LordoftheBrownRing wrote:
I highly dislike this list. No offense at all I mean....let me explain why.
9 might plus Alfrid, 19 bow shots per round, better shield wall than you can muster, plenty of support even if you move some of them, Elite heroes, 52 models.
A fine list. A friend of mine in my local gaming group is thinking of toying with something similar. But do you really think all those 19 bowmen will get to shoot every turn? There's terrain, some LOS blocking, others that will provide in the way, which would greatly diminish your shooting effectiveness.
LordoftheBrownRing wrote:
So first off......your dwellers, spectres, and spear support will be targeted like crazy before you even get close enough to use most of them.
Not saying Im going to kill a bunch.....but youre going to lose a lot of points. Especially with your dwellers.
That's the risk I take using such units. Dwellers are extremely vulnerable to shooting, unlike trolls, which are a little more resilient, but also pricier. Just to go about and say that a unit is worthless to take because its going to get shot to death is nonsense, especially with how close deployment is in the game now. Either you must be playing under old deployment rules, or you forget that a Dweller will likely be in combat turn one or two, especially considering his 8" move; and then there's Spectres possibly pulling units forwards to feed him to help him regain any wounds lost. (I know my local gaming club plays deployment a bit modified (in where you don't need to roll to deploy in the front 12", only if you want to deploy back do you need to roll), but under most cases you are going to be starting only a few inches apart, not a whole 2-3 feet, unlike the old rules.) Additionally, the Dweller is Resistant to Magic, so if I were playing another army you couldn't just go and Transfix or Black Dart him and be done with it. And there's two of them, so you'd really have to focus them to bring both of them down before they reach your lines and start regenerating wounds. And, as said, in the way tests due to terrain, your movement, or LOS blocking terrain would really put a damper on your shooting.
Additionally, I would be stupid to put the Spectres up front before the brunt of my army is in combat, so you'd likely be making in the way tests to even try and hit them due to other units being in front of them, same going for the spearmen. Half the time you'd hit the wrong target, or nothing at all, which would greatly reduce the amount of them you are killing, or at least the amount of your priority targets you are killing. Plus they, and the shield Orcs that would be in front of them, are D 5, meaning in most cases, with most armies, you'd be wounding on 6's, 5's for elven bows and longbows or anything better like a crossbow. Only with artillery would you have any better chances of killing them.
EVen more so, despite the army's lack of might, I could always use a Heroic March or Heroic Move to get to your shooting units faster, and tie you up earlier.
LordoftheBrownRing wrote:
In addition your barrow wight has a chance to succeed but I have a lot of will to resist such a spell. Then hes useless after.
That's where the Ringwraith comes in. He's there to throw some dummy spell like Transfix or Sap Will (which no self-respecting hero, wizard, or Ringwraith, wants to affected by) to reduce the enemy hero's Will value by either Sapping it or forcing them to throw all or most of it in chance of resisting the nasty spell, before the Barrow Wight swoops in and Paralyzes the now low, or 0, Will hero. He can also be aimed at monsters, who are less likely to have any Will to resist him, which is what I did in a game were there was an Ent and 2 Great Eagles. I decided not to focus his heroes, which were less of a threat at the time, and instead Paralyzed the Ent, which never stood up the entire game and eventually died due to being mobbed by Orcs.
LordoftheBrownRing wrote:
Then comes the tainted....yeah you can sap will....but I think hes one of the most useless wraiths. Youre much better off with the Witch King.
That's exactly what I am saying in my first post. I am finding that all the Tainted is really doing is acting as a spellcaster, throwing around dummy spells like I said above, and that I am finding no great use in his special abilities. Otherwise, as I stated in my reply to the other two contributes, I don't really think I need a combat character, which is more than likely what the Witch King is. I am looking for a more useful Ringwraith, I am just having trouble figuring out which to use.
LordoftheBrownRing wrote:
Finally the shade....hes a HUGE points sink for you. In order to use him well you need a lot of troops and such or high fight value troops to make him worth the points. If youre going to go up against elves and dwarves you better damn sure have a lot of attacks coming in and you dont.
Have you tried the Shade out? His -1 to my enemies fight rolls is amazing. It wins you more fights then not, especially if you can get in even just 2 Orcs. It guarantees that unless you are facing a hero, if you roll a 6 you
win, regardless of how high the fight of the enemy is or if they rolled a 6 too, as it would drop to a 5 under the Shade's influence. And its not like I have 24 orcs. It might not be a lot considering the points value of the army, but when those 24 orcs are moving around as a unified block, it gets a little hairy if my opponent is spread out, or has a low model count to begin with. And even then, sure you do need a lot of guys to make the most of him, but even just 2 guys on one enemy works wonders.
LordoftheBrownRing wrote:
In general also, with the shades, my force has high courage besides the men of lake town but if you wanna waste time with them, I say feel free. I wouldn't be too worried about it.
So you are fine with me dragging the men of Lake Town towards my lines and letting me rip them apart for free? Cool! Your fine with me feeding them to my Dwellers so they regain the wounds they lost from you shooting them? Awesome! Your fine with me just removing them as spear support and leaving your Elves and Dwarves unsupported, only to roll one attack versus my two, which is at a -1 due to the Shade? Amazing! Your fine with me pulling a guy off, only to have him lose the fight versus a Dweller and get thrown into your battle line? I'm ecstatic! The fact that you wouldn't care about those 12 models, that I could rather easily kill, would be crutch for you. The army likes to target my opponents weaknesses, and if you are just going to give me 12 models, 12 guys closer to breaking you, then fine by me. I'll take them and gobble them up, use them as a meat-shield to prevent them form shooting me for a turn or two, and make it so that I'll break you even faster, whereas had you cared about them and protected them you could use your higher courage, higher defense models to counter my Spectres and make it so targeting the lower courage, lower defense men is actually a bad idea.
LordoftheBrownRing wrote:
And uh....the blackshield shaman Ive used twice and hes done nothing for me. He either misses or if hes trying to hurt great heroes gets resisted.
It goes right back to the discussion about the Barrow Wight. You use the other casters to make the hero you wish to target resist some nasty dummy spell like Transfix or Paralyze, and all of a sudden he will likely have no Will left to resist Shatter. And if that doesn't work for you, a well timed Tremor down an enemy Phalanx could really ruin someone's day. And if you argue you'll just shoot him to death...well you wont. He'd be behind an Orc shield wall, protected by several in the way rolls, if you could even see him.
LordoftheBrownRing wrote:
Those are just some noted to think about. Im not saying you can win, especially if you play like Gondor or some other evil force or something of the sort. But if you play the wrong force things will go wrong VERY quickly with an army like yours.
Thats the same with any army in the game. A horde list goes up against some elite force? Sure the elite force might rip through a few guys but eventually they'll get overrun. Monster mash goes up against Ringwraith spam? Those monsters will get Black Darted and Transfixed into uselessness. Horde list goes against the Necromancer? Have fun seeing half your easily killable guys dead by turn 3 or 4, faster if you are bunched up. Its just the name of the game. But that's not to say some army won't ever beat its counter. Hobbit is like chess, one move will always counter another. Its a game of strategy, and if you can play well enough with a force you will always find ways to exploit an opponents weakness, turn your own weaknesses into strengths, and inevitably blaze your trail to victory, regardless of what you might face.
I ma not trying to be mean. I am not trying to discard your opinion. Its a valid one, like anyone else's. Dwarves and Elves are not the best sort of army for this to come up against, and they provide a challenge for it. But that's what one needs to learn to play around. You saying the list sucks because it won't fair well against these two is no concern of mine, they are only some of many, not many of few. If they were the latter, I'd consider it more, but the fact is Elves and Dwarves only make up a small majority of a vast number of armies.
legion wrote:
I agree with most of your analysis here. The Shade is a point sink if you dont have it backed up by numbers, and the Witch King is probably a better pick. However I dont think he has to give up the shade, especially if he actually created the numbers in his list. Maybe give up the two dwellers with the Gundabad Shaman and the Tainted, then pick the Witch King on a Fell Beast with Morgul Crown and then fill the remaining points with Orcs. You'll still have hitting power and a better spell caster, but get about two warbands more of Orcs which makes the shade better
The specters are usually nasty against all non-Elf lists. Even the dwarves can hate them since they target courage (which will be -1 because of the wraith) when they attack rather than their defense (even despite the fact that fell light wont work on them). Other than that, I would say to keep the specters since they really hurt other lists beyond these two.
Barrow Wights should not be targeting anything with Will. If they have Will, then you should sap it first. I disagree that he is useless since all your targets should not be able to resist if played correctly.
Thank you for seeing how to correctly use the Barrow Wight (and, to an extent, the Gundabad Shaman). I might need to try your adjustments to the list at some point. However, if all I wanted was to swap the Ringwraith with another of the same cost (for financial reasons, that is; you should understand), which would you pick? Would it still be the Witch King or would you take another?