War of the Ring v2 Project: Mordor Unit Cost Analysis & the "Monster Hero" Baseline Profile

Next up is Mordor - My initial suspect is that it will be similar to Gondor & Arnor, since it appears that those two armies were intentionally created to face-off one against another. In fact, I think that there may have been pairs like that across the development of several of the Armies. When playing against their "opposite Army", games are "fairly" well balanced for the original points, but the breakdown occurs when you step outside of those pairing since the stat lines are not normalized across all Armies (as we are attempting to do here). I also noticed that Mordor has A LOT of WarMachines - so I would suspect that a typical fielded Mordor Army would include multiple WarMachines (interestingly the Good Army that has a lot of WarMachines is The Forgotten Kingdoms with Ents [the good version of Trolls], Eagles [the good version of Nazgul], & Special Formations).

Also, with Mordor we have a new Baseline Profile that we have not yet encountered (I lied, there is already a Monster Hero profile already in the Isengard's post) ... the "Monster Hero". Typically profiles with Might have been only the Hero Profile that have no stat line entries for Ballistic Skill, Strength, Defense, & Attack; so it seems that the "Monster Hero" is a little bit like a Warrior and a little bit like a Command Hero. The way to identify the "Monster Hero" is that they are not a Command or Legendary Hero, but rather their own formation - and they still have Might.

It looks like the base profile for a "Monster Hero" character in War of the Ring is:

Monster Hero Baseline Profile:

Cst | Mv | F | B | S | D | A | R | C | Mt | Ar | XWpn | SpR

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6/7/10 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0

Key:

Cst = Baseline Cost of the "Monster Hero"

6 = Rank and File Hero ... Equivalent of a Command Hero

Examples: Mordor Troll Chieftain, Isengard Troll Chieftain, & Spider Queen

7 = Lesser Named Hero ... Equivalent of a Legendary Hero + 1

Examples: Glorfindel, Lord of the West; Quickbeam; Beechbone; Tom Bombadil; Shelob; & Dragon of Ancient Times

10 = Big Named Hero ... Equivalent of an Epic Hero

Examples: Treebeard; The Three Hunters; Gwairhir; The Fellowship of the Ring; The White Council; Council of Wizardry; The Necromancer of Dol Guldur; The Nine are Abroad; Winged Nazgul; The Balrog of Morgoth; Buhrdur; & Gulavhar, the Terror of Arnor

Mv = Move value of the "Monster Hero" [Range: 0 .. INF]
F = Fight value of the "Monster Hero" [Range: 1 .. 10]
B = Ballistic value of the "Monster Hero" [Range: 1 .. 6]
S = Strength value of the "Monster Hero" [Range: 1 .. 10]
D = Defense value of the "Monster Hero" [Range: 1 .. 10]
A = Attack value of the "Monster Hero" [Range: 1 .. 10]
R = Resistance value of the "Monster Hero" [Range: 1 .. 4]
C = Courage value of the "Monster Hero" [Range: 1 .. 10]
Mt = Might value of the "Monster Hero" [Range: 0 .. INF]
Ar = Armor level of the "Monster Hero"

0 = No Armor
1 = Light/Standard Armor (Typically called "armour" in a profile and provides a +1 bonus to the Defense Value for the company in a formation)
2 = Heavy Armor (Typically called "heavy armour" in a profile and provides a +2 bonus to the Defense Value for the company in a formation)
3 = Special Named Heavy Armor (Sometimes called something special, like "mithril-forged heavy armour" for Hurin within the Wardens of the Keys; provides a +3 bonus to the Defense value for the company in a formation)

XWpn = Extra weapons that are equipped for the company in a formation

0 = Hand Weapon only
1+ = Any other additional wargear listed within the profile (i.e., If a profile, like Minas Tirith Archers, has "Each company has hand weapons, heavy armor and bows" this would imply that the number of extra weapons would be 1 ... 0 for the hand weapon and 1 for the bows. For the Knights of Dol Amroth: "Each company has hand weapons, heavy armour, shields and lances", this would imply they would have Ar = 2 and Xwpn = 2; 0 for the hand weapon, 1 for the shields and 2 for the lances.)

SpR = Magic Spells, Epic Actions & Special rules that are assigned specifically to the "Monster Hero"

For all heroes, regardless of level, it appears that Heroic Actions are not counted as special rules - and are effectively free

0 = At the Double!, Heroic Move, Heroic Shoot, Heroic Charge, Heroic Fight & Heroic Duel (see pages 64-67 of the rules manual for details)

For "Monster Heroes" this value will always be the total count of Magic Spells, Epic Actions & Special rules that are assigned to the hero

0 = No magic spells, epic actions or special rules (only Heroic Actions)
+1 for each magic spell (not discipline) and Mastery Level above 1, epic action or special rule available to the profile

When "Monster Hero" profiles are created it seems that statistics adjust the cost up or down by a set number of points:

Move = +/- 5 points per value point above or below 6
Fight = +/- 5 points per value point above or below 3
Ballistic = -/+ 5 points per value point above or below 4
Strength = +/- 5 points per value point above or below 3
Defense = +/- 5 points per value point above or below 3
Attacks = +/- 5 points per value point above or below 8
Resistance = +/- 5 points per value point above or below 1
Courage = +/- 5 points per value point above or below 3
Might = +/- 10 points per value point above 0
Armor Value = +/- 5 points per armor level
Extra Weapons = +/- 10 points per extra weapon
Special Rules = +/- 10 points per spell, mastery level of 2 or greater, special rule, or epic action

COST OF MONSTER HERO PROFILE = {[(Cst)*5]+[(Mv-6)*5]+[(F-3)*5]+[(B-4)*-5]+[(S-3)*5]+[(D-3)*5]+[(A-8)*5]+[(R-1)*5]+[(C-3)*5]+[(Mt)*10]+[(Ar)*5]+[(XWpn)*10]+[(SpR)*10]}

Example:

Based upon the profile for the "Monster Hero" Shelob:

Cst = 7
Mv = 8
F = 7
B = 5
S = 7
D = 8
A = 4
R = 2
C = 5
Mt = 3

Wargear: "Vicious mandibles (hand weapons)."

Ar = 0 (The Wargear entry has nothing related to Armor.)
XWpn = 0 (The Wargear entry gives: 0 for the hand weapon.)
SpR = 7 (The Special Rules have "Ambusher, Hard to Kill!, Pathfinder (Master), Prowler, Terror, Envenomed Bite, Hunter's Pounce" listed.)

Plugging all this into the equation gives:

COST OF MONSTER HERO PROFILE = {[(7)*5]+[(8-6)*5]+[(7-3)*5]+[(5-4)*-5]+[(7-3)*5]+[(8-3)*5]+[(4-8)*5]+[(2-1)*5]+[(5-3)*5]+[(3)*10]+[(0)*5]+[(0)*10]+[(7)*10]}

= {[35]+[(2)*5]+[(4)*5]+[(1)*-5]+[(4)*5]+[(5)*5]+[(-4)*5]+[(1)*5]+[(2)*5]+[30]+[0]+[0]+[70]}

= {[35]+[10]+[20]+[-5]+[20]+[25]+[-20]+[5]+[10]+[30]+[0]+[0]+[70]}

= 200

This gives 200 Points for Shelob's profile.

MORDOR WARRIORS

NOTE: The profile image above is the old version of the book's rule for the Hard to Kill! special rule. For the updated version of this rule, see here: Hard to Kill! Special Rule Updates

Keys:

[I] = Infantry, [H] = Cavalry, [A] = Artillery, [M] = Monster, [MH] = Monster Hero

(L) [MH] The Necromancer of Dol Guldur - Underpriced by 33%
(L) [MH] Winged Nazgul - Underpriced by 25%
(R) [A] Siege Bow Battery - Underpriced by 23%
(L) [MH] The Nine are Abroad - Underpriced by 15%
(L) [MH] Winged Witch-king Nazgul - Underpriced by 10%
(L) [MH] Sauron, the Dark Lord of Mordor - Underpriced by 7%
(C) [I] Morannon Orc Warband - Accurately Priced (0% deviation)
(C) [H] Warg Rider Warband - Accurately Priced (0% deviation)
(C) [I] Mordor Orc Warband - Accurately Priced (0% deviation)
(R) [M] Mordor Troll - Accurately Priced (0% deviation)
(L) [I] Shagrat's Tower Guard - Accurately Priced (0% deviation)
(R) [MH] Mordor Troll Chieftain - Overpriced by 11%
(R) [I] Black Guard of Barad-dur - Overpriced by 11%
(L) [I] Grishnakh's Trackers - Overpriced by 20%
(R) [A] War Catapult Battery - Overpriced by 25%
(L) [MH] Shelob - Overpriced by 25%
(R) [M] Mordor Troll Drummer - Overpriced by 43%
(C) [I] Orc Tracker Warband - Overpriced by 50%
(L) [I] Gorbag's Morgul Rats - Overpriced by 50%
(R) [I] Morgul Stalker Warband - Overpriced by 75%
(R) [A] Mordor Battering Ram - Overpriced by 100%
(L) [I] Twilight Ringwraiths - Overpriced by 114%
(L) [I] Castellans of Dol Guldur - Overpriced by 145%

Applying the template from cheapest (weakest stat-wise) to most expensive (most powerful) gives the following. Of course, the Monster Heroes are at the bottom where they should be of course.

10 Points per Company:

(C) [I] Mordor Orc Warband
(L) [I] Gorbag's Morgul Rats

20 Points per Company:

(C) [I] Morannon Orc Warband
(C) [H] Warg Rider Warband
(C) [I] Orc Tracker Warband
(R) [I] Morgul Stalker Warband
(R) [A] Mordor Battering Ram

25 Points per Company:

(C) [I] Mordor Uruk-hai Warband
(L) [I] Shagrat's Tower Guard
(L) [I] Grishnakh's Trackers

45 Points per Company:

(R) [I] Black Guard of Barad-dur

55 Points per Company:

(L) [I] Castellans of Dol Guldur

65 Points per Company:

(R) [A] Siege Bow Battery

70 Points per Company:

(L) [I] Twilight Ringwraiths

80 Points per Company:

(R) [A] War Catapult Battery

100 Points per Company:

(R) [M] Mordor Troll

105 Points per Company:

(R) [M] Mordor Troll Drummer

180 Points per Company:

(R) [MH] Mordor Troll Chieftain

200 Points per Company:

(L) [MH] Shelob

335 Points per Company:

(L) [MH] Winged Nazgul

360 Points per Company:

(L) [MH] Winged Witch-king Nazgul

445 Points per Company:

(L) [MH] The Necromancer of Dol Guldur

540 Points per Company:

(L) [MH] Sauron, the Dark Lord of Mordor

585 Points per Company:

(L) [MH] The Nine are Abroad

MORDOR HEROES

Key: (C) = Command Hero, (L) = Legendary Hero, (E) = Epic Hero

(E) The Mouth of Sauron - Underpriced by 41%
(E) Ringwraith - Underpriced by 40%
(C) Guard Captain BGoB - Underpriced by 33%
(E) Gollum - Underpriced by 17%
(E) The Witch-king Ringwraith - Underpriced by 15%
(E) Gothmog, Castellan of Minas Morgul - Underpriced by 12%
(E) Kardush the Firecaller - Underpriced by 9%
(L) Shagrat - Underpriced by 6%
(L) Grishnakh - Underpriced by 6%
(C) Orc Captain WRW - Accurately Priced (0% deviation)
(C) Uruk-hai Captain MUW - Accurately Priced (0% deviation)
(C) Black Uruk Shaman BGoB - Accurately Priced (0% deviation)
(C) Mordor Shaman WRW - Overpriced by 25%
(C) Black Uruk Shaman MUW - Overpriced by 25%
(L) Black Uruk Shaman STG - Overpriced by 25%
(L) Gorbag - Overpriced by 36%
(C) Orc Captain MOW - Overpriced by 43%
(C) Morannon Orc Captain - Overpriced by 43%
(C) Mordor Shaman MOW - Overpriced by 54%
(C) Mordor Shaman MorOW - Overpriced by 54%
(C) Mordor Shaman GMR - Overpriced by 54%

Oh, this is interesting ... Apparently using big name Epic Heroes with Nazgul and the Necromancer would be a cheap way under the existing rule set to have a formidable Mordor force! Sorting by the cost calculated by the template from cheapest (weakest stat-wise) to most expensive (most powerful):

Heroes that should cost 35 Points:

Heroes that should cost 50 Points:

Heroes that should cost 55 Points:

(L) Gorbag

Heroes that should cost 60 Points:

(E) Gollum

Heroes that should cost 65 Points:

(C) Mordor Shaman MOW
(C) Mordor Shaman MorOW
(L) Mordor Shaman GMR

Heroes that should cost 75 Points:

Heroes that should cost 80 Points:

(L) Shagrat
(L) Grishnakh
(C) Mordor Shaman WRW
(C) Black Uruk Shaman MUW
(L) Black Uruk Shaman STG

Heroes that should cost 100 Points:

Heroes that should cost 110 Points:

(E) Karduch the Firecaller

Heroes that should cost 125 Points:

(E) Gothmog, Castellan of Minas Morgul

Heroes that should cost 170 Points:

(E) The Mouth of Sauron

Heroes that should cost 210 Points:

(E) Ringwraith

Heroes that should cost 235 Points:

(E) The Witch-King Ringwraith

LINKS TO OTHER UNIT COST ANALYSIS POSTS

War of the Ring v2 Project

Pages

Friday, November 14, 2014

Mordor Unit Cost Analysis & the "Monster Hero" Baseline Profile

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