CJ's "More will come" Legions: Army of Gundabad

Army of Gundabad

Participants

Bolg (Warg, Bow)

Gundabad Orc Captain (Shield)

Goblin Mercenary Captain

Fell Warg Chieftain (Wild Warg Chieftain plus Fell Sight 80pts)

Gundabad Berzerkers (THW)

Gundabad Orc Warriors (Spear, Shield, Banner, Warhorn)

Goblin Mercenaries

War Bats

Fell Wargs

As Azog engages the Free Peoples outside the gates of Dale and Erebor, he dispatches Bolg north to bring down a legion of gundabad orcs to reinforce him. This Legion represents that while also paying homage to the book version with the addition of wargs and bodyguards. The gundabad orcs also use a war horn to sound their advance and their arrival so it's there as an option. This list's got a lot of tricks and doesn't want for mobility!

Special Rules

Bolg’s Bodyguard

Gundabad orcs taken as part of Bolg’s Warband are upgraded to Bolg’s Guard. Bolg’s Guard models gain the Bodyguard (Bolg) special rule.

In the book Bolg's bodyguard repel the attempts to break through to the leader until the Good side presses the nuke button unleashing Beorn upon him. Whilst courage for charging can be fairly amply covered by the Berzerkers in the Legion, having a unit of D6 bodyguarded orcs means that the opponent will either have to kill them all, or kill bolg, because they won't flee otherwise! Sprinkle on objectives to taste.

General of Gundabad

Bolg gains Master of Battle and counts as a Hero of Legend as part of this Legion.

Bolg retains his popular Master of Battle bonus from the Army list allowing him to put a lot of pressure on enemy Heroes as the battle lines clash. In recognition of his status in the books as being the leader of the great warg/goblin alliance he is also raised to a Hero of Legend. This slightly bulks his warband, and although it does restrict his ability to call Heroic Challenges, in return he gains a free automatic Stand Fast! pass.

“They are swarming”

 Warbands comprised entirely of War Bats do not need a Hero to lead them if they number two or more models. If two or more War Bats charge the same Enemy model, and no other friendly models are involved in the same combat, apply the Blinding Swarm rule from Bat Swarm profile.

The option to slap down two highly re-deployable models first and react to your opponent's deployment is always a useful tactical option. It also emulates the film where the bats are the first to arrive and Bolg's army moves to take the enemy by surprise. Whilst 40mm bases are difficult to gang up on models with, having the threat of a pair of charging bats shredding unprotected Heroes without Strike/Might will force your opponent to be careful with positioning especially in the late game!

“No more than 100”

Goblin Mercenary Captains' warband size is increased to 18.

Bolg, Bats, and Berzerkers are points heavy so here's an option to bulk out! Whilst having a larger warband might make placing on terrain more difficult, it can mean that you can use a large feature (like a Weathertop, or a large Osgiliath/Dol Guldur ruin) to drop a threatening number of goblins. But if there's no suitable terrain piece, you can just walk on from any board edge which is still a strong piece of maneouverability! You can always have a second warband of Mercs which is deliberately smaller for nicking terrain pieces.