SAURON ARMY SELECTOR v0.1 for Warmaster not BoFA

[fred]

Swapping sides is certainly doable!

You're welcome to use my High Elves, or HE masquerading as Empire - or even against your Demons?

Looking at the list, I'm half tempted to go for max Orcs and Wargs - not sure even with 2 BoFA sets we'd have enough figures for this though 

[The Dog]

@fred
Your magic was not overly powerful.

Your use of the army was as good as mine, that is, you lost, luckily for me you did not show me up by winning.

So although we did talk about having the Snaga and Orcs as being worth Victory Points your loss would have been even worse if we had included them.

As you know, these Middle Earth armies are lacking the overall balance of a normal Warmaster army and so special rules are required in an attempt to balance them out, like not counting towards the break point and not using Victory Points for all units.

Now you have used the army what do you think?

[fred]

We played Sauron vs Empire again - with me taking the Sauron army. It was a crushing defeat 

The battle start very well with me getting off lots of command rolls and forces moving forward purposefully in a sweeping flank attack. Then it all went wrong - both on the dice front and tactically.

I failed to get my throw away Orcs + Snaga into the attack - the only ones that even got near the enemy were a brigade overrun by marauding knights on their own start line! It takes quite a change in thinking to lead with your weak units to cause attrition to the enemy before trying to strike with the more powerful ones.

My Trolls proved rather impotent, getting into combat but some awful dice rolling causes losses.

[fred]

After the rolling up of the Sauron forces by the Lorien armoured steam roller - we discussed the Orcs and Snaga more.

It seems reasonable that the Orcs should be able to initiative charge - otherwise they are remarkably useless as you need to get them round a flank, which with the double distance penalty is hard.

So far the main role of the Orcs and Snaga has been to take up space - they have rarely taken more than a stand off an attacker. They also tend to get left behind as you use your commanders to move the good stuff first.

We also discussed allowing the Orcs + Snaga to deploy forward of the main army by 10cm - ensuring that they are in the front to get at the enemy first. Though decided not to try this yet.

[The Dog]

0.9
Giving the Army a lift.
The Snaga and Orcs are still not quite there, so in an attempt to improve their battlefield performance I am removing the following;
Snaga cannot use initiative to charge enemy frontally – though they can use initiative to charge enemy flanks or rears or to evade as usual.  When Snaga charge they receive no bonus attack modifier for doing so.  
Orcs cannot use initiative to charge enemy frontally – though they can use initiative to charge enemy flanks or rears or to evade as usual.
As the army General you know the weaknesses of attack 2 troops and they very rarely win frontally so it is better to flank charge.  Having the above rule was too hash, so now they can use initiative to charge but because of the attack 2 you know they will fight poorly.

Wargs and co.
Wargs and co  -/8 was -/6.
Typically my enemies have been fielding 400-500 points /1000 of mounted units against me, so the army needs its maximum adjusting as only 300-ish points /1000 could be taken so increased the maximums to allow 400-ish /1000.


Victory Points
To recognise the fact that most Warmaster games are played with Victory Points I am removing this suggestion
Victory Points unless wholly objective based should not be used for this selector as the armies doctrine is to use about 200 points /1000 for wearing down the enemy by attrition and so are deliberately lost.

And replacing it with;
The enemy does not gain Victory Points for a destroyed unit or stands of Snaga.
The enemy does not gain Victory Points for a destroyed unit or stands of Orcs.

At first sight this does seem unfair, but it fits the doctrine of the army as Snaga and Orc losses are irrelevant.  From the beginning I have been counting the Snaga and Orc losses as 0 Victory Points and the army is yet to win a game.  So if they had been counted the losses would be by an even greater margin.


Clarified the use of Wargs in Woods and on Steep hills.
7. Wargs, Can move 20cm into, in and out of woods and steep hills and suffers -1 to attack whilst in this terrain.  Wargs can be pursued by infantry whilst in woods or on steep hills. Wargs do not suffer the dense terrain -1 Command Penalty whilst in woods or on steep hills.  If the unit charges against an enemy in the open it receives an additional +1 Attack modifier in the same way as chariots and monsters. Wargs cannot have magic items.

[The Dog]

0.10
Snaga and Orcs 20 points 6/10 (was 25 points 6/8)
Yes, back to 20 points as the army still has not won a game and has lost many times. The Skaven have reduced points for MANY of its units because of the lack of cavalry so for the same reason Im reducing the Snaga and Orcs points for the lack of Knights and chariots and because I have not won yet.  ;-)

Uruk-hai 2/6 (was -/6)
As it was possible to field a Sauron War of the Ring army without Uruk-hai, now you must take them.