Battle Report 2

A rematch against Steve's Rohan again! I kept my list the same as I was pretty happy with how it went last time. In case you have forgotten since then it was:

Boromir with Shield, Horse, Banner: 215
8 Fountain Court Guard with Shields: 88
4 Warriors with Spears and Shields: 36
2 Knights with Shields: 28

Madril: 55
5 Rangers with Spears: 45
3 Warriors with Shields: 24
1 Warrior with Spear and Shield: 9

Total 500, 25 Models, 9 Might, 5 Bows, 3 Horses

Steve had changed up his list as he wanted to try out a couple of new things so it was something like:

Theoden with Armoured Horse, Heavy Armour, Shield: 100
6 Royal Guard with Throwing Spears: 102
5 Riders of Rohan, with 2 Throwing Spears: 74

Dernhelm with Throwing Spears: 80
1 Royal Guard: 15
5 Riders of Rohan: 70

Kings Huntsman: 50
Rohan Outrider: 8

This is only 499 points so I may have gotten the exact loadouts wrong somewhere.

The horses without riders and also Royal Guards.

We rolled Seize the Prize and played on a board with set up like a village with lots of houses. I deployed Boromir in the centre and Madril to my right while Steve deployed Dernhelm in the centre, Theoden to my left and the Huntsman to my right.

I pretty much immediately regretted my deployment as I realised on turn one that I couldn't Heroic March with Madril and get to the objective faster. Doh!

The first few turns the two central warbands ran forward while Theoden began a really long flanking manoeuvre which unfortunately ended up keeping him out of the game for a while. Madril and the Rangers began a slow shooting match with the Huntsman and the Outrider while slowly advancing.

That fence in front of my big warband proved really annoying as I had thought I could just move over it for a cost of 2 inches of movement (1 inch up and 1 down) but we discovered that actually it would involve a climb test. Not wanting to be trapped I just advanced up to it. Merry dismounted and tried to dig up the prize but failed while a courageous Rider of Rohan plugged the small gap between the fence and the large house.

Meanwhile in the shooting war the Huntsman managed to kill a Knight but lost his Outrider in return.

After discovering the needed climb test I ran as many of my FCG as I could through the gap while those at the far end clambered over. Unfortunately for 2 of Gondor's finest they rolled 1s and couldn't get over the fence. Much hilarity was had by Steve. Luckily though one of my plucky Warriors did manage to dig up the prize!

On the right my Warriors ran forward to try to deal with the Huntsman before he could murder anyone else and my remaining Knight went with them to stop him getting away. Everyone in the centre started forming a corridor for my Warrior with the prize the closest FCG took the fight to the riders though as they were in range. Steve did win a couple of priorities around this time but didn't want to charge my wall unless it was on mass and he never really had more than a couple of Riders in range.

The prize is underneath the Warrior in the centre. On the right the Huntsman cowers behind a building while the Knight and Warriors hunt him down. You can also see that Theoden is finally reappearing from around the big building.

The Rangers decided to sacrifice themselves to hold off Theoden and his group by defending the dreaded fence that the FCG couldn't get over. Meanwhile in the centre I continued with the same tactics of screening the Warrior with the Prize but I did get a bit more aggressive with charging the Riders, especially as Boromir was now also helping to cut through them, eventually reaching Dernhelm herself and cutting her down in 2 rounds of combat. The Huntmans managed to shoot the other Knight before he could receive a Lance to the face but in doing so he was charged by the 4 Warriors who swamped him and murdered him pretty quickly.

This picture was taken from Steve's side of the board so my guys are running towards the camera.

The Rangers managed to hold up Theoden and co long enough that they never had chance to get into the fight. Meanwhile, Madril was also now in the centre and calling Heroic Marches all over the place so Steve never really had a chance to catch up and my brave Warrior ran the prize off Steve board edge. However we can't forget the Battle of the Ages where Merry held off a FCG for 2 turns before getting a spear stuck into an unpleasant place.

I think this game was not really a good indicator of how good my list is as I was mostly playing against half an army for the entire game. Steve admitted that his epic flanking manoeuvre with Theoden took much longer than expected and my list moved forward pretty fast once Madril got involved with his Marches. However I was again impressed by the F5 D7 Fountain Court Guards as you can really throw them into combats and not have to worry about them too much. for only 2 points more than a shield and spear wielding Warrior they are a bargain!

I'm still really happy with the list, Boromir continues to be a monster and having 6 Might means you can throw it around when needed to keep the Heroic Combat train going. I do want to try the variant where I swap Madril's 4 Warriors for 2 more Rangers and another Knight but with the tournament being 2 weeks away I'm not sure I will have time. Hopefully I can get one more game in before then. Thanks for reading!