The Witch King on Fell Beast may be less efficient, but it's very scary! (Minis for War)
The Witch King is arguably the best model in the entire game, and the centrepiece of many competitive lists. Moreover, he’s also extremely flexible, able to be built as a 70-point support caster or a >250-point death machine that can do it all, or anywhere in between.
With that flexibility, however, comes a lot of hard
decisions. Do you run him on foot, on horse, or even on Fell Beast? What about
the Crown, Morgul Blade or the flail? And perhaps most importantly, how much
Might/Will/Fate should he have? The flexibility of this model is its strength,
but also its weakness, as it makes it very easy to build a sub-optimal Witch
King.
As such, this series is going to go through a few of these
key choices, talking through the times when you might opt for one particular
variant of the Witch King over another. In this article we’ll be starting with
the three basic ‘types’ of Witch Kings and when you might field each of them,
before moving in the next article into the contentious discussion of how much
Might, Will and Fate you should take. Finally, we’ll close out the series with
a standalone discussion of the Morgul Blade and whether it’s worthwhile
including.
To start off with, let’s dive into our first example build
for the Witch King:
Harbinger of budget issues: 90
points
Our first viable build for the Witch King is 3/10/1 on foot
without any additional equipment, at 90 points.
This is nearly as cheap as a Witch King can be built, but we
have opted for the maximum Might and a single Fate. The former is there because
Might is almost always worth more than 5 points per pop, so it’s a great
investment. And the latter is added because the Witch King will generally be
your army leader, both because he’s a Hero of Legend (so will often have to
be), and because he’s a fairly defensive model with D8 and little interest in
being on the frontlines. You probably don’t need a second Fate– seeing as you would prefer to
just never be attacked at all–
but having none at all is just inviting the Legolases of the world to snipe
you.
What this variant brings is solid spellcasting, along with 3
Might, 18 warband slots, Harbinger of Evil and the ability to be your army
leader over more fragile Heroes of Legend like Suladân. He could fit well into
an Angmar horde– which
would basically be using him as an upgraded Barrow Wight with Harbinger and
some Might– or into a
500-point Witch King/Suladân list, where his casting is a support function and
you’re primarily excited about the Heroic tier, warband slots and Harbinger. He
does also retain Heroic Strike, which can be clutch when an enemy hero
is surrounded and out of Might/Transfixed. With only 1 Attack, however, he’s definitely
not a combat hero, so plan accordingly.
The critical things missing from this build are the Crown of
Morgul and a horse. The former in particular is a huge loss: it
transforms the Witch King from a good spellcaster to a great one, who also
happens to be a solid combat piece. With the accoutrements of a horse and an
additional Fate (which we’ll discuss below), this upgrade costs a minimum of 40
points, but it is exceptionally good value for what you get. So why
would we ever leave it behind?
The answer is basically numbers. At low points values those
40 points can translate into 5-7 less models in your army, which can be the
difference between your troops overwhelming the enemy or being outnumbered and
whittled down. The upgrade to our next variant of the Witch King will always be
great value, so you would only not take it where you desperately need
those points to fit in numbers. Generally this happens around 450-500 points,
as below that you probably aren’t fielding the Witch King and above that it’s
worthwhile finding the 40 points to boost him up to his full potential.
If you’re fielding the Black Riders Legendary Legion, then
I’d recommend fielding basically this build but with an additional Fate (and
obviously the obligatory horse). If you could take the Crown in that Legion
then you absolutely would, but alas, you don’t get the opportunity to take the
best Witch King variant, which is…
Sauron’s most efficient lieutenant: 130
points
The second competitive variant of the Witch King is 3/10/2
on horse with the Crown of Morgul. This is the cheapest way that you can run
this particular style of Witch King, with up to 5 extra Will and 1 extra Fate
being viable additions to the build (although see next article for why you may
not want to bother).
In any case, this is peak efficiency for the Witch King.
He’s still quite cheap (only a little more than someone like Éomer), while
combining a very nice combat profile with some of the best casting in the
entire game. Compared to someone like Gandalf the Grey, he’s got arguably-better casting and much better combat for a massive 50-point discount; and
don’t even try to compare him to Gandalf the White, it will just make you sad.
He does all of this on top of keeping your army leader VPs fairly safe, providing
a lot of warband slots and spooking out your enemy with Harbinger, just like
the budget variant we just looked at.
This model is far too versatile for full tactics to be
written up here. See this recent tournament report for examples of him carving
through Goblins as a combat hero, Compelling a Crébain forward to ride it down
and save the game for me, spamming Transfixes at Elessar to neutralise
240-points of combat punch all game, sniping a critical banner with Black Dart,
and using Sap Will and Harbinger to shut down a horde of Orcs and Goblins
backed by a Shaman. That’s all in one tournament!
The key with this variant of the Witch King is working out
how much to prioritise his casting versus his combat. He can do both at times,
but not consistently. That’s for two reasons, one more significant than the
other.
Firstly, both cost him Will, which means they obviously
compete against each other. We’ll go into exactly how big of an issue this
actually is (with data!) next time around, but it’s certainly true that every
Will point spent in combat isn’t one you can spend casting.
Secondly, and more significantly, when you commit a model to
combat there’s generally a 50/50 chance that your opponent will get to tag them
before they can move on your next turn. Obviously Terror, the positioning of
battlelines and relative Might disparities all play into this, but in general
you only get to both cast and fight on the turn you commit him to combat
and about every second turn after that. The only way to guarantee that you’ll
get to cast with the Witch King on a given turn is having him safely behind
your lines, so charging into combat involves accepting that he might not be
casting next turn.
As such, you need to decide which of his casting or his
combat is more important to you in a given matchup. If you’re up against Elessar,
then his casting could generate enormous value just by spamming Transfix all
game. On the other hand, if you’re going into an Elf shieldwall then maybe you
need him charging in and Striking to chop holes for your troops to pour
through. This decision is the hardest part of using this model, perhaps even
harder than deciding which of his arsenal of spells will be most useful in a
given context.
I imagine it’s probably becoming obvious by now that the question
of when to field this model has a lot of good answers. I would say that for
Mordor and Angmar lists, you should probably start all of your lists with this
guy and then switch things up if it doesn’t fit well for some reason. He likely
doesn’t fit into Barad-dûr lists easily until higher points, but is excellent
support for Sauron once you get there.
Allied lists should seriously consider slotting this variant
of the Witch King in as well. Obviously things like Witch King/Suladân are
competitive, but lots of other lists would benefit from bringing in this guy
and a detachment of Black Numénóreans. He adds serious magical threat while
ensuring you can also flex to combat punch if required, and his efficient troops
options complement a lot of lists as well. If your army can ally with Mordor,
then definitely have a think about whether it’s worthwhile fitting him in.
This version of the Witch King may be peak efficiency, but
what about if you want something a bit scarier? At that point, you may be
interested in…
Death on wings: 195 points
The Witch King in his final form starts at 195 points, at
3/14/3 on a Fell Beast with the Morgul Crown. Again, I could see a few more
Will being justified in certain metas, but again, I this is heaps for
the vast majority of games.
This is actually the variant of the Witch King that I have
the least experience with, as I think for most lists the previous one will be
more reliable. However, that’s not to say that the 65 points you spend to trade
up here aren’t getting you some serious benefits.
These benefits can basically be condensed into: you get a
flying monster in your list. For about the same points cost as Gûlavhar, you
get to do a lot of what he can pull off, with the added benefit of top-tier
casting as well. The models aren’t quite analogous in their capabilities
(Heroic Strike does add an extra tool to the Witch King’s arsenal, while S8, F7
and A4 mean that Gûlavhar’s damage output is still a long way above the Witch
King’s), but a lot of the power of flying monsters is in their threat anyway.
If your opponent is having to keep 4-5 warriors standing around in their
backfield to prevent you swooping down and killing their leader/banner/key
support piece, then those are 4-5 warriors you’ve taken out of the fight just
by existing.
As such, I think the way you generally want to run the Witch
King on Fell Beast will be in a supporting role initially, using his threat and
magic to earn value from behind your lines, before pouncing on a vulnerable
target and hopefully cleaning up in the midgame. In this context, you’re not
necessarily expecting that you’ll kill 65 points more stuff with this version
than the previous one, but you’re hoping that the extra utility and threat plus
a few extra kills will translate into good value.
Honestly, this build for the Witch King is great, and by far
the biggest reason not to take him is that the 130-point variant also exists
and you can’t take both. In my Angmar list, for example, which centres around
the Witch King and Gûlavhar, I would absolutely replace Gûlavhar with a second
Witch King on Fell Beast if I could. Sadly I can’t, however, and the 130-point
variant on horse is too critical to the list to consider fitting in the Fell
Beast.
Where the Fell Beast variant works best is probably at
points values where you’ve fitted all your key pieces in already alongside
adequate numbers, and are looking to add more tools instead. My 750-point Witch
King/Suladân list, for example, has just about everything it needs already. If
I was to upgrade it to 800 or 850, then fitting in a Fell Beast for the Witch
King seems like a great way to do so.
I could also see running this build at lower points as your
primary hitter. I’m less keen on this, primarily because it places a lot of
eggs in one basket. If you charge your 130-point Witch King into two random
warriors and flub your rolls, you risk instantly losing your leader, primary
caster, source of Harbinger, and secondary damage threat. The Fell Beast
variant is arguably more prone to this–
as it’s likely to be fighting more and in more dangerous positions– while also costing 50% more. If you were relying
on the Witch King for all those things as well as being your primary damage
dealer, then losing him is likely game-ending.
Wrap up: which Witch is best for
you?
Unsurprisingly then, the three primary variants of the Witch
King end up working best at different points levels. The 90-point budget
variant only really works at low points, the 195-point variant is definitely
best at high points, and the 130-point variant is good pretty much all the
time.
If you take one thing away from this article, it should be
that the 130-point Witch King (3/10/2 on horse with Crown) is excellent, and
should be a go-to model for almost any list he can fit in. The other two
variants definitely have their places, but it is this one that generally gets
the tournament wins, and it’s this one that you should always be considering.
Of course, there’s a fair amount of controversy about how
much Will and Fate these Witch King variants should have, with almost everyone
recommending at least 14 Will. For why I’d push back on that, tune in to the
next article, where I go through my data from 26 tournament games with the
Witch King to determine whether he really needs the extra stats.
Until then, may you always have the right Witch King!
Great article as always - perhaps my Nemesis article got some wheels turning? :P
ReplyDeleteGenerally speaking, a Witch-King with Crown and a horse of some kind is going to be a better combatant than Gandalf the Grey/White and will do so at a steep discount. I will, as the world's greatest proponent of Gandalf the White, just mention ever so casually that a 1 Wound/1 Fate Witch-King - no matter how much Will he has in his store - does not want to see Gandalf the White on the other side of the table. Yes, he's going to be more than 100pts cheaper than Gandalf - but every Banishment spell that's cast by Gandalf has a chance of killing the guy, and with only 1 Fate point, there's a risk of having to burn Might to pass the Fate roll and if you rely on Fate the first time, then you have to resist the spell (paying those dear, dear Will points and possibly might points) to stay on the board.
Chances are good that if Gandalf has killed the Witch-King, he can kill 100pts of other models - or at least have his friends protected enough that his supporting cast of heroes can kill things. I've been running Gandalf with Imrahil and Forlong recently - if those guys aren't being shut down by magic, they can ride through warriors (and some heroes) without much difficulty. Whether with Sorcerous Blast or Immobilize, an unchecked Gandalf can be a real trouble-maker. But then again . . . the chances you see him outside of a list I run are quite low. :)
I think people sleep on gandalf. He is a lot of points but as a Sauron player he isn't that many points and can do a lot of work, the extra movement of a mount for a caster is so much invisible value it can't be understated. I also hate running less than 3 gate on the witch king as there are too many ways a lucky wound hits him and one fate is too risky for me to lose such a key model.
DeleteThese articles were actually already sitting ready to go, but the Nemesis article certainly helped decide which order to post from my backlog!
DeleteI would agree that Gandalf the White does match up relatively well into the Witch King, because Fortify Spirit and Banishment are both great against him. And the threat of things like Banishment (and, probably more common, Legolas) does incline me to taking 2 Fate on anything above the no-Crown version (who, if he absorbs Gandalf's attention for 3-4 turns, will have probably done his job pretty well really).
Having fought Gandalf the White a couple of times recently with the Witch King and friends, however, I think that it runs into the problem that Gandalf always faces: time. He will definitely win a magical duel with the Witch King, and can definitely kill 100 points worth of stuff. But can he win the magical duel fast enough to then have an impact on the game? Assuming that he spends the first turn Fortifying his Spirit, and maybe a couple more turns doing the same for Forlong and Imrahil (because Mordor or Angmar will each have an extra caster or two in any game big enough to include Gandalf), then he may only have 3 turns left of combat before the game ends if both players started close. That's 3 turns to burn through a minimum of 9 safe Will with a Resist reroll, or 2-3 Fate. That obviously assumes the WK isn't doing much else, but if he's amusing Gandalf for the whole game then he doesn't have to, because he's generating nearly double his value just by not dying. And even if Gandalf does get all his Fortify Spirits off before combat, can he actually kill a 3/10/2 WK in 6 turns? Assuming he's throwing two Will per turn at it, he probably botches once or twice, then the WK probably throws two Will plus a reroll back at any roll of a 5-6, and tanks 1-2 on Fate (presumably burning Might on either the Resist or Fate roll, because he doesn't need to do anything but survive to get value in this matchup). That's probably enough to survive the game, and if it looks hairy then you can always skedaddle >12" behind your line and probably be safe for the rest of the game. Even assuming that this happens after the 4th turn of Banishments (probably optimistic really), that still only gives Gandalf 2 turns of getting to do things other than target the WK. Will he get 110 points of value from that? Maybe, but I would be pretty surprised to see it.
The time thing really is what I keep coming back to. In order to have a shot at breaking even in this matchup, I think he probably needs 3 turns before the engagement, then 6 full turns of combat. Given that you've got ~500 points invested in three heroes, it seems optimistic to expect more than 6 turns of combat before quartering, or more than 9 turns total at most events. I'm sure that he could do well in certain scenarios and matchups, but every time I've faced him I've been able to just rush him before he could start racking up the value
I didn't manage to get all three heroes into a list until I hit 1000 points (some guys were prepping for a 1000pt tournament in our group, so I finally got to field the full complement. With almost 60 models at 1000pts, breaking wasn't impossible, but it was pretty hard. At a more reasonable points level (call it 650), you're looking at either Imrahil or Forlong - and yes, the points add up. With Imrahil and Gandalf, you're looking at 250pts in a 650 matchup, which allows you to get ~27 warriors (if you stick to Warriors of Minas Tirith, Rangers of Gondor with spears, Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth, and Blackroot Vale Archers) . . . which is less than your Witch-King/Suladan/Mouth list will get around that points level for sure. Breaking could certainly be a problem - but if Imrahil is allowed to do what he wants to do (with Fortify Spirit up), chances are good that the Witch-King, Suladan, and the Mouth will stay away and focus on warriors, hoping Imrahil just stalls out. If that's the matchup, Gandalf the White might choose to delay working down the Witch-King and instead throw warriors into the heroes with Sorcerous Blast to make sure they don't get to double-die anything.
DeleteBut this does lead into the discussion you had on time again - if Imrahil (and probably Gandalf) wants Fortify Spirit up before the arrival of the enemy (which isn't a given depending on the deployment options for the scenario), then casting on the enemy as they advance isn't going to happen. Terrifying Aura is probably never getting up, but that's probably fine while there are Black Nums around. With five rounds accounted for with two Fortify Spirits and three Sorcerous Blasts, it's questionable how long he'll be able to work down the Witch-King, but if the Witch-King is burning Will to try to stall Imrahil or fight, a good Banishment might just do the trick.
At 1000 that list makes a lot more sense to me (and so does Gandalf the White generally); I'm still not sure he's the most efficient option, but efficiency does become less significant in those really big games where you care more about fitting in the tools. At that stage I think things like WK/Sully start to struggle a little, and I'd be more scared of some of the Good heavy infantry battlelines that start to proliferate.
DeleteAt 650 WK/Sully tends to have ~37 models, which is fairly intimidating when they're almost all D6. The warrior fights likely favour Evil across the line, as they'll be generally even FV (except maybe within 3" of Imrahil), probably both have banner rerolls, and Evil has a S4 spear support and rerolls 1's to wound (for a little under 75% more damage output). Given that they're backed by 3 F5 mounted heroes and are outnumbered nearly 3:2, there's a risk of a snowball happening there. I definitely agree that if Imrahil has Fortify Spirit up then he'll probably be allowed to rampage, but it only takes 1 turn of successful Heroic Combats from the Evil heroes to put Good on the brink of Breaking.
In that context, I think Gandalf would absolutely want to be Blasting into the heroes as you've suggested, because otherwise the tempo really runs away from Good here. Really, the only way Good takes this is probably having Imrahil and Gandalf kill several of the Evil heroes quite fast, because their warriors will fold too quickly without the heroes getting the edge in the first couple turns. I'm not sure I like Good's odds of killing Sully or the WK that quickly (the Mouth maybe, given that he can't Strike), but it definitely seems like the way to go.
It's an interesting matchup to consider though, and one that I'd love to test if you're ever free for a TTS game!