" I once knew every spell in all the tongues of Elves or Men or Orcs, that was ever used for such a purpose. "[The Fellowship of the Ring - A Journey in the Dark]
From this, we can tell the orcs used magic, of some form or another, and thus to have spell casters, or shaman...
This gives a premise for the Orc shaman in the Lord of the Rings Game...
...and if you're going to have Shaman, why not mount him on a vicious warg, giving the shaman a combat edge too and better maneuverability...
Magic in Middle Earth, is rather subtle and not overt... you really don't see much of fireballs blasting back and forth etc. etc... and that aspect I rather like... it's there in the background, in the nature in the place... its harnessed and drawn on by those that can use it, to bend it to their will perhaps...
And so our Orc Shaman, has a couple of spells at his command...
He can whip his followers up into a Fury of a rage, making them headless of dangers and able to perform with reckless courage, and even shrug off wounds that might otherwise cripple another man...
Or he can Transfix a foe, temporarily instilling perhaps a sense of fear and dread, of indecision, slowing the reactions, making him ineffective in melee...
Subtle effects in keeping with the notion of what a tribal shaman through the ancient ages might have been able to do...
I think it fits rather well in the realm of Middle Earth...
The model I have had for some time... ever since I fielded a Shaman on foot, who was less effective than I hoped, had poorer maneuverability and was relatively easily killed in melee... I just needed an excuse to paint him up...
I have painted him to match the foot model so, I can use it too if he gets the warg mount killed underneath him...
I kept the base decoration minimal as with most of my evil troops...
Hopefully he'll get a try out tomorrow night in a game down at KWC...
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