WOTR the Lore of War

7/27/2019 WOTR the Lore of War

1/832 WHITE DWARF THE LORE OF WAR

War of The Ring heralds a new dawn for The Lord of The Rings, and a new way tocrush the armies of your foes! Pausing briefly from the battle for Middle-earth,Matthew Ward delves into the tactics and tricks of War of The Ring.

Inormally start these things with a bit of preamble, butthis time Im going to dive straight in. Suffice to say, myintention here is to set your feet firmly on the path to

victory. Weve a lot to cover, and by the time I get to theend Id like to have given you a little bit of a feel for everycorner of War of The Ring, from the basics of moving tothe skills of sorcery. The clock is ticking, the word count isrunning and (of course) the deadline is looming, so lets geton with it!

Movement might at first seem like the simplest phase of thegame, but its here that the road to victory begins. Yourmain job in the Move phase is to get your formations intoposition to do the most damage later on. Put simply, hewho controls the battlefield, controls the game.

War of The Ring allows a lot of freedom when it comesto movement. Provided that a company does not exceed itsmovement allowance, and the formation ends in a legalconfiguration, it can pretty much do whatever you need itto. The first thing to look for in the Move phase areformations whose configurations are not going to besuitable in the upcoming turn. Maybe your archers arefacing the wrong way, or your phalanx is too broad to passbetween a pair of forests or you find your flanks are veryexposed. Nows your chance to correct the error.

Youll also need to use the Move phase to set up yourcharges. This can sometimes require a little bit of carefulthought. After all, due to the priority system, your enemywill either get to move his formations after youve finishedmoving, or hell get to charge before you do. Canny tacticsare therefore required, as well as a little psychologicalwarfare you dont actually have to hold the advantageif your enemy is convinced that hes on the back foot.

THE MOVE PHASELoremasters TacticThe Pathfinders special rule is a handy boon itallows your formations to ignore certain types ofdifficult terrain. Elves are particularly handy forthis, as are the Grey Company,whose Pathfinders (Master) rulemeans they can freely traversethe board, regardless of swamps,undergrowth or piles of slainOrcs. Why not use aPathfinder unit to lure the foeinto difficult terrain? Yourformation will have noproblems withdrawing.


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The Enemy Are Upon Us!Whilst you cant charge in the Move phase, you can lockthe enemy down in another manner. The Enemy Are UponUs! rule decrees that a formation with a foe within 6" willmove at half rate. As a result, you can push one of yourformations forwards to pin the enemy in place. Whilst apinned unit can still withdraw, the halved movement rate isunlikely to carry them completely out of danger.

Difficult TerrainFormations are slowed by areas of difficult terrain, and willnormally move at half speed. The main lesson to take fromthis is not to go into difficult terrain unless you really haveto by the time your formation gets out, the battle mightbe over. That said, if you can use a cheap (or expendable)unit to draw an enemy formation into difficult terrain, morepower to you!

Strong Walls, High HopesBuildings, woods and other defensible terrain features canbe key to victory in War of The Ring. If you can seize adefensible terrain feature before your opponent does, itllallow you to dominate everything that occurs beneath itswalls (or eaves). Why is this so? Well, apart from granting aDefence bonus to the occupying formation, a defensibleterrain feature grants a 360-degree line of sight, making it

perfect for installing archers or other missile-armed troops.

By advancing to within 6" of theenemy, the Riders of Rohanslow the Uruk-hai retreat.

If theres a defensible terrain feature in ornear your deployment zone, grab it as soon asyou can. Even the squishiest archers becomea formidable foe when theyve walls toshelter behind, giving you a solid bulwark tobase the rest of your battleplan around.

Loremasters Tactic

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If youve set the pace of the battle properly in the Movephase, the Shoot phase should be a doddle. With carefulplanning, all of your missile units will have a least onetarget to play with, and the onslaught can begin.

The Shoot phase, as ever, is a question of target priority.Do you inflict heavy casualties on the ranks of the foes

levy troops, light casualties on his elites, or have a crack ata monster or two? Consider the following when makingyour choices.

Drive Them BackFirst off, theres the driven back rule, which forces anenemy formation to retreat a short distance if you succeedin slaying a company. An inch or two might not seem likea battle winning manoeuvre, but it can stop a charge fromhitting home. Remember that formations are driven back ifa complete company is removed, regardless of the numberof models in the company when the attack is made.Formations with a company that has only a couple ofmodels left are ideal targets therefore, as only a little

shooting will drive them back.

Fear the ShieldShield-equipped infantry (and, to an extent, cavalry) are thebane of archers, due to the hefty Defence bonus that theirshields grant to the front. If you want to apply thesmackdown on such formations, youll need to get yourarchers into their flank or rear where, happily, the shieldwill help them not one whit.

Dont Shoot Untilthe enemy get close. The Strength of missile fire isreduced by one at over half range, which can make a hugedifference. This isnt to say that you shouldnt shoot at adistant target every little helps, after all but if youve acouple of potential pincushions, youre normally better offgoing for the one thats less than half your range away.

The hard part of charging getting into position hasalready been done in the Move phase. Simply put, if youwant to charge, get as close as you possibly can. Differenttroop types have different minimum charge distances, sobear this in mind when youre moving. Infantry should aimto be within 4", monsters within 6", cavalry within 8" and

flying monsters within 10". Of course, you can normallymake a successful charge from further away, but the diceare bound to let you down if you push your luck too far.

There are also a few things to bear in mind: who yourtarget is, are you planning to win or just wear them down abit, and so on Remember, dont bite off more than youcan chew. Oft-times, youll be faced with the chance tocharge two enemies. This might be tempting, but will oftenjust dilute the efficiency of your charge particularly ifyoure striking before the foe and are relying on yourcharge to whittle down the number of foes fighting back.

That said, sometimes youre going to want to chargetwo or more enemies with the same formation, not becauseyoure confident you can win, but because you dont want

those formations to have the freedom to charge other partsof your line. Locking down the enemy in this way is agood way of dictating the flow of the battle, but can becostly as your formations will often find themselvesoutmatched and fighting on all sides.

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THE SHOOT PHASE THE CHARGE PHASE

The Knights of Minas Tirithcharge two Orc formationsto stop them attacking theMinas Tirith Archers.

Here the Orcs have shot at a MinasTirith Warrior formation. As the rearcompany had only one model left, theOrcs only needed to cause a singlecasualty to drive their enemy back.


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THE FIGHT PHASE

When youve got a stubborn or heavilyarmoured foe that you just cant shift,deploy the siege engine! Catapults caninflict massive damage on enemyformations, particularly large ones.Youll only get a few shots beforethe foe reaches your catapult, buteven a couple of shots can mushthe enemy up good.

Loremasters Tactic

Youre in contact with the enemy, so let the killing begin!Youll not have that many choices to make in the Fightphase, unless youve brought a Hero and want to begin aduel (see later for more on this). Hopefully, youve seizedcontrol of the Move and Charge phases and have a bunchof fights that will resolve in your favour. Regardless ofwhether or not this is the case, your fate is now in thehands of those fickle dice, so pick em up and see how

they fall.In War of The Ring, dice can normally be rolled inhuge, satisfying handfuls, but youll sometimes need toseparate certain attacks out particularly if you have twoor more formations with different Strength values orwargear. If you dont have enough dice, just roll whatyouve got in batches the dice dont care if youre rollingfifty dice all at once, or five lots of ten.

All Pile OnThere are some choices to be made if youre in a multiplefight. Remember that youre looking to cause as manycasualties as possible on the enemy not only will thiswear them down, itll increase your chances of winning.Accordingly, its normally best to direct your blows againstthe squishiest target, if theres a choice. That said, there is aschool of thought that suggests hitting the biggest, toughestthing in the enemy ranks as a course of action. True, thiscan rob your foe of his elite troops, but youll be sorry ifyou lose the fight because you were so busy giant-killingthat you left the Orcs to their own foul devices Anotherthing to bear in mind is the striking order. Monsters attackbefore cavalry, and cavalry attack before infantry. This canbe exploited, if youre careful by striking enemies thathave yet to fight, you can attempt to whittle down theirnumbers and thus reduce the damage they can cause.

The Weapon of ChoiceDifferent weaponry comes into its own against differenttargets. As they cancel out charge bonuses, pikes are greatat defending against cavalry charges, but not so good whenused against infantry. Two-handed weapons grant +1 to hit,

but impose a -1 Fight penalty, so are excellent at crackingheavily armoured troops, but will also increase thecasualties dealt out by the enemy. Every weapon choicehas advantages and disadvantages, depending oncircumstance its up to you to place the right formationup against the right foe.

Banners are all-important not only do they allowyou to re-roll the result of your charge move (alwayshandy to avoid that inopportune 1) but also yourPanic test doubling your chances of standing fast inthe face of the foe. Yes, banners are pricey (35 pointscan often buy you another company, after all) butbeware of leaving home without one.

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Heroic MoveWant to get somewhere fast? Then you need a HeroicMove. Not only does it allow your formation to movebefore the enemy (in the event of priority having been lost)it also lets your formation triple its move distance for theturn. Remember that calling a Heroic Move stops a

formation from charging, so unless youre just evading theenemy you need to think a turn or so ahead.

Heroic ShootA Hero that declares a Heroic Shoot enables his formationto unleash a volley before all other formations, even iftheyve moved At the Double! earlier in the turn. A cannyHeroic Shoot can devastate an enemy archer formationbefore they come to fire, or it can be used to fire on themove, keeping your advance rolling forward whilst theformation carries on shooting.

Heroic ChargeIm not going to dwell on this one, as its applications dont

require a lot of pointing out. A Heroic Charge allows youto charge before other formations ideal during a turn inwhich you dont have priority. Move up close, and thencall a Heroic Charge to pounce on your enemy.

Heroic FightA Heroic Fight is what I like to call a doubler it can turnone victory into two for the very reasonable cost of a singleMight point. How can it do this? Well, a Heroic Fightallows a formation to charge and fight again, providing thatit can win its first fight. So, if youre convinced youregoing to win, call a Heroic Fight. If you are victorious, youcan follow up on your foe and get in another beating, oreven charge a fresh enemy and shatter two opposingformations in a single turn!

Heroic DuelLast but not least, the Heroic Duel is an action that needs alittle judgement to employ. Basically, if the enemyformation has a Hero in it, you can launch a Heroic Duel.Take care as to how and when you issue such challenges,however the tougher the Hero, the more likely they areto win the duel. A Goblin Captain should, therefore, thinktwice before calling Gil-galad out. That said, if the GoblinCaptain succeeds in besting Gil-galad, hes got a goodchance of killing him making the odds in the ensuingformation-on-formation fight that much closer. This isntthe only reason to call a Heroic Duel, however. Truth is,your Hero will hack down a goodly number of the foewhilst searching for his nemesis, often garnering as manyas a half-dozen kills along the way. Thats pretty good for asingle Might point!

HEROES OF

MIDDLE-EARTHFormations will carry you an awful long way on the path tovictory, but youll need some Heroes to really seize theday. There are three main tricks that Heroes bring you. Thefirst is a nice, passive augmentation of the formations Fight

and Courage. Second up is the At the Double! move aHero can make a formation move twice, perfect for gettinginto the enemys flank. These are both important traits, andcan prove the difference between winning and losing, butits the third pillar of the Heros skills, the Might point, thatreally makes him shine.

Theres a common adage about The Lord of The Ringsskirmish game. It essentially says that you can use Mightpoints for two things: boosting dice rolls and winning thegame. Naturally this is a little simplistic, but it is alsofundamentally true. You can (and will, many times) useMight points to modify dice rolls in order to cause extracasualties. However, its the Might point-driven actions thatwill win you the game.

Loremasters TacticIt should be noted that using Might to modify asingle dice is not always to be discounted sometimes its crucial. If youre struggling to decidewhether or not to spend Might on a dice roll, try tothink about the benefits itll bring. For example,spending a point of Might just to kill an extra enemymodel is not always worth it, but if that casualty isthe difference between winning and losing a fight,then it probably is worth it. Similarly, its almostalways worth using Might to extend a charge that

would otherwise fall short it wont matter much inthe Charge phase, but come the Fight phase thatMight point will quickly pay for itself.

Loremasters TacticPut a Hero into an archery unitand deploy it on your flank. Then,with a timely At the Double! (toget into the enemy side arc) andan even more timely Heroic Shoot

(to unleash a volley even thoughyour formation has moved). Asshields only offer a Defencebonus to the front, this can be afantastic strike against a heavilyarmoured opponent.


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THELOREOFWAR

These possibilities are quite dramatic, involving boldand obvious movements. Some Epic Heroes give you farless showy, but no less important choices. Saruman, forexample, can call one Epic action for free each turn, but

which? Does he use Epic Challenge to pin a foe in placefor further pounding, Epic Channelling to increase hischances of unleashing magical volleys or Epic Ruination,to make his spells that little bit more devastating? Choosewisely the battle may rest on your decision.

Going EpicOf course, not all Heroes are equal. I talk here, of course,of the Epic Heroes the most famous folk in all Middle-earth. Epic Heroes are without doubt the most powerfulmodels in War of The Ring each has Might enough toequal the fighting strength of most formations. However,Epic Heroes cannot act alone they need to leadformations into battle. This isnt really a chore the

presence of an Epic Hero can vastly increase the amountof damage that a formation can dish out. But thats not theonly reason to field an Epic Hero

More Than One Way to Win a WarSome Heroes dont merely supply your army with extramuscle; they drastically increase your tactical options. Thisis clearly a good thing in and of itself more options notonly make your force more flexible, it also makes it harderfor your opponent to predict how your army will behave.The more special rules and Epic actions at the Herosdisposal, the more dynamic and flexible your armybecomes as a result.

Imagine youve got Aragorn in your army. Forget for the

moment that there are three different ways of includingAragorn (Epic Hero, the Three Hunters and the Fellowshipof The Ring Legendary formations) and lets just assumethat the future king of Gondor is leading a bold formationof Oathsworn Militia with a formidable block of Uruk-haiWarriors bearing down on them (Evil has priority). Youvenow got several options:

Aragorn can leave the Oathsworn Militia to lead anearby formation of Riders of Rohan, further enhancingtheir mighty charge and calling a Heroic Charge totrump the Uruk-hais own attack.

He can stay where he is, relying on his Might and a

Heroic Duel to carry the day.

Or, most deviously, Aragorn can take his companionson an Epic Journey, leading them across secret pathsand reappearing behind the Uruk-hai!

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Similarly, picture this if you will. The Witch-king ofAngmar, atop his fearsome flying Fell Beast, is lurkingbehind your advancing wave of Mordor Orcs. Its now yourMove phase, and youve all kinds of options. Do you:

Move into a position to allow the Witch-king a suitablycrushing charge, thus taking full advantage of his4 Attacks at Fight 6?

Have the Witch-king perform a swoop attack, dive-bombing both Minas Tirith formations that lie in hispath for D3 Strength 6 hits per formation?

Or leave the Lord of Angmar in place, knowing that hisbaleful presence will ensure that the Orcs get their Atthe Double! moves without any chance of failure.

Of course, regardless of what you decide, the Witch-king has a battery of spells to supplement all three coursesof action. So, he has three tactical options, and can cast upto three spells of his choice from a selection of 10. Thatsan awful lot of ways to use a Witch-king

And those are just a few examples of the tacticaloptions provided by Epic Heroes. Other high-poweredHeroes are similarly replete with all manner of differenttricks and tactics they can pull off with aplomb.

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Monsters are second only to Heroes in the damage theycan dish out, but beware! Their success is not a foregoneconclusion. Due to the random factor provided by theHard to Kill! family of tables, monsters can go on

seemingly forever, or they can collapse after only a coupleof blows. As a result, monsters can seem a littlechallenging to use, but nothing could be further from thetruth. Even a single Troll can mash its points worth ofcavalry without any help, and will normally give aninfantry formation a good fight before toppling over. TwoTrolls? Now thats scary.

What you have to bear in mind with monsters is thattheyre not designed to deal with ranked up formations theyll not survive a slugging match, so youll have to givethem support. This can be another monster, if you like, buta big block of infantry is often a better choice. Either way,the tag team is sure to be more effective than its individualelements alones.

Last, but not least, Id like to say a few words aboutsorcery. Whilst you can get along just fine in War of TheRing without a magic-wielding Hero, choosing a wizard ortwo really opens up your options. There are two keyfactors to consider when selecting your spellcaster: Masteryand discipline.

A spellcasters Mastery determines how many spells hecan attempt in a single turn. The higher the Mastery, themore powerful the wizard. Each wizard also knows acertain set of spell disciplines. There are five disciplines inWar of The Ring: Dismay, Darkness, Command, Ruin and

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THE MONSTERS

the Wilderness. Each discipline has its own theme and,broadly speaking, its own alignment. Good wizards tend tohave access to Spells of Command, Dismay and theWilderness, whereas Evil sorcerers draw their power fromRuin, Darkness and Dismay. Each discipline has five spells,and can muster a range of magical effects, but theres onelesson thats true throughout youll achieve more byusing your spells to support your main army, than by trying

to win the game through magic alone

Swords and SorceryTake the Spells of Ruin, for example. There are a couple ofwhat I would call directly damaging spells in here (Bolt ofFireand Exsiccatecome to mind) and it can be reallyrather tempting to have your wizard try to blatter the foe allby himself. However, its worth looking a little deeper intothe Spells of Ruin and combining the effects ofDark Furyand Shatter Shields. By casting Shatter Shieldson an enemyunit, you can strip them of protection for at least a turn.Thereafter, you cast Dark Furyon a nice, wimpy andexpendable formation, allowing them to re-roll 1s and 2swhen striking in close combat. With the simple application

of two spells, youve turned an Orc rabbles suicide chargeagainst Knights of Dol Amroth into a glorious Evil victory!Sorcery is always more effective with a few swords on yourside as backup.

On the Receiving EndUnder magical assault? Fear not, a Hero can attempt toresist a spell by expending a Might point this gives him a50/50 chance of cancelling the spells effects. Of course, ifyou really want to take control of the odds, you can alwaysexpend other Might points to turn that 2 or 3 into the all-important 4 that will keep you safe from the evils of theBlack Breath.

Anyway, thats about all we have time for, at least fornow. Hopefully Ive given you a little food for thought, andmaybe theres even the odd sneaky tactic beginning toemerge from the odd mind here or there. Regardless, Ill beback next month to unleash the Elves of Lothlrien on thefiendish Adam Troke Id say its time to put a few of thesetactics to the test

Loremasters TacticWhere monsters truly excel is in quickly reaching the partsof the battlefield other formations cannot reach i.e. a fightsomewhere behind them. As monsters can see and charge

all around, theyre great candidates for guarding the flanks.Even if the enemy gets a charge in, the monster cancounter-charge quite handily!

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MUSTERING

YOUR MAGIC

Loremasters TacticRemember, to take a magic powers Focus into accountwhen casting your spells. Each time you cast a spell, youhave to equal or beat the Focus value of the spell you have

just cast in order to attempt another.Depending on the circumstances, itssometimes best to go for that all-important high-power spellstraightaway so you canbe sure that youll castit. That said, youll oftenwant to build up to thatbig, all-importantspell with a few littlewarm-up cantrips, inorder to draw out afew Might points asthe enemy attemptsto resist.

WOTR the Lore of War

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