First Impressions: Gundabad and Dol Goldur, Part I

Hey Reader!

Welcome back! We're back reviewing more of the armies from the new edition, and today we're looking at the 19 profiles tied to Azog, whether they be part of his hunters or his legion. This one has seen small tweaks to...actually most of the profiles, and some of them have toned down some of the craziness of the old edition (some of which I'll miss, but some of which honestly makes sense and is fine. I see why they did it, even if it dropped the power curve on my Azog's Hunters lists), but the small changes do change some of the decisions you make, in ways that I think are healthy.

Leader Overview: How Have Azog and Bolg Changed?

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So let's start with the big man himself: Gorgowrath's go-to man, the beast for destroying any hero, and a monster without the monster keyword: Azog the Defiler. Azog is largely the same: still F7 (grumble grumble, he's not that great in the movies or the books, but whatever), still S5, and the clarity of his special rule helps to remove some of the potential shenanigans that can come with his wounding heroes on a 3+, so great job rules team! And just in general I appreciate the greater use across the books of the use of "natural" when combined with a number to provide clarity: good choice all around.

He has access to heavy armor to get up to D7, which is good because while he has 3 Wounds he still only has the 1 Fate Point, so he can be fragile. And his White Warg isn't much better: still only D5 with 2 Wounds and 1 Fate, so once again, just watch out for archery and magic as that could be devastating to you. But there are two major changes that should be noted here, both of which are less than optimal.

The first is that I'm seeing no rule about stat sharing: I don't see any special rule anymore about Azog and the White Warg sharing their Might, Will, and Fate. Now it's possible (I don't have the book with me right now, as it's on-loan to Tiberius) that there's just a general rule now that mounts and their riders can share stats (and if so, we'll edit this before it goes live, hopefully!), but if that's not the case, then there's no more "Azog spends the White Warg's Might before spending his own," and that has implications both for how beastly Azog can be in this edition, as well as implications for the survivability of both. Being a 1 Fate hero is dangerous, especially as an army leader who can cough up points when wounded, but it's not so bad if you have secret access to a second Fate Point. Losing that does change things.

The second major change is that the stone flail got clarified: you're capped at F6 even after Heroic Strikes are resolved. Now I can't remember if that was the way it was in the old edition, but in this edition that actually matters a lot because of the Fight Value rebalance: there are more F6 people now than there were, more F7 people now than there were, and thus dropping to F6 could actually be really bad. I don't think the stone flail was a huge competitive choice (I think actually most competitive people took Bolg, which is where we turn next), but at least as regards Azog, I'd just be careful about taking this in the future. It works great (especially against those D7 dwarf warriors and D8 Warriors of the Dead), but in general I'd be cautious.

Oh yes, one other quick minor thing: no Signal Tower (at least until we see what the Armies of Middle Earth supplement has, though I wouldn't hold my breath). I know, the 17 people who ran this are heartbroken, and rightly so: it took a lot of work to make that thing. I know, the buffs were really good for the cost, and the 6 dudes that came with it made it points effective for what you got. But...as a tournament organizer who has to setup boards and approve them for a tournament, can I just...go out on a limb and say that I'm glad that armies that included a massive terrain piece that had to be thought about in the prep phase of the tournament is no longer a thing? :P Like, I'm glad you liked it, and I want you to play with things you like, but it's a pain to us who have to setup boards and make sure there's enough space for mumaks, and then you're going to drop a literal mountain on me? :P There will be no weeping from Centaur (which is why I'm writing this post, I reckon, :P ).

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Next we have Bolg, and he's basically what we had before: still F7, S5 with 3 Attacks with a two-handed weapon while being Burly, and "3-Might-and-Strike," so he's a good slayer all around. He can take a fell warg, so he can get even better, though mounts are more expensive now and his mount is fragile against archery. I'd probably still take it, but it's a thing to think about (considering that you're passing up on like 2-4 models to take the mount).

He still has his special rule from last edition (The Bringer of Death): You keep track of the kills he gets, and when he reaches 2 kills he gains Terror, when he reaches 5 he gains Harbinger of Evil, and when he reaches 8 he gains Mighty Hero. This is situationally useful: there are some armies where this won't do much for you (Army of the Dead, The Fellowhip, a skirmish-centric all-mounted Rohan army, etc.), but in general this is a very useful ability.

Captain Overview: How Have Yazneg, Fimbul, Narzug, and the Captains Changed?

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To lead off, we have Yazneg, and I'm not gonna lie: this guy needed a boost in this edition, as he was (in my opinion) inferior to Fimbul, probably inferior to Narzug (especially if you knew that Assassination was a possible scenario), and possibly inferior to a dismounted Hunter Orc Captain thanks to the Many Blades special rule making them a 45pt killing machine with F4 S4 3A.

And Yazneg got a boost: not only does he have a chance to effectively treat Azog as a banner reroll for all of his dice in a duel roll (so 3-4 dice, though this comes wiht a tradeoff if you don't win), he remains a "3-Might-and-Strike" hero, which is rarer now in armies tied to Azog. And while he's only S4, with +1 to wound from a lance, his wounding potential is pretty good so long as you're charging (and you'll find that this is generally true of the Azog forces: a lot of them really want to be charging).

But consistent with the character (and helping to keep his cost down at a reasonable 55-80pts), if he loses a fight while taking advantage of his bonus rerolls, he suffers 1 wound. Not a Strength X hit, a wound. and he's still only a 2 Wound + 1 Fate hero. So...yeah...don't use this rule all helter-skelter: save it for when you think you can win (and ideally when you have the higher Fight Value). He does start at F5, so that's something, and I think he makes for a much more competitive choice, but that's mostly due to the fact that other heroes took a tumble in his list. Speaking of which, and this one hurts for me...

Fimbul saw some dramatic changes, and I think he's the biggest loser out of everyone in this list (which sucks, as he's my favorite hero in the list). He lost Heroic Strike, so he's not as good at challenging mid-range heroes as he was before, and combined with the fact that he's now base F4 and becomes F5 on the charge (see what I'm saying about this being an army that very much wants to be charging every turn now? Also, important note: he only gains this +1 Fight Value when charging with the Cavalry keyword, so if you take out his warg he's a F4 captain for the rest of the game), it's going to be harder to keep Fimbul alive in the scrum when facing F4+ armies (which is over half the armies now in the books).

He also lost his orc bow, but I'll be honest: between his meh Shoot Value and being able to move without problems through difficult terrain, there were games where I completely forgot he had one. So it's fine. And his 2 Will Points is nice for magic defense, which the list needs, but at 50-70pts (and probably 70pts if you want his special rules), it's a tough pill to swallow when you compare Fimbul to other options available to you.

Narzug also saw a change: he can't take a warg anymore (RIP the proxies people made), but he also traded his Morgul Arrows (which I didn't really like) for Poisoned Weapons (Orc Bow) and Expert Shot, so he now rerolls 1s to wound, with the potential to use a Might Point for free to turn that reroll into a potential wound, and with a higher ceiling for damage. So he's more reliable at dealing damage now, which is good! Evil should have a sniper character, considering how good Legolas is in the new edition. And at 55pts, he's no slouch, though it's worth noting that, again, like a lot of other captains in this edition, he's down to 2 Might now instead of 3. So just be aware of that.

Next we have the Hunter Orc Captain, one of my favorite heroes from the last edition, and in this edition he's still okay - just changed a bit in ways that will also affect the hunter orcs below as well. Remember how I said when talking about Fimbul that this army really encourages you to charge? Well the Many Blades rule of last edition (which gave +1 Attack while you had the Infantry keyword) has been changed: now the rule is called Savage Hunters and it gives +1 Attack when you charge. Now this is simultaneously good and bad for Hunter Orc Captains: it means you can still get 3 Attacks with a S4 two-handed weapon if you charge, which is nice, but it also means that you need to be moving first, so expect to be fielding a lot of guys just for calling Heroic Moves as needed.

But it also makes the Hunter Orc Captain better in one regard: since this does not require him to have the Infantry keyword anymore, when he charges on a fell warg he goes from 2 Attacks + 1 for Savage Hunters + 1 for the Cavalry special rule (if you're charging Infantry), so instead of being 2-3 Attacks on the charge like in the last edition, he's up to 3-4 Attacks on the charge, which is AWESOME. And this can be, again, with a two-handed weapon if you wanted (which means you can RAKE enemy infantry, assuming you're good with spending a Might Point to win a fight).

More on this later when we talk about the Hunter Orc Warrior and Hunter Orc Warg Rider below, but just suffice it to say for now, I think there's still a place for these guys beyond calling Heroic March: I think they'll make great troop slayers, wading into enemy lines to crunch a whole in solid lines.

Fifth, we have Gundabad Orc Captains: these guys are basically the same as last edition, coming in at 60pts base with the shield already included (for that sweet, sweet D7). Where they've changed (in a good way) is they're now F5 (which is a preview of things to come for the average Gundabad Orc Warrior), and S5 (again, +1 over a Gundabad Warrior), so not only are they basically the same cost, they're very good all-around for warrior-slaying on a budget. Plus they're pretty cheap Might Points compared to those big heroes at the top of the list.

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And finally, we have the Goblin Mercenary Captains, which haven't changed that much from last edition. They still have Cave Dweller, Chittering Hordes, and Mercenary Ambush, which is really what makes these guys so good (and I'd say an auto-include in any list at any points level - I think Rythbryt would agree with me on this, possibly the other TMAT players, but in my book they're just too good to leave at home). And starting at 50pts, these guys are worth taking, especially since you'll need cheap Might Points considering the high-end heroes you'll be fielding.

Now Rythbryt and I have talked about these quite often, and I think he's right: it's probably a smart idea to not take a full warband with these guys, in part because it saves you points, but also because, if the warband is too big, it's too easy to keep them from being able to appear in terrain if 1) the warband physcially can't fit in that terrain feature, and/or 2) if they leave one warrior in some part of said terrain feature and, after factoring in his control zone, you can't fit in the terrain feature. So I think like 7-8 dudes is a good max, as you'll have enough bodies to do something useful, but not so many that you can't fit them in the space. Plus the smaller the warband (without becoming useless), the more potential places you can pop up, so the enemy has to spread out more to preempt you.

Now before we move on to warriors and monsters, a quick thing to note: just like in the last edition, we have no entries for shamans in either of these lists. I've been on record in the previous editions saying that, since Terror had become so commonplace in the previous meta, the lack of a shaman was a serious drawback, because Courage 2 (even with a war horn for Azog's Hunters) was just not capable of getting sufficient bodies into combat, especially if you're Azog's Hunters and lack access to spear supports. But from what I've seen so far, no one has a shaman, so maybe it won't sting as much? But it could also be why I generally tend to feel like some of the strongest armies are now on the Forces of Good side, as they tend to deal with Terror better, while still having good options for other areas. We'll see.

Warrior Overview: How Have The Grunts Changed?

Leading us off in the warrior department we have the humble (let's be honest, they're not humble) Hunter Orc Warriors. These guys have seen some changes from last edition: you can't take a war horn on them anymore, but they did increase their Shoot Value to 4+ base, so yay! But the biggest change, as was noted above with the captain, is the change with Savage Hunters: now you only get your 2 Attacks base when you charge, which means Heroic Moves are going to matter a lot more now, as you don't have spears to support you, and no way to ally them in (unless you're playing a doubles game, I suppose - presuming they don't require both players to use the same army).

This means that, while in the last edition, there was a legitimate question about how many fell wargs and/or warg riders to take (as they cost the same as 1-2 hunter orcs), now there's clear room for both, as you'll see below.

Speaking of Hunter Orc Warg Riders, these guys are great now - probably the biggest winners of the warrior category. First off, their cost went down to 15pts from 16pts, so it is cheaper (slightly) to buy a hunter orc on a fell warg over and against buying a hunter orc and a fell warg (which was the issue last edition). And as was mentioned above with the captain, their +1 Attack from Savage Hunters stacks with the Cavalry rules, so they can add +2 Attacks on the charge, so your 1 Attack 15pt model goes up to 3 when he's charging an Infantry model - not bad! And if you want to take advantage of that Attack count or your 4+ Shoot Value, you have the ability to take a two-handed weapon or an orc bow. And of course this offensive ability is only augmented by the fact that they are riding...

Fell Wargs! They're still 8pts, still have Fell Sight, still have the same stat line of the other wargs. Great all-around choice, fast at 10" Move, and the sculpts are awesome. Highly recommend. The only real drawback is their 40mm base size (errataed from what was printed), so they can't squeeze into tight ranks, but for running around flanks, taking on archers, and ambushing people trying to hide, these guys are awesome.

As we switch to the Azog's Legion side of things, we start with the Gundabad Orc Warrior, and these guys got a big bump. Not only are they now F4 S4, they are effectively uruk-hai in points cost and profile except they also have Ancient Enemies with both elves and dwarves. All of which is great. The physical models may not be the most affordable, but they're very good at what they do, and well worth taking. Plus it's one of the few banners that can take a shield, so eyyyyy!

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Next we have Goblin Mercenaries, and as I noted above, I think these guys are an auto-include. At 6pts each, they're cheap, they're good, and they fill a necessary niche in an army that can't take cavalry: they can pop up in far-flung parts of the board in force with a good level of reliability. So while the profile isn't great on these guys, they change the game in ways that few models available to Azog's forces can. A+ choice, definitely include them in your army.

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Next is a controversial one: some people really liked Gundabad Berserkers in the last edition, and some people really didn't. For their cost you could get a lot more dudes, and while they have 2 Attacks base, you can typically get that plus extra bodies for the cost you spend to get them. And at 15pts base, they fill two useful niches for you: they have a lot of Attacks (with access to spear support from the Gundabad Warriors), and they have Courage 4+, so you an reliably charge Terror models, and they won't run when the going gets tough. They also do get their 6+ Save against wounds, but from experience, I wouldn't plan on this working that often.

Of course, the biggest issue is that this force has expensive units aplenty, and even a handful of berserkers will add up over time, so the real question is whether it's worth it to take 4 of these guys or 6 Gundabads, and I think that's going to be a question of taste. Against a Minas Tirith army the berserkers might be wasted, but against a Terror army it could be the difference between victory and defeat.

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And finally we have the War Bats: they're 25pts of flying danger, gaining both a +1 to-wound when charging (see - charging again!), as well as gaining their ability to knock prone a 25mm base model on a 4+ that it flew over (thereby solving the "man-sized model" issue from the last edition, where some infantry models were far larger than a man, and some men were mounted on a horse, so what counted was up for discussion). But mostly what these guys are great for is their speed: getting somewhere quickly to grab a relic, jump over enemy lines, and screen the main body for would-be flankers relying on 8-10" cavalry movement. With only 2 Wounds and D4 they're pretty fragile, but if you can keep them safe they're exellent.

Monster Overview: How Have the Monsters Changed?

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To lead off, we have the Gundabad Troll: a favorite in our gaming group (and I suspect the one a lot of people went to when they went monster-heavy Azog's Legion) for many reasons. It still sports the 4 Wounds at D8 (which is just crazy) while having 3 Attacks and S7, and you still have the option for the Crushing Club or the Gauntlets (with the latter now giving you Mighty Blow, and the latter still giving you that +1 to wound). And with Dominant (4) now for no extra cost, I gotta say: this guy was an auto-take for me in the last edition, and he's still an auto-take in this edition. 

His F7 is technically worth less since the Fight Value bump happened for various heroes that you're likely to see on the table, but you know, he's still very good: he's beefy, will survive a lot of punishment, will take down a lot of foes, and is good against both heroes and warriors any way you run him. If you're looking at picking one up, I'd add it to your cart.

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I think it's also fair to say that in the last edition the Gundabad Ogre didn't get very much love: for what it offered it just wasn't worth taking over the warrior choices you had access to in the old Azog's Legion. And honestly, I don't think that's changed: for the same cost as 4 Gundabad Berserkers, you get 3 Attacks at S6 instead of 8 Attacks at S4 (which can also be spear supported), Dominant (3) instead of 4 models that could score on 1 or more objectives at a time, the same Defence Value but with 3 Wounds instead of 4 (with a special rule to maybe save a wound against them), Fight 5 instead of 4 (which is useful, but not as useful as it was in the previous edition), and while the Gundabad Ogre has an 8" Move...so does the Berserker. It also has a lower Courage (though a slightly higher Intelligence), so the Ogre is more easily stunted (by a lot) than the Berserker when it comes to Terror armies.

I'm not trying to be a hater here: I think there's a universe where running ogres is a good idea. They're probably more reliable at breaking dwarf lines, much like cave trolls and other lower-level monsters in the game. But against anything else, I think it's probably better to go with numbers over these guys. I'm sorry if you love them; I just don't see it working out to take them.

Next we have the Gundabad Catapult Troll and while I'm a sucker for siege equipment and artillery (what drives me to a lot of games I play), even if I wasn't I'd recommend this unit. For only 60pts more than a Gundabad Troll (which is really its only drawback, but I think it's a fair cost) you get a healthier version of the troll that, sure, doesn't get Mighty Blow or +1 to wound, but since its melee hits are resolved at S10, it's effectively +1 to wound against those high-Defence targets when compared to the Gundabad Troll. And the Hurl distance bonus is just gravy on top of that.

Furthermore, being the only siege weapon in the game that can move and shoot in the same turn has to be noted, and while it's only hitting on a 6, that's not bad for being able to move a Dominant (5) model toward an objective while still contributing to suppressing the enemy. So just based on this - forget that it's a F7 siege weapon that you can't dismantle through gimmicks and is arguably stronger in melee than at range, which is very rare for siege weapons - I think it's worth looking at taking one. The only real drawback is that for 180pts you could get a Gundabad Troll and a captain, so it's a substantial investment to take a Gundabad Catapult Troll, especially considering the cost of your high-end heroes.

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And last we have the Troll Brute, an odd choice in the last edition (as it wasn't quite the Gundabad Troll, but it had Impact Hits, so if it could wade through enemies without rolling below a 3 it was good), and most of it is still the same (S7 with 3 Attacks, still Fearless, still cause Terror) and it has seen some changes this edition. For starters, for 120pts (so 20pts more than last edition), you get an orc commander now who has 1/1/1 Heroic Stats. So getting Heroic Moves (and even Heroic March!) off is easier now, since the commander is on the brute itself and doesn't have to be an unengaged model near the troll brute.

It also gained Dominant (5) and it's now a war beast, but it still suffers the issues it had in the last edition: only F5, only D6, and while it has 4 Wounds, those can be removed pretty quickly. So are these great? They're better for sure, but with them costing the same as a Gundabad Troll, I don't see myself taking them very often. 

Conclusion

Do I like the changes? On the whole yes: I think a number of profiles that were objectively suboptimal have been bettered (not all of them, and some of them I'd probably still not take), and at the very least I think the wording on special rules and such have been tightened up and clarified in good ways. There are some changes I'd make (we'll see if the Armies of Middle Earth book has shamans for any army, but the low Courage Value of these profiles is something to be concerned about considering you don't get access to a War Horn anymore on Hunter Orcs), but on the whole, I'm a fan!

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"Whose forest is it now, human?" ~ Bane, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix