Army review – Minas Morgul

Hey Reader!

This time we will be doing no comparisons, because today we are looking at a brand new army list. Something which really sparked my interest when I first saw it released. It’s Minas Morgul!

Army bonus:

The Dead City – Mordor Orc Captains and Mordor Orc Warriors gain the Blades of the Dead special rule.
Call of Morgul – If the enemy Army contains a Ringbearer, they will suffer a -1 penalty when rolling for Sauron’s Will.
Lead through fear – Friendly Orc models within 3″ of a friendly Spirit model automatically pass Courage Tests when attempting to Charge a model with the Terror special rule.

The Dead City:

When this first came out everybody lost their minds. There was a lot of talk that this would be one of the top-tier army lists. I already had my doubts about that. While it seems extremely good to have basic orcs running around wounding most things on a 4 or 5, they are still just that, basic orcs. They are still F3 with a maximum of D5. Which means that they will lose every fight they can and break very quickly, if you only take Mordor orcs that is. It’s a nice bonus to increase your killing power, that’s for sure, but I don’t believe it to be as amazing as people claim it to be.

Call of Morgul:

A very fun flavor rule, which is also very niche, but could potentially be very nice when there’s an enemy ringbearer around. It also combo’s nicely with Nazgul being able to always see them and cast compel to force them to put the ring on. Though ringbearers have received a nerf, so I don’t think we will be seeing them that much. Like I said, full of flavor and fun as an extra, but not too strong. I really like this one.

Lead through fear

This is the rule which validates spectres in this list. I think that they have fallen from grace a little bit, but more on that later. They combine so nicely with this army bonus, so in this list you might want to take a few of them. Note that the army bonus states all friendly spirit models? So not just heroes, but spectres too. That’s why I would always recommend to spread them out and preferable not put them in a warband with ringwraiths, but have them tag-team along with the captains. I believe that they are crucial now for making sure that your orcs actually get into combat with the scary stuff.

Unit profiles:

Heroes:

The Witch-king of Angmar, an absolute menace in the old edition. He has changed quite a bit and seems a lot more combat focused now. He still is a good magic caster, but magic has lost a bit of it’s potency. That is why I think you always want to take him on a fell beast, it’s a good tool in order to make his points worth. The 12″ flyer on itself is already great, especially if you keep in mind that you now pay 20pts for a horse, so the 50pts for a fell beast seems like much less of a jump.

Théoden’s bane now has 3 attacks base and a standard profile (in this list) of 3/18/3. I’m personally not a fan that you are not able to customize your ringwraiths anymore. It was such a cool mechanic and it made list building more flexible, but that edition is behind us now. The new statline give you a lot of will to work with which is handy because the Crown of Morgul received quite a big nerf and is now pretty awful for 25pts. Definitely leave this one at home and just take a second banner for this cost.

The next hero in this list comes in at 90pts, it’s the generic ringwraith. This verion of the Nazgul has 1/10/1 and 2 attacks base. With the option for a fell beast he has the potential to do quite some damage, but being locked at fight 5 might make you reconsider that option. I believe that a horse is the better option of the two. This allows you to be in the right place to cast spells and still have enough damage output in combat to be considered a threat.

The Morgul blade is another option for all ringwraiths, but the situations where it could be handy are so incredibly niche… I would spent the 10 points on something else.

There are two kinds of captains in this list, Mordor orc and Morannon orc. I’m gonna be frank, I would always take the Mordor orc. He is 15pts cheaper (if they both have a shield) and this guy gets the blades of the dead. It is worthy to note that the Morannon orc captain gets +1 fight against humans, and I’m expecting plenty of human armies in the new edition, but this does not justify the cost in my opinion. You want to have a good amount of numbers in this list to make up for the lack of quality. Plus, the Mordor orc captain kills harder in most situation anyway, so there really is not much to say for the Morannon orc captain.

For the gamblers there is another option, namely, the orc taskmaster. Although he is an orc, he does not receive a whip of the dead, so he will still be making strikes as normal. We all know these guys from the previous edition, they have not changed a bit. They are the same costs as a Mordor orc captain, but have no shield (and so are 1D lower), and have 1 might less. Especially since they don’t get blades of the dead, I would even more so stick with the Mordor orc captains in this list. This might become an attractive options for your third or fourth hero choice, but on lower points I would go for the reliability of the “normal” captains.

That leaves the orc drummer. This is a great addition to this army list. He has the keywords (Mordor, Orc) which includes most of your warriors and captains. It does not include your wraiths, but this can actually be a good thing, since they do not need to move with the march and have more freedom in their movement that way. It is a bit of a shame if you want to include trolls in your army, so keep that in mind. Still most scenario’s include moving a lot so I would always take one if you can.

Another interesting point to make is that you can take the drummer as an independent hero or as part of a warband. Both have benefits, independently you have an extra warband to put down to see and wait out where your opponent is going to deploy. On the other hand, if you’re playing maelstrom, you have a chance that he will end up in an awkward position. Personally, I would rather play it safe and just include him in a warband. This way you can guarantee that he will always be useful.

The drum has also changed. It now counts as if calling a heroic march with a range of 12″. This opens it up to some interesting plays you can make. Now you can basically always call a march with your drummer for “free”, remember you don’t need to move him first and models you move before him will not be affected by the march.

Warriors:

The Morannon orc warrior has become a 1pt more expensive. In exchange, they gained a conditional rule which gives them +1F vs humans. Not very worth it in my opinion, but I am expecting a lot of human armies in the new edition so I might revise my opinion about it. For now I think they are worse off with this change.

You still want to take a good chunk of them in your army. Yeah, they don’t get blades of the dead, but having a D6 frontline will serve you well. You can take these guys with a shield, shield and spear, banner, or spear only. I have already played this army quite a bit and found that you break too quickly if you take only Mordor orcs, so I definitely recommend taking them to provide some survivability to the army.

In the other camp we have the Mordor orcs. Funnily enough, they are your damage dealing troops in this list. In the new edition, they can only take one war gear option. I feel like you want to give them a spear and just stick them behind your D6 Morannons so they can do damage from the back row. You also have the option for a bow, shield, banner, or two-handed weapon. The two-hander is very tempting, since the new rules for it make it a lot better and it combines nicely with Blades of the Dead. However, I still think you are better off sticking these guys in the back were their D4 does not matter as much.

These are also your only option for a bow in this list since we sadly had to say goodbye to orc trackers. At a 5+ shoot value I would not expect too much of them, but it’s always nice to be able to threaten a big heroes horse, especially now that they are so expensive.

Mordor trolls! These guys take full benefit from the new monster rules and are 10 points cheaper. Unlike their hilly counterpart they still have a shoot value of 5. The Mordor trolls did get dominant 3, which is fitting. They also have the option for a drum, a good option at higher points. If you take a loose drummer you are running around with a hero who has 1 wound, 1 fate, and is D5. Quite a detriment in scenario’s which give points for killing heroes. The troll on the other hand, does not become a hero.

Furthermore, when combat hits you can just throw in your troll. True, it’s not as flexible as the drummer and you might benefit from being able to keep him behind in some scenario’s, but in most games it always feels like a super squishy 30pts which you keep behind your lines and doesn’t do much after the first few turns. You are giving up 10 morannon orcs or 15 Mordor orcs, so do think carefully if you can afford to take them.

That brings us to the spooky scary spectres. That’s right, no more weird “dead marsh” spectres populating the Angmar ranks. Although this is Minas Morgul and here it would have made some more sense to call them that. Apart from the name change these guys have become D6 and have received a nerf to their fell light rule, but for all the right reasons. These guys used to be a menace, in the old edition, especially big pieces with low courage really did not want to come near these guys.

All of this has changed in the new edition though. The courageous don’t care about spectres anymore, but the not so erudite definitely do. This is one of the instances in the game that utilizes the intelligence stat. Models that get “fell lighted” must now pass an intelligence test, if failed they are moved directly towards the spectre as far as the spectre’s controlling player wishes. It stops if it comes into contact with anything or anyone and cannot come within 1″ of an enemy model save for the spectre, which it can charge if the controlling player wishes. They can use no more active abilities that turn.

I know quite a mouthful, even more wordy than the previous one. On top of this the spectre also has to have finished it’s move before it can have a go at this special rule. All in all, I really like this change. It only makes sense that if a spectre compels someone that the target would move towards them, as we saw happening in the movies with Frodo. Though this is quite a downgrade from what it used to be, so I don’t know if it’s worth the full 15 points. Like I said before, I think that they are worth it in this list, since it enables you to reliably charge terror causing models with your courage 8+ orcs, because of the army bonus. Being able to not use active abilities anymore after being “Fell lighted” is quite a big deal. Low intelligence heroes might want to watch out for these guys.

List ideas:

Putting near 30 models on the table while having a 200pt hero, drummer, and a captain is quite respectable. For 500pts this list is surprisingly versatile. When you reach higher points, it’s just more of the same basically. Like I mentioned before, I would put the spectre in the second warband since the WK itself is already providing the army bonus. The banner is also on a Mordor orc because he has the same intelligence and courage as a Morannon and if you’re gonna stick him behind your lines anyway then he might as well be cheaper.

An extra 150 points nets you an extra warband, and I have gone for the taskmaster as their leader. He can comfortably sit behind the center of the battleline, calling moves himself or potentially providing might back to your other heroes. I feel like he is quite a good option for your third hero and you will definitely not regret taking him.

For the astute reader, this list also has a second banner. This is considering the current 6 scenario’s available and might change being viable when the other 18 scenario’s come out. However, for now it is simply amazing to be able to net 4 VP’s in most scenario’s. I don’t believe there are a lot of armies in the game which can pull-off having two banners, but with this list you still have plenty of models left. Especially doing it on 650 while still having 42 models is quite amazing.

For higher points I don’t think it makes sense to horde out even more. What would you do with 50+ models anyway, you’re not playing goblins. That is why I opted to invest in a bit more “umph” into the list. The drummer has been upgraded to a to a Mordor troll with drum, this provides a second hitter to the list and can be quite devastating combined with the magic potential of the Witch-King.

Conclusion:

Definitely one of the armies that I already have played, and will play, a lot in the new edition. It does not have as much interesting stuff as I would have liked, but it is enough to hold my interest until we have the Armies of Middle-Earth book. If you like a horde list backed up by some magic, then this is the list for you.

Let me know what you think about Minas Morgul in the comments!