Warpcon Podium Review

Last weekend the IHL headed South to Cork for the 1st two day event of the 2020 calendar. This was an 800 points Good vs Evil event with a highly competitive field. So let's take a look at who emerged on top of that field to take home the accolades.

3rd place
David Murphy

GOOD LIST
Armies Used: Riders of Theoden

WARBAND 1:
Theoden - Armoured Horse, Shield, Heavy Armour (Leader)
3 Royal Guard - Horse
WARBAND 2:
Gamling - Horse, Banner
3 Royal Guard - Horse
WARBAND 3:
Eomer - Armoured Horse, Shield
5 Riders of Rohan
WARBAND 4:
Deorwine - Horse
5 Riders of Rohan
WARBAND 5:
Elfhelm
Dernhelm

+++++++

EVIL LIST
Armies Used: Angmar

WARBAND 1:
Witch King - Horse, Morgul Crown, 3 Might, 15 Will, 3 Fate (Leader)
2 Dead Marsh Spectres
4 Orcs - Shield
4 Orcs - Spear
2 Orcs - 2 Handed Weapon
Orc - Banner, Spear
WARBAND 2:
Barrow Wight
4 Orcs - Shield
4 Orcs - Spear
1 Orcs - 2 Handed Weapon
WARBAND 3:
Barrow Wight
4 Orcs - Shield
4 Orcs - Spear
1 Orcs - 2 Handed Weapon
WARBAND 4:
Orc Captain - Shield
4 Orcs - Shield
4 Orcs - Spear
1 Orcs - 2 Handed Weapon
WARBAND 5:
Gulavhar
1 Angmar Warg Rider - Shield

I'm sure I've said it here before but I will repeat it again, Riders of Theoden is one of the most powerful armies in the game at the moment (as you will also see further down in this article). In fact I may as copy and paste what I said about them after the Gaelcon tournament at the end of last year.

"In this edition of the game Rohan has been propelled to a top tier army due to a number of buffs they received including the +1 strength on the charge army bonus, the Riders of Theoden special rule buffing their fight value, Gamling's banner of infinite might and the legendary legion bonuses. This list combines all of these factors to form a powerful army capable of handling most things. Although it lacks a super star hero, like most of the other lists in this review, it uses multiple smaller heroes that maximises the benefits of the Royal Standard, allowing the player to use multiple might points per turn with little risk of running out. This means that they can call heroic moves every turn (gaining the benefits of the cavalry charge) and call several heroic combats in each fight phase (cutting through large numbers of enemy models)."

Angmar can be a tricky army to use well, due mainly to the reliance on basic orcs to provide the bulk of the force. However, the strength of Angmar is not in it's warriors but in it's heroes and when used well can prove to be a winning army (as shown at last year's Ardacon Masters event). Here we have a similar army to that winning list from Ardacon with the twin threats of the Witchking and Gulavhar. Gulavhar is a combat beast at S8, F7, up to 5 attacks on the charge and the ability to regain wounds. His main weaknesses (low defence and lack of Heroic Strike) are mitigated by the rest of the heroes here with the Witchking and Barrow Wights able to shut down enemy heroes that could pose a threat to him with their magical prowess.

2nd place
Stephen Devlin

GOOD LIST
Armies Used: Riders of Theoden

WARBAND 1:
Theoden - Armoured Horse, Shield, Heavy Armour - Leader
4 Royal Guard - Horse, Throwing Spear
5 Royal Guard - Horse
WARBAND 2:
Eomer - Armoured Horse, Shield, Throwing Spear
4 Royal Guard - Horse, Throwing Spear
4 Royal Guard - Horse
WARBAND 3:
Dernhelm
2 Royal Guard - Horse, Throwing Spear
Royal Guard - Horse, Axe
WARBAND 4:
Gamling - Horse, Banner
2 Royal Guard - Horse, Throwing Spear
Royal Guard - Horse

+++++++

EVIL LIST
Armies Used: Serpent Horde

WARBAND 1:
Suladan - Armoured Horse (Leader)
12 Serpent Riders
3 Abrakhan Merchant Guard
3 Watchers of Karna - Twin Blades
WARBAND 2:
Betrayer - Felbeast
15 Haradrim Warrior - Bow, Spear
WARBAND 3:
Harad Chieftain - Horse, Bow
6 Harad Warrior - Bow, Spear
2 Abrakhan Merchant Guard
2 Watchers of Karna - Twin Blades
Harad Warrior - War Horn

Another Riders of Theoden army on the Good side here. See above for the summary of the army. The difference with this list is dropping a couple of heroes to get in more Royal Guard and throwing weapons, reducing the free might effect of Gamling but increasing the model count which could help in objective based missions.

For Evil we have the Serpent Horde led by Suladan and the Betrayer. The biggest strength of this army is it's shooting. A huge number of bows, all with poisoned arrows that can be buffed by the Betrayer makes a very dangerous shooting threat that forces the enemy to come to you as quickly as possible before too many models get shot to death. This means that the battle will be fought on your terms against a weakened enemy. Even once the distance had been closed then there are significant combat threats in the form of a Fell Beast, Suladan, a large number of lance armed cavalry and some elite infantry who can finish what the archers started.

1st place
David Coleman

GOOD LIST
Armies Used: Riders of Theoden

WARBAND 1:
Theoden - Armoured Horse, Shield (Leader)
8 Riders of Rohan
2 Riders of Rohan with Throwing Spears
5 Royal Guard - Horses, Throwing Spears
WARBAND 2:
Eomer - Shield, Armoured Horse
WARBAND 3:Gamling - Banner, Horse
WARBAND 4:
Deorwine - Horse
WARBAND 5:
Elfhelm - Horse
Dernhelm

+++++++

EVIL LIST
Armies Used: Barad Dur

WARBAND 1:
Sauron (Leader)
11 Black Numenoreans
10 Orcs - Spear and shield
1 Orc - Shield, Spear, Banner
1 Orc Tracker - Warg
WARBAND 2:
Orc Captain - Warg, Shield
1 Orc Tracker - Warg
6 Orc Trackers
WARBAND 3:
Shelob

Riders of Theoden...

Again...

See above.

At least the Evil half of these lists showed some variation. Here we have Barad Dur, an army that Dave has shown can be really powerful when used well. Most of the success of this army comes down to Sauron. He is naturally a huge focal point of the army who is able to take on the bulk of the opposing army while the rest of the army provides support and captures objectives and so on.

Also congratulations to Paul Higgins for winning best painted and Donal Carroll for winning best sports.