Army review – The black gate

The black gate! An iconic moment in the books and movies when they first have, a very diplomatic, chat before duking it out on the planes of the Morannon. In the books there are hill trolls present but since they go by the movies this edition, you will have to make do with Mordor trolls. Let’s take a closer look at what other creatures storm out of the black gates.

Army bonus

Greatest of the Trolls – The Mordor Troll Chieftain that is your General gains the Fearless special rule, and an additional point each of Might, Will and Fate.

Pretty good, you need to take the big ugly anyway. Might as well give him some extra stats to work with. Especially nice considering that he must be your leader. We all know that investing a lot in a model with no Might, Will, or Fate can be tricky, because you are mostly dependent on dice to get them to work. So having this in your back pocket on a big scary monster is always handy. Furthermore, Fearless on an expensive courage 4 hero is a game changer. This makes sure that he always stays on the board even if your army is broken and that he will always charge what he wants to. Failing to charge a Terror-causing model with your expensive stuff is heartbreaking.

The Hordes of Mordor – Friendly Mordor Orc models engaged in a Combat gain a bonus of +1 To Wound when making strikes against an outnumbered opponent.

Hey, another +1 to wound modifier, seems to be going around a lot this edition. To be fair though, they did already have this in the previous edition. Something that increases your killing power is always nice, especially on S4 Morannons. On F3 you don’t win a lot of fights, but almost always turning that into a kill if you do is great. Since you’re taking a mountain of orcs, you probably will outnumber your opponent, but more on that in the Army list ideas section.

Temptation of Sauron – At the start of each Move Phase, before the Declare Heroic Actions Step, you may choose a single enemy model on the battlefield. The chosen model must immediately take an Intelligence Test. If the test if failed, you may immediately Move the chosen model up to its Move Value following all the usual rules for moving, including making them Charge if you wish. The chosen model may not Move later in the Move Phase, but may otherwise act normally.

Very similar to the Fell light within them special rule from spectres. Anything that allows for you to move your opponents models is very strong in my book. Doing it before your opponent has had a chance to activate even more so. What is very interesting about this army bonus is that, if you compare it to the Fell light within them special rule, it is missing something. Namely, the part describing where you are not allowed to make a model dismount, lie down, drop an item, or cause harm to itself. The army bonus does not say anything of the sort, meaning this could be absolutely devastating to low intelligence models. It makes it even more so considering it’s map wide and free once a turn. Definitely one to watch out for.

Unit profiles

Heroes:

The Mordor Troll Chieftain. You are required to take one and he automatically becomes your leader, receiving the oh so nice buffs from the army bonus. For 150 points I think this guy is a bargain, just look at that stat line:

Insane value, you would take this guy, required or not. The F8 is so much more valuable in this edition. He’s also one of the few profiles which gets 4 Wounds total. With D8 and 2 Fate, the opponent needs to spend serious resources to even damage this guy. The intelligence is a bit rough, it means that your hurls won’t be as effective. Also only 2 Will and resistant to magic means that he is a prime Transfix target. So if you’re facing Minas Morgul the beefy chiefy won’t be doing too much. All in all, it’s a great model, but it has glaring weaknesses that you can’t really fix. So he can feel a bit hit or miss depending on the match-up.

The Mouth of Sauron gave diplomacy a fair shot before Aragorn “concluded” the negotiations. He is the second required hero in this list, and although he is not as points efficient as the Chieftain, I still think he is quite good. For 75 points you get a F5 magic caster who has 2 attacks and has the option for an armored horse for 25 points. In the “old” edition, I thought that the horse was an auto include, but now I think it’s actually better if you leave the horse at home most of the time. 25 Points is quite the investment, especially considering you want him behind your lines for the first few turns, in a good position to call heroic combats and cast spells. He is also much easier to defend when he is on a smaller base. Also, he would be the only thing in your list which goes 10″, kind off awkward since he is staying behind the lines for most of the game anyway. You want to horde out as much as possible in this list, so in most cases, I think you’re better of spending as much as you can on troops.

The Mouth also gets some very interesting special rules. To have Harbinger is quite common, but at 6″ is not something you see too much. Still, a Courage debuff seems to fit as I don’t think this guy gets dental in his contract. He also has one of the most niche special rules I have ever bore witness to called Sense of impeding doom. Besides having a baller name, this also makes it that enemy models are not allowed to re-roll duel rolls of a 1 within 6″ of this guy. So… yeah, every few games this might do something and even then you would have no clue if it would have mattered in the first place. It does seem strong if you can force a lot of 1vs1 and lock down the banner (or banner effect) in the same location as the Mouth, but I would not plan your game around this rule doing anything for you. Still, pretty cool and flavorful.

Like I mentioned, the Mouth can also cast some magic. He has Transfix (4+), Curse (4+), Drain Courage (3+). Most of the time you’re gonna spend his will to Transfix the enemies big stuff. Especially handy considering there is a big F8 troll wandering around. I also could see an argument for Curse. If the lines have not clashed yet and the enemy leader only has one fate, it might be worthwhile. Drain Courage is a different story, I really don’t see why you would waste one of your four will on this one. The list does not revolve around Terror anyway. Plus this spell takes a few turns to really pay dividend and you just don’t have the resources to make that happen.

Not much to say about the Morannon Orc Captain except that he is a solid choice to get some cheap might into the list. The profile itself is also quite reliable. He comes in at 55 points and brings a standard captain profile with him. F4 S5 D6, pretty nice stats considering you can bump it up to D7 with a shield. Definitely recommend taking the shield, you want this guy being able to defend himself in case you play Fog of war. Recently I also have gotten more respect for a D7 captain with a shield after seeing how long they can stall a big enemy hero. Just go into them and shield and laugh as you are rolling the same amount of dices and still only get wounded on a 6, very nasty stuff. He also has the option for a two-handed weapon, but with the amount of killing power already in the list, I would leave this one at home. Also don’t forget the End the Race of Men special rule, giving him +1 Fight against men.

The Mordor Orc Taskmaster is 10 points cheaper than the Captain. For this he loses 1 Strength, 1 Defense, the option for a shield/two-handed weapon, and the End the Race of Men special rule. He has a nice whip though. With this whip he can “inspire” heroes within 6″ to not lose their might when they call a Heroic move or march. Quite a good special rule. I think he is a solid pick as your 3th/4th hero. This list is very much “lead from the back” and let the troops do the work. The Taskmaster fits in perfectly with this mentality. He can hover between the Mouth and Chieftain and provide the potential so be very might efficient. This does mean that your list is “forced” to play concentrated as all your heroes will in the general vicinity of each other. Could be a detriment, especially because this list can push a high model count.

An argument can also be made to prioritize the Captain as your third hero, since he is way more flexible and not limited in movement. Nice since it can really benefit you not to have all your might in one place. Furthermore, he is way more reliable, not only with this 2 guaranteed might, but he can also pull his weight in close combat. I know that, statistically, you would get more might out of a taskmaster. But since this is a dice game, I would personally go for certainty. In a tournament setting when you’re playing 4 games you will always have that one game were the Taskmaster misses every whip. Again, it’s up to personal choice and preference, which is great! The game is more fun when everything is viable and there is no optimal choice, I believe.

Another? Mordor Troll Chieftain. Only one can be your leader, but if you want, you can take these guys in bulk. They will still be 150, so quite pricy. But it’s still a Fight 8 monster with 2 points of might, that should not be underestimated. So it’s definitely not a bad profile, but I still don’t see myself taking them in this list. As I’ve said before, you want to horde out and I don’t think you’re putting enough on the table when you’re bringing more than one. The army list is simply not big enough for more than one Troll Chieftain.

One of the nine, a Ringwraith. I know they were gonna follow the movies more, but I never thought I would see the Nazgul in this list. Frankly, they don’t synergize with the list at all and they are kind of a huge point sink. You want to take lots of Morannon orcs in this list and you’re required to take the 120 point variant of the Ringwraiths on Fell beast, so 170 points total. Even on the higher point levels I just don’t see how you would work them into the list. I would also never take regular Wraiths on Fell beasts, it’s just not worth it with their mediocre combat profile and fragile nature. So my advice is to just act like they are not even part of this army list. If you think I’m wrong please tell me in the comments, I’m very curious to hear if these guys actually do have a place here.

Warriors:

Did you see this one coming? Yes, this list has Morannon orcs. Big shocker, right? These guys did not change much from the previous edition. Still a good troop choice if you want to get some D6 and S4 into the list at a relatively cheap price. They did get a one point more expensive because they now have a special rule which gives +1 Fight against men. Very flavorful, but not amazing to pay a full point for. On the flip side, the Morannons are a bit brighter than their Mordor brethren, receiving an intelligence value of 7+. Not that much in the game yet which requires intelligence, but it’s nice to know that these guys will be a bit more reliable than the “common” flock. Unsurprisingly, the whole list revolves around Morannon orcs. You’re taking as much of these as you can to proc that sweet army bonus. If you don’t like Morannons, be it hobby or gameplay-wise I suggest you find another army list to play.

Chieftains require underlings, so this list also includes Mordor Trolls. These guys got some love this edition and are now 10 points cheaper, while still wholly benefiting from the monster buffs changes. They are a Fight, Defense, and two Intelligence down from the Chieftains. However, these guys have the option to take a War drum. This is not just any War drum, but a War drum (Mordor). That means your whole army is able to benefit from this thing, especially relevant after the changes to drums in general. I think this give the Mordor Troll a good position in the list. If the point level allows it, you always want to take one with a drum. Wouldn’t go for the second one though, as you could also put down 9 more Morannons for that price.

Army list ideas

Yes, you could take out a Morannon and distribute some more spears, but I don’t think this list suffers from having a few more front-liners. You want to have as many base-contact combats as possible were you outnumber your opponent. The list is pretty straight forward. But I think that is something that the army list has in general. There are not a lot of tricks, simply get into combat as quick as possible and slap.

I have two lists at 650. One with a Mordor Troll with War drum and one with an extra captain. The list above is a bit awkward in points so you have put the Mouth on a horse. Not the worst thing ever, but not ideal either. You have an okay model count. I feel like spamming is the way to go with this army though, so I like the list below a lot better.

39 Models is already a lot better for 650. You also get another captain for some extra might. Of course, you could also put in the Taskmaster and an extra body if you that is more your style.

At 750 you might want to start taking more utility and a second big hitter. Luckily for you, the list finds that in their Mordor Trolls. In my opinion, you always take the drum on him, it’s just too good. I also slotted in the Taskmaster instead of the captain.

Conclusion

This army is definitely in my ball park. You have some magic, one or two big pieces and a lot of bodies who just want to run forward. No shooting, which is a weakness, but it is how I personally like to play anyway. Still, not being able to take some honesty bows gives a lot of board control to your opponent. Better drum and get into combat ASAP. Overall, it seems like a very fun army to play. I see it working very well against most other human armies (Reclamation of Osgiliath, Arnor, Rohan ect.), but it could struggle against armies which have more potent magic and can still push the same amount of models (Army of the White Hand, Minas Morgul). Let me know in the comments if you agree or have some interesting thoughts about The Black Gate!