WotR 2000pt Moria Monster Jam

Okay, first post and new WotR player. Got about 8 games under my belt now and have begun to adjust my list to be somewhat monster angry. Tell me what you think. :)

WotR 2000pt (1990pt) Moria Monster Jam

Epic Heros 170pts

Durburz King of Moria
Druzhag the Beast Caller

Common Formations 790pts *26 Companies of Goblins*

Moria Warband (shields) 120pts
6x Companies / *Durburz Mob

Moria Warband (shields) 170pts
6x Companies / Captain

Moria Warband (shields) 170pts
6x Companies / Captain

Moria Warband (shortbows) 80pts
4x Companies / *Druzhags Mob

Moria Warband (shortbows) 80pts
4x Companies

Wargz 170pts
6x Compaines / War Chiefton

Rare Formations 1030pts

Balrog 500pts OR Dragon of Ancients 475pts (Depends on my mood)

Cave Drake 160pts (scares opponents to death for some reason ;) )

Spider Queen 145pts (I only summon giant spider companies, up to 9)

3x Cave Trolls (75) 225pts (great tarpit group and helps with my shield flanks)

Notes: I used to run full command company upgrades but soon realized that 100pt shamans with a Mastery Level of 1 really aren't worth it to me. I also used to run drummers but my main hitting goblin forces were getting flanked and rear attacked to death because I was giving up 225pts worth of trolls for some added rules that didn't really matter to me in the end anyways. The beast caller will jump into the main fray and give a better courage to one of the shield warbands and adding dark fury, or stay in the shot bows and guide arrows and cast bolt of fire. And Durburz already high courage keeps one of the other main melee companies functional as well. The monsters make up for lack of courage and movement. And I'll usually burn through Durburz might Points to heroic move my cave trolls forward while doing on the double advances with the shielded warbands. The spider queen is nasty for her points and I can usually get in 6 companies (up to 9) of giant spiders that are bolstered by her inspiring spider leader abilities. Cave Drake is there to freak people out and disrupt thier thought process.

I'm very very aggressive with this army. The game is usually over by turn 4 with either a victory or loss. I tend to go for a total victory rather than play towards objectives because goblins fold to attrition versus heroic duals and get eaten by archer fire. My favorite tactic is to bring half my companies forward up a flank and then force a lengthwise table battle with my goblins forming a skirmish line from one side to the other along the short table length. Any enemy models left in my rear eschelon get eaten by the dragon or balrog. This way I can split the table and roll the enemy over while mostly denying flank or rear attacks. Obviously everything is behind the goblin mobs until the last second. Then I do the monster mash. Love summoning spiders behind their lines and doing rear attacks as well. Dirty pool but Oh So Gratifying.

Thoughts /Comments/ Critiques welcomed. :)

First things first, kudos for having the patience to get that many goblins painted up, the sheer numbers would have sent me over the edge way before I completed the army!

Talking of which that's one seriously scary army, playing with my Gondor force I just have to hope I can shoot your monsters down faster than they can get to me and that my cav can murder your goblins, I suspect that I simply wouldn't have enough to deal with the sheer numbers you have though. Even taking my Mordor army I don't think things are going my way, I have better trolls but they cost more...

The only thing I'm not sure on in the list you have is the shortbows, do you find they're really worth it? My gut is that they'd be better as shields since the range is low and you can swarm over your enemies more effectively but I've no experience to base that on, just a feeling :) Also do you get more killyness from the dragon or the balrog, on paper the balrog is more effective but I'd like to know how you get on with them

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Originally Posted by Cryl

First things first, kudos for having the patience to get that many goblins painted up, the sheer numbers would have sent me over the edge way before I completed the army!

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The best way to deal with it is to paint an 8 goblin company formation then reward that with a monster. I love this army because I never get a chance to paint trolls and dragons/drakes and that makes me smile :)
192 goblins in this army alone, 256 goblins in all... :eek: Its taking me about 2 hours a tray. I've been doing light primary colors with dark colored washes which makes the process very quick.

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Originally Posted by Cryl

Talking of which that's one seriously scary army, playing with my Gondor force I just have to hope I can shoot your monsters down faster than they can get to me and that my cav can murder your goblins, I suspect that I simply wouldn't have enough to deal with the sheer numbers you have though. Even taking my Mordor army I don't think things are going my way, I have better trolls but they cost more...

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There are alot of ways to defeat this army. Mordor can take Lurtz who, on a 4+, can reduce a hero or single model's resilience down by 1 to a minimum of 1. Most monsters have a R of 2 and so you can put alot of wounds on a them with that special ability. Good armies have a chance to take legolas who can do the same thing and once you learn to bounce those characters back forth into calvary and infantry its almost impossible not to be smacked-down by them. Mordor Trolls cost more but they are very hard to kill versus just hard to kill and have a better defence. They cost more but if you use them tightly to your front ranks they can do alot of damage. The best way to use them though is to take 3-4 to create an unstoppable tarpit because remember they can throw 2x strength 8 hand weapons in the shooting phase then charge. Plus Mordor can take darkess magic which is a devestating set of magical spells. Wings-of-terror while moving on-the-double being one of the scariest combos out there.

Goblins have a fight value of 2. So most armies will be gaining 1-3 extra dice per company in a stand up fight. Monsters and calvary eat goblins for lunch. Tree Ents are retarded powerful for thier point costs and can counter act evil monsters pretty well if you take 1 or 2. Having alot of courage lowering magic can really mess up goblins as well. Elves cause terror and if I'm rolling 8's to even get into combat on a charge because thier low courage was lowered even further the goblins are in trouble.

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Originally Posted by Cryl

(1) The only thing I'm not sure on in the list you have is the shortbows, do you find they're really worth it? My gut is that they'd be better as shields since the range is low and you can swarm over your enemies more effectively but I've no experience to base that on, just a feeling :) (2) Also do you get more killyness from the dragon or the balrog, on paper the balrog is more effective but I'd like to know how you get on with them

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1. Short bows are great for hitting and driving back units that would normally just pound me in cc. They're also awesome to shoot up enemy formations after an initial fight with my shielded front ranks right before another charge/fight. Any kills I can get in that allow me to not to take wounds myself is a good thing. Also, short bows when in fortified terrain are great while grabbing key areas of the battle field. I've brought down alot of cav with them before they get to charge into my shielded front ranks or flank. I know 18 inches seems short ranged but in reality they have a 22 inch threat bubble. 4 inch move (1/2 move distance) then shooting. I tend to be in close proximity of the enemy anyways so short bows will normally be in range for most of the game. They also help when shooting at fortified positions before the rest of my force goes in to battle because you don't gain charge bonuses against enemy units in terrain. + Druzhag has "spells of the wilderness" which includes "guide arrows" that makes them more lethal in general. Its only when you're playing on HUGE tables that they start to lose alot of thier effectiveness.
2. I tend to get more kills with the dragon from the simple fact that i can stalk the front lines behind my goblins when in close proximity with the enemy then roll an on-the-double and fly over the enemy front ranks and attack from the rear/kill off artillery/cause terror to enemy front ranks/ect.. Flying over the enemy front ranks and landing in the middle of the enemy army also makes the magical power "tremor" a very lethal tactic before a charge as well. Or I'll charge over the front ranks and hit secondary formations because remember flying monsters can charge over interviening units. You also gain 6 extra attack dice while charging into infantry with the dragon. And they can pump 6x str10 shots into fortified terrain. Balrog is just a brawler and only gains 1 dice as a charge bonus because even though he has wings large enough for me to go sky diving with he counts as only a monster Not a flying monster... :confused:
Balrog is awesome for dualing enemy heros that are especially nasty, and hes great as a simple brawler but hes not as dynamic and flexible as a Dragon. If the Balrog had a higher defence then a Dragon and had a resilience of 3 or just simply classified as a flying monster then he'd be as dangerous. Dragons gaining an extra 6 dice on the charge + 6 innate attacks + dark furied + extra fight value dice = whole formations being annihilated. All for 25pts less than a Balrog.

I want to say that this is one of the most respectable WotR threads on the BoLS lounge:)(i know we don´t have all that many yet). The list seems wery solid to me and when i have borrowed my little brothers goblin army for a game or two i´ve found them pretty hard actually. What this army will hate is elves with their all terror forces, Legolas and ent allies. Also the terrain ingnoring cavarly will pretty much destroy your formations. 4 attacks as base+6 for charge+6 when you fail terror test and they have an captain(even with Durbrutz you cant cover that many goblins)+1 for each supporting company makes(lets say 0)=an avarage of 16 attacks per company:eek:!You don´t get shields for an flank charge so they wound on 4´s each company killing about 8 goblins. If they have 3 companies it´s 3 companies of dead goblins(ouch!).So wach out for those elven knights.

The other thing i noticed is no mountain giants. OK, with this list and play style you will need the three trolls instead of a single mountain giant( and still save 25 points:)) but if you want to you could try out an mountain giant as they have worked as solitary monsters for me.

Overall really nice thread:D

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Originally Posted by icecube

I want to say that this is one of the most respectable WotR threads on the BoLS lounge:)(i know we don´t have all that many yet).

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Thanks :)
I'm currently doing whatever I can to build up the number of players at my local game store (LA Battle Bunker) because WotR's is just an awesome game. Its well balanced and really deep. The game design is just beautifully done. I was going to restart a wood elves army for wh fantasy but I like WotR much better. The model line leaves a little to be desired but thats okay because the gamer in me likes the ease at which these models can be painted and whole armies can get done pretty quickly. So hopefully overtime people will start to catch on that WotR is an awesome game and you'll see alot more people in here joining in on the fun.

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Originally Posted by icecube

The other thing i noticed is no mountain giants. OK, with this list and play style you will need the three trolls instead of a single mountain giant( and still save 25 points:)) but if you want to you could try out an mountain giant as they have worked as solitary monsters for me.

Overall really nice thread:D

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The Stone giant is a hard-as-nails unit for 250pts, I agree. Hes as hard to kill as a balrog or dragon and costs half as much. I just don't have a model to convert over to make him properly and neither does GW. My cave drake is a Lizardman carnisaur and he works perfectly. Maybe when they do eventually come out with the model I'll start running him. But for now I'm having fun with the 3 stooges.

The stone giant is an pretty easy conversion, if you base him on an WFB giant. Just leave out all the random warhammer stuff and with a little bit of filing and green stuff it´ll make good (for me atleast). And recently on our Games-Workshop hobby center people have begun to come out of their hideouts with their WotR armies.:D