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.

Grudge Match 2: This time it's Grudgier (A Team tournament preview)

 This Saturday (26th Feb) sees the return of the Grudge Match between your erstwhile heroes at Drawn Combat vs the nefarious villains of Rebel Base Gaming. The format will be a 4 round 500 point tournament, but with a twist in that the last round you will be randomly assigned one of the 16 armies that have been brought to the event! We have drawn the first round so lets have a little preview. It's worth mentioning that RBG won the first Grudge Match (definitely cheated, it's the only explanation) so we here at DC are fighting for pride this time!

(To address the Mumak in the room, I know we did one of these previews for the first Grudge Match and never followed up but that's because sadly several of team DC were struck with COVID and/or childcare issues right before the event and so it went ahead with reduced numbers. It was a bit of a bummer for those who couldn't go so we didn't try to hard to follow up. Hopefully this time will be different!)

Scenario 1: Clash By Moonlight

Game 1: Rivendell (RBG) v Army of Thror/Iron Hills (DC)

Erestor (General)

1 High elf; bow, spear
3 High elf, shield, spear
1 High elf; banner, shield, spear
1 High elf, shield
6 Rivendell Knight, shield

High Elf Captain; Horse, Lance, Shield
7 High elf; spear, shield
2 High elf, shield

VS

Thror
8 guardians of the King

Dain on pig
2 goat riders
7 Iron Hills dwarves with spears


Elves vs Dwarves in our first matchup. The Elves' shooting is severely hampered by the scenario but will become more deadly up close. That being said the Dwarves' throwing axes are going to be extremely lethal. This game could well be decided in the shoot phase!






Game 2: Shire/Lothlorien (RBG) v Corsairs (DC)


Meriadoc, Captain of the Shire Pony, Shield
13x Hobbit Militia: Axe, Battlin' Brandybucks

Farmer Maggot 

Grip, Fang and Wolf
8x Hobbit Archer

Haldir, Elf Bow, Heavy Armour
4x Galadhrim Knight, Shield
5x Wood Elf Warrior, Bow, Wood Elf Spear
5x Wood Elf Warrior: Wood Elf Spear
Wood Elf Warrior: Banner, Wood Elf Spear


VS

Dalamyr
8 Corsairs: Shields
8 Corsairs: Spears

Delgamar
6 Corsairs: Shields
6 Corsairs: Spears
3 Corsairs: Bows

Bo’sun
5 Corsairs


This is going to be another deadly shooting battle but, thanks to the scenario, the Corsairs have been given a slight reprieve from being murdered at a distance. Once the lines clash the pirates will mull through the Hobbits but could come up against an issue in the Elves. 





Game 3: Grand Army of the South (RBG) v Ugluk's Scouts (DC)

Mumak Warleader
5 Mahud Warriors; Blowpipe
6 Haradrim warriors; Bow
1 Haradrim Warrior, Spear
1 Haradrim Warrior

VS

Ugluk
5 Scouts: Shields
6 Scouts: Bows
1 Scout

Mauhur
6 Scouts: Shields
5 Scouts: Bows
1 Scout: Banner, shield

Grishnakh
8 Orcs: Spears
4 Orcs: Shields

The Mumak Warleader! I know I am supposed to be rooting for DC but THE MUMAK WARLEADER! I do think there will be a lot of squished Orcs and Uruks but the Scouts have a lot of Might to fling at heroic moves, and with Animosity the elephant could get in trouble quickly!






Game 4: Minas Tirith (RBG) v Minas Tirith (DC)

(RBG)

Faramir (Heavy Armour, armoured horse, shield, lance, leader)
2 guard of the fountain court (shield)
2 knights of minas tirith (shield)
5 rangers (one spear)
2 warriors of minas tirith (shield)
3 warriors of minas tirith (shield/spear)
1 warrior of minas tirith (shield/banner)

Hurin (horse)
2 guard of the fountain court (shield)
2 knights of minas tirith (shield)
4 rangers
3 warriors of minas tirith (shield)
3 warriors of minas tirith (shield/spear)

VS

(DC)
Boromir: Horse, Shield, Banner
5 Warriors: Shield
3 Fountain Court Guard: Shields
3 Rangers: Spears
2 Knights: Shields

Hurin: Horse
5 Warriors: Shields
3 Rangers: Spears

It's a family feud! Boromir vs Faramir, who will show the most quality? Boromir has the Might and Fight advantage (so does his battle line) but has sacrificed troop numbers to do so. Can he Might his way to victory? A barrel of tomatoes to the winner!





Game 5: Vanquishers (RBG) v Easterlings/Khand (DC)

Saruman the Wise
Galadriel Lady of Light

Gandalf the Grey

VS

Amdur on horse
5 acolytes
4 warriors with pike and shield

Captain on horse
4 acolytes
4 warriors with pike and shield

Khandish chieftain on chariot
3 Khandish horsemen


Yes that's right, dear reader, the scoundrels at RBG brought Vanquishers. Sigh. It's a shame the depths some will stoop to just for a win. The chariots have had issues with Vanquishers in the past but now they have been toned down a notch will they get ground under the wheels? I think this game is going to have a sad loser either way!

Game 6: Harad/Corsairs (RBG) v Depths of Moria (DC)

Dalamyr -Leader
5x Black Numenorean
5x Corsair Spear and Shield
6x Arbalester 

Suladan on Horse
3x Serpent Rider
5x Haradrim with spear
1x Haradrim with bow
8x Haradrim with bow and spear

VS

Balrog
6x Goblins with Shields
6x Goblins with Spears

Goblin Captain with Shield
4x Goblins with Shields
3x Goblins with Spears
3x Goblins with Bows

3 Heroes of Legend on this table, and a scenario that wants you to kill heroes. I think that Goblin Captain is going to be hiding for a lot of this game! Can the RBG squad deal with the Balrog? Time will tell...

Game 7: Mordor (RBG) v Erebor Reclaimed (DC)

Witchking; Crown, Fellbeast, 3/16/3

4 Morannons; Shield
3 Morannons; Shield, Spear

Gorbag; Shield
3 Morannon; Shield
3 Morannonss, Shield, Spear

Kardush

3 Morannons; Shield
3 Morannons; Shield, Spear

VS

Thorin: Goat
8 Iron Hills Dwarves: Shields, Spears
1 Iron Hills Dwarf: Shield, Spear, Banner
1 Goat Rider

Dwalin: Goat
8 Iron Hills Dwarves: Shields, Spears

Big heroes vs inescapable magic. I feel like I've said a thing or two about this before... Once the lines clash the Dwarves should have an advantage but I don't think those two mighty heroes are going to do much except get Transfixed and the Felbeast-ed. No need to worry though, if Thorin just rolls 6s he'll be laughing!





Game 8: Ugluk's Scouts (RBG) v Angmar (DC)


Ugluk 
7 Scouts (shield) 

6 Scouts (bows)
2 Scouts 

Mauhur
6 Scouts (shield) 
6 Scouts (bows) 

Grishnakh 
12 Orcs (spear and shield) 

VS

The Witch-king of Angmar: Crown of Morgul, 2x Extra Fate, 3x Extra Might, 3x Extra Will, Horse
7x Angmar Orc Warrior: Shield
7x Angmar Orc Warrior: Shield, Spear
1x Angmar Orc Warrior: Banner, Shield, Spear

Buhrdûr, Troll Chieftain

Barrow-wight
5x Angmar Orc Warrior: Shield

6x Angmar Orc Warrior: Shield, Spear

Yeah, I know, we brought Angmar. Sorry. No Gulavhar though so not too bad. The sheer number of Scouts is scary but they are definitely outclassed in the hero department. Could be down to the courage checks in this one!

So there we go? A stunning victory for DC? Inevitable really. But the real question is who will get the Mumak in round 4?! We'll let you know who did (and who won I suppose) next week!

February FAQ: Lady of Loneliness and Vanquishers Vanquished?

Oh boy, we've got a new FAQ and its a big shake up for some competitive pieces.

Firstly, the elephant in the room, Vanquishers. Whilst these haven't been quite the meta terror everyone feared, they are certainly not fun to play against. Well with a few quick changes they have been nerfed down to "fun tier" along with the rest of the all hero armies. Now you must include Gandalf (by far the weakest of the pieces) and you can't cast some key spells into combat (Sorcerous Blast, Wrath of Bruinen, Nature's Wrath). This means that there is now a 470 point spend just to write the word "Vanquishers" at the top of your army list which is crazy. Gandalf also adds the least to this list, and takes up one of the slots, of which you were generally only getting 4. So either no more combat prowess from Elrond or no more healing from Raddy. Added to this, you now have to actually fight your enemies fairly (i.e. when they are on their feet) since you can't yeet them out of a combat with spells. So long Vanquishers, you will not be missed.

Sticking with the theme of oppressive wizards, Galadriel Lady of Light is now a Hero of Fortitude. This means she can no longer be allied into yellow alliances, which was virtually everyone except Rivendell, without bringing a White Council buddy along with her. In practical terms, she will now no longer see play, it's as simple as that. The cheapest other member of the WC is 130 points so it'd cost 260 to bring her along. No chance of that happening. Personally I quite like soup lists as they are a bit different, but they will now be missing a key ingredient and will not be as delicious anymore. This could also have a knock on effect on Boromir of Gondor as these were often taken together since LoL covers Boz's weaknesses really well. He's still very cheap for what he does though so maybe I'm wrong. The other effect this may well have is allowing some Evil lists to take the top spots. LoL was particularly effective against Angmar lists, so I think they are going to come out and claim their former glory again. 

Next, Dragon Cult Acolytes may now be taken by Dragon Knights. This one really shouldn’t surprise anyone – we all saw it coming, and a lot of people were already house ruling it. As Acolytes are the mid-point in a Black Dragon’s training to become a Dragon Knight, it only made sense that they’d be eligible in their warband. This really does help them to find a home on the table, though. List building for Easterlings can get tricky, especially at small points values, and Dragon Knights have always been tough to include due to their restrictions – they can only take 6 models, and only models with the ‘black dragon’ upgrade. The trouble is, Black Dragons really wanted to be in with the rest of your pike block – so taking one or two Dragon Knights resulted in an awkward shuffle to try to get your models in place at the start of the game, particularly for scenarios with maelstrom deployment. Thankfully, this change will mean that both Acolytes and Dragon Knights can deploy where they want to be, which is generally on the flanks. This should help Acolytes, which have been tricky to slot into an Easterling list, to find a more natural home. A good change which will presumably just tide us over until the ‘Defense of the North’ supplement arrives.

Lastly, the Lord of Rivendell himself got a slight adjustment in the wording of his 'Foresight' ability. Not the biggest change but makes a little sense when it comes to the ebb and flow of a battle. That being that he actually needs to be present to make a difference and not waiting to arrive on the board. I hadn't personally seen this come in to effect pre-FAQ, with Elrond using his Foresight points in a maelstrom/reinforcements scenario. Again, not the biggest change but pays to have it clarified! 

What did you make of the new changes? Were the nerfs to Galadriel and the Vanquishers too heavy, not enough or even handed? Let us know in the comments!

500 Under 50 - Corsairs of Umbar

500 (Almost) Under 50 – Corsairs of Umbar

Dan Stu: We’re really getting to the tricky end of our 500 under 50 lists now! Safe to say that any of the remaining armies require a bit of creativity, a bit of hobbying, and perhaps bending the rules slightly in order to meet the criteria.

That being said, we’re still trying to come in as close to budget as possible, and while we’ll need a few conversions, these will be as newcomer-friendly as possible.

This time, it’s the Corsairs of Umbar, which I previously covered in my ‘Noob’s Perspective’ article way back in January of last year. They’re a fantastic army that lend themselves to fast-paced, bloody engagements with tons of casualties on both sides. They also have many tricks up their sleeves, from the ludicrous amounts of throwing weapons to the ‘backstabbers’ special rule which, if used correctly, can be absolutely devastating.

For a cheap entry into this army, there are really two ways you can go, and both have their pros and cons. Let’s dive in!

Option 1: Heroes and Elites

Shopping List:
1 box of ‘Corsairs of Umbar’ (£26)
1 box of ‘the Lords of Umbar’ (£20)
2 boxes of ‘Corsair Arbalesters’ (£16.40)
Total: £62.40

Alright, we’re just over budget, but this isn’t our worst offence to date!

If we want to use everything here (which we do), we have too many bows. 30 warriors gives us a bow limit of 10, and we have 14. We’ll need to convert 4 of the Corsair archers into plain old Corsairs with hand weapons (no shields). Fortunately, there are some archers in the box with outstretched bow arms, and these shouldn’t look too strange with a sword in their hand instead of a bow.

Assuming that you have a few swords lying around in your bits box, it will be straightforward – you can either snip off both parts of the bow and replace it with the blade and pommel of a sword. Or, even easier, if you have a spare hand holding a sword, you can just snip the bow hand off your Corsair and replace it with a sword hand.

To-do list:
Snip the bows or bow hands off 4 Corsairs with Bow. Replace these with swords or sword hands to make 4 Corsairs of Umbar with hand weapons only.

If you have any spare shields or spears in your bits box, you can add shields or spears to 2 of these to fill out the points limit.

Army List:

Dalamyr, Fleetmaster of Umbar
8 x Corsair of Umbar with Shield
8 x Corsair of Umbar with Spear

Hasharin
2x Corsair of Umbar
2 x Corsair of Umbar with Bow
3 x Corsair Arbalester

Hasharin
2x Corsair of Umbar
2 x Corsair of Umbar with Bow
3 x Corsair Arbalester

Totals: 498pts, 33 models, 4 Might, 10 bows

Okay, so this is an unusual Corsairs list. It’s relatively lean and elite by Corsair standards. You’ve got your main body of pirates, but also a high proportion of Arbalesters, as well as three high-impact heroes who will really need to pull their weight to make this list work. This is a bit different to normal Corsair lists, who can solve a lot of their problems by throwing bodies at them!

33 models isn’t very low at 500pts, but it is low by Corsair standards – given how easily they drop, a bad round could see you fighting at a numbers defecit, particularly if they have some nasty shooting. This is not a normal thing for Corsairs! You’ll really have to leverage your Arbalesters to make it work. Remember, while you’re strong at range with your crossbows, your regular line troops will take a lot of casualties in the return fire, so you’ll have to deploy carefully and choose targets well.

Dalamyr and the Hasharins are very good at killing things – they all have 3 attacks with Bane of Kings, so wounding will be no problem. However, their offense is locked behind fight 5, and their defense is woeful. Plus, with 4 might across the whole list, you won’t be Striking much, if at all. These guys can be absolute Hero-seeking missiles, but they can’t take a punch. They’ll have to tread the line between hunting Heroes, and helping out your troops by thinning out the enemy herd.

Certainly not a bad list – but perhaps not a natural fit for the Corsairs’ playstyle. Having said that, if you were looking to expand your Corsairs army to 800pts or higher, you’d absolutely be looking to buy all of these kits (Dalamyr is a must for any large Corsair army) so it’s a fantastic starting point.


Strengths:
* Lethal at range
 *High-offense Heroes
* Sets you up well for expanding your Corsairs
* WYSIWYG-compliant

Weaknesses:
* May struggle with numbers
* Fragile, low-might Heroes
* Requires a little conversion work and some spare bits
* Weak to cavalry and bow fire

Option 2: The Pirate Horde

Shopping list:
2 boxes ‘Corsairs of Umbar’… And that’s it!
Total: £52

The elephant in the room – there are no Heroes on your shopping list. This is because we’re going to convert 2 Bosuns and 2 Captains from the normal Corsair models. Converting troops in to captains is a tried-and-true process, and there are a few ways you could do it - rummaging around in your bits box for a fancy helmet, sword, or some other identifying piece of wargear, or go for the old ‘put him on a big rock’ approach!

However, the tricky part of this is that we need to differentiate the Bosuns from the Captains. Here, I think it’s best to go for colour coding – for example, yellow tunics for Bosuns, and red for Captains. Not very elegant but it will get the job done. And the good thing is that bright colours won’t look out of place on your pirates!

Alternatively, you could always buy the 2 boxes containing and Bosun and Captain each. However, this is an eye-watering £30 on top, and neither model is that spectacular - so I’d say you should only do this if you’re intent on ending up with a large WYSIWYG Corsairs army.

To-do list:

Convert 2 Corsairs of Umbar with bow in to Bosuns. Chop off the bows and replace them with swords as we did in the first list, and paint them a bright colour to distinguish them.
Convert 2 Corsairs of Umbar with shields into Captains. Stick them on a big rock and paint them an easy-to-spot colour. As we have so many Corsair models, you could always use a particular pose for Captains (such as the sumo wrestler pose) to make them easier to spot.

Army list:

Corsair Bosun
4 x Corsair of Umbar with Shield
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Spear
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Bow

Corsair Bosun
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Shield
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Spear
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Bow

Corsair Captain with Shield
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Shield
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Spear
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Bow

Corsair Captain with Shield
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Shield
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Spear
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Bow

Totals: 496pts, 41 models, 6 might, 12 bows

I think as a starting point, this is a far better representation of the Corsair Experience™ - which means a ton of bodies, a ton of fight 4, and a ton of throwing weapons. Quantity has a quality of its own!

With so many bodies, you’ll be outnumbering just about any other army, and while fragile, you’ve got a great fighting line of swords backed up by spears, all at fight 4. Backstabbers will be activating frequently, threatening even high defense targets like trolls. Your throwing weapons will do great work against just about anybody except dwarves and ghosts, and you can even threaten enemy Heroes by shooting into combats. If you kill your own guy, don’t worry – there are 41 more where he came from, and now the rest of your troops have an unobstructed shot.

Your heroes aren’t here to do much more than to provide might and to bring their mates along. The list tops out at Fight 4, so you’ll have an uphill struggle against most heroes. However, you’ve got a decent amount of might to call Heroic Moves, which is important to get your weapons thrown and to tie up Heroes with sacrificial Corsairs.

I’d say this is really one to think about if you’re reasonably confident with conversions, and are fairly sure you will be expanding up to 800pts or beyond. You will absolutely want 2 boxes of Corsairs eventually, so this will give you a great head start on that. Having 2 Bosuns and 2 Captains (even converted ones) will give you a lot of list-building flexibility, too, and the Lords of Umbar box is an obvious expansion point to bring in Dalamyr. Plus, if want to replace your Heroes with WYSIWYG models later on, you can just repaint a few robes and turn them back in to regular Corsairs!

Strengths:
* Loads of troops, good for Backstabbers
* Loads of throwing weapons
* 4 warbands is very solid at 500pts
* Great foundation for large Corsair armies
* Solid line of archers

Weaknesses:
* No big Heroes, no high fight values
* One-dimensional, fragile
* Requires a bit of conversion ability

Not WYSIWYG-compliant – conversions will need to be explained to your opponent (unless you want to drop £30 on 4 models :(

So we didn’t keep it under budget (this may be a running trend from now on...) but I think we did OK on this one! Keep your eyes peeled – we’re coming to the end of our 500 under 50 journey, and it’s only going to get sillier from here…

The Scouring of Che-Shire 5: Steve's Struggle of Strength

 Hello all! It's now time for my write-up in a weekend that started well in terms of results, but then slipped dramatically as the days went on. My goal however for the weekend was to at least meet my previous result at a previous Scouring event of going 2-4 so let's see how I got on! 

For the event I used one of my lockdown army projects - Lothlorien. I've always liked the aesthetic of the woodland elves compared to their Rivendell cousins (and have a display board in the pipeline) but I also just wanted to get them on the table for a weekend and work them out a bit more. Without further ado, my list:

Warband 1 - Lothlorien 249pts

Warband Leader - Galadriel - 130pts (Army Leader)

Galadhrim Knight (w/Elf Bow, Shield) - 21

2x Galadhrim Warrior (w/Shield, Spear) - 22

2x Galadhrim Warrior (w/Shield) [20pts]

Guard of the Galadhrim Court [12pts]

4x Wood Elf Warrior (w/Elf Bow, Wood Elf Spear) [44pts]

Warband 2 - Lothlorien 295pts
Warband Leader - Celeborn (w/Heavy Armour, Elven-made Hand-and-a-half Sword, Shield) - 150

Galadhrim Warrior (w/Banner, Spear) - 35

2x Galadhrim Warrior (w/Shield, Spear) - 22

2x Galadhrim Warrior (w/Shield) - 24

4x Wood Elf Warrior (w/Elf Bow, Wood Elf Spear) - 44

Warband 3 - Lothlorien 156pts

Rumil [85pts]

4x Galadhrim Warrior (w/Shield, Spear) - 44

3x Galadhrim Warrior - 27

31 Models, 3 Warbands, 9 Might, 8 Bows

I had two main reasons for building this list the way I did:

1. I've been hit hard by ranged armies lately (specifically the Assault on Helm's Deep Legendary Legion) so wanted to mitigate that somewhat with Galadriel's Blinding Light spell.

2. I really didn't want to buy multiple boxes of both the Galadhrim Warriors and Wood Elves.

I realise the list isn't the most competitive, but it's the most rounded I can make with the models I have available. I was also quite keen to give the Wood Elves a try as a cheaper method to get bows and spears into the list (admittedly at the cost of defence, but the wood elf spear shielding would be fun to use in a pinch!). Celeborn was intended to be the big beatstick of the army, with a backup of Court Guard to tie up any pesky lower Fight value heroes and Rumil rounding the roster out as an annoying wall.

Game 1  - Assassination Vs Sean Clarke's Riders of Eomer

Sean straight off the bat told me he was a newer player, so we decided to play the game slow and just take our time with it and not rush to meet finish before the clock ran out. I won't rattle on about tactics or go into much depth about this game as at the end of the day Sean was a lovely bloke to play against and was a pleasure to get him more acquainted with deeper parts of the game such as trapping and magic (including him getting off some good Sorcerous Blasts with Gandalf!) I did however manage to get Celeborn (my assassin) to take out his Captain (my target) a long with breaking his force not net me a 10-0 win. A good warm up to start the day, including reminding me of some rules a long the way!

Game 2 - Seize the Prize Vs Joe Pettit's Assault on Helm's Deep

The list that had driven me to go with Lothlorien in the first place...It was nice in some way to see that some preparation of mine had gone to good use. I did lack one thing in my force compared to Joe's however which gave him a crucial advantage - I had no heroes with Heroic March. With that he was able to safely Seize the Prize and pass it through his units to safety. The best part about this game though? With Celeborn scrapping through the pike block, he was caught unawares as the demolition team rolled in and took him out with one blast! This isn't quite as bad as it sounds however as the pike block now had a big hole in the middle of it, allowing some of my units to eventually skirt round and take the prize for Lothlorien and net an 8-1 win, although that score does not really reflect just how close the game came.

Game 3 - Contest of Champions Vs Kalman's Erebor Reclaimed/Thranduil's Halls

Galadriel is my leader, 0-12 loss. She did get to slap Dain in the face however.

Accurate depiction of mine and Kalman's reaction when Galadriel slapped Dain with her Nenya-hand.

Game 4 - Hold Ground Vs Ben Smith's Angmar

Day two, a fresh start (well as fresh as you can start on a hangover from the previous nights post-game festivities) and another army with the March advantage over mine. Also Gulhavar. Needless to say I was pretty nervous coming up against the big guy, but was relying on my army-wide Resistant to Magic to keep the Witch-King and Barrowight from shutting me down too much. Once more I was late to the central objective due to lack of March, but one plus side was that my maelstrom rolls meant my whole force was coming on from where I wanted them to and the initial engagements went well with a lucky arrow wound scored on Gully (who eventually got take down by Rumil). It does seem however that using the new Angmar dice with ands Angmar force does give you supernatural rolling powers (as I'm sure Ben will agree!). The 6's just kept on coming and they didn't stop coming leading to a lot of fights lost and very few orcs dead giving Ben the advantage on the centre objective to close the game out at 0-6. 

Game 5 - Breakthrough Vs Tim Elwess' Minas Tirith

Mine and Tim's first reaction when we saw our table was 'How on earth are we going to play this?'. We were on a Laketown board and ended up houseruling a few parts of the battlefield such as the large amount of ice present (we went for fun rules of if you fall in the water by failing a leap test, your model dies, and if you have to back up from a fight into the water, you die) which led to some fun interactions. Like with the Helm's Deep legion on the day before, I was scared by the double trebuchet that Tim has brought with him - even with Blinding Light from Galadriel. Against the D6 of Minas Tirith I just wasn't scoring the kills that I needed (a common occurrence on day two of me not killing a whole lot) and Pippin turned into an absolute beast all of a sudden, taking out two elves on his own! I played the objectives as closely as I could, but unfortunately due to Gandalf's mobility and the stoicism of Ingold I was caught out in a few places and couldn't secure any objectives purely for myself leading to a 0-5 loss.

Game 6 - Divide & Conquer Vs Mark F's Return of the King LL

The final game of the tournament...safe to say I was pretty exhausted at this point. With both me and Mark on 2-3, we decided we'd just have a laugh with this game to not give ourselves a bigger headache after such a long weekend! Once more, I was hampered by lack of Heroic March, with Aragorn getting the Dead to sprint to a good choke point against the larger bulk of my advancing force. This is essentially where most of the game took place, with many an Immobilise on Aragorn in an effort to take him down. Many fights were won with Celeborn taking the lead but unfortunately not many wounds getting through. In the meantime, Rumil was sprinting with his warband towards the centre, and one archer of mine perched on top of a Hobbit hole to snipe two Warriors of the Dead! That only sound impressive when I tell you I killed a total of four models in this match! The long slog at the bottle neck eventually wore me down and when I did eventually lose fights, I was losing elves quick (especially to Legolas and Gimli). The lack of strength against a high defense enemy was yet again hampering me. Unfortunately, I lost the centre objective and it went downhill from there, leaving me with a 1-8 loss!

Summary

Once again, Scouring proves itself to be a great event, I started off strong, but just couldn't quite keep up the momentum. I've certainly learnt that with an infantry force I absolutely need Heroic March somewhere to give me a bit of mobility for objective grabs. The magic with Galadriel was great fun to use, but it's definitely a case of me being worried that she could be craftily taken out with her low defense and lack of combat capability. There were definitely a fair few tactical errors I made throughout my games which I'm taking heed of, but a large downfall for me was elves just lacking that killing power. Great at winning fights, just not great at finishing them! All in all a great tournament, a lot of fun had and some great opponents who I'm keen to play against once more!

Scouring of Che-Shire 4: Dave, or “Why have 2 legs when you could have 8?”

I recently attended Scouring of Cheshire 2020 at Element Games, hosted by the wonderful Ste from TopTableGaming.

I had 6 great games and all had some lessons I could learn from them, so lets have a look what my games were, how they went and some of my thoughts about them.

First of all, I was running my “Denizens of Moria” army, the list is as follows:

Durburz
5x Goblins with shields
5x Goblins with spears

Ashrak
3x Goblins with shields
3x Goblins with spears
4x Venomback Giant Spiders

Druzhag
4x Goblins with bows
3x Giant Spiders
3x Fell Wargs
1x Bat Swarm

Spider Queen
3x Mirkwood Spiders

Lots of spiders, lots of fast movement and a decent amount of Goblins to help hold some objectives.

Game 1  - Assassination Vs Callum's Return of the King LL

My first game of the tournament was Callum and his Return of The King list, the mission was Assassination. This is typically an army my list will struggle with, the King lowering my already low courage value went about as well as you could expect, courage 1 goblins weren't getting their charges off. I made a pretty huge error early on and split my 2 shamans up and for whatever reason, I didn't cast Fury with either of them until late in the game. I'd chosen to kill his Herald, which he kept pretty tightly defended. A hilarious friendly fire from one of my Mirkwood Spiders meant the Queen got Paralysed and died to Aragorn who'd committed pretty hard down the left side of the board, thankfully an enraged spider and a trap made short work of him in the following turn.

We slogged it out a few more turns but I inevitably broke, the -1 to my courage coming in huge here, most of my remaining models fled the board.

10-2 Loss. Lesson learnt: Don't split up the shamans, cast Fury, don't paralyse the Queen.



Game 2 - Seize the Prize Vs Matt Hill's Shire

Firstly, Matt has some wonderfully painted Hobbits! I like this scenario a lot and against an army who move 4” most of the time, I felt pretty confident. A turn one dig up from a broodling led to a heroic move off from Farmer Maggot and his dogs in the following turn. It went to me and I ran back into my own line, eventually flying the prize off the board with a bat swarm. Not a great deal to say about it really, 12” move vs 4” on this scenario should really only go one way!

9-0 Win. Lesson learnt: Take your time with the prize and don't over commit. Shroud of Shadows comes in clutch in a pickle.




Game 3  - Contest of Champions Vs James Wilson's Minas Tirith

Durburz vs Aragorn, King Elessar. Not going to lie, as soon as the game was pulled I knew I was going to lose. I managed to keep Durburz alive for a while due to some slight model misplacement from James meaning his Aragorn couldn't smash into my line. An enraged and shrouded Venomback ran through his line and got to Aragorn but lost the duel roll. I never got another opening to attack him as my list began to crumble pretty fast. Last game of the day so I know I made a lot of dumb decisions, I should have sent the Queen in sooner but I never felt like I had the chance to.

12-0 Loss. Lesson learnt: Don't slack on decision making, commit harder with the Queen, don't go into a game expecting to lose.



Game 4  - Hold Ground Vs Matthew Allen's Army of Gothmog LL

I'll say right now this was my favourite game of the weekend. We played Hold Ground, the first maelstrom mission of the event. We both got decent deployments from maelstrom, and he marched onto the objective faster than I could get there. My Spiders worked a flank and the Queen even made short work of his Troll in only the second turn. The Queen came in strong again as a hurl from her dismounted Gothmog from his Warg. I played my Shamans right this time, enrage and shroud let me get strong charges right into the middle of the board and I chewed through some Orcs. Alas, as much as I tried I couldn't shift the Orcs. Going into the final turn if the combat went my way, I'd knock enough Orcs off the objective to secure a win, but if it went mostly even or in his favour he'd bag the central objective. It wasn't to be and Matthew's Orcs held the centre. Super close game, loved every minute of it.

3-1 Loss. Lesson learnt: Get on the objective asap, fighting up hill is hard against D6 with goblins.



Game 5 -  Breakthrough Vs Tim Garlick's Dunland

Another fantastic game, Breakthrough was the mission. I'm afraid to say I've forgotten how a lot of the early game played out. I know I kept him in the centre for most of the game by sacrificing goblins into multi charges whilst my spiders flanked around the side to try and make a play for his home objective.

The big swing of the game was when my Queen failed to win a duel against the Oathmaker and lost 2 wounds in the process. Next turn she got absolutely surrounded by bodies, Thrydan included. In a last ditch attempt to keep her alive I used enrage beast on her and she Heroic Struck up to F10, with Thrydan only getting to F9. She rolled a 6 in the duel and put all 4 strikes into Thrydan causing 4 wounds. With no way to survive it, I managed to snag the points for the Leader kill with my own Leader still being alive and unwounded thanks to Heroic Defence.

5-4 Win. Lesson learnt: Enraged Queen is a beast, eat as many control zones as you can, never give up hope even after bad dice.



Game 6  - Divide & Conquer Vs Tom Jennings' Angmar

I don't think I played this one too badly, just not a lot I can do to charge and tie up control zones, especially when the spectres can move me away and make Druzhag run off so I lose his bubble of C4 on my beasts. I held one of the side objectives comfortably but unfortunately I couldn't keep up the fight for the centre objective and the one on the left, the latter being heavily guarded by a cave troll! I feel like I had a much better handle on my list by this point though, a Venomback managed to get into the WK and forced him to spend might to win the duel. Sadly I never got another swing at him!

6-1 Loss. Lesson learnt: Angmar are hard! Use Shroud to tie up and hopefully snipe the Spirit heroes.


All in all, I picked up 2 wins over the weekend and learnt a great deal. Looking forward to putting everything into practice and making some tweaks to the list before Scouring rolls around again in March!

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!

Scouring of Che-Shire Top 5 Lists

Today we are interrupting our individual reports from the 700 point Scouring of Che-Shire to have a look at the top 5 lists. This was an 88 person tournament, so a big one! There were 6 rounds, so that really allows the best players to rise to the top. Let's have a look at what they brought.

5th Place: Survivors of Lake Town

Bard the Bowman with armour and horse

Sigrid & Tilda

Alfrid the Councillor

12 Lake-town Militia with bow

Gandalf the Grey

7 Lake-town Militia with shield

7 Lake-town Militia with spear

1 Lake-town Militia with spear and shield

Bilbo Baggins, Master Burglar 

6 Lake-town Militia with shield 

6 Lake-town Militia with spear 

45 models, 9 Might (but actually more), 12 Bows

At this point we have written about this list a LOT so I am not going to repeat myself. Instead you can read about it (or lists very close to it) here, here, here, here and here.

4th Place: Vanquishers of the Necromancer

Saruman

Galdriel, Lady of Light

Elrond

Radagast on Sleigh

4 Models, 12 Might

Well if it isn't the new hotness. There was a little bit of chatter about this new list being "unbeatable", and while I think it is very good it also has some weaknesses (mostly objective play). That being said, considering there are only 4 models it has a surprising number of tools. Sorcerous Blast, Wrath of Bruinen and Raddy's sleigh charging ensure that the enemy models spend more time lying down than standing up, and then high Fight and 3 attacks each (doubling to 6 strikes while the enemy is prone) ensure they have a surprising amount of killing power. They are also pretty hard to kill as they have decent defence and Fate in abundance, then Raddy comes along and heals them up if they do take a knock. From what I have heard it's pretty miserable to play against and in the right hands it can do a lot of work, but at the same time with only 4 models any lapses in judgment or skews in variance are going to punish you much more than with a normal army. The other two Vanquishers lists went 3-3 over the weekend.

3rd Place: Ugluk's Scouts

Ugluk

5 scouts, shield

6 scouts, bow

1 scout, banner

Mauhur

5 scouts, shield

5 scouts, bow

1 scout, banner

Scout captain, shield

Grishnakh

11 orcs, spear, shield

1 orc, spear

Snaga

6 orcs, shield

6 orcs, spear.

52 Models, 13 Might, 11 Bows

Let me say that again: 52 Models, 13 Might. Crikey that is a lot of F4 S4 AND they get +1 to wound in combat if there is an Orc and an Uruk in together. Oh, also all the Uruks move 8", no big deal. This feels like it would be relentless to play against and most importantly it can play objectives incredibly well. I feel like we keep saying that "high quality quantity" is one of the best things to bring in this game and I think this list demonstrates that really well. 




2nd Place: Riders of Theoden

Theoden with Armoured Horse, Heavy Armour, Shield
4 Royal Guard with horse

Deorwine with horse
4 Royal Guard with horse

Dernhelm with horse
4 Royal Guard with horse

Gamling with horse, Banner 
3 Royal guard with horse

Captain with horse
3 Royal Guard with horse

23 Models, 14 Might (+1 each turn)

Now here is a Legendary Legion I had forgotten about. It used to be taking events all over the place but then people learnt how to deal with it and it quietly slipped down the rankings. This just goes to show that in the right hands it can still punch with the big boys. If you can choose just the right time to call "Death!" then this list can still chop the head off the enemy and neuter its big threats in one go. I am pleased to see it come back as it is one of my favourite LLs to date.

1st Place: Mordor and Isengard (Yellow Alliance)

Witch King with horse, Crown of Morgul, Morgul Blade (3/13/2)
10 Orc Trackers
8 Morannon Orcs with spear, shield

Shagrat with heavy armour, shield of Cirith Ungol
6 Morannon Orcs with shield
5 Morannon Orcs with spear, shield
1 Morannon Orc with Banner

Lurtz
4 Berserkers
1 Warg rider
2 Uruk Hai with shield

40 Models, 9 Might, 11 Bows

Honestly, this list is an absolute delight in how mundane it is. I don't mean that to cause any offence, in fact quite the opposite! It goes to show that you don't need to take whatever is 'meta' to do well, you can just bring a decent, mixed arms list, play it excellently and still win a tournament. The list does have a bit of everything: Magic, punching power, fearless troops, shooting, lots of bodies, a decent stack of Might, 3 Striking heroes and Heroic March too. Amazing how he has fit it all in!

One caveat that I feel we must point out is that this list did just so happen to play all 3 Vanquishers lists. As we talked about above, Vanquishers is a good list but can struggle with objectives, and this list beat them at Seize the Prize and Hold Ground, where I think this list definitely has the advantage (though it's by no means easy!). However it also beat them in Contest of Champions which is astounding! The pilot of this list described how he did that and it sounds like he played it absolutely perfectly (Round 1: Heroic Resolve, resisted spells, transfixed and killed Elrond, Heroic Combat into Galadriel and killed her too. Round 2 same thing but killing Radagast and jumping onto Saruman). Simply fantastic play.

We have seen a lot of "Good soup" lists recently and I wonder if this list will kick-start people thinking more about "Evil soup". I know it used to be prevalent but it took a hit with the FAQ. This goes to show you can still make some powerful alliances in Evil and I am looking forward to seeing where the meta goes next. 

The Scouring of Che-Shire 2: Dan Stu's Writeup

Dan Stu: I'm afraid there are no hot, controversial takes about magic on the blog today - just a good old fashioned writeup. I'll leave the sensationalist clickbait to Dan Slob. 

This is the first major tournament to which I’ve taken the Dunland Legion, after a small 1-day event around 6 months ago – and perhaps foolishly, I took the army out only twice in the months between (I have been very preoccupied with my Easterling / Khand alliance). Dunland are a good list, but I’m not particularly confident with them yet, so I went in hoping to go 2-4 – or maybe 3-3 if I get lucky. Really though, I was just happy to finally get this finished army out on to the tabletop after chipping away at them for the last year or so.

Note - apologies, there are not many photos of my actual games - I was very rusty and my overworked brain kept forgetting to take them. I've instead included photos of my army kindly taken by fellow blogger Steve Thorley. The full album can be found here, for anybody interested.

Army of Dunland Legendary Legion

Thrydan Wolfsbane on horse
3 Warriors of Dunland with Shield
3 Huscarls
1 Warrior of Dunland
3 Warriors of Dunland with dagger and bow
1 Warrior of Dunland with banner
1 Crebain
2 Dunlending Horsemen

Gorulf Ironskin
4 Warriors of Dunland with shield
2 Huscarls
2 Dunlending Horsemen

Frida Tallspear
4 Warriors of Dunland with shield
2 Huscarls
1 Dunlending Horseman
1 Crebain

The Wildman Oathmaker
11 Wildmen with axe
1 Dunlending Warrior with banner

46 models, 4 warbands, 12 might, 3 bows


Game 1 - Assassination vs James Wilson’s Minas Tirith

Having seen the pairings a day or two earlier on Longshanks, I was quite apprehensive about this matchup. Minas Tirith have good ranged options and no shortage of F4 and F5 troops, as well as Elessar himself! However, the tradeoff for taking Elessar is the cheap, 1-wound heroes in the form of Mablung and Damrod, both prime targets – making the scenario tricky for him. Gorulf was my assassin and Mablung my target. I assumed (correctly) that the squishy Oathmaker would be the target and held him back.

Thrydan and Gorulf (an absolute wrecking ball pairing) managed to smash through and dispatch Mablung in a few turns – not unexpected. What was unexpected, though, was that my troops massively overperformed (James’ dice dried up pretty badly for a couple of turns) and then the warriors of Gondor were all but gone. I had plenty of troops to keep Aragorn penned in, stopping him from doing Aragorn things, until he was eventually mobbed and cut down.

10-1 win, a good start!

Game 2 – Seize the Prize vs Nick Whit’s Assault on Helm’s Deep

So, if I won my first game through good judgment, good positioning and good luck, game 2 was lost through lack of those things!

Nick’s advantage – 12 crossbow, a ballista, and a narrow corridor to engage in. My advantage – 2 crebain swarms. They managed to peck up the objective on turn 2, but my list took heavy casualties in screening them to safety, and they finally managed to fall back on turn 3 with 1 and 2 wounds remaining. Uruks with pikes are absolutely brutal in a choke point, and my over-extension in the centre corridor saw me taking heavy losses and breaking, while inflicting only a small handful of casualties.

The smart play here, with no real way of breaking or killing the Uruks’ leader, would have been to fall back, play defensively and go for the 3-3 draw. If Nick had the priority on the final turn, I’d be able to swoop in to his half after his movement for a 5-3 win. However, priority went to me instead. In a lapse of judgment, I flew the Crebain in to a spot I thought would be relatively safe in his board half, but Nick managed to get enough bodies in to get the kill and steal the objective for a 6-0 loss.

Not my finest hour, but a good lesson in *ahem* keeping your eyes on the prize. If I’d kept focusing on where the point-scoring opportunities were, this should have been easily winnable. Lesson learned – don’t get greedy!

Game 3 – Contest of Champions vs Queen Jasmine’s Fellowship / Lothlorien / Minas Tirith / White Council Nightmare

At this point of the day, my focus was out of the window, and I didn't know what half these heroes did (nothing nice, I suspected) so I went for a straightforward battle line deployment, with Thrydan and horses ready to pounce. Jasmine’s leader was Boromir, and with his might stores and offensive output, there was no way I was going to be able to rack up kills faster than him. I decided to push the centre, chance a lucky kill, and allow the sides to wrap around, hopefully securing the break.

However, as I probably should have expected, the combined might of Galadriel, Haldir and Boromir was a complete wrecking ball, tearing a transfixed Thrydan to pieces on turn 2, and shattering my line. This left three engagements – the Dunlendings securing the left and right flanks, and elves dominating the middle.

With both sides broken, and currently standing at a 12-1 win to Jasmine, we decided to play out the game. In a ridiculous spike of bad dice, Boromir dies to Gorulf, having rolled a 2-highest on 9 (!) dice in the duel roll, unable to even spend his 3 might to match Gorulf’s 6, and is swiftly beheaded. 11-2 loss to me, and a crazy way to end the day.

Note the untargetable wood elf  sentinel in the tree. If you're thinking they probably stayed there all game shooting and tooting, then you'd be right. 

Intermission – Evening Festivities

Steven puts on a fantastic quiz, and the rest of the night was spend with great company, decent beer and some board games – skip ahead to day 2 if you’re not interested in these!

Startups – a fantastic and very pretty small-box game from Oink Games, this game sees you trying to sucker people in to investing in companies that you will (unbeknown to them) end up holding the controlling share in, earning you hard cash rewards. Very well suited to a bar / pub / drinking setting, it’s a fairly simple card game which can be taught in 5 minutes, with each round lasting about 10.

Looks like this guy is going for a monopoly in Hippo Powertech. Careful though - don't scare away your potential investors!

Kakerlaken Poker – a game of pure bluff, kakerlaken (or cockroach in german) poker sees you trying to fool your friends in to taking one of eight types of bug-themed cards off your hands. You'll find yourselves untangling webs of lies as you and your mates double and triple bluff each other. If you enjoy fooling your friends (or collecting insects) this is a great party game for up to 6 people.

The instructions also list French, German and Italian names for each type of bug, which is an evening's entertainment in itself.

Taxi home, solid 8 hours of sleep, woken up with a cup of tea, lift back to Element Games - lovely stuff. Hangover situation – could be better, could be worse. I’ll take it. On with the show!


Game 4 – Capture and hold vs Peter Wilson’s Lothlorien / Rohan alliance

This was an interesting pairing. The elephant in the room is Dunland’s hatred of Rohan, making my offensive output potentially very scary here. On the other hand, Peter’s back line was almost all elves with good banner support, which gated my offensive output behind my inferior fight value.

Maelstrom deployment here was not too unkind to either of us – with a few might points spent, we were both able to deploy more or less where we wanted to. But crucially, while beelining to the centre and weaving around the busy terrain, I did not form up my battle line quickly enough, and I should have played much more cautiously forming a solid line before reaching cavalry charge range. Theodred and Dernhelm, with their uncontested mobility, saw their chances to slip through the gaps and hit my back lines and my wildmen like heat-seeking missiles. They racked up many kills, and by the time I'd mustered a counter-offensive to put down the threats, their job was already done and I was more or less broken. 

Thankfully, I managed to salvage a decent engagement, and Dunland did their thing, chewing through troops with their terrifying offensive output. I was extremely aggressive with my heroes, trading leader kills. We ground on to a 6-3 win for Peter - a very bloody game, with some poor positioning on my part on which Peter smartly capitalized.

After losing their numerical advantage early on, the Dunlending fought a bitter, bloody battle to the end. 

Game 5 – Breakthrough vs Jay Davidson’s Khazad-Dum

Dwarves did what they do best – deploy in the centre, dig in with their D9 shields, and grind out a prolonged combat with their superior stat lines. Unfortunately, Dunland have the numbers and the offensive output to deal with them...eventually! My battle line engaged in the centre with Gorulf absorbing Durin’s blows with his free Heroic Defense. Thrydan took his cavalry around one side, and the oathmaker led his Wildman blob around the other. The stubbornness of dwarves was on full display as they just refused to die - but gradually they were worn down until being quartered. My might advantage had a huge impact here, giving me the run of the board in the mid to late game, going for the big traps you need to fish for those 6s to wound. 10-0 win to Dunland.

Game 6 – Divide and Conquer vs Glynn Seymour’s Angmar

At this point, Glynn and I commiserated on how fried our brains were – I’d achieved my aim of 2 wins for the weekend, so a nice casual dice chucking game to finish the weekend with suited us both just fine.

Dunland vs Angmar isn’t the worst matchup. I struggle with courage a little, but both wildmen and huscarls have access to fearless in the list. I’m also not overly reliant on one hero to get the job done, and have lots of high-strength troops to fall back on. The Tainted baited Gorulf and his troops out of position, far away from the trolls on the other side of the board. However, the fearless Wildman blob blunted the trolls’ offensive, and Glenn’s truly shambolic dice saw him fail to cast a paralyse with either of his Barrow-Wights for the entire game. One good transfix roll on Thrydan saw me counter with a natural 6. I think Glynn's dice were also ready to go home. 

With superior stats, board-wide banner coverage and access to fearless, my troops simply outclassed the Angmar orcs, breaking them quickly. From there, it was a case of consolidating the centre and side objectives - and despite Burdhur going on a last-minute rampage and contesting the centre, I grabbed a 6-0 win. I feel like had Angmar got some half-decent dice on some magic dice, this game could have gone very differently. 

Wrap-up

Glynn was a lovely final opponent and gave me some truly excellent cake to cap off a truly excellent weekend. I also managed to secure the Best Painted award, which was very exciting, especially considering some of the extremely talented hobbyists that were in attendance.

Thanks for a great tournament, Ste - see you at the next one!

Thanks to all my opponents for some very memorable games, and to Ste Crowe for putting on a fantastic Scouring yet again.

Final score – 3 wins, 3 losses. 39th over all, right in the middle of the pack. Happy with that, and tons of lessons learned - with a bit of practise I think I can take this list to a 4-2.

List thoughts – I like Dunland a lot. My inexperience with the army was pretty evident and I made some big mistakes, but they have the punching power to forgive a lot of those. The tremendous 12 might meant that I was often calling heroic moves long after the opponent had run dry, giving me a lot of late-game board control. I’m happy with the 2 banners for effectively board-wide coverage. I’m also happy with 7 huscarls – they are too expensive to spam, but it gives you enough F4 in the right places.

The Wildmen often struggled to perform – in some games they are amazing, and in others they are just a free pass for your opponent to break you, so there is a skill curve there. When used as line troops, they are guaranteed to crumble in a few turns, so I need to factor that in to how I use them. I also feel that I’m just scratching the surface of Gorulf and Thrydan’s combined offensive output – a combo of Heroic Strike, Heroic Combat and War Cry just puts out insane damage and could easily dispatch a couple of heroes in a turn, or at least kill enough stuff to turn the combat in your favour. 

Changes to the list – I may take a few less Wildmen and a couple more warriors. I’m going to swap the 3 bows for axes & shields, too. Finally, I’m going to think very hard about replacing Frida with a Chieftain, just for access to Heroic March. She’s a gorgeous model but she’s far less consistently useful than any of the other named heroes, having not used her special rules once over the weekend. Having a F5 support is nice... But Heroic March can be the difference between winning and losing a game.

MVP – Gorulf. He’s a monster. Thrydan hits like a truck, but Gorulf hits almost as hard for half the cost, doesn't rely on his horse, and is nigh unkillable when he wants to be - Thrydan only wishes he could tank like the G man. The fact that he’s not your leader means you can really throw him around too, allowing you to make some really high-risk high-reward plays. If he dies - so what, he'll be back next game with a bad temper. But having said that, the only time he died all weekend was from fleeing the battlefield - presumably to go and punch somebody somewhere.