The Might of Mordor

One of the new monsters released this coming weekend is the Great Beast of Gorgoroth, which can be used in either a Mordor army, or as part of an allied warband in another evil force. For those of you that don't recognise it, the Great Beast is one of the poor creatures that hauls Grond, the mighty battering ram, towards the walls of Minas Tirith in The Return of the King. This one however, has been commandeered by a gang of Orcs to use as a battle platform - a very effective (and moderately safer) way for an Orc to go to war.

In gaming terms, the Great Beast of Gorgoroth is utterly ferocious. As big monsters go, it isn't great at fighting in combat - it's certainly not a hammer-wielding Mordor Troll. However, it is very good at trampling things, making them very flat in the process. During its movement phase, if the Great Beast makes contact with another model it will, to cut a long story short, gore it to bits. Every model it makes contact with take a Strength 6 hit, which is certainly not to be sniffed at - lightly armoured warriors beware. When it comes into contact with something it can't pulverise with impunity, it stops and fights them. Meanwhile, the Orcs on top are busy launching black-fletched arrows at anything that gets near them - it's amazing how much braver an Orc becomes when he's inside a howdah on top of an angry warbeast.

Anyway, if you haven't done so already, make sure you click on the picture above and give this monster a bit of a spin (hopefully it won't end up facing you though - you won't want to get charged by it).