Moria Listbuilding Part 3: Comparing the 'Littlest 3' Warrior Options

The boys ready to assault Lothlorien

At long last, the prodigal series returns. This week we’re diving back into Moria listbuilding, with a specific focus on the backbone of most Moria lists: the humble Goblins. In particular, we’re going to be exploring the Goblin Warriors, Blackshields and Prowlers and giving some rough rules for when to bring each of them along. These models are generally the core of an army, so it’s important to understand how the choices made here shape the rest of your list. So without further ado, let’s dive right into…

Moria Goblin Warriors

I may not have the money for the metal models, but god these guys look cool

You know ‘em, you love ‘em. These guys are functionally unchanged since their rules were first released 21 years ago, and that’s honestly great. They’re nothing flashy (really, nothing flashy at all), but when you’re tied for cheapest model in the game you don’t need to do much to be worthwhile. Notably, they’re cheaper than any other model that can bring spears, shields and bows, and all of those options are likely to be worthwhile in every list (albeit in varying numbers). Their Fight value is obviously pretty rubbish, but this is secretly their strength: in most matchups F2 v F3 won’t really matter at all, so they’re not really losing anything in exchange for being a point cheaper than their Orc cousins. 

The key considerations for these guys are basically quantity and equipment. They’re cheap enough that it’s pretty easy to fit in a good-sized horde, and I tend to think a minimum of at least 20 or so is critical for every game above 400 points. That’s honestly on the low side, and you only want to be going that lean if you’re really skimping to fit in a big monster (or two, as in my 600-point Watcher in the Water/Spider Queen list). 

Equipment wise, I tend to think that you should aim for a roughly 50/50 split on shields and spears (leaning towards the former if your numbers are low and to the latter if your numbers are high), with at least one honesty bow thrown in as a token measure. I’ve seen arguments made for more than a token archer contingent, but I think it’s so rarely going to let you actually out-shoot someone that it’s probably not worthwhile. The exception, of course, is the Assault on Lothlorien Legendary Legion, in which you should be absolutely hitting your bow limit in every army; turns out giving +1 to wound to all your archers makes them a lot more worthwhile!

If you army looks like this then: a) congrats, they look awesome; and b) bring lots of Goblin archers (Green Dragon Podcast)

Frankly, these guys are great, and you need really specific reasons to include their alternatives. Speaking of which…

Moria Goblin Prowlers

Some funky poses here, but it's the invisible throwing daggers that make the difference here

These guys bring 3 things relative to a basic Goblin Warrior with no kit: F3, Backstabbers and throwing daggers. Those are 3 quite respectable buffs, so a 3-point increase seems like a fair amount. At first glance they seem like the deluxe Goblin option, for when you want to invest a bit more into the killing power of your battleline. 3 points for that seems reasonable, so everything is balanced and great. Kind of. 

The trouble is that unlike in previous editions, Prowlers don’t just come stock with two-handed axes, they don’t have a hand weapon. This means they’re perpetually stuck using the high-risk/medium-reward option, which is not ideal. This is particularly annoying because going two-handed generally increases the odds that someone is going to die in a given fight: you’re more fragile because you’re less likely to win the fight, and hopefully the increased odds of wounding outweighs your decreased chance of duel wins enough to get more kills on the opponent. Even ignoring the ‘hopefully’ in that sentence (included because this assumption frequently isn’t true!), increasing casualties in the battleline clash is generally not the goal for Moria lists. Generally you want your Goblins to die slowly while your monsters rampage and win you the game, so increased lethality across the line is not a great trade. 

The takeaway from this isn’t that you should never include Prowlers; instead, it’s that Prowlers fill a specific role within specific builds, and it’s in those builds that you should be taking them. To be exact, they’re worthwhile taking in builds which leverage one of their 3 advantages over basic Goblins (F3, Backstabbers and throwing daggers). 

Groblog does an ironic amount for Prowlers considering they're the enforcers of his rival

F3 and Backstabbers shine brightest in a classic Moria horde. With massive numbers you’re likely to be getting lots of Traps, so Backstabbers is great. You’re also much more likely to be supported by other models and to be wanting for hitting power, so two-handing is a much more appealing prospect. That’s especially true if you have a Drum along, which is super useful for the spear supports to dramatically increase your odds of winning the duel. Finally, the Moria Army Bonus plus Groblog means your F3 is actually relevant; there aren’t too many circumstances where F2→F3 is going to impact things, but there are many where F3 → F4 or F4 → F5 will be huge. Prowlers definitely seem like a strong investment in these builds, albeit still in limited numbers. Of course, the problem with traditional Moria hordes is that Assault on Lothlorien is right there and almost always a better choice. As a result, the likelihood of ever fielding traditional horde Moria is probably pretty low.

Thankfully, Assault on Lothlorien also heavily incentivises Prowlers. This isn’t for their F3 (even less relevant than usual because no Moria Army Bonus and easy access to spear-supporting Orcs), nor for their increased damage output (trust me, that Legion isn’t hurting for ways to kill stuff!). Instead, the reason Prowlers shine in Assault on Lothlorien is simply that Clash by Moonlight shooting rules are ludicrously strong for Cave Dweller throwing weapons. Turns out throwing weapons are pretty scary when they’re hitting at effective S5! This Legion is the only time where Prowlers can genuinely make up your whole frontline; they’ll suffer once things get to melee, but every time they get to charge your opponent is going to be picking up models. It’s a crazy level of attrition, and it’s a core part of this Legion’s gameplan of ‘secure numbers edge with shooting → swamp and wipe out enemy army.’ 

Arguably the scariest Legion in the game doing what it does best

So Prowlers, while generally a bit over-costed, are a great medium to take advantage of synergies you’ve built into your army. This is in sharp contrast to the final breed of Moria Goblin…

Moria Goblin Blackshield

There is literally one viable model in this photo

Look, I’m not gonna sugercoat it: these guys are pretty bad. When you compare them to a Goblin Warrior with shield you’re paying 3 points for D6 (solid), C3 (not great value there), and Hatred (Dwarves). You’ll note that that final rule is quite strong in certain matchups, and entirely useless against the other ~88% of armies in the game. In general any warrior option that pays a whole point for Courage value is likely overpriced, so compounding that with an extremely marginal special rule is not feeling like a value proposition you’re interested in. 

You can draw similar conclusions by comparing the Blackshield to models from other factions. Warriors of Gondor are F3 and have a better special rule for the same points cost, while Black Numenoreans are one point more and gain F4, C4 and a better special rule. Moria Blackshields are arguably among the most overcosted warrior models in the entire game, which is not a great spot to be in. 

In saying that, it’s possible to overstate this point, because being massively overcosted in this game generally translates to being 1 point too expensive. MESBG is super balanced, y’all. So fielding these models is actually a bit like fielding Prowlers, in that you’re looking for situations where the decreased general efficiency of the more expensive choices will be made up for by the specific utility they bring. 

In the case of the Blackshields, that basically translates to situations where you know you’re getting value out of that Hatred (Dwarves), and situations where you desperately need the D6. The former would be most likely to arise where you just know your local meta is exceptionally Dwarf-heavy; if it’s a Good v Evil tournament and all your mates love the stumpy bois, then they’re a potentially viable meta choice. It’s really important to note here that even against Dwarf armies these guys still aren’t great value, just quietly solid. Even if you face nothing but Dwarves all day at a tournament these guys aren’t going to break the game. 

Outside of this niche situation (which frankly strikes me as a trifle unrealistic), the kind of list that might want some Blackshields is one in which the D6 will be disproportionately valuable. What would that look like in practice? It’s not one that just generally wants to be more durable, because basic Goblin Warriors are broadly tougher on a point-for-point basis. Instead, it’s an army that wants to be more durable in a specific place. In other words, they really want to be able to point at a location on the board and say ‘you may be more likely to break through elsewhere, but you’re less likely to break through right here.’ All armies want that sometimes (holding an objective or a chokepoint being the obvious examples), but only some specific armies want it consistently. The two key examples would be lists focussed on the Watcher in the Water, or with especially fragile Army Leaders/support characters they’re interested in protecting. The Watcher is far scarier when it has a screen of Goblins in front of it, and toughening up the screen in your most vulnerable location is certainly something you might be interested in. 

This is exactly the kind of situation the Watcher list wants to avoid. Unfortunately it's also one that Blackshields don't really help prevent

At this point, avid readers of this blog might be asking something like: ‘Well, you run the Watcher all the time, why aren’t you fielding Blackshields if they’re so good in that list?’ The problem with Blackshields even in this list that’s specifically suited to them is that splurging on Blackshields for durability is only going to be worth it when you’ve already got a high model-count. If your army is on the small side, then you’ll almost certainly find it easier to screen off your vulnerable pieces with extra models than with fewer, more resilient ones. That’s particularly true because the real biggest threat to expensive targets hanging out behind your line is a mounted hero calling a Heroic Combat and busting a hole through two lines of models in a single turn. And of course, these mounted heroes tend to be S4, and thus care not at all about whether your Goblins are D5 or D6. My Watcher build is interested in toughening up the models in front of the Watcher, but Blackshields aren’t any tougher against the things likely to bust through my wall at speed. 

So to recap here, Blackshields are worth taking against Dwarves, and in armies that have a specific vulnerable point they want to invest in protecting and which already have enough models that just adding a few extras wouldn’t do the same job more efficiently. Realistically that might be a Watcher list at 550 (where your numbers are solid but you can’t yet fit in a second monster), or maybe a traditional Goblin horde that skimped on Durburz. That’s a pretty small window if we’re being honest. And even in these situations, if you just brought more Goblin Warriors instead, would your list really be any worse? 

Nah. Probably not. 

Overall Conclusion

Unfortunately, while there is a reasonably tight internal balance amongst most Moria options, the basic Goblin slot is pretty dull. A good recipe for listbuilding here could go something like this:

Step 1: Field as many Goblin Warriors as fit in your army, with a variety of equipment.

Step 2a: If you’re playing a Goblin horde with Groblog, high numbers and the Army Bonus then replace some of those Warriors with Prowlers.

Step 2b: If you’re running the aforementioned Goblin horde, strongly consider whether Assault on Lothlorien would just be better instead. It probably would be. 

Step 2c: Having swapped to Assault on Lothlorien, make most of your frontline into Prowlers and spam throwing daggers at people.

Step 3: Alternatively, if you’re not playing Assault on Lothlorien, then briefly consider Blackshields before deciding they’re not worth it. 

I first drafted this article a year or so ago, and it was a lot more upbeat then in some regards. Blackshields seemed like they maybe had a purpose, and Prowlers performed an interesting role in the ‘classic’ Moria list. Unfortunately, since that point I think this ‘classic’ horde build has been outcompeted, and now Prowlers are just a worse Goblin Warrior that happens to have throwing daggers. Those throwing daggers are so absurdly strong in the LL that you’re likely to spam them, but their role as sneaky, backstabbing assassin warriors has largely been lost. In general, I’ve come to realise that the Assault on Lothlorien LL is just not great for the game, and the most ironic victims are the Moria players themselves. 

How can such a balanced profile be tied into such an oppressive Legion?

In any case, it at least makes this aspect of Moria listbuilding easy. Spam Prowlers in the LL and spam Warriors otherwise. Maybe I should have just written that and saved myself ~2000 words.

I hope you enjoyed this article, even if it ended on a somewhat dour note. On the plus side, my recent forays back into Moria have left me excited to continue this series, likely starting with the Captain-equivalents available to a budding Goblin warlord. How good are the named Goblin heroes? Do the Blackshield Captains hold up better than their warrior-equivalents? Or do basic Goblin Captains muscle out their opposition through sheer cost-efficiency? Come back next time to hear my takes on all these questions.

Until then, may your opponent sometimes run Dwarves to give your Blackshield models their time in the (relative) sun!