps. You've got plenty of models to leave on objectives with the Orc Trackers, plenty of cavalry to chase down enemy archers and secure far-flung objectives, and a decent number of men within two 6" banner radii to win fights against the bulk of the enemy force.
Army Summary
I kind of feel like this legion is a lot like the Army of Dunland legion: it's probably stronger to just run Isengard, but it has good special rules and would be fun to run on its own. With the new edition coming I've been eyeing starting Dunland, and who knows: maybe I'll jump in on Carn Dum as well. But if you like an army with cheap and easy access to S4 (and effective S6 against heroes), relatively cheap heroes, easy access to cheap charge cavalry (12pts for a Warg Rider with a shield!), and a unique play style, consider trying out the Army of Carn Dum!
Watching the stars,
Centaur
"I watch the stars, for it is mine to watch." ~ Glenstorm, Prince Caspian
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