The Scouring of Che-Shire 3: Sean's First Tournament! (A Noob's Perspective!)

Hello!

My name is Sean Milligan and I'm one of the newer members of the Drawn Combat Team. As you have been reading this week, many of the Drawn Combat team attend the excellent The Scouring of Che-Shire event hosted by Ste Crowe in Stockport. This was my first SBG event and I have to admit I was quite nervous, almost paranoid that I missed some Facebook update on the event page, or forgot to pack my army. But the rest of my guys had my back and I had everything I needed! My Riders of Theoden Legendary Legion consisted of:

Theoden with heavy armour, armoured horse and shield

4 Royal Guard with Throwing Spears and horse
2 Royal Guard with horse

Eomer with armoured horse and shield

4 Riders of Rohan
1 Rider of Rohan with Banner
1 Rider of Rohan with Throwing Spear

Gamling with horse and Royal Banner
2 Riders of Rohan

Deorwine with horse

3 Riders of Rohan

Total Models: 21
Total Might: 12

I'm a big Dark Ages fan and new to the game so Rohan was a good choice! Plus we all love the speech at the battle of Pelennor fields!

Game 1 -  Assassination Vs Riders of Theoden LL

Very similar army list except his had more heroes with Elfhelm and Dernhelm replacing Eomer and I had the higher number of Royal Guard. 

As the game was an almost mirror match I at least knew what my opponent's list does! We also played on one of Ste’s excellent boards, which we found ironic given it was the terrain heavy village of Bree and we were both cavalry Armies.

It was very even for most of the game. We worked out who each other's targets and assassins were quickly. His Dernhelm hid behind his Theoden and Gamling outside the city, miles away from his Eomer, while my Eomer protects my Deorwine from his Elfhelm and his Deorwine in the village. Sadly the Theoden and Gamling mirror duel outside the village went badly for me, and I lost both of them in the same turn followed by the rest of my right flank being killed. My army was broken and the game ended on the first roll!
0-5 Loss.

Game 2 - Seize the Prize Vs Minas Tirith, Fellowship, Misty Mountains

Denethor, Fellowship Boromir, Gwahir and another Hero I can’t quite remember.
Who puts the key word Infantry on a giant eagle? I had assumed I would have the speed advantage given he had limited cavalry and I won the first turn of priority, but he heroic marched his eagle onto the objective. Given the terrain was tight I acknowledged the fact he could fly the Eagle off my board edge and managed to keep him tied up in combat for a number of rounds, but was unable to get the number required around to Gwahir to take him down. He broke free and flew to freedom, stopping only to try and let the rest of his army break me, before ending the game. Thankfully, the Rohan heroes use their high mighty values and “Death” ability to kill Boromir and his other hero and was on the way to killing Denethor before he saw the gamble not working and ended the game.

0-9 Loss
I was pretty salty that Gwahir was able to claim the prize, but my opponent (Jonathan Lloyd) was really sound and it ended up being a great game.

Game 3 - Contest of Champions Vs Theodred's Guard

Blue on blue action as I was paired up against Drawn Combat team member Adam Tudor. Last game of the day meant the beers started. He had Theodred, 6 royal guard on horseback and loads of royal guard on foot. Also Grimbold with Warriors, Elfhelm, outriders on foot and all the throwing spears he could muster.

I like Adams' list a lot, so much I'm building it for next year. I wasn't looking forward to the game as he soundly beat me into a pulp the week before during practice, but the scenario let me be able to charge him turn one. I won the roll off (and in fact most of them) and managed to pile into his lines, taking away his throwing spear advantage. Adam made the mistake of trying to get Theodred to kill Theoden, while Theoden picked off 3 warriors to take the lead of 3 kills to 0. With only Theoden, Eomer and Deorwine alive, the game ended with a kill tally of 3-0 to Theoden.

7-2 Win

Game 4 - Hold Ground Vs Return of the King LL
Aragon, King of the Dead, Herald and some Warriors

Fastest game of the Tournament. I lost Gamling 1st round of combat. Tried to bubble up around the objective, hoping the scenario would end with me in the middle. Failed to wound any of his models (I think killed one) and the game ended with Eomer in the middle, being surrounded by ghosts and stabbed to death. I’ll not mention the fact that Theoden feinted and stabbed himself in the foot, which killed him. It just wasn't my game.

0-12 Loss

Game 5 - Breakthrough Vs Mordor
Witch King, Mouth of Sauron, Gorbag, Kardush with a mix of Orcs, 3 wag riders and some black numenoreans.

I set up above the objective line and started peppering his lines with arrows, doing surprisingly well, while in return he spent a lot of Will, black darting heroes from horseback. The time came when he charged in and his still overwhelming numbers on my left, taking 1 objective and I was unable to hold my board side objective, while also failing to take his. Losing Theoden and therefore the +1 to fight caused a lot of roll off in the fights and his ability to reroll to wound due to outnumbering was just too much. I did break him though, thanks to those bows at the start (and he kept eating his own orcs for will points).

2-10 Loss

Game 6
Sadly I couldn't stay for game 6 due to family commitments.

Summary

I ended 1-5, I achieved my lowly goal of winning 1 game (cheers Adam!) which for my first event was really good. Ste runs a tight ship when it comes to timing and keeping us all updated during the day. The boards he has are excellent and really add to the atmosphere of the games you're playing. They’re not just at the top tables, but spread out amongst the ranks so everyone has a chance to play on them.

Will I be using the army again? I don’t think so. It's a fun list, but I feel everyone knows what to do against them and how to handle them. Having loads of heroes is fun and I feel they deal with magic users well by having lots of them, but the low model count really hurts. I enjoy Rohan and I'll be expanding into a couple more of their lists, but I think the new year will bring a new army for me!

Will I be back? Yes! The next event I attend has a lot to live up to, not only from the organisers point of view, but also the welcoming community I met at the event. It was really difficult to pick my best sporting opponent when I left!