Hail Sauron (now renamed Hail Caesar Fantasy)

Having become somewhat disillusioned with GW's War of the Rings rules, and having a great appreciation for Warlord Games Black Powder and Hail Caesar rules, I have set up a yahoo group called Hail Sauron as a place for discussion to convert WOTR army lists to Hail Caesar format, and to discuss their required special rules and magic etc etc.

We're also going to try and handle 'generic fantasy' and other realms like Narnia and Warhammer as they crop up or people show an interest.

Feel free to pop along and join up if you are interested.

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/HailSauron/


Cheers
Scott

PS Subsequent to this post, with possible recriminations due to IP infringement, it has been suggested to rename this group - it is now called Hail Caesar Fantasy.

The groups new address is  http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/HailCaesarFantasy/

Reprieve!

OK, it had to happen finally - I managed to win a game of War of the Ring!

We played a 1000 point game, on a 6 x 4 table. I deliberately restricted the game to this size board as I wanted to see if that was part of the issue.

The only house rule restriction we imposed was One Epic hero per side.

Armies
I played my Mordor force, led this time by Khamul the wraith. I had heard how wonderful he was so thought I would try and see for myself. (As it turned out this proved to be a zero factor as when I got him into a fight, I forgot completely about his special ability! Although had I remembered it may well have made the fights easier)

I took

6 x Mordor orcs with 2HW and captain.
3 x Corsair raiding party with shields and captain. (these were intended to be the screen for the orcs )
3 x Morgul Knights with captain
6 x Warg Riders with captain
Troll Chieftan
Khamul

Chris took

Boromir with standard
2 x Warriors of Minas Tirth with banner captain and musician
2 x Warriors of Minas Tirth archers with captain
3 x Knights of Minas Tirth with Hornblower and shields
3 x Rangers of Gondor with captain
1 x Warriors of the Dead with captain and banner
1 x Trebuchet
1 x Fortune (Fortification bonus)

At this point Roly turned up and helped us set up terrain, scenario and deployment.

Deployment & Scenario

We ended up with Shield-walls and High Ground, which turned out to be a hill just in my deployment area.

The terrain consisted a small wood, a large ruin, a small farm, a barrow, the hill, and a stream (difficult ground) across board separating the two armies.

Chris deployed first placing his trebuchet on Barrow on left of his deployment zone which had clear line of sight of most of battlefield including the target high ground in my deployment area.

His rangers went in the ruin in centre of his deployment zone. Boromir and the knights were between these two features, facing the farm just in front of right of my deployment zone.

His warriors, archers and Ghosts took the right of his deployment zone defending the stream.

This really wasn't how I expected tonight's game to go. My army was designed to attack yet I found myself having to defend a hill. Chris's army was arguably more defensive in nature, yet he really had to attack.

I saw no point in sitting on the hill and getting pummeled by his trebuchet, so I decided to attack anyway, as if I managed to defeat him, he wouldn't be able to take the hill...

I placed my warg riders on my left flank, aiming to go round side of woods and head for his Warriors of Minas Tirth archers. The Corsairs led by Khamul screened the orcs as intended and they both intended to set off in support of the warg riders by circling the other side of the wood.

My Knights hid behind the hill, while the troll chieftain deployed behind the farm.

Turn 1

Chris got first go and set off. He sent Boromir and his Knights off across stream to left of battlefield, intending to round the farm, and head off the Troll on its way to the Trebuchet. The archers advanced slightly into stream ready to fire. The Warriors of Minas Tirth moved up in support and the ghosts crossed the stream and entered the wood.

I advanced the warg riders in column past the wood towards archers, Khamul moved the corsairs forward but failed his ATD roll, but was just in range to pall of night the rangers in the ruin. He then followed this up with sunder spirit and visions of woe upon the ghosts, but they made an excellent courage save and took no hits. The orcs moved up directly behind the corsairs.
The Morgul Knights crossed the hill, heading towards the flank of Boromirs knights, and the Troll rounded the farm moving into rock throwing range of the front of Boromirs knights.

The rangers fired first killing 3 corsairs. The trubuchet crew looked interestedly at the Morgul knights but couldn't resist the big block of orcs and sent a stone thumping into them killing 6. The Warriors of Minas Tirth archers fired on the close approaching wargs killing 2 and driving them back slightly.
The troll hurled a rock at Boromirs knights killing one.

In the charge phase after some heroics and roll offs, Boromirs knights charged the troll and Epic Duelled him with Epic Strike. Chris rolled a 5 or 6 I think and I a 1, and I sensed a dead troll, but Chris only got one hit on the Troll on the duel table after all rolls were resolved. Boromirs mighty blow made this a roll on the VHTK table which came up with one wound on the troll. I think I dodged a bullet there...

In the ensuing combat the troll killed 2 knights for no further injury, so won the fight. Chris unluckily rolled snake eyes for the courage test and lost another knight, leaving Boromir looking in danger...

The warg riders charged the Warriors of Minas Tirth archers, and killed 10. The corsairs charged the ghosts in the wood, and killed 2 for the loss of 4 (this is where I forgot Khamul's ability.)

The corsairs were beaten back and disordered.

Turn 2.
Chris won priority. Seeing Boromir was now over extended, facing an angry troll and closing Morgul Knights, he wisely 'summoned' the rangers out of their ruin, which meant he was just in range to move to their formation, leaving the knights to their fate. They retreated in the face of the troll, back over the stream.

The archers recovered their disorder and held firm in front of the warg riders. The Warriors of Minas Tirth crossed the stream and swung round to threaten the flank of the warg riders. The Ghosts left the wood appearing behind the wargs. It was not looking good for the warg riders!

What to do I thought.

First up I need to help those warg riders, so I managed to rally the corsairs with the wraith but this meant he couldn't move to the orcs as was my earlier intention. So he cast Wings of Terror on the corsairs, and they moved round the wood, with an ATD roll, and got behind the ghosts. The orcs moved up with an ATD roll to threaten the flank of the now exposed Warriors of Minas Tirth.

The troll chased down the the last of the Knights, crossing the stream. If he could kill them, he could then hopefully attack the trebuchet next turn.

The morgul knights seeing lightly armoured rangers just across the stream couldn't resist, and lowered their lances but had to negotiate the stream first. This slowed them appreciably, but they would be in range for a charge, but sadly so were the rangers themselves.

The only shooting this turn was a another thumping great rock from the trebuchet which flattened another 6 orcs and pushed them back a little.

In the ensuing charge phase after a few more heroics, the corsairs caught the ghosts in the rear before they could charge the warg riders. The Warriors of Minas Tirth archers failed their charge roll in the face of the warg riders and stood still in the stream. But the Warriors of Minas Tirth on the flank came to the rescue and charged the flank of the warg riders.

However the orcs had not been deterred by large lumps of masonry falling from the sky and charged in against the now exposed flank of Warriors of Minas Tirth who had just charged the warg riders.

The troll chieftain charged the last of the knights.

Boromir and his rangers got the jump on the Morgul knights crossing the stream, and charged them!

As the fights played out, Khamul, who now realized he had forgotten 2 chances to cast more spells after successfully using wings of terror to get into position behind the ghosts, made up for it by killing them, for one dead corsair (again forgot to try and bounce this hit).

The warg riders and orcs with 2HW utterly destroyed the the Warriors of Minas Tirth for the loss of several orcs.

The troll killed the last of the knights, freeing him to charge the trebuchet next turn.

Boromir, Epic duelled the Morgul Knight commander killing him easily. The rest of his knights stunned at this attack upon them in the stream were so disordered they failed to get a single hit against the rangers, who finished them off. (shades of the battle of Stirling Bridge there methinks!)

However after his heroic defense of the stream in the centre by Boromir and the rangers, who had by now blown 5 of his 6 might points, the Gondorians, only had their rangers, trebuchet and a depleted company of archers left, in the face of Corsairs, Orcs, Warg Riders and the Troll Chieftain.

Chris conceded he had little lost more than 50% of his army and had little chance of getting to and holding the hill.

A victory to me - finally, after over a year of constant defeats! So please forgive this somewhat jubilant write up of the report.

I must apologize for the fact there are no pictures to accompany the battle report, but there were several unpainted units on the table and I was determined to try and concentrate on the game and not get distracted by taking pictures.

Next time I promise I'll do a better report.

Thoughts and lessons learned.

The troll chieftain was definitely more useful than a regular troll being able to ATD.
My Morgul Knights as usual promise much but fail to deliver. I never seem to be able to get the best out of these guys.
The orcs with 2HW, didn't fair too badly for not having shields and their 2HW took a heavy toll of the Warriors of Minas Tirth, especially in the flank.

Chris admitted he made bad moves to start with which set things up poorly for him on the whole.
I also think he could have spent less points on some of his command choices to take a few more companies, most of his formations seemed a little brittle.

The smaller board size definitely made a difference as we got to grips quickly.

So a 1000 point game played in a couple of hours at most, and finished in 2 turns. Whilst fun and interesting, I think the game is still pretty much small beer, at this scale of game. Certainly good for learning the rules, and see what the differing units and characters can do, but I feel this is just a springboard for larger games.
We only had about 5-6 units each, which if you compare to other rules, like say Black Powder or Hail Caesar, this would really comprise one to one and half 'brigades'. I would really like to see 3 'brigades' on the table for each army. Then I think we will get a thrilling game, that may go the distance: The game is after all designed to be played up to 8 turns each. And it will not then be 'over' after the first couple of charges go in...

Now I am looking forward to the next game, and the LOTR lead/plastic mountain is smiling at me again. However I am still trying to complete my pirate world, so will hopefully press on with that this wet weekend. Sometimes its nice if its raining ;-)

RANT! GW LOTR

Rant!

After yet another humiliating destruction of my Mordor forces in GW’s War of the Ring, I have reached some harsh conclusions…

Here spews forth some vitriolic rambling frustrations in no particular order…

Lord of the Rings – Story & Movies I love them both. A few bits in the movies I didn’t like, but I can live with…

Lord of the Rings – the miniatures games – Arrgh!

Strategy Battle Game: A fun skirmish game with a few figures, but in scenario play it just seems to be line up the cannon fodder bad guys and let the heroes romp through most of them until they run out Might or Fate. And pray the scenario doesn’t call for hills or the figures just keep falling over.
Outside of this, to me Lord of the Rings should be about huge forces clashing, and the Skirmish game never looks right with too few models on the table.
If you DO put enough models on the table for a big battle it just gets so fiddly and time consuming moving all the single figures, it then takes an absolute age to play…

Which brings us to the War of the Ring game.

I had high hopes for this when it came out.

Huge forces clashing together, yippee!

A beautiful glossy eye-candy rich spectacle, and a rarity for GW – all the armies in one book with the rules. So no need to buy more expensive supplements, and have these suffer the dreaded ‘codex creep’.

The game also seemed simple, and quick to resolve and uncomplicated, with enough subtle twist thrown in to make heroes interesting and add an extra exciting dimension to games.

But after many games the reality has sunk in… If this was a computer game it would be called ‘buggy as hell’.

There have been quite a number of discussions on the online forum boards about the rules regarding terrain. What seemed an easy way to handle rules regarding terrain has turned into a mixed up farce with many house ruled interpretations having to be made. Not good.

After this, we have several charismatic units within the game, that due to its mechanics, are relegated to almost zero use. Here I talk about trolls, and other single company restricted formations that simply cannot keep up with the rest of the army as it moves.

And then we have the Epic Heroes and Spells. I hoped these would add some colour and flare to the game without being over powering or unbalancing, yet again there is endless discussion on the forum boards about game balance.

GW’s other games were often referred to as “HeroHammer”, and I fear that is how War of the Rings is taking shape.

If you freely allow army construction as the rules suggest you can cram in every knarly hero possible, with free use of similar heroes from other allied lists, to create an almighty Might and Spell slugfest, which utterly bogs down the game, or pretty much seems to dump it into the Paper Scissors Rock category of gaming.

Indeed, when I mentioned concerns at not being able to defeat an elven force, with a ‘themed’ Mordor force, I was advised to take several blocks of Morannon orcs with Gothmog, Khamul and any other wraiths I wanted to chip into the mix. ‘The elves would be dead by turn 4…’

The other uber Mordor list seems to be euphemistically known as the ’Mordor Royal Airforce’; named as you take as many mounted Wraiths on Fellbeasts as you can manage.

But this all smacks of Power-gaming and that’s the one thing I have always tried to steer clear from.

A game should be playable and enjoyable for both sides with balanced forces. Not creating uber lists to hopefully crush your opponent on turn 1.

That kind of gaming reminds me too much of earlier ‘Herohammer in space’ games back in the 80’s, where everything deployed in cover, and either the first person to move out got wiped out, or with sufficient special rules and gizmo’s moved and ‘vaped’ their opponent in turn 1. I don’t call that a game, it’s just an exercise in throwing dice. I haven’t played Herohammer or FordyKay since…

Yet singly, mounted wraiths die easily and again I wonder if they are worth taking?

So this led to several house ruled games trying to limit the excesses of Heroes, to One Epic per 1000 points, which seemed to help some of the issues raised, and yet it all then depends which Hero you take, and if they are the Paper Scissors Rock to your opponents force.

Being a Mordor player generally, I have a bunch of Wraiths to try, but singly they are not terribly effective, and against an angry rampaging Boromir, stand little chance. So am I forced to take Gothmog, or ally in Suladan into every game? Not much variation in your games then eh?

Gah! What to do. I feel like giving up on the whole thing, yet I have devoted several years of time collecting and painting these forces and making terrain for them, not to mention the cost spent, and the Lead-and-Plastic-mountain-beastie that still pokes its head out from games room and painting table cupboards…

Do I wait till they re-do the War of the Ring rulebook? Will I feel like shelling out over $100 for another rulebook??? Time will tell...

And yet another dimension to the overall mix, is GWs recent 2 pronged attack to try and kill off gaming: The so-called super duper Finecast resin/plastic range – at an extortionate price, coupled with their decision to try and restrict online sale by discounting independent retailers (God bless Maelstromgames and others) to overseas markets, where prices are so high compared to ‘home’ UK stores, it is just a joke! Even when you consider current currency exchange rates!

The Finecast I have yet to inspect myself, but many figures appear to have a ton of flash and mould lines to remove (at a potential medical dust hazard from inhalation apparently), and issues with bubble holes in the figures that need a fair bit of green-stuff repair. So I don’t get the “improvement”, and certainly not the new price, resin being cheaper than metal, or so I have read.

And generally I don’t see any great difference in quality of the casts between the Finecast and regular metal figures, from what I have seen from online image comparisons…

Perhaps this is simply my time to completely withdraw from the GW world of gaming? I only hung on to their Lord of the Rings game for a love of the ‘setting’, but the games are somewhat lacking as I have described above, so there you or I have it.

The one good thing to come out of the Lord of the Rings gaming stable, is the ‘Legends’ series of skirmish games, based closely on the Lord of the Rings Skirmish Game.

I have a growing fondness for their Legends of the High Seas - a Pirate skirmish game where the setting suits and looks right with a handful of figures, some fun themed games can be had over several scenarios and if things are not taken too seriously I hope a lot of fun can be had. Watch this space for more…

Troll Chieftan

The Mordor Troll Chieftan, a great behemoth of a beast, intent on death and destruction.

A slightly tricky model to photograph for best effect as it has a very stooped forward pose. I tipped it on on a small prop to better view the face, although still somewhat in shadow.

I can't recall if a troll captain features explicitly in the books, but he makes a wonderful movie appearance fighting against Aragorn at the Black Gates at the end of the movie, The Return of the King.

Mordor Catapult

"As soon as the great catapults were set, with many yells and the creaking of rope and winch, they began to throw missiles marvelously high, so that they passed right above the battlement and fell thudding within the first circle of the City; and many of them by some secret art burst into flame as they came toppling down"
The Lord of the Rings, Book Five the War of the Ring, The Siege of Gondor.

The Mordor Catapult, assisted by a troll to load the heavy stone, that will crash against the City of Minas Tirith.

This will give my Mordor force some hard hitting artillery power from long range.

Gothmog - Castellan of Minas Morgul

Gothmog, the Castellan of Minas Morgul. A great orc of fearsome reputation, and guile on the battlefield.

Here on foot and mounted on ferocious warg.

A very themed commander of the forces from Mordor that issued forth from the 'wraith city of Minas Morgul, Tower of Sorcery, at the time of the War of the Ring. Bringing his forces into the ruined city of Osgiliath, and with stealth across the Anduin, and onwards across the Pelenor to lay siege to the great city of Minas Tirith.

In the game a very strong battlefield epic hero, capable of great feats of generalship and heroics. Much debated on forums too!

I have to say sadly, of all the representations of characters from the book PJ made for the movie, I think only Gothmog displeased me. I couldn't help but think thoughts of 'elephant man' and 'piggy-orc', and 'gimp'!
Why have such a strong fighter and battler, with a gimpy malformed arm? And as for fighting ability his on screen action against Eowyn was positively pathetic, my ol' granny could have beaten him...

Galadhrim Knights

The Galadhrim Knights. Beautiful elven cavalry, of the Galadhrim from Lothlorien.

Equipped with the fearsome elven glaive, and may also be given either shield or longbow.

I have to admit, I like the similarity to the Samurai in their style, which I found quite noticeably after watching The Last Samurai, with Tom Cruise. Especially the mounted longbow armed riders. There is definitely an oriental feel to these troops, which I think mirrors the elite status of both the Elves and Samurai, in warfare.

The Court of Fallen Kings

I found and managed to complete three more barrow wights I had acquired, which brought me up to the eight models I needed to form the Court of Fallen Kings for my Angmar War of the Ring army.

They are a lovely, spooky formation quite apt to the forces of Angmar.

The bodies of the past Fallen Kings of Arnor, buried in Barrows in the old fashion way, very similar to Saxon barrows in evidence in the UK, but i digress...

And so it was that when the Witch King came to Angmar to raise an army to destroy Arnor, he sent forth foul spirits to inhabit and animate the corpses of the Kings of old, and bring them forth from their barrows to terrify and kill their foes.

I must admit one of these figures is different to the rest, it's a much older 'Barrow Wight' model from GW/Citadel, but as such it makes a distinctive 'leader' of the company, with a suitably imposing sword!

I hope to see this formation in action soon.

My only slight misgiving, in the depiction of the models, is the colour the 'eavy Metal team chose to paint them up in; a blue tinge. My last re-reading of Lord of the Rings, where the hobbits are captured on the Barrow Downs by the Barrow Wight, mentions a 'pale greenish light', when Frodo is trapped in the Barrow. However the wights are also associated with cold and freezing, and these words tend to make us think of blue as a colour, so I guess they could have been done in either colour, after all.

Haldir's Elves - Legendary Formation

I managed to finish the Galadhrim banner bearer model I had, to add to my recently completed Galadhrim warriors.

This then allowed me to put together the Legendary Formation of Haldir's Elves...

This formation seemed the perfect place to include Galadriel, Celeborn and a Stormcaller...

...and a little help from Rivendell, in the form of Elrond and his twin sons, Elladan and Elrohir. Just enough figures to complete the legendary formations maximum size of four companies. I am not sure I would field these like this, its a lot of 'eggs in one basket' so to speak, but I imagine it would be quite a powerful formation on the battlefield.

It makes for a very nice picture too ;-)

PS... actually just checked the army lists, for some reason Haldir's Elves cannot include a Stormcaller. I can only assume therefore that this formation is the 'Legendary Formation' that arrived at Helms Deep in the movie, without a Stormcaller...
Still, its still possible to put the above together, just using a regular Galadhrim regiment.
This one formation with all Heroes as listed, comes in at a little over 1000 points for WOTR!

Galadhrim Warriors

The Galadhrim, Sindarin for "people of the trees". Here depicted as warriors from Lothlorien.

I like these warriors a great deal, and find them a good, medium infantry for the elves to use to defend their woodland realms and go on the offensive at need, against their ever present foes in the Misty Mountains and from Dol Guldur in the south of Mirkwood.

Interestingly, whilst the elves are not directly featured in the Lord of the Rings book as a fighting force, PJ made the decision to involve them at the battle of Helm Deep. Purists may argue this was near 'blasphemy' and against canon, but it does bring the elves as a fighting force at the time of the War of the Ring into the movie, and because of this fact alone we have a template for the model makers to make figures for us. If it hadn't been for this, we may not have had elven warriors, other than those from the scenes of the Last Alliance battle, or the wood elves of the Woodland Realm.

Plus I quite liked the idea behind PJ's thinking to involve them at this point in the tale. I guess it could be argued they took the place of the Grey Company, who did not make it into the movie.

The only thing I find a little strange with the models (but true to the movie armour depiction) is the two holes in the top of the helmet. Presumably to save weight and allow ventilation? But from a protection point of view, a little odd perhaps...

I just have to finish the banner bearer and the unit will look complete.

Morgul Knights

"All that host was clad in sable, dark as the night. Against the wan walls and the luminous pavement of the road Frodo could see them, small black figures in rank upon rank, marching swiftly and silently, passing outwards in an endless stream. Before them went a great cavalry of horsemen moving like ordered shadows, and at their head was one greater than all the rest: a Rider, all in black, save that on his hooded head he had a helm like a crown that flickered with a perilous light."
from The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, Book Four , The Ring goes East, The stairs of Cirith Ungol.

Moving like ordered shadows - I loved that bit, a real sense of menace and malice!

I received these as a Christmas present from my mother-in-law, so naturally they jumped to the front of the painting queue! Upon opening them and examing the contents I was surprised to find they had been sculpted with very skull like faces - no nose, empty eye sockets and bared teeth. I had never envisaged these riders as wraith like or undead. I had always thought of them as men, of the race of the Black Numenoreans, and thus much like the Mouth of Sauron. So I had expected a normal flesh face...

Hmmm thought I, well lets see if we can change them. So out came the green-stuff, and with a will there's a way. I filled the eye sockets and made a groove for the eye slits. I added a nose. That was all they needed to my mind as most of the face would be hidden behind the rest of the helmet.

Here's some progress shots:

I am quite happy with the way they turned out even if I am not the best scupltor in the world! It was a little fiddly and could be argued why bother when you can barely see the effect at a distance. But at least I know they've got faces.

I realize, as I may have said before, its difficult to get excited, by the look of dull black figures, especially when you may be used to looking at the pomp and ceremony of Napoleonic and other colourful historical periods. But they demand their own attention , and getting just the right amount of highlight on black cloth can be tricky without it looking too gray. I love the dark armour on them too.

I will look forward to using them in battle at the head of my Mordor armies. I have tried them out a couple of times before they were quite finished in games against my regular elven opponent and each time he has thrown the proverbial "kitchen sink" at them, so they must put the willies up him anyway! I hope one day I can actually get to have a successful charge with them ;-)

Elves of the Wood

Elves of the Wood

The elves of King Thranduil's Woodland Realm in the north of Mirkwood, that was once known as Greenwood the Great, are ever ready to defend their kingdom against the malice of Sauron.

When Sauron's spirit returned after his defeat at the Battle of the Last Alliance, the location he chose was an ancient ruin, possibly left over from the time of Morgoth, his master. A great hill, possibly an extinct volcano, in the south west corner of the Greenwood, became known as Dol Guldor, the Hill of Sorcery. Here it was that Sauron was known as the Necromancer.

The brave wood elves of King Thranduil, father of Legolas, battle against the evil spreading through their beloved forest realm.


Three valiant companies of Wood Elves...



..armed with spear...


...glaive...


... and elven longbow.



And above is the Elven command group with Captain, Banner and 3 Sentinels.

The Misty Mountains

The Misty Mountains.

Once under the snow capped peaks of the Misty Mountains the Dwarven City of the Dwarrowdelf, known as Khazad-Dum, was a seat of great power and wealth for the dwarves. A golden time followed in their trade and dealings with the Elves in Eregion, where the great elven smiths of old wrought the Rings of Power.

But that time is long gone...

Sauron in his rage with the elves, destroyed Eregion. The dwarves, content to shut themselves in the safety of their mountain fortress, delved too deeply for the prize of mithril, and so awoke a dread demon from the ancient world, a Balrog of Morgoth, who laid waste to their dwarven realm.

Fell creatures made the abandoned dwarven halls their home, and the mountains filled with goblins, happy to plunder the wreck of the abandoned dwarven kingdom.



The forces of the Misty mountains can draw on a solid core of goblin soldiery. Not the greatest warriors in Middle-Earth, but in great numbers, can smother and enemy force.


Durburz, the goblin king, leads his warriors to battle, aided by a shaman, and the boom of the massive goblins drums. Not the greatest friend of Durbruz, Druzhag the Beast-caller, summons forth all manner of fell creatures to fight alongside the goblins hordes, including giant spiders, monstrous bats, and wild wargs.

The goblins also bring with their armies, huge cave trolls that lend brute strength to the goblins attack.

Angmar- Realm of the WitchKing

Angmar - ancient realm of the Witch-King of old.

At the time of the weakened state of Arnor, after it had sent it's troops south to the Battle of the Last Alliance, the Witch-King came to Angmar to raise an army to bring death and destruction to Arnor.

For some time, Arnor, bereft of true kingship, dissolved into three smaller kingdoms; Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhudaur. These three fought each other, for the right to claim the throne. Ever do the forces of evil, grin to see friend fight friend, and in their further weakened state, Angmar struck, destroying each kingdom in turn and laying waste to the northern realm of Arnor.

Drawing on orcs, barbarians, trolls and all manner of evil creatures and spirits, the WitchKing forged his forces to wreak havoc on the world of men.

The backbone of any evil forces are the multitudinous orcs, lead by brutal captains and taskmasters, and following their banners to war to the beat of the drum.


Banners still bearing the red eye of Sauron.

Shamen also come forth in the orc battalions, to bolster their courage and lay waste to their enemies.

All manner of fell creatures come to the call of the WitchKing; including monstrous bats, giant spiders, and evil wild wargs...



Other fell demons come forth to join the fray. Ghulavar the Terror of Arnor, is one such dread demon, with a lust for blood, and fangs and claws to rend and tear flesh from the living. A nightmare of another world.

Monstrous trolls will also head the call of the Witch-King bringing brute strength to the fight.


Fell spirits also obey the summons, chilling the soul, and paralyzing with fear, the brave souls man enough to oppose the forces of Angmar.



Here a evil Shade, a twisting swirl of ghostly forms, lends its terror to Angmar.

And Wights; spirits that have inhabited to kingly bodies of men in the tombs under their barrows, come forth to chill the soul.

I have more I wish to add to this force, including spectres and ghostly legion, which I hope to complete for a subsequent blog post update.