6/19/2024 - Open Isengard Overview and Basics.

 

Hey Everyone!

I took a few weeks off of posting, mostly due to increased work-load, but I am back!

This week I want to go over the basics of "Open Isengard" as I put it.

Because of Isengard's diverse roster, there is a lot of potential variety when it comes to building lists. You can go for an Uruk-Hai line led by Saruman, or spammier Orcs let by cheap generics, but the power comes from having the tools for a lot of situations, while not necessarily delving too far into one part of the army list or another. Mixing and matching troop types to get the most effective lines for different situations. Typically, this results in a Fortitude hero list, with Saruman and Lurtz excluded mostly due to cost and model count impact.

To start, we need to look back at the Fortitude heroes available to Isengard:

Ugluk, Sharku, Vrasku, Mauhur, Snaga, Thrydan, Gorulf, Frida, Oathmaker, Uruk-Hai Captains and Scout Captains, Dunlending Chieftains and Orc Captains.

Open Isengard usually means that certain heroes just aren't included. Right off the bat, generics just are not needed. You have access to similarly costed and better named. Snaga, well, you all know my feelings towards Snaga. Sharku is another one that falls behind, as Thrydan just will do more work, even at a higher cost. This leaves you with the named scout captains of Ugluk, Vrasku and Mauhur, and the Dunlending four of Thrydan, Gorulf, Frida and the Oathmaker. 7 very useful heroes that are well costed and (mostly) fit the style of building for open Isengard. The mostly being a jab at Thrydan, costing 95 on his horse being harder to fit in, especially at spots where you would want to take a fifth hero.

Of the 7, Ugluk is typically a clear leader. He has his Head-Taker special standfast auto-pass, 3 might and strike to keep himself in the game. He does only have 2 wounds, 2 attacks and 1 fate, so if he gets into a tough spot, he could end up dead early, so I often keep him in reserves waiting for the clearance to pick off models. Gorulf is a decent leader as well, though with his stat-block, you really want him to be an assassin that can dig into lines and beat down warriors left and right, with less risk due to his 3 attacks, and defense against heroes. Thrydan is also a reasonable choice with his 2 fate, 12" stand-fast and a horse, but similarly to Gorulf, he is a good assassin, and having him available to make plays that don't risk leader points is pretty important. With all that, the priority of leadership will almost always be Ugluk->Gorulf-> Thrydan.

The remaining 4 can be generally characterized as tech pieces. Mauhur is fast, and upgrading Scouts to Marauders provides mobile troops, usually equipped with bows, as an alternative to heavily armoured Uruk-Hai warriors. They can be used for objectives, flank pressure, or just ranged pecking. Vrasku brings his crossbow, as the best evil shot in the game with his 3+ expert shot, and paired with a few buddies with their crossbows, they can easily dictate the terms of engagement against most armies, also bringing march to reposition when needed. The Oathmaker brings along fearless (within 6" of him) wildmen, that allow Isengard to engage big monsters with cheap bodies, or general terror lines, without needing as many tests. Lastly, Frida provides a strong backline hero, who can reposition to cancel cavalry charges of big heroes, one of Isengard's biggest weaknesses, and also be a safely positioned heroic move caller.

I typically build for 800 points, as that is my preferred competitive level, and most often my hero choices end up being Ugluk, Gorulf, Frida, Vrasku and the Oathmaker. I occasionally sub in Mauhur for Frida, but Thrydan has been on the bench for some time, especially since I moved to 5 hero 800 point builds.

Now that we have covered the hero selections, lets look at some common troop pairings. Isengard is a rank and file type faction, so you always want to have 1:1 frontline to backline, with some exceptions when it comes to either Mauhur Bow Marauder warbands or Vrasku Crossbow warbands, who often sit outside the line.

There are a few common pairings. Naturally, an Uruk-Hai w/ Shield backed by an Uruk-Hai w/ Pike is the bread and butter, but there are other options, like Uruk-Hai w/ Shield backed by Orc w/ Spear, Wildmen/Dunlending Warriors backed by Uruk-Hai w/ Pike (with an occasional huscarl mixed in), or Uruk-Hai Berserkers backed by either Uruk-Hai w/ Pike or Orc w/ Spear. At 800, Isengard really wants to hit the 50 model count range, so at 5 heroes, and often taking 2 Crebain, some troop quality sacrifices must be made in order to achieve that goal, leading to things like Wildmen + Pike or Shield + Orc combos, but ultimately, you want to get Uruks when you can.

Here is the example list of what I put together for 800, which is one of the best builds I have been able to do for Open Isengard:

In this list, Ugluk is the leader, with a combination of Uruk-Hai Scouts w/ Bow backed by Orc Spears. I like this combination of troops with him, as it lends itself to his wait in back tactic, and lends him some cheap Orcs to decapitate. Vrasku, another backline piece brings a few crossbows to add in more ranged power, along with a Crebain. Vrasku often deploys last, so keeping the Crebain for later allows more flexibility of how to apply it where you want. The Oathmaker, while only taking a few, has a few wildmen and Uruk-Hai Pikes to back up himself and his buddies, keeping F4, and also S4 from piercing plus fearless. Frida brings some alternative fearless tech with a pair of Berserkers, along with some tough D6 Uruk-Hai and a bunch of Pikes, her warband meant to be the stick in the mud line-holders that anyone would have a tough time breaking through. Gorulf lastly brings the power, with Dunlendings backed by pikes and some Bodyguard Huscarls for strong hitting power and still fight value from the Uruks or Huscarl fight bonuses from nearby Dunland Heroes.

Each warband generally has it's specific roles. Ugluk is meant to hold the list together when things start dying, and his bows to dictate engagement. Vrasku looks for flanking Cavalry, and holds back objectives. The Oathmaker takes on big monsters or heroes using fodder to de-value them by getting in the way. Frida takes on standard battle lines to hold strong against S3 models, while using pikes to gain value behind the Berserkers. Gorulf cracks the nuts of D7 lines, or drives a hole through D4-6. The crebain look for objectives as always, but also jumping over lines to take supports out of fights to allow for the line to trap models. At 52 models, and with most of the list backed by the Isengard army bonus, it does not break easy, and combined with it's 15 might, it can really put the pressure on most lists. One additional note is that the Dunlending Huscarls are Bodyguarding Vrasku, providing a third form of fearless tech in the list. It is commonly looked over that Bodyguard models Bodyguard the highest tier of model in your army list, but when there are multiple of the same at the highest, you can choose, so Vrasku being in back safe is a natural choice.

The goal of these different warband types is to have the different tools for most situations, making it a good jack of all trades tournament list, where you can see anything and everything. You have fearless tech in 3 forms, shooting in enough quantity to give opponents pause, lots of might, D6 shield models, and S5 (from piercing) nut crackers for high defense, mobile Crebain and sometimes Horsemen/Warg Riders, and the right combinations of heroic actions. It is rare that this list does not have a tool to apply to a situation.

This list type likes objectives that it can pressure with crebain and bodies, but dislikes scenarios focused on remaining unbroken, as it can be hard to stay that way, though you have the tools to be ok when you do break. 

This list is good against line armies, the less shooting the better, but can struggle against F5 armies or big heroes, pushing a lot of pressure onto the shooting and heroes. Frida helps defend against mounted big Heroes, but more than one can overwhelm her. Magic is a weakness, as the heroes all only have 1 will, but you have the strength to kill casters if you can break through the lines to them.

Next time I will be covering the 18 matched play scenarios and how Open Isengard interacts, followed by some army style match-up breakdowns.

Thanks everyone for reading!

See you,

-Scott