Grima Wormtongue

* Portrait
* Ingame

* Melee

"At his feet upon the steps sat a wizened figure of a man, with a pale wise face and heavy-lidded eyes."
—The Two Towers, "The King of the Golden Hall"

Grima Wormtongue is the traitorous advisor of King Theoden binding him to Isengard. His abilities allow him to fight toe to toe with heroes but his single target damage is still quite weak against them.

## Abilities

 **Level 1: Escape (Y) -** Wormtongue becomes stealthed and can neither attack nor be attacked. Left click on the icon to activate.

 **Level 3: Venomous Words (X) -** Enemy in the target area lose -20% armor and damage. Left click on the icon then left click on the target area.

 **Level 5: Back Stab (C) -** The target enemy hero takes damage, double damage if hit from behind, and loses -25% armor for 10 seconds. Left click on the icon then left click on the target hero.

 **Level 7: Influence of Despair (V) -** Grima deceives enemy heroes in the target area into believing that they are weak; they deal no damage and receive no experience for the duration of the deception. Left click on the icon then left click on the target area.

 **Level 10: Sabotage (B) -** His many years of deception enable Grima Wormtongue to sabotage enemy plans. The selected Citadel and any surrounding buildings cease to function for 30 seconds. Left click on the icon then left click on the target citadel.

## Strategy

Grima Wormtongue is one of the two "rogues" of Isengard's heroes, and his specialty is in sabotaging the efforts of the enemy's rank and file as well as assassinating enemy heroes. At the start of the game, Grima is meant to be a spy who sneaks behind enemy lines and relays helpful information directly to you. Knowledge is important in warfare, as knowing what your enemies' tactics are can help you adjust your own tactics to counteract theirs. If Grima is spotted, he can escape easily, making him excellent at his job of spying without getting caught.

Later in the game, Grima becomes much less of a nuisance and far more of a disruption to the enemy's inner-workings. He will be able to weaken the enemy's armies and hero units--he will especially enjoy driving his knife into the backs of hero units, killing them instantly and denying the enemy's forces of leadership bonuses or juggernauts. At the peak of his power, Grima can completely shut down your opponent's buildings for a time, allowing you to take the lead in soldier production.

Being the snake that he is, Grima is vicious in the right situations with his poisonous words spitting from his vile fangs. But send a mongoose or a hawk after a snake, and you can bet your bottom dollar that a snake will never see the light of day again. Such is the lament of Grima Wormtongue. He is a bit slow when he runs, making him vulnerable to speedy cavalry or sharp-eyed archers. Also, while he is great at killing one enemy hero at a time, he can only backstab one at a time, so if two or three heroes are fighting him, he is powerless. His knife is also useless against monsters. With all of this in mind, make sure that you have your enemy distracted first by drawing most of their forces away and isolating their buildings or hero units for Grima to assassinate. When in doubt, order Grima to do a full-retreat back to the fortress if your back-up troops are unavailable.

Grima can be extremely dangerous for an enemy if properly used, orchestrating a push into the enemy castle by:

1) Killing their best hero 2) Reducing enemy armor and completely nullifying damage 3) Disabling the enemy castle.

## Trivia

- In the Rohan faction, Grima can essentially become a Ring Hero as long as Corrupted Theoden picks up the Ring.