First Impressions: Angmar

Hey Reader!

Welcome back! We're back reviewing more of the armies from the new edition, and today we're looking at the profiles for Angmar in the Get You By PDF. These feature some old favorites (like Gulhavar), some newer profiles (like Hill Trolls), and some revamped profiles in the recent past (like Shades), so fun all around!

Leader Overview: How Have Gulhavar, Buhrdur, and Aldrac Changed?

So with the knowledge that the Witch-King of Angmar is in the new Armies of the Lord of the Rings book (so we won't be reviewing him here), we lead off with Gulhavar: a true monster in his own right. He is virtually unchanged in the new edition: Move 6" when not flying (so not bad), (which is pretty bad, but also at least he gets to use his wings #BalrogMove8NoFly), still F7 with no Heroic Strike (though with Strike now being a D3 roll, it's arguably less of an issue now to not have it when you're F7 base unless you're going against one of those heroes that got a Fight Value bump), and still S8 with up to 4 Attacks base (5 with Monstrous Charge). And with an Intelligence of 4+ (which is really high generally for a monster), he's likely to get full control over his Brutal Power Attacks.

He is still 4 Wounds with Attacks equal to his remaining wounds, and he's still D5, so he can lose wounds pretty quickly (though in his legion he gets Stalk Unseen, which should help him stick around a bit longer against archery if you can keep him at least partially obscured by terrain). And while he has Heroic Defence to help him shed would-be wounds in close combat, that doesn't protect him from archery or magic, so be mindful of those. He does have Resistant to Magic, so that helps a bit, but in an edition where channelling a spell means the defender is headhunting a 6, one free dice is, well, dicey.

He also has some of the classic "monster suite" rules in the new edition: Dominant (5) and Large Target, which are no surprise, and in the case of Dominant very useful for making sure you have to deal with him if you want an objective. And with Harbinger of Evil he also provides a useful auric benefit for the army. So all around, still a solid choice.

We also have Buhrdur the Troll, who is not much changed since the Rise of Angmar supplement, but a bit different from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book of last edition. He's a "7 Base" character now instead of 6 (F7 S7 D7, instead of F6 S6 D6), which is partially why his cost is up to 130pts. He also has 3 Will now instead of 1, and he picked up a few useful special rules with the new edition. First, he's Dominant (4), so great at holding objectives for you. He also has Lead by Example, so when he slays a hero or monster (any hero: could be a 1-wound Dunedain) he becomes a 3" Banner for orcs/trolls near him (so not wargs), and if he slays 3+ heroes/monsters he becomes a 6" Banner. So a great way to deal with those skew armies that rely heavily on heroes and monsters.

And then Aldrac can lead your troops in the Carn Dum list, and he's basically the same as he was in the Rise of Angmar supplement. At 120pts you're paying for firepower: F6 S5 with 3 Attacks and Mighty Blow means he's very useful against multi-wound models with F5 or lower Fight Value, so captain-level heroes watch out! He can also gain free Heroic Combats if he slays a model the previous turn, which on the one hand is useful, but on the other hand means that if he hits high-Defense models or gets blunted with magic you can stop the train relatively easily.

I think Aldrac is...fine: he's not amazing, he's not overpowered for his cost, but he definitely lacks the punch that the other leaders for Angmar offer, and in an edition where a lot of heroes outstrip Aldrac in firepower, resilience, and utility, I just don't see him being a solid #1 for you. He does better in the Host of the Witch-King list where he has help, but in a pure Carn Dum army, I just don't see him holding his own.

Captain Overview: How Have Lesser Angmar Heroes Changed?

To lead off, we have The Shadow of Rhudaur: an interesting and sometimes perturbing hero choice. When you first look at him you think, "Oh sweet: it's a Barrow Wight with 2 Might Points - Channelled Paralyze here we go!" But he has two missing things here: he 1) does not have Heroic Channelling, and 2) he does not have Paralyze as a magical spell.

He's a debuff caster (with things like Curse and Wither), but can't actually transfix or paralyze enemies, so he purely works down enemy stats. He also has two special rules that help him. Herald of Doom allows him to pick a hero at the start of the game: when the Shadow of Rhudaur is within 6" of that hero, they suffer a -1 to their Courage and Fate rolls (which is nice, considering you can Curse their Fate Points and cast Drain Courage on them). Power of Angmar also makes your casting more effective with your 5 Will Points, as opponents may not spend Will Points to resist your spells when you cast on a natural 6. This doesn't prevent them from using special rules like Resistant to Magic, as that's not spending a Will Point, but at least you're limiting your opponent to like 1-2 dice headhunting a 6, which is not that bad.

And he's an okay fighter (F5 S3 with 2 Attacks and Blades of the Dead), and better than your average Barrow Wight for resilience (2 Wounds and 2 Fate at D7), but he's still not what I would call a good fighting model.

Nazthak, everyone's favorite thief, is back in this supplement, and he's a wild card. On the one hand, you're paying 50pts for an Angmar Orc Captain with less Defence (D5), more Fate (2 Fate instead of 1), access to Heroic Defence instead of Heroic March (which is arguably less useful), and the ability when he slays a non-monster model to take a piece of wargear from them as long as it's not part of their body (like claws and teeth), not a mount, not armor (a real loss for some of his fragility), not a living creature (so you can't take Sebastian from Radagast, for example), and not the One Ring (the real loss for this guy). But beyond that list there's a lot of useful stuff - and we'll be doing a Top Ten post soon regarding the best kind of equipment to give him!

The biggest issue for him is when to take him: since he's super limited in which armies you can use him in, after you'e taken the Witch-King, possibly a Shade and/or Barrow Wight, a captain for Heroic March, and then your werewolves and warriors...like, do you have space for a gimmick? I feel like there's a lot of situations where you don't really have 50pts lying around for someone who is an underpowered, non-contributing orc captain for the first few turns of the game. But to each their own.

The Shade retains his change from the Rise of Angmar supplement: down to 75pts in cost (so a healthy reduction, considering it does more and yet less than it did before and it only has 4 Will Points now), still sitting on 3 Wounds at D8 (so decently survivable), and while it has 2 Attacks, they are performed at F1 S1, so even though they have Blades of the Dead, you're probably wounding on 5s or worse against everything. But we don't take Shades for damage potential: we take them for support, and they actually do that very well now. 

The Shade now has three special rules: Conduit of Angmar allows Ringwraiths within 6" to use the line of sight of a Shade, which is really nice, and furthermore the Ringwraith can deal 1 wound to a Shade within 6" to add +1 to the casting roll. So not great news if you're a Shade, but for making your spells more effective with a wraith, this is really nice. They also get Swirling Mists, which allows them to spend Will Points to inflict a -1 penalty to shooting attacks against models within 6" of the Shade, or a -2 penalty if the attacker is within 12" of the Shade and shooting at a target within 6" of the Shade. So a great way to keep your boys more safe while they cross the field, which is good. And finally they get Ghostly Resolve, bumping up the Courage of your Angmar Orcs (so doesn't apply to Warriors of Carn Dum) by +1 within 6" of them. It's not quite Fury, but it is very useful.

Tack onto this Dominant (3) and Terror, and you have a model designed to boost your troops that can still contribute meaningfully outside of their support abilities. Really nice revamp, still very useful, but makes the game more fun than before, :P

The Barrow Wight is mostly what we've always known: still F3 S3 with 1 Attack and Blades of the Dead, so he can bypass high Defense values. He's still D7 with 2 Wounds and no Fate, so decently survivable against archery, but in peril if he loses a fight to a proper fighting hero. But there are two changes to them that stand out: first, in all of the army lists they appear in, they are now Minor Heroes, so you can't lead 12 men with them anymore. Not a major loss, though, when you consider that their points costs stayed the same while dropping Paralyze to a 3+ to cast instead of a 4+. This is the actual reason we've always taken Barrow Wights, and now they're easier to get spells off with than ever. You can now semi-reliably do a 1-die cast, which was super iffy before. It's at a 6" range, so you have to get in pretty close, but keeping these guys just behind the main line and then plunging a hero or monster into paralysis could be very effective.

Next we have the Angmar Orc Captain, and it's basically the orc captain we've always known: still F4 S4 with 2 Attacks, still has Heroic March, still 2 Wounds with 1 Fate. The "big change" is that it only comes with the shield now (still at 45pts), so no option to take them without the shield, and no chance to take them with an orc bow. 

To be honest, 90% of all orc captains were probably taken this way anyway, so it's not actually a big change, but technically there's that. Still a go-to for some added mobility and added punch in the battle line, so still worth taking.

Next is the Angmar Orc Shaman, and the only thing that really got reworked on these guys is the spell suite. I've mentioned in the past that not having Fury was a big deal on these guys, and they still don't, but at least now they don't have a 5+ cast spell, and instead get Drain Courage and Wither on a 4+ (harder than before) and Instill Fear on a 3+ (which is situationally useful).

Honestly, I don't see a lot of reasons to take these guys; if you are paying the same points as you would for a Barrow Wight, there's not a lot of reasons to take this spell suite over Paralyze, especially when the shaman is sitting on 3 Will and the Barrow Wight is sitting on 5 Will. So I'm going to keep boycotting this profile until we get a better spell suite, :P

And that brings us to the Carn Dum side of things. Fraecht is a support hero, and an odd one at that, in that he kind of works like a shaman, but kind of doesn't. He has a F4 shaman profile (so very similar to Uruk Shamans from the previous edition), and all of his abilities only affect Carn Dum models. During the Priority Phase after you know who has priority, he can spend a Will Point (of his 4) to give Carn Dum models within 3" of him (6" in the Carn Dum legion) reroll 1s to wound in close combat, a 5+ Save against wounds, or the ability to treat non-water difficult terrain as open ground. 

All of this is good, though 1) it makes it hard to synergize with the whole army, and 2) for 65pts you're putting a lot of points into a model that will help you a handful of times (possibly less if you're against a wraith) before effectively becoming a more expensive and less resilient orc captain. Not trying to besmirch this guy, but when you compare him to, say, the Oathmaker of Dunland, like it's night and day difference what a human shaman-like character could be, and I think the bonuses from this guy are too niche to justify his cost, or it's not enough to buoy the army if you're running a pure Carn Dum force.

Similarly the Carn Dum Captain is...fine. At 55pts he's about the same cost as other human captains, but he gets the F4 S4 combo (which is nice), and when combined with Glory Seekers, they get an extra +1 to wound against heroes, so they are slightly more likely to take out their equivalent counterparts from other armies. Beyond that, though, they're pretty meh: D6 with 2 Wounds and 1 Fate (so not the greatest for resilience), access to Heroic March - normal captainy things.

And then finally we have the Wild Warg Chieftain, an old favorite for people who wanted budget firepower, often accompanied by a Barrow Wight to make up for the lack of Heroic Strike. He's still got the F5 S6 with 3 Attacks that we love, his D5 with 3 Wounds and 1 Fate isn't great but it's sufficient against an archery threat, and while his heroic actions only benefit wargs, Wild Wargs are great, so that's fine.

On the whole, heroes are a patchwork, but all in all pretty okay. Lots of good options with some variance in play style, which is always nice to see.

Warrior Overview: How Have The Grunts Changed?

Leading us off in the warrior department we have the lowly Angmar Orc Warrior. He's 5pts base, but is actually 6-30pts depending on how you kit him out (and once again, the whole Spear + Shield thing and the Spear + Banner thing isn't in there - I have thoughts on this, but I'll spare you in this post), and you get exactly what you got in the previous edition: F3 S3 with 1 Attack, and D4-5 depending on whether or not you have the shield.

Now if you don't end up having to use the Courage / Intelligence of an Orc Warrior they're actually pretty economical for the cost: for +1pt over a goblin you're getting +1 Fight Value and +1" of movement, all in exchange for not doing Cave Dweller things. But once you factor in the Courage and Intelligence ratings, you start realizing why people look at Morannon Orcs so much for Mordor without using nearly as many of these guys. As a baseline they're fine, but they won't be doing much against some armies, much like in the last edition.

Simlarly we have the Angmar Warg Rider, which is the same as the other warg riders, except that they have the Angmar keyword for the purposes of gaining Terror in their legendary legions (which is nice) when near a spirit model. They are cavalry, and they are S4, but beyond this there's not much to write home about: it's an Angmar Orc Warrior on a Wild Warg.

I think the weapon options this time around, since you can't mix and match them anymore, are very interesting; personally I lean away from the orc bow because, frankly, you're too fragile with too poor a Shoot Value to really make it worthwhile to take the bow. By the same token I'd have issues justifying the throwing spear (I have issues enough getting those to work out well on 4+ Shoot Rohan cavalry, let alone on a 5+ Shoot orc cavalry), so personally I lean toward just going all-in on shields, but maybe that's just me.

Warriors of Carn Dum are new with the Rise of Angmar supplement, and they offer you a higher Strength, higher Courage version of the Angmar Orc Warrior, effectively. They're +4pts/man more than the Angmar Orc Warrior, and for that value you're getting a shield (good), +1 Strength (good), +1 Courage (situationally good), and +1 Intelligence (situationally good). So a bit more reliable, but still a far cry short of Uruk-Hai and other elite infantry which are on-par with them for cost.

While I'm not fully sold on these guys myself, it is worth noting that this is one of the few banners you can take that will also have a shield, so as someone who loves banners and shields, I felt a need to point that out, :)

We have the Hill Troll, which is a replacement for the old Cave Troll (my go-to supporting fire for Angmar since...like 2014, so a long time ago), and it does a good job. At 75pts they fight like a Cave Troll (F6 S6 with 3 Attacks), and while they don't have access to a two-handed weapon, they do get Brutish Cunning which allows them to reroll a dice to win the duel when not fighting cavalry or monsters (which would mean rerolling 2 dice when near a banner).

This is actually really good: in an edition where striking up past F6 is now harder for lower level heroes, and where a lot of F6+ heroes may only be wounding them on 5s, these guys are pretty tough to beat in close combat and reliable damage dealers in their own right. And in a legion where you don't get a lot of magic support, it's nice to have a few extra beaters around to deal with tough enemies. Tack on Dominant (3) and you're cooking with grease. I recommend having at least 2 of these guys in your army.

Next we have the Wild Warg, and just like in the last edition, it's a great option for a cheap harassing unit that can run fast to places you need them. Sure, it may not be as good as the Fell Warg for Azog's boys, but this thing is great for what you pay: 7pts to get a 10" Move model with S4 (admittedly behind F3) is great for tearing through back ranks of archers, and gives you something you really need in an Angmar force: cheap speed.

And finally we have the Werewolf, a very popular choice in the twilight of the last edition, and for good reason. As far as slaying power goes, these guys are great warrior choices: F5 S5 with 2 Attacks (and can knock targets to the ground like a cavalry model when charging), and as Spirit models these guys help trigger Terror on your orcs if fielded in an army that can take orcs and them, which is good. 

The 50mm base is big, to be sure, but having a high-Fight Value model in the line sure helps Angmar a lot, especially when combined with good Courage to get reliable charges. Fell Sight helps them charge people even if they can't see them, which is great, and while they're only D5 with 2 Wounds, if you hide them behind, say, Wild Wargs, you should be relatively safe from archery until you close.

Conclusion

Do I like the changes? Well there aren't that many, for those of us who picked up Rise of Angmar, but on the whole I think they're fine. You're still in a Fight Value deficit, and with a predominantly D5 army, that means you could lose a lot of models to shooting and then lose a lot of models up close, so that's something to consider. But that's been Angmar's problem for a long time, so it's not a new issue.

I'm looking forward to trying these guys out soon. Are you planning to give them a go in the new edition? Let us know down below!

Watching the stars,

Centaur

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