The Tournament
This was a single day event of 4 games at 550pts for the EAHC league, hosted by fellow blog writer, Kieran. It was our second event since restrictions were released. There were no list building restrictions, but the matches would use a veto system for choosing scenarios after the pool was rolled. In each match, players would roll off and the highest would veto a scenario, followed by the other player losing another. The remaining scenario would be played.
My Army
I had been waiting a good while to try out Helm's Guard and thought this would be a great time to do so.
Helm Hammerhand w/ Horse
Rohan Royal Guard x5 w/ Horses and Throwing Spears
Rohan warriors x10 w/ 1x Banner/Shield, 5x Shields and 4x Throwing Spears/Shields
Rohan Captain w/ Horse, Shield, Heavy Armour and Throwing Spear
Riders of Rohan x4 w/ Throwing Spears
Rohan warriors x7 w/ 2x Shields, 2x Throwing Spears and 3x Bows
Men: 28
BP:14
25%: 7
Game 1- Command the Battlefield (Vs. Tom (Assault on Helm's Deep LL))
Opponent's Heroes- Uruk-hai Captain x2 and Siege Veteran
Opponent's Warriors- Uruk-hai warriors, Uruk-hai Berserkers and a Siege Ballista
I've played Tom several times before but never managed to succeed before. He is an accomplished player, who won the event that I had hosted back in Feb, while I had only won 1 in my 5 games. I vetoed Heirlooms as I didn't want a dicey game that could go against me on sheer bad luck, he vetoed Hold Ground.
My prayers were answered when we got the maelstrom pool, allowing me the chance to surround the ballista. I got my captain to lead the attack on it as a few warriors crept round a small gap to attack the crew behind the rock. Once, I got Helm in the ballista was quickly destroyed and the crew slain.
Now, I had to try and take the majority of the board. As Helm and the Captain led the march down the board. Most of the Uruks pulled around the opposite side towards my infantry block.
The Captain charged a few crossbow warriors with two Royal Guard and spent the rest of the game fighting with them and gradually got them down to the last one.
Meanwhile, Helm led a few Royal Guard towards the lead Uruk Captain's warband and hit them hard. Quickly building up a kill count and thinning out the Uruk ranks.
As time was called, the Rohan infantry formed a line to prevent the Uruks entering their quarter, a cheeky throwing spear killed an uruk in one of Tom's quarters, reducing the ratio of troops to 10 of his to 4 of mine. Then Helm managed to slay three more in it to reduce Tom just below the double.
Because of this, I had won by a flukey throwing spear 4-3, but who knows how it could have turned with another few turns.
Game 2- Reconnoitre (Vs. Archie (Moria))
Opponent's Heroes- Druzhag the Beastcaller, Ashrak the Spiderkin, Groblog and Moria Goblin Captain
Opponent's Warriors- Moria Goblins, Goblin Prowlers, Venomback Giant Spiders, Batswarms, Wild wargs and Warg Marauders
I've never played Archie before but looking at his list, knew this would be a tough list, with its bats, spiders and Druzhag i.e. a great counter to Helm. He got rid of Divide and Conquer as I could isolate half his force and I vetoed Storm the Camp as I didn't want to be walking across the board from one corner.
I went up the centre with Helm, up the right with the Captain and to the left, I sent a unit of infantry to prevent a cheeky escape by a warg and marauder. One makes a break for it but is shot by the Rohan archers. Helm charged a giant spider, while out of sight of any bats and managed to slay it.
On the right, the riders were assaulted by spiders, wargs and goblins. The captain uses both of his might to resist an enraged spider attack, but is slain the following turn as a bat joins in.
In the centre, Helm is trapped by bats, Groblog, prowlers and goblins. Just as his warriors arrive to assist him, he falls. The Rohirrim engage to avenge their king and slay several goblins.
On the right, an unexpected development occurs as one of the three remaining riders spears a spider and pins the warg, allowing the other two to break free towards the edge. The bats give chase but lose the following priority and the horsemen escape.
With the current result sitting at 5-2 and time being called, Archie could only attempt to break me for the draw and he was 4 off. Groblog and the captain managed to slay one and heroic combatted to spread out. An enraged bat tore apart two more and another two were slain in the last few combats. Leaving us at a 5-5 draw.
Game 3- Fog of War (Vs. Sam (Angmar))
Opponent's Heroes- The Witch King, Buhrdur, Barrow-wight and Shade
Opponent's Warriors- Angmar orcs, Angmar Warg Riders and Dead Marsh Spectre
Hoping that a draw would offer me an easier game, I was quite horrified to see that I was up against Angmar with the listed heroes, but then quite relieved to see that they only numbered 21. I have played Sam several times previously with wins and losses, including in a practice game, where Gulavhar had stopped Helm from contributing heavily. However, in his place today was Buhrdur.
My objectives were to kill the Barrow-wight, defend my captain and capture a section of the river.
I deployed centrally and moved slowly forward towards the Angmar army, firing some shots at them as I did so. The Witch King fired a black dart at Helm's horse, forcing him to spend a fate and might point to keep it alive. The following turn, the orc archers managed to shoot over a fence to slay Helm's mount.
The rest of the army, led by the Royal Guard charged into the Orc lines as the Captain hung around at the back. I began whittling down the evil numbers, hindered by Buhrdur and the Shade.
Helm managed to join in and was promptly immobilised and paralysed but luckily withstood the onslaught of blows on 1w, 0f, before responding by cutting down the spectre and an orc to slip through their lines, pursued by Buhrdur, who failed to wound him.
A couple of warriors sat on the section of river as the fighting intensified, Angmar was broken as the Witch King lined up a heroic combat to attack the Captain...but Sam then completely forgot to call it, allowing him to escape the next turn!
Time was called and Helm fought one last time against the Troll but was finally bested and slain. However, I had captured my terrain piece, defended my target and broken Angmar, while they had kept their Barrow-wight alive and captured my ruins, leaving the score at 9-6. But this could easily have swapped round if Sam hadn't had that vital oversight.
Game 4- Lords of Battle (Vs. Paul (Garrison of Dale))
Opponent's Heroes- King Brand, Bard II and Captain of Dale
Opponent's Warriors- Knights of Dale and Dale warriors
In this final matchup, I drew Paul and his Dale army. I was concerned for my horses, given that I knew the dangers of their bows from my time with them a couple of months ago. Paul, unsurprisingly, didn't like the idea of Contest of Champions between the two kings. And I wasn't sure, how best to proceed, do I go with To The Death and have to walk across the board at their bows, or do I go with Lords of Battle and if they shoot my horses dead, have a lot of making up to do? With a lot of reservations, I chose the latter and prayed.
I put my Captain to the front as Paul deployed at the back and called a march to cover the distance quickly. With priority, I then unleashed a hail of throwing spears that, amazingly, managed to take out two of the nine archers, the survivors of which, failed to land any wounds in return. The next turn, the Rohirrim hit like a freight train!
Helm slammed into the Captain as the Royal Guard and Riders smashed into the lines around him and his Captain. He called a free heroic combat and quickly felled the Dale Captain, before moving more centrally and pulling two warriors off his own Captain's back.
The charge did devastating damage and by the end of the turn, Paul had lost 10 of his starting 29 guys! Over the next turn, Helm then ran down Brand and several more troops. The Captain lost a fight and was dismounted.
Bard took up the leadership of Dale and pushed back, taking Helm's fate but there was simply too much damage done as the Rohan infantry joined and surrounded many of the remaining men, killing in most of their combats.
Paul had had some abysmal luck and hadn't played anything wrong, so I felt pretty bad that it had swung so heavily against him, leaving me on a 12-0 victory.
Results
We are in relatively unchartered territory as, with 3 wins and a draw, I was in the area of a podium finish. It would all come down to how the game between the other two potentials went.
By the end of which, I and one other were on the same results. So it went to tiebreakers...
We had the same VPs scored...(30)
We had the same VP difference...(16)
We had the same number of most sporting votes...(2)
Had we played each other? Yes!
Great! What was the result?? A draw
That's right, Archie and I were dead on tied. So Kieran, after running out of tiebreakers, announced us as joint first.
(It should be noted that we rolled to decide who chose their prize first, on which I promptly rolled a 1 to Archie's 4, 'I'm back Baby!!')
Future tournaments that I'll attend
The Seven Stones (1/2nd May) w/ James 2x 400pt Doubles
The Sea of Belegaer (28th May) 800pts
The Road goes ever Ardacon (23/24 July) 650pts
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