8/17/2023 - Saruman & Grima

Hello everyone!

This week we are going to be talking about Saruman and his super side-kick, Grima Wormtongue!

Saruman is the Hero of Legend for Isengard. He comes in at a whopping 180 points, and is able to pay an additional 10 points for a horse. His stat line follows the standard for wizards, at fight 5, strength 4, defense 5, 1 attack, 3 wounds and courage 7, along with 3 might, 6 will and 3 fate. He of course comes with a Staff of Power, providing him 1 free will per turn for casting and resist tests.

Wizards are not known for their combat prowess, earning their keep with their spells, and Saruman is no exception. He has all the standard bells and whistles for casters, with exceptional cast requirements, matching The Dark Lord Sauron for the spells they share, and even exceeding his lesser form of the Necromancer.

His casting ability is supported by his special rule Lord of the Istari, a passive rule that allows him to re-roll one dice when making a Casting or Resist test. This is a very strong ability, making it an almost certainty that he casts any spell he wishes, and protecting him from opposing magic.

Saruman has a solid spell line-up, with Immobilise and Command casting on a 2+ and 3+ respectively, with a whopping 18" range, Terrifying Aura, or making himself Spooky, if you will, on a 2+, the powerful Sorcerous Blast on a 4+ with the standard 12" range, and the hard hitting Flameburst on a 5+ at 6". Saruman additionally has Heroic Channelling, which can be used to boost the power of his spells, at the cost of one of his three might.

The range of his control abilities and sorcerous blast work very well in tandem with a horse, giving him a threat range of 28", over half the board, and 22" to blast. The only lacking part of his spells is Flameburst. Unfortunately the use case for it tends to be very rare, as the benefit is usually much greater with his other spells. Comparative to his White Council version's Aura of Command, Flameburst just doesn't measure up.

Saruman's control of the battlefield extends past his actual spellcasting, as his magical voice influences those around him to hold their ground. The Voice of Curunir active special rule increases the range of his Stand Fast! to 12", and allows it to affect other Hero models. This combines very well with the Isengard Army Bonus, keeping those Fighting Uruk-Hai in the fight even when their numbers deplete.

His last special rule, The Palantir allows his player to automatically win a Priority Roll before any dice are rolled once per game. There are only two abilities like this in the game, the other as a part of the Pits of Dol Guldur Legendary Legion. Having priority is massive in MESBG, as many games are decided by trapping, and choosing order of fights definitely helps get more traps. In addition, having priority when lines are clashing leads to Heroic Moves being called, which is perfect for Saruman's side-kick, Grima!

Grima Wormtongue is a 25 point model, who can also pay 10 points for a horse. He is an Independent hero, however unlike other Independent heroes, he must always be part of Saruman's warband when you take him, and can only be fielded when you take Saruman. Unfortunately this essentially means Grima costs 205/215/225 to field, depending on mounts, which is an entire warband of Uruk-Hai. A tough premium, but can be well worth it.

Grima's stat line is horrendous, fight 2, strength and defense 3, 1 attack, 1 wound, 2 courage and no heroic stats to speak of. However, his focus is not in his combat prowess, but lends itself to Saruman's board control.

Grima's main special rule is Wormtongue, a passive rule that forces enemy Hero models within 6" to spend 2 might instead of 1 when they wish to call Heroic Actions. An important note to make is that models that call Heroic Actions for free are not impacted by this, since as stated, they are free. This is a very strong rule, forcing 2 might heroes into deciding whether they only get 1 heroic that game, or stopping a hero with 1 might from calling any heroics at all. Combined with Saruman's priority control, you can force an opposing army to get run over or spend all their might to call heroic moves, which you can then counter with your own, giving them at best 50/50 to even get value out of their might. This can also be combed with Isengard's good value killers, like Lurtz, Gorulf or Thrydan, giving them fight control where their opponents can not afford the might to protect themselves.

Now, the natural fear for something as strong as Grima with as weak as a statline as he has is that he will just get picked off by either shooting or just fighting models, and that is where is other rule A Traitor Within comes into play. This rule allows Grima to deploy "in disguise" amongst an opposing player's warband, after it has deployed, as an alternative to his normal deployment with Saruman. He is still controlled by his original player, and for all intents and purposes, is still an enemy to your opponent, however models will be unable to strike blows against Grima, nor shoot at him, or with risk of hitting him. Magic, however, can still be used on Grima, whether to lock him down or kill him, since Gandalf was the one to root him out after all. Grima can maintain his disguise as long as he does not willingly charge a model and Saruman is alive. It also allows Grima to decide not to strike blows against an opponent if he finds himself part of a winning engagement.

Grima loves tagging along with either big heroes that like to call heroic combats and smash lines, or small ones that only have 2 might. Magic is always a risk for him, so there are times you want to decide to deploy him normally without his disguise. He does have the risk of opponents boxing him in with either 2 models against terrain or 3 models in a triangle trap. They may not be able to kill him, but they can block him in and away from the fights.

Another Grima tactic is to contest objectives. When he is in disguise, he can still do all the things a normal model could, just can't charge without revealing himself. This allows you to grab objectives like in Retrieval, burn supplies in Burn the Supplies, contest your opponents side objective in Breakthrough, and more, with the only risk being magic users with damaging spells. In a Good versus Evil matchup, there are almost no damaging casters you would find yourself against, which makes it very safe to deploy in disguise.

Touching on Good versus Evil with Saruman, Saruman also is very strong, being a reliable caster that is able to shut down big heroes that tend to cost just as much if not more than him, with command or immobilize, or blast them off their horse with a reliable Sorcerous blast (or what is more common, blasting a model that cant resist into them).

I've found that Saruman's biggest weakness is not casting. And while that may seem obvious, there is a bit more to it.

Saruman costs a lot of points comparative to the cheap heroes and warriors Isengard brings to the table. This can dramatically lower your model count. Traditionally, at 800 pts, Isengard can easily hit the low 50s if not higher, and sport 12+ might, my latest competitive list sitting at 52 models and 15 might, however Saruman lists tend to drop into the high 30s to low 40s. Now, this is comparable to good side armies, however good side also have access to big combat heroes, and better shooting, which can punch them through the line and to Saruman, shutting down his ability to move and cast. The goal is to maximize the amount of casts he gets off in a game, and to do that, you have to protect him. To that end, you have to sacrifice some troop quality to increase numbers, opting for orc spears instead of uruk-hai pikes, maintaining the dice amount, but reducing the quality of striking. The more models you have, the more screening Saruman has. 

All in all, I think Saruman and Grima have a competitive place in Isengard, if the list can support them. I find that too many lists stick too much to bringing Uruk-Hai and no other models, keeping their model count down, but with experimenting with lower point cost spam, I have had a lot more success.

Here are a few examples of Saruman lists, one with Uruk-Hai, the more standard way, one that mixes in some low cost models to make up points, and one that goes full spam mode to maximize model count.

Standard:

• Saruman on Horse
• Grima
• 1 Crebain
• 4 Uruk-Hai Berserker
• 4 Uruk-Hai Warrior w/ Shield
• 1 Uruk-Hai Warrior w/ Banner & Pike
• 7 Uruk-Hai Warrior w/ Pike
• Gorulf Ironskin
• 1 Dunlending Horseman
• 5 Uruk-Hai Warrior w/ Shield
• 4 Uruk-Hai Warrior w/ Pike
• 1 Uruk-Hai Warrior w/ Banner & Pike
• Vrasku
• 8 Uruk-Hai Warrior w/ Crossbow
• 800 points - 40 models - 8 bows + Vrasku double shot

Mixed:

• Saruman on Horse
• Grima
• 1 Crebain
• 1 Orc Warrior w/ Spear & Banner
• 7 Orc Warrior w/ Spear
• 8 Uruk-Hai Warrior w/ Shield
• Gorulf Ironskin
• 1 Dunlending Horseman
• 6 Orc Warrior w/ Spear
• 5 Uruk-Hai Warrior w/ Shield
• The Wild Man Oathmaker
• 3 Wild Men w/ Axe
• 3 Wildmen w/ Axe & 2-Handed Axe
• 6 Orc Warrior w/ Spear
• Vrasku
• 5 Uruk-Hai Warrior w/ Crossbow
• 800 points - 51 models - 5 bows + Vrasku double shot

Full Spam:

• Saruman on Horse
• Grima
• 1 Crebain
• 1 Orc Warrior w/ Spear & Banner
• 7 Orc Warrior w/ Spear
• 8 Wild Men w/ Axe
• Gorulf Ironskin
• 1 Dunlending Horseman
• 6 Orc Warrior w/ Spear
• 5 Wild Men w/ Axe
• The Wild Man Oathmaker
• 4 Wild Men w/ Axe
• 2 Wild Men w/ 2-Handed Axe
• 6 Orc Warrior w/ Spear
• Vrasku
• 11 Uruk-Hai Warrior w/ Crossbow
• 800 points - 57 models - 11 bows + Vrasku double shot

The common theme between these lists is a core Saruman area, of differing troop quality, supported by Vrasku and his crossbows. The warriors hold the line while crossbows pick off models on the sides, and Saruman messes with opposing big heroes or monsters. I have found it is pretty funny to see the expression on someone's face when they realize that the Saruman list is not in fact 40ish models, it is almost 60. Both sides have their strengths. I think the mixed list is the best of the three, giving you numbers to hold while not sacrificing troop quality too much, and I would love to hear other's opinions. Do you think there is a better way to run him? Let me know!

Next week we am going to dive into the Uruk-Hai scout captains: Lurtz, Mauher, Ugluk and of course, the generic Uruk-Hai Scout Captain. How do they fair in the scout legions? Do they have a place in open Isengard? Come back to find out! Until next time!

-Scott