Top 10 Most Improved Evil Profiles from The Armies of the Hobbit

Hey Reader!

We're back with another Top 10 post, today looking at the top ten most improved profiles in the Armies of the Hobbit book from the Forces of Evil. Now that we know all the armies that someone can be fielded in, potential models that they can pair with, and special rules, we're set to rank the top ten most improved models for the Forces of Evil in the Armies of the Hobbit book.

As we did in the top ten most improved profiles for the Forces of Good, a few caveats before we look at the list: 

• We're ranking the most improved profiles in The Armies of the Hobbit book, so we won't be looking at profiles beyond that book. Never fear, though, we plan to go through all the books!
• We're ranking the top ten most improved profiles for the Forces of Evil in the book, so only evil profiles will be considered here.
• We're ranking the most improved profiles, not the strongest profiles: Now in an interesting turn of fate a lot of the strongest profiles in this book got reviewed (either in the most improved or most reduced categories), but this is certainly not a ranking of the most powerful options in the book: it's a ranking of who is higher than where they started, so some models well below the average of the power curve will be present on this list.
• The "Most Improved" means that the profile had to exist last edition, which again is not a big issue with the Hobbit book, because we don't get a lot of new profiles here, but it bears repeating: we're only looking at profiles that made the jump from last edition to this edition.
• And while we would normally say here that there's a longer list, the truth is there weren't that many more this time (admittedly some models received the same treatment, so there was some placement of captains/warriors of a similar stripe in the same spot, but unfortunately a lot of models stayed mostly the same from last edition to this edition, which is kind of sad, but it does mean that this list is mostly exhaustive: not much else beyond this list that I felt was a major improvement.

And so with that, let's look at some cool profiles!

Honorable Mention: Troll Brute

All photos from
the new book!

This is one of those profiles that could have probably used some additional treatment but didn't get it: it's now Dominant 5, and it gets the benefit of the new monster rules that allow it to perform a wounding roll against a spear support of a model it removes, but it's mostly still the same: everything you love about the troll brute (S10 impact hits, Fearless), but now worth 5 models on an objective.

The other issue with the troll brute this edition is that he's a pretty low Fight Value troll (and fair enough: no eyes, after all) in an edition where tying his Fight Value is easier to do now, so there's that.

Honorable Mention: Gundabad Catapult Troll

Except this one, but
it's official now!

The troll is now Dominant 5, which is really nice, but otherwise this guy is mostly the same, though Blinding Light is harder to keep up, meaning it's harder to stay safe from the catapult now. And with the weapons on the Gundabad Troll getting arguably worse this edition, the price increase to get the catapult doesn't actually seem that bad. 

One slight drawback this edition for the catapult troll: the Hurl bonus from the gauntlets is nice, though Intell Tests on a 7+ is not that reliable, so...unlike last edition this is hard to capitalize on. If there was a way to improve his Intelligence Tests that would help, but alas, no dice.

...But honestly I wanted to include this in the post mostly to note that it's finally getting a model!!! So naturally, "most improved" has to include "you can finally get a high-quality, official model for it," and that's got to count for something, :)

And so with that, let's look at the top ten!

#10: Goblin Scribe

I was conflicted on this one; on the one hand, the Goblin Scribe lost his ability to call in more troops, which feels like a real loss (though admittedly I understand why this might be a good idea for the health of the game). But this means you'd need a pretty big step up in new special rules to make the Most Improved list and avoid the Most Reduced list.

And he got two abilities that are actually really nice and not just situationally useful: you'll use these to the max in most games you play, which is really nice. First, if the Goblin King is within 6" of the Goblin Scribe and calls a Heroic Move, the Scribe relays the message battlefield wide, allowing your Heroic Moves called with the Goblin King to not only affect your entire army, but also none of them need to end within 6" of him.

WHICH IS CRAZY: you can still horde really effectively with this army, but now you can threaten 3, 4, 5 parts of the battlefield with a Heroic Move that the enemy might need to counter in multiple places, all with just a single point of Might. That's crazy good, and means that when you really need to go first, you can either win the initiatve roll, or spend 1 Might and really make the enemy sweat if they wanted to go first. Suddenly getting guys with objectives off the board (or to places of safety), getting charges in against cavalry, and just generally mucking with the enemy's plan, got so. Much. Easier.

Second, he now has the ability to allow heroes within 3" of him to pass Might Points to the Goblin King, and in an army of super cheap captains and not needing to spend a lot of Might on Heroic Moves (as seen above), you can potentially pass a LOT of Might to the Goblin King. And in a world where the highest Might stores in the game are 5 for Azog (more on that in a future post, but suffice it to say, Azog is not on this list, and for multiple good reasons), 6 for the iterations of Boromir, and the small cadre of Mighty Hero heroes like Aragorn, Helm Hammerhand, and Bard in the right list, the Goblin King can now stand among them for top-tier Might bringers, thanks to the Goblin Scribe.

Oh, and did I mention that the special rule doesn't require the goblin hero to be within a certain distance of The Goblin King? That's right: as long as the Goblin Captain is within 3" of the Goblin Scribe, they can pass a Might Point to The Goblin King even if he's on the other side of the battlefield. Sure, not that useful if you also want to get the Heroic Move bonus, but it means you can keep 1-2 captains like 9" back from the line, pass Might to the Goblin King, and then move up to help out if you need, which is really nice. 

So while the Goblin Scribe lost a very useful benefit (that was almost an auto-win in some scenarios like Storm the Camp and Destroy the Supplies), I think he might be a bit better this edition, though not by much. So I'm putting him at #10, but know that he was on the list for Most Reduced until the last hour.

#9: Yazneg

Yazneg, I'm not going to lie, "improved" this edition in most part because other heroes went down: he's one of the few 3 Might heroes you still have (both Fimbul and Narzug dropped to 2 Might), but he did get two nice bonuses this edition.

The first is that his The Price of Failure rule changed: instead of only letting Azog kill him and thus give the rest of the army list rerollable Courage tests, and requiring him and Azog to be in base contact to do this (which is not common for two mounted heroes), it actually benefits him now, which is really nice. Now you get a choice: you can opt to reroll any number of D6s to win the duel roll as long as you're within 3" of Azog (which is really nice, since you're S4 with a lance on a fell warg, so if you win you're very likely to do a wound at least), but with the tradeoff that if you lose the fight you suffer 1 wound. Much better than it was before (admittedly with a very low bar), and the +10pts for his base cost is probably worth the trade (though this also means he's up +20pts total when you add the lance and the fell warg, since mounts went up +10pts in cost).

The other change he got was the general change to two-handed weapons: if he rolls a 6 with his two-handed weapon to win the duel roll, he doesn't get the -1 penalty, which is really nice since he doesn't have the Burly special rule. Again, not game breaking, but it might save his bacon, and it pairs nicely with his Price of Failure special rule, especially on a turn where you don't charge so you don't get the lance.

#8: Gundabad Orc Captain / Gundabad Orc Warrior

This is another case of, "not many changes actually made to the profile," but within the greater Fight Value rebalancing of this edition, this is very useful: Gundabad Orc Warriors went up to base F4 (so keeping pace with Warriors of Minas Tirith, and technically better now than Morannon Orcs, which were their closest correllary last edition), and Gundabad Orc Captains went up to base F5 (so they're better than Iron Hills Warriors now, which is nice).

This means they're basically Uruk-Hai Warriors, but in the Gundabad/Dol Guldur lists, which is not bad: Uruks have always performed well, and we like them here at TMAT, :) They'll stay competitive in the grind, which is nice, because your monsters and heroes need these guys to hold the ranks while they punch through.

#7: Gundabad Ogre

I'm not going to lie, I hated this profile last edition: just didn't really have much of a place in my book in the army list, as I preferred numbers with orcs, speed with war bats, or just pay some extra points to get a troll that would do better work. But a few small tweaks this edition have turned me around on the Gundabad Ogre.

First off, it's still only 60pts, which is not bad considering that monsters are better this edition, and it's adding Dominant 3, which is great. It's also only on a 50mm base, so not bad at all by comparison to other Gundabad monsters, and with an 8" move it can engage front lines quite nicely to punch through troops (and their spear supports, mind you).

But one of the biggest changes for them is the global addition of the Large Target special rule: almost all monsters have this rule, but the ogres don't have it. This means you can actually shield them from archery with troops, which is really, really nice for making sure they get up the line without as many issues.

I think this is a sleeper option for Gundabad lists, and you should consider trying some out. Which is a weird thing I never thought I'd say, but here we are!

#6: Narzug

Narzug started the new edition with a bit of a nose dive: he went down to 2 Might, and he lost access to the fell warg option, so he can't get 5" of movement and then a shooting attack. But you know, in most respects he's actually far ahead of where he was last edition.

To start off, he went up in cost by 5pts, so keep that in mind: he's only 55pts now instead of 50pts (45pts when you factor out the lost Might Point). And in exchange for that 10pts of value, he gets 1) Expert Shot with his 3+ Shoot Value (so two shots per turn, which is really good when it's only a S2 orc bow), Poison Attacks for rerolling 1s on his arrows (which in my book is more useful than Morgul Arrows), and he still gets the free Might Point to spend on shooting-related rolls. 

So what does this mean? His damage potential went up dramatically: not only is he twice as likely to hit (and doubled his ceiling), rerolling 1s to wound with a potential for a free +1 to the wounding roll means he's far more likely to do at least 1 wound each turn. And from having used this guy a lot in the past, I can tell you this: he's far more reliable at clearing back objectives now than he was before.

And since the Forces of Evil doesn't get a lot of sniper characters (in our sniper review video most of the top players were spellcasters, not true snipers), I think it's fair to say this is still the best bow-armed model in the game for the Forces of Evil. And he's punching harder now.

#5: Bert the Troll

For anyone who saw my top ten post talking about the changes to the Three Trolls, it will probably not surprise you that all three of these guys made the list, because a lot of work was put into improving this list for the new edition. Sure, the upgrades are expensive, but there's no denying that these guys went from drool to cool.

In particular, this boosted Bert, who was so much worse than the other two last edition. If you really needed a F7 D7 guy calling Heroic Defence (or a S7 dude calling Heroic Strength) you were in deep trouble, but in this edition Bert got quite the glow-up.

Not only is he Dominant 3, if you take the right bonus, your opponents don't count toward objective control while you're near it, so Dominant 3 is typically enough to get a good number of Victory Points from the objective. That means your enemy has to deal with you, and you are quite durable if you take the right upgrades. 

He also gets access to Heroic Strike, Campfire bonuses, more durability and magical defense, - there's basically no part of the game that Bert doesn't get a bonus, which is really, really good. This guy went from being hardly ever taken to a valuable member of the team, and that's good.

#4: Hunter Orc Captain / Hunter Orc Warg Rider

These guys got a small change, but that change is really, really big (admittedly at the expense of the lowly hunter orc warrior and the dismounted Hunter Orc Captain). In the last edition, Hunter Orcs and Hunter Orc Captains got +1 Attack as long as they were infantry, which was really nice (8pts for a 2 Attack S4 model was not bad at all), but it meant that the cavalry options couldn't take advantage of this until they dismounted (which you didn't really want to do).

This edition, the Many Blades rule got replaced by a new rule: now hunter orcs (captains and warriors alike) get +1 Attack when on the charge, irrespective of their keywords. So now cavalry models for the hunter orc side of the house get 1 Attack Base (2 for captains), +1 Attack for charging anything (infantry or cavalry alike, thanks to the new special rule) +1 Attack for charging infantry, inasmuch as you charge infantry models.

This gives your cavalry (admittedly F3 warriors, F4 captains) a huge jump over other cavalry: charging other cavalry just got better (and makes you, I think by far, the best warg rider option in the game), charging infantry gives you a huge boost even over spear-supported infantry (pikes will still give you issues because they're likely to have a higher Fight Value than you), and even shielding doesn't keep you safe like it would against other charging cavalry.

And of course all of this is paired with the Fell Sight bonus from the fell warg mount: you can charge without line of sight, so hiding your cavalry until they're ready to strike is very easy to do. So being D4 doesn't hurt that much. Oh, and did I mention that Hunter Orc Warg Riders are now only 15pts each instead of 16pts each? Really good changes all around.

#3: Tom the Troll

Tom got the least love from the group, sporting Dominant 3 and the ability to call Heroic Strike and/or getting to call things like Heroic Defence more often if you choose the right upgrades (again, see the post), all of which is good. But as the lowest Defence member of the group, access to 3 Fate Points and potentially recoverable wounds is really, really nice for Tom, and has helped to make him even more helpful to a team that he was already helping.

But perhaps one of the biggest changes to him actually has to do with the edition as a whole: since Heroic Strike is down to a D3 now, sneezing on people to halve their Fight Value is really brutal now. And while he can only do that 3 times per game, you probably don't need more than 3 chances to Rend someone to take out a hero (or two, or possibly three). And then when you factor in Campfire banner rerolls that reach a lot of the battlefield, the possibility of enemies not counting toward objectives if you're in range, and other useful abilities, there's a lot to love about Tom.

#2: Bill the Troll

Bill keeps pace with the big heroes of the game, adding Fight Value 8 (so +1 Fight Value), Dominant 5, and the same bonuses we talked about above (other than the fact that you're paying points for the ability to call Heroic Strike without actually getting that bonus) to keep him competitive with the best of the best.

And he can still Mince 'Em Fine, so a reliable way to deal wounds to those man-sized models that tend to cap out at S4, arguably better than using the Rend ability, especially if you roll anywhere close to average. And in a world where horses are more expensive, being able to deal 4-5 wounds to a target is more expensive now, and Bill can still do it for the same point cost.

But all of them pale in comparison to one, which is ironic considering he's the biggest in the game so far...

#1: Smaug

Who would have thought that Smaug could get better than he already was! The way to beat Smaug was to 1) play an objective mission, 2) stack more people on those objectives than he can defeat, and 3) win on numbers. Add onto this that terrain can make it hard for such a big base to be playable, and you're golden, right?

RIGHT!?!?!

Behold: Dominant 20 and enemies don't get to claim objectives if he's in range, he gains the ability to get extra Victory Points if he can slay models carrying gold (so maybe not being able to get to all the objectives is okay if you snag those extra points), plus his spellcasting didn't get worse like most casters did. And still for only 700pts: all of these updates are free.

But then there's the changes that come from the edition as a whole that make him even harder to deal with: getting to Fight 9 is harder now, being able to deal wounds to spear supports, reliable brutal power attacks (because he's actually an intelligent monster, which is rather rare), and still really hard to wound and remove.

So while he can't be run in an army with a banner (which could cost you Victory Points) and now he can only be run as a single model with no allies, I think he's actually looking really good this edition: harder to deal with, harder to remove, and harder to gimmick out of a win.

Conclusion

There's a lot of good things to like about the Armies of the Hobbit profiles: some real love baked into some of the profiles to make them more interesting and better. Did I skip over your favorite improved model? Is Smaug too high? Lemme know below!

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"I know that you have learned the names of the planets and their moons in Astronomy...and that you have mapped the stars' progress through the heavens.  Centaurs have unraveled the mysteries of these movements over centuries.  Our findings teach us that the future may be glimpsed in the sky above us." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix