If you would like to help support the site then why not order via our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too! If you would rather watch this review than read it then you can see our unboxing video over on YouTube below! So jumping into the book, the Fall of the Necromancer is the latest sourcebook for the Middle-Earth strategy battle game which focuses on…… you guessed it the Necromancer Sauron in Dol Guldur and some of the epic events of the Hobbit films.
The book it self is only 72 pages so its quite a small sourcebook, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up with content, the book starts out with the story of Sauron and how he came to be the Necromancer, we then have 13 scenarios to recreate the events of this story and rules for running the scenarios as a linked campaign.
We of course get rules for the armies featured in the book and legendary legions for these factions to use in matched play games of Middle-Earth. Afterwards his presence attracted all manner of foul creatures such as giant spiders and orcs, these dark forces then began to attack any who lived within the forest of Mirkwood, most notably the Elves.
Thranduil, the great elven king of Mirkwood then ordered his forces to repel these creatures. After being captured by the Necromancer aka Sauron the white council jumped into action and rescued their ally and lady Galadriel banished Sauron back to Mordor. Also each of the scenarios has an introduction page that describes the mission and gives you an idea of the narrative of the scenario, these little bits are most certainly worth a read especially if you like doing dramatic readings like I do.
So all of the scenarios in this book can be played as part of a linked campaign, something we have seen in the other Middle Earth sourcebooks which gives a bonus to either the Good forces or the Evil depending on who won the previous battle, so for example if the Evil force wins the Founding of Dol Guldur scenario then 5 elves instead of 4 elves need to escape in The Gathering Evil scenario.
These are nice little bonuses that can make what is already very interesting scenarios even more interesting and enjoyable. This section focuses on the forces that are represented in the sourcebook, each rundown goes through the army composition, rules, bonuses, strengths and weaknesses and key models for that army. The army bonus gives the Necromancer an extra will dice when he attempts to cast spells making him even more efficient.
The only bonus basically allows the models to be taken without heroes so long as they have a certain number of models in the war band, a little bit disappointing as all this does is makes the force playable which is not really a bonus but its okay. So this section starts off by introducing legendary legions and explains what they are, in short they are forces themed around key moments from the films or books and restrict what units can be taken while also giving a lot of bonuses.
However your forces never gain an army bonus, can never have allies and some heroes can lead models in their war band that they would not normally be allowed to, so there are some pros and cons to the legendary legions.
The legion consists of Legolas, tauriel, Mirkwood ranger captain, Mirkwood rangers and wood elf sentinels. However the army bonuses gives a lot of buffs to the members if they are standing next to each other like Saruman giving nearby wizards a single D6 re roll when casting magical powers.
Pits of Dol Guldur — This legion focuses on Azog and the legions of Dol Guldur which gives the controlling player the ability to auto win the priority once per game if Azog is alive which is super powerful, this force buffs Azog by giving him a free heroic combat once per turn and gives all models the resistant to magic ability which is a super good buff for the army.
The legion consists of Azog, the Keeper of the dungeons, gundabad orc captains, hunter orc captains, Thrain the broken, gundabad orc warriors, hunter orcs and fell wargs. Rise of the Necromancer — My favourite out of all the legions as it focuses on the Necromancer and his 9 Nazgul, you can also take the keeper of the dungeons giving you a nicely rounded 1, point force with only 11 models in it!!!
Surprisingly it buffs the Necromancer with extra attacks, the ability to cast 2 powers a turn rather than 1 and ……….. I would love to do this force for a Middle Earth event at some point. In addition to the rules content, the rest of the source book contains a painting masterclass for the Necromancer which is extremely detailed but requires an airbrush which is a little bit annoying as not everyone has one — though it is an excellent guide , and a painting guide for painting the ruins of Dol Guldur which is actually very well written and is something I would like to try out on some of my own personal scenery.
Overall the sourcebook gives a lot to players with a narrative focus like my self who want to play through scenarios rather than just play matched play, however the book does also include a lot for matched play in the form of armies and legendary legions.
Personally I cannot wait to start playing through some of these scenarios, so overall I think its a fantastic sourcebook that has got me super pumped for some more Middle-Earth gaming.
When I first saw the images for this kit over on Warhammer Community I originally assumed this would be quite restrictive with limited options — oh how wrong I was! As you can see from the sprues each individual piece will fit alongside any other piece in the box due to universal connectors along each side and pillars to link them together in a similar style to the construction of the Rohan House.
Due to this the limits to your construction is simply based on how many sprues you have — pick up a couple of boxes and could you create a single massive structure, multiple small ruins or anything in between!
Just like the other recent plastic Middle-Earth releases, Games Workshop have opted to replace an old character set with a new plastic model with both a version mounted and on foot.
As you can see from the images you actually get the option of building this either in his Black Rider form, or as he appears at the battle of Pelenor with his crown and flail! The sculpt is gorgeous with loads of nice details, and while this is more a refinement of what came before rather than something completely new, the kit has to be in my opinion the best version of the Witch-King so far! View all posts by Andy. Christopher Lee, playing the part of Sauruman, shows that he can still play the action hero role even though he is 92 years old!
Obviously, the fight scenes are done with a stunt double, but Lee does not disappoint when given his camera time. The wraiths are defeated after receiving several hits. Sauron appears and demonstrates that he can re-animate the wraiths at his whim. Galadriel changes into her scary, elf-witch form, faces Sauron mano-a-mano and shoves him away, far past the distant horizon using her sheer force of will. GW has a supplement that describes this battle and one can collect the associated miniatures.
Elrond and Sauruman's abilities are well described in the Hobbit rulebook. And how bad-ass is Galadriel! Her profile is found in the Free Peoples supplement. I presume she would use the Command spell to dispatch the Necromancer. WotR: Again this is probably done best with a skirmish level game.
The story continues with Gandalf returning to Erebor to meet with the Company of Thorin. Meanwhile, a reluctant Bard is chosen as leader of the refugees of Lake-Town. All the guardsmen of the city apparently have perished during the battle with Smaug. So, the first of the titular armies has been reduced to a hastily formed militia. The militia and surviving humans decide to make their winter camp in the ruined city of Dale. In contrast, the elvish army is large, well equipped, well trained and flawlessly disciplined.
The leader, Thranduil, casually rides through Dale mounted on his trademark Elk-steed. He brings with him a wagon filled with food and provisions for the humans. He doesn't do this out of kindness though. He trades it to ensure an alliance with Bard. Thus, we have the second army in place. But, the only figure I've seen is of Thranduil on a boring old horse. Most of the figures for the men and elves have been produced by GW.
There are beautiful sculpts but a bit on the expensive side. All the characters and troop types have been produced and the profiles are in the source book mentioned above. So, if you have the means to assemble a large army then go for it! Post photos on your own blog or in social media.
I would love to see them! BoFA: BoFA is played in 10mm scale and the sculpts were made before the Hobbit movies so the men look like an organized fighting force. The movie replaces the professional army with a militia. Actually, I would not call it a militia, it's more like armed peasants with pitchforks.
Their ability to perform battle field maneuvers would be limited if they could do it at all. Their best use would be to protect the city of Dale and cause wounds on any Orc formations assaulting the city. Bard would be a competent leader if he had a proper army to lead. The elvish army has cavalry but they are sold separate from the BoFA box set.
Thorin and Company start fortifying the walls of Erebor. They have the arsenal of Erebor available to them so each of the thirteen dwarves is equipped with a customized suit of armor and unique hand weapons. When Thranduil and Bard arrive at the front door to negotiate with Thorin, the dwarf warlord Dain arrives with a host of warriors and mounted on a Not a bristly boar with large tusks, just a garden variety pig.
No matter, since Dain has waxed his dwarf mustache into the shape of large tusks instead. The third army has arrived. They all look great on screen and the individual figs from GW look awesome as well.
They should be a joy to paint up. WotR: It should be easy to find 28mm Dwarf figs for any large contingent. And there seems to be a debate among fantasy gamers as to whether Dwarves would have archer units or not. I'm in the pro-archer camp since no army is complete without some type of ranged attack units. Well, this has turned into a huge post. Thanks for sticking with it so far. In the next post, I'll discuss Ram-riders and Troll special forces.
Desert Scribe December 20, at PM. Popular posts from this blog The Blog is going on a Permanent Vacation. October 04, Ok, I haven't had any comments on this blog on an post for many, many months.
The only post that seems to get any traffic is my post about Star Fleet Battles. I don't fully understand why that post has generated so much interest, while the rest of my content has been mostly ignored. Clearly, this has not been an successful blog.
I get much more traffic with my Facebook content and the YouTube channel is showing promise. Perhaps the subjects of my posts have been too random. I may need to focus on a specific game or subject. Maybe I didn't generate enough posts to keep the audience connected. Whatever the case, I am ending this blog with this final post.
I'm calling it a 'permanent vacation' because the blog and posts will still be here, though I will not be adding any new content.
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