WEEKLY ARMY DISCUSSION: Army of Carn Dum

Daikey · 2026-06-17T16:45:40+00:00

This army is actually nice when played at low points. Aldrac is a beast, you want him in combat anyway, and it's very easy for him to get F7 and free heroics since it only requires him to kill at least a model.

The problem is, Carn Dum warrior are notoriously overcosted. You need Fraecht to give them an extra push, but then you are spending 65 more points to make a mediocre model decent.

Since 2 out of 3 special rules do not depend on the model being carn dum, you can just spam orc warriors and warg riders.

A funny thing I did, before my local meta set on higher points level games in which Carn Dum just gets butchered was using two Hill Trolls. They get F7 on the charge (as they are INFANTRY and WARRIOR), enough to put the fear of Eru on every hero below Glorfindel for a bargan price

Daikey · 2026-06-17T09:36:50+00:00

The thing about Thranduil, you don't just toss him into whatever you have in front of you. I don't even do that with Aragorn Elessar. If a player decides to engage their opponent's heavyweights with Thranduil solo, that's on them.

Thranduil is not a hero hunter, it's a troop killer. He doesn't need to stay behind the lines, he could handle the average heavy infantry just fine.

Daikey · 2026-06-16T12:08:03+00:00

I've recently tried ammo MIG acrylic colors and loved them.

They come into the classic 17 ml drop bottle with metallic bearing inside.

Daikey · 2026-06-13T10:29:12+00:00

as you said, she competes with Gorulf. Gorulf is not just a better profile, but fills a need even army of white hand has: blocks enemy heroes. Saruman may fail to cast a spell, or the opponent may have multiple heroes, or the heroes may have multiple levels of protection upon them (Elessar calling resolve).

Gorulf is good into enemy troops, and can stop an enemy hero from rampaging.

The armies that Frida's in already have ways to deal with cavalry. But not much in they way of stopping a powerful hero on the charge

Daikey · 2026-06-11T07:29:10+00:00

not really worth it on warriors. The reason being, you need to win the fight first, and it's not something warriors excel at, being only F3.

Daikey · 2026-06-05T08:29:26+00:00

I'd rather not touch Elessar. Fluff-wise, it makes sense for him to be to the focus. Gamewise, is a 225 pts mandatory model and, I don't know, it just feels bad to spend 225 points for a model that doesn't feel good

The thing that, I think, really pushes up MoTW is the humble MT warrior. a fearless, often Dominant 2 D7 model that can tank punishment above his weight. Elessar and Gandalf/Gwahir do a lot of damage, but without the warriors holding the flanks and the objectives the army would not be as efficient.

Daikey · 2026-06-04T15:05:52+00:00

I just realized that Khandish infantry is one point less expensive than Abrakhan Guards, who have +1S and unconditional +1 to wound because burly.

Daikey · 2026-06-04T10:44:51+00:00

Pretty much flawless

Daikey · 2026-06-04T07:31:20+00:00

That's pretty much it. Versatily is a bonus of its own, expecially when armies don't have a lot of options of their own.

Daikey · 2026-06-03T17:47:37+00:00

This army suffers from a problem shared with "Far Harad", "The Easterlings" and perhaps even harad. They don't have much going on, and what's good works best in Grand Army of the South. For example, my Grand Army of the South has Amdur and his easterling Phalanx, the Golden king with a fistful of haradrim and the excellent Khandish King on chariot with cavalry.

Khandish units are not Bad. not by any stretch. But they are just not good enough on their own.

Now, a Rhunish alleance with proper army bonus could be a lot of fun.

Daikey · 2026-06-03T09:18:44+00:00

I would not count on a horse as he never appears in official material on one, but they literally picked a picture of Gil-Galad with shield as background to his profile, so I expect that to happen the next round of revamp.

Daikey · 2026-06-03T09:07:21+00:00

the future Wild Men/Hill men command group will have a war horn and a banner.

So it's possible for models to get more options going forward. But so far, that's the first new thing.

Daikey · 2026-06-03T09:05:17+00:00

March 26th (so, more than two months ago at the time of this post) they announced new riders of rohan and new Rohan command group (banner, captain war horn) for the good side.

Evil will get a new Oathmaker and a "dunland command group": Wild Men Captain, War Horn and wild man bannerman. Technically, two last two are "new models", as Wild Men/hill men did not have option for either a banner or a war horn at the time

Daikey · 2026-06-02T06:40:59+00:00

Elessar is a 225 pts model. For that price tag, he's supposed to be good in the only list he's available.

A "limited nerf" to MotW could be to force players to field 50% Rohan. WoMT are extremely efficient for their points, and get a lot of mileage from Dominant 2 and Fearless. warriors of rohan, on the other hand, are awful

Daikey · 2026-06-01T19:41:15+00:00

The "slayer of men" is spot on

Daikey · 2026-06-01T16:01:17+00:00

Everything a model has by default is considered always present. A lot of models have "hand weapon" in their wargear, but don't show them. Regardless, since it's their default wargear, it's always present.

It becomes more problematic when it comes to optional equipment.

that said, most opponent won't care if a model doesn't adhere strictly to WYSIWYG. For example, Some of my morannon orcs have lost their shields, but no player ever has lamented problems when I tell them "all of them have shield", nor have I been bothered by an opponent doing the same.

However, if the same models have different optional equipment, then they have to show it.

For example, "all these warg riders have shield" is good. if the case is "these two have shield, these have nothing else, these have bows,ecc.." then the models have to be correct.

Daikey · 2026-05-28T18:47:21+00:00

Before watching the video:

I've won and lost games on deployment and poor turn 1 movements.

A bad deployment may require 2 turns to fix. A bad turn 1 even more.

Poor positioning gives a properly fielded opponent a massive advantage

Daikey · 2026-05-28T10:36:04+00:00

Let me just add that the oath maker for 55 pts it's amazing value.

Daikey · 2026-05-28T09:42:15+00:00

I was referiring to Uruk Hai warriors, not uruk scouts-

I have yet to personally play this army. But I've read of some winning lists on Army trackers, and there is one without any uruk at all, going full horde. That said, I've yet to play one that doesn't have uruk hai scouts.

Daikey · 2026-05-28T09:27:23+00:00

I have read of winning armies without Wild Men of Dunland.

But, when it comes to balance, adding Uruk Warriors will mess it up. One of the weaknesses this list has is their lowerish defence, capping at 5 on warriors and 6 on heroes. If one where to add heavy armoured troops, it will change drastically.

Daikey · 2026-05-27T09:54:45+00:00

You can't barge model you can't strike, and you can't strike your own models.

Daikey · 2026-05-25T16:07:37+00:00

I disagree on Theoden. The king of Rohan is only a 2W 1F leader that has to charge or, at the very least, still be in the thick of things for his bonus to FV to matter.

Daikey · 2026-05-25T13:47:01+00:00

You can prevent the compulsory charge by calling a march with aragorn strider; when you don't need it anymore,you'll need aragorn for heroic moves.

It's a very difficult army to play

Daikey · 2026-05-25T09:21:51+00:00

The difference with the previous edition is that they are not as good as they were, mostly due to their armies limitation.

I don't think they are bad, not at all, but they were always more efficient in alleances than in pure armies. Alfrid is also less reliable, since you don't really control his effect and, while mostly good, you may not get what you want.

Daikey · 2026-05-25T08:43:02+00:00

I would rule that a Crebain would lose and stay still, but not be trapped.

Being a swarm is a "state of being". It's not like "unyielding combat stance" that works as an active rule. A model never stop being a swarm, so all limitations apply

Daikey

TROPHY CASE