Good morning gamers,
When the Quest of the Ringbearer sourcebook came out, I had to buy it - I just had to. The legendary legions in the book (which parallel the idea of army lists that we have today) were all awesome - an updated Rangers of Ithilien list, a Depths of Moria list that gave neat buffs to the Balrog, a Lurtz's Scouts list that gave the Uruk-Hai speed and some cool rules for Lurtz, a Cirith Ungol list with a fun kill-count mini-game, a really cool Fellowship list that made the Fellowship members feel really awesome, and an all-Nazgul list that was . . . well, it was pretty awesome. The last list, the Black Riders, was a bit of a polarizing one (since the Ringwraiths originally could kill themselves by casting Black Darts with all their Will, kill the enemy General, quarter themselves, and win 3-0 on the first or second turn . . . until an FAQ changed that), but it was always an interesting army to run and a very interesting army list to build, since you had to balance your need for Fate points with your need for Will points.
In the current edition of the game . . . we have a Black Riders list (the last of the lists that requires you to take the Witch-King), but it feels very different. I think it's fair to say that we're pretty upbeat here at TMAT and we try to find reasons to run each list. I'm gonna say it, though: I think this list feels a lot worse this edition than it did last edition . . . and I'm not compelled to run it, like, at all. However, this being TMAT, I assume that if you're reading this, you are a) interested in the thematic running of the Black Riders, b) you're up for "hard mode" and want to give yourself a challenge, or c) you're just getting into the game and you're curious about whether this list is any good. So, in the best good-faith effort I can muster, I'm going to dive into the Black Riders list and depart from my usual script a bit in order to explore how this list has changed and what I think would make it better.
The Black Riders: Changes for 2025
Profile Selection
Like last edition, we have two profiles available to us: the Witch-King (who we have to take) and Ringwraiths (who we functionally have to take). Both of these are the mid-tier profiles, so we have 1M/10W/1F on each of the Ringwraiths and 2M/14W/2F on the Witch-King. As is expected, they have to take horses (bringing the Witch-King to 140pts and your Ringwraiths to 105pts - in this list alone, the cost of their horses went down to 15pts) and each can take a Morgul Blade but no other equipment. That's all we got - hopefully we get rules that make up for this, right?
Army List Bonuses
There are still four rules that this list gets - and you need them all for sure. The rule that makes this list work is The Will of Sauron rule, which makes friendly Ringwraiths not lose Will points for being Engaged in Combat for the Will of Evil special rule. Without this rule (spoken by someone who ran all-Ringwraiths in the game before the Black Riders was a thing), your list is on a timer and if you can't kill enough of the enemy before your Will runs out, you lose (not fun). You also have Terror in the Night, which is technically weaker but functionally better than what you had last edition: enemy models who are in range of multiple Ringwraiths get -2 to their Courage instead of -1. Previously, it was -2 if you were within Harbinger range of 4-6 models and -3 if you were within range of 7-9 Ringwraiths. Now, if you're within range of 2+ Ringwraiths, you apply a -2 penalty - which is good if you get to 2-3 Ringwraiths, the same if you have 4-6 Ringwraiths in range, and worse if you happen to have 7+ Ringwraiths in your list and they all happen to be in range of someone. All in all, these are two great rules.
There are two situationally good rules that help the list out. If your opponent brings a Ringbearer, one of your heroes who could charge the Ringbearer can declare a free Heroic Combat via the Hunt the Ringbearer special rule. If both players declare Heroic Combats, this free one will always go first. Free Heroic Combats are always good (and guaranteeing that you go first is always a good thing), but this will only matter if your opponent actually brings a Ringbearer. Additionally, there's a once-per-turn, once-per-hero-each-game ability for your Ringwraiths to cast a Transfix spell that counts as being cast on a 6 (and it counts as their spell that's cast this turn). This rule (Screech of the Nazgul) is a powerful way to make sure that your opponent doesn't get to go with important heroes without spending resources (or getting lucky with free resources), which helps to make sure that big heroes don't go crashing through your fragile heroes.
It would be great if all friendly models gained Horse Lord, but I don't know that there's a defense for giving them Horse Lord in the same way that the Rohirrim gain that rule. Still, this list is going to live and die based on whether its models remain mounted - and there's no way to protect your horse from being shot out from under or cut down in a combat. I know we already have four rules, but with only two profiles and no warrior options, is it too much to ask? By the way, I asked for this - and other things - in my article back in 2021. I stand by everything I asked for back then, as well as three other things.
I think there's a missed opportunity here - because this list has always struggled with objective scenarios and this is the kind of list where everyone should gain Dominant (2). With Dominant (3) on the Witch-King for being our General and everyone else counting as a single model, your ability to play objective scenarios is still as hard as ever - and even more so now that there are lists where each infantry model counts as 2 models . . . yeah, dev team if you're reading this, I would really like to see something done to help these poor guys out!
I also feel like the Terror in the Night special rule should allow them to fight at night, like certain other lists do. This would be super helpful for them and very thematic.
Finally, the Nazgul of Dol Guldur have cool specialist rules that make them unique and give the list building side of the game a bit more interest. With the loss of customizing Might, Will, and Fate on your Ringwraiths, I think it would be good if there were specialist abilities on your Ringwraiths that made them different from each other. I recommended this in my 2021 article, but to be clear, I don't think you need to copy the rules from the Nazgul of Dol Guldur (though that would be interesting) - but having some have an extra Attack on one of them, giving others hand-and-a-half weapons and the ability to ignore the penalty, giving someone Stalk Unseen (the "sniffer guy"), giving others some kind of bonus to wound (the "bed stabbers"), or specialized rules like that would be particularly useful and interesting in list building. I guess you could extend this to including the named wraiths from the Legacy documents if you wanted to - that would work as well.
I also wouldn't mind if there was the option for taking the top-tier versions of the units - especially if specialist abilities aren't going to be a thing for the Ringwraiths. I get that thematically, the Ringwraiths are supposed to scale up as the saga goes on - but the Host of the Witch-King is an early Third Age list and that version has the top-tier Witch-King. Similarly, we've got mid-tier Ringwraiths in this list and the Minas Morgul list, but a week or so later, they get their top-tier version in the Legions of Mordor (or probably weeks before-hand in the Army of the Great Eye). I think lists like this would be great if you could take the mid-tier or the top-tier versions of the Ringwraiths or the Witch-King so that you have some way to manipulate your points level (something that the old verison was really good with, since you could customize your Will/Fate allocation - you always maxed the Might points).
Well, we have two profiles today - and yes, we saw both of these profiles last time. However, the context of this list does change our assessment of them quite a bit:
- The Witch-King of Angmar is in his mid-level form and this profile is only available in this list, the Barad-Dur list, and the Wraiths on Wings list (which we'll be looking at next week). His options are trimmed to the bare bones - the same options he has in the Host of the Witch-King list, actually. He maxes out at 150pts, though I think this is probably the list where you're the least likely to take a Morgul Blade unless you have nothing else to spend your points on (more on that in the list section below). Unlike his Host of the Witch-King version, this Witch-King won't be spending Will points in any of his fights (not just the ones he wins), but this is a smaller consolation than in the Host of the Witch-King list, because you'll be losing more fights with 2A base instead of 3A base.
- This list has mid-tier Ringwraiths with access to slightly cheaper horses in this list - and you're going to need to take several of these guys by necessity. These guys aren't that much different from this version of the Witch-King, but they're plenty functional, they're very maneuverable, they can fight forever, and they can lock down enemy spellcasters with their own magic (especially with their cast-on-a-6-Transfix). With 1 Wound/1 Fate each, however, you're going to want to do everything you can to avoid being shot (both for the rider's sake and your horse's sake) and try to manage your fights as well as you can.
That's it - that's all we got. Yes, I feel a bit let down too. Let's see what we have to work with, though, and get a proper view of what we need to keep in mind if you choose to run this list.
The biggest strength of this list is its magical power, but compared to the magic from the Host of the Witch-King list we covered earlier this month, I don't know that you're getting much more magic out of this one. Yes, the magic in this list will be more sustained than what two Barrow-wights and the Witch-King will give, but the magic from Barrow-wights is likely to last longer than the turn-only Transfixes coming from the wraiths in this list. Still, compared to most lists, this list is certainly going to crank out the magic and it's quite likely that if your opponent brought a big hero, they won't get to use them until the game has been decided (one way or another).
This list's greatest weakness is not just that it's limited in the number of models it will be able to field at any points level, but that the heroes that it has are incredibly vulnerable. We talked about this last time, but it bears repeating here: 1 Wound/1 Fate or 1 Wound/2 Fate is one random fluke away from losing a critical piece - and I mean it when I say that each model in this list is a critical piece. With 4-6 models in games of 500-700pts, you just can't lose someone without it hurting your chances of winning . . . and unfortunately, this list doesn't have any way of boosting the resilience of your heroes. Being able to take the top-tier versions would boost the resilience a little, but not always.
Another strength of this list is that it's fast and everyone is a F5+/2A hero - this isn't unique to this list, but it does make it strong if it can manage its match-ups. Having Terror and a -2 Courage modifier is a huge help, but won't do anything against the many armies that have auto-passing Courage test rules (either tied to a hero, like in the Men of the West list, or just statically, like in the Ride Out list). Against lists that can't get cavalry, if you can get the charge on multiple turns in a row and keep yourself from being wrapped-and-trapped, you might get your opponent to a breaking point - and at that point, you can play 12" keep-away to slowly erode your opponent's numbers (especially if you can Transfix/Black Dart their heroes).
That said, the 2A base limit is a huge problem - a popular math post from 2023 that I like to reference shows that if your opponent has a lower Fight Value than you, all he needs to do to get a better than 50% chance of winning the fight is to have 4 dice in the fight against a non-charging wraith and 8 dice in the fight against a charging wraith - and most horde lists are going to be able to get that if they can get their models into the fight. The "2-4-8" principle works really well against this list - I'm happy that the wraiths are all at least 2 Attacks now, but if your opponent can get models to pass their Courage tests and have spears/pikes behind them, you could be in some real trouble. Also, if a cavalry model charges you, you won't have 3 Attacks, so . . .
I could probably pull at other strings, but I think this covers most of it. Let's take a look at some strategies we can use to try to make this list sing at its optimal level . . .
The Black Riders: Strategies for the Tabletop
We've been talking in the last few posts about what to cast with your Ringwraiths - and I think this list departs from my previous advice for several reasons. First, because your Might and Will are precious in other lists, I've only recommended to date that you channel Your Staff is Broken. In this list, your Might and Will are still precious, but you have to way out of your way to make sure you get VPs, so I'm going to recommend that you consider channelling Black Dart if you are able to safely get within 6" of someone who is giving VPs (usually the General, often a banner, sometimes a different hero, possibly a warrior that you can't charge but is sitting on an objective and the game is about to end). Channelling these spells means that they go off on a 6, which is hard to resist and your opponent will probably be out of Will by the time you're throwing these channelled spells. You can still channel Your Staff is Broken against a wizard, but keep in mind that the Witch-King only has 2 Might - so no matter who you are, I'd only consider channelling once (and channelling at all means you won't be calling as many Heroic Moves - and that's a big deal in this list).
Your best spells are still Compel and Transfix - and if you're doing 2-die casts (plus the free cast-on-a-6 per wraith), you're quite likely to be able to draw models out of position to jump on, keep a hero from killing someone, or prevent a model from reaching a scoring position. I have mentioned the Will allocation of your Ringwraiths in the past two articles and I feel like it's worthwhile to see how the Will of Sauron rule affects how your Will is allocated to properly understand just how long your wraiths can cast:
- The Witch-King (2 Might, 14 Will): 1 Will to stay alive, 8 Will to cast spells, 5 Will to resist spells
- Ringwraith (1 Might, 10 Will): 1 Will to stay alive, 6 Will to cast spells, 3 Will to resist spells
If we assume that you're throwing two dice at each cast, your wraiths should be able to cast 3-4 spells besides their cast-on-a-6 spell, so really you're looking at 4-5 turns of casting. You have a "slush fund" of 3-5 Will for 2-3 more casts (one of those being desperate), but you might need the Will to pass an important Courage test or to throw a third die behind a critical Black Dart spell to clear a key unit. You might have a lot of Will, but as has hopefully been driven home this month, you won't be casting "all game".
You need to pick your battles carefully with this list applying -2 Courage is great and all, but there's a 17% chance (if chances are, in fact, measured in percentages) of getting a natural-10 on a Courage test, which will always succeed - so one-in-six foes should be able to charge you, even if their Courage stat is low. If you're facing F5/C5+ Elves, you're in huge trouble, but even against Goblins and Tribesmen, you could be in a real fix if your opponent can get 4-8 dice into your fights. As such, using Compel to draw models forward and eat them slowly, using Transfix (free-on-a-6 or by casting) to keep enemy heroes locked in place, or by moving second and racing to a flank and Heroic Combatting away are useful tactics for slowly working down your opponent's army and weakening a part of the force so you can overwhelm it on a later turn.
I would also take your time moving - as we'll see in the lists below, you don't have a lot of models to move and there's no way that you'll take as much time as your opponent (unless you both have small model counts - if that's the case, both of you should take your time), so take a moment to figure out what each model needs to do, where each model wants to go, and what spell (if any) they want to cast. Small mistakes can have huge consequences with this list, so don't make easy mistakes just because you're rushing. You should expect each enemy Move Phase to take about 5min unless they're standing and shooting at you - if you take 30sec per models, you'll be taking half that time . . . so take a minute to figure out what to do and then do it.
Finally, have fun with it - I don't see this list as being particularly competitive, but it is fun to run all-hero lists and the fast, caster lists are particularly fun! The list is also fun to paint if you like black and silver and getting a better handle on how wraiths work will pay dividends if you play any lists that feature Ringwraiths in conventional lists.
Okay, let's talk lists!
Sample Lists
At 500pts, we have to spot our opponent 5pts and we can get 4 models . . . you know, because that's how these lists work - and look, so many Morgul Blades!
This list plays pretty well at 600pts and 700pts, but not at 650 - here's the 700pt list with 6 riders and 3 Morgul Blades - and with no way to get enough for 50pts, 650pts means we're spotting our opponent a lot of points:
You can field all nine Ringwraiths with two Morgul Blades at 1000pts, but I have to say that I don't feel good about having 9 1 Wound heroes in a 1000pt game. I think this list is actually at its strongest when you're at 350pts - you don't spot your opponent anything, you have three heroes who can shut down whatever hero shows up at that points level, and you have 4 Might points for calling Heroic Combats to clear out chaff. I like those odds a lot better:
Conclusion
This list needs some help, but it's probably got some legs if your points level is low. At any normal points level, I think you're in for a hard run, but it is fun to run with the 'wraiths and while I don't like the list as much this edition as I did last edition, I commend anyone who's brave enough to take them to an event. Next time, we're tackling a list with even fewer models on the table - and we'll see if the changes to their mounts helps them at all. As we wrap up the spooky month of October, find out what one of the iterations of the "flying circus" brings to the table next week - and until then, happy hobbying!
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