First big-boy games

On Monday Colm, Steve and I had our first practice 700 point games. I used the following list

Boromir, horse, shield, Banner of Minas Tirith

8 FCG, shields4 Warriors, spears, shields2 Knights, shields

Madril7 Rangers, spears3 Warriors, shields

Angbor9 Clansmen6 Axemen

700 Points, 42 Models, 11 Might, 3 Horses, 8 Bows

Game 1: Heirlooms of Ages Past vs Colm

Necromancer

Lingering Shadow

Narzug

4 Hunter orcs with bow on warg

9 Hunter orcs (4 with bow)

10 Gundabad orcs with shields (1 banner and 4 spears)

3 Berserkers (these were technically not allowed in the list but we used them anyway)

Colm got initial priority and rolled for both his Necromancer and Lingering Shadow to come on on the right hand side of the board. He put them either side of the lake so that he could cover several objectives. Narzug came on from Colm’s side of the board. I made liberal use of Madril’s ability to have all of my war bands come on from my side. My plan was to try  and smash the Necromancer’s war and quickly with Boromir and co while the others went to look for the Heirloom. 

My side of the board is on the right of this picture so when I describe places on the board it is from that perspective 

With that in mind Boromir went straight towards the Necromancer who quickly organised a fighting retreat. Angbor and Madril’s went towards the centre objective and the one on the roof respectively. I didn’t find the Heirloom in the bottom right but unfortunately the Lingering Shadow found it very soon after in the top right. I knew that I had to get it to win so I started advancing up the board as quickly as I could while Madril’s established a fire base on the roof. 

Madril heads to the roof, he hasn’t yet noticed that 2 of his Rangers look suspiciously like Uruk Hai

Hunting down some Orcs

Bird’s eye view 

The lines clashed and Angbor and his men made short work of the hunter orcs on the right but the Gundabad orcs proved tougher as my S3 men struggled to wound them. I was grinding them down but very slowly. So far the Necromancer has struggled to cast anything notable or I had resisted whatever he threw at me. It was becoming apparent though that the only way I would catch the Lingering Shadow was with someone mounted and both my Knights were already dead. Boromir’s horse become public enemy number 1 and the Necromancer threw a load of Will into killing it. The game was pretty much over at that point as I had virtually no way to catch the Lingering Shadow with his essentially 9” move. I gave it a go with Boromir, Angbor and some others trying to pincer him but it was not to be as Colm’s forces were soon quartered mostly thanks to failing break tests (I was shielding a lot to prolong the game). 

These Hunter orcs never really had a chance

The grind begins 

The Wargs try to help but have their heads chopped off

Boromir starts heading around the top building

Angbor comes to try and help the pincer

This was as far as Boromir got before the game ended. He did win 1 round of combat against the Necromancer but never stood a chance of actually wounding him.

It was a fun game overall but it felt a bit skewed by the Heirloom being found by the Lingering Shadow so early as then I never really had a chance to catch him so I could never really win. That being said, there was no way Colm was ever going to beat me in a straight fight so it was good that he had a way of winning! I was fairly happy with the list here although my lack of cavalry did hurt me. 

Game 2: Contest if Champions vs Steve

Lurtz

8 Warriors with shields 

6 Warriors with pikes

1 Warrior with banner

Mauhur

4 Marauders with shields

1 Marauder

Isenguard Troll

Vrasku

3 Warriors with crossbows

2 Warg Riders with throwing spears and shields

2 Warg Riders with shields

2 Warg Riders with bows

3 Berserkers

With the scenario being Contest of Champions this was never really going to be anything but a big brawl in the centre of the map. With me being a lot of D7 and Steve having a lot of D6 it was going to  be a grind and boy was it! The left hand side of the line just ground each other down over the course of the game but eventually my superior Fight value took its toll. 

Boromir got held up by some sacrificial Uruks for a few turns but eventually found Lurtz and took his revenge for the movies! After Lurtz died a sneaky crossbow bolt did manage to unhorse Boromir but he continued to smash up Uruks despite being on foot. 

The right hand side was a bit more interesting as it was my Fiefdoms guys vs the Marauders, Wargs, Berserkers and Troll. This initially seemed to go my way as I killed all the Berserkers and even drove back the Troll but then I didn’t win a fight for about 3 turns in a row and the low defence of the Clansmen really hurt. My right flank crumbled but luckily I had managed to kill enough that the only things coming over to help were Mauhur and a 1 wound Troll. Boromir dispatched the Troll with no problems and the game ended before I could see if my last encounter with Mauhur would repeat itself!

Another fun game but the scenario meant there was very little subtlety to this game. I’m not a big fan of this scenario as it always seems to just be throwing dice at each other but nonetheless it was a fun game. 

This has already been a very long read but some quick thoughts on the list. I feel I have been misusing Madril, the Rangers and the Knights in every game I’ve played so far. I need to get better with these as I can see their value but I’m definitely not getting the most out of them. The Fiefdoms warband performed great in the first game but not very well in the second. When they have a higher Fight value they are great but when it is equal or lower they die in droves. Also the synergy I talked about in my previous post about the list is much harder to pull off than I imagined. Even though Boromir’s flag has a huge range it’s still hard to encompass everything when you have a large battle line. Maybe I need to stop using the warbands as separate entities and try to mix them together. Finally Angbor provides some excellent benefits for his 65 points (fearless and a banner) but he is not a brilliant combat beatstick like Boromir and he actually dies surprisingly quickly. I think more testing is needed but I am leaning towards wanting another mounted hero. Maybe I will take another look at Madril and his Rangers since I am struggling to use him well anyway. 

Thanks for reading!