Good morning gamers,
A few weeks ago, we looked at the Army of Gothmog, which in this edition has picked up a few profiles and lost a profile from the previous edition. This time, we're looking at the Black Gate army list, which has also picked up a few profiles but lost two critical profiles. This is mostly based on the Black Gate Opens Legendary Legion, which was one of the first Legendary Legions released and remained popular for quite some time (mostly as a way to field lots of Troll Chieftains!), but there was also a very interesting discussion amongst Black Gate players as to how much you leaned into Morannon Orcs (S4/D6) and how much you leaned into Mordor Orcs (cheaper, same FV/Courage). Today, that discussion won't be necessary - but there is, I think, a big question as to how good this list is with the current requirements it has. Let's see how things have changed . . .
The Black Gate: Changes for 2025
Profile Selection
Most of the profiles we have available to us are the same as before - the Mouth of Sauron, Mordor Troll Chieftains (one is the "Uber Troll Chieftain" and has to be taken in the list), Morannon Orc Captains, Morannon Orcs, and Mordor Trolls. The bones of this build are good - most of these units are available in the Army of Gothmog, but you're adding a much cheaper supporting piece in the Mouth of Sauron (at least when compared to Gothmog), a more expensive but much more powerful hitting piece (again, when compared to Gothmog), and you get some additional units that weren't present in the last edition: Ringrwaiths on Fell Beasts, Mordor Orc Taskmasters, and Mordor Orc Shamans.
We've lost two critical profiles, however: Mordor Orc Captains and Mordor Orc Warriors. The Orc Captain was great in the last edition because, like the Army of Gothmog, this army is pretty much dependent on war drums on their Trolls (or Heroic Marches from their heroes) to get them anywhere in a hurry - but Orc Captains used to be able to be taken on Wargs in this list, so you could have a few very fast heroes and now, if you want mounted troops, your options are the Mouth of Sauron and Fell Beasts . . . that's pricey.
The Mordor Orc Warrior is missing in the Army of Gothmog as well as in this list, and those guys did two critical things: first, they allowed you to run cheaper units - not only because Orcs are now capped at 6pts/model unless they have a banner, but Morannon Orcs cost 1pt more per model, so we've both lost our cheap warrior option AND our remaining option got more expensive. Second, the Orc Warriors didn't have good shooting potential, but they could shoot - and while we have access to a Shaman now to help us engage Terror units (thank goodness!), having bows gives you the potential to slow down an enemy advance or force units who are sitting near an objective to take cover. You can't really exert that kind of control anymore . . . unless you have a Fell Beast.
Army List Bonuses
Two of the Legendary Legion bonuses from the last edition are still visible here: first, your "Uber Troll Chieftain" is a Hero of Valour, gains the Fearless special rule, and is boosted to 3M/2W/2F. In practice, this makes a unit that needs to be able to charge who he wants to and must NOT flee the board do exactly what he wants and it also makes an already tough unit much tougher. In a world where reaching F8 might be all an enemy hero can do, being base F8 is pretty sweet. Troll Chieftains are great in this edition - especially when they have an extra Will point to help keep magic off their backs.
Secondly, the Hordes of Mordor special rule from last edition was written more clearly this time: all friendly Orc models that are engaged in combat with an opponent that is outnumbered get +1 To Wound. It was very, VERY unclear (at least here at TMAT) whether or not having 2 Orcs supported by 2 spears against 1 foe (supported or not) granted the engaged Orcs the bonus or all four Orcs the bonus (since it was just that friendly Orc models got +1 To Wound if their opponent was outnumbered - nothing about being engaged). The new wording is great - the rules team put a ring on it and said you have to be engaged (see what I did there?).
There's one additional rule that was added this edition: before you declare heroics in each Move phase, you pick one enemy model on the board to take an Intelligence test. If the test is failed, you get to move the model up to its full movement (and can even charge if you want). The model can't move again this turn but otherwise behaves normally (being able to cast magic, shoot, or even fight). Anytime you get a free Spectre test is a good day - but in this list in particular, this is a nice way to make up for the fact that we can't shoot models off of objectives and that getting to far-flung objectives might be hard. If our opponent only guards an objective with a single person, we might be able to drag him off.
We're going to see some changes here - but a lot of this is not going to be new.
- 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! The Uber Chieftain is even more value for his points increase, as he still gets 15 warriors in his warband, he gets an extra Might/Will/Fate, and he picks up Fearless again . . . and apparently Hera, Bride of Death (who we reviewed in January) is 130pts . . . tell me how that works, exactly . . .
- 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 (so you don't need to take an obligatory March hero!), 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!
- For Fortitude heroes, we have Morannon Orc Captains as our primary generic choice - 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).
- Orc Taskmasters can be useful in this list. Their stick is that you have the potential to get free Heroic Moves/Marches (never Heroic Shoots - don't do that) - but the Marches are less necessary in this list if you have a Mordor Troll with a war drum (which I personally think you want if you can). If you're planning to save your Might for calling a lot of Heroic Moves, I'd consider taking one of these guys - but I think he's probably your fifth hero choice, so I have no idea how high of a points level you'd need to be playing before you field him!
- You can get Orc Shamans in this list now, which is great! Since most of your units are going to be Orcs (and one of your special rules is tied to making sure they pile into fights), it's great if you don't have to worry about them running away or getting scared of a little Terror. While a 6" radius is a pretty decent range, it's also not going to cover all of your battle line in every situation. As a result, be sure to start by supporting one side of the battle line, get them to charge, and then before you have to move units that aren't affected by Fury, move the Shaman so they're covered before they activate!
- Finally, the rules team added Ringwraiths on Fell Beasts to the list - something I very much wanted last edition! These guys aren't as flashy as the Witch-King, but they're plenty functional, they give you monster rules on the same profile as a spellcaster, they're far more maneuverable than Mordor Troll Chieftains (who cost 20pts less), and they can lock down enemy spellcasters with their own magic so that your Uber Troll Chieftain can do what he needs to do. All in all, I think taking one of these guys is a great option, if you can afford him!
- For Warriors, you have access to only two profiles: Morannon Orcs and Mordor Trolls. 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/D6 units in the game.
- 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".
There isn't a lot here, but what we have is actually pretty good (though I miss the Orcs). Let's see what this list does really well and where it can let you down if you're not careful.
The Black Gate: Strengths and Weaknesses
This shouldn't surprise anyone, but this list includes a LOT of big hitter profiles. For the most part, those big hitters are monsters - and the addition of the Dominant (X) keyword and the general boost to monster stats has really made them come into a realm all their own. Whether it's your obligatory Troll Chieftain, a Drummer Troll, a Ringwraith on Fell Beast, or even piles of Orcs when they get to double-up and trap people, this list has the tools that many lists don't have to hit very, very hard.
While many of the profiles in this list are good . . . most of your good hitters either individually or the grunt troops en masse are expensive. You'll see this in the lists below, but no matter how high your points level gets, there's something good that you'd just not going to have the points for. Yes, you might get lucky and get to go to a 1000-point event, but even when you're that high, you're probably not getting everything you want. This isn't exactly a problem, but it does mean you'll need to pick and choose what's important to you.
That said, while the profiles of the monsters (and even the Morannons) are pretty good, the real shining star in all of this is that it's easy to get three models with Dominant 3-4 in your list. The bare minimum cost of the obligatory Troll Chieftain, the Mouth of Sauron, and 2 Mordor Trolls is 405pts - and putting a drum on one of those Trolls brings you up to 430pts. At 550pts, you can get a pretty decent array of Morannons to screen for the three monsters and your combat-caster - and with three big units that will each count for 4 models, you're in a really good starting position if you can keep them alive and cut through the enemy!
While the monsters in this list are good, the monsters are also very vulnerable to magic skews. If the likes of Saruman, Gandalf, Sauron, or groups of Nazgul are on the other side of the table, you can count on those 1-2 Will Troll Chieftains or 0 Will Mordor Trolls to come to a screeching halt (at least for a few turns). This isn't AS bad since you have your own magic support from the Mouth of Sauron (heroic channelling Transfix on a caster is a great way to force out resources, including any free Will points that are coming from a staff of power) - and if your third hero is a Ringwraith on Fell Beast, you have two means of getting Transfix against your opponent's casters. Still, relying on the Mouth of Sauron and even a Ringwraith will only stall out magic for a limited time - so you have to get the work in while you have the time (and assuming you have the points for both casters).
Finally, Terror walls used to be my bane in this list - you'd field a fun list of Orcs and Trolls and just end up regretting that you didn't have a Shaman. We have one now and that makes dealing with Terror (and to a lesser extent, breaking) a lot easier . . . but whether you get him third or fourth is very much a debate that you'll need to have with yourself (and should be very much informed by how your local meta is shaping up).
The Black Gate: Strategies for the Tabletop
The playbook for this army list is pretty simple: set up the monsters you have so that they can advance towards the main bulk of the enemy, catch them, and kill them. Doing this well actually requires a lot of thought and practice - and to save you some time, I did a post a while ago that shows how you can get the most out of Trolls in particular. The short story of it is that a) Trolls want to fight near each other so they can help each other out, b) they need room to back up, which means they need screens from their friends, and c) you need to be able to pull off models from them with Orcs nearby. Managing fights and making sure these D7-8 models don't get trapped is a huge part of making sure that they do what you want them to do. Also, brush up on the Rend Brutal Power Attack when fighting a critical hero and the Hurl Brutal Power Attack so you can hit someone in a fight next door where another Troll is in trouble.
Next, set up your army so that it can benefit the most from Heroic Marches. Whether that March is coming from the Mouth of Sauron or a Drummer Troll (possibly Captains?), this army is going to live and die on whether or not it can get where it wants to go when it wants to get there. There may be a scenario here and there where you don't need to hurry anywhere (or where your opponent is up close/has to come to you), but in a lot of scenarios, we have to attack in specific areas - and without a lot of mounted models, March is king. If you want ideas on how to March this list, consider this post from a while ago.
Sample Lists
At 500pts, you can get a surprising number of guys if you a) don't mount the Mouth of Sauron, and b) don't give all of your spearmen shields. This army is going to have to rely on Heroic Marches to get them where they want to go (we don't have the points for a Drummer Troll), but if it can show up with most of its guys, it has a strong chance of pounding through most armies at this points level:
At 650, we can basically get the same list, but with a mounted Mouth of Sauron, a Drummer Troll (for speed), and an extra guy:
If we push the points level up to 800pts, we have to make an interesting choice between a Ringwraith on Fell Beast OR a Shaman and some other hero. If you opt for the hitting power, mobility, and overall threat of the Ringwraith, the list isn't going to grow by very many models (and to make it grow, I had to dismount the Mouth of Sauron and give up all the shields on the spearmen):
On the other hand, we can get over 40 models by foregoing the winged monstrocity and instead relying on the iron fist of the Orc to do its job . . . and honestly, I don't know if it's enough to outweigh what the Ringwraith is bringing to the table, but 9 extra guys, Fury, and potentially free Heroic Moves is not nothing:
Conclusion
The list has a LOT of expensive pieces in it, but I think the list is fun and gives you a much greater array of options than you had before (but it would definitely be better if standard Mordor Orcs were still part of the kit). If you have used this list and enjoyed it, let us know in the comments below! Next time, we're tackling the omnibus list for Mordor, the Army of the Great Eye. Released in the Armies of Middle-Earth book, this is one of those lists that has a HOST of options and new players might get overwhelmed by their choices (veteran players too, actually). Find out what's good and what you can skip on next time - and until then, happy hobbying!
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