8/31/2023 - Vrasku, Uruk-Hai Captain, Uruk-Hai Shaman, Uruk-Hai Drummers.



Hello everyone!


Today we are going to be talking about Vrasku and some generic Uruk-Hai heroes for Isengard



Imma firin ma lazar

Vrasku is a strong ranged Hero of Fortitude for Isengard, coming in at 65 points. His cost is 5 points higher than a scout captain, but that comes with some bonuses. As a named scout captain, he shares most of his stats of Fight 5, Strength 5, Defense 5, 2 Attacks, 2 Wounds, Courage 4, but gets an upgraded shoot of 3+, and 1 additional might, sitting at 3 might, 1 will, 1 fate. He comes with a sword and crossbow, and access to both heroic march and heroic accuracy. He just seems like an Uruk-Hai captain with a crossbow, firing a crossbow every turn, just hitting more often. Oh look, he rolled a 2 and missed his shot, nothing to worry about... 

Thud

Hello everyone, I am Scottt, Scott forgot that Vrasku is an Expert Shot, allowing him two shots a turn with his crossbow and got clipped in the head. I am sure he will be fine.

Vrasku is in a weird spot for Isengard. While he is a scout captain, he is not usable in either scout legion, for good reason in my opinion, since a crossbow that cannot shoot and move fights heavily against the highly mobile scouts. He is a popular hero to pair with Saruman, providing ranged support to try and equal up the numbers, and I have found him very good as an assassin in my open Isengard lists recently. He has also gotten dramatically stronger with the recent errata relating to In The Ways on flying monsters, as he can now hit them much more reliably, even with models obscuring his line of sight, and with his 3 might can definitely get some wounds. He is the bane of Wraiths on Wings!
















Uruk-Hai captains are more heavily armored than their Scout Captain brothers, paying an extra 5 points for that jump, and having an alternate ranged equipment option. Besides their armor, they are the same stat line as Scout Captains, Fight 5, Shoot 4+, Strength 5, 2 Attacks, 2 Wounds, Courage 4, 2 Might, 1 Will, 1 Fate, and their heavy armor brings them up to Defense 6. They also have access to heroic march.

For equipment, they can pay 5 points for a shield, 5 points for a 2-handed weapon and rather than 5 points for an uruk-hai bow, they can pay 5 points for a crossbow.

All in all, these captains are tough as nails, and hit very hard. Unfortunately, with all the legendary legions and good named heroes, they don't see much play outside the Assault Upon Helms Deep Legendary Legion, where you can only take unnamed fighting Uruk-Hai heroes
















There is not much to say when it comes to Uruk-Hai Shamans. While they aren't downright awful, they do not bring a tremendous amount to the table. Uruk-Hai Shamans are minor heroes at 50 points, and they mostly share a stat-line with a normal Uruk-Hai warrior, Fight 4, Strength 4, Defense 4, 1 Attack, 2 Wounds and Courage 4, with heroic stats of 1 Might, 3 Will, 1 Fate, and access to heroic channeling. They also are one of the few heroes to come with a spear. Shamans can pay 5 points for Armor to upgrade their defense to 5.

For spells, Shamans can cast Fury (Isengard Uruk-Hai) on a 3+ with the standard 6" range, and Transfix on a 5+ at 12". Not a bad set of spells, however almost always, you will be using Fury with 2 of their will, and more often than not, channeling it to gain access to a 6+ wound save on nearby Isengard Uruk-Hai. 

Basically the only time you see a Shaman is in the Assault Upon Helms Deep Legendary Legion, since Fury is not too useful when you have fearless Wild Men or Huscarls, and because open Isengard tends to be mixed with non Uruk-Hai, a Shaman's impact is minimal. 




















The Uruk-Hai Drummer. Spectacular model. Drummers are independent heroes at 35 points, with a standard Uruk-Hai stat line, with some notable hero upgrades. Fight 4, Strength 4, Defense 5, 1 Attack, 1 Wound, Courage 4, and no heroic stats. It has a War Drum for Isengard Uruk-Hai, and can be taken in either of the scout legions, letting you boost those marauders up to 11" of movement, or 14" with a Heroic March combo. I definitely enjoy taking 1 with Mauher and marauders outside legions as well, although notably, Mauher cannot upgrade a drummer to be 8" movement outside the legions, so it can be outpaced quickly. I tend to use it as a far back support piece, allowing me to reposition models quick without needing to march, or fall back to objectives and reform the line during the fight.

A quick one today, next week I will be going over the orcs of Isengard!

-Scottt














Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

8/3/2023 - First Post and FAQ Breakdown

Image
  Hello everyone! This is my first post, and while I will do an intro to myself later, I just want to jump right into a breakdown of the new FAQ release. I have been pushing off starting to write up MESBG for far too long, so I am not giving myself a chance to procrastinate! Starting off with the rules manual FAQ: 1) "If a model making a Duel roll would have a modifier applied to their roll, and they choose to re-roll due to the effect of a banner, special rule or some other effect, does the modifier also apply to the re-roll? (p.45)". - A: Yes I see this come up fairly often, and to be fair, it was previously in the FAQ, but more specific to two-handing. Rerolling will still apply those duel modifiers afterwards, there is no avoiding the two handing penalty for non-burly/masterforged. 2) "If a Hero  has declared a Heroic Defence and would normally be wounded on a 6/4+, then do both rolls now have to be a natural 6 as per the rules for Heroic Defence? (p.74)" - A: Y
Read more

3/25/2024 - Adepticon and Hobby Bingo update!

Image
  Hey Everyone! The Adepticon Grant Tournament has come and passed. I very happily was in attendance this year, having started playing too close to it in 2022 and not having the funds for 2023. Adepticon is a large convention in Chicago in mid March. This year, the tournament was 6 rounds of 750 points, 2:15 rounds, and using veto by pools. In total there were 85 players in the tournament, with people from all over North America, and even from Europe.  Now, "What did the crazy Dunland player take to this?", you might ask. The answer might shock you, but not Dunland. I took Isengard! Having played my Huscarl style of Dunland at 750 before, I was not too interested in a repeat performance of LVO 2023 where the composition I took with my style did not quite pan out, so I shifted away. Not to say I did not take a nasty amount of Wildmen Hobos though. I have been a bit dis-illusioned with Uruk performance recently, so I decided to just not pay for them. I knew I wanted magic with
Read more

5/1/2024 - Ugluk's Scouts

Image
  Hey Everyone! It's time to put meat back on the menu with Chef Ugluk and his Scouts! Ugluk's Scouts represents the Uruk-Hai forces that survived the Ambush at Amon Hen, now led by Ugluk, and the force of Mordor Orcs dispatched to bring the Hobbits back to Mordor, at stark contrast to Ugluk's orders from Saruman to return to Isengard. The Legendary Legion can field the following profiles: Ugluk, Mauhur, Uruk-Hai Scout Captains, Uruk-Hai Drummers, Grishnakh, Orc Captain, Snaga, Orc Captain, Orc Captains, Uruk-Hai scouts and Mauhur. Similarly to Lurtz's Scouts, Ugluk must be the leader. Before we get into the army rules and bonuses, lets cover Grishnakh's profile, as he was not covered previously due to being normally not a part of Isengard. What about their legs? Grishnakh is essentially an Orc Captain, at Fight 4, Strength 4, Defense 5, 2 Wounds, 2 Attacks and Courage 3, but has 3 Might rather than 2. He may also purchase a shield for 5 points. Grishnakh comes with
Read more