Mordor/Fallen Realms rules

[Angmar Player]

Originally posted by GrashnarTheSecond on TLA

Quote

Just got back from GW and they had the preview copy in. Here's a quick rundown:

Haradrim Taskmaster: Nothing surprising, a Haradrim version of the Orc Taskmaster. Stats of a Haradrim Chieftain and the special rule of the Orc Taskmaster
Golden King of Harad: Fights as a single model with two-handed weapon (no -1 penalty!), counts as a banner, has a special rule that allows him to spend Will in order to "bribe" enemy heroes. Basically, this means that if they have to take a courage test, their courage is reduced by 1 for every point of Will the King spends. The King can use this ability before or after the dice for the test are rolled.
Abrakhan Guard: F4, S4 Haradrim Warriors with two-handed weapons that do not receive a -1 penalty on Fight rolls.
Dragon Knight: Cheapish combat hero that can shield with his swords. If he ever gets knocked down, he manages to hold his ground on a 4+ and doesn't fall over. Doesn't have Stand Fast! and nobody can benefit from his Heroic Actions
War Priest: Fury for Easterlings (including Khamul), has a spell that gives target model Strength 6 for the remainder of the turn.
Black Guard Captain: Standard Uruk-hai Captain in heavy armour with shield. Gets courage 6 if Sauron or a Ringwraith is on the table.
Black Guard Drummer: Orc Drummer with S5.
Black Guard: Surprisingly, only D6. No special rule. Standard Isengard Uruks with shields, except that they have Strength 5 and are more expensive.
Kardush: Shaman with only D4, 2 attacks and 1 wound. Fury and casts Strength 6 Fireballs on a 3+. Can sacrifice an Orc to regain D3 Will. Can be sacrificed to give a Ringwraith D6 Will.
The Betrayer: Bane of Kings. Models with poisoned weapons or poisoned arrows must reroll or a 1 or 2 rather than a 1. Casts compel and transfix on the same value.
Knight of Umbar: This guy blows Khamûl out of the water. Doesn't have to give up Will if the wins the Fight. He may freely choose to use his opponent's Fight Value, Strength or Attacks value in any combination when in combat. For example, he can choose to use his own Strength and the enemies Fight or Attacks, he can choose to use just his own values or he can choose to use all three of his opponent's values. (Or any other possible combination). (...) He is less skilled at casting spells though.

Cheers

[Ghost Warrior]

Wow, it makes me want the Knight of Umbar even more, he'll work well with the Undying

[lorelorn]

Thanks for posting that, some nice stuff there. Looks like I'll be buying my first White Dwarf since they posted Amdur's rules!

[destroyerlord]

New ringwraiths sound nice. The betrayer is going to be the 'must have' wraith for all haradrim armies now, since he boosts all poisoned attacks.
The knight of Umbar I'm not quite so sure about. Against regular models he is not better than Khamul, since he can't boost his stats. Of coarse, being a wraith you want him to target characters, in which case he can match their Fv/A (but will rarely be beating them, except against captains).
For me the models are reason enough to always pick Khamul (I'm not a fan of the KoU).
Harad fatties are nothing surprising. What do you know, more Fv4! And yet more models that ignore the 2-hander penalty? Durin's axe used to be something special, once upon a time.
S5 Uruks is cool, a good way to make them worth considering over Morannons.
Dragon Knight sounds like a real combat monster.
Fury on a D6 army? I think we may see a lot of war priests showing up soon.
Kardush's sacrifice rules sound cool, its just a pity he shoots fireballs...

[Kalidan]

I haven't played LotR in a while, but seeing all the new Ringwraiths I'm thinking about getting them for my army (uruk, but I stopped about a year after the "return of the king" set). But I still have one question: there's 9 Ringwraiths, but by know only 8 of them are named, any idea of when the 9th one will be? (I don't know if they are regular in new models releases)

[Baggers]

GW have named him in the WOTR book. Can't remember what's he called and I don't have the book nearby. We shall see if a model is released.
I must admit that the new rules are looking great, however Kardish's fireball spell looks like the best value for points.

[lorelorn]

The Dwimmerlaik is the Nazgul without a specific figure.

[Angmar Player]

The Dwimmerlaik will be released with Angmar

[jaws900]

I am glad i got the knigh of Umbar then. I'm so using him in my armys. The black guard i do like and the captain is fantastic. Kardush looks brill as he is basically a spell caster with unlimited will as long as you keep a few orc "Cannon fodder" near by and he can help heal a nazgul (Khamal anyone?)
I got what i expected from the Taskmaster but the Betrayer is disapointing and is useless in anything other than a Harad army.
The Golden king i will look into more when i get the WD as i fell that his "Bribe" abiltiy sounds to good to be true and probbaly only works 1 turn and also you haven't told us how much will he has.
I expect that Dragon to a super charged comabt warrior and thats what i got but i am disapointed that done one can use standfast or heroic actions of his but Legions did say he would be a troop choice so it's a fair trade.

[Nu Fenix]

I remember from looking at the new WD briefly that the Golden King has 6 Will, so unless you have someone restoring his Will, the best he can ever do is lower Courage a maximum of six times, either stacked on the same target or over the game. It doesn't have any other restriction on its use, so it is solely down to deciding when is the right time to make someone fail a Courage test.

[lotrchampion]

To quote a certain meerkat..."simplez!"

Since Good have far less access to Magic than Evil, there is less chance that the Golden King will be required to use his Will before once side or the other breaks. If you have the other hand, then you can simple drop the more powerful enemy hero's courage by the full 6, which, combined with a Ringwraith having Sapped Will prior to this, result in their most expensive hero legging it. Particularly good against armies with a low number of expensive, powerful heroes such as Elves and Dwarves. I can imagine Dain running from the board could be a big pain for any Dwarven player.

[Spiney Norman]

I think the Golden King is a little cheap for what he does, 2 fate and 4 wounds makes him very hard to get rid of and such a high number of attacks with his "durins axe" makes him damn scary in combat. Add his banner effect into the mix and he's very harsh indeed.

I'm not sold on the Easterling dragon Knight, the profile looks good until you read his rule about heroic actions. Its bad enough that the DK doesn't have a standfast, but the heroic action thing really cripples him as a hero.

However, the prize for biggest boob of the release has to go to the Knight of Umbar. The armour of the sundered land is the most ridiculous rule to give to a ringwraith as if he'd properly supported (or riding on a fell beast) he need never lose a combat, his combat mimicry rule is extremely useful given how prolific uber heroes are on the good side, and to top the whole lot off the designers obviously thought that giving him more powerful special rules than the other nazgul for the same points cost wasn't enough so they gave him an extra point of might too. I suppose you've got to find a way of selling such an ugly model somehow...

[lorelorn]

Originally Posted by Spiney Norman

I'm not sold on the Easterling dragon Knight, the profile looks good until you read his rule about heroic actions. Its bad enough that the DK doesn't have a standfast, but the heroic action thing really cripples him as a hero...

Agreed. Even if he's priced at 35-40 points he would not be an auto-include - at least not in an easterling force.

The war priest looks interesting though. Fury? Yes, please!

[jaws900]

Originally Posted by lotrchampion

To quote a certain meerkat..."simplez!"

Since Good have far less access to Magic than Evil, there is less chance that the Golden King will be required to use his Will before once side or the other breaks. If you have the other hand, then you can simple drop the more powerful enemy hero's courage by the full 6, which, combined with a Ringwraith having Sapped Will prior to this, result in their most expensive hero legging it. Particularly good against armies with a low number of expensive, powerful heroes such as Elves and Dwarves. I can imagine Dain running from the board could be a big pain for any Dwarven player.

At least you Dain always gets to live. My has never survived a sigle battle (Even battle that Dwarves walked!)

Anyway. I do like the Dragon knight. Tho not a "Hero" in many ways i consider his a hard as nailes Elite with might. And also remember that he has the most attack for any easterlign hero including Khamal (Don't go staying that with will and horse Khamal is equal please). I might use him in a Phalanx formation as if the Cavalry managed to "Smash into it" then the whole formation start to crumble and a 50/50 chance of negatign that is fantastic.
I love the War Priest too. Tho i might find my self running out of Will quickly with a Fury that affect Khamal! and a spell that gives a strength 6 but only 3 will. And alas there are few evil heros who can regain will (Karduah and Khamal are the only ones that spring to mind).

I don't like the Golden king. He has a far to large base as haveing 2 bases means he's eaier to attack(And surround) and he still only has a defence of 5 so arrows will be killing him in seconds. The only way i can see him working is with the Shadow Lord as an escort and event ehn that going to put you back nearly 300pts. (I wonder what would happen if he was knocked to the ground?????)

The fun one is the Black Guard Captain. A brave orc! what ever with GW and there crazy ideas think of next. I knew no good would come of city foak and there flying machines! (I'm sorry for the really bad joke......and spelling)

[Spiney Norman]

I was slightly annoyed by the Blackguard captain, this is the first time they've given un-named captains uber special rules, I think it sets a pretty dangerous precedent for the rest of the game.

The thing is, all Haradrim heroes have D5 or below so its nothing new fr the Golden King, in any case most archers will still require 6s to wound him (except ruddy elves) and he does have 4 wounds...

Besides, its not the King you need to worry about, its the Abrakhan Guard, with F4 and str 4, +1 to wound (effectively str 6).

Incidentally my mail order came today, has anyone bought the Knight of Umbar? I got the betrayer and he's far and away the worst scaled model in the LotR range, literally head and shoulders above the rest, nice model though.

[Joewrightgm]

Originally Posted by Spiney Norman

I was slightly annoyed by the Blackguard captain, this is the first time they've given un-named captains uber special rules, I think it sets a pretty dangerous precedent for the rest of the game.

Incidentally my mail order came today, has anyone bought the Knight of Umbar? I got the betrayer and he's far and away the worst scaled model in the LotR range, literally head and shoulders above the rest, nice model though.

Well, they actually started it with the Galadhrim (IE, pure blood steeds and Storm Caller's Wild Channeling), so I think the progression is there.

On the scale issue, the Warriors of the Dead plastics are REALLY beefy when you compare them to standard models; Hell, even the new sculpts of Mordor Orc Captains are really big bastards when you compare them to even the old metals or current Mordor Orc plastics.

[Spiney Norman]

A storm caller is not an un-named captain, Captains are supposed to be the absolute base level hero for each race, no fancy bits, just a slightly better profile, 2M 1W & 1F, I mean would you be happy if ALL wood elf captains got the expert shot rule?

[Joewrightgm]

I was using the Stormcaller as an example of an unnamed character with M/W/F that has wacky special rules, which was a bad example.

And I see your point.

[The Marshel]

very happy about the war priest. fury in my easterling hoard will mean its not just gondor minus all elites/heroes/basically everything but womt. honestly would rather transfix over the special blade rule thing, but hey, I'd mainly be using him for fury, so no worries.

on one hand i'm disappointed that the dragon knight is a hero. On the other he looks pretty fun to use, and with a war priest you can get by the stand fast issue. no heroic moves hurt though. diffidently reserved for large games. I find it odd though that dragon knights are arguably better in combat then amdur, who is suppose to lead them.

hated the abrakhan guard since seeing them, and the profile hasn't charged much. I dont know, maybe i'll find an alternative model. i just really dont like the fat dudes. also, "Chop" what a creative rules name...

golden king, just don't feel lotrsy to me. I don't like that he can wait till after the courage test to commit will points and i feel he ought to be 10 or so points more, fight 4 keeps him in check for a bit though. so no major complaints with the rules beyond that.

will find an alternative harad taskmaster. courage 3 is anoying. I'd have no issues with an extra 5 points for courage 4 like a chief but whatever.

Still not a big fan of the black guard. captain i think is a bit of a hand full, all fair point wise, just the combination of stats. the black guard themselves are sufficiently expensive to balance out the incredible killy potential of mass strength 5 attacks not to mention average courage. might use these, but not overly keen on the shields. I like the idea of sauron having his big bad and toughest orcs (if anyone one was wondering, uruk hai are just a special breed of orc, created by combining Orc and man i believe) guarding his main fortrest. I think the "fluffiest" way to use these is as elites in an orc warrior hoard

I dont like kardesh. I don't like the concept, I don't like the rules. I just don't like him. remove the flame and treat him as a regular shaman.

[Joewrightgm]

Well, the Black Guard captain is basically a white-hand uruk-hai captain in both points and stats.