Is Mordor the best army in the game? A guide to Mordor listbuilding for tournament play

You might not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like

Mordor is by far the most versatile faction in MESBG, with the most profiles to pick from (11 more than the nearest competition, Gondor) and many different ways to build an army. You can create Orc hordes, monster mashes, burly Morannon formations, Nazgûl flying circuses, or elite cavalry lists. The flexibility and range of options can be quite daunting for newer players, many of whom have picked up Mordor as part of a starter set.

For better and worse, however, there is truly one Mordor archetype to rule them all. This interesting and varied faction has a ‘best’ way to run it, and while there is substantial variation within the archetype, it still requires some quite specific listbuilding. There are lots of names for different variants of this build, but I like to refer to them all generally as ‘Witch King plus a friend’ lists. And to answer the click-baity question in the title: yeah, this archetype probably is the strongest army in the game, especially since it dodged a nerf in the last FAQ.

As ever, if you’re just here for a chill game with friends then feel free to disregard everything you’re about to read. Mordor can make a lot of cool lists, and you don’t need to run this one to win games. Ali King has had a lot of success with Morgul Stalkers supporting Gothmog, which is about as far from this build as it's possible to get. But if you’re looking to optimise (and aren't Ali King), then Witch King plus friend lists are the way to go.

This list tends to consist of 5 basic elements, starting (fittingly enough) with…

 

Number 1: The Witch King

There is definitely a best option here for most metas

The Witch King may well be the best profile in the entire game, and is certainly one of the most efficient. He brings top-tier casting (arguably better than Gandalf the White, who costs nearly twice as much), great combat ability, Harbinger, 18 warband slots and the ability to be a safe leader pick no matter whom else you’ve brought along.

You can run this guy as cheap as 90 points (3/10/1 on foot without the Crown), and I think that’s actually really strong at 500 points. But from 550 up he’s excellent at around 130-155 points, with 3 Might, 10-14 Will and 2-3 Fate, plus the Crown and a horse. At that level he brings so much to the list, and you need an exceptionally strong reason not to include him. He can also be powered up and given a Fell Beast, but I will say that cheaper is often better with this guy: I find he’s often just fine at 130 points (3/10/2), and investing more can just be cutting into your numbers for limited return. Remember, every 1-2 Will you don’t need to spend could have been another model!

In certain lists, you can replace this guy with the Shadow Lord, or maybe the Dark Marshal (assuming you didn’t bring along Suladân, of course). Either will generally be a downgrade, but the former does have a role in particularly shooty metas. You’re giving up casting ability, Might, warband slots and combat punch for that Blinding Light or 6” banner, but if you need those things then it could maybe be worthwhile. Maybe. But generally, just start your lists with a 130-point Witch King and you’ll be off to a great start.

If this is your local meta, then maybe the Shadow Lord is a good option (Tale of Painters)

Of course, this list archetype is called Witch King plus a friend, so our next stop has to be…

Number 2: The friend

Two of the most efficient models in the game, and both are easy to just drop into the list

Suladân is 115 points on an armoured horse, and he brings a 6” banner (that counts for banner VPs!), great combat stats, March, access to punchier cavalry and way more warband slots than you’re likely to use. He’s another of the most efficient models in the game, and there is almost no reason not to include him in a Mordor list. Or, for that matter, in a Serpent Horde list, or a Far Harad list, or a Corsair list. He doesn’t even take your Army Bonus, so you still get the power of C5 on your frontlines and reroll 1’s to wound. He’s just so good for his points, and brings so much that you’d otherwise be shelling out for, that it’s hard to see why you’d leave him at home. This efficiency is why a lot of people expected him to be nerfed in the recent FAQ, by the way: he doesn't do anything inherently broken, he just does way too much for his points cost.

Really, there’s only one reason to leave Sully at home, and that’s that the Spider Queen exists, is also bonkers, and is red allies with the Serpent Horde. Where Suladân is just raw efficiency, the Queen brings along all the tricks. Taking a Bat Swarm alongside her, she can be a terrifying assassin model, especially when you’re able to put heroes under strain with the Witch King’s casting already. She can churn through battlelines or Hurl down their flank, and her Broodlings are incredible in certain scenarios. She nearly wins you Destroy the Supplies and Reconnoitre by herself, and they’re pretty awesome in Heirlooms, Seize Ground and Retrieval too.

The Spider Queen casually strolling through a backfield of Dwarves to claim me three objectives by herself

In the end, the analysis here is whether the extra expense of the Spider Queen (considering that you’re likely bringing a Bat Swarm and need to fit in a banner somewhere else), alongside the loss of your Army Bonus, the smaller banner and her increased fragility, are worthwhile trades for how well she plays certain scenarios and her own raw punch. I think lists built around her end up much stronger in certain matchups and scenarios, but probably a bit weaker overall. She also requires a lot more skill to use than Suladân, who can largely just charge into warriors in the middle and do 6” banner things.

Speaking of models that don’t require much skill to play, this list has two heroes but it needs a battleline…

 

Number 3: Black Númenóreans plus spears

Three different options for the backline, but the front rank is always the same...

The not-so-humble Black Númenórean is yet another of the most efficient profiles in the game; are you sensing a trend here? A wall of them is F4, D6, C4 and causes Terror, synergising perfectly with the Witch King sitting behind them. That already matches up excellently into many opposing lists, and things get even better when you back them up with Morannon Orcs with shields and spears. These guys bring the S4 that the Númenóreans lack, alongside acting as a second wave of D6 in case your opponent finally manages to chew through your front rank.

When you desperately need to scrounge up some points but still want to keep your numbers up, Mordor Orcs with spears can be a viable alternative. They save you a handy 3 points per model, but you’re dropping two points of Defence and one of Strength for that saving. It can be necessary to make certain builds and points levels work, but remember that you are giving up something noticeable for the cost. The budget-version really reduces the hitting power of the battleline, as well as losing you the flexibility to swing your spear supports onto the frontline if you want to swamp an enemy. Being able to swing onto the frontline without exposing your D4 is particularly useful against factions with F5+ – where you want as many 1-on-1 fights as possible– and F5+ lists tend to be amongst the harder matchups for this archetype in any case. So while the Mordor Orcs swell your numbers, there is a real tradeoff here that normally favours the Morannons.

Finally, there are certain points levels where you will struggle to fit in enough Mordor warband slots for the numbers you need. 500 is the perfect example: you probably only want to field the Witch King and Suladân as your heroes, but that only gives you 18 warband slots for your Black Númenóreans and Morannons. The answer? Haradrim warriors with spears (and probably bows). They’re more expensive than Mordor Orcs and honestly don’t bring much value for that, but they allow you to take advantage of Suladân’s 18 slots and sometimes that’s just what you need. At 500 points fielding these guys over Morannons is probably a 7-8 model difference, which is massive in those smaller games. Otherwise, leave these guys at home: they’re just less efficient than the Mordor options you have available.

At 500 points you can fit in a lot more models if you take Haradrim. This list has 37 models!

Those Mordor warriors will generally need more than just the Witch King to lead them though, so you’re going to need…

Number 4: The supporting heroes

There are a so many options in Mordor to back up your two main heroes

Depending on the points level, you’ll probably need 1-2 more Mordor heroes to fill in points and get you the warband slots you need. Beyond leading troops, you want one of two things from these guys: extra combat punch or supporting casting. Thankfully Mordor is blessed with an absolute ton of characters who can provide those things, so this section of the list is by far the most varied.

If you’re looking for combat punch, then you basically have a neat little spectrum ranging all the way from:

•            Grishnakh (the cheapest Striking hero at 50 points, with Backstabber to boot); to
•            Gorbag (55 points, but with conditional F5 and A3 to let him chop his way through warriors more efficiently); to
•            Zagdush (60 points and without resource-free F5, but with permanent A3 and the ability to hit S5 when needed); to
•            Goroth (80 points and not much killier than Zagdush, but much more resilient); to
•           Shagrat (115 points but more resilient still, more resistant to magic, and much, much scarier in combat).

 

5 Striking heroes and then the one auxiliary dude with March 

I think that much like with the backline options, the supporting combat heroes are all relatively balanced against each other, in that you gain valuable things by going up the points spectrum but sacrifice model count for the privilege. Perhaps the one exception is Goroth, who definitely has his uses but is a tiny bit too expensive for them. He doesn’t really hit any harder than Zagdush thanks to only having 2 Attacks, and he’s at the point where you probably just bite the bullet and grab Shagrat to really solve the ‘killing D7 models’ problem. That problem, incidentally, is why I personally lean to Zagdush these days: he’s really reliable at going into a single D7 warrior and killing it, which over 3 turns can add up to a hole in a battleline and a collapsing enemy force. Shagrat, of course, is scarier still in this context, but he also costs the same amount as Zagdush and Gorbag put together, which bring twice the Might and feel a bit stronger to me overall.

Alternatively, you can bring in a second caster. Magic becomes exponentially more valuable the more you have of it because of the way Will stores work, so bringing in a second source of Transfix and Drain Courage powers up the Witch King dramatically. Drain Courage, in particular, is pretty useless if you’ve only got one caster, but rapidly becomes game-winning with two. Picture Aragorn facing two casters and needing to choose between burning all his Will to resist spells you cast on a 2+, or becoming Courage 1 after two turns of casting. With a Terror frontline, that means he can become severely hampered, fast.

Three great options and one that's probably better elsewhere

There are three real options here for Mordor, each with their own selling points and weaknesses. The budget Ringwraith (normally 2/7/1, maybe with an extra Will or a horse) brings the most Will to cast with and the widest variety of spells, with an extra Compel being particularly useful. It also brings an extra Harbinger, which can be useful in larger games. However, it’s also the most vulnerable, and brings absolutely no combat punch to the list.

Muzgur, on the other hand, can add a F4/S4 spear support wherever is needed, and chew through some warriors with his two Attacks to help close out a messy endgame. Wither is a great spell for neutralising S4 heroes (especially foot ones, who really have to resist or watch their damage output crumble), and Heroic Defence is a great tool to have in your back pocket. He also will probably approach the Ringwraith in total number of Will, as once you kill even two models then you’ll have as much Will as the Ringwraith can use without dying. His downside is that his Transfix is only on a 4+, so he’s much less reliable at setting up your combat pieces when they go into enemy heroes. He can still Wither and Drain Courage, but he is just a bit more limited in that regard.

Finally, the Mouth keeps the 3+ Transfix and Terror of the Ringwraith, and backs it up with the most combat power of the three thanks to F5 and A2. The hard cap of 4 Will is noticeable, however, and means that he’s never going to match the Ringwraith for casting. Where the Mouth shines is on an armoured horse, where he’s 15 points more expensive than his comparatives but hits dramatically harder, ending up straddling the ‘second caster’ and ‘added combat punch’ roles neatly.

If you want a second caster then, I’d generally lean to Muzgur as the default option, with the Mouth pipping him if you want to invest the extra points for the added punch, or the Ringwraith being the pick if you really want the extra magic versatility or second Harbinger. A Spider Queen list might really benefit from the extra Compel, for example, while a Suladân version might prefer to have the Mouth completing a trio of F5 mounted heroes to get early kills against tougher enemy battlelines.

You can also make do with Kardush as your second caster, and that's not an awful idea. Without an Orc frontline though, he tends to be just along for his Flameburst, and at that point I think I'd rather have one of the above options instead. Access to a second Transfix or Drain Courage is just a big deal for this kind of list.

At 750 points I've got the Mouth and Zagush, for a bit of casting and a lot of combat punch 

The key question in this section is how to choose between combat punch or a second caster. For me, I tend to prioritise the second caster, but pick one of the more combat-focussed options (the Mouth or Muzgur) first. If I have points for another hero, then I generally like a cheap combat hero like Zagdush, and might upgrade him to Shagrat or just add Gorbag if I make it to 800 points or so.

Finally, there are certain situations when Guritz could also be a worthwhile inclusion in this slot. I’d say that’s only really the case in Maelstrom-heavy scenario packs, and you’ll generally be better off investing in another Striker or spellcaster instead.

So we have our heroes sorted, alongside the battleline we’ll be leading. That likely fills the majority of our points, but we still have room for a handful of supporting elements…

 

Number 5: The rest of the army

A bit of shooting and a few options for mobility

This section basically translates to a handful of Trackers and fast models, depending on whom you allied with.

Basically every Mordor list should include at least one Tracker, which can provide a modicum of shooting threat and the cheapest possible objective-sitter. Some players advocate for 6-12 Trackers, giving you a legitimate shooting threat and swelling your numbers for a very reasonable price. This does shrink your battleline and creates a very squishy underbelly to your list though, so there are definite downsides to taking this approach. I personally am not a fan of shooting in general, so I lean towards smashing people in the face with a brick of D6 infantry, but I can see the appeal of the Tracker variants. On the other hand, a recent game with this list did see my Tracker dismounting Hurin with a cheeky shot, so maybe I should be fielding a few more than I am.

A handful of fast-moving models is always excellent for claiming objectives and sprinting off the board in Reconnoitre, and you’ve got a few options for this. Warg Riders with shields are great, being a little more resilient than people expect and hitting surprisingly hard. Serpent Riders hit even harder on the charge, but are a touch more expensive and vulnerable to S2/4. They also take up slots in Suladân’s warband rather than your Mordor heroes’, which is always an advantage. Finally, if you are running the Spider Queen then you get the option to go either super-budget with Fell Wargs (the cheapest fast option available, albeit with no hitting power at all) or deluxe with Spiders (scary and mobile, but cutting into your numbers). Any option here is solid, and which one will be most appropriate will depend on your specific list.

Finally, if you’re running the Spider Queen then you should take a Bat Swarm. They’re expensive, but they add so much to the list that no other model can replicate. Take one, they’re awesome.

This doubles tournament let us run Gulavhar with a Bat Swarm. Absolute filth

Putting it all together: the army as a whole

All told, this gives you an army that probably looks something like this:

Witch King 3/10/2 on horse with Crown

Mouth of Sauron on armoured horse

Suladân on armoured horse

Zagdush

               Serpent Rider

               Tracker 

               19 Black Númenóreans

               19 Morannon Orcs with spear/shield

750 points, 44 models, 11 Might, 4 fast models, 1 bow

A lot of models, a lot of Might, a lot of tricks, and generally a lot of wins

 It’s a scary-looking list, but how does it play? In general, quite simply. It’s a wall of elite infantry that can grind out most enemy lists with sheer efficiency, and often that will be enough to carry you to victory. Against more elite lists you need to rely on the hitting power of your 4 heroes to do early damage and allow your numbers to swamp them, while against hordes you fall back on your solid battleline to outlast them. Enemy heroes never enjoy facing double casters, and low Courage enemies hate the Terror wall with a burning passion (but from a distance, because they failed their Terror checks to charge).

It's a list that has a lot of potential for skill expression, but isn’t one that requires an expert general to get results from it. At the end of the day it’s still just a wall of efficient infantry backed by efficient heroes, so it’s never going to get you awful results.

It’s also an army with a lot of excellent matchups (Angmar, Survivors of Laketown, Hunter Orcs, basically anything that’s F3 and/or low Courage) but without any awful matchups of its own. Elves can be tricky, but it generally has the numbers to swamp them. Assault on Helm’s Deep or the Beornings are obviously terrifying, but entirely scenario-dependent. Host of the Dragon Emperor is a concern, but hopefully the opponent is already catatonic from the sheer boredom of playing that list. And of course, it's less of a concern post-FAQ because you've likely got a solid numbers edge on it now.

Angmar does not like facing a wall of F4/D6 models with Terror

So, is Witch King plus a friend the best army in the game?

Honestly, I think the answer has to be yes. It is competitive at every points level (at least above 450 or so), it’s never out of the game while being able to effortlessly shut some lists down, and it can compete in every scenario and at every skill level. And the stats bear this out, with a frankly incredible overrepresentation of Witch King/Suladân and (occasionally) Witch King/Spider Queen at the top. Those two lists podiumed 16 times at GBHL 100 tournaments last year, which are the largest and most competitive events around. That’s as many as the two next highest contenders (Assault on Helm’s Deep and Host of the Dragon Emperor) managed between them, and both of those have subsequently been nerfed. I've personally taken it to two tournaments (which you can read about here and here) and gone undefeated both times, so I can attest to its power from personal experience.

Until the Crown of Morgul or Suladân stop dodging FAQs like Aragorn ducking that arrow from the Goblin archers, this is the place to be if you want to lead the armies of Mordor to victory. The time of Men is over, the time of the (Evil) men has begun…

The Mordor elites cutting through a Goblin horde too fast for the Balrog to turn the tide

How do you run your Mordor variants? Do you wish this list was nerfed into the ground, or are you glad it slid by unnoticed? Have you been stomped on by this list and just want to rant? I’d love to hear from you below or on social media.

Until next time, may all your favourite models be 10-15% undercosted!