Good morning gamers,
It's October, and as we lead up to Halloween, we'll be covering some of the spookier lists involving Nazgul that we haven't covered to date. Our first list appears to be one of the front-runners for most competitive lists featuring the Witch-King: the Host of the Witch King army list. This list has a strong array of both hero and warrior options and gives you basically everything you could want in an Angmar list (except monsters). Let's see what you can do with this list! As we've been doing, anything tied to the Legacies will be highlighted in red.
The Host of the Witch-King: Changes for 2025
Profile Selection
This list has to take the Witch-King, which comes in his 3A/3M/18W/3F form, but only has the options for horse and Morgul Blade. These are perfectly good options and help to keep the Witch-King's cost down (usually at 170pts after you've taken a horse - not bad for a Hero of Legend). Your Heroes of Valour are the Dwimmerlaik and the Tainted if you're playing with Legacies, as well as the Shadow of Rhudaur and Aldrac, Warlord of Carn Dum. Your Fortitude heroes include generic March Captains (Angmar Orc Captains and Captains of Carn Dum), Fraecht, Nazthak, and Shades. Finally, you can get Angmar Orc Shamans and Barrow-wights as Minor Heroes, which limits how many models you can bring with your Barrow-wights, but they're still terrifying heroes to have to fight.
The warrior list looks pretty lean - and it is - with Angmar Orc Warriors, Angmar Warg Riders, Spectres, Warriors of Carn Dum, and Werewolves. While this isn't a wide array of options, you have basically everything you'd want in a list except cheap fast troops (Wild Wargs for most Angmar lists) and decent archers (Orc Trackers, for example). Still, you have efficient infantry, efficient cavalry, and whatever Werewolves count as (not quite monstrous infantry, but they're close to it).
Army List Bonuses
Besides needing to take the Witch-King, you aren't allowed to take more than 50% of your army as Carn Dum models . . . I can think of only one or two people in the world who are probably sad about this, but whatever - there's another army that allows you to spam the "moose men" if you want them. Beyond this minor constraint, there are three bonuses that you get for playing this list: first, as Angmar has long had as its defining trait, your Orcs gain Terror while within 3" of a friendly Spirit Hero (so that would be the Witch-King, the other named Ringwraiths, the Shadow of Rhudaur, Shades, and Barrow-wights.
Second, the Witch-King only loses Will Points if he loses a combat in the Fight Phase (instead of all the time). This rule as written seems to indicate that if the Witch-King calls a Heroic Combat, wins, kills his opponent(s), charges into at least one enemy model, and then loses the follow-up combat, he'll lose 1 Will at the end of the Fight Phase per normal (even though he won his first fight). Finally, to help the Witch-King have a better chance of not losing (some) fights, he gets +1 Fight Value while Engaged in combat with an enemy Man model. In an era where Eowyn has the "Man" keyword (unlike the first few years of the previous edition), this feels like a bit of a missed thematic opportunity, but I digress. If you find yourself fighting "men" a lot, the Witch-King will be a F7 menace who will probably not be losing Will points for fighting if he's running through warriors for 170pts mounted. This is a good list to run the Witch-King in (which is good, since he's required and all).
We don't have a lot of profiles to cover - and some of them I've grouped together because there isn't much to say about them. I will say that about half of the profiles seem like misses in this list - but there's definitely still enough for you to work with:
- The Witch-King of Angmar is in his top-level form and as has already been discussed, he comes in at 180pts max with a horse and a Morgul Blade (neither of which are required, 150pts base). This list is both full of cheap units AND supplemental heroes to make sure that your Witch-King isn't pounded into the ground by whatever big piece your opponent decided to bring. Between Barrow-wights and Shades who can take wounds to give the Witch-King boosts to his casting attempts, the Witch-King has got it made in this list - and he's by no means the only big hitter in the group.
- Aldrac, Warlord of Carn Dum has always been a cool hero to bring to a fight - F6/S5/3A on offense with Mighty Blow and free Heroic Combats if he killed someone in the previous round (yeah, the record keeping on this is a tax, let me tell ya) makes him a very smashy hero, though D6/3 Wounds/1 Fate lets him down a bit on defense. Still, he's in a list where you should be able to manage your match-ups in a variety of ways, so he's definitely a good second-hitter hero choice, if you feel like you need one.
- The Shadow of Rhudaur would have more of a place in this list, I think, if he had Heroic Channelling. He's got some stat buffs over a Barrow-wight (+2 Fight, +1 Attack, +1 Intelligence, +2 Might, +2 Fate), but his spells are a lot less glamorous. Curse and Wither are useful tools, but with Curse cast on a 4+ (two dice to have a better than 70% reliability score) and Wither cast on a 5+ (three dice to get a 70% reliability score), you're not going to cast very much because those two Might points can't be used to cast two spells on 6s. He probably lacks Heroic Channelling because of his Power of Angmar rule (which prevents your opponent from spending Will Points to resist his spell when he gets a natural 6), but this incidentally means that he's probably only casting twice or MAYBE three times if you're willing to put Might into the cast. I could hear an argument for a Wither-spam list, but I don't think it's reliable enough or fast enough to actually do what you want it to do.
- The Dwimmerlaik and the Tainted are both interesting Ringwraith models - and always have been. The Dwimmerlaik still has 0 Might/16 Will/2 Fate, which means that he has Heroic Channelling, but he has no way to use it (at least not innately). The ability to burn Will points to make enemy Heroes within 6" of him pass an Intelligence Test or cancel a Heroic Action that was called (with resources spent lost) sounds better than it actually is - getting this guy within 6" of the enemy hero you want to is going to be pretty difficult without Fell Beasts and while the two-handed weapon he wields isn't as punishing this edition as it was last edition, it's still not great that these guys kept their 1 Attack base from the previous edition (when the generic Ringwraith profile got boosted to 2 Attacks). The Tainted is arguably more useful because his 6" radius rule prevents enemy and friendly Warriors from benefitting from Heroic Actions or Stand Fasts - both of which might be absolutely game-changing penalties at certain times in the game. Seeping Decay is a weird rule - dealing a wound to any non-Spirit mdoels that are in base contact with the Tainted at the start of the Fight Phase on a natural 6 can be really good, but as someone who has played some Last Alliance games (with and against) this edition, it's nice when it happens, but you don't find out whether or not it worked until after the Move Phase is over, so there's no counterplay based on whether guys died or not. Also, this rule will target any spearmen you brought into his fight, so you may kill someone . . . and it might accidentally be the guy who was trying to help you! Personally, I think these guys at 130pts base are cost-prohibitive in this list - there's just better stuff you can get!
- Angmar Orc Captains and Captains of Carn Dum have always been useful in Angmar lists: Heroic March is super useful when you have lots of D4-5 infantry and they are moving 6" a turn. Angmar Orcs will always form the muscle of this army and bringing at least one March Captain along to make sure they arrive in position when you need them to is a good thing. The Captain of Carn Dum has better Courage/Intelligence ratings and a bonus of +1 To Wound against heroes, which I think is mostly a trap. If you like the idea of a Captain of Carn Dum, you can get one - but I would always save 10pts and just get an Angmar Orc Captain.
- Fraecht and Nazthak have crazy interesting rules, but I think you can largely ignore them in list building. Fraecht's benefits will be felt less in this list because they only affect Carn Dum models and you're capped at 50% in this list. Getting 6" bubbles that provide a 5+ save, rerolling 1s To Wound in melee, and ignoring difficult terrain can be good in their own ways, but besides getting a 5+ save on your D5-6 Carn Dum models, I don't know that Fraecht is bringing much to the fight - and for 20pts less, you can get an Angmar Orc Captain with a better melee profile and Heroic March instead of Heroic Resolve. Nazthak has dreams of grandeur, stealing gear from defeated enemy models that give him - oh, I don't know - free Heroic Combats with Narsil, the ability to wound on a 3+ while two-handing with Anduril, or something more mundane like Elven-made from an Elven hand-and-a-half sword, +1 Defense from heavy armor or a shield (or +2 defense for both), or a banner (switching a 1-1 banner count to a 2-0 banner count). While there are certainly good pieces of war gear to get (we'll talk about that at the end), I think this is mostly a side-quest that might be rewarding for you as a player, but certainly isn't essential tohow your overall game plan will shape up. I will say that if you already have a March Captain, you might consider getting Nazthak before getting a second one - he's 5pts more expensive than an Angmar Orc Captain (5pts cheaper than a Captain of Carn Dum), has -1 Defense and +1 Fate, and Heroic Defense/Scavenge instead of Heroic March. I think he's a perfectly fine pick, though I think March will generally be more useful than whatever Nazthak steals.
- Shades got a major profile adjustment late in the last edition and they've remained largely unchanged. They're "fine" as combatants (mostly because their S1 wounds against enemy Courage instead of Defense) and with Dominant (3), +1 Courage to friendly Angmar Orcs within 12" of them, the ability to spend Will to reduce shooting effectiveness against friendly models within 6" of the Shade (and a greater penalty if the shooter is within 12"), the ability to suffer wounds to help Nazgul boost their casting attempts, and the ability to lend line of sight for a Nazgul casting attempt, these guys augment the army as a whole really, really well. They're pretty durable with D8/3 Wounds/1 Fate and it's probably worth it to bring one if you can find the points.
- Angmar Orc Shamans still don't have Fury - but at least they have Wither now? I mentioned above with the Shadow of Rhudaur that you can do a "Wither spam" where you have lots of models that can cast Wither on a single target to bring them to Strength 0 (where the target will then count as a casualty), but the primary problem with this is that the Shadow of Rhudaur has a 6" range on his Wither (and he's probably only casting it twice) and the Shamans cast it on a 4+ with 3 Will (plus 1 Might/Channelling, so they're only casting it twice as well). If you have the Shadow plus two Shamans, you're only casting the spell six times reliably - and of those six attempts, a few might fail to cast OR might be blocked by Will points. So if you only get 2-3 casts off . . . you won't kill your target if it's a man-sized model (and don't even begin to think how lucky you'd have to be to kill a monster that way). I feel like these guys have a niche list build that they can be in, but I don't think it's in this list.
- Barrow-wights have always been favorites for me - mostly because Centaur introduced our gaming group to them and golly did I hate fighting them. :) These guys are only Minor Heroes in this list, but bringing 6 guys probably costs you less than 40pts, which means you're paying less than 100pts for 7 models, one of which will definitely change the way your opponent plays (especially now that Paralyze is cast on a 3+). I'd bring two of these guys (with full warbands) in basically any list - they're great third and fourth heroes behind the obligatory Witch-King and a March Captain.
- Angmar Orc Warriors and Angmar Warg Riders haven't changed this edition - except for the equipment pairings that we've talked about with Orc Warriors before. For 6pts each with a shield, spear, Orc bow, or two-handed weapon (all good options - but most of them are probably carrying shields or spears) or 30pts for a banner (definitely want one or two of those), Angmar Orc Warriors are phenomenal value, though their weight of numbers is really what they're counting on (especially if you went light on the killing heroes). Angmar Warg Riders are very efficient fast troops for 12-13pts each - they can get to objectives quickly, hit harder than normal with S4 mounts, and can turn off enemy charge bonuses if you need them to not kill things. I'd get a pile of Orc Warriors and a few Warg Riders in any list.
- Spectres are still D6 and with S3/Blades of the Dead and a good spearmen to boost their Fight Value (and ideally a banner for a reroll), these guys can pack a punch against moderate-to-low Courage foes (Courage 6+ to 8+). Their Fell Light Is in Them rule has always been situationally useful, though having to move directly towards the spectre makes them less useful at moving banners out of the way (unless they're flanking). This probably means you use them to pull unfortunate grunts out of their shieldwall so you can jump on them in pieces (or yank a model off an objective), but it's still good. They've remained 15pts each, which makes them a little expensive, but they're in an army that can field 30 Orc Warriors for about 200pts (with a banner factored in), so you should be able to fit a few into your list at basically any points level.
- Warriors of Carn Dum are S4 and Courage/Intelligence 7+ instead of the standard S3/Courage 8+ that you get on Orcs . . . but for these boosts (and a special rule that incentivizes them to try to beat a hero in combat?) they cost 4pts more per model . . . if you like these guys, take them - but I would just stick to Orcs in this list, since you have a cap on your Carn Dum contingent anyway.
- Werewolves are your heavy-hitting units (if you left Aldrac at home) - they're great near the Witch-King, since they're fast enough to keep up with him and his Harbinger of Evil bubble will augment their Terror rule. They knock enemy infantry over like Cavalry do, so with base 2 Attacks, they're kind of like F5/S5 cavalry . . . which is pretty much what you expect for 25pts each. They are also D5 (though with 2 Wounds) . . . so make sure they get good screens while running up the field!
Even if this list only had The Witch-King, Shades, Barrow-Wights, Angmar Orc Captains, Angmar Orc Warriors, Angmar Warg Riders, and Werewolves, I think the list would have legs - anything else you want to add to the list of "good stuff" would just be gravy. Let's see what this list is able to do well - and what you need to think about shoring up.
While there are certainly lists that can cast more magic than this list, this list has a LOT of magic potential. Assuming you start with the Witch-King and an Orc Captain, you're probably looking to add 1-2 Barrow-wights and maybe a Shade at basically any points level at/above 700pts. While the Witch-King and the Barrow-wights are likely to be your only casters in such a list, the presence of the Shade gives the Witch-King effectively a 6" added range on his spells (in a very particular direction) - and while he might play it safe and cast Enchanted Blades on himself, he could cast a 12" range Black Dart, an 18" Your Staff is Broken/Transfix/Compel, or cast Enchanted Blades on a friend who's closer to the Shade than to himself. However you look at it, the Witch-King is able to spend more of his Will on casting than fighting (assuming that he can win at least a few fights), he has more flexibility in who he can cast on (if a Shade is present), and he might be able to cast harder spells with fewer resources (if you are willing to suffer a Wound on the Shade). Your Barrow-wights are terrifying and need no introduction - unless you've never had a critical piece get paralyzed before . . . in which case, check out this video.
There is something missing from the roster, however: this list doesn't really have durable units. The Witch-King is sitting on 1 Wound, which means that he's one fluke away from dying all the time. Your other heroes (besides Aldrac and the Shades) are all sitting on 2 Wounds (and most of them have 0-1 Fate to keep them alive). Almost all of your heroes (Aldrac included - but not the Ringwraiths, Shades, and Barrow-wights) are D6 or below, so a S4 heroes who's feeling like he can take them might run them over in a single go. This isn't great and means that any mistakes you make are likely to bite you quickly instead of glancing off more forgiving troops (like Dwarves or Minas Tirith troops). This has been Angmar's lot from the beginning - but you should know that it exists.
This list does, however, have the ability to horde really well. Cheap troops (usually 6pts/model) led by cheap heroes (45-50pts for your optimized Fortitude/Minor heroes) and a pretty cheap Legend hero in your "army list tax" means you should be able to get to/above 40 models at 700pts and maybe even hit 40 models at lower points levels. These lists won't all be Orcs (though if you can shut down enemy heroes/monsters with magic, getting 35 Orcs on the board might be enough to win you a game), but will include a few hammer pieces to help the Witch-King and lock-down pieces to help the army in general. If your opponent likes to spam out really cheap, really bad units (like Wild Men of Dunland), a large Angmar army can be a very daunting task to take down.
One other advantage that I'll talk about briefly is that this army is easy to start building if you buy the Mordor battlehost box (which Centaur has mentioned before can actually be a Barad-Dur or Mordor or Angmar battlehost box). Getting 24 Orc Warriors (six of which will be infantry dismounts), 6 Warg Riders, and the Witch-King on foot and mounted (beautiful sculpts of the Witch-King by the way - the Orcs are old sculpts) is a perfect beginning list for this army - and if you get an Orc Command blister, a Barrow-wight blister, and another box of Orc Warriors, you've definitely got something you can work with (those Werewolves are good too, but man are they pricey). NOTE: at the time of this writing, the battlehost boxes appear to be getting repackaged or something - only the Isengard one is available - so hopefully when you read this, they're all back in order (along with some new ones that were announced in August).
The Host of the Witch-King: Strategies for the Tabletop
We need to start off by talking about deploying your forces so that you can benefit from Terror. Not all of your heroes will be Spirit models, but most of them probably are - your Orc Captain, Orc Shaman, and Nazthak can benefit from Terror as well, so long as they're within 3" of a Spirit Hero. These Spirit Heroes will always include the Witch-King, but keeping up with a mounted version of the guy will be hard to do. Barrow-wights and Shades tend to want to stay behind the lines anyway (though both can fight decently) and the Shadow of Rhudaur is happy to sit in the back or sit in the battle line, depending on what you need from him. For any 6-man frontage, you want to have at least one Spirit model in the fourth rank (leaving space in the invisible "third rank" for your models to Make Way for each other) - this should give you a 3" range to the guys on the edges since you only have to clip their bases to give them Terror. For a Shade (or a mounted Witch-King/Dwimmerlaik/Tainted
You definitely want to get some Spirit Heroes, but which Spirit Heroes you get is a matter of some debate. You have to take the Witch-King (though you'd probably take him even if he wasn't required) and you probably want to get at least one Barrow-wight at as many points levels as you can (more on that when we get to the lists below). Shades are useful, but for slightly more than the cost of one Shade, you can get 2 Barrow-wights, which means you probably won't get a Shade until you have a well fleshed-out contingent of casters. I would personally stay away from the Shadow of Rhudaur in this list (and the Dwimmerlaik/Tainted) - I think paying about the same points as 2-3 Barrow-wights for a hero with a more nuanced casting suite (or just redundant suite with the Witch-King - which can be both good and bad) and still no ability to Channel (the Tainted can Channel once) is just a worse option than getting more Terror-causing Heroes who have a very, very dangerous casting suite.
Next, we need to talk about Spectres - these guys used to just be thrown behind your shieldwalls (or occasionally placed in the first rank) to drag banners, auric heroes, or even a random bloke from the front rank forward so you can pounce on him with big things (and maybe perform a slingshot attack to launch a bunch of your models forward and around the enemy lines). If they moved away from the enemy main battle line, they might target models sitting on objectives or working their way around the flanks. Now that the targeted model has to move directly towards the Spectre after failing an Intelligence test, you are probably leaning more into drawing someone forward to fight alone OR you're moving your Spectres away from the main fight to tackle those same models who were sitting on objectives or sneaking around your flanks. While your opponent might place his models just under 3" away from the objective in a direction opposite the approaching Spectres (so that they would be drug onto the objective instead away from it) or might not mind if his flankers are given the ability to close, this will certainly have more effect than moving a banner into base contact with the models he was helping anyway (though he might get a trap on 1-2 models?) or moving an auric model basically into the region they wanted to protect anyway (but again, they might trap their friends).
Next, we need to talk about the need for honesty bows/throwing spears. The archers in this list aren't great - 5+ shoot values on the Orcs aren't going to reliably kill anything, but there may be value in taking some of your front-line troops (or removing shieldwall files to get pairs of bowmen) as bowmen. This list will still need people sitting on objectives and while you could leave something tough and courageous (like a Spectre?) on an objective, it's much cheaper to get some bowmen instead. I own 9 Orc Warriors with bows and while the lists below won't field any, I usually include all 9 of them because I'd rather have the option for shooting in any given game, even if it's better overall for me to follow Centaur's advice and use my archers as swordsmen. Your Warg Riders can take throwing spears, which won't hit very often, but having the option of chucking a spear at someone in the Shoot Phase (or as you charge in the Move Phase) is definitely worth having if you can find the points for it.
Since we have to take the Witch-King, it's worth looking at his spells and consider which ones are worth casting. I will be assuming that you have partitioned your Will into four buckets as follows: 1 Will to stay alive, 3 Will for fights (that you lose), 4 Will to resist spells (if your opponent doesn't bring magic, these can be used for casting or for losing more fights), and 10 Will for casting (assumes five 2-dice casts). The "bread and butter" spells have always been Compel and Transfix for Ringwraiths, but with both of these spells cast on a 3+, the Witch-King can throw two dice at them and be very confident that they'll work (and reasonably confident that you'll get a 4+ or 5+ high - 75% or 56% likelihood . . . if probabilities are measured in percentages . . . which they aren't technically, but usually are colloquially). With a 12" range on these spells (measured from his base or from a Shade within 6" of himself), you should be able to reach out and affect a hero in one area while pouncing on warriors in another place. If you don't have a big target to hit (e.g. you're facing a spam list with no dangerous killer pieces), targeting himself with Enchanted Blades is a super good ability, as you'll get rerolls on your S4 mounted damage rolls - this tends to be about as good as or better than a lance (and this is cast on a 4+, so throwing 1-2 dice is reliable enough). Instill Fear can be useful in this list, as you can spam out the Terror keyword by keeping people near the Witch-King, but since it's cast on a 5+, you're either spending 3 Will OR you're channelling with 1 Will . . . both of which seem very expensive to me. Your Staff is Broken is probably the most likely spell to channel, as you're only going to cast it on someone with a big Will store, so you want the 5+ spell to go off on a 6 with as little resource spent as possible.
Finally, I'd stay away from Drain Courage - this is a really good spell when you have multiple casters working down someone's Courage in a single round, but I don't think you'll have that happening here. Since it's cast on a 4+, it's less effective than a Transfix/Compel, which is cast more easily and has a greater immediate (and often a greater long-term) effect. Black Dart is a nice "hail Mary" play, but with a 6-14" range (without or with the Shade, factoring in its base size), you have to be pretty close to whatever you're nuking - and with a 5+ cast, the target had better not be able to resist OR you have to channel. This list will be low on Might, so calling a Channel is a risky proposition.
Our last topic is a fun one: what are the best items of gear to steal with Nazthak. Centaur did an article on this last year - he has a good list - but I'm giving my take today. :) There happens to be a lot of really good common wargear items that you can find in many armies that Nazthak will find useful. The operative words in his Scavenge rules are highlighted below before we delve into the list:
Whenever Nazthak slays an enemy model in Combat (with the exception of Monster models), he may choose to scavenge a single piece of wargear carried by that model, with the exception of a Mount, another type of armour, living creatures, the One Ring, or items of wargear that are integral to the model (such as claws and teeth). This will happen before any effects that allow the slain model to pass on that piece of wargear. Add the scavenged item to Nazthak's list of wargear. Nazthak will benefit from the scavenged wargear as if he was the original model. Nazthak may choose to discard any piece of scavenged wargear at any time, though if he does so then he cannot reclaim it - it is lost.
Of note, Nazthak needs to do the killing in melee (so if he scavenges a bow and shoots someone from 12" away, he can't scavenge them from a distance), it applies to each model that he kills and not once per combat (so if he kills two warriors, he can scavenge on each of them), and it prohibits upgrading his armor to heavy armor (or some version of Dwarf armor, mithril, etc.), mounts (those would be useful), Sebastian/Grip/Fang/Wolf, the Ring (oh so useful), and animal attributes (poisoned fangs might be nice). So what does this leave us with? Well, here are my thoughts (I will preface my list with the following assumption: I've limited my choices to models that I think Nazthak can actually kill, without the help of Paralyze or Transfix but with the help of a spearman and a banner-reroll):
#10: Throwing Spears or any throwing weapons - Yes, I know that Nazthak has a 5+ Shoot Value, but throwing spears give you an off-chance of evening out a lopsided fight, clipping a wound off of a hero that you think you can tackle, clear out a spearman (or fight a spearman instead of the guy he was behind) - and I think that's a useful tool in Nazthak's tool kit.
#9: Longbow, Elf Bow, Esgaroth Bow, or basically any bow/crossbow weapon - I don't know if these should go above Throwing Spears or not, but taking a shooting weapon from someone who is guarding a rear objective allows Nazthak to contribute to the fight while sitting on an objective. Angmar Orcs aren't great at sticking around, but Nazthak is alright at it - and while a 5+ Shoot Value isn't great, it's decent if you're standing and shooting.
#8: Two-Handed Weapon - This is probably a hipster-pick, but there are more two-handed weapons out there nowadays and in order for Nazthak to actually trigger the Scavenge rule, he has to kill things. With his hand weapon, he's fine against grunts - but he might blunt off of a fight that he wins because S4 just isn't a reliable way to kill things. Fighting two-handed isn't as punishing as it used to be and it does up your damage output.
#7: Banner - It's not hard to fit two banners into your army, but stealing a banner from an enemy model can really shift that banner count. My one concern about doing this is that after you pick up the banner, you probably don't want to drop it - and if you don't drop it, it will be harder for Nazthak to win fights because he'll have a -1 penalty to his dueling rolls. So . . . sure, scavenge a banner . . . but do so when you're pretty happy with where you're at.
#6: Pitchfork or Any Supporting Weapon - Usually you don't want to have a multiple-attack model perform a supporting attack (where they'll only contribute 1 Attack to the fight), but having Nazthak support a more disposable model does allow him to stay alive longer - and while he can't Scavenge from a model that he shoots, he can Scavenge from a model that he kills "in Combat" - and that would include with supporting attacks. If he finds himself fighting Farmer Tolman Cotton, Bifur the Dwarf, an Easterling with Halberd, or an Axeman of Lossarnach, you might get a supporting model that gives you something extra (the ability to fight two-handed in melee), which is kind of like getting a two-handed-weapon-plus.
#5: Flaming Brand - Do you know what kind of models Nazthak doens't mind fighting? Wild Men of Dunland or Hill Tribesmen. Do you know what kind of gear is cool to take from them? That's right - the Flaming Brands that would make Nazthak Dominant (2) and would give him Terror (Cavalry). Both of these are useful bonuses and it doesn't replace your hand weapon, so it's effectively "free" and doesn't require you to drop it if you want to get something cool.
#4: Shield (maybe a Tower Shield?) - I mean, if you find that you're facing a lot of elite troops, there's value in shifting Nazthak from an "axe" hero (who kills things) to a "rock" hero (who blunts things). For that . . . you want a shield (especially because you can't get heavy armor). I will say that if you can kill the front-half of a Vault Warden Team, you can take the Iron Shield from it (which would give Nazthak +3 Defense instead of +1), but you will be suffering a -1 dueling penalty because you can't get a Foe Spear to support you (no ordinary shield will do, apparently). This could be a perfectly good choice, but understand that winning future fights will be much more difficult.
#3: Halbarad's Banner of Arwen Evenstar - Can Nazthak beat Halbarad? Maybe - his Fight Value is lower, but he'll be rolling more dice if he's got a spear support - and you only have to win once or twice in order to really put the pressure on Halbarad. If you manage to get a 6" banner with Fearless for any friendly models . . . yeah, I mean any Angmar list is going to love that.
#2: War Horn - This might not seem like a better choice than Halbarad's banner, but consider that war horns can appear on basic troops instead of a hero (though most of the war horns larking about these days show up on Durin, Boromir, or Helm Hammerhand), it gives Nazthak Dominant (2), it boosts your Courage in a way that stacks with bonuses from a Shade, and Nazthak doesn't have to lose anything in order to keep it.
#1: Elven Hand-and-a-Half Weapon (maybe Herugrim?) - Yeah, this is a two-handed-weapon-plus like the pitchfork we looked at earlier, but this time, it can be used one-handed or two-handed and in either case, it lends its bearer the Elven-made keyword to win drawn combats more often. Nazthak's Fight Value isn't great - often times Elves are topping enemy Fight Values by default, so their bonus from the Elven-made keyword is largely academic unless a hero is in the fight, but Nazthak will often be pulling drawn Combats. Getting one of these weapons helps him to win future fights - so get one if you can! I don't know that Nazthak can take on Theoden, but getting Herugrim would give you a bonus when you have a drawn combat, but can't be wielded two-handed.
Okay, disagree in the comments section below if you want to - for now, let's wrap this post up with some lists!
Sample Lists
At 500pts, we can't really do the magical dominance thing without giving up a LOT of other stuff, so I've gone for just the Witch-King and and an Orc Captain with some helping hands from two Werewolves and 4 Spectres (we could have bumped up the model count slightly by taking 2 Spectres - but we'd be maxing out our warbands if we did that, so we can't get higher than 32 models). If you want to get a Barrow-wight and an Orc instead of the Spectres (or 2 Spectres and one of the banners), I wouldn't blame you:
At 650pts, we can get up to 41 models with the Witch-King, a Captain, and two Barrow-wights leading a large host of Orcs (with two banners) and a few Spectres and Werewolves to help them out:
At 750pts, you can get my preferred quint-fecta of the Witch-King, a March Captain, two Barrow-wights, and a Shade with a total of 46 models including a very eclectic array of helpers and a LOT of Orcs:
Conclusion
And that's the Host of the Witch-King! It's a fun list with lots of Orcs and lots of other spooky bits. Next time, we'll be looking at another list that requires you to take the Witch-King and has . . . different spooky bits: Minas Morgul. This list has always been good (though its win rating on TTA is affected by new players starting with it, so don't let a nearly-breaking-even score fool you) and it turns all those Orcs we buy into real power-houses against a lot of the scariest lists in the game. Find out how your list building changes when you bring a different "Orc power" list next time - and until then, happy hobbying!
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