Hey Reader!
Today we're discussing a shire-centric list!!! GET HYPED!!! It's the orcs led by Golfimbul to attack the Shire, but still: WE'RE BACK!!!
And after all my complaining about Buhrdur's Horde, good news for you: I'm actually positive on this list. I actually think I like it more, even though it lacks a power hero, but more on that below.
Ravagers of the Shire: Changes for 2025
Profile Selection
This list is pretty different from what we had last edition, mostly because we're dealing with two faction tags: Golfimbul and the Hill Trolls have the Angmar keyword, while the captains, shamans, and orcs of various kinds have the Mordor keyword. So just know upfront that there's going to be some juggling of keywords (and it matters for a few rules).
But otherwise it's stuff that old Angmar players are used to using: orcs, warg rider orcs, more orcs, trolls, more orcs, and an orc with a built-in save.
Army List Bonuses
There are three army bonuses tied to this list, all of which are useful. First, we have Golfimbul's Rage, where Golfimbul gets to declare Heroic Combats for free. This is useful in that, as a F4 hero with 2 Attacks (3 on the charge against infantry if you buy the warg), he has a reasonable chance of winning fights against warriors, and since he's S4 with a hand-and-a-half weapon (which is a change from last edition - more on that below) and potentially access to another +1 to wound (more on that below), he has the ability to remove warriors of D6 and lower reliably.
Second, Courage from Ignorance helps to fix a longstanding issue with orc armies, where as long as Golfimbul is alive and on the battlefield, friendly orc models add +1 to their Courage value. This is very good: both your orc warriors and your warg riders have the "orc" keyword, so all of them are now on a 7+ (like the hill trolls) instead of an 8+. It's also nice in parts of the battlefield where you don't have a shaman with Fury active, or if you should ever lose Fury, though naturally Fury is better.
Finally, Overwhelm the Foe gives you a Mordor bonus: when your orcs outnumber an enemy in a combat, they add +1 to their wounding rolls. This does not specify Mordor Orcs (just "friendly orcs"), so this benefits Golfimbul as well as your orc captains, shamans, warriors, and warg riders, as they are all friendly orcs, so long as you can get 2 people into base contact with the same enemy model. This makes the S3-4 elements of your army effectively S5-6, which is really nice! A lot of enemies will be wounded on 3-4s, which means if you win that fight you are pretty likely to do wounds.
Profile Adjustments
There have only been a few changes since the last edition for this list, but not many:
- Golfimbul is now 45pts (65pts on a warg), so basically the same as last edition, and the bump for him is commesurate. He has a hand-and-a-half weapon now, so he's not stuck two-handing every turn, and he gets heroic combats for free now thanks to the army special rule, but on the whole he's basically exactly as he was last edition. At D5 with 2 Wounds, 0 Fate, and thankfully a 5+ Save against everything, he's not very survivable, so keep him safe.
- Mordor Orc Captains cannot take a warg, which is different from last edition, but otherwise they're exactly the same as they used to be.
- Mordor Orc Shamans got more subtle adjustments: they still get access to Fury on a 3+ and Transfix on a 5+ (which is saying something, because casting in general is harder this edition for a lot of spellcasters), but they also picked up Curse on a 4+. Otherwise they're basically the same, though naturally with the change to Fury not granting a 6+ Save, the shaman will play differently (more on that below).
- Hill Trolls picked up Dominant (3), which is not surprising, but are otherwise exactly as they were last edition (not surprising considering the timing of the Rise of Angmar book release).
Otherwise no changes: Warg Riders and Mordor Orc Warriors are the same, other than the obvious fact that you are limited in equipment combos, so no more shields on bannermen (which bites), no more shields on spearmen (which bites), no more 5pt orcs with no upgrades...lots of things, but all the same style of profile as we knew before.
Ravagers of the Shire: Strengths and Weaknesses
Perhaps the biggest strength that this force has is numbers: not only can they field all of their heroes for 45-65pts (because don't take a warg on your shaman - it's a waste of points), but they can field infantry for 6pts each. And with only 12-13pts per cavalry model and access to really cheap monsters, you can easily bulk out on numbers. And with access to an army special rule that benefits you having more models in a fight, it even rewards you for playing to that numerical advantage.
One of the biggest drawbacks is their generally low Fight Value. With no access to Heroic Strike, heroes that are all F4, and warriors that are all F3 (sans the trolls that are F6, so easily beaten by heroes with Heroic Strike), winning duels is really hard with this army if you don't outnumber the enemy in a fight. So take lots of spears, invest in at least one banner, and try to get as many attacks into a fight as possible to improve your chances of winning.
Another advantage of this army is good Courage for an orc army. With cheap and easy access to Fury, not many other things competing for spots against the shaman, and then a redundancy with an extra +1 to Courage as long as Golfimbul is on the table (so battlefield-wide - you don't even need to have Line of Sight to him), you've got far more reliable Courage passing than a lot of orc-centric armies. Azog's Hunters, most Angmar armies, and even Isengard armies (thanks to not typically having points left over for shamans) would love to have access to these tools when Terror armies come up.
Another drawback of this list is their generally low Defense. Since the overwhelming majority of the army is D4-5, and the only exceptions are your Orc Captains and your Hill Trolls (which you can't reliably spam), so archery is going to hurt, and if you lose fights you're pretty likely to lose men in close combat as well. And that means your numerical advantage has to be enough to plan around those losses.
They also get, for as limited as it is, a good spellcasting suite. Fury is the kind of spell that you can reliably cast Turn 1 on 1 dice, see how it goes, and most of the time it will pass. That then frees you up to Heroic Channel either of the other two spells, or Channel Fury (to make sure it goes off) on Turn 2, with 1 Will remaining to keep Fury up.
And your other spells are good: Transfix is a great tool for rooting a power hero in place, which your army really needs, and while a 5+ is hard to get, a Heroic Channel guarantees a 6, so it will not only go off, but will be hard to dispel. Curse is off on a 4+, but if Channeled, not only does it go off, but it's a 6 to dispel, and if they fail the target loses 1 Fate Point. If you think of this kind of like doing 1 wound to a hero, a limited version of Chill Soul on a 50pt chassis that you can spam is not horrible. I'm not saying it's great, but as far as spell suites go, it's really not that bad.
Ravagers of the Shire: Strategies for the Tabletop
First things first, let's talk about army composition: Gorgowrath has been doing a lot of testing with Ravagers recently, and I'm inclined to agree with him that numbers matter. I'd still take 1-2 trolls just to help win some fights each turn (and remove some of the enemy each turn), but beyond that, I'd go for maxed warbands with as many models as possible.
You'll probably also want at least 2-4 cavalry to reach objectives and run down enemies, but investing in tons of chaff is not a bad thing with this army. I generally take just the shields on them (due to their horrible Shoot Value), but if you have a few points lying around (since you don't have a lot of point values in this army), you can take throwing spears on them. They work fine on the charge, though they won't do much over the course of the game. But they do help to keep people honest when fighting you.
From a hero perspective, naturally you have to include Golfimbul, both because he's required and because he's the biggest hitter you have short of the trolls (and in some respects better than them). I'd also always take him on a warg, for three reasons. First, it improves his damage output, which is important for keeping your army in the fight. Second, it gives him better mobility, which is necessary both for making the charges you want, but also for getting him out of a difficult spot if you need to keep him alive (as the army-wide Courage boost is tied to him not lying in a heap in the Dead Pile). But third, and very important to all of this, it's a damage mitigator: every shooting attack that connects has a 50% chance of hitting the warg, which buys him more time. Even in close combat there's a good reason for people to go after the warg rather than him, and every attack directed at the warg is one that didn't go after him.
Next you'll probably want an orc captain, because Heroic March is important, D6 is pretty good in this army, and just in general you need Might Points, so take a captain. After that, I think it's an interesting question: my gut instinct is to take a shaman, but if you don't think you'll need the magical support (maybe you play against Rohan a lot, so Terror isn't as common and trolls can tango with most of those heroes reasonably well) you could double down on more captains, as they do help to contribute to the damage total, and they can bunker for you reasonably well.
Finally, trolls: your trolls have a S8 ranged attack on a 4+ (which is not bad, and by far the best shooting attack you have), so don't shy away from hurling rocks at people (especially heroes to pluck away wounds - if you happen to hit one that you've used Curse on to remove their Fate Points, even better.
But also remember that you've got a free duel reroll on them when they fight infantry (which stacks with the banner reroll, so you can reroll 2 of 3 of your Attacks), so while it may be necessary to take on horsemen with these guys, there's a strong advantage to sending them against enemy infantry instead. Something to think about.
So with all of this in mind, let's look at what your army could look like.
Sample Lists
To start off, we'll take a look at a 500pt "Budget" list, focusing on numbers (because army special rules), while still having enough support and firepower to stay competitive against a range of armies:
This gives us 30 models (which is good for 500), a long frontline (10 orcs + 1 captain + 2 trolls), with 2 cavalry, Golfimbul, and 3 2Hers to wrap (and 9 spears for backup), and a banner for potential VPs and hopefully helping us win more duels. If we put 1 troll between every 4 orcs, we have reasonable pushes along the line.
We also have a shaman in support, so options to improve our charging, keep us from breaking, and mess with enemy heroes as well.
At 650pts we're adding more bodies:
We've added another warband (because numbers!), and while we've mostly added infantry, we've also splurged to cover our bases a bit more in case of one turn of really bad rolls. First, I added a second banner, in part because I had almost maxed out all four warbands anyway, so it's not like I could add that many more bodies, and second because I wanted to have two banner rerolls across the field (and insurance for banner VPs), but also because it helps our heroes and trolls win more fights, which I think will help us find greater success.
But since you have 1pt remaining, you could drop the banner, spend the 1pt that remained to add a piece of gear to the orc carrying the banner, and then you can buy 5 more orc warriors (equipped as desired), which you can technically fit. So if you want to bump your numbers up to 50, you can do that.
And as we look at 800pts, instead of trying to hit 70 models, we're actually going to tone down the bulk to make our fights more reliable to win:
To start, we spent half of the points we just added to buy another Hill Troll, so that gives us 3 monsters along the front line to help take some of the heat off of Golfimbul and the boys. We've also added a lot more cavalry (we're up to 7 now plus Golfimbul), and if you wanted to bring your numbers to 53 instead of 52, you could drop 3 throwing spears to add another orc warrior. But this gives you a long battle line (19 shields including captains + 3 2Hers and 8 cavalry to wrap including Golfimbul), plenty of spears in support, and insurance in one part of the battlefield that your Mordor Orcs (so everyone other than Golfimbul and the trolls) can pass Courage as needed if you can keep Fury up.
Conclusion
In many respects, this list is actually better than Buhrdur's Horde: it lacks the punch of the big troll leader, but it covers the other bases better, providing a better spell suite, an answer to Terror, and special rules that are more generally applicable regardless of board design. So if you like playing with Mordor Orcs (maybe you bought a Mordor Battlehost and are looking for something new), you should try out this list - it's pretty fun!
Watching the stars,
Centaur
"We watch the skies for the great tides of evil or change that are sometimes marked there." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
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