Things That Go Bump in the Night: Playing Against Terror

That's a lot of Terror tests... (TOWtRTA)

As any Angmar, Dunharrow or Rivendell player knows, Terror is an incredibly powerful special rule. And as anyone who regularly plays against these armies knows, a few failed Terror tests can be all it takes to lose a game. A key charge failing to connect is a huge deal, and it can feel particularly gut-wrenching because it ultimately just comes down to the dice. The recent rise of the Vanquishers and Black Riders Legions have made this issue particularly important, because both lists have excellent ways to make your Terror tests less reliable. However, there are solutions, and they don’t all involve building armies of Fountain Court Guard so you never have to take Courage tests again. Most of these should be obvious to experienced players, but a lot of them aren’t very intuitive, so I’m including them here to save you the gruelling defeats that I had to go through for them. Although actually, I learned a lot of these tips from watching better players take on my Angmar army— I still had a lot of gruelling defeats though.

Even those 'brave' Uruk-hai are gonna fail about half of their Courage tests (Games Workshop)

Before we get to those tactics though, let’s have a look at the likely impacts of Terror if you fail to plan around it. Almost all troops in the game are either Courage 2 or 3, which gives them somewhere between a 44% and 58% chance of failing a given Terror test. In fact, even brave troops like Dwarves and Gondorians fall into this category when you factor in Harbinger of Evil, which is generally present in Terror lists (Elves sometimes excepted). So it’s normally safe to assume that if your warrior has to charge a Terror-causing model, it’s a rough coin flip whether you succeed. As such, if your battleline is lining up to charge a wall of Black Númenóreans, then you should expect around half of them to fail to charge. Not only does this mean that your opponent will get to fight half of your army with all of his, but the unpredictable results of these tests can create big gaps in your shieldwall, leaving those who did get into combat as doomed as a Hobbit in a Warg pen. Clearly this is a catastrophic outcome, so how do we avoid it?

Shockingly enough, Bodyguard troops are a good answer to Terror (Ganjalf Painting Studios)

The easiest option is at list-building. I know I joked about the Fountain Court solution earlier, but including a few Bodyguard or equivalent troops in your army can help enormously in the Terror matchup. Similarly, fitting in a Warhorn can boost your odds of making it into combat enormously, ensuring that a larger percentage of your charges successfully connect. Even better, heroes with Aura of Command, Fury or an equivalent special rule can let your whole army ignore this problem, flipping the matchup on its head. A lot of why Círdan is so breathtakingly good is that not only does he let your whole army cause Terror, he also lets them all pass Courage tests for free as well. Apparently that’s quite useful.

Sadly, not all armies have access to someone with the kind of big dick energy that Círdan radiates. But there are list-building solutions to Terror beyond being literally unable to fail Courage checks.

Terror or not, I still don't want to charge these guys (Forge World)

Foremost amongst these is not relying on charging. As discussed earlier, when most armies charge a Terror-causing line they leave about half their troops behind. On the other hand, when such an army charges you their Terror rule is almost useless. It can make it slightly harder for you to counter-charge, but you’re not as worried about Terror tests when most of your warriors are already engaged in combat. It’s one of the reasons why I like building armies that don’t need to move first as often. If, on the other hand, you’re totally set on fielding a heavy cavalry list that lives and dies by its charge bonus? Either pray to the Valar that you dodge the Terror matchups, or see the previous listbuilding solution. Mounted Royal Guard are really very good, you know.

Again, not too bothered by Terror (Scott's War-gaming) 

But while it’s lovely to hear about list-building solutions to Terror lists, that’s hardly going to make you feel better if you’re facing down an Angmar list and you’ve neglected to bring any along. However, there are other things that you can do to soften the blow of Terror once you’re on the field of battle.

The Good warriors are still outnumbered this turn, but at least no one is going to be Trapped

One of these is to be sneaky about how you charge the enemy. It’s often worthwhile charging your models into two enemies at once early in the phase. If you pass enough Courage tests subsequently, that’s great, you can use those models to peel off one of the guys you charged earlier. But if you fail to do so, you’ve at least managed to lock down a bit more of the enemy frontline. Your hapless soldier is now outnumbered 2:1, but that was probably going to be the case once the enemy counter-charged you anyway; at least now you have control over who is having to punch up.

Even more important is to always be spear supporting. Thankfully, a model doesn’t need to pass a Courage test to move and spear support someone else. Making sure every model who makes it into combat is backed up by a dude with a spear is therefore critical, because it basically halves the number of Courage tests you need to pass. Less Courage tests means less failed tests, and less of those means less models standing uselessly in the middle of nowhere.

This spearman has just failed his test to charge. Oh no!

But because he was within 1" of the enemy, his friend gets to benefit from his spear support 

An even sneakier way to use your spearmen to mitigate enemy Terror arises when the two battlelines have already crashed. If you’ve got a spearman within 1” of an enemy, that’s a great model to try and charge with. If you succeed, you get into combat and another spearman can race over and spear support you. If you fail, you’re still standing in a position to spear support someone else if they can make it into combat; just position the second model so it is touching both the enemy and your helpless spearman, who will apparently have recovered from his Terror by the time the Fight phase rolls around and will be happy to jab his spear in. This is a great way to limit the number of useless models you have standing around due to failed Terror tests, and is why armies without spears tend to really struggle against Terror. 

Well, I guess someone had to stay behind and guard the objective anyway, right?

A similar solution, if you can plan a turn or two ahead, is to make sure that some of your models who are unable to move are already standing in useful positions. Whether that involves guarding a flank, shielding your squishy models from a scary Fell Beast, or just standing on an objective, failing a Courage test is much less impactful if the model is already in a useful spot.

Isildur and Elendil are ready to do some nasty things to this Mordor battleline (although watch out for the WK behind it!)

Alternatively, in certain matchups you can force your opponent to be the one charging even when you’re moving first. Imagine you’re a Gondor player, with Boromir and Húrin leading a solid shieldwall of Warriors of Minas Tirith. It can sometimes be worthwhile charging only your two heroes into combat and merely guarding their flanks with the rest of your troops. Your opponent is then forced either to charge your line (thus receiving no benefit from their Terror) or to accept that Boromir and Hurin will run down whoever they’re facing while the rest of your army cheers them on. They will still probably be able to force a few 2v1 fights (or 4v2 if both sides have spear supports) by engaging some models with two of their own and ignoring others, but at least your troops will be in a solid formation instead of being spread out and easy to Trap. This strategy can be replicated with a ranged advantage if you don’t have any big heroes, though this remains vulnerable to the enemy hiding all of their troops in combat. If you are trying the hero technique though, be sure to restrain yourself against Angmar lists: nothing spoils Boromir’s day faster than a Paralyse from a Barrow Wight. To be honest, there’s almost no one whose day it doesn’t spoil (including the Balrog, interestingly enough).

Those two spearmen in the middle aren't actually fighting the Troll, they're just letting Elendil Trap it while they spear support their friends

On the other hand, if you’re just facing a Troll or two instead of a whole army of Terror-causing models, then carefully consider which models actually need to charge that enemy and which would be better served doing something else. An extra Warrior of Minas Tirith is rarely going to Wound a Troll Chieftain, and he risks failing a Terror test to charge in the first place. On the other hand, if you go and carefully move the model to just behind the Troll instead of charging, then you get to double Boromir’s Strikes against it with the Trap without risking that awful 'standing there helpless with fear' result. Bonus points if the model is still spear supporting someone else while Trapping the Troll!

Try charging these guys at your peril!

One final note: as I mentioned earlier, Terror only really makes a difference to you when your opponent is moving second. If you're moving second then it's hardly an issue at all. The takeaway from this is that when you're planning your initial engagement, feel free to just not charge on a turn when you have Priority. When the enemy doesn't have the ranged or positional advantage to force you to engage, scooting back to 6.1" away from them and waiting a turn is a perfectly respectable decision. This is especially the case against the Vanquishers, who can do some nasty things to you if they get to move second. They can do some nasty things when moving first too, but it's a little more manageable. 

Overall, the key to facing models and armies with Terror is to minimise the number of models you have standing around doing nothing. If half of your army is put out of action every turn by a single special rule, then you’re almost certainly going to lose. If you’ve only got a couple of models out of the equation, then it’s game on.

That’s all my useful tips for dealing with Terror, but if you have any more yourself I’d love to hear them on Facebook, Reddit or in the comments section below. Now, I’m off to inflict my Angmar on some poor fool who hasn’t heard of these!

Until next time, may your Courage tests always come up sixes!