An Unexpected Journey Part 1: We're Going on an Adventure!

Depending on if your certain brand of nerdery extends to tiny plastic spaceships, Tom Reed is a name you will either hold in high regard, or not know at all. Tom is one of the UK's very best X Wing players, and would feature on any list of the top 5 players in the country you asked anyone to put together. Recently he has been trying his hand at SBG with the aim of becoming the same level of competitor as he is in X Wing. We thought we would take the opportunity to get him to document his journey to see what we can all learn from it. Hopefully this will become a regular column so we can journey together! 


Its competition, but not as I know it

Welcome all to what will hopefully be the first of many contributions to Drawn Combat who have been kind enough to offer a platform for me to share some words. I cannot promise there will be much wisdom but it will hopefully offer you a new player's view into competitive Middle Earth.

How did we end up here, well it’s a long story many months in the making and laced with large amounts of salt, as X-wing moved into the new world of version 2.5 it was a move that really turned off and lost many of its competitive players. So I was on the hunt for a new game, as an incredibly competitive person there were some specific requirements that I was looking for in choosing this new hobby to dump my time. The first of which was how critical decision making is over luck. I desperately want it to be my fault when I lose but equally when I win. Next up, I wanted there to be a competitive scene to test myself, and finally it would be a nice benefit if the IP was good and something I already enjoyed.

Step up Elysium Games (cheeky plug: www.elysiumwargames.com) based in the small Yorkshire town of Pontefract right opposite the HQ of Haribo if you need another excuse, and its growing Middle Earth community there, they welcomed me in with open arms and have proven to be a fantastic new little gaming family to be apart of.

 

I am now two events in and the main reason for this article was to share the really early days of competitive Middle Earth. Event one was a 550 point day down in the midlands at Board In Brum, another fantastic venue if you’re able to make it there, and a bit of a baptism of fire. Round one vs Rowan May, if Carlsberg did round 1 opponents I think Rowan would be it. Obviously incredibly good at the game but also very willing to teach a new guy the ropes. Lesson one: Spend your Resources. Might, and how it is used is obviously a nuance to competitive Middle Earth and a skill to learn, however, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that finishing a game with 3 or 4 of it left on your main hero is a waste, one for the notebook. Lesson two. Again you’d think it goes without saying but spelling it out, read the mission, how you gain these much coveted points and the end condition, this will generally be a 33% chance once a force is broken or a 100% once a force reaches 25%, make sure you know which and play towards it.

 

The following week saw my first Great British Hobbit League 80 event at the aforementioned Elysium Games, a 2 day 5 round event at the big boy points limit of 800. Lesson three, comes from game one of the weekend, work out your win condition, play to it, and accept the pain. That weekend I used a 800 point Gundabad force with zero bows (more on that in a future article if the wonderful lads running this blog will have me back) using both Azog and Bolg. I was faced by Corsairs and a wall of Crossbow, so I hid and hid and well you get it. Losing models slowly without making much progress forward meant my strength and 50% of my points in Azog and Bolg did not get to do much. As I discussed with my opponent Aaron, who got 3rd overall, it would have been considerably better to call that Heroic march early and get some Orcs in their face sooner rather than later. The final lesson for today was highlighted in the first round of day 2. Pre-measuring; information is king and having it and understanding it is key. In this example vs Isengard scouts I moved my Orcs up the 6 inches to get me closer to charging next turn. What that actually meant was my opponent could wrap around my line and get the flank and traps he wanted, if I'd just pre-measured those distances and stayed the 7 inches away we could have fought on much more equal footing.

 


So far the step into the competitive world of the Middle Earth Strategy Game has been phenomenal, and has me without a doubt hooked. The community has been excellent and very welcoming and the game itself has proven to be deep and challenging. I appreciate I am preaching to the choir here but I couldn’t let this opportunity pass without pointing it out. It would be great to hear from people who’re taking the first steps themselves, or if talking about Middle Earth strategy and lists is something you enjoy, throw me a line and help shape future articles. Tune in again soon as I discuss the lists I used, the choices that led me there and what I learnt about them.