Your Favourite Tactic

[Majorcrash]

think you're in the wrong forum... which is a shame as I got all excited when I thought someone had posted in the LotR section

Damm I must have been tired or something, sorry old farts syndrome.

[Majorcrash]

As far as favorite tactic, I had a chance to use the dark marshall with the Blk guard and ran over a whole lot of haradrim led by suladan.

[Cryl]

I posted!

I actually do kinda like the War of the Ring game. I've got a Moria army, but it's not quite assembled, yet. I want to be able to use my Wargs as Fleshhounds in my fantasy army, and I haven't gotten bases of the right size for them yet, so I haven't actually gotten a chance to play.

In addition, I have problems with this game because the rules are so poorly written. As is, the Ruin spell Exsiccate is the most powerful thing in the game, routinely killing about half of any formation you point it at, yet this is clearly due to an absurd oversight in the writing of the rules. It's as if the game was written to have a completely different system, in which hitting and wounding weren't the same thing, and then they decided to re-write the hitting/wounding rules but forgot to go back and change the stuff that inflicts hits on the enemy, leaving that stuff far more powerful than it was intended to be. And, really, that's only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to errors in the rulebook.

Even so, It's a pretty cool game and I'd like to try it out sometime.

Ho Bean (please tell me your name came from the Ender books or that's going to look really odd...)

yeah there are loads of problems with th WotR game that require houserulings... I'm still hoping for an FAQ as it's a really fun game if you get a chance to try it.

EDIT: not sure how true it is but a post on one-ring.co.uk [url]http://www.one-ring.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14406&start=40&sid=08cac06a748dcd9 46c4f444da2b8859e[/url] mentions that a FAQ has been completed and it's just a matter of time until it's on the GW Site

[Bean]

Hah! No, it isn't, Cryl, but I am familiar with that series, so no worries. Some of the best science fiction out there.

As for the rules, news of a pending errata is good news, indeed, but I'm not holding my breath.

As for favorite tactics, everything I've got right now is conceptual, but I think a hilarous army would be playing nothing but Winged Nazgul (and, of course, an obligatory 15 point company of orcs, or whatever).

You use the Tainted, and the Dwimmerlaik, and I think the Witch King, then start adding in the combatty ones depending on how many points you've got. The Witch King takes a Tainted Palantir to help you with initiative. The whole game, from that point, on, is keep away and control. You use Swooping Attack to take huge moves across your opponents' lines and stay out of their front arc. Then, you use your massive pile of spells to lock down important enemy formations and start killing them off. Between your Sunder Spirits and the Tainted, it's easy to get an enemy formation down to desperately low Courage values. The Dwimmerlaik helps stop your enemies from avoiding your spells with timely expenditures of Might and Will of Iron rolls, and the Witch King getting in behind your opponents helps limit their mobility. Your casters start with Sunder Spirit, then move on to Visions of Woe to inflict damage, or Transfix or Pall of night to lock down a unit. I think if you play it right and things go well, an army of mounted Ringwraiths can reasonably expect to take on an entire army without ever being engaged or shot at. And, if things do slip and they get charged, well, they're not exactly pushovers, and they're extremely tough, with 8 Defense, 2 Resilience, and Hard to Kill. You'd have to let them get attacked by something big or get fairly unlucky against something small to actually lose a Ringwraith.



Someone else already mentioned my other great idea: use Galadriel, Gandalf, and Legolas. Galadriel and Gandalf can build up huge amounts of Might by Counselling each other before Counselling Legolas and piling it all on to him. In addition each can use Touched by Destiny and Epic Renewal to give Legolas two free might points per turn. Meanwhile, Legolas can sit there turning out huge epic shots. Plus, their formation would be tough to deal with, with all three characters in it. I think you probably put them all in a unit of Galadhrim Knights, so that they strike as Monsters (thanks, Legolas!) and are very fast--since running away means getting more time to Epic Shot. A basic unit of wood elves would work, too.


Personally, though, I plan to play Moria. At 1500 points, I can get two formations of Wargs, one with the Beastmaster, and one with the Goblin King of Moria, along with two Balrogs. That's a lot of Ruin spells, a lot of Might, and a fast army with two Monsters that are basically unbeatable in combat. I think it will be fun.

[Cryl]

I think elves could be a problem for your winged nazgul list... galadhrim cav with long bows can move and shoot (Rohan can do the same albeit with shorter ranged shooting) and that could cause you difficulty, killing a winged nazgul isn't actually all that difficult once you get a weight of fire on it, you just need to hit twice and get a lucky six thanks to Hard to Kill. That said it's should be fun and different to play and not entirely unfluffy as well.

Dragons are nastier than Balrogs imo, at least they're more versatile and a little bit quicker... as someone else pointed out for some reason a Balrog can't fly despite having wings that'd get a 747 off the ground! I guess the only danger your army has is of being shot too much before it can get into close combat, dragons speed and putting everything on wargs should help though. Perhaps one of each would be really scary in that list?

[Bean]

I agree that dragons are better than balrogs. But, the Dragon of Ancient Times model is a ugly metal monstrosity that won't double as a Bloodthirster in my fantasy Daemons army or a Daemon Prince in my Chaos Space Marines army. The Balrog is a nice-looking plastic model that will do both of those things, and that over-weighed the difference in effectiveness, for me.

To a certain extent, you're right: shooty stuff can definitely take down a Winged Nazgul. But, winning initiative pretty much guarantees that you won't get shot--formations can only shoot in their front arcs, and with a guaranteed, 36" flyer move, your Nazgul will only be in their front arcs if you're an idiot or you're forced to move first. Hence the importance of the Tainted Palantir.

Even if you do get stuck where someone's got shots at you, Transfix can lock them down before they get a chance to shoot, and Pall of Night can substantially reduce the effectiveness of their shooting.

Elves are certainly the best army for facing this one--this one's all about fear and courage manipulation, and it is weakest against ranged weapons, even if it does have tools to avoid shots. Elves have excellent Courage and good bows, so they are well-suited for fighting Nazgul, and that's probably appropriate. I do think the Nazgul strategy continues to work on them, though, just with a some what greater chance of failure.

In addition, Elves shooting Longbows at a Nazgul don't do very well. It takes 20 shots before longbows, at strength 2, have even a 50% chance of getting a single roll against a defense 8 Nazgul. With Pall of Night, that's three companies of elves, or seven companies of Galadhrim Knights. For a 50% chance. Of getting one roll on the table. As I said, against something like that, I'd have to get pretty unlucky to lose a Nazgul.

[Cryl]

I agree that dragons are better than balrogs. But, the Dragon of Ancient Times model is a ugly metal monstrosity that won't double as a Bloodthirster in my fantasy Daemons army or a Daemon Prince in my Chaos Space Marines army. The Balrog is a nice-looking plastic model that will do both of those things, and that over-weighed the difference in effectiveness, for me.

Good point. I agree the dragon is butt ugly. The Balrog is a nice model and does give you those options for reuse. Really it should be able to fly, perhaps a house rule with a suitable increase in points would be appropriate, although that might make it a little too powerful! Plus no one would ever take a Dragon

To a certain extent, you're right: shooty stuff can definitely take down a Winged Nazgul. But, winning initiative pretty much guarantees that you won't get shot--formations can only shoot in their front arcs, and with a guaranteed, 36" flyer move, your Nazgul will only be in their front arcs if you're an idiot or you're forced to move first. Hence the importance of the Tainted Palantir.

Even if you do get stuck where someone's got shots at you, Transfix can lock them down before they get a chance to shoot, and Pall of Night can substantially reduce the effectiveness of their shooting.

Elves are certainly the best army for facing this one--this one's all about fear and courage manipulation, and it is weakest against ranged weapons, even if it does have tools to avoid shots. Elves have excellent Courage and good bows, so they are well-suited for fighting Nazgul, and that's probably appropriate. I do think the Nazgul strategy continues to work on them, though, just with a some what greater chance of failure.

In addition, Elves shooting Longbows at a Nazgul don't do very well. It takes 20 shots before longbows, at strength 2, have even a 50% chance of getting a single roll against a defense 8 Nazgul. With Pall of Night, that's three companies of elves, or seven companies of Galadhrim Knights. For a 50% chance. Of getting one roll on the table. As I said, against something like that, I'd have to get pretty unlucky to lose a Nazgul.

Fair point, I wasn't thinking in priority terms... too much 40k recently and not enough WotR! Also combine that with the range you're likely to maintain from the archers and you're using S1 mostly against D8 which aren't great odds...