After a year and a half of lockdowns and cancelled tournaments, we are slowly beginning to play toys again with our friends. What better way to get back to it than to go to Ardacon? In this review you'll read about my fun experience of playing at this year's smaller-than-usual World Championships, as well as find out how I did and what I took to this tournament.
I arrived in Manchester in the afternoon of Thursday, with 4 models left to paint and being a grown-up, I was in the unfortunate situation of having to do some work in my room on Friday, so I had to skip gaming before the main event. Next day at about 11.30am, after finishing the last work call I decided to join into the Doubles tournament, as James mentioned there may be some players there who still haven't got a doubles partner. It turned out that I was the odd one out, but I was able to pair up with PMG (Peter Michael George), one of the tournament staff members. That would have been great, had it not been for the fact that once we formed a team, we became the odd team out and needed 2 more players to play against! Hence my Doubles tournament ended before it had a chance to begin. I'm not sure if there were some players out there who decided not to show up just because they didn't have a partner to play with, but give that these situations happen, I think you can always count on finding someone to pair up with.
PMG was kind enough to offer to just play some games outside of the tournament, so we proceeded to do just that and I was able to get a refresher on how toys work. I hadn't played since Scouring of Stirlingshire in November 2019, so these two friendly matches were a welcome start to the weekend!
Although normally every Ardacon is filled with stalls of people selling and sharing their hobby goodness, this year due to a lower attendance we were lucky to have SBG Magazine crew with all their work displayed for everyone to check out. This is always a highlight of every Ardacon - not only the incredibly high quality magazines, but also the miniatures and terrain that Damian, Tom and SBG contributors have created over the years. Additionally, on Saturday Matthew from Generation Shift turned up with his catalogue of beautifully designed bases.
Friday Evening
In the evening we had a fabulous SBG Magazine presentation, where Tom & Damian shared their journey with everybody present and discussed the possible future issues of the mag, with plans all the way into the late 2020s! I had the honour of writing an article for them in the latest issue number 11, so if you haven't got your hands on a copy yet, I urge you to get it - it's by far the best publication dedicated to our game out there. Here's a sneak peak of what the article was about:
After the presentation, we headed to the hotel bar where many of us ended up hanging out until about 2am.
THE MAIN EVENT
On Saturday morning, after the hotel breakfast, people started flowing into the main room of Mercure Hotel for what was to be 4x 600 point games on Saturday and 2 games on Sunday. From the start the room was filled with super friendly atmosphere as we all proceeded to find our tables and begin our battles.
THE ARMY LIST:
Total: 36 Models, 6 Might (plus Master of Battle), 9
Bows
We discussed the army in detail on an episode of An Unexpected
Podcast, which you can watch below:
THE SCORING SYSTEM:
The standard Matched Play Guide provides a scoring system of
5 points for a win, 2 for a draw and 0 for a loss, with an additional 1 TP for
achieving a Major Victory. Additionally, it suggests Oaths of Battle (additional
random objectives) to be used as a tie breaker if the TO wants to use them at all. Ardacon did something different. For
this tournament, the rules said there would not be a Major/Minor victory,
instead a successful completion of an Oath would grant 1 extra Tournament
Point. In effect, completing 5 Oaths throughout the tournament would be
equivalent to an additional ‘free’ win. By the nature of this, there was even possibility of draws granting a score of 3-2, 2-2, 3-3 and 2-3.
To choose an Oath for your game, you pick 3 previously unused ones from the Matched Play Guide and your opponent randomly picks one of the 3 for you to do for this game.
As it later transpired, this meant the Oaths of Battle became rather important if you didn't win all of your games, but we’ll get to that…
THE GAMES
- Game 1: Lords of Battle vs Shane’s Hobbits & Rivendell
Shane’s Army List:
Note: We were using the Tourn.ee online tournament
software, which allows you to view lists of your opponents on your phone and
keep them saved for later. I love that, since I can put up here the exact lists my
opponents used in their games, as well as see every list of every player at the
event and how well they did. It's also super useful pre-game, as you don't have to find your list and give it to your opponent, since they have access to it already on their phone.
Total: 58 Models, 15 Bows, plus however many points of Might the
little ones bring!
THE GAME:
My Oath: Combat Master (Gothmog to kill 10)
My tournament began by staring down a horde of Hobbits led
by Glorfindel. We both deployed almost at the centre line and got stuck into combat on turn 2.
Glorfindel found himself on the edge of the board on my right flank, allowing
Shelob, Suladan and Gothmog to do some killing in the middle. The little ones
were unable to put up a good fight against my big heroes and Shelob did made some big Hurls, killing several models in the process.
Score: 6-1 (the final kill count was 45-18, so I scored 5 for that, then both armies broke, so we both got 1 TP).
Oath: Failed - Gothmog was supposed to kill 10, but a
failed Heroic Combat against 2 of them meant he was only able to take out 8
hobbits and the game ended on the first roll after breaking. That was quite
unfortunate, as even 1 extra turn would have probably been enough to achieve
this Oath, since all he had to do was win a combat against 2 and roll 2x 4+ from 8 dice. "Kill 10 enemies” is harder than you think, even against the
little ones – in 600 points games on average this Oath is asking your hero to
kill about a quarter or more of your opponent’s troops, which is something not
even the likes of Boromir will do if they get stuck in the wrong place, Transfixed for a couple of turns or blocked by a Heroic Defence.
- Game 2: Domination vs Harry’s Angmar
Total: 35 Models, 6 Might
THE GAME:
My Oath: Slay the Wizard (Kill The Witch King)
In the break between rounds 1 and 2, as I was wandering
around the room, I saw my old friend Harry Moore. We started chatting, then we
realised that we’re both on an Oathless 6-1 win from game 1, so we might play each
other. 10min later we were told exactly that.
The living legend that Harry is (My ETC-winning teammate from 2018 and a Warhammer Doubles Champion from 2011, as well as winner of many other tournaments), he was always going to be one of the toughest opponents I would face at Ardacon.
Harry’s list had only 2 warbands, led by 2 huge heroes and a
horde of mediocre orcs. The list relied heavily on the insane killing power of
Gulavhar backed by Witch King’s magic and 3 attacks. Gulavhar, with his
Mostrous Charge is capable of throwing 10 strikes at Strength 8
against the unlucky enemies that happen to lose combat to him, meaning he kills
almost everything on 3+, with some things on 4+ (unless you’re Sauron, Balrog
or a Dwarf legend, then he’ll need a 5+, so with 10 strikes he can regularly take out
the likes of Durin in a single turn).
For the deployment I figured there were going to be 2 options – keep all of my heroes together and hope one of them doesn’t get transfixed on the turn I lose priority and then eaten by Gulavhar before a quick retreat, or spread my heroes across the lines, hoping that Harry will throw Gulavhar behind my lines early on to try to eat one of them and then I can maybe rescue that hero with the other two. Having not played for a very long time and knowing that Harry played a tournament just before Ardacon, I opted for a higher risk/reward option 2, as I didn’t think with my rusty skills, I can win with a more conservative strategy - we'd play a war of attrition, my Will points would run out and eventually Gulavhar and Witch King would eat my heroes anyway - this had to be quick and risky instead!
On turn 2 Gully hopped over my lines and started forcing his way through into Suladan, whilst my leader got Transfixed and Witch King was taking out some of my front rank warriors to also dig a hole in the middle of my force in attempt to get through. At that point I Heroic Combatted Gothmog and Shelob from the right flank back into a position nearby that would allow me to charge the unsuspecting and exposed Witch King a turn later.
A moment later came the craziest turn of the whole tournament for me.
Harry won the roll-off with Witch King and spent quite some time figuring out what to do. He then cast Transfix on Suladan on a 6 and my 1 dice and 1 Might weren’t sufficient to resist. He sent Gulavhar at Shelob and positioned an Orc in a way that my Gothmog wouldn’t be able to get into the same fight whilst mounted and Orc would force a charge for Gothmog due to a control zone. When my turn to move came, I decided to dismount Gothmog and get into fight with both Gulavhar and the Orc (Terror passed), then charged the Orc with another one of my warriors. With Priority on my side that meant Gothmog and Shelob were fighting Gulavhar, whilst the orc got pulled off by one of my Morannons.
Nothing else in this game is
relevant other than what happened next…
In combat, initially nobody called any Heroics. I then made a pretty big mistake. I was so worried about Gulavhar beating me in combat (Fight 7 on both sides, so with 5 dice for him and 4 for me, a pretty much 50/50 who wins) and killing Gothmog, that I called a Heroic Strike for my last Might point. This meant Harry was now able to call a Heroic Strike with Witch King to put himself above Fight 5 in the combat with Transfixed Suladan, without granting me a free Strike with Gothmog. It wasn’t the end of the world, as now I had good odds of beating Gulavhar in combat and hopefully wounding him 2 or 3 times with Shelob and Gothmog (only Defence 5). I accepted the fact that Suladan would probably perish, but I was hopeful that Gulavhar will lose a couple of wounds and stop being a major threat. With that threat diminished, I'd be able to use my Gothmog and Shelob next turn to finish him off and go after Witch King with my warriors.
Instead, Gulavhar won his combat against my Fight 10 Gothmog and Shelob and he knocked both Gothmog
and Shelob down. He had 10 strikes, 8 of which killed Gothmog and the remaining
2 caused a wound on Shelob. She had previously spent 3 Will trying to pass a Courage test from one of Harry's Spectres (these guys are great!) and instead of rolling well, she did what this blog is named after… She Came,
She Saw and She Rolled a Double 1 (with C4, -1 for Harbinger and 3 Will, I was
effectively at 4+ on 2 dice to survive, meaning I was passing the test 11 times out of 12…
or 50/50 if you like, as she either runs or she doesn’t).
With Gothmog and Shelob gone and Suladan about to die to Witch King, I pretty much gave up at that point. To my surprise, despite losing the fight against Witch King, Suladan survived the fight, but with just 1 Might left and staring down a 4-wound Gulavhar, I had no way of coming back in this game. My leader perished the next turn and my army very swiftly disintegrated.
Score: 2-10 (I held 1 objective, but Harry got the others, killed my leader and broke me).
Oath: Failed – Witch King survived.
- Game 3: Command the Battlefield vs Dan's Return of the King Legendary Legion
Dan's Army List:
Aragorn, Strider with Anduril, Flame of the West
3 Warriors of the Dead with Shield
4 Warriors of the Dead with Shield & Spear
The King of the Dead
2 Warriors of the Dead with Shield
3 Warriors of the Dead with Shield & Spear
Legolas Greenleaf with Elven Cloak
2 Riders of the Dead
Numbers in this scenario are quite important, as unlike Hold
Ground, where you can get into a relatively small area of the centre with your
whole army and fight it out, here you need to split your army into every corner
and stay away from the centre. Dan had only 17 models, giving me a good
advantage from the start.
My advantage began to cripple very quickly though, after my Shelob ended up
rolling a 1 for deployment on turn 1 and then coming onto the board in a “safe
space” only to be jumped by King of the Dead's Heroic Move and killed before she managed to
make her 2nd move.
Shelob’s death however meant that half of Dan’s army was deployed on the opposite side of the board from Aragorn's warband, allowing me to quickly overwhelm his leader’s troops with my entire army and when he was left on his own, Gothmog and some orcs went in, won a Heroic Strike-off and swiftly took him out.
Dan’s army broke very quickly and I started spreading into different corners, using my now very large numerical advantage. Legolas managed to kill a few models before being swamped and dying in combat with some Haradrim. At that point the game became a hunt to take out a handful of the Army of the Dead, whilst trying to secure each corner for max VPs.
Score: 12-0 (or 11-1, I don’t remember exactly if
there was a quarter of the board where I didn’t fully control).
Oath: Succeeded! I think this is a good Oath to have
in this scenario, because people tend not to go to the middle very much, so it
becomes an easy one to get.
Nick's Army List:
Warband 1:
Arvedui, Last King of Arnor
6 Warriors of Arnor
1 Warrior of Arnor with a Banner
3 Rangers of Arnor with Spears
Warband 2:
Captain of Arnor
7 Warriors of Arnor
3 Rangers of Arnor with Spears
Warband 3:
Malbeth, the Seer
6 Warriors of Arnor
1 Ranger of Arnor
2 Rangers of Arnor with Spears
Warband 4:
Captain of Arnor
6 Warriors of Arnor
3 Rangers of Arnor with Spears
Total: 42 Models, 8 Might, 12 Bows.
My Oath: Sending The Message (Kill the most expensive enemy
hero – Arvedui)
When I saw Nick’s army, my hopes of ending day 1 on 3 wins vanished. 42 models, with Fight 4 and 5 across the line, a fearless bubble and 5+ saves from Malbeth is a terrifying sight. I never played this scenario before but having seen how Pascal and Matt played it in a Duel on the German episode of the podcast...
.... plus our discussion of it on another episode...
The 2 armies deployed opposite each other. We started walking and doing a bit of shooting. The terrain positioning meant that I was able to do a little more shooting than Nick and my 9 Haradrim did more damage than his 12 Rangers. Soon Nick gave up on shooting and began moving towards me at full speed.
Early on I decided to send Shelob on a little adventure down the left flank, which proved key to winning this game. Nick left 3 Rangers defending a forest-based supply on his right flank, plus a Captain and 1 warrior were sent on the same flank to try and block Shelob from running up. That meant that with the 3 models I killed through shooting, the 5 staying on my left flank and some rangers wandering in the middle of the board, I was able to outnumber him once the main combat began and Gothmog with Suladan throwing Heroic Combats were always going to cut down more enemies than Arvedui with a Captain. My two heroes went on a rampage, with 2 turns of Double Heroics, taking out about 10 models between them, quickly switching between, left, right and centre, wherever additional killing power was needed.
On my right flank initially I was having to fight Nick’s
captain and 8 Arnorians with my 11 warriors, but once Suladan joined, the
Arnorians got quickly overpowered thanks to his fighting prowess and the banner re-rolls.
Shelob, on her jolly run initially charged a Ranger thinking she'll take some models out too, but obviously lost combat and I quickly decided to scrap the idea of fighting with her, instead I went around the Rangers and freely ate the central supply, before visiting the right flank supply. The 3 Rangers were desperately trying to wound her, but to no avail. At 2
supplies down, Nick went for one final push on my left flank with the Captain joining the fight, but he didn’t
have enough killing power to break through before Suladan and Gothmog were able to return to defend. The game ended before Nick managed to reach any of my supplies.
Score: 8-1 – 4 for destroying 2 supplies, 2 for breaking, 1 for a banner on each side, 1 for wounding Arvedui.
Oath: Failed – Arvedui was out of reach for Gothmog
and Morannons didn’t have enough time to kill him. He got woudned, but survived.
- Game 5: Reconnoitre vs Nathan’s Minas Tirith
Nathan's Army List:
Warband 1:
Boromir, Captain of the White Tower with the Banner of Minas Tirith, Horse & Shield
4 Warriors of MT with Shields
1 Knight of MT with Shield
3 Rangers of Gondor with Spears
1 Guard of the Fountain Court with Shield
Warband 2:
Húrin, the Tall, Warden of the Keys
4 Warriors of MT with Shields
1 Knight of MT with Shield
3 Rangers of Gondor with Spears
1 Warrior of MT with Shield & Spear
Warband 3:
Madril, Captain of Ithilien
3 Warriors of MT with Shield
1 Knight of MT with Shield
3 Rangers of Gondor with Spears
1 Warrior of MT with Shield & Spear
Total: 29 Models, 12 Might, 10 Bows
My Oath: Worthy Leader (Suladan must not take any wounds or
lose fate)
At 29 models, Nathan’s army wasn’t huge, but it had one of
the biggest threats you can encounter at any points level. The game started with all 3 of my warbands not showing up on turn 1 and his entire army entering in the centre. My Haradrim came onto the table on Turn 2, but Shelob and Gothmog only arrived on turn 3. Suladan's warband moved at full speed at first, then at half speed to get a few shots off. We moved a bit, we
shot a little and both suffered a couple of casualties before engaging.
As the lines were coming closer to each other, I decided to do some killing (aka. Can-Opener Method) with Gothmog before lines joined. I lost priority and sent Gothmog in on his own against 2 Warriors of Minas Tirith (Fight 3) supported by Rangers (Fight 4). With his Hatred of Men, he normally takes them out on 4+, so it was a great opportunity to take out 4 Warriors (with a Heroic Combat) from the front rank before the main fighting started and my troops would then engage D4 rangers. With Gothmog's Heroic Defence and Master of Battle I was confident he was going to be safe up there, as the rest of the army was tight behind him.
What followed was a very frustrating couple of turns, where despite fighting multiple 3 or 4 vs 1s, I ended up either losing to the higher Fight or losing every single roll-off against Fight 4 with my Serpent Guard. That hurt and my army started crumbling, but luckily for me Nathan broke first since he had less models to begin with. Following his early failures, Gothmog redeemed himself and turned out to be a bit of a superstar in this game as he managed to frustrate Boromir with a Heroic Defence and winning multiple free Heroic Moves to drain the big man's Might out and stop him from causing major damage.
Nathan sent a couple of Knights of MT down my left flank to try to run them off the board for VPs, but luckily for me he kept Hurin with the main chunk of the fighting instead of sending him off too. This I thought was a mistake, because I only sent Shelob away and once his army broke, one of the Knights failed a Courage test being just 12" from my board edge. Had Hurin gone towards the edge, he would have probably walked off with 3 models with ease.
In the meantime, Shelob, who killed 1 Knight all game,
decided to run off the board to secure me least 1 model off. With 6 Will and C4 it was a safe bet she'll make it to the edge even after I break, although sending a 90-point model off the board didn't feel great.
Once Nathan broke, I also managed to outnumber him well enough in the centre and I set myself up in a way to maximize my chances of bringing him to 25% as soon as possible, so that the game would end before his Knights escape the board.
Score: 4-2 (I got 1 model off and broke him, he broke me on the last turn and wounded Suladan).
Oath: Failed - In the final turn Boromir caused
2 wounds on Suladan, so I failed this in the last dice rolls of the game. I had to do it, otherwise I risked not reducing him to 25%, seeing the Knight pass courage, run off and lose the game
- Game 6: Fog of War vs David’s Dunland LL
David's Army List:
Warband 1:
Thrydan Wolfsbane on a Horse
1 Crebain
4 Dunland Warriors with Shields
4 Dunland Huscarls
1 Wildman of Dunland
3 Dunland Warriors with Bows
Warband 2:
Gorulf Ironskin
1 Crebain
1 Dunland Cavalry
4 Dunland Warriors with Shields
5 Dunland Huscarls
1 Dunland Warrior with a Banner
Warband 3:
Dunland Chieftain with a Shield
1 Dunland Cavalry
4 Dunland Warriors with Shields
4 Dunland Huscarls
2 Dunland Warriors with Bows
Total: 39 Models, 8 Might, 5 Bows
My Oath: Master of Woodland
Last time David and I played each other was in the final
game of Ardacon 2018 on table 3. That time his win allowed him to finish 3rd
at the tournament and put me down to 17th. It was time for revenge!
Fog of War can be tricky and if you’re unsure of what your
opponent’s army is capable of, it can be even trickier. I decided to select his Chieftain as my assassination target for the game (Gorulf has a free Heroic
Defence vs Heroes) and to protect Gothmog as my other objective (I assumed he
would pick to kill Shelob, especially knowing what Thrydan is capable of. Coupled with the fact that killing/wounding leaders is irrelevant in this scenario, Thrydan had a free reign).
My terrain piece objective was to take over the building on David’s side of the board.
We setup on the opposite ends. I started by moving 3” and
shooting to ensure I maximise the bowfire advantage, whilst David walked towards me at
full speed. On the pre-combat turn (the turn where we both cannot charge each
other with our infantry, but the next turn we will) he decided to throw Thrydan into my lines
close to Gothmog to break a hole in order to hopefully later squeeze himself into Shelob. He succeeded in killing 2
Morannon Orcs, then next turn won a Heroic move roll-off and charged in with Thrydan and Gorulf against some Morannons, whilst I was unable to get Gothmog and Suladan into his heroes due to all the bases and terrain in the way.
Shelob got a bit of a scare and went away from my left flank towards my right flank, leaving Gothmog to deal with it, whilst Suladan got stuck in the centre.
Since my Orcs were fighting Thrydan and Gorulf, I decided to use Gothmog’s special rule “The time of the Orc has come”. I was either going to win combats against those characters and really punish them, or I was going to lose combats and lose most of my Morannons anyway. It was probably the best time to use the rule. I got lucky and dehorsed Thrydan and scored a wound on him!
On the right flank, despite David having the “Time of the
Wolf” special rule active, I was able to outfight his force with my Fight 4
Haradrim supported by Suladan’s banner and Suladan himself took out 4 models
with a Heroic Combat.
My right flank began to quickly tear down the Dunlendings, whilst my left was holding against David's heroes. Gothmog ended up
dismounting and getting stuck into some wildmen, then calling Heroic Combats
and forcing a Heroic Strike from Gorulf that ended up getting wasted, since Gothmog chose not to charge him.
Just before David’s army broke, he charged Shelob with his 1
Crebain, won combat and obviously caused a wound. Nobody in their right mind
would charge Shelob like that if that wasn’t their Fog of War objective, so
fair enough, at least now I was double-sure what he was going for!
Once the Dunland Legion broke, Gothmog managed to win a free Heroic Move-off and allowed me to surround David's remaining warriors, as well as stopped some warriors rushing towards the forest on my left flank (probably the forest David was trying to take for his objective). 1 turn after breaking, David’s army almost entirely disappeared, leaving just 2 models alive. It didn't help that Gorulf failed his Break test when standing in a very central position. At that point, we contested the building on his half, which he managed to defend, but I scored 3 points for killing the Chieftain (Suladan cut him down a turn before he broke), 3 for having Gothmog alive and 3 for breaking my opponent.
Score: 9-1 (Shelob took a wound).
Oath: Failed - I forgot I had an Oath to do,
then when I realised in the final turn what it was, I was only able to put 2
models in a wood, despite not even being broken… Lack of practice - I kept my eyes on the main objectives, but forgot about the side one.
FINAL SCORE:
(Note: With a normal Matched Play system this would have
been 5 Major Wins and 1 Major Loss)
Overall 8th position out of 77 is not bad
considering this was the first time I was playing any games since 2019 (not
counting the 2 warm-up games with PMG on the Friday), so I’m quite pleased! I
had a goal of winning 3 over the weekend, so I can’t complain.
The difference between 2nd and 8th was an Oath
difference – The Oaths awarded 1 TP for completion, so for example Tommaso, who
finished 2nd had scored 24 points from games (4 wins and 2 draws)
and 5 from Oaths for a 29 total, whilst I scored 25 points from games (5 wins
and a loss) and 1 from Oaths for a total of 26. Harry, my round 2 opponent, who was the only player
I lost to scored 25 points from games (5 wins and a loss) and 4 from Oaths for
a total of 29, dropping out of the podium by VPs, as 2nd, 3rd
and 4th were joint in TPs when combining Oaths.
The Oath system was quite annoying for me. Essentially there were 3 additional Oaths I was able to do, but I got unlucky or made a small misplay – Gothmog needed to kill 2 extra hobbits (failed through bad luck of both losing a fight against 2 of them AND the game ending on the very first turn it could end on), Suladan perhaps shouldn’t have been exposed in game 5 (but I think he had to be for me to win the game) and next time I’ll have to remind myself to move models into woods a turn earlier when clearly I’m in a position where I can do it (oh well...).
Tournament Overall Thoughts:
First of all, congratulations to Jay Clare for winning and to Tommaso Zerbi for making it into the final. I couldn't have picked two nicer players to play in the final game and I'm sure they had a lot of fun battling it out in the end.
In general, the event was amazing. Everything ran on schedule, all games were smooth, atmosphere was pretty relaxed, I had no problems with any of my opponents and enjoyed the games, and I hope they all thought the same.
Terrain is something that people have always complained about in the past playing at Ardacon. This year was better, there were more pieces, but I think even one more extra piece of terrain on every board would be a welcome addition. I know there are people out there who love playing on themed boards like Lake-Town or Goblin Town, but for the sake of clarity and balance I find it great that Ardacon basically uses 4 identical, balanced board setups and repeats them throughout all of the tables. I would like to see perhaps 1 less forest and instead 2 more hills or buildings/ruins on every board. This also means that things like Mumaks are a viable choice to take to this tournament, as you don't run the risk of having them stuck in-between some wooden staircases.
Oaths - giving TPs for completing Oaths in their current form is in my opinion a bad idea. They are too random. Not only are you now at the mercy of getting the right match up in the right scenario, but even if you do everything you can and get your big win, you still might miss out on your full victory because you randomly got drawn an Oath that is almost impossible for you to do due to the circumstances. I always advise doing everything to minimise the impact of luck on the games. The only way I can see that Oaths could be used whilst not making it so luck-based is if at the beginning of every round when the scenario is announced, the TOs also announce the Oath that every player has to use for this round. For example Round 2 we play Fog of War AND everybody's Oath for this game is X. Now everybody has an equal playing field and we're not relying luck to get the right Oath for ourselves. The Oath being a secret is also not that big of a deal, as there are so many of them and it's so unpredictable which ones opponent has already played before, that you can't really play the game trying to play around opponent's Oaths and stop them. If we knew the Oath we both have to do at the start, that would add an extra objective to get and to prevent your opponent from getting. In fact, I'd say declare the Oath for the round and make it that if both players achieve their Oath, then neither gets the points, so players are encouraged to stop their opponent from achieving theirs. To get full score you have to win, get your Oath and stop your opponent's Oath.
I wouldn't mind points increase to 650 or 700 next year. Obviously, that means more games will go to time and with 200+ players present, schedule will probably get delayed, but I find larger points limits to just be more fun as more cool toys get played. I'd make it 699 to ban Smaug without banning Smaug ;)
Army List Afterthoughts:
- Shelob is a funny model. It’s honestly hard to figure out if she was good or bad in this tournament. Her presence in the list arguably won me 2 games, but a couple of mounted models or another mounted hero would have done the same in Recon. I give her most of the credit for winning Supplies, as her presence at the back of the Arnor lines meant some models had to stay behind, allowing me to outnumber the enemy in combat. It’s definitely easier to contain a random Warg Rider than it is a giant monstrous spider in both Supplies and Recon. In all other scenarios, she provided a big threat that didn’t really do anything other than being a big distraction. She lost most of her combats. Her big base was a massive pain to get into any relevant spot where she could Hurl someone. However, she managed to kill a few things through Hurls when they worked, she gave me the full speed through woods, which forced my opponents to basically never go into woods and always be weary of their flanks if they were next to woods and generally made my opponents pretty worried about her potential. I bet she made some players play a lot safer than they normally would with their heroes, which in return allowed my heroes to roam around, so I guess that makes her a good choice? A few times I found myself wishing I dropped 25 points of warriors and took Shagrat instead for a triple-strike-threat and that precious small infantry base.
I think if I was to play Ardacon again next weekend and it
was 600 points, I would change the list for this:
Total: 32 models (break point of 16, quarter of 8), 9 Might,
5 bows.
Overall this would have given me 3 more points of Might, which with Gothmog would have meant 10+ Might for most games. Shagrat would be another big hero with Heroic Strike and one that can easily open holes in enemy lines, whilst also being disposable – he can get into difficult spots and sit there as a big threat to a hero, then if something goes wrong, he’s not the general anyway – same idea as the inclusion of Gothmog at the start.
Lower model count would hopefully be off-set by increased
killing power of Shagrat and decreased potential of enemy heroes, now having to
face 3 Heroic Striking F5 models. Shagrat can start the game already in the
front rank, close to Gothmog’s Master of Battle and Suladan’s Banner.
Long term, this army becomes easily expandable to 700, by
either filling up the 3 warbands – there are 17 slots here that can be added – or, in a more adventurous configuration of Witch King or even Amdur coming in instead of Shagrat
and addition of some Easterlings. Whatever it is, I think I’m going to keep
playing with some version of this army at 500-700 points for a while and
hope to come up with something even better.
Good luck!
