So I'm working on a mordor army, and I'm wondering what the best troops and heroes are to use for 500 and 750pt lists. So far, I have a box of morannon orcs, orc warriors, the morannon orc commanders set, 6 black guards of barad-dur, the black guard commanders set, Shagrat, War Leader of Cirith Ungol, and Gorbag. Should I get more Morannon orcs? Also, is it worth it to go for the witch king or knight of umbar? What should I mount them on? Any advice on which troops and heroes to use and buy more of would be very helpful.

Thank you,
Alexander

Hi there!

Here are some of my lists

500pts shagrat war leader 15 morannons w shield 14 w shield and spear 1 w shield and spear and banner a taskmaster and a shaman

600pts drop shagrat warleader for undying on fell beast 2 spectres warg for shaman

750pts lose 2 spectres and shamans warg add kardush 5 morranons w shield 5 w spear and three orcs

hope this helps mate!

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RIP Christopher Lee

I myself do not have alot of experience with mordor armies, but one of my friends does.

He runs for 500-600 point armies orc/morannon captains, with spamorcs, shaman and he uses his morannon orcs as shocktroops.

One of my suggestions for 750 pnt. would be that you could get a 2 unnamed nazgul and the undying, mounted on horse. Keep your nazgul cheap, get a real fighter orc(shagarath, ect.). If you like fury take a shaman too, but the nazgul are good enouth to keep your army together. if not shaman, pick a taskmaster.

Make the 2 unnamed nazgul compel enemy heroes/wizards. Use the undying to cast black dart with 3-4 dice. Because of the staff and the 2 nazgul, you do not "spend" any will, or one will each turn for 5-7 turns. If you included a taskmaster you can use a channeled black dart on a hero without any remaining will. This way the annoying heroes cannot do [word deleted] against the spamorcs. Also if they burn will to ignore the compel, they basically become a black dart target.

Hope this helped, got beaten by this a couple times.

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I cannot jump the distance, you'll have to toss me.
- Gimli, The 2 towers

the undying doesn't get that point of free will from his staff its just a regular staff with nothing special about it.

the undying has to be used when other nazgul and/or spellcaster are around. Without other magic, one should rely on other Nazgul.

You're right, mb.

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I cannot jump the distance, you'll have to toss me.
- Gimli, The 2 towers

If you take all morannon orcs, you might find yourself a bit out numbered. Maybe you're okay with this, idk. I usually go one or two warbands in the middle and support with mordor orcs and trackers on the flanks. Trackers are awesome, or at least 12+ of them are!

The black guard captain is very cost effective, support him with a nazgul and he can match or (usually) kill a boromir level hero.

At 700+ points I always take a monster. Great beast and Troll chieftain are cost effective. Fell beasts probably are too, I just prefer to keep my nazgul out of harms way.

I think Eoher has a good point about the trackers but I'm afraid I'd have to disagree on the issue of being outnumbered when using morannon orcs. They're still only the cost of a Minas Tirith warrior, and most armies have more expensive basic troops than that. Taking Morannons won't leave you outnumbered, it will just slightly reduce your numbers advantage. However, I'd take them over Mordor Orcs any day: S4 means you're killing most line infantry on 5's rather than 6's and D6 means you can take the hits a bit more comfortably, although you'll mainly see the benefit against good armies here as most evil armies have access to S4. These 2 key jumps, IMHO, make them much better than basic orcs. Buy more!!!!!
Totally agree on the Black Guard Captain, never leave home without one when playing Mordor, he can chew through basic troops and low-level heroes without breaking a sweat and with magical assistance can kill heavy hitters, as Eoher says.
If I were you I'd try to get a Troll Chieftain in, at any points level they're a threat.
At 500 they'll handle most heroes thrown your way and I'd take one at 700-750 as well, they're still great, just keep him in the thick of it. Having him also saves on a fellbeast if you need brutal power attacks.
Black Guards aren't really worth it unless up against dwarves or Fountain Court spam, but they look cool and S5 basic troops can discourage lightly armoured heroes from taking you on, perhaps take a couple here and there to add some real killing power.
As for the KofU versus the Witch King, up to you. Try both, on fellbeasts and horses but not on foot, they won't get where they need to be.
Hope this helps and good luck!

General Ly Average has some good counter points. I keep forgetting that morannons are an average cost. They are just so awesome imo.

I usually try to sneak in both a monster and an upgraded or named ringwraith, so that is probably the root cause my being short(er) on units.

Sorry to hijack a thread but I'm in a similar situation to LOTRIsengard. I already have the basics with plenty of morannons/orcs, a troll, a shaman and a few vanilla wraiths, are there any other must haves in a Mordor force?

I'm thinking of getting Black Numenorians, specters or a seige bow in my next purchase would any of these be a good call?

Or would I be better off saving up for a fell beast or something?

Thanks!

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All Hail The Lord of Light, R'hllor, for the night is dark and full of terrors!