I've got a 750 point tournament coming up, I've been going on for a while about how I have drifted away from the formula that used to work for me in the past, so I thought I'd get a bit closer to that while still keeping the fun elements of my recent armies.

At first, I thought I'd be a jerk and do something awful like 4 Barrow Wights, a Shaman, maybe a Drummer and a Captain, leading seventy-something Orcs with some Trackers thrown in there for good measures. Then I considered how not fun that army would be to use and to play against, so I scrapped the idea.


Here's the new one:

Shagrat (Captain version) - Shield
6 Morannons - Shield
6 Orc Warriors - Spear

Shaman
6 Morannons - Shield
6 Orc Warriors - Spear

Ringwraith 2-7-2
4 Morannons - Shield
5 Orc Warriors - Spear
2 Spectres

Morannon Captain - Shield
10 Orc Trackers

Shelob

Spider Queen


750 points on the nose, 51 models, 10 might.


The idea is simple, nothing innovative about this one. I wanted to have a fairly big army, I didn't want to blow all my points on big heroes, but I still wanted the two Spider Mamas (LotBR, this one is for you).

I spent a while considering a named Wraith on a Fellbeast, maybe Super Shagrat, maybe two named Wraiths, or the two Spiders. Ultimately, this felt like the most reliable (although, as I type this, the idea of dropping the Spiders and bumping Shagrat/Budget Wraith for Khamul on FB and the Undying springs to mind).

Thoughts?

Well. I kind of like this themic. I can see a name of "Escort of Cirith Ungol" or "Escort of Shelob" or similar for this army.

Units contain basically orcs orcs and orcs... I would prefer to see some mordor uruk-hais as shagrat is one, instead this morannon/normal orc spam. (I KNOW PRICE IS PROBLEM).

Nazgul is a good idea - how likely is it there would be Shelob in an army lead by a small orc captain? It would probably need a nazgul to tame the beast... just enough to not eat all the orcs and then run back to caves.

Spiderqueen is a cool looking unit, but it doesn't feel good to have both Shelob and the Spiderqueen (of mirkwood) in the same army, unless you really had a spider filled army with a lot spiders (shame these 2 cant lead, there should be special rule they could lead giant spiders, how cool :3). So, I suggest you to replace it with up to 6 normal giant spiders.

Trackers are quite useless in such small amount. Very low hp, not supreme bow dmg...


Army list could look like this in practice:

*Ringwraith 2-10-1
-3 mordor uruk-hai
-7 orc warrior, banner
-2 giant spider

*Shagrat, shield
-3 mordor uruk-hai
-7 orc warrior
-2 giant spider

*Gorbag
-10 orc warrior
-2 giant spider

*Orc Captain, shield
-10 morannon orc

*Shelob

Overall: 750 points, 10 might, 51 unit if u pick 3 shield+spear morannons

I do love my Uruks, that's definitely a fun army to play, haven't actually done it in years. For this though, I wanted that D6 just to feel extra safe. Orcs powered by a Shaman are more versatile than Uruks I find, better to trap scary heroes if I need to.

It is a very exciting army that I am looking to play once I own enough Giant Spiders to do it.

Today, I tried two versions of the original army in preparation for tomorrow's shindig. First is what you see above, second was:

Shagrat
6 M.O
6 Spearmen

Shaman
6 M.O.
6 Spearmen

RW 2-7-2
4 M.O.
5 Spearmen

MoS Horse
5 Orc Trackers on Warg

Shelob

SQ


Less numbers and might, gives up the Spectres, but more magic and has cavalry. It's a toss-up and I might not end up deciding until just before the first game.