Tournament Report- Seven Stones 2026 (23-25th May)

The Tournament 

Seven Stones is the pinnacle of sporting play. Everyone's there to have fun games and bring cool armies. Damian and Tom will allow almost anything, as long as it is done with fun and theme in mind.

It's also a Doubles event and this was it's 10th tournament.

Our Army

We had several ideas, but the one we settled on, was the book version of the Battle of Azanulbizar. (Blog of more depth on the theme coming soon). It was a custom army, with the special rules below).

James

Thrain, King Under the Mountain (Leader)

Warriors of Erebor w/ Shield x6

Nain (Iron Hills Dwarf King)

Iron Hills Spearmen (Erebor Warriors) w/ Spear and Shield x11

Me

Young Thorin Oakenshield

Warriors of Erebor w/ Shield x5

Warriors of Erebor w/ Spear/Shield x7

Young Dain Ironfoot (Grim Hammer Captain)

Iron Hills Mattocks (Grim Hammers) x7

Dwarves: 40

Special Rules

• All models gain Hatred (Azog)
• All models in this force must charge, if able
• If Nain is slain, then Dain will become enraged. He must charge the model that slew Nain, if able, or move as close as possible to them. This overrides the 'Must charge rule'.
• Thorin begins the game with a normal shield. Once he has suffered an unsaved wound, his shield is shattered and he replaces it with the Oakenshield.
• Thrain has been pushed back and lost an eye in the initial fighting. He begins the game with two wounds.
• Iron Hills warbands must arrive in every game via Maelstrom rules, but the opponent shall always be the one to decide where they come on. They never roll in the first turn and may not might the result.

*Disclaimer- I got pretty unwell on the Sat evening and was feeling rough all weekend. But I dosed up and played on. So I may have forgotten something or missed it altogether in our games.

Game 1- Reconnoitre (Vs. Custom Army- War in the North PS3 Game Theme (Josh and Tom))

Gimmicks: Markers were placed on the board that gave us random 'prizes'. These would give us a bonus that we can use in the game and keep all weekend. Also Beleram the eagle would start chained up and have to be freed by Josh and Tom.

Opponents' Heroes- (Three custom heroes) Eradan (Man, Leader), Andrial (Elf), Farin (Dwarf), Beleram (Eagle), Halbarad and Rangers of the North

At face value, our forty dwarves facing twelve opponents in recon seemed great. Until we saw a river across the middle. And, being Seven Stones, it was always going to be deep water. The only crossing was the Buckleberry Ferry, requiring two jump tests.

Thrain and Thorin arrived and began moving up towards the river and the following turn Dain arrived behind Thorin and Nain alongside Thrain. Across from Thrain and Nain were the rangers, and across from Thorin and Dain, the custom heroes.

Thorin reached the Ferry and jumped across both, using a might to not fall in. And the dwarves began to swim…

…it was an utter disaster, as we took off piles of drowned dwarves each time they moved.

I charged a few dwarves into Beleram and tried to do damage as he was chained, but failed to land a single blow over multiple turns. 

Thorin charged a ranger and called a Heroic Combat. Then spent his last might to win the fight as I wanted a good chance on harming Eradan, who was nearby. But Thorin then failed to cause any wounds. His friends beside him managed to slay one however.

The next turn, the iron hills hot water, and all of mine, but Dain and the one who went for a bonus marker, drowned.

Thrain did better and swam across elegantly, but then lost a fight on the other side and took a wound.

We were on the brink of breaking, the Eagle had been freed and we had only killed two of theirs…while 25 of our 40 dwarves had drowned, nevermind those shot or killed in combat. If I remember correctly, Dain was killed by the custom heroes as he pounced on Farin's back, while he swam.

(Left- our guys killed by opponents. Right- Those who drowned.)

When suddenly in that last turn, Eradan suddenly drowned out of nowhere with almost full stats (he had only spent a might), killing their leader for us, Thrain then killed two Rangers and his dwarves took down another two. This meant, quite undeservedly, we had just won 3-2 as their leader was dead by misadventure, ours wounded and we were both broken. 

We only had nine guys left by the end of that turn.

Game 2- Clash of Champions (Vs. Reclamation of Osgiliath (Dan and Liam))

Opponents' Heroes- Boromir (Leader), Faramir and Madril

Opponents' Warriors- Minas Tirith Warriors, Osgiliath Veterans, Rangers of Gondor and Knights of Minas Tirith.

I deployed Thorin opposite Faramir and Thrain across from Madril and Boromir. We rushed at each other head on and a savage battle began. 

Thorin won against Faramir and took away his fate as Thrain and Boromir started killing one another’s troops. Dain and Nain arrived near to Thrain and rushed to assist him.

Thorin then decided to try and build a kill count and started killing off Faramir’s men, feeding him one dwarf at a time as I was getting lucky with the roll offs. Thorin eventually fought Faramir again but couldn’t overcome him, but nor did he fall.

On the other side, Thrain and Nain linked up and tore Boromir’s unit apart and Thrain’s dwarves managed to take down Madril in the thick of it. 

Boromir had gone too deep and Dain rushed with his mattocks and surrounded him. Luckily for Boromir, his might saved him a couple of times and I couldn’t get a shot on slaying his horse. It was around this time that the round was ended.

Thrain (8) and Thorin (6) had outkilled Boromir (10) and Faramir (3), but we had been broken and Boromir’s banner was still standing, giving us a 5-4 loss.

Game 3- Fog of War (Vs. Custom Angmar (Calum and Ashley))

Gimmicks: The Witch King had to summon the Barrow Wights from markers placed by both teams across the board.

Opponents' Heroes- The Witch King (Leader), Barrow Wights, Angmar Orc Captains and Angmar Orc Shaman.

Opponents' Warriors- Warriors of Carn Dum, Angmar Orc Warriors and Angmar Warg Riders

I deployed Thorin to the left and Thrain was put down to the right. I had the Witch King and a Captain before me. The four Barrow wight spawns went into the open areas across the middle of Shelob’s Lair.

We chose to defend Thorin, slay an orc captain, and capture the rear left square of the tunnels.

I was struggling at this point and so am very hazy on what was happening on James' side of the battle, but Thrain put up a very stoic defence, and his dwarves went through the orcs like a hot knife through butter.

They first raised a Barrow wight before me and then a second before james. I called a Heroic Move in the third turn. Thorin rushed forward and attacked the Witch King and banner bearer. He won the combat but fluffed the wounding. The next turn he was surrounded by several foes and the morgul blade found its mark.

Dain had arrived behind Thrain and Nain behind his foes. Dain rushed to reinforce Thrain and Nain started moving up towards the Witch King’s rear on my side as I was spread thin.

Three of my dwarves held a tunnel to my left and two were slain. The last was surrounded by an orc captain and several of his cronies. That dwarf managed to win his fight and land a wound upon the captain, before being ripped apart the following turn. 

Thrain had managed to get an edge over his flank and so Dain rushed past with his dwarves to assist my flank. I believe that in the last turn he managed to personally slay the Orc Shaman.

He arrived and announced himself by cutting down a warg rider that was charging my rear. At this point, time was called.

As it turned out, the only VP scored was the surrounded dwarf, who struck our target captain. Giving us a 1-0 win.

Game 4- The Arena of Champions (Vs. All Our Opponents From Games 1-3)

Our Champions: Nain (Dwarf King) and Young Dain (Grim Hammer Captain)

Josh and Tom's Heroes- Elladan and Elrohir

Dan and Liam's Heroes- Faramir and Madril

Calum and Ashley's Heroes- Two Barrow Wights

A quick breakdown for anyone unfamiliar, in the arena of champions, you put in a hero of 100pts or less. For every 5pts under the 100, including wargear, they gain a might, will or fate point. You must have one of each before adding a second to any and so on.

We rushed towards the rangers, and the barrow wights paralysed Faramir. Nain jumped on him and gave him a good slapping about, I opted not to do so in my turn as twice would have felt cheap, so I charged Madril and believe I took a fate off him.

The Barrow Wights randomised who they would attack as Faramir woke up, and the dice said to target Faramir again, much to Dan and Liam’s disgust. 

The twins then joined the fray and charged James and I, so we charged back in our turn and Dain was quickly killed. The following turn, Nain followed him.

Madril was the next to fall as Elrohir rushed in and cut him down. Elladan, meanwhile, took down the first Barrow Wight. Things were looking to be settling up for an elven victory. When, desperate for a chance for Faramir, son of Gondor, to show his quality, he ran in and slew one elf, then the other and finished by taking down the Barrow Wight!

Whether it was the +3 to wound, the all combats count as trapped, or our incompetence, I’m not sure if it reflects well on Faramir that he was the only one to get paralysed, and won anyway, or poorly on the rest of us.

Game 5- Take and Hold (Vs. Sibling Rivalry (Not their army name but that’s what I'll call it) (Phoebe and Lewis))

Gimmicks: Phoebe and her partner, Josh, were each paired with their siblings, and so would have a family member in each army, with the sibling in the other's team. E.g. If Phoebe had Haleth, Josh would have Hama. They would be able to use each other's might will and fate, once their own ran out on their character, presuming that their sibling is still alive in the other game. So they would end up in a rush to use their stats up before someone else did. This was tracked via a group chat between them.

Opponents' Heroes- Prince Haleth (Leader), Eowyn, Gloin, Nori and Ori

Opponents' Warriors- Riders of Rohan, Iron Hills Warriors and Goat Riders

Because we deploy in opposite corners to our allies, I had Phoebe to my left with Eowyn, Nori and Ori and Lewis to my right with Haleth and Gloin.

We started moving towards the centre (for anyone unfamiliar, this is essentially doubles ‘Hold Ground’). Dain arrived behind Thorin and Nain behind Thrain. 

Haleth moved off to pin Thrain’s warband in place and Nori won the roll off to stop Thorin rushing through the chokepoint with impunity to the centre. Thorin went for a Heroic Combat and this caused two or three cavalry in front of me to fall, and reopened the gap to the centre. Winning the next priority, Thorin then let his dwarves charge either side of the pincer movement and got us within range of the centre. He personally faced Ori and took off a fate.

His dwarves did well and held the line, killing a decent number of the opponents in response to their own losses.

James had Thrain beat Haleth several times but Thrain kept fluffing the wounds, failing to dismount him and Eowyn each time. Haleth eventually pulled back to the centre as time was getting tight. Nain had called a couple of Marches and got his dwarves around the Thrain fight to get in range of the centre with 10+ dwarves.

Dain had similar run some of his dwarves around Thorin’s battle and attacked the opposing Iron Hills in the rear, including a near miss throwing axe almost taking their banner out! Dain ended up in a fight with Gloin and survived the initial barrage, taking a fate off his opponent in the penultimate turn. 

Thorin had overreached and ended up in a world of danger, as he had Gloin, Nori, Ori, and a charging rider of Rohan surrounding him! He shielded for dear life, but a Heroic Strike with Gloin’s last might was making it bleak. He predictably lost the fight, but somehow came away with only a wound or two taken, and saved it with his fate!

By the end, we had claimed the centre (22/19) and they had their banner alive, giving us a 5-2 win!

Game 6- Lords of Battle (Rematch! Vs. Reclamation of Osgiliath (Dan and Liam))

Opponents' Heroes- Boromir (Leader), Faramir and Madril

Opponents' Warriors- Minas Tirith Warriors, Osgiliath Veterans, Rangers of Gondor and Knights of Minas Tirith.

We had rematched our opponents and old foes!

I lined Thorin’s warband up in the centre and Thrain was on the other side of the watchtower. The Gondorians deployed opposite me in one large block. 

We got the initial priority and Thorin led a made charge against a mass of troops outnumbering his own a little under four to one. Thrain catching up not get behind. The Gondorians swallowed up Thorin’s warband and an absolute massacre went ahead. Thorin fought Faramir again but lost and luckily wasn’t wounded. But, of his twelve dwarves, nine were slain!

The next turn, Thrain’s unit joined and struck the rangers. Thorin charged at Boromir, who had got behind his line the previous turn. He was then swamped by enemies on all sides. Despite the numbers and losing the combat, he managed to weather the storm and not get killed.

Thrain’s unit had more luck and took down some of the rangers. Dain had arrived behind us and Nain behind the Gondorians.

Thorin ended up fighting a group of troops alongside Faramir and they kept crossing blades for the rest of the game. And I believe that he didn’t get taken down by the call of the round.

Thrain had more success initially as he managed to rush Boromir and hammered him. Getting a single wound upon the enemy general and watching as he failed all three fate, suddenly left on 2w 0f. Sadly, he couldn’t convert this as Boromir rallied and eventually slew Thrain. But lost to Dain, who had just arrived, however, took no more wounds. 

Nain joined at the rear of their lines, but it was too little too late.

Dan and Liam had fallen one wound short of tripling our count, Thrain had been killed, we were broken and had lost two heroes. In return we had wounded Boromir, for a 16-1 defeat.

Game 7- Seven Stones Domination (Vs. Moria (Michael and Craig))

Gimmicks: They had themed their Moria around the Marvel films; the bats were capes, the objectives included the infinity gauntlet and other cool links.

Opponents' Heroes- Durburz, Groblog, Druzhag, Moria Goblin Captain and Moria Goblin Shaman

Opponents' Warriors- Moria Goblin Warriors, Moria Goblin Prowlers, Batswarms, Gundabad Blackshield Drummers, Giant Spiders and a Cave Troll

I deployed Thorin to the right of the central building, across from Durburz and Groblog. Thrain was on top of the building, looking down upon Druzhag, the Captain and Shaman. 

Thrain began by withstanding an assault from the goblins on the walkway, with Thrain’s troops fighting the ones climbing up the stairs. 

And later he had Druzhag’s spiders climbing up the side, that he also managed to repel. 

Thorin launched an assault forward and held a chokepoint, leaving a couple of dwarves to hold a rear objective. He had some success as they cut down several goblins, losing only one or two of their own. I was careful not to rush out of the chokepoint and risk being overly exposed. So in the next turn, more goblins fell before their valour. 

Thorin then saw an opportunity and charged Durburz. He fluffed the duel and got away without any wounds. Sadly, this became a bit of a pattern and Thorin burnt out alarmingly quickly, keeping his head above water but failing to win any fights.

Dain and Nain arrived at the rear, so Nain rushed up to hold the objectives at the rear, leaving a few on one and rushing to fight the massing goblins on another beneath Thrain. Dain used his might to call Heroic Marches and moved up towards Thorin as quickly as he could. He arrived just in time to save Thorin’s crumbling and outnumbered warband, getting alongside his cousin at the end of the game as a troll was breaking through with Groblog.

A batswarm had flown over Thorin’s unit and was fighting for my rear objective. It killed a couple of dwarves and came alarmingly close to taking it, when a couple of Dain’s mattocks arrived and the bats were one shotted.

Back over the other flank, Thrain’s unit had firmly held the stairs and kept their objective safe. But Nain was floundering under the sheer weight of the goblins’ numbers. A few dwarves contested the objective as Nain held up a large portion of them but they were too few. And worse still, a group of goblins had broken past and slain the protectors of the other rear one!

In the end, we had two objectives that we completely owned without contest, they had four themselves, they had also doubled our numbers on the final one, and they had also broken us, so we ended the weekend on a 17-6 defeat, but a classic game of dwarves v goblins is always a winner, and it was a great one to end the event on.

So we ended the weekend on three wins, three losses and a VPD of -22. But all of our games had been fun and against great opponents, so we couldn't ask for much more. I hope I can make next year's, but that will depend on life at home with an upcoming little one! 😊

Events that I will attend

13th June- What about second breakfast? (Independant Doubles)

27th June- Plant your trees and watch them grow (EAHC)

18th July- You shall NOT be the Fellowship of the Ring (EAHC)

Clearing the Backlog, Part 28 – The Road to the Grand Tournament

As you know, my usual first hobby weekend of the year is the Middle Earth Grand Tournament at Warhammer World. This is normally because it takes place in February, but in more recent years, it's moved to March. Fortunately, this resulted in more planning time for the event, so I was able to easily decide my theme for the tournament. 

My first thoughts were that I didn’t want to paint up new armies for the event, which is something I've done in previous years. This is for two reasons – 1) so that I can spend more time working on other painting projects, and 2) because it will help clear my backlog – I ended up adding 80-odd models by painting two new armies for last year's GT, and whilst they were painted quickly, it meant I hadn’t made any actual impact on my backlog. 

So, to the armies themselves. I toyed around with a few ideas, before deciding that I wanted to take my Easterlings as my evil list – I had a lot of fun painting them last year, so I was quite keen to take them to some events as a result; I took a 650 point list to the 7th City Grand Prix back in February:

The caveat with this list is that the Kataphracts were only added after I accidentally forgot to pack several other models I had originally planned to include. As for the remainder of the list, I felt The Dragon Emperor and Rutabi were both solid heroes, and I had plenty of numbers to back them up. 

Unfortunately, the army only managed to win two out of eight games, losing the other six. However, five of those losses were by very narrow margins, where the game could have gone either way had a dice roll gone differently. I also learned that the cavalry aspect just didn’t work – Kataphracts are heavily armoured, but unlike Riders of Rohan or Knights of Minas Tirith, they don’t have quite the same hitting power – often they would get bogged down and be my first casualties of the game. The other learning point was that Rutabi's warband definitely needed a banner – when the army is fighting in the same place on the tabletop, they benefit from the Emperor's banner, but they tended to struggle in scenarios requiring the army to split up. 

So, with the cavalry dropped, I had to find some replacement numbers – the GT is 700 points, so this also meant I had an extra 50 points to play with, and I decided I needed another hero. Captains would be useful for marches, but I ultimately settled on Brorgir – mostly because I've not used him yet and he's a lovely model, but also for his magic – a tremor in the right place could hopefully do some damage, plus making the Emperor s6 in a fight would greatly help his killing power – there were a few instances at the GP where he was fighting against a heavily armoured opponent, but failed to do any damage, meaning his momentum stalled. 

I also wanted to throw in a couple of War Drakes, again because they're lovely models, and they could be a threat with their ability to reduce a model's fight value and their number of attacks – Aragorn's a lot less dangerous when he only has two attacks instead of three. With Brorgir and the drakes added, I still had some points left over, so I decided to take a couple of archers. Maybe not the most effective Easterling troops, but there's always the chance I could maybe snipe out a horse, a banner or even take off a couple of wounds or fate points off a hero / monster. 

So, with that done, I had my 700 point Evil list:

So, to the good army. Themed match-ups are always fun (and look great on displays), and having taken Host of the Dragon Emperor for my evil list, the only logical choice was the Defenders of Erebor. I had previously taken this list to the GT in 2023, where it did fairly well, winning two games and drawing the other:

Dain and Brand are both very solid heroes, and they add a banner effect to the warriors around them. I did briefly consider adding Bard II and Thorin III Stonehelm, but decided the points limit was too low to justify taking all four heroes – there wouldn’t have been many points left over for warriors, so I would have easily been outnumbered. 

Not shown in this list is that my Captain of Dale was armed with an Esgaroth bow, which they could take in the previous edition. Now however, they can only take a shield, which is built into their points cost. So that was an immediate change to the list. I also decided to scrap the ordinary Warriors of Dale and simply run a front line of Knights of Dale – they have the same fight value, a slightly better defence and it also means my entire front rank will have +1 to wound when charged. Despite the banner bonus for the army list, I also kept the physical banner, because you need one for scenarios where victory points are available for having a banner left on the board – there's a few of these in the Matched Play Guide, and considering you play six games at the GT, there's a strong chance of playing at least one of them

I kept the dwarves' warband the same, given that it worked very well last time – hopefully they should make a solid anchor for either the centre or a flank, with the two crossbows hopefully adding some extra firepower. Tweaking done, my Good GT List was also ready!

So, the armies are decided, and I don't need to paint anything either! This is quite a relief considering that when I last took Knights of Dale to the GT, I was up until 1:45am on the Saturday morning painting them… that just left the display board! 

I've built some big boards in the last couple of years, taking a 2' x 2' board to last year's GT – I wanted the board to be one of my best, but unfortunately there were a few things that didn’t go the way I wanted to – particularly the attempt at creating a water effect using rippled plastic sheeting – the glue refused to dry, and was still visible on the Sunday, two days after I'd applied it. So, I decided to keep it simpler this year, and also tried to use up some scrap pieces of material from last year's board. 

I knew I wanted the board to be the valley that sits before the gates of Erebor, but I also didn’t want it to be a completely flat, knowing from watching The Battle of the Five Armies that there were several raised areas before the gates. I ultimately decided I wanted a two-tiered board, which would allow me to set up some vignettes of the defenders of the mountain holding back the Easterling horde. As they were smaller warbands,  I decided to put Dain and the Dwarves on the lower tier, fighting off the Dragon Emperor and his Black Dragons, whilst Brand and the Men of Dale faced down Rutabi and her Easterlings on the tier above.

My starting pieces for the board were an A3 photo frame (these are really useful for making display boards, which gave me a nice black border to complement the board, and some Styrofoam I could use as the base. I built up gradual layers of foam, before shaping the foam with a hot wire cutter so create a slope up to the higher tier. I then managed to find a plaster-cast rock face lurking in the box of scraps, which quicky became a cliff face on the lower tier. Once I was happy with the shape, I covered the entire board in filler, to cover any gaps in the foam and generally tie everything together

So, to painting. The armies used the same basing scheme (dark brown, drybrushed with lighter khaki colours), so I simply copied it for the board on a larger scale. The rocks were also basecoated brown, but were given grey drybrushes rather than khaki so that they stood out. I then touched up the edges with black acrylic paint, and the board was almost done!

To finish the board, I added the same static grass and tufts that were on my model's bases, so that the army blended in nicely, but taking care to keep it sparse, rather than flock the whole thing. With the board done, I added the models, and the Battle of Dale was complete!

As to the games themselves, sadly results did not go my way. Although all of my games were very close finishes, I ended the weekend with a single win and five defeats. Not to say the games weren’t enjoyable - in most cases it came down to either a single turn / phase where things just didn’t quite go my way - the new 20VP scoring system is a huge improvement to matched play in my opinion, given that it gives you much more opportunity to score points in games than the previous 12VP system.

So, with the GT out of the way, my attention turns to the next weekend on my hobby calendar, and it’s one of my absolute favourites - Seven Stones! Once again Sam and I are pairing up, and we think this year’s army is going to be a lot of fun. Stay tuned to see what we come up with!

Tournament Report- EAHC Teams Event 2026 (18th April)

The Event

Similar to how the Warhammer World Teams events are run, teams are made up of four players; two good and two evil. No one within the team can use a hero that has already been used within the team.

Matchups would be slightly different though, a pool is rolled for and each team will see what their opponents’ lists are. They then must each choose one of the scenarios from that pool so that each scenario is chosen by a player from each team. This decides the pairings within the teams. You can either play the scenario that you think fits each of your players best, or try to predict what scenario your opponents will choose for themselves and attempt to pair accordingly.

Our Team

Our team was the same as our first for the Warhammer World’s first team event; Tom and the Mellon (Myself, Tom, Jake and James). Tom and James would be our good players, while myself and Jake would be the evil ones.

Our Armies

Tom

James

Jake

Me

Round 1 Vs. Boil ‘em, Mash ‘em, Stick ‘em in a List

Pairings

Me (Grand Army of the South) v Sam (Usurpers of Edoras) playing Destroy the Supplies

Tom (Army of Thror) v Kieran (Lindon) playing Retrieval

Jake (Lurtz’s Scouts) v CJ (Ugluk’s Scouts) playing Seize the Prizes

James (Reclamation of Moria) v George (The Eagles) playing Treasure Hoard

Game 1

No pics for this one because I’m a pro at journalism and forgot.

Raza target: Freca

At deployment, I had Suladan to my right flank, and the Harad King along with Raza to my left. Sam had deployed Freca to my right and Wulf with Lord Thorne to my right. 

Sam began moving forward with most of his guys. Freca’s men shuffled forward a little and the archers got up against cover. Wulf led the other half of the army down my right side towards Suladan. I held firm in order to try and weaken his army with shooting. 

Having a low defence army and considerable shooting on either side, I called a Heroic Shoot with Raza. I intended to thin out Sam’s shooting to give me an edge. But not even one of my thirteen archers got as far as rolling to wound. 😆 Sam returned fire and luckily had no more luck than I.

We had a similar approach in the next turn, but this time I directed my bows at his melee force that was seeming to prepare to come at me down the left. I had better luck this time and killed three of them. Sam’s shots, in return, killed a couple of my archers.

On the right, Wulf and the traitors rushed towards me. Fortunately, their throwing weapons failed to find a mark. And the next turn, I called a Heroic Move to charge them. We were surprised to see the Haradrim manage to hold their own and kill a few of the traitors. Wulf had charged around the flank into a couple of my guys. During the shoot phase, I turned some bows on the right and fired at Wulf, scoring a hit and killing his horse. Suladan, saw his chance and Heroic combated off his opponent, in order to trap the dismounted Wulf. He then got a five high and was forced to spend might to avoid almost certain death. 

In turns after, the Haradrim held firm for a long while, and Wulf fought Suladan again, taking a wound and going down to 1m, 2w and 0f. But managed to bring him down later as the numbers came to bear. Eventually, I couldn’t keep them off of the right supply and they destroyed it.

Back on the left, Sam had pulled back after losing a handful of guys to shooting. And I was seeing my right under pressure, so decided to apply pressure of my own. I left five archers to cover the central and left supplies from bird attack and the King led a rush up the centre at Freca’s men. 

We withstood shooting on the approach, picking a few off in return through the gaps we could find and once in range, charged in. The King saw a golden opportunity to catch them with their pants down, and charged in. He called a Heroic Combat and ran around the side of the warband, right into Freca. He won the combat and suddenly the enemy leader was on the floor with six strikes with bane of kings raining down on him. If I could get three 5+s with rerolls, I would kill the leader and potentially, cause the collapse of the flank, without the fight value advantage. This could then help break them, and maybe allow me to destroy a supply or two in kind, potentially winning the game! I managed to score two, and Freca went down to 1m, 1w and 0f in his efforts to survive. 

The Harad King was then brutally surrounded and ripped apart by angry hill men for his actions. Raza took up the lead of the flank and got to the front. If I could just get him to Freca, I could still secure it. But sadly, it was not enough. 

The game ended with me broken, one of my objectives destroyed, meaning Sam had destroyed more than me, he had protected his banner, and slain my leader while I had wounded his. So I had lost 14-1, but it felt closer.

Results 

Me (Grand Army of the South) 1 v 14 Sam (Usurpers of Edoras)

Tom (Army of Thror) 0 v 18 Kieran (Lindon)

Jake (Lurtz’s Scouts) 4 v 6 CJ (Ugluk’s Scouts)

James (Reclamation of Moria) 17 v 3 George (The Eagles)

We thought James had been the expected defeat for this round, but kudos to him, he pulled it off.

Round 2 Vs. The Four Horsemen

Pairings

Jake (Lurtz’s Scouts) v James (Atop the Walls) playing To the Death

James (Reclamation of Moria) v Nick (The Black Gate) playing Lords of Battle

Me (Grand Army of the South) v Phil (Umbar) playing Assassination

Tom (Army of Thror) v Will (Rivendell) playing Contest of Champions

Game 2

Raza target: Delgamar

*Through this round, I had Tom to my left, a notorious elf hater (hence the team name), up against Will, a man who is fiercely pro elf, in contest with Thror v Glorfindel. So for the 2hrs, I was hearing the occasional yelp or terrified squeal from Tom.

I knew off the bat that this would be a tough fight, as Phil had a literal assassin army for assassination. I had chosen the King for my assassin, as his horse and bane of kings could be crucial, and targeted the Bo’Sun.

We deployed very closely and I lost the initial priority, so called a Heroic Move, as I was worried about how many men that I’d lose to the corsairs throwing weapons. Phil didn’t contest it, and I saw Delgamar right behind his frontline. 

I threw Raza into the guy in front of him, and piled the Haradrim into the rest. In the combats, we managed to slay a few and lost a few in return, but crucially, Raza had called a Heroic Combat and got into Delgamar. He won the fight and lunged hard with his spear, managing to get him down to 1m, 1w and 0f. 

The following turn was a similar setup as I called the move to charge again, but this time, I lost every single fight. Even Raza failed to beat the almost dead Delgamar. Phil then ended the turn by using his rule to have a Hasharin assassinate Delgamar and pass leadership to the Bo’Sun. 

This meant that now the Bo’Sun was potentially worth up to 15VPs…I HAD to get him. I had second consecutive turn of losing a lot of fights and men, so was getting desperate, as I knew that I had to keep the flank open, to allow me a shot at the new leader. So I called a Heroic Move with Suladan’s last might, who was right on the edge of the line. It had to be him in my mind as Raza was stuck behind troops and couldn’t reach where I wanted Suladan to get.

Suladan wanted to get on top of the Bo’Sun and potentially slay him, but some control zones were stopping him. So he charged into the rear. I then wanted to get the Harad King in instead but he wasn’t able to get past Phil’s frontline. 

It was here I realised my mistake, as Phil then rushed a Hasharin over and trapped Suladan along with several troops. I had given in to frustration and now my leader was going to pay for it. Unsurprisingly, Suladan was absolutely destroyed.

For the rest of the game, I was just hoping for a sudden shot at the Bo’Sun but Phil was careful with his positioning and didn’t give me that chance. Raza and the King fought side by side against the two Hasharin. The former fell in the final turn, but the King managed to stay standing and deal a wound onto his would-be assassin. 

By the end, I hadn’t managed to get near the Bo’Sun, but Phil had got the correct Hasharin to slay his target, Raza, he had broken me, kept his assassin and my target alive and killed my leader. I had kept my assassin alive, just! So I had lost 20-1.

Results 

Jake (Lurtz’s Scouts) 9 v 11 James (Atop the Walls)

James (Reclamation of Moria) 0 v 20 Nick (The Black Gate)

Me (Grand Army of the South) 1 v 20 Phil (Umbar)

Tom (Army of Thror) 0 v 20 Will (Rivendell)

A rough one for Tom and the Mellon, by the end of this round, we were dead last and three places beneath ‘Team Wooden Spoon!’

Round 3 Vs. Nellowship of the Ferds

Pairings

Tom (Army of Thror) v Brin (Kingdom of Khazad Dum) playing Hold Ground

James (Reclamation of Moria) v Ed (Beornings) playing Heirlooms of Ages Past

Me (Grand Army of the South) v Alex (Moria) playing Sites of Power

Jake (Lurtz’s Scouts) v James (Army of Carn Dum) playing Command the Battlefield

Game 3

Raza target: Durburz

I had won the priority roll off and so got Alex to arrive first. He got a 2 for Durburz, so I put him close to the corner of the South-East. Next Druzhag rolled a 3, so I put him a little higher up but also close the the South East. Finally the cave drake got a 5 and came on near Druzhag.

I then rolled 2s for my entire army. Alex chose to bring the Harad King on in the middle of the Southern edge, Suladan close to the South West corner and Raza near the North West corner. 

The King lined up his archers and fired at the approaching cave troll in the second turn, causing a single wound. Durburz, Druzhag and the Drake were bearing down on him and I felt that he was going to die, but I could buy time for the rest of my forces to fortify objectives. The cave troll ran in and charged a couple of my guys. So I ran my guys forward in response, to fight the goblins. The King charged one with a warrior and called a Heroic Combat. They killed the goblin and then he ran forward and trapped the cave troll. We won the fight and the troll was slain before the King even had to roll.

In the next couple of turns, the King would be charged by a couple of goblins, win and slay them. The Cave Drake was charging my guys and trying to hurl them at him, but failed her intelligence test and threw them at a random archer instead. My King finally lost a fight in the third combat and was ripped apart by enraged goblins, but had paid for himself very well.

Suladan’s unit, meanwhile, had moved up and the infantry passed through a tunnel to the South West objective, the South East was claimed by a lone goblin. I moved so that my Abrakhan Merchant Gusrd formed a line across an alleyway leading from where the goblins were to the objective and backed them with spears. Suladan and his raiders hung around the left side and the raiders fired pot shots at the Cave Drake but failed to land a blow. 

Raza had sent two bows and two spears to hold the North West objective and the rest of his warband went with him towards the North East, which had Druzhag’s spiders and wargs heading for it.  

We both got there at a similar time and clashed hard, a few Harad were torn up by angry beasts. But Raza made his presence known as he speared both spiders and helped to kill the wargs off. Their job now was to just sit on the objective. 

Back in the South, the goblins and drake finished off the Kings men. Then the Drake led the way toward my blockade. Realising one they got there, that it wasn’t going to fit through, so killed a few of them and then rushed around to slaughter my raiders who were trying to snipe the goblin on the South East. The game then ended her due to time.

I had sole claim over three sites and Alex had one, we had broken one another, and he had slain my second most expensive hero (the Harad King), giving me a 10-6 win.

Results

Tom (Army of Thror) 17 v 2 Brin (Kingdom of Khazad Dum)

James (Reclamation of Moria) 8 v 10 Ed (Beornings)

Me (Grand Army of the South) 10 v 6 Alex (Moria)

Jake (Lurtz’s Scouts) 7 v 6 James (Army of Carn Dum)

A great round for us, our only defeat was a narrow one, despite James not being the one to find the Heirloom!

Round 4 Vs. A Chance for Zach to Show his Quality

Pairings

James (Reclamation of Moria) v Ben (Cirith Ungol) playing Domination 

Jake (Lurtz’s Scouts) v Matt (Grand Army of the South) playing Capture and Control

Tom (Army of Thror) v Zach (Riders of Eomer) playing Breakthrough

Me (Grand Army of the South) v Ben (Lothlorien) playing Stake a Claim

Game 4

Raza target: Galadriel

I deployed my King to the right, Suladan to the left and Raza in the centre. Ben deployed his elves in a block beside his rear objective. In my experience, the player who gets a good start in this scenario for fortification points, generally wins, so that was my strategy, take all three in the middle and hold them as long as I can.

Suladan and Raza bunched up and marched for the central Ford (the three central objectives lay on the river (L-R on a bridge, on the Ford, and in the water). Meanwhile, the King made for the right objective and a couple of warriors and my raiders went for the left. I left two bowmen on the rear one.

Ben also moved for the centre and left his wood elf sentinel on his rear, but also moved his wood elves towards my king.

The shooting had no casualties so we went into the next turn. Ben got priority and so carried on his march. I realised that he’d left a couple of wood elves in range of my king so ran forward and cut them down. On the bridge, the two warriors ran forward and lay down to hide from archers. I got within range of the Ford and claimed the middle too. 

The following turn my king was charged by a wood elf that he took down. And on the Ford the fighting started in earnest as our lines locked. I kept Suladan close by to give me plenty of rerolls and the following turn, charged him in as I wanted to break his flank to envelop him. Suladan quickly ended up burning his might over the next few turns as the elves piled numbers into him, alongside F6 guards of the galadhrim court. 

I decided to send in my raiders, who had been shooting off the bridge and sent one towards the sentinel, hiding behind the dead mumak and the other two into the rear at the left. 

My king had got very bolshy and charged into two wood elves, before being surrounded by five in total. He won the fight and killed three. The turn after, his warriors joined and killed the last two with him in a Heroic Combat. This sent them to the centre to try and relieve the pressure there and him around the back to the sentinel. The following turn, he can’t see the sentinel, due to the elven cloak and distance, so runs onto the objective to neutralise it instead. The raider from the other side rushes over and draws his bow. But is sang a song and runs off instead. The sentinel charges the king but is cut down. I now hold four of the objectives, as the elves had slightly better numbers on the fifth.

Over the last few turns, the elves come dangerously close to killing the trapped Suladan, but he gets away wounded (1w, 0f) and then takes all of Celeborn’s fate away in the last turn. Raza had been inching towards Galadriel, who had spent two fate against a warrior, I hoped my assassin could make a sudden end to her. But simply didn’t get the opportunity.

As the game ended, I had triple the fortification points (60/19), held more in the last turn, he had wounded Suladan and we had broken each other, giving me a 15-2 victory.

Results

James (Reclamation of Moria) 1 v 13 Ben (Cirith Ungol)

Jake (Lurtz’s Scouts) 7 v 14 Matt (Grand Army of the South)

Tom (Army of Thror) 10 v 5 Zach (Riders of Eomer)

Me (Grand Army of the South) 15 v 2 Ben (Lothlorien)

A nice even matchup to finish, with a good split down the middle for results.

Overall Results

At the end of the day, we had managed to win 1 matchup, drawn 1 and lost 2. Won 6 of our 16 games and we had scored 107VPs and conceded 170VPs. So we ended in 6th place of the 8 teams, which wasn’t bad, considering how rough we were looking by the end of round 2.

The podium ended up being:

3rd: Fellowship of the Nerd

2nd: Boil ‘em, Mash ‘em, Stick ‘em in a List

1st: Squirtle Squad

Congrats to them all, and to ‘A Chance for Zach to Show his Quality’ for taking home ‘Best team armies’ and ‘Most sporting team’.

Events that I will attend

Fog of War 4 (TO) (16th May)

Seven Stones (23-25th May)

What about Second Breakfast? (13th June)