Herald Highlight: The Darkness of War

I recieved my copy of War of the Ring yesterday, along with 36 Minas Tirith Warriors, and a single (old) Knight

I was immediately hooked

I have never been a good player, I have always loved the idea of pillaging in the name of some dark god in another dimension. The idea of having morals and having to do things in set ways just... never felt great to me. It's why I do Chaos - it is so damned Flexible! So, you say that I cannot do tentacles all over my Prince? NEVER! The Imperium, for example, is so static. They have made no progress over 10 thousand years. Yet, at the same time, Chaos has progressed. I have a reason to convert with CSM. I have no reason with SM other than the illegal coolness factor

But back to War of the Ring

I have never been a good player. I love Sauron. But I have to say, that with War of the Ring, the balance is shifting. Those 36 warriors that I recieved, 3 sprues - New. Unused. - have changed my entire opinion around my desire in the Lord of the Rings universe. Seeing as this is a two part article, how about I show you the EVIL stuff first:

1. The Nine Are Abroad: UNGODLY. The amount of magical firepower that this unit can set off is just incredible. 500 pts, and you get 9 Ringwraiths who just CHEW their way through the opponents army. The Formation holds Fight 6 while the Witch King is alive, and yet there is one comment I have to make: THEY ARE DEFENSIVE. Keep the formation behind your army, make that vast horde of Elves with Stormcallers come at you. The Undying makezs you a Mastery Level of 10+1 for each wizard within 12". The Witch King means that all formations who have the WK behind them RE-ROLL FAILED COURAGE. You are Orcs. Your Courage is 3. Khamul means that on a 5+ you ignore hits, and may allocate against Orcs within 12" instead. Knight of Umbar means that, if the WK has already died TBH, you may take the Fight value (or Strength) of an enemy hero within 12". Oh my Sauron, you have Aragorn? You have Elendil? Cheers for the MASSIVE Fight Value!
2. Mumak: CRAZY. The Mumak goes DOWN in points but UP in effectiveness. There's only one problem: IT IS FLAWED. 13 Crewmen are on at the start. Each wound counter you take will also mean that you lose crew - you get 1 shooting attack for each 2 crew left, at strength 3. Next, you also have to take a Courage Check against the number of crew left - you need to get under the value, or your Mumak rampages. EVERY attack that the Mumak does is at Strength 10. Nuff Said. Each company it travels over takes D3 of them - that CAN kill a company, but at the same time that company would already need to have 1 casualty (if Resil. 1) or be at a bad defence/wounds if a monster or cavalry
3. Shelob: Over here, everyone is ranting about the power of this badly made creature. Looking at it, she is a 250pt bargain! Hard to Kill (roll a d6 for each 2 hits, on a 6 she dies). She causes Terror, so oops to your bad courage! Monster at hight value 7 with a strength 7 and defence 8. Will NOT break at Courage 5. Ignores terrain, is a Prowler and Ambusher. Has a MINIMUM of 9 attacks on the charge against basic Minas Tirith, Only has Might 3, so thats mediocre. Apart from that, it doesn't hurt... it KILLS. Use it in tandem though - anything can be fragile in War of the Ring, even the most deadly characters

That isn't even where it gets interesting. Then we have the problem of dealing with the stuff that advances as a shield in FRONT of them. Here's a short list of the 3 evil things i'll see the most:

1. Orcs: OBVIOUS. Orcs are available in every single list that Evil has, excluding The Fallen Realms (East), for War of the Ring, and even where they aren't included, a 2000 point army could use 33 (basic companies) of Orcs without any equipment. This alone gives them incredible shielding potential, and thats before they even get anywhere! The MOB RULE means that, when they are supporting, they get +2 dice instead of just the usual one. So charge across multiple companies, leave NONE a chance of being supporters, for that is rather annoying, or simply whittle them down by giving them no supporting attacks
2. Uruk Hai: Expensive, for sure, and I cannot deny that. However, one cannot disagree that they are the ULTIMATE tarpit, well, at least some of them. Phalanx is the LORD of killy, no-one can survive Pikes. However, then we have the mediocre Warriors (Sword and Shield) or Mordor ones (Sword and Shield). You LOVE the Phalanx for the whole fact that it is cheap in cash to get them anyway! 5 companies for £60, and you also get 5 companies of normal warriors as well. The Warriors can be useful too - use them as flank stoppers
3. Ghostly Legion: Let me see... I cause Terror and i'm a Ghostly COMMON. Ok, ok, they're just cheap Warriors of the Dead, but cheap means good for Evil Armies. These beasties are part of the brilliant Angmar list, which can use BOTH of the above troops without taking up the Allies points. They also have the ability to take 2 of the Ringwraiths (Witch King and Dwimmerlaik) without them being Allies Points as well! This is an ungodly list. Ghostly Legion is a weaker WotD who is in Common and also has the Rares to take advantage of this

So, this is only the common and ungodly from The Forces of Darkness for War of the Ring. Herald is OUT

~ This is only part of the article