Thursday, 16 February 2023

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.

Monday, 13 February 2023

CJ's "More will come" Legions: Assault on Erebor

 Assault on Erebor

Participants

The Signal Tower 200pts

Gundabad Orc Captain (Shield)

Gundabad Orc Warrior (Shield, Spear, Banner, Bow, Fell Warg)

Troll Brute

Gundabad Troll

Catapult Troll

Ogre

Continuing the tradition of Assault Legions with no Heroic Strike, this represents the frontline of orcs and trolls that marched on the gates of Erebor and the city of Dale. A few bows to fell Elks and some wargs to ride down Chariots round out the army's tactical options. Azog is absent due to being far from the combat directing the army in real time. So in effect, you, the player, are Azog!
 

Special Rules

“Come forth my legions!”

The Signal Tower may be taken independently of Azog as part of this Legion. One of the Lieutenants is nominated to be the Army’s Leader despite being an Independent Hero. Gundabad Orc Captain warband sizes are increased to 18.

Whilst having a weak Leader can sometimes not be ideal, he will at least be fairly safe atop the Tower. In the balancing considerations for an Azog-less Tower, you'll need additional Captains to lead your troops. But with expanded warbands you can opt to simply horde out, or take the tower and you'll still reach some extremely useful model counts with all the amazing benefits of the free Marches, Fury saves, Banner rerolls, and more!

“They have forgotten the great Earth-eaters”

The controlling player may wait until all the opponent’s models are deployed before placing any of his own. The Signal Tower is still deployed as normal.

Sorry, no Werewyrm profile here! But you can gain a significant maneouverability advantage over your opponent in several scenarios by being able to react to their deployment. Nobody wants to leave a hero in the open against a Troll!

 

“Send in the War Beasts!”

All MONSTER models may use the “Relentless Advance” Special Rule under the Ogre’s profile.

The "biggest" problem with monsters is being able to fit in where they need to, especially on 80mm bases. Under the Tower's influence, they become a scarily consistent 4 dice to win in combat!

 

“Not yet!”

Once per game, during the priority phase, the controlling player can choose to automatically lose priority.

Responding to your opponents moves with your "advancing" monsters can be devastating, whether reaching an important Hero or lining up a juicy Hurl- just be sure to not let them get split off in combat! This can also be used to your advantage in Maelstrom scenarios when using the Werewyrms might slow you down rather than help. As a bonus, it'll annoy enemy cavalry.

 

Clearing the Backlog, Part 30 – Why do I keep doing stupid things?

As a hobbyist, this can be a question you pose yourself a lot. In my case, the stupid thing was painting a 750 point Legions of Mordor list ...