The New Age Is Begun: the Wraiths on Wings Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're approaching Halloween and we're wrapping up "spooky month" with the Wraiths on Wings list. For you bat enthusiasts, this list is . . . well, probably not as good as any of the lists with Bat Swarms in them (and I don't think it's better than the Shadows of Angmar list that has Gulavhar in it - more on that list next year). :) Still, it's one of three lists that can run "the flying circus" (alongside the Army of the Great Eye and technically the Legions of Mordor - I don't know why you would do that, though) and it's the only one that gives special boosts to your Fell Beasts. It's also really hard to use (both on the table and in the list building phase). Let's try to take a positive view of this, though, and see what this list has to offer!

Wraiths on Wings: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Our profile selection is just as bad as last time: we have the Witch-King and Ringwraiths. That's it. In a way, it's better because our Ringwraith profile is the top-tier variant, so everyone has 2M/14W/2F - a good profile, I think. The bad news is that we have to take Fell Beasts on everyone (you can - but shouldn't - upgrade those to Armored Fell Beasts if you want to), which means we're super expensive and you can get nearly two Black Rider Ringwraiths for the cost of one Wraiths on Wings Ringwraith. I don't know that this is good or bad, but it's a thing . . . and it's an absolute and unequivocal nightmare for list building.

Army List Bonuses

This list really should have more rules (I feel like a broken record after last week, but hey, I think I'm being fair here?), but the two it has are good and universally useful. The first rule (Full Force Charge) allows the first friendly Monster model that charges to deal a S5 impact hit to each model he charges (hits are dealt to both the mount and rider where that's a thing). If everyone he charged is killed, then he can keep moving per normal, but won't deal any more impact hits that round. This requires thinking a bit about who you want to deal impact hits to and who you want to do the impact hits with, but you won't have many models - it's fine.

The second rule (Strafing Attack) allows a friendly Monster model who ends its move unengaged to pick an unengaged model that they passed over (trace the path you moved along with the width of the path being the width of the Fell Beast base) and deal a S5 hit to that unit (hits are dealt to both the mount and the rider again). If the unit survives, it's knocked Prone. This is a great way of dealing with a mounted enemy hero as there's no counterplay to being knocked over (unless you have Brego), no roll to be made to see if you're knocked Prone (like Gundabad Bats have), and no requirement that you have to deal a wound first. The one drawback of this rule, however, is that you can't end in combat - which can be fine, more on that later.

This list doesn't need the Dominant (2) boost we talked about last time, since all Fell Beasts have Dominant (3) - unless you get dismounted, you'll be counting for a lot of guys. Unfortunately, you also cost 170pts base with all of your units . . . so counting as 3 models still isn't going to help much. I feel like there should be some kind of boost for this army in playing objective games, but I don't know what it should be (besides not counting people who are close to you or something). Similarly, this list doesn't need Horse Lord in it because . . . well, your mounts are quite durable and multi-wound. I think it would help, sure, but I don't think it's strictly needed.

What would be REALLY nice in this list is the Will of Sauron rule that the Black Riders have (which prevents Ringwraiths from having to spend Will points when they fight) or a more moderated rule like what we saw in the Host of the Witch-King (you only have to spend Will points when you lose a combat). It's probably good for the Black Riders list that this list doesn't have that rule (and instead the normal Ringwraiths have +4 Will points), but it really does limit our options and means we need to get a LOT out of each round of combat. 

Profile Adjustments

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 that's not great (not terrible, but not great). His options are wider than last time - he has access to a Morgul Blade, the Crown of Morgul, and can upgrade his normal Fell Beast to an Armored Fell Beast (which I wouldn't do unless you have literally bought everything else you possibly can). This Witch-King (and the Ringwraiths to come) will have to spend Will points (see what I did there?) whenever they fight, but they do have the option to not charge anyone and instead do "fly-by" damage to someone (which is good). Impact hits from this guy after you've Transfixed someone on the way in is particularly nice on the Witch-King too. 
• This list has the top-tier Ringwraith profile and that's a huge relief - these guys aren't cheap on Fell Beasts, but they are good. They cost the same as the Witch-King and are objectively worse, since they have the same heroic stats, F5 instead of F6, fewer spells, fewer heroic actions, and fewer special rules (and fewer gear options, but I don't think that's a big loss). While this list doesn't require you to run the Witch-King, you functionally will because why not?

That's not a lot to work with, and yet, I can't help but feel like we might have more to work with than we had with the Black Riders because our mounts give us new options and are much harder to kill (our normal Ringwraiths are slightly harder to kill too). Let's see how our strengths and weaknesses have changed . . .

Wraiths on Wings: Strengths and Weaknesses

This list's greatest strength is its flexibility - not only because it has maneuverable units, but because those maneuverable units are both monsters and spell-casters. The success of The Eagles army list in MESBG (especially before we got the Matched Play Guide) has been due in no small part to the fact that the army could attack where it wanted to, hit with profiles higher than most people were bringing, and use special monster brutal power attacks (and a very broken special rule that has been toned down some) to mess with the way the game is supposed to be played. This list doesn't do these things as well as the Eagles do (the profiles are weaker, the models can be removed simply by charging them enough times, and they can't prevent you from charging them for a turn), but it does bring some interesting other options to the table (like casting Compel/Transfix to get at the targets you want with less fear in the ensuing fight, damaging a model that you fly over as you make your way to a critical objective, or dealing impact hits to the horse under an important hero - maybe one that you've Transfixed already). This list has a flexible play style and that does help you out.

That said, this is probably one of the few lists in the game that will have fewer than four models at basically every points level. My 700pt list below (spoiler alert) has four Ringwraiths in it - and you can't do better than that. To get to 5 wraiths, you have to play at 850pts or higher - and even at 1000pts, you still only get 5 of them . . . that's a problem in anyone's book, I think. Yes, each of these models has Dominant, so you won't count as 5 models . . . but you also won't count as 50-70 models, which you very well may be fighting at 1000pts. Like the Black Riders we looked at last time, this list is going to not just be outnumbered, but heavily outnumbered in any fight it goes to (unless you're fighting lists like the Three Trolls or Smaug . . . then you might have a numerical advantage for a while).

I will also caution you that this army list is incredibly susceptible to archery, Panic Steed, and magical damage spells that deal wounds and not Strength X hits (Chill Soul and Banishment). 1 Wound each with 2 Fate isn't great - and 3 Wounds with D6 is fine-not-great for your mounts (who are incredibly vulnerable to siege weapon fire that will insta-kill them). If this was part of a larger, conventional army, this would be just fine - but since it's an all-hero army (and a tiny one at that), every lost mount and every lost rider is a real set-back. Large Target will make it hard for you to avoid taking archery shots, so play around enemy siege engines/direct-damage casters as much as you can, but don't be afraid of a must-do mission of dive-bombing enemy siege weapons if you have to.

I'm not sure there's much more to delve into regarding strengths and weaknesses - Fell Beasts are good flying units with pretty-good profiles for monsters and the Ringwraiths on them bring 2 Might each to the fight, but there isn't that much else to say about the list as a whole without getting into the tactics of using them. Let's look at some of those tactics now . . .

Wraiths on Wings: Strategies for the Tabletop

While it's probably unfair to say that this list needs to pick its match-ups more carefully than the Black Riders list, this list really does need to pick its match-ups carefully. Fell Beasts have huge bases and huge bases can be easily trapped, easily blocked out, and give mounted heroes a lot of room to charge into them. With your incredible mobility and magic suites, it's possible for you to fight enemies on their own and slingshot to safety pretty easily if you're careful with how you engage. If you fly the "royal airforce" over the enemy ranks, but end within 6" of the battle line you crossed over, you should expect to get held down in fights you don't want until your mounts are battered from below you, your 2 Fate points disappear along with your single Wound, or you run out of Will. Working around the flanks of your opponent is a great way to limit your exposure to charges/countercharges, giving yourself room to maneuver, and prime targets for Compel that you can jump on away from your opponent's friends.

When it comes to casting, you should focus on casting Transfix and Compel with 2 Will points - and basically nothing else. Throwing 2 Will at a 3+ spell means that you should pass 8-out-of-9 times, which is about as close to "always" as we can get. Heroes with 1-3 Will points might be able to resist a few of these, but with 2-4 casters at basically every points level, they should be nearly spent by the end of your first engagement. Keep in mind that Compel only moves your target this edition (it used to also do everything Transfix did), so if there's a big hero that you want to isolate, be sure to Compel them away from their friends if they're in a "protected spot" and then Transfix them to keep them from hitting you back/calling Heroics.

But PLEASE don't think you can do these maneuvers a lot - we've been talking a lot recently about having allocated bins for your Will point, and if you've missed it in the last few posts of this series, the general idea is that Ringwraiths look like they have a lot of Will until they start spending it . . . and then you figure out that you have a very scare resource on your hands. Here's my recommendation for all of your wraiths (since they're all in the 2M/14W/2F camp):

• Everyone (2 Might, 14 Will): 1 Will to stay alive, 3 Will for combats, 8 Will to cast spells, 2 Will to resist spells

If you take my previous advice of throwing 2 Will at each cast of Transfix/Compel, you should expect to have only 4 casts/game if you limit your use of combats (more on how to do that viably next) and you might get a few more if your opponent left his offensive magic at home. In an era where Saruman and Gandalf (both versions) are popular, I wouldn't expect that to be true of every game in a tournament, but I would suspect that there will be at least one game where your opponent doesn't have magic and you can fight a little more.

I would also take advantage of your Strafing Attack special rule. The rule that allows you to do impact hits is once-per-round, which I think really stunts this list a bit (I hate getting run over by camels, but if you only have 2-5 of them and it only works on the first charge, I don't think it's very bad). Strafing Attack, however, can be used by everyone - and a S5 hit dealt to one person you clipped with your base as you flew out of reach has pretty decent odds of killing someone - and whoever you flew over and didn't kill is going to be Prone, so their ability to catch you with 2-6" movement and no mounts is pretty limited. Using Strafing Attack to mess with enemy shieldwalls (clipping the guy on a corner as you barely pass over him to kill him/knock him over) makes it pretty easy to stay away from your opponent's main force while chipping away at his army. If a second wraith clips another corner (or whoever became the new corner), you can slowly build a buffer between you and your opponent - and you have multiple tries each turn to do this! The reliability of killing models off with 2-5 models that will always hit and wound most things on 5s or 4s is way better than most people are getting with archery.

Finally, this list is the flying circus - expect there to be plenty of chaos, lots of laughs, and the occasional blunder and bad play. HAVE FUN WITH IT! Running around with wraiths (see my alliterative powers at work?) is a lot of fun - on horse for sure, but Fell Beasts bring this up to a whole new level - so enjoy it and do your best to play as well as you can, take the time you need to plan out your moves before you move anyone (it won't take long to move your pieces if you stick to Transfix and Compel), and make some memories with one of the most under-utilized lists in the game!

Sample Lists

Unlike every list that we've done in this series to date, this list does NOT want to play at 500pts - for basically the same reasons you don't want to play at 650 with the Black Riders: you have a massive handicap that you hand to your opponent because three wraiths will bring you up to 510pts (so you're either playing with a 425pt army or a 510pt army). Would it break the game to give the Fell Beasts a 5pt reduction so you can field three at 500pts (and six at 1000pts)? Just so I don't have an absolutely terrible list to show, I upped the points value to 550pts and gave the Witch-King the Crown because I had the points and, as I said above, this is probably the best list for running the Crown of Morgul on the Witch-King if it's not a required piece of gear (like it is in the Legions of Mordor) - preventing automatically-passed Courage Tests to charge him at any range is really good:

At 700pts, we are 5pts shy of being able to get a fourth Ringwraith and the Crown of Morgul, so I opted for two Morgul Blades instead - these could be useful, but mostly they're points-fillers:

Like I mentioned last time, 350pts is actually a really good points level for these guys, as you can get the Witch-King, one other Ringwraith, and a Morgul Blade - which is again, just a points filler. This gives you two very strong units at a points level where your opponent is unlikely to have very much in the way of heavy-hitters: if you can buzz above your opponent enough to isolate his heroes and crunch his men, I think you're in a really strong position, no matter what the scenario is:

Conclusion

That wraps up spooky week - we'll cover the last few Angmar armies next year. Next month, we're tackling the Battle of the Five Armies and we're beginning with an army that has all but disappeared from the competitive scene: the Survivors of Lake-town. While Lake-town lists have usually done better with allies rather than pure Lake-town armies, this army not only has a limited array of warrior choices, but its heroes changed dramatically this edition. Find out what's still worth running in it next time - and until then, happy hobbying!