Five of the Most Buffed Evil Hero Profiles in the New Edition

Kia Ora, Shire-Folk,

Welcome back for another stimulating instalment of the Middle-Earth in Middle-Earth blog. As a reminder, we talk about various thoughts, topics, games, and many other things related to the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game published by Games Workshop, better known as MESBG. As another reminder, I am no professional, but read on regardless and you might find something that you can take with you into your future hobbying.

After another delay, I've decided to move to a monthly schedule! Life is crazy, and a fair amount of thought and time goes into these posts, so check back monthly for these updates!

Today's post is a continuation of the previous one, but I will instead discuss some of the most buffed evil hero profiles in the new edition of MESBG. Again, you may very well disagree with my choices, and I will likely forget to mention some of the ones I should. Please let me know which character you think was buffed the most, or if you think any of the ones I mentioned are actually not that good.

Also, keep in mind that these picks aren't based on whether or not they are now the best profiles, just how much they have been buffed from where they were previously.

Honourable Mentions

The Witch-King

Another profile that might be confusing at first mention. Casting got worse anyway, and on top of that the Crown of Morgul no longer gives three attacks and re-rolls for TWENTY-FIVE POINTS. Additionally, Sauron's little build-a-bear is now less customisable, and some spells have gotten flat out worse (RIP Black Dart users).

But my goodness has their been some perks in the new iteration.

Some of them are a bit more obvious, such at the bump to Fight 6, which means no more needing to strike against basic elves or lesser heroes to not risk flubbing completely. This means riding a fell beast gives him four attacks on the charge, at Fight 6 and Strength 6, with knockdown against infantry, cav, and smaller monsters. This doesn't need explaining, he can do serious damage.

POV: You're a basic elf and the witch king charged you.
Photo from: Reddit

On top of that, the changes to the Crown of Morgul are actually slept on, in my opinion. Turning off bodyguard and the like can come in clutch, alongside Harbinger of Evil, and it reduces the likelihood of being locked down by things like Royal Guard or fearless Dunlendings - and three attacks are built into the biggest profiles anyway, so that loss is mostly moot (kind of sucks on the two attack profiles, but eh). Also, setting things on fire is funny.

The losses sustained suck, but I still think overall that the Witch-King has received a slight buff this edition, and is still a force to be reckoned with.

The Balrog

The reason the Balrog makes it onto this list are for three reasons only - the change to its move value, the change to Heroic Strike, and Dominant 10. Minor changes, but saucy changes.

Firstly, the move value change from 6" to 8", while not seeming that significant does make a pretty big change to how the Balrog feels to play with and against. That extra two inches of movement is equivalent to a whole extra turn worth after three turns of moving, which is already great, but if you consider the whip as part of the Balrog's threat range (and you should), its bubble of 'stay the hell out of my sight or get annihilated' is actually a lot larger. If the Balrog can move 8" and throw his whip 8", he effectively creates a 32" bubble of potential threat, and a 16" bubble of definite threat (up from 28" and 12" respectively), even more significant with Heroic March from a nearby captain thrown in! If you don't believe me how big of a deal the move change is, ask any Army of the Dead player how speedy their ghosts are now.

He may be fast now, but is he fast enough to outrun
the shame of being killed by an old man?
Photo from: YouTube

Secondly, Heroic Strike moving to D3 fight bonus immediately nerfed one of the main strategies against the Balrog for most heroes - Trap, Strike, and roll a bunch of wounds. Now that most non-elf heroes can't even reach the lofty heights of F10 (and even the ones that can, struggle), it is always a massive risk putting heroes into a Balrog and hoping it doesn't roll a six, because it still probably tops your fight value. Another instance of the game changing around the Balrog for its betterment.

Finally, Dominant (10) solves one of the biggest problems the Balrog and most monsters had - you're telling me that two Warriors of Minas Tirith are 'holding the objective' when a BALROG is also standing on it? Ridiculous. Now the cost of not being able to just bring more goblins is massively lessened, and if the Balrog hops on a point your opponent has to dedicate serious resources to earn it back, not just throw three or four cheap guys at it and hope one survives to contest you.

These changes don't massively improve the Balrog in the role it had before, and he's still expensive as heck, but they definitely make him just that bit scarier than before.

Number Five - Ugluk

Poor old Ugluk used to be a massively underwhelming hero choice for Uruk Hai. He would only really be taken in his Legendary Legion, and even there he felt like a tax. The army rules didn't revolve around him, and the only benefit he provided was his 12" Stand Fast sacrifice trick. Not much of a leader, unfortunately, but that has changed with his new glow-up.

Firstly, his list got better around him (other than losing some good heroes). Uruks in the list now move 8" by default without needing a particular model taken, and one of the army rules can give Dominant (2) to your troops, but this is tied to Ugluk, effectively making it one of his rules. Nice little incentive to take him, but this isn't the best part.

Now Ugluk has the opportunity in a warrior heavy list to sacrifice one of those warriors to give all of his fighting Uruk Hai a massive +1 to wound for the remainder of the turn alongside fearless! All for 8/9 points! This is on top of the animosity bonus the list can already get access to, meaning even a D8 hero trapped by a couple of Uruks and an Orc go from being wounded on a 5+ normally to being wounded on a 3+ by these Uruks. Imagine the damage that could even do to something like a Balrog! Normally wounded on a 6+/4+, multiple trapping Uruks with one Orc could be looking at a 4+/2+ for each of them, going from 8.33% of the time to 41.67% of the time on each strike! He better hope he rolls that six!

Our list is back on the menu, boys!
Photo from: The One Wiki to Rule Them All

The ability to give out Dominant (2), Fearless, and +1 to wound is probably still not enough to make Ugluk and his scouts top tier, but it sure does make them something to be a bit scared of.

Number Four - Sharku

Sharku was pretty bad last edition, there isn't really any other way to say it. He was a Fight 4 hero without access to Heroic Strike, only had two attacks, only had Heroic March in an already fast list, and was the only hero in his Unique army. While flying solo hasn't changed, a lot of other stuff has, making him and his army a significantly bigger threat.

Pictured above: Sharku last edition after thinking
he could charge a single Royal Guard of Rohan.
Photo from: YouTube

Being F4 with no strike meant two things - it meant that against other heroes, even weaker ones, he would probably just get beaten in a duel, skewered off his warg, and forced to walk around vulnerable for the remainder of his probably much shortened life. It also meant that charging even F4 (or higher, eugh, elves) troops was likely to end in the same way. NOT ANYMORE.

Now that he has the 'Fury of the Pack' special rule that makes him F5 and 3A base if he charges (meaning he is actually 4A on the charge with the Cav bonus) and can Strike, he becomes a menace to troops and weaker heroes, functioning very much like Eomer or similar heroes, crashing into a line with four attacks, calling a Combat and just chewing through numbers, or smashing a weak hero by knocking them prone and eating face.

Additionally, his army list gained the ability to retain their charge bonus even against Cavalry models and counter-charges! A very unique ability that allows them to retain the necessary killing power even against Cav heavy lists, and just keeps them less matchup dependent and dangerous.

Also he gained Expert Rider, which is obviously the best of his buffs.

Number Three - Grima Wormtongue

I struggled to decide between first or second place for Grima - I decided to put him in second only because he had just one change happen. Unfortunatey, I then remembered a pretty notable nerf he received, but he still gets to stay in top three because the positive change is amazing. 

Lets get the little nerf out of the way - Grima can't take a horse anymore. This is a reasonably significant issue, because the speed helped him keep up with faster heroes he was trying to follow, and avoid the trapping situation that was a common way to deal with him. However, he wasn't taken on horse all that often and horses got more expensive anyway, so its not a massive problem, especially considering the following buff.

How DARE you surround me with three men standing there menacingly?!
Photo from: The Final Curtain

If you're not aware (and you may not be, because it's a small change in the wording to a single rule) Grima Wormtongue can now WALK THROUGH ENEMY MODELS. Grima was already a good tech piece, so good that some people considered bringing Saruman a tax to be allowed to take Grima. His bubble of making enemy heroes blow more Might is a very powerful effect, but was often countered by trapping him between at least three models, which he could not move through and although it meant that he was effectively tying up multiple models for some time, he wasn't making the most of his capability. Now that he can just walk freely wherever he chooses, he is a lot harder to avoid or deal with. Not much to talk about here, just one rule change that makes him from a very good model to a must-have.

Number Two - Smaug

Smaug is cool. The model is cool. The concept of playing a massive fire-breathing army-destroying is cool. His previous rules? Not so cool.

The biggest problem that Smaug used to have was playing the mission. If you happened to be playing Contest of Champions, To the Death, or any other non-objective scenarios, you could generally be pretty comfortable that he would be fine. There were very few armies or units that could effectively match Smaug, even if they out-pointed him. However, if the scenario required holding an objective or standing somewhere specific, SMAUG SUCKED. He was a single model, and made even less sense than the aforementioned Balrog situation in terms of not holding an objective against literally two goblins. 

Oh boy, I sure hope two dwarves don't stand next to me and inherit my entire hoard.
Photo from: The Flame Tree Blog

Now, the GW gods have declared Smaug fit for a chance to contest these pesky objectives! Not only does he have Dominant (20), his army rule allows him to automatically control objectives as though your opponent had no models in range, even if they have a similar rule! In missions like Hold Ground, you just stand in the middle and kill all models that dare approach you. In Destroy the Supplies, you just fly over and blow them up then kill everything. The point I'm making is that Smaug is now able to play most missions pretty comfortably, without crossing his claws that he lands on a kill-focussed one.

Furthermore, Smaug benefits from several other changes, like not losing casting values when most other casters have, keeping Fight 9 in an era of much weaker Heroic Strike, and general monster changes. He did lose a few bits here and there, but nothing essential - he will still demolish nearly anything in his way effortlessly, but is much better rounded now, and actually playable in a serious manner.

Just pray you don't face Dale if you run him. Seriously.

Number One - The Three Trolls

Okay so this is cheating a bit, because I'm including three models here instead of one, but hold on! Before you throw me in Orthanc, I did this because the changes they received kinda affected all of them the same, and so they all kinda got the same amount of buffing!

Before we mention the main change (the army rules, oh my goodness), we should briefly mention gaining the Dominant rule and gaining a point of Fight value on Tom and Bill (poor Bert, he was probably already the worst of the bunch). Dominant seriously helps in a three-model army, and the optional rules that help with objective holding are not the best unless you know what missions you will be playing beforehand. Also, as mentioned earlier, the changes to Heroic Strike means their higher Fight is more significant and hard to match, particularly paired with their optional rule to give all the trolls Heroic Strike and a change to call them for free!

But now to the real meat of the changes - PURCHASABLE ARMY RULES. I just have to get it out of the way first that this format of being able to flexibly build up limited model lists should have been implemented for more armies, so hopefully we see this in the future - it's nice not being forced to play only at the points level that lets you take all of your models exactly without being forced to sacrifice.

Anyway, these special rules are some crazy stuff. Being able to avoid being trapped in a three model army? Insane. Optional night fighting to counter shooting armies? Nuts. Being able to strike against heroes that try to strike you? Silliness. Sure some of the rules are less useful than others (50 points for four extra wounds that your have to walk to??? what???) but that's a breakdown for later (maybe my next post?). Being able to flexibly tailor your force to be prepared for a wide range of situations (even better the more you know about the mission or army you will be facing beforehand) is an amazing advantage, and this comes along with playing a skew list that was already unusual to play against with so many heroic monsters.

Probably should get Cave Dwellers and Night Fighting by default...
Photo from: Reddit

Plus it's nice with all the new monster buffs. I love my monsters.

Concluding Thoughts

The new edition has massively revitalised many of the mediocre profiles from the previous game (and even boosted some that maybe didn't need it). But one thing is for sure - we have a few wonderful new toys that I'm excited to play with.

If you gained anything from this, please let me know in the comments below, and if you would like to hear even more tips sometime, I'd be glad to do another one. Finally, if you have any comments, criticisms, or suggestions for future posts, leave them below or through the contact form as well.

Thank you for wandering in here for a read, remember, not all those who wander are lost!