No pics, as I didn't intend to write a report, but just scribbled some of my memories now.
Armies:
Good:
Faramir on Horse with Lance
14 Fountain Guard with Shields
12 Citadel Guard on horses with Longbows
5 Warriors of MT with spears
5 Warriors of MT with spears and shields
BlackMist (captain of Dol Amroth) on horse with Lance
6 Men at Arms
Madril
45 models, 8 Might, 12 bows
Evil:
Orc Captain on Warg with shield
Orc Drummer
Shadow Lord on horse
32 Morannons with shields
20 Orcs with spears
5 Warg Riders
3 Warg Riders with shields
63 models, 4 Might
Report:
Game 1, Storm the Camp, Evil:
Against wood elves with Legolas, Haldir and Galadriel. My opponent decided to defend his camp, so I run towards him as fast as I could, then manoeuvred (never thought this word has this spelling...) Warg Riders around one flank and got a single Rider inside his camp, while all his Elves were defending at about 18” away from his corner. Nothing too complicated happened during the game.
35-1
Game 2, Storm the Camp, Good:
Played against 7 Spider Queens and Shadow Lord on Fell Beast. Probably the most boring and one-sided game I ever played. Whatever I would do, I could not succeed.
1-35
Game 3, Contest of Champions, Good:
Dragon and 2 Fell Beasts... next
1-35
Game 4, Contest of Champions, Evil:
Now this was the best game I played at this event. My champion, an Orc Captain on a Warg with support of Shadow Lord went against Faramir on foot with Bow supported by Saruman the White. From the start I marched towards my opponent, who’s first line were Osgiliath Veterans, 2nd line Rangers of Gondor and 3rd line Warriors of MT with spears. About 55 models in total. Faramir had a lucky shot and killed one of the Morannons before combat was reached.
Then my Captain was being Transfixed every turn and I was lost because I didn’t know whether to stop Saruman Transfixing my Captain or to stop Faramir from scoring kills, so I tried both, but in the end it turned out to be not too good of an idea, because every time Saruman resisted, he would Transfix my captain and Faramir would score a kill.
2 turns before the end I got priority and the score was 4-1 to Faramir. I decided to compel him out of his lines and surrounded with 2 Warg Riders and 2 supported Morannons, while captain with last Might point charged a single veteran on my left flank. In that turn my opponent made a mistake which cost him the game: he decided to Transfix one of the Warg Riders fighting Faramir so that I would get less dice to win combat / hurt his champion. By doing that he let my captain call heroic combat, killing his initial victim and getting through his lines to charge and kill another 2 vets. It was 4-4 at that time and Faramir got killed in the very next fight. Next turn I got priority again and charged terrifying Saruman with a lone orc who managed to get through the enemy lines in the previous turn, while my captain charged a lone veteran and got a support of 2 other morannons to ensure winning the fight. I rolled a 5 on 5 dice, he rolled a 4 on 2 dice and I won and killed him for a 5-4 score J
The worst part of the game was the fact that sun was shining at me so strongly and it was so hot, I had to drink every time I finished moving.
30-5
Game 5, Take and Hold, Evil:
Played against a guy with Legolas, Saruman, Beregond and a lot of fountain guard with 7 KoMT and WoMT support. In total 39 models against my 63, so I had an advantage already from the start. With priority in the first turn I already had more models on the board than his total and already moved 6-10” towards the centre. Take and Hold, being my favourite LoME scenario was the one I felt most confident with and with the massive numerical advantage I just pushed everything to the centre as fast as I could, looking at my phone every once in a while just to ensure 2 hours are enough for me to finish.
There’s not much to talk about this one, except that Legolas got killed by 2 Morannons and WR after being Transfixed and surrounded. At the very end, my opponent had a lone Guardsman within 3” of the centre whom I surrounded with heroic move to ensure a kill, but then Saruman blasted into combat and knocked everybody down (Im not sure if that means the fight is still on with everyone on the ground or if the fight breaks away, but we played that the fight broke). Luckily, I still had some unengaged models who didn’t take part in the heroic to charge and kill the lone FG. After that, the game ended and the centre was clear of enemy models.
35-1
End of Day 1. Evil scores 100/105 points and Good scores a massive 2/70 points... Good army in 2 games killed 2 models which cost a total of 0 points – 2 broodlings. One from a volley and the other through Faramir’s heroic combat...
Position after day one: 18, loss to the leader: 73 points.
Day 2: Game 6, Take and Hold, Good:
This was the game I was looking forward to playing because I wanted to see how well Madril’s ability does in this scenario. And it was amazing. After the first turn I had 39 out of 45 models on the board instead of the average 30 I would normally have (with Madril the average is 36 in this case), while my opponent, who started with about 10 more, had pretty much the same number. His army was based around Shadow Lord, Mahud King, Haradrim King and a mix of Mahud Warriors, Camels and Harad Warriors for around 55 models.
This was also the game where I used all my sixes for the remainder of the tournament. I felt sorry at the end of the game having broken my opponent and losing only 7 models. Mounted cavalry showed how good it can be, moving 5” at a time and taking out Camels and Mahud from all over the board. Faramir killed Shadow Lord in a single Heroic Fight and BlackMist managed several kills which led to one of my opponent’s units to disappear. At the end the nearest model to the centre my enemy had was about 10” away, so it was a clear victory.
We both enjoyed the game and my opponent was especially very sporting.
35-1
Game 7, Meeting Engagement, Good:
My good army went against the most common tournament army seen over the past year – Mordor on SL, Drum and MO with Orcs. This time the variant of the army included 2 Spider Queens instead of the usual ‘more Orcs’ or ‘Orc Trackers’.
I defended as I fired my 12 bows, I did what any good player would do here – defend, hopefully with my higher Fight I would come out on top. But that wasn’t the case, I somehow kept losing more fights than winning and I lost my Guardsmen at an incredible pace. Then I had to deal with 2 SQ on one of my flanks which were killing 4 models per turn until one of them died. My own heroic duo of Faramir and BlackMist did some damage but had to use all its Might to win the heroic combats. My plan with these two was to charge when lost priority, call HC each, kill 2 each, proceed to killing another 2 each. What happened instead was: lost priority, called HC each, won combats with each by using all their remaining Might, killed 2 each and proceeded to lose the next 2 fights...
I ran out of 6s in the previous game, so here I was just watching my men die with nothing to be done. Once my army broke and Faramir died I surrendered – I knew I wouldn’t kill all heroes for a minor defeat and a victory was no longer realistically possible.
1-35
Game 8, Meeting Engagement, Evil:
I went up against a very themed army of Numenor with mounted Elendil, Legolas and Haldir. Battle was fought on a board looking like ruins of some old Gondorian city, especially themed with the statue of Isildur near one of the corners J
Drums of Mordor led my army towards the enemy suffering some minor losses. My opponent wanted to make a semi circle between a tower and some ruins, so that I go inside and get surrounded by his men, but I didn’t let him by riding Wargs around one flank and sending some Orcs on the other flank. Once combat was reached, Legolas got compelled and eaten by dogs, then Elendil killed around 6 models and stayed Transfixed to the end of the game. Each Combat phase was excruciating, as we rolled so terribly that it was just wrong... he kept winning 2v2 fights rolling 3s and 4s as his highest results and then when needing 6s he rolled 5s. In one of the turns my enemy won almost every combat, killed none and the other two combats which I won, I killed in both.
But the power of The Ring could not be undone and the minions of Mordor ate what was theirs to eat – manflesh ;)
35-1
Total for Good: 38 points out of 140 available
Total for Evil: 135 points out of 140 available
Final standing: 10th out of 51
End comments:
I am happy that a very themed Rohan army won the tournament.
I still think that multiple Spider Queens are just wrong and boring, but Im happy there wasn't any mass Outrider armies, because they're just wrong and boring too.
I am disappointed in my Good force, it is time to retire the Guard which fought for me the past 3 years.
The organisation was very good and I enjoyed all my games, looking forward to the next year.
BlackMist
