The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game/Tactics/Azog's Legion

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Why Play Azog's Legion

Azog's Legion is like a mix of Mordor and Moria, you have your tough hard hitting orcs and trolls, goblins for ambusing, then you got some bats and ogres for faster movement and harassment. They play best as an aggressive army, get them stuck into the fight quick and watch them break through shield walls and other defences your enemy will try to hold up.

Pros

• Have an advantage fighting against Elves and Dwarves.
• A good variety of units to select from.
• one of the last armies to come out so you have some of the most detailed models

Cons

• Only Bolg and a catapult Troll are your options for range attacks
• Most of your army is from Forge World so it's going to cost you.
• Failcast. If you see someone using this pure list in the next tournament, that dude is rich for sure.

Army Bonus

If Azog or Bolg is leading your army then they get the master of battle special rule.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Azog: The Defiler himself. He may not have been your favourite Orc from the movies but he could very well be your favourite Orc on the table top. Where Bolg can take on large numbers Azog is best of headhunting your opponents heroes, his special rule "I am the Master" makes every wounding strike a +3 against an enemy Hero Regardless of their Defence, making any points your opponent paid in making their hero more survivable has now been made completely useless. His stand fast has a range of 12 that also affects other Orc Heroes. Of Course Azog wouldn't be getting very far if he didn't bring along his best friend the White Warg. Bringing this pup along adds three new special rules. the first is "Deadly Union" as long as Azog is mounted they can use each others Might, Will and Fate points. second comes "Pack Master" wild wargs, fell wargs and chieftain wargs may use the white wargs stand fast and benefit from Heroic Actions. Thirdly and finally is "Raging Beast", the White Warg automatically passes courage tests to stay in the fight after Azog dismounts. It then passes all courage tests for the rest of the battle. Now If Azog is taken in this army list he can be equipped with heavy armour (Making him defence 7). He can exchange his mace for the stone flail which can cause D3 wounds but reduces his fight value to 6.

• Azog's Lieutenants:

• Bolg:Your Combat Monster, with Fight Value 7 and 3 attacks he's sure to do some damage especially to Elves and Dwarves given his ancient enemies rule. Bolg can also be dangerous at range with an Orc bow and Morgul arrows. using these are perfect for softening up an enemy hero before finishing them of in close quarters. You want to get Bolg into combat to rake up his kill count as fast as possible. Two kills gives him the Terror special rule, after five kills he gets Harbinger of Evil, After Ten he can spend a point of might each turn without depleting it.

• Gundabad Orc Captain: A Gundabad Orc with +1 to every attribute aside from movement and Shoot Value, you only need him to bring along more units so don't make him you army leader if you can help it.

• Goblin Mercenary Captain:With D5 he can stand up a soldier of gondor if he's lucky, but you didn't bring him for that you wanted him because of his special rule Ambush, this allows you to be kept in reserve, along with with a warband of goblin mercenaries, then from turn 2 see if you can come on by passing a courage test, then setup your warband on any eligible terrain piece on the board that is not in your enemies Control zone, if there isn't any eligible terrain simply setup them up on a chosen board edge.

Troops

• Gundabad Orc Warrior: Basically a Morannon Orc costing one extra point, reason for that is because these guys hate Elves and Dwarves due to all the wars they've been fighting with them, so when rolling to wound you can re-roll a result of one. This may not seem like much but every little advantage helps.

• Goblin Mercenary: Goblin town infantry but with armour, they can still support other goblins but only other goblins. make sure you have a Goblin Captain to lead them so you can use the ambush rule

• Gundabad Berserker: With a Movement of eight and two attacks these guys really want to get into a fight. use these guys to tarpit your enemy units while your other units get into positions or take and hold an objective or two. they can also ignore a wound if you roll 6 as if you just spent a point of fate

• War Bat: Your fastest unit and what qualifies as your best "harasser", war bats should be bothering enemy units you don't want bothering your guys for as long as possible, this could be a few archer you don't want taking shots at your guy or maybe some cavalry you don't want getting the charge, but if your opponent bring a siege weapon this is what you want the war bat to go for.

Monsters

• Ogre: Ogres are like mini Trolls, they're strong, they have the terror special rule, they have multiple wounds and attacks but are just that little bit faster than they're bigger friends. with their special rule relentless advance you can push any friendly unit out of the way for your ogres to get into combat. However, for every unit that was in the way need to take a strength 3 hit, and if they end a movement on a model then it's automatically removed as a causality. So make sure you dont run over any of your good units unless its already a losing fight. Recommend taking Ogres in pairs.

• Gundabad Troll: these guys make mordor trolls look like cave trolls. With an extra wound and +1 higher defence than their mordor cousins you wouldn't have thought it was possible to make a troll even deadlier. They have two weapon options, a crushing club that wounds D3 times on a successful strike roll and knocks any survivors prone on a +3, then there's the scythe gauntlets, these give the troll a +1 to its strikes when rolling to wound. Both of these weapon options are good options so bring two trolls and kit one out with a club and the other with the gauntlets

• Troll Brute: Though slightly softer in the defence department than the troll above, this guy has been designed to straight out murder everything he walks into. Whatever he gets into base contact with he must inflict a Strength 10 hit on that model! this affects your own units so make sure to give this guy plenty of space. If anything survives the first attacks then the troll brute stops and carries on as if he charged into combat.

Artillery

• Catapult Troll: A walking tank, follows most of the rules for a siege engine but can move and fire, but youll be hitting on 6's if you do. Enemy units cannot destroy the catapult on the troll by being in base contact for a turn and if anyone is in base contact with the troll they'll need to watch out for the troll and its metal guanlets (making the troll never considered unarmed) and being hurled by them to at strength 10!.

Allies

Historical Allies

The Nazgul of Dol Guldur

Azog's Hunters

Convenient Allies

Moria

The Eastern Kingdoms

Goblin Town

The Trolls

Smaug

Impossible Allies

Angmar

The Serpent Horde

Far Harad

Corsairs of Umbar

Isengard

Sharkey's Rogues

Variags of Khand

Mordor

The Eastern Kingdoms