The New Age Is Begun: The Army of the Great Eye Army List

Good morning gamers,

It's here . . . it's come . . . oh yes, we've been building up to the "big Mordor list" from the Armies of Middle-Earth all month and it's finally time to tackle the Army of the Great Eye! Back when I got started in the game, there were lots of Mordor lists in the Legions of Middle-Earth supplement. About a year after getting started, we got "the warband books" and all of those Mordor lists got compacted into one big "Mordor" supplement (the only faction that got its own book). Then, in the last edition, Mordor both retained its omnibus nature AND split up into smaller groups (first by getting a Barad-Dur faction/losing access to Spectres, then later getting Legendary Legions that gave them more rules in trade for fewer profiles).

This list feels like we've gone back the warband books a bit - and if you liked your Mordor Soup lists in the last edition (like I did), this very well may be the list for you! Let's see what's available to us and what we're giving up by going with this list!

The Army of the Great Eye: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

I'm not going to go over the whole list - it's everything from the Army of Gothmog, Cirith Ungol, and Black Gate lists that we've looked at over the course of this month PLUS some more guys (the Witch-King, Black Numenorean Warriors/Knights, and a lot of Legacy profiles). If you want it, you can find it in this list . . . just like you used to be able to do in the vanilla Mordor list of the previous edition. A profile selection this vast, however, comes with one big balancing factor, though . . .

Army List Bonuses

This list has exactly ONE special rule . . . yes, that's right, it functions not only like the omnibus lists you'll find, like the Legions of Mordor or the Battle of Five Armies, but this is not actually that much different from the way pure Mordor lists used to be run in the last edition. The rule is called The Great Eye and you place a 25mm marker on the battlefield somewhere in your deployment zone (how this works in a maelstrom scenario is anyone's guess). At the end of each Move Phase, the controlling player rolls a D6 and on a 2+, the controlling player can place it anywhere within 6" of its current location (measure first before you pick it up!). On a 1, however, the opposing player can place it anywhere within 12" of its current location (measure first!). Like Ringbearers and other weird-moving models, you can't overlap model bases with this token, but models can end their movement on it.

The Great Eye token provides three bonuses to its controlling player. First, friendly models treat it as a banner (3" range because a range is not specified). Secondly, enemy models within 3" of the token suffer a -1 penalty to Courage/Intelligence tests that they have to make (I assume this is not cumulative with Harbinger, but I may be wrong there). Finally, if your opponent has a Ringbearer (not Sauron, obviously), then if the Ringbearer is wearing the Ring within 3" of the token, you roll a D6. On a 3+, the Ringbearer is corrupted and removed as a casualty!

When you boil it down, this is basically giving you a 5/6th chance of getting a banner that cannot be shot off the board each turn . . . and you can redeploy through enemy units without risk. Additionally, you can pester a Ringbearer with it . . . but with at least one Ringwraith on the board, I doubt most Ringbearers will be putting on the Ring. That said, even if your Ringwraith dies, there's still a threat you can pose to Ringbearers who aren't Sauron.

Profile Adjustments

We have a LOT of profiles to review today - and unlike the Legions of Mordor list, I've decided to handle each unit individually . . . strap in, guys, this one's a long one . . .

• The Witch-King of Angmar is in his big form in this list (level 3, so he's got 3 Attacks, 3 Might, 18 Will, 3 Fate) but unlike in the Legions of Mordor list, he doesn't start with any requisite gear. He can take a horse, Fell Beast, or Armored Fell Beast if he wants to and he can take the Crown of Morgul, Morgul Blade, and two-handed weapon if he wants to - but at a base cost of 150pts (170pts on a horse), he's far more affordable in this list than he is in the Legions of Mordor list. I like that a lot! He's the only Hero of Legend, so if you take him (like in the old Mordor lists), he's gonna be your General. While he's not as cheap as he used to be (you used to be able to get a budget Witch-King for 120pts or less by not dumping 18 Will on him), he's still pretty cheap for a Hero of Legend and could certainly be run without upgrades if your goal is to have a supporting caster who isn't likely to die - but I would generally give him a horse.
• For 120pts, you can get a Ringwraith (level 3 also, so he's got 2 Attacks, 2 Might, 14 Will, 2 Fate). The 30pt gap between the two accounts for increased +1 Fight Value, +1 Attack, +1 Might, +4 Will, +1 Fate (altogether worth approximately 60pts of value), and +3 warrior slots. While I think there's a very strong reason to avoid the Witch-King in the Legions of Mordor list because of his required kit, I think the Witch-King is a far better choice than generic Ringwraiths in this list (especially since Ringwraiths aren't March Captains anymore). Still, if you want to double-wraith it, these guys are still solid choices - though they don't get options for standard horses (it's just Fell Beasts/Armored Fell Beasts for mounts and Morgul blades besides).
• If you're playing with the Legacy profiles, you have access to the other eight named Ringwraiths, all of whom can be taken on foot or on a horse . . . this does make them cheaper Heroes of Valour than the Fell Beast Ringwraith options, so if you want their special rules, they're good choices.
• We are not required to take Gothmog in this list like we are in the Army of Gothmog - and that's appealing for some people. Gothmog's combat stats have dropped this edition, but so has his base cost - and because he's not as great in combat, I think the Warg is a bit of a trap. Yes, I know he's clocking in at about the same cost as Bride-Hera and without a mount, I think he struggles from many of the same problems - but he's also not investing in combat stats the way Hera is, so the fact that he's not incentivized to be leading from the front is fine. Equipped with a shield so he gets D7 and the ability to defend by shielding if attacked with 3 Might/Heroic Defense, I think he's a perfectly serviceable Hero of Legend/General if you decide to not take the Witch-King.
  
• The Mouth of Sauron has a more expensive mount, but has not changed much in price. For 100pts mounted (75pts on foot), he's still boasting a hand-and-a-half weapon with 2 Attacks at F5/S4, he's got 2 Might for March (he fulfills several roles if you're taking him as our March hero, though it will get in the way of Heroic Channelling critical spells), he's got a 6" Harbinger range, and he's got a really niche special rule that denies enemy models the ability to reroll 1s on their Dueling Roll (not Wounding roll) if they have a rule that allows that (or if they have a banner and they want to reroll an initial roll of a 1). As a support to a shieldwall that's going up against a banner (or against a very select number of edge cases), this is a really good deal. Also, he still has Transfix on a 4+, Drain Courage on a 3+ now (that's standard changes for this edition), and traded Instill Fear for Curse on a 4+, which is very useful for supporting your power pieces!
• Razgush, War Leader of the North is the last of our Heroes of Valour and he's got a really good statline (and costs 5pts less than Gothmog) with F6/S4/3A/3 Might on offense and D7/3 Wounds/1 Fate on defense (which is pretty good for being an Evil hero). He's still got Elfbane/Hatred (Elf), but he doesn't pass than on innately to any of his buddies - and he's got the poor-man's Elven-made weapon rule from Bone-breaker (negates other people's Elven-made weapon rules, but doesn't auto-win or give himself an advantage in drawn combats like Herugrim does). He still has a 12" Stand Fast and can bring Bat Swarms, Mirkwood Giant Spiders, Mirkwood Hunting Spiders, and Fell Wargs in his warband - most of which could be useful, depending on what else you want in your army.
• For Fortitude heroes, we have Morannon Orc Captains as one of our many generic choices - these guys are good for their cost and have March, but I don't think you need them unless the points level is pretty high. If equipped with a shield, these guys are great tanks into enemy heroes (D7 with 4 dueling dice when they defend by shielding) and with F5/S5 against men, they're pretty decent threats against warriors who happen to be men (and there are a lot of those running around). However, as was always the problem in generic Mordor lists, you have a TON of named heroes (and even unnamed heroes) to pick from and since some of them have March and bring other things to the table (like magic for the Mouth of Sauron or deployment advantages with Guritz), I just don't think this guy is gonna make the cut.
• Troll Chieftains have always had great profiles - their mobility has often let them down, as has only having a "standard Captain profile" of 2M/1W/1F (mostly because of the single Will point). Troll Chieftains went up by 10pts this edition, but they picked up F8 (in a world where Heroic Strike might only get you to F8-9), 4 Wounds instead of 3, and Dominant (4). I gotta say, for 10pts, you could certainly do worse! In this list, however, 150pts seems like a lot to pay, so I don't know that you'd go with this guy over other options.
• Mordor Uruk-Hai Captains are very similar to Uruk-Hai Scout Captains. They lost the option for a shield, so they're capped at D5 and that's . . . fine. Like Shagrat, they can turn natural 6s To Wound into two wounds, which is a trap! These guys are F5/S5 and have access to Heroic March, not Heroic Strike (that would have changed my song quite a bit), so I'd stay clear of the heroes and stick to munching warriors. Given the other generic hero options (to say nothing of the named hero options), I don't see you including these guys in this list . . . which is a shame, since I didn't recommend taking them in the Cirith Ungol list either. 
• Mordor Orc Captains are your cheap filler March heroes. These guys clock in a full 10pts less than Mordor Uruk-Hai Captains and 15pts less than Morannon Orc Captains, they're D6 with shields instead of D5, and they allow you to get cheap-to-average bodies to fill out your numbers. These guys are good and have always been good (though they won't go cleaving through the enemy ranks like some of these other heroes will).
• Orc Taskmasters are an interesting alternative to Orc Captains. On the one hand, you have the potential to get free Heroic Moves/Marches (never Heroic Shoots - don't do that) - but you do so with a few downsides compared to Orc Captains. First, the Taskmaster can't defend by shielding, which means that his ability to stall out something big is incredibly limited (F4/2A). Second, with only 1 Might point himself, there's a 50% chance that his only Might point, if used to declare a Heroic March/Move (both good options for him), will turn into the second Might point you're guaranteed to have with an Orc Captain. The harder you lean into heroes in this list, the more appealing this guy becomes. Outside of that . . . I'd just stick with Captains.
• Black Numenorean Marshals are good for their cost (70pts on foot makes them pretty comparable to Morannon Orc Captains, but they're always F5/D7, they're Courage 5+ like Mordor Uruk-Hai Captains, they can penalize people who fail to pass their Terror checks, and they still have March. They can also be mounted on armored horses and be given lances for +30pts, which might be worth it (100pts is a lot to pay, but lancers hit really hard). They will work well as escorts to your obligatory Ringwraith if given a mount, but can also be great embedded in a Terror shieldwall - your choice.
• Captains of the Black Guard are also 70pts and boast a very similar profile, but trade Terror/niche-Terror-related-rule for a rule that improves their Courage (Courage 6+ normally, but 4+ while your obligatory Ringwraith is on the battlefield). If you're looking into Uruk-Hai heroes in this list, these guys are certainly worth investigating . . . if you're allowed to take them.
• For our named heroes, we have Guritz as a named March hero with added tactical boosts in a few scenarios. He fell to being a 2-Might hero as well this edition, which is probably for the best (it's provided some breathing room for the other Morannon heroes). He's still a decent hero for his cost - and if you plan to run siege weapons, it's probably good to include him right after you buy your obligatory Ringwraith just so you can arrive near your pre-deployed siege weapons more easily (though I think getting siege weapons in this list is unlikely, given all of your other options).
• Gothmog's Enforcer is still as good as he was - which for some players (like me), that means he's still not worth taking. He is the only non-Legacy Morannon Fortitude hero who does NOT go up to F5 when fighting men. With a cap of F4, 1 Might point, and his only special rule being the ability to spend his 3 Will points to allow Gothmog to declare Heroic Moves/Marches without his own Might points (admittedly, that could be quite nice in the early game or when you lose priority and have to declare a Move first - but I've always opted for Morannon Orc Captains for 5pts more), I think there's a lot working against this guy.
• Goroth and Zagdush are cheapish beater heroes if you are using Legacies (though I don't know that they hit that much harder than the other heroes at this level - especially since both are now 2 Might heroes and neither get +1 Fight Value against Men). If you're allowed to take Legacy profiles, consider taking one of these guys if you really want a beater hero - though I will note that Goroth is roughly the same cost as a Mordor Troll and with the profile adjustments to those guys, I don't know that Goroth is as good of a choice anymore (especially since he can't be your General in this list - from experience, he's pretty hard to take down if he's your General!).
• Shagrat, Captain of Cirith Ungol has changed a lot in this edition - he's not a lot cheaper than last edition (110pts without anything you can add), he got a slightly boosted offensive profile (F6/S5/3A with 3-Might-and-Strike/Challenge/Strength), and he got a debuffed defensive profile (D5 with 3 Wounds/3 Fate). Like all Mordor Uruk-Hai (more on these guys shortly), he picked up the Cleaving Blow special rule, which allows him to make any natural 6s when rolling To Wound count as 2 wounds instead of 1 . . . which is to say it's a poor man's Mighty Blow (where all successful rolls To Wound become 2 wounds). Paired with General Hunter (which I generally consider to be a trap, since your opponent's General is usually someone quite large and powerful), you could see Shagrat getting some work in against heroes. With Courage 5+ and Intelligence 5+ (which he can use in scenarios with mobile objectives to steal them from friends - thematic!), he's pretty reliable at doing what you want him to do, but much squishier this edition than last edition.
• Gorbag, Orc Captain went up slightly in cost (+5pts to 60pts), lost the option for a shield, but got a boost to F5 (which he used to get only if he was outnumbered). Unlike a lot of other minor Orc/Uruk-Hai heroes, he retained his third Might point and still has access to Strike (but gained access to Challenge). He still gets a third Attack if he's outnumbered and now gets to choose the direction where one of the enemy models that was Engaged with him Backs Away to, which can even include pushing someone over a cliff! While there may be an appeal to use this to push someone into a river or off the side of a building (thematic!), one of the best uses for it is to trap someone in a nearby fight OR shoving someone out of range of an objective. This guy is good for a 60pt hero, but he's not going to win any awards for "best profile" in this list or any others.
• Kardush the Firecaller is probably still the best Orc shaman in the game. He's still able to lead 12 guys, he has Fury and Flameburst (and you can now channel Fury so you know it will work on your only Might point and 1 of your Will points), he can kill his Orc friends to regain D3 Will points that he's already spent, and he can sacrifice himself to give D6 Will points back to your obligatory Ringwraith. All in all, he's an awesome character . . . if you're allowed to take him.
• Muzgur, Orc Shaman is the other Fortitude Orc shaman and he's in a far more interesting position. With 2 Might (but the only way to regain Will is to kill things in combat with F4/S4/2A - not a terrible combat profile, but not a good one either), access to Wither and Transfix, and a 70pt price tag, he makes an interesting casting companion to the Mouth of Sauron (potentially three casters in one list - all of whom have Transfix alongside one other trick). He's legacy, so you may not have him as an option - but if you do, he's a pretty decent take if you're going for a magic skew!
• Great Beasts of Gorgoroth are back if you use the Legacy profiles - and with the updates to war beasts, these guys are . . . well, absolute beasts! The Orcs in the Howdah aren't really Orcs anymore (they function more like the Goblins on the Catapult Troll), but they still get a number of shots equal to the Howdah's remaining wounds (which went up to 9 wounds instead of 4). Additionally, the Orc Commander can apply any wound that would take away his last wound to the howdah instead - which does get dangerous as that value gets lower, but hey, he's dying anyway if he doesn't do that - so you'll cut into your archery, but also you shouldn't lose your Commander to archery. The Great Beast also picked up Dominant (6) and now deals three S6 hits instead of two, so he's pretty dangerous (though doesn't boost your model count like he used to).
• You can get Orc Shamans in this list, but the value of these guys is based widely on how much you've leaned into the Orcs in this list. Since you may or may not have a smattering of Mordor Uruk-Hai (but may not have access to Black Guard of Barad-Dur), it's really a question of whether or not you lean into Black Numenoreans as to whether this guy will be any good (and also, do you have access to Kardush). If you like the Orcs, run one of these guys. If you don't . . . leave him at home.
• You get access to both siege weapons in this list - they're super fun but probably have little chance of seeing the light of day. The War Catapult is still my favorite - its cost is high, but that's because you're buying a 90-point Mordor Troll with it that you don't have to keep near the siege weapon if you don't want to. Yes, he helps it shoot better - and sometimes you'll need that - but at other times, you can advance these guys up and threaten your opponent with them. The Siege Bow is better this edition than it was last edition (4+ shoot value on its crew now) and is much cheaper - but it also fires directly, so you have to get your firing lanes set up more intentionally and you need to not cut off said firing lanes with your advancing troops. Also . . . the Troll is sold separately.
  
• Shelob's profile has changed a lot this edition compared to her base profile last edition. Most of the rules she picked up this edition were the ones she used to get from the Cirith Ungol Legendary Legion army bonuses, so they're not really "new" - but they're more widely available now. She got Dominant (4) (which is actually new), gets +1 Attack when fighting Men/Elves/Dwarves/Hobbits (not new), has a Brutal Power Attack that can Paralyze someone and deal a S8 hit (you don't have to successfully wound in order to Paralyze someone - that part is new), and she can remove a friendly model within 1" of her to reroll a dueling die (also not new). What she lacks compared to her Cirith Ungol version is that she cannot declare a free Heroic Move (that can't be used to call "With Me!") off the model she eats to get her banner-like rule. With Venom (rerolling all failed To Wound rolls), Monstrous Charge (boosting her to 2-3 Attacks when she charges, depending on what kind of model she's fighting), and Swift Movement (ignores all difficult terrain, along with some special movement rules for climbing vertically), she's still very, very strong. Survival Instinct is still likely to not be much of a problem, since she's got Courage 6+ and 6 Will points. Her Intelligence stat of 5+ is great, since a Shelob that's been charged by someone might choose to Hurl (and this means that Shelob can become a very interesting tactical piece). I think she's a great alternative to the slower Mordor Troll Chieftains (saving you 50pts by NOT getting 3 Attacks in her standard profile, along with F7/no Might instead of F8/2 Might).
• Orc Drummers are in an interesting position in this list, as they can make your Orcs faster, but you definitely want some Orcs supporting your non-Orc units with spears. Any Orc that's sticking to your Uruk-Hai/Black Numenoreans won't be benefitting from the drum, so now that drums just declare Heroic Marches (instead of giving you extra movement on TOP of your extra movement from Heroic March), I'd just skip on these guys.
• Black Drummers are in the same boat, but they only affect Uruk-Hai . . . and namely, won't help the spearmen of said Uruk-Hai from moving faster. If anyone could be in a worse boat than the Orc Drummers (and the Mordor Uruk-Hai Captains), it's probably these guys.
• As we pivot to the warriors, your bread and butter in this list are going to be the Orc Warriors. Orcs are cheap, they have access to spears/banners/the occasional Orc bow if you want it, and they're happily (sort of?) eaten by Shelob to give her a banner-like rule in combat if you really need it. They're also perfectly happy to sit behind a wall of Black Numenoreans - field a bunch of them, unless you want . . .
• The more elite version of Mordor Orcs are, of course, the Morannon Orcs. Morannons went up by 1pt to 8-10pts each (33pts with a banner) but are now situationally F4 (vs. men). They still give you S4 with access to spears in an era where being S4 matters more than ever before - and now that they can be F4 against a lot of factions that got access to F4 on their standard troops, I think they're still very reliable troops (though against Dwarves, Uruk-Hai, Gundabad Orcs, and Elves, you're going to feel like you overpaid on these guys . . . because you did). Still, they're efficient fighting machines and they're still some of the cheapest S4/D5-6 spearmen in the game.
• Morgul Stalkers have always been in an interesting place in Mordor lists. On the one hand, they're S4 with 2 Attacks for only 10pts . . . and on the other hand, they're only F3 (and you can only get F4 spearmen with Morannons against Men) and D4. Stalk Unseen can help them and Courage 7+ is pretty good for Orcs, but if you can field them, it'll be a choice between them and Black Numenoreans who are also 10pts/model, but come with innately higher Fight Value/Defense/Courage (at the cost of Attacks when not shielding and Strength).
• If you're playing with Legacies, you have access to Orc Trackers. For 6pts each, you're not saving money by taking these guys over Orc Warriors with bows, but you'll shoot more reliably. Take them if you can and if you want some shooting!
• Mordor Warg Riders have always been the cheap cavalry option for Mordor and they still fill that role. They're absent from most Mordor lists, but the fact that you can take them in this list means that you're really trying to decide if the speed you want is better served by cheap S4 Warg Riders or S3 lancers with higher Defense. At 8pts cheaper than Black Numenorean Knights, there's a strong argument that you want these guys (especially if you're leaning into the Orcs and have taken an Orc Drummer/some kind of shaman).
• Mordor Trolls went DOWN in cost by 10pts to 90pts and picked up Dominant (3), an extra wound, and retained F7 in an age where beating F7 with Heroic Strike is not a sure-fire thing - golly, I love these guys! The drum got cheaper and different-maybe-better and I would always field one. Whether you field any Trolls other than the obligatory Drummer Troll is very much in doubt, as for the cost of another Troll and the Captain who leads him, you can almost get a Ringwraith on Fell Beast . . . and that seems like a better deal than "just another Troll".
• Mordor Uruk-Hai are great in Shagrat's warband and give you some much-needed punch with F4/S4. F4 isn't what it used to be (lots of warriors got the boost to F4 - and some got the boost to F5!), but it's still the gateway Fight Value that you want - and with Piercing Strike going away for most units, being S4 is back to what it was before special strikes were a thing. With Courage 6+, they may not benefit from Fury, but they'll still reliably charge Terror models. They can also turn natural 6s To Wound into 2 wounds, which is still a trap, but might also be a deterrent for heroes who don't have a lot of dice (or a desperate play to get a wound on the enemy general.
• Black Guard of Barad-Dur are the elite infantry choice for Mordor players - they still have the trifecta of F4/S5/D6 for 12pts/model, which is SUPER good in an era where S4 models (like Morannons) can't Piercing Strike. If you can field these guys, you'll probably want to lean on Orc Warriors to fill out your numbers/lend you some spears, but they're super strong into everything except Terror (where their Courage 7+ is likely to let them down a little).
• Black Numenorean Warriors are better costed at 10pts/model this edition - and they're still toting F4/D6/Terror (with Courage 6+). While I think there might be a world where you want the F3-4/S4/D6 of Morannon Orcs instead of these guys (mostly if you're running Kardush), I think the default choice for frontline troops in this list has to begin with Black Numenoreans.
• Black Numenorean Knights are in a different spot, however. At 20pts/model, they've been given the Knight of Dol Amroth treatment and have become really, really expensive. To be sure, a wall of F4/D6/Terror lancer cavalry can be incredibly strong and scary, but at the same time, taking just five of these guys is REALLY going to undercut your numbers. You'll definitely want a mounted Harbinger hero to escort them to get the most out of Terror (and that'll probably be your Ringwraith - not a lot of other people have meaningful Harbinger ranges in this list).

Phew - that's a lot of profiles! Like Mordor list building has been since the warband books, there's a lot to consider when thinking about taking a list from such a wide selection of models. Let's see what kind of strengths this selection of models gives you . . . and what is still to be desired.

The Army of the Great Eye: Strengths and Weaknesses

Obviously, you have a wealth of profiles ahead of you - and those profiles do almost everything. If you want casters, we have various kinds (with the Witch-King, Ringwraiths, and Mouth of Sauron being the most generally useful, but don't sleep on Kardush and Muzgur if you have the option for legacy profiles). If you want combat heroes with Heroic Strike, there's about a half-dozen in this list (with a mix of monsters and non-monsters to boot). If you want combat heroes who also have Heroic March, there's a lot of those (varying from F4-5, S4-5, and D5-7) - chances are good, whatever March hero you want, you'll be able to find it in this list. Finally, you have lots of mounted hero options, a few mounted warrior options, several monster profiles (perhaps including a war beast!), and some siege weapons - what's not to like!

Well, your shooting options aren't that great. Yes, the siege weapons are good, but they're also expensive in a list that has LOTS of options. Yes, you could choose to get 2 cheap heroes plus the obligatory Ringwraith and 3 siege bows if you wanted some serious firepower - and you'd be able to do it with more overall unit selection and a comparable/slightly-higher investment tax than you'd have in the Army of Gothmog. But beyond the siege weapons, you have Orc Warriors (and maybe Orc Trackers/Great Beasts of Gorgoroth) as your shooting options . . . and that's it. Stationary Trolls can hurl stones (and those aren't bad), but you can't rely on that to deal meaningful shooting (assuming you have any Trolls in your list). Legacy options do open things up a bit, but even this isn't THAT great.

While the shooting options are incredibly limited/bad in this list, you have one of the best arrays of heavy infantry options in the game, alongside good light infantry options. Black Numenoreans are probably your default choice still, but whether you back them up with Morannons or Mordor Orcs (or if you use Morannons instead of them) is definitely a question you'll want to ask. Black Guard of Barad-Dur and Mordor Uruk-Hai give you some heavy-hitting options with F4/S4-5 as an interesting alternative, but I don't know if you want those as a whole front line vs. dropped in here and there (or as flankers). Orc Warriors (and Orc Trackers/Morgul Stalkers) aren't much to look at and they're certainly not heavy infantry (the Mordor Uruk-Hai aren't truly heavy infantry either), but they're very solid profiles at very solid costs. All in all, your melee infantry are great . . . something Mordor has never really struggled with.

While not a weakness, per se, I will say that this list gets a lot better when it has access to Legacy profiles. While your hero corps gets better in some respects (Zagdush could probably be replaced by Gorbag, Kardush and Muzgur aren't really replaceable but you could just take a second Nazgul), getting access to warriors that give you good shooting and potentially super-high Strength or multiple Attacks is pretty great. Also, I've been playing with Mumaks recently and while I won't say that all war beasts are good, stopping them from moving has gotten harder - and if you're in a list that has Harbinger and an Evil Eye to reduce enemy Courage, there's a non-zero chance that your Great Beasts get to walk all over things while also lending a lot of shooting to the mix (albeit without the +11 models that they used to bring). The list is perfectly functional without the Legacy models, but it definitely has more options with them.

Finally, this might be the best list for the Witch-King. The Witch-King usually has a very restricted set of units he can bring (like in the Minas Morgul list) or has a wide selection of units but a lot of required gear (like in the Legions of Mordor list). This list gives him the blissfully high amount of options with absolutely no required gear. It's glorious. In the Barad-Dur/Black Riders/Wraiths on Wings lists, you get the level-2 version of the Witch-King who is 2 Attacks/2M/14W/2F (still slightly better than the level-3 Ringwraiths) and the upgrades available to you in these lists are pretty limited. The Host of the Witch-King might actually be the worst list for the Witch-King as you get hamstrung on both the profiles to support him AND the upgrades you can take (though admittedly, you're getting the level-3 version and you still have access to the horse - that might be all you need). All in all, I think this is the list to run the big guy and I think he's pretty much an auto-include in any list for this army that I'm looking at.

The Army of the Great Eye: Strategies for the Tabletop

Like we've been doing recently, the first strategy for this list has to do with your list building: I think you want to pick your battle line type before you pick your heroes. Since your battle line could be composed of just Morannons (they're good) or with Black Numenoreans backed by Orc Warriors (this will be cheaper than double-Morannons, but won't have any S4 in it) or with Black Numenoreans backed by Morannons (same cost or higher than double-Morannons, depending on whether or not your back-rank spears take shields or not), the heroes you pick need to augment the rest of your plan. This army will live and die based on how well its core troops fare - and if you aren't supporting them, you're going to lose.

If you picked all-Orcs, pick heroes who help them - this probably includes a shaman of some kind, but might also include someone like Gothmog to give a pocket of them Hatred (and a larger swathe of them rerolling all failed To Wounds on a single round) - though this is expensive. Ideally you have Kardush and Muzgur in your list, but that's Legacy-only. You will also want to decide if you can get away with an Orc Drummer for speed or if you have the points for a Drummer Troll (which I think is a MUCH better option).

If you picked things that aren't Orcs (though you'll probably have Orcs in your second rank - unless you do a Dwarf Shieldwall thing like Rythbyrt does and not rely on spears at all), you definitely want a Drummer Troll to keep your army moving. If the points level is low, you might settle for the Mouth of Sauron or an Orc Captain to March your army, but the Troll gives you free Marches on a chassis that's super tough and now has Dominant (4) - it's very, very strong! Whether you're moving up Black Numenoreans or Mordor Uruk-Hai (or Black Guard of Barad-Dur?), you want the movement - so if you possibly can, get a Troll!

Continuing the list building strategies, you'll want to decide whether you're going to give mounts to your Nazgul and if you are taking mounts, what kind do you want. I'm solidly of the opinion that armored Fell Beasts are a trap - I think you pay way too much for +1 Defense. The Witch-King has the choice between a horse (cheap, maneuverable, grants charge bonuses, easy to dismount him) and a Fell Beast (monster rules, more maneuverable, grants Monstrous Charge bonuses, harder to dismount him, a lot more expensive), while Nazgul have just the Fell Beast as their option. Honestly, I think mounting up the Witch-King will always be a good idea, but the Nazgul could survive on foot if you needed the 50pts elsewhere. This assumes, of course, that you're taking two Nazgul. A similar decision matrix is probably in place for both the Mouth of Sauron and Black Numenoreans - they're both better when on horses, but paying 25-30pts may not be in the cards for you . . . and both are perfectly functional on foot.

Once you've decided on our battle line and your supporting heroes, you'll want to see how many spellcasters you took. If your goal is to lean into the magic skew, you want to lean HARD into it. Taking a single caster (the obligatory Nazgul) doesn't count as a magic skew - no matter how good he is. Magic in the current game is incredibly hard to resist, which means you need multiple casters working together if you're not getting free Will points each turn. Any Ringwraith supported by the Mouth of Sauron or another Ringwraith will give you a credible threat to any 3+ Will hero, especially those who might get a free die or two to resist. Heroic Channelling will be your friend - make sure there are other heroes, however, who have your Heroic Moves covered!

Finally, be sure to get a mixed arms force of both cavalry and a shieldwall of infantry. Cavalry are incredibly useful - which kind you get probably doesn't matter as much as that you have some of them in the first place. Your shieldwall is also entirely up to you as to how you kit it out, but make sure it's there. If you have infantry combat heroes (who double as casters or not), embed them in your ranks so that you can get Heroic Moves when and where you need them, as well as giving yourself the option of hacking through whatever your opponent presents to you. You may find that you like having all of your heroes mounted - that's fine, but make sure that your heroes are where your infantry need them to be - your warriors are going to do a lot of the work in this list!

Sample Lists

Our first stop is a 500pt list - and that's actually quite hard to write given that we need a 120+ Nazgul in our list. I've opted for a double-caster list with a foot-only Mouth of Sauron supporting a mounted Witch-King (absolutely no other upgrades besides the horse). Those two heroes alone eat up half of our points - but for 16pts/file, we can get Black Numenoreans backed by Orc spearmen. If we add in a few Warg Riders for speed, we've got a decent list:

Once we scale up a bit to 650pts, we don't really need more bodies (and we can't fit very many more, to be honest), so can splurge on upgrading our Warg Riders to Black Numenorean Knights, and filling out our roster a bit with a Drummer Troll (golly I like these guys - you can take a hero and a handful of infantry if you want):

As we grow our list to 800pts, we'll need to pick another hero to help us out - I've gone for a cheap beater in Gorbag, which gives us three reliable hitters (besides our Troll) and we're hitting 42 models, which is feeling pretty good:

Our last list is a Legacy list that leans in hard on the Orcs - we've got the Witch-King, we've got Kardush, we've got Muzgur, and we've got Guritz (and we've got Morannons and Trackers so we're still a hard-hitting group):

Conclusion

This list was shown off in exactly one game in our custom Osgiliath campaign last year (mostly because you have to take a Ringwraith and there was only one scenario that had a Ringwraith in it last year). I think the list has some legs to it and if you enjoyed making Mordor Soup lists like I did, it's got the full range of options. I like the Great Eye special rule a lot more than I like the Legions of Mordor rule (and I really like the customizability of the Witch-King in this list), but I also miss the Harad elements, which means the Legions of Mordor list still has a place in my book (especially if you don't have access to Orc Trackers).

If you've used this list in the new edition, let us know how it went in the comments below! Next month, we'll be taking a bit of a more varied approach to reviewing lists as Centaur comes out of the woodwork with one of his favorite lists from the last edition. Take a dive into something he's been brewing (and if it's been any good) next time, and until then, happy hobbying!