After missing last years, due to how close it was to Seven Stones, I was able to get a ticket for a team to attend this awesome tournament once again!
The Tournament
Twenty teams of four face each other, each round is team vs team with an interesting matchmaking approach:
1. Both teams get to see each others full lists.
2. They both then select one player from their team, who will be their 'champion' as I call it. Both are revealed at the same time.
3. Now that you know who they selected as their champion, you choose two challengers to offer against them. They do the same for yours.
4. The champions will choose a challenger to face and the fourth player from each team will play the spare challenger.
This will give you your four games, usually with one player on each team having to take a hit for the team. We agreed with most teams to roll off to decide who chooses which table off the designated row to use first, then alternate between teams.
Major/minor victories were also in play (double the opponent’s VPs or more).
The Team
Last time that I attended, I headed the team from the EAHC, Tom and the Mellon, a team including Tom Hawker with his legendary hatred for elves, and the rest of us wanting to rub his nose in it. So I fired off the offer to reforge the team.
We were able to re-sign 3 previous members- myself, James Willson and Tom Hawker, but sadly our fourth, Jake Tysoe, would be unavailable. Luckily, Tom provided us with his friend, Vince Jackson, who we'd seen at the occasional tournament here and there with him. Our team was made.
Our armies
The only restrictions for the lists were;
We had to have two good and two evil players.
We couldn't repeat named heroes e.g. no Saruman the Wise and Saruman the White, no Gandalf the Grey and White etc.
We decided that Tom/I would be good and James/Vince would be evil.
My list (Rivendell)
Gil Galad LEADER w/ Horse and Shield
Rivendell knight x2 w/ Shield
High Elf warrior x1 w/ Banner
High Elf warrior x2
High Elf warrior x3 w/ Elf bow
High Elf warrior x7 w/ Spear/Shield
Glorfindel w/ Asfaloth and Armour of Gondolin
High Elf warrior x3 w/ Elf bow
High Elf warrior x4 w/ Spear/Shield
Erestor
High Elf warrior x2 w/ Elf bow
High Elf warrior x5 w/ Spear/Shield
Might: 8
Numbers: 32
Tom's list (The Iron Hills)
Dain Ironfoot LEADER w/ War boar
Goat rider x3
Iron Hills warrior x12 w/ Spear
Iron Hills warrior x1 w/ Banner/Spear
Murin and Drar
Iron Hills warrior x11 w/ Spear
Iron Hills Ballista
Might: 10
Numbers: 34
James' list (Khand/Easterlings)
Khandish king LEADER w/ Chariot
Khandish charioteers x4
Khandish horseman x1
Khandish chieftain w/ Horse
Khandish horseman x12
Amdur w/ Armoured Horse
Black dragon kataphrakts x6
Dragon Knight w/ Armoured horse
Might: 9
Numbers: 27
Vince's list (Goblin Town/The Trolls)
The Goblin King LEADER
Gollum
Goblin warrior x13
Grinnah
Goblin warrior x11
Goblin Scribe
Goblin warrior x6
Goblin Captain
Goblin warrior x10
Goblin Mercenary Captain
Goblin mercenary x6
Bill the Troll
Tom the Troll
Might: 15
Numbers: 54
Our leaders ready for battle!
Round 1: Lords of Battle Vs. The JJJR Tolkiens
Matchups
Pre-match up thoughts: Looking through the lists, I felt fairly confident against anything. We felt that James would be best against Riders of Theoden as he could potentially kill off many horses with his chariots. Tom could probably outlast the elves or corsairs and we knew that we didn't want Vince's goblins against the Riders of Theoden or elves, figuring that the Corsairs would be best for him 'as they only had a handful of bows', completely forgetting the well known fact that they all have throwing weapons....D'oh!
I was the champion and Vince was the 4th player, so when offered Thranduil's Halls or Corsairs, I thought to spare Vince the elven blades and foolishly sent him into a hailstorm of throwing weapons.
Me (Rivendell) v. Jake (Thranduil's Halls)
Tom (Iron Hills) v. Rob (Pits of Dol Guldor LL)
James (Khand/Easterlings) v. Julian (Riders of Theoden LL)
Vince (Goblin Town/Trolls) v. Joe (Corsairs of Umbar)
Opponent's Heroes: Thranduil, Legolas and Tauriel
Opponent's Warriors: Wood elf sentinel, Palace guard and Mirkwood elves
Against Jake, I thought my best chance would be to get an early hero kill. Thinking that because I had less bows, I’d be outshot, forgetting that my army bonus could make me more dangerous with shooting than I gave myself credit for.
We deployed so that I had glorfindel on the left, erestor in the centre in the infantry and Gil galad to the right. He had deployed Thranduil and Legolas behind his lines with Tauriel off to my left. We had agreed for all the forest terrain to be woodland and the fields to be difficult terrain, then I promptly forgot all about that and planned to have Gil Galad heroic combat through it.
I got to move first and moved half forward, killing only a single elf, if anything. Jake returned fire and killed a couple of elves in return. The following turn, I rushed forward and engaged his lines. I had an issue, in that my flank was exposed to Tauriel and his mounted Legolas, so I took a gamble and threw Glorfindel into the flank. Hoping to see Tauriel take the bait and maybe suffer for it. Thranduil used his circlet, having thrown up an aura of dismay the previous turn, to call a nature’s wrath and floor my frontline. With them down, and the +1 to wound bonus, several of my elves were killed. Tauriel and Legolas had also both attacked Glorfindel with a few warriors. All three called Heroic Strikes and both of the Mirkwood heroes went to F10, while Glorfindel fluffed and went to F8. With so many attacks and +1 to wound on the warriors, my mighty elven hero fell!
Gil Galad, meanwhile, rushed the archers and killed both. The next turn, he killed another and Heroic Combatted to try and get out the field to attack the rear of Thranduil’s lines. It was at this point that it sank in that he couldn’t move far at all in that field while mounted. So I settled for clearing half the field instead.
Erestor, however, was making good progress, killing an elf with his throwing dagger, then rushing two more and killing both! He spent the rest of the game steadily killing 1/2 elves a turn.
With Glorfindel gone, Tauriel and Legolas started cutting my left flank to pieces, and Gil Galad lost his horse to a cheeky direct hit by Legolas, who then rushed up and attacked the knights, who had run around the field to assist their King. That King, was continuing to stubbornly kill anything he fought, but the damage had been done by the early loss of Glorfindel and Jake had absolutely done a number on my army.
By the end of the game, I believe I had caused 17 wounds to his 35, so he scored double and had also broken me, while I was a handful away from returning the favour.
Results
Me 0-8 Jake
Tom 1-4 Rob
James 1-8 Julian
Vince 0-8 Joe
Tom's Iron Hills make a defiant stand against the Pits Legion
Both us and his teammates were surprised when Julian requested to play James' mounted army, but he made his point
How, after six years of this edition, we all forgot that Corsairs have a LOT of throwing weapons, I can't say...sorry Vince...
Round 2: Domination Vs. Steve's Heroes
Matchups
Pre-match up thoughts: I felt again like none was worse than the others for me, except maybe that the Mumak could kill a lot of my guys with a good trample, but then I had the option to go into woodland to escape it. We thought Tom's fearless bubble may be good against it, but didn't want his dwarves to face the Assault legion and get many killed by the effective shooting. The same went for James' all mounted force, nor did he want to face the Mumak. While Vince had a rough matchup whatever he played here, but we felt his army may be best against the Assault, as he could tank the bows, if needed.
I believe we put down Vince as our champion, and Tom as our fourth. Then deciding that Tom would be best suited to the Mumak, instead of the Gondor/Rohan alliance that Vince got.
Me (Rivendell) v. Richard (Assault on Lothlorien LL)
Tom (Iron Hills) v. Rob (Grand Army of the South LL)
James (Khand/Easterlings) v. Stephen (Minas Tirith/Rohan/Fiefdoms)
Vince (Goblin Town/Trolls) v. Oliver (Minas Tirith/Rohan)
Opponent's Heroes: Muzgur, Druzhag, Ashrak, Moria Goblin Shaman
Opponent's Warriors: Orc trackers, Mordor orcs, Goblin prowlers, Warg marauders, Batswarms, Fell wargs and Giant spiders
Similarly to the last game, I thought my best chance would be to try and eliminate an enemy caster from the game early, to reduce the amount of magic that could be thrown at me.
I deployed Gil Galad to my left, Erestor in the centre and Glorfindel to my right. Richard had deployed Ashrak to my left, Muzgur and the Goblin Shaman, and Druzhag off to my right.
I decided to take an aggressive approach, forcing bottlenecks around the ruins and keeping the evil forces under pressure, away from the objectives in my half. He had spiders and warg marauders, who could potentially seize them, but with low courage, I hoped they’d flee or I could preserve some cavalry or archers to deal with them for me.
I pushed up and shot as I did so, taking out a couple of prowlers as I did so, return fire killed one, I believe. The next turn, I launched my assault with Gil Galad attacking the left side of the gap, Glorfindel attacking the right and Erestor getting another throwing weapon kill on the charge.
Richard then launched his magical barrage, the previous turn all relevant shamans had thrown up their fury bubbles, Ashrak turned a spider invisible and it rushed through my lines to peel off a spearman. Muzgur scored a 6 to cast his wither on Gil Galad. With so much magic still around, I decided to let it go, as Aeglos would still grant him +1 to wound.
Gil galad easily dispatch the orcs he faced and Erestor killed again. The elves between them also won most fights, and killed many prowlers. On my left flank, the elf shieldwall managed to beat and wound several spiders. Glorfindel had called Heroic Combat, seeing an opening to Muzgur! He dispatched the orc and warg he faced, charging into the spear and swinging into the orc commander behind!
He promptly rolled a 4 high to their 6, and seeing such a good opportunity to kill him early, I spent both might to win the fight. Needing two 5s to get him to use fate and 3 to confirm, I rolled my four pairs of dice and used my reroll too…scoring a single wound…Glorfindel was in enemy territory and in trouble.
Richard won the move off in the following turn, and as you would expect, Glorfindel quickly found himself up against a pile of orcs, Muzgur, bats and an enraged spider. Unsurprisingly, they easily beat him in the duel and the spider took away all his fate and a couple of wounds, before the others finished him off. Another rough game for Glorfindel.
The rest of the army fared better as an invisible, enraged spider lunged at Gil Galad but lost the fight and was skewered on his spear. Erestor held the middle with his elves, killing off all but one or two prowlers. The spiders found themselves mostly on 1w. The marauders, meanwhile, were running down the flanks and running for the rear objectives.
Over the next few turns, Gil Galad lost his horse to an archer, but continued to be a menace and cut down orcs and goblins. The marauder to my left dropped a couple of goblins on an objective and began running to my rear right one. The other dropped a goblin and then dismounted to throw an handful of warriors into my right flank. In the combats, I did a lot of damage in the middle, killing many orcs and Muzgur being out of will, trying to get a cheeky kill. Many of the spiders took their final wound, and only a few were left.
Seeing that Richard was near breaking, I started focusing on tightening my grip on objectives; I had the central one but Richard was holding the other four. I solidified my defence on the middle, and got my right flank to push a counterattack up towards his right hand one. I couldn’t see a reasonable way to claim his left, so decided to focus on reclaim the ones in my half. I managed to free up a knight and warrior from the main fight, who pulled back and slew one goblin before running down the other too in the final turn.
I couldn’t free anyone to regain the right hand one, so seeing a marauder with one goblin upon it and a goblin warrior being all that was there, I dedicated myself to breaking them and letting them flee. Gil Galad was pushing hard to get ahold of Muzgur and slay the leader, instead taking a wound himself. I couldn’t get many of the last few priorities to do so (I had won many on the trot earlier so couldn’t complain). However, a pair of my warriors managed to score a wound on him.
On the left flank, my counterattack pushed up and slew the beasts around Ashrak, also scoring a wound upon him. The others rushed past and claimed the objective, keeping the enemies away from it. Richard also realised, to his horror, that he had left his bats out of range of any heroes and both fled, to my relief.
At this point, time was called and I had claimed both left objectives as well as the centre. Richard had claimed his right one, but unfortunately had both the models on my right flee. I had also broken him but was unbroken myself, while both leaders had suffered a wound.
Results
Me 8-3 Richard
Tom 3-7 Rob
James 1-9 Stephen
Vince 4-9 Oliver
We correctly assumed that Tom's dwarves would bravely fight the Mumak Warleader. We incorrectly didn't expect it to flatten his entire army.
James' horsemen valiantly fought the Men of the West (not LL), but sadly their might was simply too much!
Vince gave it a good bash against Aragorn's alliance, despite the scary elven blade in his hands.
Round 3: Heirlooms of Ages Past Vs. Super Major Hyper Mega Ultimate Lightning Black Dragon Ultra
Matchups
Pre-match up thoughts: I felt ok against most things, except the possibility of the Riders finding the Heirloom and being beyond my reach, but that would be an issue for all of us bar James. However, we felt that he would be very strongly matched against dwarves. Since there was a magic/terror based legion, I could be best to face them. We thought Vince would be best to take Isengard or the dwarves. Tom was in a weaker position against the Riders.
I believe we put me down as the champion and James as the fourth. Easily deciding that Saruman using compel to play bulldog with his chariots would be a recipe for disaster, he got the dwarves.
Me (Rivendell) v. Josh (Isengard)
Tom (Iron Hills) v. Will (Riders of Theoden LL)
James (Khand/Easterlings) v. Phil (Army of Thror)
Vince (Goblin Town/Trolls) v. Marton (Host of the Witch King LL)
Opponent's Heroes: Saruman, Grima Wormtongue, Vrasku and Mauhur
Opponent's Warriors: Uruk-hai berserkers, Uruk-hai warriors, Uruk scouts
Josh got the initial priority and all three of his warbands arrived; Vrasku and Mauhur together in the North and Saruman to the South. I then managed to get all my warbands arrive and decided to arrive all around the two Uruk heroes' warbands, with the intention to wipe them both out and break him early as well as remove his fastest paced troops.
I called a Heroic Move and won the move off, allowing all my elves to pincer the Uruk-hai between my warbands. I also got Glorfindel into a position to Heroic Combat, which he used to run into Mauhur and slay him. Vrasku became the poster boy of Josh's resistance as he continued to relentlessly win against elves and kill them.
On the other side of the board, Saruman's warband moved up and started searching objectives across the middle and working to the far edge away from the fighting. Knowing that they would find it eventually, I managed to pull Glorfindel away and start running towards the remaining three (He was the ideal runner as he could Horse Lord his mount if it took a wound, and also moved faster than the others). A lone Uruk ran alongside him and searched an objective, emptying that too. This left just two, to give perspective, the big fight was happening with all my forces in the NE corner, one objective was in the West and the other in the NW.
As Gil Galad and Erestor dealt with the remainder of the warbands I fought, Glorfindel galloped towards the NW objective, not intending to search it, but to sit on it and force a stalemate. Then Josh moved Saruman slightly too close, this could have been purposeful to tempt me, or an accident, I'm unsure. But since Saruman was a big threat to me; he was keeping me from killing Grima, wouldn't flee when I broke him and also had might to counter my priorities with, I decided to go for it. In the combat, I killed his horse and gave him two wounds, one went through his fate leaving him on 2w, 0f. Josh then charged in the following turn with a horde of berserkers, which Glorfindel started cutting down. As this happened, the Uruk who had run alongside him, searched the NW objective to clear it...and rolled a 6!
The turn prior, I had wanted to move Gil Galad and as many elves as possible up to start moving on Saruman, as only Vrasku and a few Uruks remained of their warbands. I lost priority and called the Move with Gil Galad, realising after that sneaky Grima was lurking close by. Unfortunately, Gil Galad was the only one who could call it and it was important, so I burned his last two might. Vrasku continued to pester me by winning fights and killing my elves, until eventually in the last turn, he was surrounded, overpowered and slain.
It occurred to me after the game that neither of us had remembered to roll the transfix dice at all for the Heirloom, but that's my fault. Remember kids: Always remember the transfix! As the bearer ran around Glorfindel, I saw a chance and fired my archers at him, one scored a hit, but rolled a four to wound! Glorfindel himself continued to frustrate Josh slaying several berserkers and pikes.
Over the next few turns, I ran my army up, as Josh lined up his remaining Uruks to hold them back and broke him. My archers saw a golden chance despite the bearer being beyond my reach, and fired a volley at the White Wizard, managing to score the two wounds and slay him! Erestor called the last Heroic Move and pin down most of the Uruks, allowing Gil Galad to slay their banner bearer. The only thing that could decide my victory, in this last turn, was whether the bearer ran...but he rolled a 9 in his move phase and safely hid.
Josh had the Heirloom, while I had slain his leader, broken him and had a banner remaining to give us a draw, which felt fair.
Results
Me 6-6 Josh
Tom 9-1 Will
James 1-1 Phil
Vince 0-10 Marton
Tom once again shows his unnatural luck with this scenario, as a Rohan archer, with the Heirloom fell trying to climb over a fence, right into the path of 'Daaaain on a Pig!!' in the very last turn.
James had a hard fought draw against the dwarves, who were possibly about to find the Heirloom!
Vince had a very hard matchup, where his trolls were run away from the battle for a lot of the game and he struggled to charge. But he was very pleased to get them close to breaking.
Round 4: Retrieval Vs. Greedy Deep Delvers
Matchups
Pre-match up thoughts: I thought that the Assault legion would destroy large chunks of my army quickly and was my only concerning army. Tom wasn't keen on Mordor as Dain could spend the game immobilised. For James, the Army of the Dead could negate his chariots. And for Vince, only the Assault legion didn't have a big advantage over him.
If I remember rightly, we put Vince in as our champion and me in as our fourth, hoping that the Assault legion would be a challenger. It wasn't so we had to give Vince Mordor, as the elves wouldn't have a hard time killing the King.
Me (Rivendell) v. Wyn (Lothlorien/Misty Mountains)
Tom (Iron Hills) v. Rob (Return of the King LL)
James (Khand/Easterlings) v. Tom (Assault on Helm's Deep LL)
Vince (Goblin Town/Trolls) v. Jack (Mordor)
Opponent's Heroes: Galadriel, Celeborn and Gwaihir
Opponent's Warriors: Wood elf sentinel, Galadhrim knights, Galadhrim warriors, Wood elf warriors and Galadhrim court guard
I was very concerned about this one, Gwaihir would mean that I need to deal with him early, as he will simply fly past, take my objective and escape, unless I stop him. Galadriel would also prevent me from sitting back and having a balanced shooting war. So that left only a very aggressive option.
I deployed up close, with Gil Galad on my left, Erestor in the centre and Glorfindel on my right. Wyn deployed amongst the ruins, with Galadriel and Celeborn with the troops, the wood elves and sentinel on the balcony and Gwaihir far off next to the woods.
In the first few turns, Galadriel threw up her blinding light, I kept my archers still to benefit from the army bonus and managed to pick off a warrior or two. Wyn got unfortunate with his shooting and didn't cause as much damage as he'd hoped. I also saw an opportunity, as Gwaihir had strayed within range of Glorfindel and the knights, but had a Galadhrim knight in the way. So my archers shot him dead, then the following turn, Glorfindel engaged with a knight. My nearby warriors engaged the other Galadhrim knight to pin him down and my army started running up to meet Wyn's advancing force. His sentinel had successfully sung to my banner and got him separated from the army, but I decided that I needed to engage quickly more than I needed a banner, so left him to fate. In combat, I beat the eagle and managed to take off a wound and all fate.
The following turn, Glorfindel engaged again after calling a Heroic Move, meaning that he was already out of might, having called two moves and a strike, in his pursuit of the eagle. I lost the fight, but managed to use Horse Lord to save Asfaloth from Gwaihir's strikes, as I would sorely need him to keep pace! Celeborn had engaged the elf warrior beside the combat and called a Heroic, to try and peel off Glorfindel, but the elf managed to somehow beat him and his troops.
The next turn, Gwaihir pulled back with the priority that he had won, after Erestor called a Heroic Move, but had been unable to quite slingshot Gil Galad into him. I instead used it to engage Wyn's forces out of formation and kill several. I believe an archer also took out his sentinel with a lucky shot.
Over the next few turns, we fought hard between the ruins and the woods. And a small contingent of my warriors ran around the far side of the ruin. Wyn threw a couple of guys into the doorway, as I hoped, believing that I was trying to flank his ruin. In fact, I was running around the whole ruin and making a break to the lightly guarded objective (only Galadriel and a handful of warriors stood on it). When Wyn realised the danger, he withdrew his troops from the fight and formed a better defence upon it and a bottleneck in the chokepoint, but I used this chance to kill the now isolated troops and build momentum.
On my right flank, Wyn carefully pulled Gwaihir just outside of 20" from Gil Galad, when he had priority, but within 12" of Glorfindel. As there wasn't anywhere within reach to be out of reach of both, and since Gil Galad had higher FV, better wounding ability and might, he figured Glorfindel was the safer opponent. However, he had made a crucial error, as I saw he engaged a warrior with his knight to keep them away. Gil Galad threw himself at the knight and Heroic Combatted, to suddenly be within striking distance! His warrior placed himself in the way of Celeborn to be a nuisance. The next turn, I won priority and both heroes charged Gwaihir. Celeborn desperately charged the warrior, hoping for one more turn to help. But Gwaihir lost the fight, took a wound from Gil Galad (who was trying to get a blood and glory might back) and then Glorfindel rolled a mighty three 6s to finish him!
Now it was desperation on both sides, I had killed all Wyn's fast paced models, but my own were in the far corner, and my opponent had not sat back idly...
The wood elves had climbed down from the balcony and started running for my undefended objective. I pulled a couple of guys out the main fight to waylay them, but Celeborn and his warriors were all coming from the other side! My pair of warriors were fighting hard but losing several fights. Eventually they slew the two wood elves, but Celeborn's warriors were too far past...
A few turns prior, I had a tough decision to make...Gil Galad had a slower horse, but would be a good killer to break their lines. But if he got wounded, or even killed, it would lose me VPs that could decide the game. So that made him a better option to go and defend my objective...but Wyn's remaining archers were positioned to snipe any runner...if Gil Galad's horse took a wound, I had no way of saving it, and he'd never be able to get there in time. So Glorfindel is the better option to defend right? Well he has Horse Lord, but he also had Fortify Spirit, which makes him less susceptible to Galadriel immobilising him out the rest of the game...
In the end, after a long think, I sent Glorfindel towards Wyn's corner, and Gil Galad skirting around the edge of Wyn's bow range, to my own. I just had to hope that he'd make it in time.
On Wyn's corner, my elves were pushing hard, but the elves of Lothlorien were putting up a stubborn defence. I'd kill an elf in the way of the objective, then lose priority and have another step onto it. Eventually, Galadriel herself stood upon it. Glorfindel had done one move towards helping, then had Asfaloth shot, failing his last fate roll. My elves, led by Erestor, managed to get Galadriel down to two wounds, no fate when Glorfindel finally got in and dealt the killing blow, just as the game ended. It was down to whether I had kept Wyn off my own.
The two elves had diligently kept attacking Celeborn's warriors as they closed in on my objective, and just as they were getting into touching distance...the High King rounded a corner and ground his horse to a halt, standing over it, just as the game ended!
In the end, I had broken Lothlorien and slain their leader. All my games this weekend were amazing, but I had to award best game to Wyn for this, as this was just so climactic.
Results
Me 5-0 Wyn
Tom 6-2 Rob
James 3-1 Tom
Vince 0-12 Jack
Dain's fearless bubble gave Tom a real edge in his battle with the dead.
James' speed helped him outmanoeuvre the Uruk-hai to claim a narrow victory!
Vince found himself again against an enemy with strong magic (We aren't doing this intentionally!)
Round 5: Fog of War Vs. Phat Hobbits
Matchups
Pre-match up thoughts: I wasn't too alarmed about any of them in particular, figuring I could take the Witch King's legion and remove something tough. James didn't want dwarves for the same reason as the dead in the previous round. We felt he could be good against the Grey company perhaps. Tom would be good against any and we wanted to avoid Vince fighting more magic after the previous round.
I think we put down James as our champion and Vince as our fourth. So when Mordor was an option we gave him the dwarves.
Me (Rivendell) v. Sam (Host of the Witch King LL)
Tom (Iron Hills) v. Paul (The Grey Company LL)
James (Khand/Easterlings) v. Callum (Mordor)
Vince (Goblin Town/Trolls) v. Nick (Khazad-Dum)
Opponent's Heroes: The Witch King, The Shadow of Rhudaur, 2x Barrow wights, Shade and Angmar orc captain
Opponent's Warriors: Angmar orc warriors, Warg riders, Dead marsh spectres
I decided that I didn’t want to be in the open, as although it’d allow Gil Galad and Glorfindel to swing around and flank, it’d also allow Sam to bring his numbers to bear and kill my elves off a lot easier, so I would try to get the battle to be between the two ruins in the middle.
I had deployed with Glorfindel to my left, Gil Galad to my right and Erestor, once again, holding the centre. Sam had deployed in a large formation with the Witch King and Barrow wights to the rear, the Shadow, the Shade and Captain amongst the orcs.
I decided to make my target a Barrow Wight, figuring that they’re fairly easy to kill with two wounds, no fate, while not being an obvious target. I decided to capture the woodland terrain to my left in Sam’s corner and finally to protect Glorfindel, as although he’ll be in the thick of it, he’s a sturdy boy.
I started by shuffling forward half moves for the first few turns, split down the middle to maximise my shooting as the Shade put up his swirling mists. I picked off a few orcs and then fired many shots at the other Barrow Wight, partly as he wasn’t within the Shade’s bubble, and partly to throw out a red herring for Sam, making him highly suspicious of my interest in him.
As the lines closed, I sent the central formation into the gap between the ruins, and brought the others up behind. The Knights tucked in behind the ruins to my right, ready to jump in the late game. As the orcs entered charge range, I threw Gil Galad and Glorfindel into the frontline, flanked by my elves to either side. Both called Heroic Combats, intending to maximise my damage before the magical barrage was unleashed. Glorfindel rolled poorly and was pushed back but luckily neither him, nor his horse were wounded. Gil Galad fared better and slew both orcs before him, before ploughing into the Shade and bringing it down in one hard smash.
Unfortunately, Gil Galad’s rampage came to an abrupt halt, as a paralyse broke through, after he resisted the first and down he went. The Shadow of Rhudaur then cast drain courage on him, and rolled a 6 to channel it! The King withstood the blows and managed to spend a might to stand up at the end of the turn, only to be paralysed again in the next! This time, after a second successful natural 6 to cast on drain courage, and being down to C3 with a -2 from the Shadow and Witch King being nearby, the spectres had no trouble slaying him!
Luckily, Glorfindel stood strong beside him and managed to win his combats turn after turn, consistently killing his foes. Erestor, beside him, was facing an orc or two each turn and also keeping the momentum going. The elves along the line were also doing a good job, as they won the majority of their fights and brought down many of them. Before long, the Witch King's numbers were very thinned out and some of the more precious units were having to join the fray.
Several of the spectres were brought down over the next few turns, and then the Barrow Wight, that I had targeted, was suddenly on the frontline. I couldn't get Glorfindel into him, so just kept getting a couple of elves up against him, bringing him down in his third combat. Glorindel did however slay the Orc Captain in a single combat, the Lord of the West reroll coming in hot. The Witch King disposed of all discretion and bombarded Erestor with Black Darts, eventually getting through his will, fate and killing him. I had, at this time, run my knights around the right hand ruin, to threaten the evil rear, but my real motive was to hurry over to the woods and capture it. Meanwhile, Sam was running a warg rider in the same way towards the ruins on my right hand side. Somewhere amongst this mayhem, I had one opportunity to wound/slay the Witch King, but I opted to strike the orcs also in the combat, to break them and help me even out the numbers.
The game ended and I hadn't quite reached the woodland, but had slain the targeted Barrow Wight, kept Glorfindel unharmed and broken the orcs. They had slain Erestor, their target, but failed to keep the Shade alive or capture the right hand ruin.
Results
Me 9-3 Sam
Tom 12-3 Paul
James 1-7 Callum
Vince 3-12 Nick
Tom's numbers and heavily armoured troops were simply too much for the Grey Company, hammered home by Dain slaying Aragorn!
The might of Mordor was too much for James to overthrow in the end.
And we finally gave Vince a game with no elven blades or magic, so he got to have a nice melee smash up instead.
Results
After five hard fought rounds, we had all had twenty awesome games between us and, in the end, our team had managed to get a record of 7 wins, 2 draws and 11 losses, scoring 73VPs (by my count) with a VP difference of -41, earning us 16th out of 20 teams.
And we were happy to be told, in the awards, that our team had won the Most Sporting prize!
A very proud moment for the team and another highlight for the year! Tom and the Mellon hope to return next year for another Teams throwdown!
Events that I will attend
Oct 19th- Scaring of the Shire III: The House Cup (EAHC)
Nov 23rd- Into the Fires of Mt Doom (EAHC Finale)
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