New Burhdur’s Horde v Pits of Dol Guldur Battle Report

Azog tears apart another Orc Captain. 

Crouched amongst the shadows of the forest, Buhrdur watched the column of Orcs march by. These Orcs were well-equipped but rowdy, hacking a path through the woodlands and clambering awkwardly over the broken ruins. At their head rode a great pale Orc, perched high atop a white Warg, and with them walked an aged Dwarf who seemed to tremble with fear and grief.

These intruders from over the mountains were on Buhrdur’s territory. They marched with the arrogance of those who have nothing to fear, who feel nothing but disdain for the lands around them. Buhrdur would teach them a lesson in respect.

Yells and the clash of blades drifted down the wind from the front of the column, and Burdur smiled grimly to himself; it seemed the interlopers had stumbled upon his main host. Time to spring the trap.

Last article, I tested out the Army of Carn Dûm against my Pits of Dol Guldur, to see whether they were better than the initial analysis had predicted (read here to see how that went). This time around I’m repeating the experiment, but with the appendicised Buhrdur’s Horde Legendary Legion.

This list appeared, on face value, to have more potential to it than the Army of Carn Dûm. Buhrdur is a solid beater hero, and his list has plenty of numbers and some cool tricks to give it punch. Moreover, the models it’s using aren’t inherently overcosted, which already makes it look better than Carn Dûm. Some quick listbuilding showed that it could fit in multiple monsters and a good model count at 550, so it seemed worth a test.

Can Buhrdur do what Aldrac couldn’t? Can he defeat the mighty Pits of Dul Guldur? Let’s find out!

Lists

Decent numbers, although it could have hit 47 quite easily by dropping the Troll

This list probably isn’t quite optimised. Much though it pains me, the Hill Troll should probably be a Wild Warg Chieftain, or frankly just a dozen Orcs. That version of the list would be better in almost every situation, because Trolls of any kind are awful.

However, part of the point of this series is to actually test out models and Legions that look bad on paper to see whether they do better in practice. So, in goes the Hill Troll to back up his buddy Buhrdur.

The rest of the list is pretty standard: a Shaman to deal with the low Courage of all the Orcs, 2 mounted Captains for March and a bit of killing power, and as many Orcs and Wargs as would fit. The model count ended up being pretty solid, although it is wholly unclear to me why this Legion can’t field Trackers. If any list should be fielding them, it’s the one that hunts in the wilds and killed Arathorn with bows! In their absence, I’ve wholly foregone shooting, because Orc Warriors with bow are embarrassingly bad.

Overall, the list has some good punch from the monsters and heroes, plus a heap of mobility to try and leverage them. What it doesn’t have is a better way to address enemy heroes than ‘throw Buhrdur at them and hope’, which is always a concern.

Speaking of which…

This time I remembered to tick the 'White Warg' box for Azog!

I won’t go into this list at all, save to refer you to my last battle report and say that the list is awesome. Azog is super fun to play, and Hunter Orcs rock. Onwards to the scenario!

Scenario and deployment

The scenario here probably favours Angmar, because Buhrdur is much happier fighting on the frontlines when he doesn’t give away any points for being wounded, and his Ambush rule means that Angmar has great odds of killing Thrain and claiming their terrain piece.

To that end, Angmar (secretly) picked Thrain to assassinate, a nice big forest behind where the main clash would likely occur to claim, and the Shaman (the only hero who wasn’t going to be on the frontlines) to protect. In return, Pits picked one of the Captains to kill, the White Warg to protect (super sneaky Azog tech!) and a nice midfield rock formation to claim. Very standard, classic picks all around.

Where is Burhdur's warband? In Ambush!

Deployment was also pretty standard, with limited shooting on either side. The one exception was that Buhrdur deployed in Ambush, waiting to pop up behind the main Pits force to try to assassinate Thrain.

Turns 1-2: Thrain goes mad

Azog zooms ahead to create a nice 10" bubble of death

The first two turns were understandably quiet, with both sides shuffling up to position for the big clash on Turn 3. Pits moved first and surged forward with Azog, using his threat range to control the centre of the map. This forced Angmar to move cautiously, as they really didn’t want Azog speeding in and starting his rampage on the second turn.

With Angmar ‘winning’ Priority on the second turn, they faced the same conundrum of being unable to advance far without getting stomped by Azog. As such they moved cautiously again, actually shuffling backwards in places to limit where Azog could get to after two turns worth of movement. In return, Pits marched up, with Azog nosing into range of a number of juicy targets.

Azog ready to go straight into Orcs or the Troll

The highlight of Turn 2 was actually Thrain failing his Broken Mind check, charging a Warg, losing the fight and getting wounded! That already put Angmar 1 point up, and is an example of the risks Thrain poses in games where I need to protect him against faster armies (or those with Ambush mechanics).

Thrain, buddy, I know you're having a bad day, but this just isn't helpful

Turns 3-4: Ambush, and Surprise Attack!

Turn 3 opened with Thrain passing his Courage check and running back to try to catch up with the main group, sheltering behind the Warg that had just wounded him. It’s a weird relationship, alright?

Otherwise, the main Pits force moved up, with just a few diverted to try to protect Thrain. Azog, meanwhile, hurtled straight into some Orcs, hoping to Heroic Combat away off them to threaten the Troll and constrain Angmar’s heroes.

Angmar shut this down, however, by simply charging three more Orcs into Azog. He’s terrifying, but not even Azog can kill 5 Orcs in one combat! The Troll also tried to join in, but failed his Courage check. The rest of the main battleline spread out to try to hold off the Pits right, while one mounted Captain charged into a lone Fell Warg to hopefully Heroic Combat back from there to the Pits backlines.

Most of these Orcs are screwed, but at least they'll hold down Azog for the turn

And speaking of those backlines, they were suddenly filled with Orcs as Buhrdur’s warband arrived! They took up position within 1” of the ruin Thrain was sheltering next to, with Buhrdur himself arriving mere inches from the Dwarf. Scary!

Where did all those Orcs come from? And the Troll? What?

In the fight phase, Azog had to burn 2 Might to win the combat, but promptly slew three of his foes. In exchange, the Orc Captain Heroic Combatted off his Warg into a Hunter Orc, riding him down and nearly evening the kill tallies.

The tides seem to be turning in favour of Angmar, but that Orc Captain is just a hair too close...

Unfortunately, after a quick measure, it appeared that this had put the Captain within 10” of Azog– albeit with plenty of models in the way. Moreover, unbeknownst to Angmar, this Orc Captain was the Pits target to kill. As such, Azog promptly declared Surprise Attack to auto-win Priority, moving the Hunter Orcs out of the way then slamming into his prey.

Well, that's three points to Pits

Elsewhere, Thrain kept hold of his senses and ran from Buhrdur as fast as his little Dwarf legs could manage, using two Wargs and a couple of nearby Hunter Orcs to scrap together a wall against the Troll. The rest of the Dol Guldur left went snarling in to face Buhrdur’s warband, while their right hurtled into the main Angmar line.

There's a lot of Hunter Orcs on this flank, it could start to dissolve rapidly unless this Hurl goes off

In return, Buhrdur stalked forward but couldn’t make it into combat, while the Hill Troll went into the flank of the Dol Guldur right to try to hurl down the line. That backfired, however, with the Troll losing its fight (with backup!) to a single Hunter Orc, before taking a wound back as well! That wasn’t a good sign for this flank, which saw the heavily-outnumbered Angmar losing 4 models for a single dead Hunter Orc in return.

Even the Troll's free reroll against infantry didn't help it here!

The other clash went better for Angmar, however, with their banner proving crucial and a number of Hunter Orcs falling. The trapped Orc Captain facing Azog was brave to the last, calling a Heroic Combat (and winning the roll-off) to successfully pin Azog in place and stop him Combatting into the Troll. Still, the Captain was properly minced, putting Azog back in the lead for VPs.

Turns 4-5: Literally running away with the VPs

Angmar won the following Priority, but Pits managed to win the crucial Heroic Move-off between the Hunter Orc Captain and Buhrdur. Thrain also retained his questionable sanity, allowing him to join in the Heroic Move.

What Pits realised on this turn is that almost all the VPs were tied up in 5 models: Azog, Thrain and the Hunter Orc Captain (potential targets for Angmar to assassinate, and the confirmed points for protecting the White Warg), and the Orc Shaman and Captain behind the main Angmar battleline. As such, by moving all of their heroes towards the main Angmar line, Pits could both protect their heroes (away from Buhrdur) and hopefully hunt down the two Angmar heroes that might be targets to protect.

They did this by first moving Thrain down to a safer position, then slamming Azog and the Hunter Orc Captain into the wounded Hill Troll. They also erected a valiant rearguard effort, using a Fell Warg to pin Buhrdur in place while the nearby Hunter Orcs and Gundabads tried to hold back his warband.

Buhrdur is only fighting the Warg, but the Hunter Orc is there to stop him Heroic Combatting/Barging anywhere too interesting 

Importantly, the positioning of the Wargs pinning Buhrdur meant that Azog could still Heroic Combat into him from the Hill Troll. This forced Buhrdur to Heroic Strike to avoid getting slaughtered by Azog, wasting his Might point and promptly losing his fight to the lone Warg, being trapped and wounded twice! An unfortunate display for the big Troll.

A tactic I honed over many, many games with Gully

Azog, on the other hand, happily rode down the Hill Troll, before Heroic Combatting into the rear lines of the main Angmar force. The bloody turn that followed saw this flank reduced to only three Orcs to protect the Shaman and final Orc Captain, although a number of Hunter Orcs were slain across the two fronts as well.

Many less Angmar Orcs on this flank than there used to be!

Angmar won both Priority and the Heroic Move-off on the following turn, using it to tie up Azog with an Orc and sneak the Shaman (their target to protect) away through the ruins to survive another turn. This did require leaving the Orc Captain behind to block the way, however, and Azog predictably Heroic Combatted into him and eviscerated another hero. That left just the Shaman on this flank, with the resulting carnage being enough to Break Angmar as well.

Another Orc Captain falls to Azog, with just the Shaman remaining

Pits weren’t having it all their own way, however, with Buhrdur smashing down two of the Fell Wargs that had been pinning him down all game, while his warband continued to whittle down the Gundabads and Hunter Orcs on this flank. This still left Pits 5 models away from Breaking, however.

This flank at least looks a lot better for Angmar

Turns 6-7: The collapse

Pits won Priority on Turn 6, and Buhrdur opted to counter with a Heroic Move using his last point of Might. This wasn’t ideal, but the alternative was Buhrdur getting tagged and the rest of his buddies running away from failed Break checks.

As it happened, however, Buhrdur promptly failed his own Break check (by one) and then ran away, and then all bar a handful of the Orcs on that flank disappeared into the mists. 

This has not been a good day for Buhrdur

One of the survivors did manage to get into the Angmar terrain piece, so if the game ended this turn then that would at least be worth some VPs.

Elsewhere, Pits swarmed models onto their designated bit of ruin, while surrounding the Orc Shaman with 3 Hunter Orcs and the Hunter Orc Captain. Unsurprisingly, he got shredded.

Azog leaves the Shaman to his minions, who promptly do him proud anyway

If the game had ended this turn then the outcome would have been a 12:4 win to Pits, with Angmar having wounded their target (Thrain) and secured their terrain piece. Unfortunately, it kept going another turn, and this was sufficient for Azog to kill the remaining two Orcs to table Angmar for a 12:1 victory to Pits!

State of the battlefield at the end

Final casualty pools

Strategy review

As with the last game, this one appeared to be going well for the Angmar Legendary Legion before Pits came back to stomp them in the second half. Angmar’s strategy of bring Buhrdur in behind the Dol Guldur lines to disrupt them and threaten Thrain worked quite well, and it meant that Pits wasn’t always able to leverage their superior hitting power in the way that they hoped. And if Thrain had failed a couple more Broken Mind checks, then Buhrdur could have taken him out and gained a heap of benefits from doing do. However, a couple of small errors and a good strategic play by Pits allowed them to run away with the game.

Buhrdur should probably have come in right in that doorway to force Thrain out away from Azog

Starting with the errors, Burhdur probably shouldn’t have come in exactly where he did. If he’d deployed on the other side of Thrain then he would have been forcing Thrain back away from his battleline, and ensuring that there was no safe spot for the Dwarf to go. This would have run the risk of Azog barrelling straight into Burhdur and plausibly just killing him, but I think Angmar should have taken that risk. If Buhrdur dies then it’s not the end of the world, but if he wins the fight against Azog then he can do awful things like Hurl him off the White Warg, which may well have won Angmar the game in one fell swoop.

Following that, the Orc Captain on the right flank should have stayed more than 10” away from Azog. This was just a measurement error, and a classic failure to consider the impact of Surprise Attack in making some plays much more terminal.

Finally, the Pits play of prioritising all the non-leader heroes worked excellently. It kept Thrain and the Hunter Orc Captain away from Burhdur, while ensuring that there was no way for the last Angmar Orc Captain or the Shaman to escape. As it turned out, Angmar collapsed anyway, but even if they hadn’t then Pits had done a great job of ensuring that all the VPs were in a section of the board that they controlled.

Always good to have the models that are worth VPs surrounded by lots of buddies and your Army Leader 

Army reviews

Starting again with Pits, this was one mission where I would have preferred a Gundabad Captain over Thrain and a Hunter Orc Captain. Thrain can be a liability in Fog, but only against lists that can threaten deep into your backfield. That’s absolutely true here, and meant that I had to keep him with my main force. And when doing that, there’s always a chance that he goes mad and either kills a friendly model or gets himself hurt– as he did here, conceding the only VP that Angmar ended up getting. I still think Thrain is the better choice for the list as a whole, but in this specific matchup/scenario combo, I’d have preferred the Gundabad Captain.

This certainly wasn't a great moment for Thrain

Otherwise, the Pits list was awesome, as it always is.

On that theme, it definitely felt like there was some promise in Burhdur’s Horde. Being able to bring a whole warband and its Troll leader in within an inch of a terrain feature on Turn 3 felt excellent, and quite tricky to play around or neuter. It would obviously be even better in a scenario like Destroy the Supplies, where that warband is almost guaranteed to burn some supplies in your backfield. Coupled with the solid numbers (which could have been excellent numbers in a more optimised list), it feels like this LL could work okay at low points.

This surprise deployment really threw a wrench in the Pits plan, and would have worked even better against a faction that depended more on maintaining a solid formation

Unfortunately, the iconic way of running it (with lots of Orcs flowing around the feet of several Trolls) is not great. That was ably demonstrated in this game by the Hill Troll, which failed a Terror check, lined up a good Hurl, botched its rolls, and then got flashkilled by heroes in classic Troll fashion. On the one hand, there was some poor luck there: the Troll should have beaten that lone Hunter Orc, and then killed 2-3 of them with the Hurl. But at the same time, fielding a combat piece with no Might brings with it the inherent risk that your opponent will roll a six and you just… won’t.

And even if the Hurl had gone off, the Troll would still have been killed by Azog on the next turn, and there was frankly nothing much that Angmar could have done about it. Trying to screen a large-based, slow-moving model that needs to be on the frontlines to do damage is a recipe for frustration. Even Burhdur suffered a fair amount for his lack of mobility, getting pinned out of the fight quite easily and menaced by Azog’s Heroic Combats. Unfortunately, the time has not yet come for things like Hill Trolls to be viable. Next edition.

Pictured: a Hill Troll being killed effortlessly by Azog en route to more important things

Also, it should be noted again that having access to Trackers would have improved this Legion competitively. Why is that not an option GW? Why?

This approach certainly feels different if Angmar has a dozen Shoot 4+ bows!

Burhdur cleaved through the last Warg, his pick finally connecting to smash apart his nimble foe. He roared his triumph, but even as he did so he felt the blood leeching from his side where the wolf had dived under his guard.

As he raised his eyes from the immediate melee to look over the field, he saw the day was lost. The Pale Orc had just ridden down another of his captains, and the main body of Burhdur’s Orcs had collapsed entirely. The Orcs around Burhdur’s feet were still fighting grimly, but it was clear that no victory was coming today.

Buhrdur cursed in his thick, brutish voice. But he was patient. He could raise more Orcs, gather another Horde and return for his revenge. Next time, the Pale Orc would know the sting of Burdur’s blade.

Calling to his warriors to follow, Burhdur turned and disappeared back into the forest.

I hope you enjoyed another Rise of Angmar battle report, with a little bit more love for the new Legendary Legion than last time around. If you’ve had experiences playing with or against the new Angmar Legendary Legions, I’d love to hear them. And generally, what are your thoughts on the book? Is it a fitting sendoff to a great edition, or just another money-grab? I’d love to hear from you.

And until next time, may you never forget about Surprise Attack!