I took Wraiths on Wings to a Tournament for the first time...

For those that have played against me in club nights or local community get togethers, you'll know I love the Wraiths on Wings. I'm a big advocate for rule of cool, and I don't like chasing meta - they couldn't suit me anymore, but with a 27% rate according to Tabletop Admiral's stats at the point of writing this, they're certainly a challenge the play with.

My quickest loss with them was being tabled in 43 minutes against Eagles, I've been tabled with them a few times (against Atop the Wall, Beornings, Road to Rivendell and Fangorn too), however, there is something quite enjoyable about the tactical challenge of a single mistake on my part being likely to result in my entire army being wiped within a round or two.

Until now though, it hadn't been possible to take them to an event. This is a mixture of anti-Eagle/Dragon rules being put in place in a lot of tournaments that prevent low model count armies, or the points limits for my local tournaments (I don't tend to travel too far) not quite lining up to where the Wraiths on Wings can realistically play, but then came Beachhead 2026 - 600 points, 16 players, 3 x Rounds and no minimum model count!

Beachhead Tabletop Expo #

This time last year I attended my first ever MESBG singles tournament, Beachhead 2025. I came away with 1 win and 2 losses, playing as the Halls of Thranduil. I was new, I made a lot of mistakes, lessons were learned, but I had great fun, and that became the first of many local tournaments I partook in last year, including my first GBHL100 at City of Kings in April 2025.

A few months ago, I built Siege Ladder, you can read more about it here, and for this year's Beachhead, I was very grateful to the TO, Elliot, who agreed to use Siege Ladder as the software to run the tournament. Apart from a small glitch when uploading photos for the best painted awards, it all worked very smoothly, and I was humbled by the great, positive feedback I received throughout too.

If you want to jump ahead and see all of the standings, results and hobby awards for Beachhead 2026, you can do so here.

Building my Wraiths on Wings List #

So far, every time I've played WoW at 600 points, I've kept it standard across the board, everyone gets Morgul Blade and Armoured Fell Beast (D7 instead of D6). 200 points a model, nice and easy, but it hasn't exactly brought me much success, with my own record being 3W and 9L, fairly inline with the Tabletop Admiral win % too.

For Beachhead though, I wanted to try something different, the amount of Fearless in the game had caused me a lot of grief, so I wanted to squeeze a 25pt Crown of Morgul into my list for the Witch King.

The solution? Having to drop a Morgul Blade and Armoured Fell Beast for one of my wraiths, it felt risky, but if I could utilise that guy, affectionally named "Dave", as a sweeper behind the front two, it could pay off.

So, my final lineup became:

Leading up to the event, I knew I had to try it out at least once, so at a club night with the Double Ended Bilbos, I got my opportunity against Mitch Young, whom as of right now is the highest ranked MESBG player on Siege Ladder with an Elo of 1,621. Unfortunately for me, I was up against Road to Rivendell which included a very powerful Tom Bombadil who was able to just wound me at will with his "Get out, you old Wight!" song. A 20-0 loss, and getting tabled, didn't exactly fill me with hope, but I was committed, so I set off to Bournemouth with 3 x Fell Beasts in tow.

Round 1 - Assassination #

Up first, I was drawn against Peter and his Army of the Great Eye.

This was actually my first time playing against an Evil army with Wraiths on Wings. He had poor courage, and only 3 Will on his Troll Chieftan, so I knew I could drain and control him pretty quickly.

I chose my assassin as Khamul (with the Morgul Blade and Armoured Fell Beast) and my target was his Orc Captain. I'd have been crazy to commit to taking out an F8 Chieftan.

Smash and Grab #

Peter won the priority for deployment, and to my surprise, setup his Orc Captain right on the frontline and within about 3 inches of the halfway point. I had an opportunity, but needed to be careful to not draw attention to it, as he still had the Dark Marshall and Troll Chieftain left to deploy.

I setup my Witch King in the middle of my deployment zone, nothing too opinionated, but I still had the agility to move around where I needed to. Then came his Troll Chieftan, now setup behind his Orc and far enough away that I still had a free run. I put Dave down (yes I call my 3rd Wraith, Dave, they all need a name) and then his Dark Marshall was positioned at the back too. I had a chance. I put Khamul 12 inches away from his Orc Captain, and setup my move.

I won the priority, and set out for my smash and grab. Dave compelled forward the Orc Captain first, luckily not resisted, and I sent Dave in for the charge. The Wraith on Wing's Army rule of "Full Force Charge" came off and got rid of the important Fate point on the Captain's profile, leaving him with 2 x Wounds. I also ensured to position Dave so that he was acting as a shield for the incoming Khamul. 

On Khamul's move, I compelled a standard Orc Warrior into a position to prevent spear support (shown in the image above) and importantly protect any other Orcs from charging into Khamul and taking away my Khamul vs. Orc Captain opportunity.

I hadn't accounted for the Dark Marshal's "Aura of Command" though, which meant he could counter heavily without needing Courage checks. 6 x Orc Warriors went into Dave, he was in trouble, but even if I lost him, I was okay with that, as long as I could pull off the assassination kill on my target.

We entered the Combat Phase and I chose to hold off on a Heroic Combat with Khamul, I wanted my 2 x points of Might for the fight in case I needed them, which luckily I did not. Khamul rolled his 6, and then my Morgul Blade just needed a single 5, and I got it. I suddenly found myself 12-0 up in the middle of Turn 1 - could I actually pull this off?

Holding Out #

Dave got lucky and rolled well with his 3 x Attacks, and survived the big onslaught, given the congestion around, I chose to Barge, meaning he suddenly had 6 x Orc Warriors sat prone blocking any future path of the Troll Chieftan and Dark Marshall. Dave shifted back a little, though not too much as to leave Khamul exposed.

I won the following priority, but the Troll Chieftan called a Heroic Move. Luckily, he was fairly pinned from all the prone Orcs, so couldn't get into a fight himself, but it did mean I had another wave of orcs to fend off. This pattern continued for another round or two, but eventually I got out, and reset my defensive lines up, far away from the two remaining heroes in his army which I had Compelled away a couple of times too.

From here on out it was a survival game, I needed to keep his scary models far away, hope his archery didn't cause any horrible surprises, which playing in Dark of Night (+1's to Wound within 12 inches) was certainly a possibility, and take any opportunity to inflict a few wounds here and there.

This all played out exactly as I hoped, I got a few Full Force Charges off when I saw little threat, and the Strafing Attack especially came into it's own, allowing me to fly over a single model, instilling a Strength 5 hit on it, and knocking it prone, which helped me get rid of his 2 x Warg Riders to give me the out-and-out advantage on the range of movement.

In the end, it was a 14-1 win for me. I was elated, and the sudden realisation hit me - could I actually do well at this tournament?

Round 2 - Sites of Power #

The Wraiths on Wings have three key attack vectors:

1. Magic - In particular, using Compels and Transfixes to control the key enemy models
2. Terror - This helps reduce the impact from enemy charges when you do get caught in awkward positions
3. Full Force Charge - Making the most of the Strength 5 hits on the charge to deal damage against low defence models

So I was delighted to be drawn against Fangorn, with army-wide Fearless to ignore Courage checks, D7/8 across the board meaning my Full Force Charge needs 6's, and the "Don't be Hasty" army rule specifying I cannot use Compel or Transfix. This was going to be a challenge. Luckily for me, Sites of Power meant he had to spread his army to score objective, I had the speed, and Maelstrom meant I may get an early chance to outnumber him.

Maelstrom provides an opportunity #

I have to confess, I really don't like Maelstrom games, I think it's too much influence on the game, riding into such few dice rolls, but in this case, I got the luck I needed, deployment meant that Treebeard and Beechbone ended up in opposite corners. I had my WK on Fell Beast in the third-corner, and then in the remaining corner I had Khamul, Dave and his last warband with Birchseed and an Oak Ent.

> Battle Map Deployment

I knew I couldn't out-Fight him 1v1, neither Dave nor Khamul have Heroic Strike, so my best bet here was going to be outnumbering him in dice and try to get an Ent prone with Strafing Attack to prevent the Strikes against me when I lose a Duel.

I won the priority, and gave him the first-move, he was fairly pinned in the corner so he didn't have much opportunity to avoid a charge from me. In response to his move, I put into action my Wraiths on Wings double-team plan. Dave flew over the Ent, causing a Wound with his Strafing Attack (a lucky 6) and knocking the Ent prone, this ensured that even if I lost the roll-off, the Ent couldn't strike the charging Khamul.

I ended up winning the Duel with Khamul, and now had to decide, 4 x Attacks with a Morgul Blade needing a single 6, or 6 Attacks with my Fell Beast needing 3 x 5's - I chose the Morgul Blade, especially given I still had 2 x might in Khamul's pocket and it worked - it was now 3 x models each on the board, and I was 2v1 against Birchseed in the corner.

The Witch King was starting to make his way over too, but here came my mis-remembering of the rules #1... Treebeard and Beechbone can throw Strength 10 stones 18", not 8 like I thought - uh oh, it's time to hide behind some trees and hope for in the ways to help me out. It's worth noting here too, TO had ruled that Dark of Night was not to be played in this one, so Ents could still throw the full 18".

As the game played out in the corner, I managed to get the 2v1 off a couple of times, and eventually the Witch King arrived for reinforcements with a trap and Heroic Strike going in my favour. Suddenly I'm 3 x Fell beasts vs. 2 x Ents and I think I can win this...

Trigger Happy Wraiths #

Once I had killed Birchseed, I turned to face Beechbone coming from one direction and Treebear the other. Treebeard was slowly getting closer and had dropped off Pipping already at one objective.

I made the call to send everything towards Beechbone, and survived my 6th turn of Throwing Stones, though this was the first that didn't required any In the Way tests. It was time to unleash the Witch King and his second point of Might with another Heroic Strike.

I had my opportunity, with an Heroic Move, to surround Beechbone, trap him, and double my attacks with a higher Fight value, and this is with that is my mis-remembering the rules #2 where I just forgot how to play the game.

I killed Beechbone! I was elated, Treebeard was too far away to cause much threat, Merry and Pippin sat on an objective each and I thought I had broken him, his 4 x model army and I killed over half of it... Then my opponent says, "That's the game".

Wait? What? Oh God, the game finishes when an army is reduced to a quarter of it's models - what an idiot. Then I looked at the board, Merry and Pippin were holding objectives, Dave and the Fell Beasts were an inch away from the nearest. I held nothing.

We both looked at each other confused, did Merry and Pippin count as models in the break/quartering? My opponent was new to the game, and I hadn't encountered this before, we double checked on Tabletop Admiral, quickly building his list and it confirmed, his army was 4 x models, quartered at 3 kills. I had lost the game 6-5, scoring my 5 for breaking him and killing his second most powerful model, but not holding any objectives.

Now, those experienced players will be screaming at me right now, but it was too late before I realise my mistake. We forgot to toggle on the Merry/Pippin extra for Treebeard in when quickly building the list in TTA. Had I actually read his list uploaded to Siege Ladder, my own bloody platform, then I would have seen, he was not quartered. The game should have continued, and I would have been in an incredibly strong position, but it was too late to change it - a harsh lesson learned indeed, and I went into Round 3 with 1 x Win and 1 x Loss.

Round 3 - Storm the Camp #

I was nervous for my Round 3 draw, I could see a few larger model count armies in the vicinity, including an F5 across-the-board Hall of Thranduil which I really didn't want to face. The draw was revealed, and up next for me, it was the Grey Company and fellow Hampshire Hammerer, Olly Drew.

I was really excited for this one for two reasons. Firstly, Olly and I have known each other via the Hammerers for a couple of years, but never actually played against each other, and secondly, it was a low model count opponent, and on paper, I should at least be competitive, especially if I can keep Aragorn under control.

Fighting across the river #

The board for this game involved a shallow water river running straight through the middle, this would prove advantageous for me, Olly's models would be moving half across this, whereas I could just fly over, and I used this in the early game to try get up in his grill, without him being within charge range of me and consequently a threat. It's also important to point out, Olly had a banner in his army, so us just going to opposite corners and getting a draw was not on the cards here, I was going to lose if that happens, so I needed to be aggressive.

As Aragorn used his free point of Might each turn to Heroic March across the board, I attempted 3 x turns of Compels, each time with the intention of getting Aragorn into the Wraiths, knocking him prone and then Striking with the Witch King to one-shot him.

Unfortunately, Resistant to Magic caused me a lot of grief, and with 10 x Will points spent across my 3 x Wraiths, I couldn't pull off a single Compel, and, by this point, Aragorn and the crew were close to my corner of the board.

With the attempts to take out Aragorn failing, I saw my opportunity to play out a similar tactic against a straggling Gimili, and it worked. Compelling him away from the group, charging in with Khamul and the WK and utilising an Heroic Strike for the kill. I had also called an Heroic Combat, eying up a charge at heroic with my elevated Fight value, but I chickened out, the risk of Anduril was too high, even with my 6 x Attacks, my lack of Might at that point wasn't worth it, so I directed towards some infantry and made a dent into his frontline instead.

After this turn, it became a fairly straight forward, Olly ewas low on numbers and very close to breaking. He needed to stay in a huddle to protect his banner with Aragorn, so I still needed to be careful each time, but my agility and the ability to compel, charge, fly away, became effective.

I had managed to break Olly, and now my main target became the banner, needing to prevent him from scoring the 10 points and making sure he didn't outnumber me in that corner to take the territory. Aragorn rolling a 2 on his first Courage check meant that his Might had all been drained, which gave me a huge opportunity to control the game.

The Wraiths got trigger-happy again, and whilst I did get the kill on the banner eventually, with a few compels against Aragorn actually paying off, which resulted in Olly being quartered. I didn't have my Fell Beasts positioned inside my territory at that point to prevent him capturing the corner, but I didn't mind, I knew I had enough VPs for the win, though the score was still uncomfortably close.

At game-end, I had 3 x Will left on the Witch King and 2 x Will with Khamul, I couldn't have lasted much more than I did, but the game was finished, and it was a 12-11 win!

I had finished the whole event with 2 x Wins and 1 x Loss, and apart from seething at the rules error in Game 2. I was ecstatic.

For those interested in the rest of the results, Mitch Young took 1st Place with a double Great Beast list. You can checkout the full standings, photos, hobby awards and everything else on the Siege Ladder event page here.

Playing with the Wraiths on Wings #

I had plans in this article to write up a section about what I would change about the Wraiths on Wings, but looking up, this is already long (thank you to anyone that is still sticking around), as such, if there is any interest, I'll likely do that as a follow up piece.

Would I recommend playing with them? Yes, absolutely. They're fun, they don't stand a chance against 50% of the armies in the game, but fun is fundamentally that matters.

You're not likely to podium with them, I got fairly lucky with my match ups, so I stood a chance in each game, but either way, I have a great time working out all of the puzzles in front of me each round, and they just look cool. It certainly won't be the last time I run them at an event, though not sure I'll be braving any GBHL100's with them in the immediate future.