Inspired by the TMAT team’s interesting fan-made Legendary Legions, I knew it was finally time for the Fall of Arnor Legendary Legions. These are 6 Legions I've been tinkering with for awhile now, all of which I think explore different aspects of Eriador and its conflicts. For reasons of length I'm breaking these up into Good and Evil, and today we're starting with...
The Host of the Witch King
An awesome Angmar army in the style of this Legion from Michael Hanns
This Legion is nice and simple: it’s the Angmar list, minus all the bits that didn’t fight at Fornost, with some special rules focussed on the Witch King to represent his importance to the Legion. Nothing too restrictive, but missing a few key pieces in normal Angmar builds (Gulavhar and Fell Beasts) to compensate for its relatively powerful buffs.
Participants
Witch King of Angmar with Crown of Morgul (all options but the Fell Beast) 70
The Tainted (all options but the Fell Beast) 120
The Dwimmerlaik (all options but the Fell Beast) 120
Shade 100
Barrow Wight 50
Angmar Orc Captain (all options) 40
Angmar Orc Shaman 50
Wild Warg Chieftain 80
Angmar Orc Warrior (all options) 5
Angmar Warg Rider (all options) 11
Cave Troll (all options) 75
Dead Marsh Spectre 15
Wild Warg 7
Additional Rules
The Witch King of Angmar must be fielded in this army, and must be the Army Leader. Additionally he may take the Crown of Morgul at no additional points cost.
Special Rules
Fear and Dread
All enemy models within 6” of the Witch King suffer an additional -1 to their Courage tests on top of the -1 from his Harbinger of Evil special rule. Edit: after some good discussion I'm changing this to models within 3" of the Witch King.
Rise of a Fell Kingdom
All friendly Angmar Orcs within 12” of the Witch King of Angmar gain the Terror special rule.
The Fall of Angmar
If the Witch King of Angmar is removed as a casualty for any reason, then all friendly Angmar Orcs suffer -1 to their Courage values for the remainder of the game.
Designer's Notes
This list has some powerful bonuses: a free Morgul Crown is nice, but double Harbinger (within a slightly more restricted range) is extremely powerful for a faction like Angmar. Moreover, it’s not giving up that much by running this Legion over the base faction, although the options it is losing are some of the most competitive ways of building Angmar. Where things get (hopefully) more balanced is that the Legion is very centred on the Witch King. If he falls, then you lose literally all your bonuses— including your normal Army Bonus— and also become exceptionally vulnerable to Break tests. When you take into account that the Witch King is probably your best combat model, you’re left with an interesting dilemma that I hope will make this Legion balanced in practice. An assassination run on the Witch King would yield very high results, so it would definitely be a Legion with some weaknesses. Still, they might all be made up for by the raw power of double Harbinger.
Raiders of Eriador
Free Heroic Strikes should make Cave Trolls sing in this Legion (Michael Hanns)
Up next is a much different version of Angmar: one focussed on the Orcs, Trolls and Wargs that continued to raid the inhabitants of Eriador long after Fornost was a distant memory. It is significantly more limited in its troops selection, with no Spirits whatsoever! In exchange, it gets some sneaky special rules for all three of its component races, plus the Cover of Darkness special rule to keep them safe from massed enemy shooting.
Participants
Burdur, Troll Chieftain 110
Golfimbul, Orc Chieftain (option for warg) 40
Angmar Orc Captain (all options) 40
Angmar Orc Shaman 50
Wild Warg Chieftain 80
Angmar Orc Warrior (all options) 5
Angmar Warg Rider (all options) 11
Orc Tracker 5
Cave Troll (all options) 75
Wild Warg 7
Additional Rules
Either Burdur, Troll Chieftain or Golfimbul, Orc Chieftain must be fielded in this Legion, and whichever one is fielded must be the Army Leader.
Golfimbul is a Hero of Valour when fielded in this Legion.
Orc Trackers gain the Angmar Orc keyword when fielded in this Legion.
Special Rules
Cover of Darkness
All battles featuring this Legendary Legion takes place at night. As such, due to the reduced visibility, models cannot be targeted with shooting, Magical Powers or special abilities over 12” away. However, all shooting attacks gain +1 when rolling To Wound against enemy models that do not have the Cave Dweller special rule. Siege weapons may still target enemy models more than 12” away, however in this situation they will only hit on the roll of a 6. Models with the Cave Dweller special rule can see as normal.
Knives in the Dark
All models from this Legendary Legion gain Backstabbers. Edit: Changing this to only apply to Orc models to tone the Legion down slightly.
Hit and Run
When a friendly Angmar Orc wins a combat, they may choose to also Back Away after they are done making strikes (or when they would have made strikes but instead used a special strike). An enemy model that would have been Trapped if the Angmar Orc had not Backed away is still considered to be Trapped. Friendly Angmar Orcs may choose to Make Way as usual, even when the friendly model Backing Away won the combat. Additionally, friendly Angmar Orcs may always choose to Back Away and Make Way any distance between 1” and 2”, and are only Trapped if they cannot Back Away at least 1”.
Call of the Hunt
Friendly Warg models gain +1 Attack on turns in which they charged and are only facing Infantry models in combat.
Monstrous Fury
All Troll models in this Legion gain Resistant to Magic. Additionally, each Troll model in this Legion may declare a Heroic Strike without expending Might once per game.
Designer's Notes
To field this Legion, you’re giving up a lot: you’ve got no Terror, no Spirits, no flyers, no sneaky tricks generally. It’s a huge trade-off, so the benefits need to be pretty powerful to make up for it. These start off with Clash by Moonlight shooting rules to limit the range you can be peppered at, although the absence of Cave Dwellers here means it’s almost purely a defensive tool; no Assault on Lothlorien bow-spam here! If you do want to leverage it for shooting then you can field a lot of Orc Trackers in this Legion, but they’re at least not going to be out-ranging Elves. Up close, everyone has Backstabbers to make the army lean into Traps, and both the Trolls and Wargs get useful rules to up their damage output. The Trolls are vastly more vulnerable to heroes here than in Moria or base Angmar (losing access to Bat Swarms/Barrow Wights will do that!). As such, they get some options against spellcasters, and can threaten a Strike to make enemy heroes think twice. It’s still only once per Troll, but it means the Aragorns of the world need to at least consider the possibility of being taken out. The Wargs get a simple but strong bonus to represent the power of their charge, which should make the Wild Wargs perfect for taking out isolated enemies and the Wild Warg Chieftain a genuinely scary threat.
Finally, the Orcs get a complicated bonus that basically amounts to ‘you can choose to Back Away/Make Way when winning a fight, and can Back Away/Make Way up to 2”.’ The theory here is that it represents the Orcs attacking then scarpering, and it gives them unparalleled control over their movement once the battlelines clash. It’s a subtle bonus, but could be huge for screening or wrapping around the enemy and breaking up their lines. It also hopefully captures the feel of a raiding force, creating an army that plays very differently to traditional Angmar Spirit-jank. Speaking of the Spirits...
Ruins of Angmar
The core of this Legion, and all Angmar armies (Scent of a Gamer)
This Legion is heavily inspired by a quote from the original War of the Ring book which described intruders to Angmar as drawing evil things like moths to a flame. It represents the foul creatures that lurk in the ruined places of the North, with particular emphasis on the spirits that haunt these lands. It has some quite harsh list-building constraints (especially if you want to take advantage of its key special rule) but gives some powerful benefits in return.
Participants
Gulavhar, Terror of Arnor 200
Shade 100
Barrow Wight 50
Angmar Orc Warrior (all options) 5
Angmar Warg Rider (all options) 11
Dead Marsh Spectre 15
Wild Warg 7
Warrior of the Dead (all options) 14
Edit: It's been pointed out that a battleline of Warriors of the Dead backed by Orcs and a Shade would be a pretty terrifying list, so I'm removing Warriors of the Dead as purchaseable options (though they can still show up from the Moths to the Flame rule below).
Additional Rules
Warriors of the Dead may be taken in this Legendary Legion despite normally being Good models, and gain the Angmar keyword. Edit: Removing this rule, see above.
Special Rules
‘If that fell Kingdom should rise again, Rivendell, Lorien, The Shire, even Gondor itself shall fall’
Friendly Angmar Orc models within 3” of a friendly Spirit Hero gain the Terror special rule.
Touch of Death
One friendly Barrow Wight model may declare a Heroic Channelling each turn without expending Might.
Like Moths to a Flame
Each turn, at the end of their Movement phase, the player using this Legendary Legion may choose to roll one D6 if their Army Leader is still alive. If they do so then compare the number rolled to the table below, adding +2 to the roll if the Army Leader is a Barrow Wight. The models listed next to the relevant number may then immediately enter the board from any table edge. They may shoot and use any abilities they possess on the turn they enter, but may not charge that turn. Warriors of the Dead that arrive in this manner gain the Angmar keyword.
Designer's Notes
The restrictions on this list are pretty serious: there’s no Nazgul, Captains or Warg Chieftains, so the army caps at 3 Might! In fact, Gulavhar is not just the only model with Might, but the only serious beatstick, the only model with Fly, and the only access to Harbinger of Evil (which is pretty powerful for this Legion). However, I didn’t want Gulavhar to be an auto-include, so the Moths to the Flame special rule is much more powerful if you don’t include him; not only do you get a bonus to your rolls for leaving Gully at home, but it’s also much easier to keep a Barrow Wight alive than your aggressive D5 combat piece.
Moths to the Flame is the army’s biggest trick, to make up for all its weaknesses: you get the Goblin Scribe’s ability, but you’re bringing in Orcs, Wargs, or even powerful Spirit models. This is obviously extremely powerful, and I could definitely be convinced that it’s overpowered, but I was just super keen to make this concept work. The idea of battle slowly drawing in an ever-growing horde of fell beings was just too cool to ignore, and I’ve aimed to balance it by heavily neutering it if you brought Gulavhar along. You’ve got a choice between an extremely powerful special rule but an army with many weaknesses, or a slightly more well-rounded list that only gets half the benefit.
Oh, and Barrow Wights can cast Channelled Paralyse. It’s not really much better than regular Paralyse, but I thought it needed a reason to exist.
Missed these last weekend - really interesting stuff. The first Legion is very Witch-King centric and looks like a pretty balanced Legion. I will say that having Resistant to Magic on Cave Trolls, free Heroic Strikes on Cave Trolls, and +1 To Wound on their thrown stones and Troll Chains might be a bit over the top - my buddy Centaur has run Cave Troll spams with Buhrdur at several of our events and it is a PAIN to deal with (you just can't have enough Strike heroes to deal with all the Monsters that are hurling models into the other fights or Barging to get into heroes). And that's with a vulnerability to magic (which is somewhat mitigated), a vulnerability to F7+ heroes (which is at least challengable if not mitigated), and to kiting (which they may be able to deal with via their ranged weapons).
ReplyDeleteThe spirit one looks like a bigger pain to play against though - it's basically normal Angmar without the Witch-King (and if you're running two Barrow-Wights and Shade instead of the Witch-King, you might be able to get along without him). But in this case, you might be able to Goblin Scribe models onto the board, get the usual Terror buff, and a free channelling on either of the Barrow-Wights. That . . . doesn't sound fun. :-P I actually think that if Gulavhar was out of the list, it would be a more balanced list because you'd have to rely on Wild Warg Chieftains for your killing power (which paired with Barrow-Wights can be dangerous, but since they are affected by Shades means they can't just run with the Shade crippling their foes). The removal of all named characters also makes it ageless (and the lack of Valor/Legend heroes makes you more likely to use the +2 rule instead of "just taking Gulavhar and skipping the +2 bonus").