I started doing this annual post two years ago. (First post for 2022 here: https://eastangliasbg.blogspot.com/2022/12/sams-top-10-what-hell-just-happened.html ) When I thought it would be a fun way to end the year by recounting some of the silliest, most shocking or spectacular bad luck gaming moments of my year. Last year, I added in special mentions for things that I had seen, but not been a part of, as there was one in particular that blew me away. (2023 post here: https://eastangliasbg.blogspot.com/2023/12/sams-top-10-what-hell-just-happened.html )
This year, I took on the recommendation made by one of our locals, James, and included my moments of incredibly good luck! So lets start going through them, note that these are, as usual, not necessarily by odds, but by spectacle.
10.
Good- A Time of Valour (Kieran (Sept))
I am Azog’s Legion/Dol Guldor, Kieran has Boromir, Captain of the White Tower in combat beside Bolg and the Keeper of the Dungeons. I call a Heroic Combat with the latter. Kieran thinks and decides not to call a Heroic Strike or Defence, so as not to let Bolg ‘Master of Battle’ it.
The combat goes off and Bolg rushes Boromir as expected, Boromir contests Bolg’s 6 in combat with a 3 high, including banner reroll. Knowing the danger he’s in, Boromir spends three might to match it.
He then loses the roll off, his horse and three wounds (trapped). He rolls all three fate and has to spend another might to survive. Meaning that he has dropped from full stats to 1 wound, 0 fate and 2 might in one turn.
The next turn, he got another 3 high to Bolg’s 6 and was slain. Denethor blamed Faramir.
Bad- Weekday Warhammer World event (Chris (Sept))
I am using Arathorn’s Stand LL, he has managed to preserve all his might, when my army breaks. He rolls his first courage test and rolls Snake Eyes. He burns all three might, but saves one with the Isildur’s Heir bonus.
He charges the Mouth of Sauron, calls a Heroic Strike (getting it free again), building up to great heroics here…more encouragingly he gets to F10, and so can feint!
He then promptly rolls triple 1, takes two wounds and fluffs his fate. #Anticlimax
9.
Good- Ardacon Doubles w/ James (Ali/Ryan (August))
We were playing as Defenders of Erebor LL. Old Dain is charged by young Dain on his pig. My Dain wins the fight after neither call Strikes and slays Oinky. The following turn, now pigless Dain tries again, but loses for a second time and takes two wounds. He retreats and Thrain comes rushing in to attack my now mightless Dain (Heroic Moves).
Thrain calls a Heroic Strike, with no counter, but Dain wins this too and smashes him with Barazanthual and causes three wounds! Thrain survives on 1 wound and 1 fate, but is understandably shaken.
Dain is then surrounded by Thrain and others and takes just one wound. Before facing a goat rider, who knocks him down on the charge, an Iron Hills warrior and Thrain again.
Showing just how formidable he is, Dain wins the combat, despite the odds, and ends the game on his feet!
There is one that I can call ‘King’!
Bad- Throne of Skulls (Chris (Nov))
My leaders of a New Age army was facing Chris’ White Council.
In the midst of this, Bard II was showing himself to be the weak link, failing two consecutive courage tests (1/2 both times) to help his allies.
Once in combat, he faces Elrond and both call Heroic Strikes. Elrond goes up by one, so Bard excitedly rolls his own..and also goes up by one…
Elrond, who is now out of might, compared to Bard’s two, rolls a 4 high. Bard prepares for an easy win, and spectacularly rolls triple 1, rerolling his banner to be his fifth 1 in a row.
8.
Good- Seven Stones w/ James (Billy/James (May))
The Knight of Umbar sits atop his fellbeast before us, so terrible a foe is he, that he has ripped apart one of our Hasharin, and terrified the other to the point that he accept execution for cowardice, over facing him. (We had a special rule in play for our leader Castamir, that we could reroll courage tests for terror within range of him, but if failed, accept death instead).
So we come to our lesser assassins, a couple of Watchers of Karna. One is killed in combat, and the other is stood before the Ringwraith. I suggest to James, how thematic and cool it would be to have our last assassin kill such a prize.
I roll his courage, and even with the +2 for charging a ‘Terror’ opponent, he gets a whopping double 6! He then defeats the Nazgul in combat and rolls a double 5 to wound, which adding his Hatred of Spirits, scores two! One gets through the fate and he pulls off a moment of true heroism!
Bad- Seven Stones w/ James (Billy/James (May))
In the exact same game, we had a simple but hilarious moment of misfortune. Across the centre of the board was a small stream that we all agreed to play as deep water.
Our entire army was forced to swim across the river (it was Recon), and somehow every single one of them made it, thanks to the lack of heavy armour and shields (playing Harad and corsairs).
Well there was one who drowned…the banner bearer…hmm…
7.
Good- War of the Ninepenny Kings (Ed (Feb))
The scenario in play was Assassination, and having only two heroes, my leader and Bifur, it was obvious who would be Ed’s target.
Unfortunately for me, Ed had Isildur with the Ring. He put it on and savagely attacked Bifur, who obviously lost the combat. But to be fair to him, he did make Isildur spend his final two might to do so. Bifur was in trouble, as there was now six strikes coming at him, with Enchanted Blades active, he was likely to take two wounds and possibly die. But Isildur managed to fluff all twelve blows. And then proceeded to fail every Ring roll for the rest of the game, running in the opposite direction, allowing Bifur to make a hasty retreat!
Bad- Practice Game (Tom (Jan))
My Old Dain was having his first game of the year, and was having a rough one. He fought a Khandish King alongside three Iron Hills warriors for two consecutive turns, losing both times and ending up on 2 might and 1 wound.
He then calls a Heroic Move, which was contested and won by the King, who rode his chariot straight into Dain and flattened him.
Later that game, the same chariot also ran over his son, Thorin III.
6.
Good- Eastern Expansion (Sol/Oliver (April))
I was playing as the Iron Hills, when I got Dain to charge an Isengard Troll while atop his pig. He used his last might point to Heroic Strike, with me hoping to do a little damage and make Sol and Oliver a little more hesitant to throw the troll at me.
Instead Dain won the combat and then rolled four 6s to kill the beast outright!
In the next game, he launches himself into the Troll Chieftain, who is on two wounds. Dain wins this fight too and rolls his first two strikes, scoring another two 6s, not rolling anything less to wound a troll all day!
Bad- Local League Doubles w/ Jim (Jason/Dan (May))
Our Gandalf the White, Denethor and two warriors of Minas Tirith charge the now mightless Cave Drake, with the intention of slaying it and being able to win the game from the momentum that brings.
Gandalf calls Heroic Strike, getting to F9. And all the dice are rolled. To our horror, we get a 3 high, including with our banner reroll. The Cave Drake rolls a 5, and puts itself out of reach of Gandalf’s only might point.
It then immediately swallows Denethor and wins the game.
5.
Good- Eastern Expansion (Chris (April))
It was rough start to Destroy the Supplies, including the Spider Queen and many orcs being shot dead against the Rangers of Mirkwood with my Fell Beings army.
But once combat started, I returned the favour and quickly the ground was levelled. In the last few turns, an incredible series of events occurred; first, Razgush, slays Tauriel, causing a total of 11 wounds! Second, he pushes on to kill another 7 elves personally. At the end of that killstreak, they are quartered. Third, Legolas fluffs five direct hit attempts to kill my Shaman on his final wound, who is keeping my army in line with Fury. Fourth, one spider destroys a second supply, while a Batswarm passes two courage tests to reach my own supply, which is threatened. Before killing the Ranger Captain and a ranger, who were trying to destroy it. And finally, two spiders defeat Legolas and cause 3 wounds to slay him and narrowly win the game!
Bad- Scaring of the Shire 3 (Stephen (Oct))
I’m up against Stephen’s all magic army with my Rivendell army and was taking a magical bombardment from the likes of the Witch King, the Tainted, the Dwimmerlaik, the Shadow of Rhudaur, Barrow Wights and spectres.
In the most disasterous turn, my banner was paralysed, Glorfindel rolled triple 1 to resist an immobilise, Erestor rolled a double 1 to resist a black dart, before rolling a 1 and a 2 for his fate and dying.
4.
Good- Practice Game (Jason (Jan))
Jason’s Dalamyr charges my Thorin III in the late game, he throws a smoke bomb in his face as he approaches and then, with Thorin now in deep, the mounted Knight of Umbar joins in alongside 3 Corsair warriors. Meaning that he was being hit by 16 strikes, if he lost, and, having no fate left, was almost certainly dead.
Jason rolled all his dice and scored a 5 high, while Thorin managed a 6! Not only did he escape the jaws of death, but the Knight of Umbar had spent his last will point on the combat and poofed away!
Bad- Even the Smallest Person (Tom (Jan))
Tom…my nemesis…
5yrs ago, I had played Tom in a fateful game of Heirlooms, where I took it off him with Elfhelm, then fought a hard game to keep ahold of it for the next hour. As we rolled our final priority, I won it on a 2 and triumphantly went to move. I rolled my courage tests and EVERYTHING fled the field…dropping the Heirloom neatly at Tom’s Mahud King’s feet. Well everything fled, except one lone Royal guard in a far corner, allowing Tom’s King to step forward and claim it. Turning my 8-4 victory into a 10-0 defeat immediately. Since then, he has been my white whale.
Allow that to set the scene for when I drew Tom in the opening game of the year, and at last, a chance of revenge! It was Fog of War, and we only had one spare hero each, making defended heroes/targets obvious to each other. I managed to pile many models onto his Khandish Chief (the target/defended hero) in his chariot, and slew him. Upon then breaking Tom’s army, I then just needed the game to end to claim it.
After two rolls that continued the game, my Knight of the White Tower (my defended guy/Tom’s target) rolls his courage test, as I broke, and gets double 2. I use his will and the army bonus to keep him in the battle.
Two turns later, after me begging the game to end, and calling that the roll will be a 3 to torment me, he does it again and flees, causing a 6VP swing. Then having the guy holding my objective for me also flee. The game naturally ends immediately after this and instead of winning 10-1, I draw 4-4. Against Tom, that stung. 😆
3.
Good- Practice Game (Tom (March))
Playing Destroy the Supplies with Rangers of Ithilien against Tom's Host of the Dragon Emperor. I was concerned, not having much to deal with the Easterlings in combat when it came to it. I had brought only 1/3 bows too, so didn't have a lot of ranged threat.
Despite this, on the approach, I managed to get a wound on the Emperor, even with fortification in the way. It goes through all three fate and sticks!
Once the Emperor arrives in combat, he fights Sam, Smeagol, Damrod and a warrior. We both call Heroic Strike and Sam goes to F8, while the Emperor gets to F7. The crowd of unlikely heroes win the fight and only Damrod scores a wound, until Smeagol steps up. He rolls a double 5 to wound, and spending his only might, leaps up onto the palanquin and throttles the Emperor of Rhun!
Bad- Send Forth All Legions (Chris (July))
This was somehow the first time that Chris and I had ever played, despite attending regular events together for 7~yrs. He had an army with three trolls in it (not those ones, these were Troll Chiefs) so I set up a strong frontline to face them in Breakthrough.
I decided that I was going to try to kill a couple of trolls early to cause heavy damage to his army early on. So I threw Glorfindel and Arathorn at one each. Both Strike up well, but over the next two turns, neither, with all their allies involved managed to get a duel roll above a 4, with a total of 24 dice! By the end of that second turn both were dead. The elven warriors managed to put up a good fight afterwards, but couldn't save it.
2.
Good- The Wolfs Lair Returns (Jakub (June))
It was the last turn and a game that I felt I had been certain to lose, with Jakub being a very accomplished player. I was using a mixed list of Azog's Legion/Hunters against his Rohan force.
Jakub won a Heroic Move off and pulled Grimbold back, hiding him on a ruin (my terrain objective). So needing to claim that terrain to stand a chance of victory and presuming that Grimbold must be his defended hero, I charged and surrounded him with a hunter orc and two Gundabad orcs, one being a spear support.
Jakub responded in his own move phase, by dismounting Merry from Eowyn and running him onto what I assumed must be his own terrain piece. Eowyn then ran her horse over and charged, with full wounds and fate, into the hunter orc and Gundabad spear. In the combat phase that followed, they managed to not only beat Eowyn, but also cause three wounds! She then failed a fate and was slain! Grimbold then also lost his fight and failed to push me off my objective.
By the end of the turn, I had kept my defended hero unharmed, taken my terrain piece albeit contested and had broken Jakub. He had failed to kill his target (Fimbul), as when he tried, Fimbul instead one shotted Erkenbrand. He had captured his terrain piece, kept Grimbold unharmed and broken me. So with those objectives, despite the catalogue of misfortune, Jakub would have won 7-5...except I had claimed one last objective, when Eowyn charged me and fell to those two orcs, instead making it a completely undeserved 8-7 victory for me! Jakub was very gracious despite the fact that nothing was landing in his favour throughout, and had still made it a real challenge for me anyway.
Bad- Practice Game (Jason (Feb))
In another game with King Dain, who's becoming a regular in this list, for good and bad reasons. I had him rushing with his Iron Hills dwarves towards Jason's corsairs. He levelled fifteen crossbows and I wasn't too concerned as they would need 4+ to hit and then 6 to wound, so they might cause two wounds if I'm unlucky...
Seven of them hit and five of those wounded Dain...I awoke in the fetal position to Jason's cheers.
Special Mentions
3. (Tom (Battle of Fornost))
Tom hates elves…
So when we were doing the large Battle of Fornost scenario, he commanded some orcs and threw himself at the Rivendell contingent with reckless abandon.
Early on, I spotted that Nazthak was one Heroic Combat away from their banner. I heavily pushed on this idea and at first Tom was unsure, until I asked him if he was going to let an elf tell him he couldn’t have it? The red mist descended and the might was spent! Nazthak did what we expected, cutting down the elf he fought, claiming their shield. But then also beat and killed the banner bearer too, leading to Tom ululating in victory!
Nazthak then held that banner behind enemy lines for several turns, each turn survived a personal victory to Tom! He did eventually fall, but he had earned a hero’s honours.
2. (James (Ardacon Doubles))
My ever-suffering doubles partner, James, has been known to have his own moments of miserable luck.
In this circumstance, we had broken and King Brand was poised to put up a Stand Fast and keep the men in line. But instead James rolled 1/2…muttering and burning 2 will to keep him in line.
The next turn, again depending on the Stand Fast, James uses his last might point to call a Heroic Move…Brand promptly rolls another 1/2 and is off the field before you can ask if he’d do it for a scooby snack?
1. (??? I wish I knew who it was, but alas (Seven Stones))
Tauriel had successfully overcome all foes in the first round of the arena of champions, and had done it in style! Coming out with three might and all four fate, but only one wound still available (the arena awards heroes costing less than 100pts with bonus M/W/F). James and I had been thoroughly spanked out of our own arena relatively early.
She goes into the second round and outlasts a handful of others, looking a clear favourite to win! Damian was watching and beaming!
Then, up steps Gimli, he throws an axe at her and strikes true, causing a wound. Tauriel rolls her fate and gets a 1, the crowd cheers. She rolls another fate, and gets another 1, the crowd gasps… she rolls again, sweat starting to trickle down her forehead…and gets yet another 1! The crowd gasps excitedly! She rolls her last fate…and gets, can you believe it, a fourth 1!! The room erupts! Damian shakes his head mournfully…she spent all three might to save it, only to be cut down by the dwarves a handful of minutes later.
You can hear the glorious moment here on Entmoot’s episode (between rounds 3/4).
https://soundcloud.com/entmootpodcast/entmoot-93-the-charge-of-the-knight-brigade-at-seven-stones
1.
Good- Weekday Warhammer World event (Marcus (Sept))
The final game of the day, I got a Depths of Moria opponent, in Contest of Champions with my Arathorn's Stand LL. Probably one of the toughest matchups that I could have anticipated!
Nonetheless, Arathorn decided to lead with heroism. He deployed front and centre and rushed as many brave men as would follow him into this foe. Before he dies, they get the Balrog down to six wounds, then Halbarad takes up the baton. As he falls, the Balrog is down to two wounds. The remaining rangers get him down to his last.
At this point, I have two Rangers of the North left. One faces a goblin and the other, the Balrog, a Captain and three goblin warriors. The Balrog calls his free Heroic Combat and rips apart the first Ranger, leading the Captain to join the goblin against the remaining Ranger, his two dice against their seven. I throw my dice out and get a 4...they roll and get a 2 high!
With shaking hands, I roll my dice to wound, getting a single 6...I pick up that dice, needing a 5 to pull this off...and he only goes and does it! A lone outnumbered Ranger of the North slew the Balrog of Morgoth!
It is in men that we must place our hope!
Bad- Ardacon Doubles w/ James (Wyn/Gethin (Aug))
Up against Wyn and Gethin's Assault Upon Helm's Deep, we finally got the moment we utterly dreaded, as the bomb was detonated before our frontline, it rolled a 2 for wounds cause and killed heroes and troops alike. Well except the berserker, who had detonated, who rolled triple 6 for his 'You will know no pain' rule and survived, covered in soot!
That was impressive enough, but towards the end of the game... We needed to capture the centre, so I insisted, with an unknown amount of time left, that James calls a Heroic March with his Dale Captain and gets there ASAP. He obliges and immediately takes a ballista to the face killing him. The final punchline being that he flies into the same berserker, wounds him and once again the stubborn bugger just rolls a 6 and refuses to die! He survived the game.
I hope this list of fortune and misfortune has entertained you, and I will work on another list for 2025 and the next edition!
