In this first post, I will 'Build Me an Army Worthy of... Angmar.' Now Angmar is my original evil army and brought me reasonable success. I love the range of special rules aimed debuffing your opponent and shutting down their key units. The fun (or frustration for your opponent) in an Angmar list comes from utilising your spells and rules to blunt your opponent at every step. It's an entirely unique play style within MESBG rules and can be a challenge to play successfully. However, when you get the synergies going, you end up with a terrifying host of orcs, spirits, monsters and wraiths.
The Witch King Rising - 500pts
The Witch King (3/14/3) on armoured horse with the Crown of Morgul.
2 orcs with shield
2 orcs with two-handed weapon
3 orcs with spear
1 orc with spear, shield and banner
1 warg rider with shield
2 dead marsh spectres
Orc Captain on warg with shield
2 orcs with shield
2 orcs with two-handed weapon
4 orcs with spear
1 warg rider with shield
Barrow-Wight
2 orcs with shield
2 orcs with two-handed weapon
4 orcs with spear
1 warg rider
This 32 model list brings along the OG of Angmar, big daddy Witch King. The Witch King provides immense versatility to any list and can be kitted out to fill a huge number of roles, In this army, as with a lot of Angmar armies he is in, he is both your harassing spellcaster and your hero assassin. With a solid amount of Will and the always vital 3 Might (a must in an Angmar list), he can support your army from a distance, safely chucking out a few key transfixes and black darts with great reliability thanks to his pointy crown. After weakening the enemy heroes and managing to transfix them (or even better, paralyse with the Barrow-Wight), he becomes the scalpel which carefully removes the pesky opposition. The armoured horse adds a bit more protection from most bow-fire and gives the Witch King the mobility he requires. At 500pts, there isn't much that can reliably take him on.
He is ably support by a core of 8 orcs who are there to grind down opposition troops and grab objectives, as well as 1 providing the must-include banner in the army. There is an argument for shields on the spears (for me, D4 to D5 is negligible) and no two-handed weapons but I like the versatility the 2 handed weapons give you. First they help with tough D6 opponents but also synergise fantastically with the Barrow-Wight. You don't care about a -1 penalty to your duel roll when you don't need to roll in the first place! They are great at jumping on the helpless, paralysed bodies of enemy heroes (or banner bearers if you are feeling particularly mean). The warg rider is there for some mobility and he can be used to deny cavalry bonuses or to knock-down enemies where required, being S4 also helps significantly! The final piece in Mr. King's warband are 2 spectres. The spectres 'A Fell Light is in Them' rule has the potential to be insanely good. It struggles against elves and fails outright against bodyguard models but the opportunity to move enemy models their full move away is great. You can move away banners, spear supports or low-courage heroes to hamper the enemy but the real joy comes when you move a model out of a prepared spear wall and in to charge range, allowing Heroic Combat slingshots into heroes your opponent thought were safe, or when moving a model with a relic or off an objective in a key turn. It's always worth bring a couple along to widen your options.
The second warband brings along a further 8 orcs to add more numbers and an extra warg rider as well as the important Orc Captain. Now Orc Captains are, essentially, rubbish. Their stats are average (and that is being kind) but they fulfill a hugely valuable role. I have chosen to avoid bringing any bows in my army so the Heroic March available from the Captain allows the army to close the gap quickly. It also come in handy against other armies lacking ranged threat as you can use the extra mobility from Marches to apply pressure where needed or use the Captain's Might for Heroic Moves, allowing you to preserve the Witch King's Might for more effective uses.
The final warband brings the same warrior composition as the Captain but is lead by one of the most iconic Angmar models in the game, a Barrow-Wight. A terrible fighter with no Might, the Barrow-Wight brings three other things to the table; high courage, terror and, by far the most important, paralyse. First, the high courage of 6 helps to keep your orcs on the battlefield if you are broken with a key Stand Fast. Second, the Barrow-Wight itself is terror causing which can be a pain for the opponent but, crucially, it also provides a 3" terror aura for all orcs thanks to the army bonus. Sit the Barrow-Wight (and the Witch King) just behind your orcs and you can easy have a 10" front line of terror causing orcs. Fantastic! Finally, paralyse. Oh my what a crazy little spell. 4+ to paralyse your opponent and render them useless for potentially the entire game - although, given they automatically lose fights, they rarely last the turn - unless they get lucky with dice rolls. Combined with the Witch King slinging spells around, your opponent ends up having to save their Will to resist a paralyse and be bullied by the Witch King all game or resist the Witch King and end up helpless on the floor and hacked to bits by measly orcs. Always bring along at least 1 Barrow-Wight but at 500pts, where you often only have 1 big enemy hero to shut down, the Barrow-Wight is insane.
This army should look to use the Captain's March to manoeuvre into position, harass the opponent with a barrage of spells from the Witch King and Barrow-Wight and remove the opponent's heroes from the board early. When it has achieved that, it's a case of grinding down the opponent whilst continuing to put the odds in its favour with well-timed spells in key areas.
The Witch King Reigns - 800pts
The Witch King (3/16/3) on Fell Beast with the Crown of Morgul.
2 orcs with shield
2 orcs with two-handed weapon
3 orcs with spear
1 orc with spear, shield and banner
1 warg rider with shield
3 dead marsh spectres
Orc Captain on warg with shield
2 orcs with shield
2 orcs with two-handed weapon
4 orcs with spear
1 warg rider with shield
Barrow-Wight
2 orcs with shield
2 orcs with two-handed weapon
4 orcs with spear
1 warg rider
Barrow-Wight
2 orcs with shield
2 orcs with two-handed weapon
3 orcs with spear
Shade
2 orcs with shield
2 orcs with two-handed weapon
4 orcs with spear
At 800pts, I take the themes of the first list (magic dominance, attrition and control) and turn them up to 11! The Witch King adds a couple of Will to compensate for the bigger army size. I have gone to 18 Will in the past but feel as though 16 is the sweet spot for magic and combat potential. However the biggest change is swapping out his horse for a big bad flying beast (sorry to all the fluff and lore fans out there!). The addition of a fell beast achieves two things: firstly, you now have extra mobility and the opportunity to fly over models to apply pressure where needed and, secondly, you become a huge combat threat which is needed against the other Middle Earth big boys roaming the battlefields at 800pts. Be careful not to pull the trigger too soon with the FB, it is easy to over extend so still treat the Witch King as a scalpel not a hammer. The difference being that the scalpel now has wings and razor sharp teeth. The only other change to his warband is adding a 3rd spectre for more A Fell Light shenanigans.
Warbands 2 and 3 are identical to the 500pts list with the benefits the same as before. It is in warband 4 where we see an extra Barrow-Wight. As you can tell by my fangirling above, I think Barrow-Wights are superb. A second one gives you 10 Will on the battlefield to try and paralyse opponent's key models as well as further extending your terror battleline. With the WK and two Barrow-Wights, all enemy heroes will be afraid. The warband also adds numbers with more orcs joining the fray. The difference being, at 800pts, the orcs become peerless wielders of blade and axe thanks to our next, controversial hero...
We are bringing a Shade! Shades have drawn the ire of the community for a long time and it took multiple FAQs to make sure they only have a place in one army, pure Angmar. For a hefty investment, you get a model which is about as useful as a chocolate teapot in combat, has an abysmal Courage value of 1, has no Might or Fate and is FV1 with 1 attack. Sounds terrible, right? Wrong! This little beauty was cropping up in evil lists everywhere for one reason, its Chill Aura special rule. For 1 Will point, of which it has 8, the Shade can reduce the duel roll of any enemy model, or friendly model without the Angmar key word following FAQs, by 1 within 6". That is a huge area effect where all of your orcs become essentially FV11 against any other warrior in the game. Even heroes are burning through Might points to beat your lowly orcs in a duel. The Shade allows your 2-handed weapon orcs to fight on a even-footing, or better if they are supported by a spear. It protects your front line of terror causing orcs and heroes, meaning Angmar wins almost any war of attrition.
Coming in at 50 models, this Angmar list is hard to break down and can sit on objectives comfortably, although it is severely hampered when it has to split up depending on the scenario. In most cases however, you can close on the opponent with a couple of Marches, bunker up around your heroes with a solid, terror-causing orcish wall and outlast your opponent long enough to remove their heroes under an unrelenting hail of magic whilst your Shade just 'chills' in the middle, At that point, let your orcs run rampant and pillage their way to victory.
Now these lists push the magic and terror aspect of Angmar but they can be equally as fun when you build an Angmar monster mash around Gulavhar (probably my favourite model to use in the game!) and Buhrdur or a wraith spam list with the WK, the Tainted and the Dwimmerlaik. I'm confident the above list would help restore Angmar to its former spooky glory. Let me know what you think!
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