Armies of Middle-Earth SBG: Azog's Legion in the MIddle-Earth Strategy Battle Game

Our subject today was spoiled last week, so no elaborate intro for these guys. But that's oddly appropriate, as this army is all-business (as in the business-end of a cleaver).

Azog has come to blot out the line of Durin. If that makes you happy, read on (and perhaps seek some help?).

Praise me, my peoplez!

Photo Credit: 4.bp.blogspot.com on Pinterest

The Bare Necessities, Part XXX: Azog's Hunters

Good morning gamers,

In today's post, we revisit a faction that got a some coverage in our post on the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur (and got a hat-tip in our post on Azog's Legion): Azog's Hunters. Azog's Hunters doesn't have a lot of profiles (six heroes, two warriors) and there aren't a lot of equipment options for most of them (none for Fell Wargs, options for mounts for most of the heroes with an occasional other option). Still, this list has some REALLY good customizability options that can make for a high-damage team that can move at tremendous speed. Also, if you want an in-depth look at the list, please check out Rythbryt's review in the Armies of the Hobbit series that came out last week - it's really good!

If you've never fought this guy, count yourself lucky . . .

While I'm a big fan of Azog's Hunters, I'm more drawn to using them as an allied contingent more than a pure list (Azog is just better in Azog's Legion, thanks to getting access to heavy armor, to say nothing of the Signal Tower and Master of Battle if you keep your army bonus). Still, you have access to two really great power heroes, three pretty good supporting combat heroes, the cheapest three Attack model in the game, and some solid (albeit squishy) warriors. My good mate Centaur has run Azog's Hunters a lot recently and so had some light to shed on a pure Azog's Hunters list:

Army Principles with Centaur

T: In large games (700-points and above), would you ever run both Azog and Bolg (or do they cut into your points too much)? 

C: You can, though I don't. Unless you know that you're facing hero-heavy armies (Fellowship, Thorin's Company, Erebor Reclaimed, Rangers of the North) and you know that you'll want two big men to dismantle enemy heroes you probably don't need both, and you'll want the numbers because the fundamental rule of Azog's Hunters is low defense means casualties. You don't have effective anti-archery protection (you don't even have 24" range on your archers, so you can't even return fire effectively on all boards), you don't have great Fight Value (so you'll lose combats up close), and you don't get access to a shaman for Fury, so you're going to suffer a lot of wounds. This means you need numbers to keep you in the game long enough for your big man to do the job.

T: If you can only take Azog or Bolg, which do you choose (and why)?  

C: I personally run Azog, in part because 1) I got him as a gift, so I'm going to use the models I have, and 2) because while Bolg is awesome he grows more awesome as the game goes on, and some armies are such hard counters to Azog's Hunters (Army of the Dead being the big one) that you may not get a chance to get Bolg to his Uber-Bolg version. Plus the White Warg is really nice for the points, so I tend to lean toward Azog. Bolg is good and I'm looking to purchase him within the next few years (I've got other armies higher on the priority list right now), but for now Azog does the job.

T: How important is the Azog's Hunters Army Bonus? 

C: So, it is and it isn't important. It's important because it turns your archers into 4+ Shoot archers, which is nice for when you need to cover an objective as you can reliably whittle down an incoming force before they reach the objective, and then tear them a new one once they reach it as you have 2 Attacks on each model at S4. But truthfully, part of why I love Azog's Hunters more than Azog's Legion is the ability to team them up with other armies - you don't really miss the army bonus, so there's no real problem with going with an orange or red alliance (which is virtually all of their alliances).

T: Does Azog's Hunters need allies (and if so, who is your go to)? 

C: You don't technically need allies (as you can do almost everything really well), but it doesn't hurt to have them. Azog's Hunters does melee brawling very well, as you can get two-handers at S4 (S5 if you Piercing Strike) with 2 Attacks, tons of 2 Attack S4 guys, mounted versions of both, plus bannermen for very little, but what you lack is effective cover from enemies and high Courage models for charging terror models. So personally I would team them in with Angmar (no surprise to anyone as I really like Angmar) or Mordor, and for different reasons. Angmar is nice because you get the Shade and the Barrow Wight, plus access to trolls if you want something higher than F3. Mordor is really nice because you can take guys like the Shadow Lord to cover you from archery plus the wealth of anti-magic options that Mordor presents, not to mention big war beasts or siege weapons to keep you safe while your forces close.

T: Since Hunter Orcs (and Hunter Orc Captains) have the Many Blades rule (while on foot, they get +1 Attack), is there value in giving Hunter Orcs Fell Warg mounts? 

C: There is - threat radius and charging options. Now granted, this comes from a guy who plays Shire (where you use terrain to the point of almost abuse because otherwise you get shot/ripped to pieces), but a lot of people count on hiding units behind pillars/trees, lying people down, etc. as a way to hold portions of the board/guarantee that they get the charge, and fell wargs get you out of this problem. Add onto this the fact that you have a 10" range for standard movement, and now you can reach out and strike an enemy well before they can strike you.

The complication to this argument, though, is that you can also just take Fell Wargs, and since the cost of a Hunter Orc on Fell Warg is the same as buying a Fell Warg and a Hunter Orc on foot, there's little reason to take them as a single unit except the charge bonus. I run a few, but truthfully you could probably do just fine just taking fell wargs for the threat range and hunter orcs on foot for numbers.

T: Are generic Hunter Orc Captains models you take after you've taken all of the named captains? 

C: Or are they good in their own right? Oh, you should have at least 1 of these guys in your army always, and you should take him with a two-handed weapon. I think you should even take him above a number of the named heroes - my order is: Azog/Bolg -> Narzug -> Hunter Orc Captain -> Whatever else you want. Fimbul is very good, and the 3 Might with Strike means you can use him to take on enemy heroes. You should of course always mount him, and he makes for a nice strike cavalryman through forests and other difficult terrain as he gets all of his bonuses regardless of being in difficult terrain. And while Yazneg comes with an axe and high Strength, I think for the points you get more out of a Hunter Orc Captain, so personally I never take Yazneg. We would have been much better off in the list if we had a shaman rather than Yazneg.

T: What gear do you give Hunter Orc Captains? 

C: I almost always give them two-handed weapons, as I think that 1) having base 3 attacks all getting +1 to wound is just insane for the price, and 2) if you have enough numbers you don't need to worry about winning the fight: other guys can win the fight for you, and these guys are just there to mop up. You can definitely give them fell wargs, but keep in mind that you'll need to charge to make it worth it, as otherwise you'll lose attacks. So it all depends; personally I've found that the high Strength with +1 to wound and a chance to Piercing Strike is typically enough, so I save money and buy an extra warrior instead of mounting them, as I find I like the numbers more (plus it's easier to hide my heroes from archery if they are among the rank-and-file).

I don't generally give them bows; that has mostly to do with the fact that 1) orc bows aren't that good, 2) their Shoot Value isn't that good, and 3) Narzug will do the job for you well enough on his own, so why would I need a clear second fiddle? I'd much rather give the bro a two-hander and just send him wading through the enemy shieldwall.

T: How do you deal with Terror armies? 

C: So, I'll start by saying that, as I alluded to above, this is one of the issues for the army. Since your army is Courage 2 except for your heroes (and beyond Azog and Bolg it's not particularly good even among your heroes), Terror is a huge problem. You can mitigate this in two ways. First, since all of your dismounted orcs have 2 Attacks, you effectively charge two people in with one successful Courage Test, so thankfully it's not as dangerous if you don't succeed in all of your charges. More than that, it's not like charging in a person and then spear supporting them as they can't pull off the spearman into a separate combat: you always get 2 attacks. Second is numbers: if you make 30 charges on a given turn (which, ideally, is how many models you would have charging on a single turn), even at Courage 2 you'll pass with 10+ of them, probably including your heroes. This means that you have 20+ Attacks in combat, which is pretty good among c. 10+ fights. So numbers are important: you have to get a lot of people charging to insure that you can take down enough terror models that turn to whittle the enemy force down.

And on a related note, it's actually not a bad thing per se if you don't get a lot of charges in - remember: at D4 you are going to lose a lot of guys, so if you don't have a lot of fights to resolve you can't lose that many people. So there's a silver lining to failed tests, as long as you have numbers to replace fallen troops that get ganked by being alone following failed Courage tests.

Thanks Centaur - today we'll be looking at Centaur's list for Azog's Hunters - let's see what's cooking!

The Bare Necessities, Part XXI: Azog's Legion

Good morning gamers,

If you live in the States, happy Memorial Day. In the words of King Theoden, "Tonight we remember those who gave their blood for this country - hail the victorious dead!"

In today's post, we're continuing our discussion on armies I'm still purchasing. We've already covered the Halls of Thranduil, the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur, and the Shire and today we come to one of the newest armies that has crossed my mind with some neat ideas: Azog's Legion. While we mentioned that the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur list is the most flexible evil army from the Armies of the Hobbit book, Azog's Legion has a wide variety of units that all basically do the same thing: kill things in melee and shrug off damage with pretty good Defense (some don't have great Defense, but the majority do). For the opinions of the experts, you want to check out the recent podcast from the Green Dragon Podcast on this army (I differ in opinion from them a little bit in this post).

Azog's Legion: If You Bring Azog, When Do You Bring The Signal Tower?

When I first looked at Azog's Legion, I saw a) no shooting apart from Catapult Trolls, and b) very few hero choices (Azog, Bolg, various generic captains). To me, this made them worse than Azog's Hunters and MUCH worse than the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur. When you factor in that some of the models haven't been made yet, many of the models are available exclusively through Forge World, and the handful from GW are pretty expensive, this army was a no-go for me (possibly as an alliance).

When I looked at the list the first time, I also glossed over the Signal Tower - like the One Ring or War Beasts, when you have a whole page of rules (or two) dedicated to one thing in the game (something you may rarely/never face), new players and experienced players alike probably say "Huh, that's nice" and turn the page before digging too far into it. When I first looked at the list, I had no interest in the Signal Tower because a) there's no model for it yet, and b) it costs 200 points - and why in the heck would you spend 200 points for an upgrade?

Well, I'm glad you asked - because after looking into the Signal Tower, it's actually a really good bargain. Let's break it down:

• The Signal Tower includes 7 Azog's Lieutenants, who have profiles very similar to Rangers of the North (no bows and lower Courage, but otherwise their gear and stats are exactly the same). Rangers of the North are 30 points each, so let's assume that Azog's Lieutenants would each be worth 20-25 points. With 7 of them included in the price of the tower, you've got 140-175 points of the Signal Tower covered (25-60 points more to make up).
• The Signal Tower comes with 3 banners (that count as banners in scenarios that give you victory points for having a banner on the board at the end of the game), one of which counts as a battlefield-wide banner for all Gundabad models - that's worth at least 25 points, but probably worth more than that.
• The Signal Tower also has the Horn of Gorgoroth, which counts as a war horn for you (+1 Courage), but also applies a -1 Courage penalty on enemy models all over the battlefield. This, added to the battlefield-wide banner, is basically what you get from a Moria Goblin Drum (which is worth 75 points to Moria and doesn't actually cover the entire battlefield). At the very least, this horn and the battlefield-wide banner are worth 75 points together (which is more than the rest of the cost we need to make up).
• One of the other banners on the signal tower allows you to call free Heroic Marches - each time you call a free Heroic March, that's worth 5 points (as a Might point adds roughly 5 points to a normal profile). Since you don't have shooting, getting across the board is important - and if you want to have Might left over for Heroic Moves on your Captains (and Strike on Azog), this tower is your friend.
• The third banner gives all of the Gundabad models on the battlefield a 6+ save against taking wounds (which turns the 6+ Oblivious To Pain save on your Gundabad Berserkers into a 5+ save) - this is not only a nice surprise for your warriors, but also is great because both Azog and Bolg (all your heroes, actually) have a single Fate point. Having a non-zero probability of stopping every wound is nice to have when you give up points for having wounds on your Army Leader.
• Finally, the Signal Tower is placed at the beginning of the game anywhere on the battlefield - which means you can place it safely behind your lines in most scenarios OR place it in your opponent's side of the board in scenarios where you need to get somewhere. Even if your opponent tries to take the tower, you'll have 7 mini-heroes to defend the banners and distract while the rest of your army gets in position - PERFECT!

In large games, you're getting well over 200 points worth of value for "only" 200 points. The tax comes in this: you need to take Azog in order to take this - so you're spending at least 365 points on Azog and this upgrade (though I don't think you'd leave the White Warg at home or the heavy armor - so realistically, it's 425 points). At lower point levels, Bolg with a Goblin Mercenary warband is probably the better option, but at games at/above 700 points, I think Azog is well worth bringing with the Signal Tower.

One final note on the Signal Tower: if you don't have enough models to man all of the elements, I'd prioritize the signal tower elements as follows:

• Battlefield-wide banner (because you're going to want this).
• Battlefield-wide 6+ save (not a great save, but your army has basically no archery, so every little bit helps as you slog across the map - more important during the middle/end of the game OR from the very beginning if you get to deploy on the center-line).
• Battlefield-wide free Heroic Marches (not really necessary during the middle of the game, essential early in the game, sometimes necessary late in the game).
• War Horn with Battlefield-wide Courage debuff (unless you're facing a Terror/Harbinger army, you can often get away with losing this during the early/middle of the game).

Currently, I have the following models:

• Azog F&M
• Gundabad Troll with Club
• The makings of a Signal Tower

Early picture of my Signal Tower in the works - the tower stands roughly 7" high and is roughly 6" in diameter with a circular stairway that goes around the outside of the tower (total travel distance is 19" up the stairs). There is a tunnel on the ground level and an open landing on the second level (which provide some options for fighting if desired and also makes it more usable as a generic ruin piece in a game where I'm not playing with the Signal Tower).

Perhaps I've already shown my hand, but here's our list today:

The Bare Necessities, Part XIX: The Dark Powers of Dol Guldur

Good morning gamers,

Last time, we looked at my plans for developing a Halls of Thranduil force in the coming months. Today, we turn our attention to a force of Evil that I've been scheming about for a while. Most of this year/next year's hobby funds will be devoted to the Halls of Thranduil, but hot on its heels is Dol Guldur, which I consider to be the second most versatile Evil faction in the game (behind Mordor - they are certainly the most versatile force in the Armies of the Hobbit book). Not too long ago, the Green Dragon team posted an amazing podcast on the Dark Powers army - listen to that for some really good insights from veterans of the Dol Guldur faction. My theories happened to coincide with some of theirs, so I feel like I have some good direction for what to collect.

Dark Powers of Dol Guldur: Pure Force or Historical Allies?

It took me a long time to "like" the Orc-based armies from the Hobbit book. I love the Trolls and I gained a lot of respect for Goblin-town the first time my son used it against me. I've fought Centaur's Hunter Orcs for a while now (Azog's Hunters, not Dark Powers) and gained a huge respect for them in his "Halloween Army" that he brought to a TMAT GT back in 2014 (which never lost to my beloved Isengard force).

The Dark Powers of Dol Guldur list, in my opinion, is the most balanced of the Evil forces from the Armies of the Hobbit. As I explained in our podcast/video on Evil Spell-casters, the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur list has all of the warrior profiles available in the Azog's Hunters list (albeit with a lower Shoot value and a lower bow limit) and has Gundabad Orcs which are available in the Azog's Legion list (though none of the other specialized troops) AND have a unique warrior choice in Mirkwood Spiders.

The question is this: should you make a pure Dark Powers of Dol Guldur army? Or should you ally with one of these other forces? If you plan to bring the Necromancer of Dol Guldur, bringing a Historical ally is far better than bringing a Convenient ally (as the Necromancer benefits greatly from the army bonus). Bringing him and a bunch of Nazgul of Dol Guldur appears to be a popular approach, though the warriors in this list beg to be brought along too. Bringing just the Necromancer from the Dark Powers list (with a warband of troops) and bringing in an allied contingent from either (or both) of the Azog lists can give you access to better archers (with Azog's Hunters) and more elite warriors/monsters (with Azog's Legion). Currently, I don't have any models from this army, so everything is from scratch.

Heirlooms of Ages Past: Battle Report

Good morning gamers!

Well, the world might be paralyzed by the Barrow-Wight that is COVID-19 at the moment, but my good mate Centaur and I recently rolled a 6 and decided to use our movement to get up and use our movement to get a battle report in. :-) This game will be between a 750-point variant of one of the armies I recently presented in my List Building series (the Bare Necessities) and Centaur's go-to force this year, the horde that is Azog's Hunters. Here are the forces:

The King Arrives: 750 points

Aragorn, King Elessar on armored horse - 240 points

8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields - 64 points

6 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields, spears, and bows - 60 points
4 Knights of Minas Tirith with shields - 56 points

The King of the Dead - 100 points

5 Warriors of the Dead with shields - 75 points

4 Warriors of the Dead with shields and spears - 64 points

1 Warriors of the Dead with shield, spear, and banner - 41 points

Damrod - 25 points
1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with shield - 8 points
1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with spear and shield - 9 points
1 Ranger of Gondor - 8 points

34 units, 8 bows, 3 heroes, 5+ Might points

Azog's Boys: 749 points

Azog on the White Warg - 215 points

1 Hunter Orc with banner - 33 points

3 Hunter Orcs with two-handed picks- 27 points

8 Hunter Orcs - 64 points

Narzug - 50 points

8 Hunter Orcs with Orc bows - 72 points

Fimbul on Fell Warg - 60 points

5 Hunter Orcs on Fell Wargs - 80 points

4 Fell Wargs - 32 points

Hunter Orc Captain with two-handed pick - 50 points

2 Hunter Orcs with two-handed picks- 18 points

6 Hunter Orcs - 48 points

41 units, 8 Orc bows, 4 heroes, 14 Might points

The scenario we will be playing is an Heirlooms of Ages Past game on a board that is 48" x 48". We have a hill in the middle (still working on it) with a smattering of woodland patches, some field boundaries, and a bog nearby (can you smell it?). We rolled to place the objectives - Centaur placed the three red objectives (represented by Bilbo Baggins, Farmer Maggot, and a Hobbit Militia that I call Wilcome Tunnelly), while I placed the three blue objectives (represented by Grip, Fang, and Wolf).

The Hunter Orcs won the first turn priority and will begin to roll for his warbands to arrive first.

The Bare Necessities, Part III: Numbers (or not-being-Broken)

In our previous two posts in this series, we’ve discussed the benefits of including fast models (cavalry in particular) and banners (not just units that count as banners) in your army because of the points they can score you in certain games. The five points that make up the series are reprinted here as a roadmap for today’s discussion:

• Fast troops who can claim objectives or exit the opposing board edge;
• At least one banner;
• Ways of delaying/avoiding being broken (often in the form of large numbers);
• Means of killing/inhibiting enemy heroes; and
• Means of keeping your own heroes alive/augmenting their damage.

Today’s post covers what most new players tend to value in an army: raw numbers. While having raw numbers doesn’t score you points in and of itself, it does make your army (in general) harder to break, which in most scenarios will give your opponent some points. Having greater numbers also makes it easier for you (in general) to trap your opponents – and traps win games.

So, today we’re going to discuss some of the subtleties of numbers in a points match game and different ways you can avoid being broken in a game (and other ways you can take advantage of numbers).

Tiberius Battle Company Log, Entry #1

Good morning reader,

Yep I know what you're thinking - Tiberius, what are you doing posting today? It's not Monday!?!?!?! I know, I know. That's because today's post begins an irregular series that I'm starting on Battle Companies.

This year's TMAT GT is going to be Battle Companies themed, where we all pick one (or more) Battle Companies, play against each other "regularly," and include one Battle Company that we developed this season to use in a larger army (points limit still TBD because people are lobbying for a higher points level, whether the alliance matrix is allowed is also being debated). All in all, it should be fun.

For my first battle company, I've decided to do the Last Alliance. Those of you who have followed the blog for a while know that I got started with Rivendell thanks to the White Council units (Elrond, Arwen, old Glorfindel model, Erestor proxy, thought about getting Cirdan for a while). I originally got a few High Elf Warriors just so I could run a handful of bodyguards around my Elf/wizard heroes because they were getting overwhelmed. That then led to a larger contingent that is now a full-fledged army.

Numenor took off at about the same time: I picked up a boatload of Numenor warriors from eBay (and traded/bought a bunch from some friends who were eager to get rid of the Numenoreans that came with their High Elves) and acquired Elendil and Isildur in a large hero lot on eBay. With a recently converted Captain of Numenor on horse and a lot of conversions to turn the all-sword-and-board army into a more diversified force, Numenor has been chomping at the bit to be used.I

The Armies of the Hobbit, Part I: Orcs!

Good morning gamers,

This post begins our discussion of the Armies of the Hobbit and like we did with the Armies of the Lord of the Rings, we'll be covering the Forces of Evil first (in two parts) and the Forces of Good after that. Unlike the Armies of the Lord of the Rings, we don't have previous sourcebooks to group things (and we don't have the old Legions of Middle-Earth book to guide us either). Ergo, we'll be grouping things by common types (Orcs, other Bad Guys, Dwarves, Men, other Good Guys). It should be fun.

1) The New Lists: Azog's Hunters, Azog's Legion, Dark Powers of Dol Guldur

These three lists are, in many ways, one list broken out in to three parts (if you ignore their army bonuses): many of the warrior choices provided in these lists are shared across the others: both of the Warrior options for the Azog's Hunters list are available in the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur list (hereafter Dark Powers), and the Dark Powers list also has access to the Gundabad Orc Warriors available in the Azog's Legion list. While there are some unique warrior choices across the Azog's Legion and Dark Powers lists, by and large you get the same feel from a warrior-perspective no matter which of these lists you choose.

Where these lists differ is in their heroes - Azog's Hunters have average-defense heroes, all of which can be mounted (and with Expert Rider on many of them, there's good reason to do so). Azog's Legion has barely any hero optons, but most of them are/can be heavily armored. The Dark Powers list provides you with the Necromancer and the Nazgul, along with several other generic hero options and the Keeper of the Dungeons (powerhouse options abound). When looking at the lists, the heroes are what make the greatest difference between them (and should come to the forefront of your decisions about what kind of army to get).