The New Age Is Begun: the Minas Morgul Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're continuing our "Ringwraith Month" by covering one of the more popular Mordor lists (in light of a popular Angmar list last week): Minas Morgul. This is "the other conventional army where you have to take the Witch-King" (we're tackling the third and last Witch-King-required list next week) and it's quite the popular choice for new and veteran players alike. At the time of this writing, there are 1333 games played with this list since the start of the new edition (according to TTA) and it has a 47% win-rate . . . but as I mentioned in my sign-off last week, I think this has to do with a mixed bag of experienced and inexperienced players using it. 

The podium results stats in TTA tell a very interesting tale: since the start of the current edition, there have been 25 podium finishes at 106 events, giving it a 22.6% podium finish rate with Gold finishes at the 2026 Australian Masters, Silver and Bronze finishes at the 2026 Hamburger Meisterschaft tournament (53 players), and a Bronze finish at the 2026 The Ring Goes South tournament (48 players). That's . . . a good list by anyone's standard. By comparison, there are 18 army lists with a better event podium percentage (one of which is a "free build", so that one doesn't really count?) and only five lists with a greater number of podium finishes (Men of the West, Depths of Moria, Lurtz's Scouts, Kingdom of Khazad-Dum, and the Last Alliance - yes, it pipped out the Army of the White Hand by 1 podium slot). In both categories, it's the highest-rated pure Mordor list (Fell Beings and Assault on Lothlorien supersede it in the event percentage stat, but those have non-Mordor things that grab your attention). Let's see what's so hot about this list!

Minas Morgul: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list has the same top-tier version of the Witch-King, but like the Host of the Witch-King that we looked at last time, he isn't forced into taking a particular mount. Unlike last time, however, he has access to both Fell Beast options and a normal Horse, along with a two-handed weapon, a Morgul Blade, and the Crown of Morgul. I don't know that you need more than just the mount (20-50pts), but it's nice to have options. Supporting him are mid-tier Ringwraiths, Kardush the Firecaller, and Mordor Orc Shamans as casters, Mordor Orc Drummers as a support piece, and Mordor Orc Captains, Morannon Orc Captains, and Mordor Orc Taskmasters as your March heroes. The Ringwraiths have to be your hitting pieces (depending on your perspective on the March Captains, I guess), but it's a pretty well-rounded group of profiles (despite its short length).

On the Warrior front, we have a roster that's about the same length: Mordor Orc Warriors and Morannon Orc Warriors make up your "core" units, with options for Morgul Stalkers, Orc Trackers, Spectres, and Mordor Trolls as your specialist picks. There's a lot of power in these units - Morgul Stalkers have 2 Attacks, Orc Trackers are decent shooters, Mordor Trolls take a lot of resources to bring down (and with F7/S7, they're pretty dangerous if they have a banner nearby and some Orcs to screen for them), Morannon Orcs are S4/D6 (and sometimes F4), and Spectres have Blades of the Dead . . . but as we'll see shortly, they're not the only dangerous warriors in this army . . .

Army List Bonuses

The army list bonuses are pretty different from those in the Host of the Witch-King that we looked at last time - but they make a fight between a Host of the Witch-King fight and Minas Morgul very one-sided. While the Host of the Witch-King grants Orcs near Spirit Heroes the Terror special rule, Minas Morgul gives friendly Orcs near Spirit models (that's Heroes and Warriors) an automatic pass when Charging Terror models - that's really good! The other glamor rule is that your Mordor Orc Captains and your Mordor Orc Warriors (but not your Morannon Orc Captains/Warriors, Orc Taskmasters, Orc Shamans, or Orc Drummers) get the Blades of the Dead special rule - this makes them an absolutely punishing army to fight if you have average Courage! Finally, if your opponent brings a Ringbearer to the fight (sans Sauron), there will be a -1 penalty to their Sauron's Will special rule, which means that you'll be controlling the Ringbearer half of the time while they wear the Ring . . . yeah, that Ring isn't going to be coming on very much!

These three rules are simple but they make the list VERY aggressive, since they encourage you to get your Orcs into the enemy quickly and hopefully chop through armies that paid for Defense and Terror instead of better Courage. All in all, it shouldn't be surprising that this is a very popular list.

Profile Adjustments

Most of the profiles we're looking at today were covered in our Mordor/Barad-Dur month, but there's a few new guys to look at:

• The Witch-King of Angmar is in his top-level form and has the choice of taking either version of a Fell Beast or a normal horse, which means you can kit him out as a cavalry hero or as a flying monster hero (for 170-200pts, both are good options). I don't know that you need any of the rest of his gear, but the two-handed weapon is a lot less punishing now that you keep natural 6s on your dueling roll and he has 4 Attacks on the charge. The Morgul Blade is always a good choice. The main difference between him in this list and him in the Host of the Witch-King list is that he will always burn a Will point when he fights, so he'll be casting less or fighting less . . . and that's a bit of a shame.
• This list has mid-tier Ringwraiths with access to standard Fell Beasts and horses in this list - and I think taking one of these guys is probably a good idea! These guys aren't as flashy as the Witch-King, but they're plenty functional, they give you monster rules or cavalry rules on the same profile as a spellcaster, they're very maneuverable when mounted, they generate auto-passing Courage tests to charge Terror models, and they can lock down enemy spellcasters with their own magic or work in tandem with the Witch-King to shut down powerful heroes (which will make up for the Witch-King's reduced casting ability in this list). All in all, I think taking one of these guys is a great option, if you can afford him!
• Kardush the Firecaller is an interesting support piece for Mordor lists - on the one hand, he can use Flameburst at close range (6") to deal damage to an enemy model (S6 hit - why isn't this Set Ablaze?) in support of the neutralizing spells that Ringwraiths have. He can still consume a friendly Orc model within 6" to regain D3 Will Points, so his 3 Will doesn't matter quite as much (especially if he's surrounded by "disposable" Orc Warriors). He can also sacrifice himself to restore D6 Will Points to a Ringwraith within 6", which seems like a really dangerous proposition, but might be necessary if the Witch-King is running low on Will.
• Mordor Orc Captains are probably at their apex in this list - blissfully cheap at 45pts, S4 with Blades of the Dead, access to Heroic Move/March (two excellent heroics), and they lead 12 guys. Honestly, if you're not taking casters, you're probably looking at these guys as your heroes. For completeness, we'll give the most optimistic view of all the other heroes, but seriously, don't consider them too hard.
• For Fortitude heroes, we have Morannon Orc Captains as our generic choice - these guys are good for their cost and have March but aren't very good in this list. I think the only time you'd take one of these guys is with a shield, since they are better tanks into enemy heroes than Mordor Orc Captains (D7 with 4 dueling dice when they defend by shielding and F5 against Men). S5 is good, but not as good as the S4 wounding against Courage that you get from Mordor Orc Captains.
• 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 improved offense of Mordor Orc Captains really makes you scratch your head and wonder if it would be better to just get "another Captain" if you're taking one of these guys. You also don't need this guy at all if your plan for Marching is to take a War Drum on a Mordor Troll, as those are "free" anyway.
• You can get Shamans in this list, which is great for making sure your Courage 8+ Mordor Orcs (and their Courage 7+ Orc hero handlers) stay in the fight and charge Terror walls - but you can also take Ringwraiths/Spectres to make sure you auto-pass Courage tests to charge Terror walls (and likely will stay in the fight, if you can keep them from being charged).
• Orc Drummers are also in this list - and while free Heroic Marches that affect your Orcs is good, I'd personally jump for a Drummer Troll if you have the points. Taking one of these guys also gives you a cheap hero that you can choose to protect in Fog of War (or that your opponent could choose to kill in Fog of War or Assassination).
• For Warriors, your Mordor heroes have access to only two basic melee profiles: Morannon Orcs and Mordor 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/D6 units in the game. However, their killing power is a bit overshadowed by . . .
• Mordor Orcs in this list are insane value - not only are they only 6pts/model (30pts with a banner), but they are S3 and wound against Courage with Blades of the Dead. Against Courage 6+ or 7+ models, they'll wound on 4s, which not only covers a wide breadth of potential opponents, but is also a pip better than the wounding difficulty of Morannon Orcs. If you hit Courage 8+ foes (like other Mordor Orcs, most Goblins, and occasionally a hero), you'll wound them on 3s and if you face more courageous grunts who are Courage 5+ or 4+ (Elves and most "good" heroes), you wound them on 5s which is INSANE for a 6pt unit! Stack a two-handed weapon in a few fights and this gets even better!
• Orc Trackers are good archers - for 6pts/model, they get -1 Defense and +1 Shoot Value over Orc Warriors with Orc bows. If you're allowed to bring them, they're better value than Orcs - but if you believe that archers are swordsmen, these guys will be wounding normally, while the Orc Warriors with Orc bows will wound against Courage . . . there may be an argument for the normal guys instead?
• Morgul Stalkers have always been a niche unit in Mordor lists - they have S4 and 2 Attacks each with Courage 7+, which makes them more courageous, more expensive versions of Hunter Orcs. Improved Courage means less if they're near a Ringwraith or Spectre, but Stalk Unseen can be a useful way to escape getting shot . . . assuming your board helps you out. Still, in a list like this, having S4 just matters less - and the cost of one Morgul Stalker is nearly the same as buying two Orc Warriors with shield/spear/two-handed weapon/Orc bow, which feels like the better deal.
• 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 consider fielding one in this list (it allows you to have two March bubbles if you start split up OR allows your Orc Captains to save their Might for Heroic Moves/winning fights so they can use their Blades of the Dead rule). Whether you field any Trolls other than a Drummer Troll is very much determined, I think, by whether you have a supporting Ringwraith or not - personally, I'd just stick to having one of them.
• 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. Also, they provide the auto-pass Courage tests for charging Terror, so I'd try to fit in a single Spectre into any all-Orc warband so you don't have to worry about Terror foes.

There are six profiles (plus notionally Kardush) that I like in this list - but golly does leaning into those profiles give you a lot to work with!

Minas Morgul: Strengths and Weaknesses

I think off the bat, it's pretty clear that this is a cheap horde list that hits very hard. Most horde lists have low-to-average Courage ratings, low-to-average Strength, and low-to-average Defense. This list has bad Courage, but it also has a way to ignore Terror tests (one of the chief banes of horde lists). This list also has average Strength, but its models will predominantly wound against Courage ratings. This list does have low-to-average Defense, but that's fine. Against other hordes, this list has a huge advantage because their Fight Value is probably about the same, their Strength is functionally better, their Defense is probably about the same, and their Courage is about the same or better. All in all, that's a good package.

One drawback of this list, however, is its very limited access to cavalry. The Ringwraiths can take mounts, but no one else can - and that means that your army will be going at whatever speed you can get on your infantry. While you can probably get Heroic March on a Captain at any points level, I don't know that you want to spend your limited Might points on multiple Heroic Marches. You have options for adding speed to your lists, but this has to be thought through at the list building stage, not when you get to the table.

On that note, there's easy access to Heroic March through Orc Drummers, Drummer Trolls, or March Captains, which means that while you don't have any Cavalry Warrior options, you do have access to 9" movement in the list. Orc Taskmasters give you the ability to get Heroic Moves/Marches for free, but I think in general it's better to just take Mordor Orc Captains and some kind of War Drum (either on an Orc Drummer or a Drummer Troll). While I know spamming Captains is a thing - and Orc Drummers look very appealing - I think the real winner is the Drummer Troll. The profile itself went down in price (both for the drum and the Troll itself) and got an extra Wound this edition. With D7 and 4 Wounds, this is a difficult piece for most units to kill unless he's trapped (I did that at an event earlier this year) - and with F7/S7/3A, this is the kind of piece that you don't want to lose to with most heroes. I can understand the desire to bump up your numbers, but as we'll see later, you have to be playing at a pretty high points level to see a dramatic increase in models.

One other concern that you'll need to factor in is the general squishiness of your heroes. D8 on your Ringwraiths looks pretty good, but with 1 Wound each and 1-3 Fate, it only takes one unlucky roll and your expensive caster is gone. Your Captains are D6 (which is fine), but with 2 Wound/1 Fate, they're also pretty squishy. There's a real danger that if your opponent can get a few quick wins in the shooting/magic departments that your army might be left with "just Orcs" . . . and that's generally going to make your fight an uphill battle.

Finally, this list can be easy to acquire. It seems from the recent battlehost box announcement that the Mordor Battlehost box that I mentioned last time might be out of production. If you can find it (or better yet, if you can find two of them), you will have 48 Orcs and two Ringwraith models (with options for being on foot or mounted), which means you just need to add an Orc Command blister and a Spectres blister and you're good to go. If you can't find the Mordor Battlehost box, you can get two boxes of Orcs, the Witch-King, some Spectres, and two Orc Command blisters for roughly the same cost (buying Ringwraiths is . . . kind of expensive, since you have to buy the mounted models three at a time and the infantry models nine at a time . . . you might get two Witch-King blisters, like you would have with the Battlehost box). Also consider getting a Troll.

Minas Morgul: Strategies for the Tabletop

We need to start with what I'm calling the "Captain warband", which is a basic building block of this army. The warband contains the following models:

• Mordor Orc Captain (45pts)
• 4 Mordor Orc Warriors with shields (24pts)
• 5 Mordor Orc Warriors with spears (30pts)
• 1 Spectre (15pts)

One of the Orcs with shields is optional - you can choose to either embed your Spectre in your battle line or have him free to float, but however you do it, you want the Spectre to be within 3" of all your Orc models so they can auto-pass Terror tests. The Orc Captain is embedded in the front rank, which means he'll probably be a bit stove-piped in his movement, but he mostly needs to call Moves and his movement should be pretty direct. This warband comes in with 10-11 models for 108-114pts (depending on whether you get 3 shield Orcs or 4) and that's a pretty good points ratio for anyone trying to horde out their army. Your Witch-King warband can be designed similarly - it can have more guys (10-14 shieldwall models, banner, optional Spectre, potentially other stuff), but it probably operates similarly: have a wall of Orcs that can ignore Terror and get into the enemy as quickly as possible. You can see this strategy employed in the 2025 German Masters tournament winner's list (Pascal Wibbe) - he has one of these warbands in his list and two other warbands that add 2 Orcs (one shield, one spear) to the mix.

Speaking of Spectres, let's talk a bit about the function of Spectres in this list. Like we discussed last time, these guys have been traditionally used behind the shieldwall (or occasionally placed in the first rank) to drag banners/auric heroes out of position or to pull 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). While Spectres in Angmar lists can drift away from the main battle line to target models sitting on objectives, I don't think you want to do that in this list. In the current iteration of the Fell Light rule, the targeted model has to move directly towards the Spectre after failing an Intelligence test, which means that yanking banners/auric heroes around is much harder than it was before. Pulling a model out of the battle line so you can swarm him with Blades of the Dead is still a very viable and powerful strategy, and if you can use Might on your Orc Captains to Heroic Combat your Nazgul into other fights, they'll be very thankful. Dragging a model off of an objective is still a useful skill, though the counter-play is easier now.

Let's talk about Ringwraiths now - there isn't that much to talk about with regard to the Orcs in the list (they hit things, right?). Let's begin by talking about mounts and extra gear. When it comes to the Witch-King, I'm very solidly of the opinion that paying 20pts for a horse is a great idea, paying 50pts for a Fell Beast is a good idea if you can find the points, and paying 20pts to upgrade that Fell Beast to an Armored Fell Beast is not worth going from D6 to D7. If the Armored Fell Beast gave you D8 or S7/D7, I'd say there's at least a discussion to be had, but as it is, paying 20pts for adding a pip of Defense that may not matter is just not worth it. Either the horse or the normal Fell Beast is a good choice for the Witch-King - he has enough Will that he should be able to fight enough to make the boosted offensive profile worthwhile. Ringwraiths, on the other hand, should stick to horses - they don't have enough Will (or Might, for that matter) to make the Fell Beast worth it. If they were in their more powerful form (+30pts), they'd be more worth it - 2 Might/14 Will is enough to do work, but 1 Might/10 Will is solidly in horse camp for me. I think the horse makes them more devastating as combatants (3A on the charge is better than 2A on foot any day) and gives them the angles/reach they need to be effective supporting casters. It also gives you some speed if you need it.

As for the Witch-King's other gear, I'd only consider taking the two-handed weapon. Two-handed weapons aren't as punishing this edition as they were last edition and with 3A base (4A on the charge), this is a great way to get a little extra reliability on the Wounding roll when you do commit to a fight. Unlike the Host of the Witch-King list, you have to pay Will every time you fight - that means each fight that you commit to (or are forced to fight, if you were charged) is a fight that you want to not just win, but convert into wounds. For 5pts, I think this is a worthwhile add (especially if you have a Fell Beast, but also for just riding on a horse). The Morgul Blade is a defensible choice, but since you can't benefit from the S6 of a Fell Beast, you probably need to have Enchant Blades active on you when you use a Morgul Blade (so your S4 hits get a reroll). I wouldn't take the Crown of Morgul this edition - I think there are way too many ways to get auto-passing Terror checks to make augmenting the Terror rule for 25pts (and a once-per-game ability to give a foe the Set Ablaze rule) is just not worth it.

Finally, let's talk about casting priorities for the Witch-King and Ringwraiths. In the previous post, I did a deep-dive on all of the Witch-King's potential spells. In this list, because your Will is a bit more constrained, I think there are really only two spells that you're looking to cast with your Ringwraiths and three spells that you want to cast with the Witch-King. This edition, there are no spells that are cast on a 2+ and many spells went up in casting value. The only spells that these units have on a 3+ are Compel and Transfix - both of which are fabulous, allowing you to keep a big hero/monster from wounding anyone or moving or allowing you to drag someone important out of position (always useful). If you use my policy of getting a 70% chance of success or higher for spells that target enemy units (like Compel and Transfix) or a 50% chance of success or higher for spells that target friendly units (more on that shortly), this means you want to throw 2 Will each time to reliably cast the spell and force a resist test.

This sounds good and all, but to get a proper understanding of how often you'll be able to do this, we need to also talk about Will allocation for your Ringwraiths. Back in 2019, when the previous edition was young, I wrote an article that talked about "multi-purpose Will casters", who have to use their Will points for more than just casting/resisting magical powers (and the occasional Courage test). I laid out the idea that you should allocate Will to specific "bins" (like you might do for your personal finances) and that sets an expectation for how often you should expect to cast, how much you can fight, and how much flex you have if your opponent brings offensive magic of his own. For our purposes today, I'd like to submit the following allocations of Will for the Witch-King and your Ringwraiths (if you take any):

• The Witch-King (3 Might, 18 Will): 1 Will to stay alive, 5 Will to fight, 8 Will to cast spells, 4 Will to resist spells
• Ringwraith (1 Might, 10 Will): 1 Will to stay alive, 3 Will to fight, 4 Will to cast spells, 2 Will to resist spells

A few notes about these guidelines: first and foremost, having 10 Will really limits what you can do compared to 18 Will. You should be able to have the Witch-King fight for most of the game and cast spells on most of the turns that he's fighting (he'll probably have a turn of set-up before the fighting starts). If your opponent brings magic, you should be able to resist a spell or two and still get in some fighting. By contrast, a Ringwraith can only fight for a few turns and can't cast for all of those turns. Yes, you could up your risk and do one-die casts of Transfix or Compel on a 3+ (67% likelihood - if probabilities were measured in percentages . . . which they aren't) and if you're okay with failing one of the four casts instead of reliably casting twice, then do that. Still, four casts in a game (three of which probably take effect) isn't going to last for very long, so set that expectation for yourself.

Second, I would avoid channelling any spells with Ringwraiths and I would only channel one spell with the Witch-King. With only one Might point on your Ringwraiths, the choice to channel means that you won't call a Heroic Move or a Heroic Combat during the game - and I think both of those are far better than getting a natural-6 to cast any of the spells you have. While a channelled Transfix could be really useful in a pinch, I just can't see it being worth it over fighting multiple times or getting the charge on a turn that you want it. The Witch-King is your only 3 Might hero, so I don't think there's ever going to be a time when you feel like his Might is more than you need. The one exception I would make is if you're facing a foe with a Staff of Power - a channelled Your Staff is Broken is a great way to force out more resources from an enemy caster who can keep the pressure up all game at the low cost of 1 Might and 1 Will from you.

Third, be willing to reallocate your Will points mid-game. If you're facing a list that has no offensive magic in it, the "resist bin" isn't needed - but I wouldn't reallocate at the start of the game. It's hard to tell from the outset whether casting or fighting is going to be more important - and if you commit at the beginning to a specific bin, you might lose some opportunities. Staying flexible and filling bins with extra resources once you have a feel for how the game is going is a far better plan and allows you to make a more informed decision. On the flip side, if your opponent brings the likes of Saruman or Gandalf, you not only need your "resist bin", but you might need to fill it more and fight/cast less - don't immediately refill your bin (or try to hide from these casters), but wait to see how things go and see how you can counter-play against their key pieces.

Sample Lists

At 500pts, you have nowhere near the points you want to get all the units you want - so I've opted for a horse-mounted Witch-King with two-handed weapon, a "Captain warband", and a Drummer Troll. Together, this gives us 25 models - I could have pushed to nearly 30 models by not taking the Troll, but with only 5 warrior slots available in the Witch-King's warband and 2 slots available in the Captain's warband, dropping a 115pt model means you're looking at multiple banners, an Orc Drummer, and/or multiple Spectres just to fill in the points without adding a third warband:

At 650pts, you can get into the high-30s with a Fell Beast-mounted Witch-King, a Drummer Troll, and two "Captain warbands", which gives you good speed, a lot of bodies, and several threats to enemy heroes (but no supporting Ringwraith, which makes me sad - you could upgrade a Captain to a Ringwraith by not taking the Drummer Troll, but I want him):

At 750pts, you have the points for the Drummer Troll, a supporting Ringwraith, a second banner, and quite a few models (I could have dropped the second banner and gotten to 44 models, but I think two banners is worth it in a list like this that's trying to get F3 models to win fights). A variant of this list can be seen in the sixth-place list piloted by Tim Bombadil Eberhardt from Germany - that list got to 70 models at 768pts by swapping the Troll, the Ringwraith's horse, and a banner for a second Captain and more Orcs:

I will note that I didn't run Kardush in any of the lists today - he could fit into the 650pt list pretty easily (and perhaps replace the Captain in the 750pt list), but I feel like the Ringwraith is a more interesting piece to include. I leave it to you whether or not you want to take him over a Ringwraith, but as for me, I like the mounted hitting hero over a 6" Flameburst option.

Conclusion

This is one of several really strong Mordor lists and I'm glad to see it doing well in events this year. I feel like if you're just getting into the game, both this list and the Host of the Witch-King are excellent choices if you have the Mordor Battlehost box and want to get models on the board quickly (though you can't use your Warg Riders in this list). Next time, we're leaving the warriors at home, and we're tackling the third army list where you have to take the Witch-King: the Black Riders. I really enjoyed this list last edition - all those customizable Ringwraiths, debates on the Facebook groups (and here on this blog) about your emphasis on Will vs. Fate points, and so much magical casting! This edition . . . the list feels the same but functionally works quite differently. Find out how to use this list next time - and until then, happy hobbying!