Games Workshop - Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game: The Lord Of The Rings - Isengard Battlehost

Product Information

This path assumes that you’d want to collect general Isengard models with a few Dunland options, and then want to have the ability to run the pure Dunland LL. I’d recommend the Fighting Uruk Hai Command Pack (Captain, Banner, Shaman) and either Lurtz and Ugluk or Mauhur and Vrasku. Yep, I think these guys are almost at the bottom of the list, but a bit better than Rohan because the Witch-King has enough Will to keep Eomer from doing anything. It’s an infantry force designed to rush forward and put a demolition charge into the enemy shieldwall. Suddenly any cavalry model looks really good (even if all the cavalry in these Battlehost are only F3).

But there was also a rules change (to simplify things) from the normal game: cavalry get their charge bonuses regardless of who they charge (read, you can't turn off someone's cavalry charge bonuses just by counter-charging them with cavalry). Some of you may have spotted that we have not addressed the Mumak in the room - the ‘Wolves of Isengard’ Legendary Legion.

Join the ranks of the fallen Istari Saruman, one of the most powerful Wizards in Middle-earth, as he personally leads the Isengard Battlehost of Uruk-hai Scouts and Uruk-hai Warriors, followed by his faithful minion, Gríma Wormtongue. All told, if you were to trim Gandalf's spells down to 4 from the original 9, I think I'd remove Command from his retinue and give him Fortify Spirit instead. This battleforce contains 48 plastic Citadel miniatures for use in games of Middle-earth™ Strategy Battle Game and is an ideal way for existing players to bolster their forces, or for new collectors to get into the game.

In my experience playing MESBG, playing to the last man is actually an UNFUN experience (especially if there's no way your 2 Orcs are going to be able to kill Gandalf and a half dozen Warriors of Minas Tirith). This is a pretty good opponent to a Defense of Helm’s Deep list for Rohan, and if you wanted to expand it further crossbows, a Ballista, an Isengard Troll and a captain would all be good ideas on the journey to 750 points.point games are perfectly viable in Lord of the Rings and a Mounted Rohan Command and another box of Riders of Rohan gives you the following. Getting Started (9) Goblin-Town (5) Goblins (73) Gondor (36) Gondor At War (13) Guest Post (3) Gundabad (8) Harad (23) Heroes (68) Heroic Actions (28) Heroic Strike (9) High Elves (40) Hobbying (4) Homebrew Factions (9) In Defense Of (39) Informative (508) Iron Hills (8) Isengard (121) Khand (4) Khazad-Dum (8) Lake-Town (10) Last Month on TMAT. Saruman lost very little with the rules "dumb down" - he lost Flameburst (which has its uses, but is usually worse to cast than Sorcerous Blast) and he can't Heroic Channel (which is just fine). For a pure Isengard force from the LOTR Armies book, obvious additions are characters, monsters, missile troops and cavalry.

We’ll need both Lurtz and Mauhur in the list, as Mauhur allows you to upgrade your entire army to an 8” move, which is pretty much the main reason to take this list. One other thing that this battlehost has going for it is that it can be fielded for ~500pts (assuming that you save 6 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields to be Knight dismounts). This is a cheap expansion again, as it is the Command blister again and it still leaves you with the Knight of the White Tower and Hornblower, which with the remaining infantry would take you over 700 points. You can really pick your poison from this point, too – some more named heroes, and some specialist troops like crossbows or berzerkers will give you a much more varied toolbox and will help to build towards bigger, scarier Isengard lists.

I did want to give a shout-out to the MESBG team for what they did with the Witch-King, though - I know when I got started playing the game, figuring out how to kit out a Nazgul was HARD. Isengard have a number of Legendary Legions that play well at 5/600 points, with Ugluk’s Scouts being a prime example. probably more of a nightmare for your opponent because now he can't boost dueling rolls against a swarm of Uruks without burning through 2 Might points).