CJs "Send forth all Legions": Cirith Ungol

A Quest for a perfect Legendary Legion

Another sourcebook, a new range of options for list building and scenario play. I was recently asked to give my views on the new Quest of the Ringbearer sourcebook for the East Anglia Hobbit Community podcast series. To the surprise of some listeners and my co-contributors, my angle on this latest offering from the pen of Jay was not in line with the slew of reviews from more established YouTube channels declaring this the best sourcebook yet. Perhaps as a result, I went in with expectations quite high, and initially I was pleased with it…until I sat and did some research on the scenarios and tried writing lists for the LLs. The recording then happened immediately after/during these revelations and so I was quite disappointed for reasons I’ll explain later, and a relatively hot take later I was accused of being far too negative. So, with the benefit of a few extra weeks thinking, and the ability to use a backspace as I type, I decided to revisit the book to see if I was too harsh. So read on for a dive into the Legions, some suggested tips and playstyles, and sample lists which I hope will help the new players and competitive alike.

CIRITH UNGOL

This is a great place to start because for me, Cirith Ungol is an absolutely perfect example of what a Legendary Legion should be. It has always been possible for thematic players to play almost any list to represent any moment from the books and films by using the Allies Matrix, but usually at the cost of an optimal list that could compete in a Matched Play tournament. In the past, I have played Cirith Ungol themed lists with a reasonable amount of success- Shagrat, Grobag, Shelob, MUruks and a mix of Orcs and Morannons. Sometimes to extend the theme to “Frodo’s journey through Mordor”, I’d also add a whipping Taskmaster (back when Taskmasters were worth taking). I appeared on BlackMist’s VeniVidiVici blog to talk about using that kind of list at the time.
By adding the restriction of using the MUruks and no Wraiths as well as Shelob, who is inconsistent at best, I was forgoing competitive advantage for a fun list. Some people really enjoy that additional challenge, and others wish they could take their fluffy lists and stand a chance of still winning. This is where LLs have their niche: it’s representing a flashpoint in Middle-Earth history, either allowing an alliance you normally couldn’t use but limiting it somehow (Defenders of Helm’s Deep), or it restricts your list building choices but rewards you for your thematic choice by giving army bolstering bonuses (Assault on Helm’s Deep). Cirith Ungol LL does the latter by having the following bonuses.

Special/Additional rules:

1. Shelob. 

With 1 attack, and monstrous charge, and a banner, the terror of the Morgul Vale has at most 3 dice to win a fight and no Might. And to be honest, that’s a good thing. By limiting her consistency in a Mordor list, it pidgeon-holes her as a fun option rather than a competitive one (although some very good players can get a huge amount of mileage out of her standard profile!). It wouldn’t make much thematic sense to have Shelob marching to war with armies of orcs anyway. But, if taken as part of this LL, she gets TWO bonuses. In the first instance, she gains +1 attack base if fighting Men, Elf, Dwarf, or Hobbit keyword models. Eowyn is therefore off the hook? This little rule thematically named “She hungers for sweeter meats” makes this list much more attractive in a Good v Evil event, and near a banner gives her 3 f7 attacks even without charging to win a fight improving her reliability. Then, you can give her an additional boost by sacrificing a friendly model within 1” at the start of her move (if unengaged) to allow her to roll all Duel rolls that turn. Go careful with this, as sacrifices still do count towards your break point, but up to 6 dice at f7 to win a fight is enormously dangerous. These are really thematic rules, and bolster Shelob to another level of terrifying competitive threat. Top marks.

2. Animosity.

Borrowed from Ugluk’s scouts, this useful little rule boosts the killing potential of orcs and MUruks in the same fight. It’s perfectly thematic with the lore, and rewards you for not having access to the meta’s Black Numenorean and Morannon Orc line. Excellent addition.

3. That Shiny Shirt, That’s Mine! 

The fight between Gorbag and Shagrat is what started this whole thing in the first place! These two profiles are already incredibly characterful and good fun, and this rule enhances that even more. Keep a kill tally for them, and the current loser can reroll one duel roll. Awesome. If you have priority, you can even do the loser’s fight first, and if he kills enough then the other one might then get a reroll the same turn as well!

4. Shamans! 

This was a little gem I absolutely was not expecting. Having the ability to make your orcs fearless not only helps with the animosity rule, and pinning terror-causing enemies, but if Shelob has eaten a few too many orcs he becomes an excellent help in keeping your troops around with his auto-self-stand-fast also keeping MUruks in line. With c3 MUruks Jay could have easily decided this list didn’t need Shamans, and Black Gate Opens having no Shamans is a huge problem for an orc-only army, but for an extra tool they are here. Lore-wise, in the books Cirith Ungol is imbued with a dark magic and Sam has to use Galadriel’s phial to pass the statue guards, so perhaps this is a nod to that.

Playstyle tips and example list:

So as you can see, this is a really solid fun list with thematic army bonuses that mitigate the restricted list-building choices. It’s absolutely perfect as an LL, and I can’t wait to try it out at lower point events. So let’s try putting together an example list:

Shagrat with Shield and Armour 115

10xMUruks with Shield 90

Gorbag with Shield 60

12 x Orcs with Sp/Sh 84

1 Banner 25

Shelob 90

Orc Shaman 50

6xShelob’s spinach (Orcs with bow) 36

Total pts: 550; Numbers: 32; Might: 7 + Blood and Glory

A reasonable shade over the recommended pts/20 guideline, this punchy little army leans into the Legion’s rules and has almost the full range of tricks available to it. Shagrat as the leader needs to be as killy and survivable as possible, so his wargear options are mandatory. Use his low heroic tier and Heroic Challenge to bully enemy heroes- if their troops can’t follow Heroic moves then they will struggle to contain Shelob! Shagrat can afford to spend might on this because you start with a reasonably high amount anyway, but also his Blood and Glory rule will reap him a Might every time he kills an enemy Hero (and a potential further D3 from any Heroic Challenges he actually wins!). HChallenge has an added side bonus of keeping Shagrat immune to being run over by stronger enemy heroes so long as it’s happening.

Gorbag is also at his best chewing through troops by going to F5 and 3A when fighting two opposing models. If you can get him ahead on kills, it will also make Shagrat more likely to get one over on the Heroes he’s hunting down. But Gorbag also has Strike, so there is potential to use him (as well as Shagrat) in a double-team with Shelob against enemy strikers. But at this low pts, your opp will be unlikely to have a spellcaster to negate your three key threats as well as a big choppy hero who can threaten yours. So if you can work it, Shelob will pretty much flatten any opp non-striking hero in one go. But you can also be creative with Shelob- Hurls at S7 to dismount enemy heroes; Barge open a battle-line in order to get more out of your animosity rule; and don’t forget spiders treat all terrain as open more or less so let them think they’re safe and then run up the side and over behind their lines (though don’t get her isolated and away from her orc snacks). In situations where Shelob has been denied charge bonuses, orc bonuses, and sweet meet bonuses, don’t forget she does have the option to Paralyse an enemy hero on her one dice strike (which can be re-rolled due to Venom). Although in most instances, I think I’d probably opt to yeet the Hero a few acres away to set up the next turn.

The troops are fairly simple: F4,S4 in front, orc spears behind. But when the cracks start appearing in the enemy line (or a spider has bowled it open), you can press through and use the animosity rule. I always opt for D5 with a shield when available for reasons I can go into in more detail at another time. A banner for VPs and to make your heroes more consistent. Shaman will keep your guys in line if broken and allow consistent charging of terror-causing foes. 6 orc bows, feeble as they are, will be a consistent nagging worry for any opponent. On balance in a given game you will get one or two moments where they snipe out an enemy hero horse, they force your opponent to come to you if they have no shooting, they force opp banners to always be touching a friend (just in case), you can shoot into combat (where your d5 makes you highly resilient to friendly fire), you can leave them on objectives and still threaten from range, you get 6 cheap 6pt Shelob snacks, you can run them around the back of a line for traps, and they have picks as default wargear allowing a cheeky bit of S4 for not much drawback. For 36pts that’s a whole lot of options.

And to end on options, MUruks do have an option for a 2-handed mace, which could occasionally scare an opp Hero away from potentially losing their horse or being put on the ground. However, with Shagrat and Shelob you already have options for knocking people over, and in Shelob and archers you have options for knocking people off of horses. So the option is there, but I’d much rather the shield. When you have S4 and animosity 2-handed weapons aren’t that much use anyway. MUruks can also take bows, despite there never having been a model for them. They do have Sv4+, which is an advantage over orcs. But as discussed, cheap orc archers are throwaway nuisances. MUruks are your F4, S4, and are probably better protected as a 9pt investment by giving them D5, and the option to Shield.

Strengths:

• Heroes
• Might control
• Big killy charging monster all-terrain-armoured-spider
• Fury
• Cheap orcs and reasonably decent MUruks, leading to a good blend and decent numbers.

Weaknesses:

• Elves will ruin your day- f5 in combat to beat your troops and blunt your heroes, and S3 shooting means Shelob will have to pull her weight in a big way.
• Mobility- Orc/MUruk captains are available for March but otherwise apart from Shelob you’re very much exclusively a 6” infantry block. With the new scenarios leaning on board control and mobility this could be a hindrance.
• Magic- If your opp has a big killy threat like a Lord of the West, Bolg, Dain, your options for containing/killing them are limited. You’ll either need a lucky Strike from you coupled with a bad one from them, knock them over and pounce, or just a lucky Shelob fight. Similarly on the flipside Shelob only has 6 Will so she will not stand up to concentrated immobilisations, and Gorbag only has 1 Will.
• Courage? If you overfeed Shelob, a Shaman might keep your orcs and Muruk (troops) in line, but not Shelob. Be a shame if she were to…flee back to the tunnels after being broken… 
• Siege Engines: They will try their damndest and spend any available Might to get a direct hit on Shelob, and she has no fate.
  
• Very narrow pts usage- You must have Gorbag and Shagrat, and if you want any mileage out of the Legion as opposed to picking these models in a Mordor list with that army bonus, you want Shelob. So to an extent, you have a minimum spend of 500ish pts, maybe 450 if you drop the banner and squeeze numbers a bit. But once you get above 600, your opp can have a big killy threat AND a spellcaster and this Legion will have no answer to those. In any case, once you’ve added a MUruk captain for March and filled out the warbands you’re pretty much capped at 700pts anyway.

Legion suggestions for improvement and conclusion:

Honestly for this one there’s not a lot. Perhaps they could have incorporated the Taskmaster from the plains of Gorgoroth to potentially help with mobility. They’re not included in the Black Gate Opens LL so where does the convoy that sweeps up Frodo and Sam come from, and where does it go?

This is hands down my favourite LL from this book, with fun fluffy bonuses rewarding your thematic list building to an extent that if played skillfully it will still be in with a shout of podiuming at anything except perhaps a GBHL100 event. Which is why I wanted to begin with this LL, before moving onto the others which I found somewhat disappointing for different reasons. But that’s enough for one entry, check in next time for Lurtz’s Scouts.

Cirith Ungol LL score: 9/10