The great northern Kingdom of Arnor was founded by the High King Elendil alongside it’s sister kingdom of Gondor. Serving as a bastion of the north, the line of Isildur helped the kingdom grow through periods of peace and war. However, in an act of vengence against the race of Men Sauron sent his Witch-king to found a rival kingdom from which to wage a war against the people of Arnor and grind it into the dirt as payback for their actions during the Last Alliance.

Rise of Angmar, up for pre order today, is the latest and final supplement for this edition of the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game, and with it brings new scenarios allowing you to play through this dark era, and alongside it new miniatures, updated armies and Legendary Legions to allow you to use them on the table top.

In this review we’ll be taking a look through the book and seeing what exactly it adds to the game, checking out some of the ace new models that accompany the book, and ultimately see if this is worth adding to your collection with a new edition of the SBG on the horizon.

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us free review copies, if you would like to support the site then why not order your Middle-Earth goodies through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

We have also filmed an unboxing of some of the new Angmar and Arnor heroes that are up for pre order today alongside the book, which you can see just below or over on YouTube

So without further ado, let’s dive into Rise of Angmar

Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game: Rise of Angmar Review

It’s been a while, but we finally have a brand new Middle-Earth SBG book – and this one revisits some factions that have not had any love for a very long time – Angmar and Arnor.

Before we jump in though, I just wanted to discuss the Oliphant in the room. Yes, Games Workshop have announced that a new edition of the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game is on the way to tie in with the upcoming War of the Rohirrim anime out this Decemeber (With presumably puts the new edition launch in November – With Specialist Games Studios often having the Black Friday weekend as a big box pre order date, coincidentally two weeks following that would be the release date of the new movie…)

While some people have been worried about what this means for the game, ME:SBG is in safe hands and they have delivered some fantastic releases over the last few years – Yes, the profiles in this book will change in the new edition (With Warhammer Community publishing free army lists and profiles allowing you to use them on launch of the new edition) but the real selling point for these books isn’t the army lists and profiles, but on the background, scenarios and campaigns that let players explore their own take on the events that happened “historically” and see if they can change the outcome. While some of these may need tweaking in the new edition, I’m pretty sure most of this content can be easily adapted going forward.

Now I admit that if you are here just for the profiles and Legendary Legions, then knowing that the book will be outdated in 4 months time is a question mark for some people – and yeah, it does suck that this is coming at the very tail end of an edition, but would you rather the alternative? That this just got mothballed with the releases used at a later date next edition? I’m not sure I’d want that, and as we’ll see going through the book this is a great swan song to an excellent series of Middle-Earth supplements.

The book opens with the history of Angmar and Arnor, giving some context to the scenarios that follow. While a lot of Middle-Earth fans will know a lot of this, I do enjoy reading these history sections and perusing time lines – I find it helps bring to life the scenarios themselves.

Speaking of Scenarios we get 18 here covering the rise of Angmar and fall of Arnor, along with another 4 in the appendix that tell the story of the lineage of Isildur.

We get a nice mix of different sizes of battle and some varied force lists – I was happy to see that for the most part the participants are in multiples of the box sizes, but there are a few odd ones. For example, The Founding of Angmar needs 24 Warriors of Arnor and 12 Rangers of Arnor – great, you can pick up two boxes of each and have enough models. However it also needs 3 Captains of Arnor, meaning you would be one short to run the scenario. While you could easily use one of the new character models released alongside the book as a Captain, it does feel a little odd that you can’t just pick up that last Captain that you need to run the scenario.

We do see some cool unique special rules, such as endless waves of enemies having a chance to come back on as they are slain, some suitably epic siege missions, getting to see the fall of Amon Sul (With players secretly charging a model to escape with the Palantir as the evil player attempts to locate them) and a really cool scenario where the sight of evil heroes being slain by elves can cause other evil models to scarper off the board on a failed courage test. I really hope this is a glimpse at the kind of mechanics that we will see in the new edition, as there’s some really fun stuff here, and I’ll be picking up a hardcopy version myself to be able to play through these in both the current and new edition.

As with the previous Middle-Earth supplements, we also get a campaign that allows you and your gaming group to play through the entire storyline, with each victory granting a bonus in the following game – so for example if Good wins the Fall of Amon Sul they get to automatically have priority in the next game, but if Evil win then where they can deploy in the following game alters.

There’s also a mini 4 game scenario that allows you to play through the appendix missions too, which is a nice touch.

Armies

We get a lot of love for older collections in this book, with a surprising amount of new models – some of them we’ve been lucky enough to paint up too, so I’ll stick in some images of the finished kits!

Arnor

For Arnor we get Aranarth, First Cheiftain of the Dunedain – he’s got Expert Shot and Hatred (Angmar), but his real boon is unlocking the ability to take Rangers of the North and Dunedain in an Arnor army – what’s more is that he also counts as a banner to them too!

The model is really cool with a pose that reminded me of some old Warhammer Quest figures

Packaged alongside him is Argadir, Captain of Arnor, a nice hero choice with Expert Rider and Master of Battle 5+ along with 3 Might points. Again it’s a really nice model and fits nicely alongside the new cavalry

The Knights of Arnor themselves give the Arnor force a little more speed and punch

The Rangers

A list is included for The Rangers, which allows rangers of the north and Dunedain to increase their attacks to 2 and benefit from Arathorn, Halbarad or Strider’s “Stand Fast”. This is a nice little elite force of nothing but heroes though, but you will often be outnumbered!

Minas Tirith

Gondor gets some love with another new hero representing the Last King of Gondor. He’s a powerful but reckless fighter, who MUST charge enemy heroes if able to, never refuses a challange, but can always change his fight value to match any non-monster he is fighting, which is pretty cool. A nice touch is that he is the very last heir, if any other named hero is in your army then you lose your Army Bonus

Rivendell

As they appear in the narrative, we get a Rivendell list, though no new models are introduced here

Angmar

Angmar gets a lot of love in the new book, and their army list is expanded with lots of cool new choices

Nazthak is a fun and pretty cheap hero who has a brilliant ability which allows him to take a single piece of wargear carried by a model that he slays and add it to his profile – there’s some caveats here, he can’t take The One Ring for example or mounts or armour, but anything else is fair game!

The Shadow of Rhudur is a nice new Spirit hero who gets to select an enemy hero at the start of the game, and as long as The Shadow is within 6″ of them, that model is -1 to courage tests. In addition he is also packing 5 Will and can cast Drain Courage, Curse, Wither and Sap Will

Hill Trolls get some ace new models, they have a cool rule where they get to pick a terrain feature on the board at the start of the game and your army no longer treats it as difficult terrain. In addition they get to re roll a d6 in a duel, and Buhrdur also gets the rule added to his profile if he is taken in the same army as them.

Werewolves have been added in this book, and they are pretty good with F5, S5 and Knock to the Ground, you can use these as shock troops – they also have the Spirit keyword too

Speaking of Spirits, Shades are a nice new Spirit hero that act as conduits for your Ringwraiths – they get to use them for line of sight and range if they are within 6″ of them, and can also deal a wound to a Spirit in exchange for +1 to cast. They also can spend will in order to make an aura of -1 to hit nearby units, which extends to -2 if the shooter is within 12″ of the shade

Carn Dum

Interestingly does not have an army list, just the legendary legion (A sign of things to come perhaps) but we do get a whole host of rules for their units,

Aldrac is their warlord who has some pretty nice tricks, friendly models within 6″ reroll failed courage tests, and when he kills a model he gets a free Heroic Combat in the following turn without having to spend Might

Fraecht, Vassal of the Witch King is another cool unit – each turn he can spend a point of Will to do one of 3 Incantations – one makes friendly units nearby reroll 1s when making strikes, the next gives nearby units a 5+ ignore wounds shrug and the final one allows nearby units the ability to not be slowed by difficult terrain – the range on these is only 3″, but for his points I think he’s worth bringing along to take advantage of these.

We also get Captains and Warrirs of Carn Dum, both of these have the “Glory Seekers” rule that gives them =1 to wound when fighting heroes – which combined with their S4 makes them pretty good!

Legendary Legions

The book contains 5 legendary legions based around battles and events in the narrative. Warhammer Community have shared that this is going to be the way that armies are constructed in future, and as long as we get a variety across factions to represent the different types of forces that they assembled then I’m sure this will be a nice midpoint between army lists and the current legions.

The ones we get in this book are pretty fun!

The Battle of Fornost is a nice mixed force of Elves, Minas Tirith, Rangers and Hobbits – a mixing bag of loads of cool models – you’re locked into The Last King of Gondor and Glorfindel, but you have a nice mix of varied units you can bring. The whole army gets resistent to magic, Gondor Cavalry get +1 to fight on the charge and the King cannot have his courage modified

The Army of Arnor has to take Arvedui and lose their hobbits, but they gain access to Rangers and Dunedain with armour. Models nearby the king get to reroll courage, however the real star of the show is Malbeth who with a bonus of +1 allows nearby models to ignore wounds on a 4+, and also gains “Foresight Points” that can be spent to modify the priority roll, giving you a lot of control to deciding who goes first

The Host of the Witch King is a nice force that represents The Lord of the Nazgul at the height of this power, gaining 3 attacks, and only loses will if he doesnt win a fight while also gaining +1 to fight when facing off against a Man.

The Army of Carn Dum is currently the only way of fielding a Carn Dum force, and they can also take some friends in the form of Angmar Orcs, Captains, Trackers and Warg Riders – which gives you some variety to the army. When a Carn Dum hero kills another model they get +1 to their fight in the following turn, and the range of banners and Incantations is increased to 6″ which makes Fraecht a brilliant choice.

Finally we get my favourite list, the Wolf Pack of Angmar. Ever wanted to run an army of just Wargs and Werewolves? Well now you can! All the Wargs gain Knock to the Ground and your Ward Chieftain gets extra Might, Will and Fate – in addition if a Chieftain is wounded then friendly models treat him as a banner! They also get a nice once per game ability which gives your entire force +1 to their fight values and the ability to reroll 1s to wound!

We also get two bonus Legendary Legions in the Apendix

Arathorn’s Stand represents Arathorn and the Rangers of the North & Dunedain alongside Halbarad – This gives all the Rangers and Dunedain +2 to their Attacks Value (if on foot) which is amazing! Thery also get a modifier in scenarios that have a roll to determine reinforcements

For Troll tans we also have Buhrdur’s Horde, which is made up of Buhrdur, Trolls, Anmar Orcs and Warg Riders – Buhrdur gets some big bonuses here gaining Blood and Glory and also Fearless if he slays a hero! There’s some really nice rules here if they choose to ambush – the army is not set up as normal and instead in the 3rd move phase the entire army is either moved on from any board edge or can set up entirely hidden within terrain!

Painting Masterclass

As is now tradition with these books we also get a comprehensive painting guide for a piece of scenery, and this time the guide is dedicated to painting up some suitably spooky haunted ruins to go alongside your Angmar force! This is a really easy to follow and effective guide, and I’ll certainly be giving this a go!

Summary

So what do I think of Rise of Angmar and is it worth adding to your collection knowing that a brand new edition of the game is on the way. For me, I’m a collector of books who has picked up every volume from this edition, and I’d hate to leave the collection unfinished by not picking up this final book. I’m a big fan of all the spooky creatures of Angmar, so this is a book that very much appeals to me. Even though we probably only have a few months of the current edition left, I’ll be still getting some games in and rolling some dice, so while it may not last forever, I’m still going to get some use out of the profiles, though perhaps not as much as I’d hoped. However, the Scenarios and campaign is something that I feel I will get long term use out of, with these easily being used in the next edition, even if some adaption is needed. Ultimately, I think it boils down to how much use you feel you’ll be getting out of this book – If you don’t play narrative scenarios and are just interested in the army lists then it may be worth waiting for the free profile downloads that will be released alongside War of the Rohirrim, however if like me you love the narrative side of things and want to play through the events of the fall of Arnor then this is certainly one you’ll be wanting to add to the collection.

Rise of Angmar is up for pre order today and is released Saturday 7th September.

Games Workshop provided Sprues & Brews with a free digital copy for review purposes.