The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game/Tactics/Isengard

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This page is a WIP, the one doing it (Lotrfag) is new to creating pages. And I'm f*cking lazy too, seeing how I left this page in standy for 7 months.

Why Play Isengard

The Two Towers is your favorite movie and book of the series, and it's partly because of these guys. You like quality over quantity but don't want to play High Elves (Eregion & Rivendell). You want your basic troops to kill said armoured elves as if they were Wood Elves, and Wood Elves as if they were Hobbits, and Hobbits like... Well, you got my point.

Pros

• Uruk Hai warriors are one of the best infantry in the game.
• Crossbows.
• Good variety of elite troops (i.e. Berserkers)
• Possible armywide Strenght 4

Cons

• Probably the most common Evil army you can find.
• Defense 6 is not that tough, some other S4 armies are tougher than you (i.e. the new FW Dwarves)

Army Bonus

You Do Not Know Pain, You Do Not Know Fear: You don't take break tests until you've lost 66% of your force. Also Lurtz, Ugluk, Mauhur, Vrasku, Scout Captains and Scouts all gain Woodland Creature.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Saruman: A potent spellcaster and good army leader. He's a Hero of Legend, has 6 Will points and gets another one for free every turn. He has 2 aggressive spells, cast on a 5+ and 4+, so he's better at supporting your troops with Transfix/Compel. He can also, once per battle, automatically make you win priority; an ability that can, if it is used at the right time, turn the game over (read: save your ass). He also has a 12 inch Stand Fast, his Stand Fast can effect other heroes and he can reroll 1 cast/resist dice per turn.

Also worth considering, he very silently got a huge bonus in the way of his new model; it has him on horse. While that doesn't sound like much by itself, consider his only real weaknesses; one, that D5 isn't exactly heavy armor, and even with 3 W/F he can still get bludgeoned pretty easily. And two, that he only has a single attack on foot. On a horse, the mobility and charge capability make him exponentially more durable against all kinds of opponents, and on top of this boosting up to 10" movement gives a very nice range for his fireballs and sorcerous blasts.

• Grima Wormtongue: Can only be taken if Saruman is here. He deploys in the enemy's zone and forces heroes around him to spend 2 Might instead of one every time they used them. He cannot be shot or wounded as long as Saruman is on the battlefield, or until he charges or tries to wound someone. Very good against hero-heavy lists, not too bad otherwise. He seems unexpensive at only 25 points, but he cannot lead a troop and you need Saruman around, so that's 205 points (without horses).

• Lurtz: The guy from the end of the first movie. He is an Uruk Hai Captain with 3 Might. Having both an orc bow and a shield means he doesn't get +1 D, but he can still use it in combat. His Warband also doesn't need to roll to see where and when it shows up in scenarios that require you to roll such things, which isn't a lot, but it's not nothing.

• Ugluk: The successor of the guy above and, again, an Uruk Hai Captain with 3 Might. If your force is broken, instead of testing Courage, he can kill a friendly model in base contact. This makes him automatically pass the test and extends his standfast to 12". If you field him, also take an escort of cheap, expandable models (Orcs) to make sure he doesn't kill your precious Uruk Hai Warriors. He costs 10 points more than an Uruk-Hai Scout Captain for 1 point of might, but no options, so make sure you're taking him for his ability.

• Vraskû: Another Captain with 3 Might. Also has a crossbow that he is able to shoot twice every Shooting Phase with his 3+ Shooting value. A very good choice if you want to have a hero with your crossbowmen (crossbowuruks?).

• Mauhur: The fourth and last named Uruk Hai Captain. He only has 2 Might (like a regular captain) but he makes up for it by moving 8" and having 3 Attacks. THREE F5 S5 ATTACKS FOR ONLY 60 POINTS! This is enough to let him shred through infantry and skullfuck the occasional hero. Don't expect him to do much against major heroes or massed elite infantry though. He can upgrade your Uruk Hai Scouts to have 8 move for 1 point, but only in his Warband.

• Sharku: An Orc Captain with 3 might and a dagger that lets him stab enemy heroes whenever they fail to wound him, which is incidentally hilarious, for 10 points more than an Orc Captain. He can take a Warg for 10 points and Shield for 5, and you should probably go with both to give him a good chance of getting into combat and make you less likely to get wounded.

• Thrydan Wolfsbane:

• Dunlending Chieftain: Comes stock with a two handed axe but you have the option to give him a bow or trade the big axe for a smaller axe and shield, i would advise against both those options and let him bring his two handed axe, with strength 5 use piercing strike to up his strength even more and you'll get that +1 to your wound roll due to the two handed axe. Good to bring against a high defence army.

• Uruk Hai Captain: Your basic Uruk Hai hero. He is a stronger, tougher and braver Uruk, and he has 2 Might. There are quite a lot of options to equip him with, but you'll probably want to give hime heavy armour and either a shield or crossbow, depending on what he is going to do (lead from the front or babysit your crossbows). This guy can go up to Defense 7, which is better than your named Uruk heroes, and for the same price. Overall not a bad choice if you want someone that is cheap, tough and strong to get shit done.

Note that, similarly to all your Uruks, he cannot take a mount.

• Uruk Hai Shaman: A trickier hero for you to play, he is neither a good fighter like your Captains, nor is he a magical powerhouse like Saruman. But he is cheaper than them and he has a power that Saruman hasn't: frenzy. If you manage to cast it, it create a 6" bubble around that allows Uruk Hais to auto-pass Courage tests and that gives them some sort of 6+ FnP.

A good support hero than will give your battle line more staying power. Try not to get him into too dangerous fights though, as losing one will stop his Frenzy.

• Uruk Hai Drummer: Always a good option to get your Uruk-hai into combat faster, if you really want to be mean take a drummer alongside Mauhur's warband and make sure you upgrade them all to move 8, that way with the drummer your Uruk-hai scouts are moving 11 that's faster than some cavalry!

Troops

• Uruk Hai Scout: at 8 points you have a strength 4, fight and shot value of 4, Defence 4 and courage 3 warrior, theyre exactly as Saruman made them to be, superior to orcs in every way. they have the options to bring a shield to up their defence and a banner to help them out in a fight, they can also bring an Uruk-hai bow

• Uruk Hai Warrior: The same stats as the scout, but with +1 defence, these are your front line and back line troops (ill explain further on). Give them a shield to make them defence 6 and watch them shrugg of arrows or return the favour and equip them with Crossbows to make even Elves cry. Of Course they have the option to bring a banner but what all isengard players bring are Pikes! these things are wonderful you can have a three row column of Uruk-hai and have them all fighting. These are a must if you are playing Isengard.

• Uruk Hai Demolition Team:

• Uruk Hai Berserker: Super Killy but doesn't play well with others, the berzerker is a good option to wreak some havoc against an opponent who likes to groups his units together, with his berserker blade (which is a hand-and-a-half-sword) you can either make strikes normally or hit every model he is engaged in combat with at strength 4 +1 to hit, sadly this includes your own guys supporting or in base contact so make sure they keep their distance. He has two special rules both making him harder to kill, the first is Oblivious to pain allowing to roll one D6 after receiving a wound if the result is a 6 then the wound is ignored. His second rule is Impervious to Bow-fire (bet you cant guess what this does) when enemy models are shooting at him they have to treat his defence characteristic as 6 and even if they do wound you then have the first special rule to make it even harder to kill them.

• Feral Uruk Hai: A subpar Berserker with two swords instead of one big one. He only has the oblivious to pain special rule and has two attacks but defence 4. At 13 points you might as well take a berserker for two more points.

• Dunliending Warrior: These guys are a weird choice, while they are stronger and better in some ways than Orcs they're not as good as Uruk-hai but can bring some other weapon options they don't have. At 7 points they aren't a complete waste of points but i wouldn't bother equipping them with Bows. Equip them with two handed axes and keep them near a banner, use piercing strike to take down some of the higher defence units.

• Wild Man of Dunland: These are basically Orcs with slightly better courage but worse defence and only have a sword or axe but can bring a two handed axe for 1 point. They do have the hatred rule against Rohan but Orcs are a lot more versatile and are the exact same price on base, bring them instead unless you really want to play some fluffy raiding themed army.

Cavalry

• Warg Rider: Evil cavalry extraordinaire, the Wargs are brutal, hard hitting and versatile. Low courage and rider defence is bad, but again they are cheaper than their good side equivalents. These are a very good buy with throwing spears and shields, coming to 13 points in total. This paired with the changes to thrown weapons and charges, really makes them quite nasty. Have Sharku lead a warband full of these guys.

Monsters

• Isengard Troll: Same stats as the Mordor troll but he comes with a sword and a shield Making him Defence 8! He can't take a hammer or club but can trade his sword for a spear or swap both his weapons out to take drums, he has the terror rule and he can throw big as rocks that his at strength 8. worth taking one to use as a wound absorber, your opponent will waste most of their arrows shooting at this guy.

Siege Weapons

• Isenguard Assault Ballista:

Allies

Convenient Allies

Variags of Khand

Mordor

Moria

The Eastern Kingdoms

The Serpent Horde

Far Harad

Corsairs of Umbar

Impossible Allies

Angmar

Sharkey's Rogues

The Nazgul of Dol Guldur

Azog's Hunters

Azog's Legion

Goblin Town

The Trolls

Smaug