The Tournament
This was a new format for a tournament. Teams of four, comprised of two good and two evil players, would face off against each other in each round. The Teams would decide the matchups thusly:
Both teams see all the opponent's army lists and volunteer a player (A). This player is unveiled to the opposing teams.
Both teams then volunteer two more players (B+C). Player A from each team chooses an opponent from these two (lets say B) and the remaining player (D) plays against unchosen player (C).
This was a team event so it was all about trying to get the best results on the whole. Major/minor victories were in place to get better Tournament Point results for the team.
Our Team
Me (Thranduil's Halls/Beornings)
Since both evil slots had been taken on our team, quickly, I thought about what army I hadn't used in a while, that also fitted into our theme of 'Defence of the North'. My focus quickly fell onto the elves (last seen at a tournament in 2019). Thranduil is well known to be a solid leader, so I chose him firstly, adding in the additional elven blade and heavy armour to make him a good solid combat hero. I also decided to add the circlet of kings as I suspected that I'd be outnumbered often (I naturally forgot to use it completely in all but 2 games).
I then had to think about who else would be in the army, my initial thought was to get a captain of some sort, but then my weakness for named heroes prevailed. I was tempted by Legolas for the shooting but decided that I could get plenty in my army without, so settled on Tauriel, as I figured that while outnumbered, it'd be a good idea to have a hero who gets better with the more foes he (or in this case she) faces.
My last hero was chosen simply because I wanted an excuse to buy the model and I realised was a green ally. Grimbeorn joined the fray and I was excited to try him out, as bears make everything better.
So my final list was:
Thranduil, King of the Woodland Realm w/ Additional Elven Blade, Heavy Armour and Circlet of Kings (L)
Palace Guard x4 w/ 1x Spear, 2x Spear/Shield and 1x Spear/Banner
Mirkwood Cavalry x2 w/ Shield
Mirkwood Elves x10 w/ 5x Elven Bow, 3x Shield and 2x Elven Glaive
Tauriel
Mirkwood Rangers x3
Mirkwood Elves x8 w/ 5x Elven Glaive and 3x Elven Bow
Grimbeorn
30 guys
Jake (Army of Thror)
To answer the question, we originally had another local, Will, on our team. But he was forced to drop out and had been intending to bring the 'Defenders of Erebor' Legendary Legion. Jake offered to take the team space and could offer Army of Thror. We took him up instantly.
Jake's army was:
Thror (L)
Guardians of the King x6
Erebor warriors x3 w/ Spear
Thrain
Erebor warriors x10 w/ 5x Shield and 5x Spear/Shield
Young Thorin Oakenshield w. Oakenshield
Erebor warriors x10 w/ 5x Shield and 5x Spear/Shield
Grim Hammer Captain
Erebor warriors x10 w/ 5x Shield and 5x Spear/Shield
43 dwarves
James (Assault on Lothlorien)
Fellow blog poster, James, decided to take the night time ambush legion, but decided that he wanted to focus more on beasties and melee than shooting. He also bulked right up on the numbers and got the largest force in our team with exactly double my own size.
James' army was:
Muzgur (L)
Mordor orcs x12 w/ 4x Shield, 5x Spear, 2x 2h and 1x Banner
Orc Trackers x3 w/ Wargs
Druzhag the Beastcaller
Moria Goblins x11 w. 4x Shield, 4x Spear and 3x Bow
Ashrak
Giant Spiders x4 w/ Venomback
Orc Captain w/ Shield
Mordor Orcs x10 w/ 4x Shield, 4x Spear and 2x 2h
Wild Warg Chieftain
Bat Swarm
Wild Wargs x10
80 guys
Tom (Fell Beings of Mirkwood)
And finally we come to Tom, my old nemesis, and for this weekend, ally. Tom, how can I put this? He has the same sort of love for elves as Beorn holds for orcs. He despises them, often calling them obscene names and ranting about them. He holds a complete inability to control himself and not rise to the bait when elves are dangled before him.
So when this legion was released, we told Tom that he simply HAD to take it. It was a Legendary Legion tailored exclusively to him and we wanted to channel that rage against elves to relentlessly attack and defeat them.
Tom's army was:
Razgush (L)
Mordor orcs x11 w/ 5x Spear, 5x Shield and 1x Banner/Shield
Orc Trackers x3
Bat swarm
Mordor orc Captain w/ Shield
Mordor orcs x11 w/ 6x Shield and 5x Spear
Orc Tracker
Mordor orc Shaman
Mordor orcs x3 w/ Shield
Orc Tracker x3
Orc Drummer
The Spider Queen
Giant Spiders x6
Fell Wargs x6
Bat Swarm
51 guys
And there we had it, our four armies written and thematically turned out that Tom and I, arch-rivals, had coincidentally taken sworn enemies as our armies. Now, we needed a name. After some brainstorming, we settled on deciding that, since we were all elf friends, except for Tom, we would be...
Tom and the Mellon*
Over the weeks leading up to the event, James came up with multiple ideas for the theme, such as name badges...
Dice...
And also some melon sweets for opponents. I, decided that Grimbeorn needed his own dice too.
The teddy bears were on the '1', making it quite an appropriate symbol, when he fails to kill. We were now ready for our battles.
*I should also mention that this team name was created before Jake joined us. After months of 'Mellon this' and 'Mellon that', Jake suddenly asked us (about 3 days before the tournament), what the melon thing was all about? It was at this point, we realised no one had explained it to him, and he must have assumed we were some bizarre cult dedicated entirely to large fruit. He had also been going along with the entire thing without question.
Game 1- Vs. Pippin Ain't Easy (To the Death)
We put out Tom, as we felt that he would have the best matched army to the majority of these armies. We then put Jake and James as the challengers to their first player (Assault on Helm's Deep) as I would be dependent on shooting to gain a big advantage in this game. Tom was offered a choice between Depths of Moria and the Gondorian army. I felt that with my three big heroes, I stood the best chance of taking down the Balrog so offered to take that on for Tom.
After the matchups, our pairings were:
Me (Elves and Bear) v (Felix) Depths of Moria
Jake (Dwarves) v Assault on Helm's Deep
James (Night-time orcs) v Return of the King
Tom (Elf hating orcs) v Minas Tirith/Fiefdoms
We were relatively happy with these matchups as we were getting a feel for the pairings system, the only one that we weren't very happy about, was James' orcs and goblins fighting the army of the dead.
My opponent's army
Heroes: The Balrog (L) and 3x Moria Goblin Captains
Warriors: Goblin Drum, Goblin Prowlers and Moria Goblins (Lots)
I felt relatively comfortable against this army as I knew that, of our team, I had the army best suited to dealing with the Balrog. Thranduil and Grimbeorn could hold him back and deal a fair number of wounds. I'd just sit back for the opening and pepper the goblins with arrows to thin their lines first.
I deployed in and around a woodland towards the back, and began the battle by peppering the goblins with arrows. I had Thranduil towards the left, Tauriel in the centre and Grimbeorn to my right. Felix had, rightly, sent his drumming crew round behind a house, well within his half of the board.
Several goblins were felled by bow fire, when Grimbeorn went for a 'Hail Mary' shot and using a point of might, scored a wound on the Balrog with his great bow!
After another couple of turns of the goblins approaching and taking the volleys, Grimbeorn found himself in range of the Balrog's whip, so he turned himself into bear form and charged the demon, he was followed by two elves, one supporting the other. A series of unfortunate events then occurred...
First, the goblin prowlers tossed their throwing knives into the combat, one went through and hit the elf square in the throat, killing him and removing his spear support from the fight at the same time. The combat began, and I called a Heroic Strike with Grimmers, he went up to F10, a good start, the Balrog then rolled a 4 highest! Even better! Grimbeorn then rolled a 2 highest...
This was followed by the Balrog rolling to wound and getting 6, 6, 6 and 4... Grimbeorn followed this by rolling all three fate and getting 3, 1 and 3. The first combat of the game, the Balrog has just ripped apart a quarter of my army and not even broken a sweat.
It wasn't a great start, I'll admit.
I decided that I had to take fate into my own hands, I launched into an all out assault on the side farthest away from the Balrog, in an attempt to kill as many goblins as I could before having to face the leader.
I lost the vital heroic move to charge into the goblin lines, luckily I had stayed ~3" back to avoid them being able to envelop me, but it stopped me throwing Thranduil and Tauriel into as many goblins as I could. I did, however, manage to avoid letting the Balrog join the battle again for a couple of turns, he tried anyway, whipping a couple of guys to death.
But, I couldn't keep him out indefinitely and a Balrog sized space was left in front of Thranduil as I lost a heroic move off. The elven king was pounced on and called a heroic strike against the beast, winning the fight, but failing to wound. He did the same again after but again, failed to cause damage.
Tauriel, meanwhile, was having a rough game, she was losing fights with many more attacks, failing to wound often and fluffing heroic combats. Eventually, partly due to her ineffectiveness, my casualties were piling up compared to the goblins, despite my early prowess with shooting and I broke. Thranduil's luck against the Balrog ran dry and he was slaughtered by the enemy leader. Tauriel, continued to fluff her rolls and before long, the last few isolated elves were brought down to a quarter.
Results:
Me 12-1 Major Loss
Jake 6-5 Minor Win
James 5-3 Minor Loss
Tom 8-0 Major Loss
Team total TPs- 4
Game 2- Vs. Essex Rollin Machine (Domination)
For this matchup, we decided to put forward Jake first, as we didn't want him fighting against a cavalry army in a spread out scenario, and this way he could choose. We put forward James and Tom as the challengers to their first, which was Mordor. They had put forward Army of Thror and Riders of Theoden as challengers, so I offered to take the Rohirrim, as I felt I had a good army to face them.
After the matchups, our pairings were:
Me (Elves and Bear) v (Jani) The Riders of Theoden
Jake (Dwarves) v Army of Thror/Garrison of Dale
James (Night-time orcs) v Isengard
Tom (Elf hating orcs) v Mordor
These were not bad matchups for us at all, the only armies that concerned us were the Army of Thror mirror match, due to the tough frontline Jake would face and the Riders of Theoden, but we had confidence in them.
My opponent's army
Heroes: Theoden (L), Eomer, Deorwine, Dernhelm and Elfhelm
Warriors: Rohan Royal Guard
I knew that this was going to have to be played carefully, as I have been on the receiving end of a pasting by Theoden and friends multiple times prior and had never bested them. However, I spied woodland and a ruin, that I could fortify to gain an upper hand and prevent the flanking.
I deployed Thranduil just inside the doorway into the ruins, to avoid him being charged by more than one horseman, put some archers in the windows and filled the gaps of the ruins with elves. I deployed Tauriel's warband over to the left hand side of the board in the woods, where they would have shots to take from safety. Grimbeorn deployed behind the fenced off field to give him time to turn into a bear.
Rohan got the first priority and charged forward, Royal guard hit Thranduil and ran around to my right, while Eomer joined an attack on the left of the ruin. Grimbeorn failed his bear roll and so charged a Royal guard before him. On the right, I rushed forward to engage the Royal guard before they could charge. And my two cavalry, counter charged Eomer.
In the combat phase, Thranduil slew his opponent, while on the right, another was dismounted. On the left, Eomer was dismounted too, as Grimbeorn hacked down the Royal guard before him with his axe.
I called a heroic move with Grimbeorn the next turn, after gaining priority and Jani calling his own, as I needed him in bear form to stay relatively safe. I got lucky and won the roll off, getting my bear to arrive and charge into a Royal guard. The Rohirrim then did their counter and, to my delight, left me an amazing hurl opportunity (See below pic). Thranduil rushed out of his doorway and grabbed hold of Elfhelm, who had been left exposed.
In the combat phase, Theoden called a Heroic combat and I worried, would somehow ruin my hurl, I got lucky as it seemed to not have been noticed, as Theoden then ran behind the hurl! I could dismount him, Gamling, Dernhelm and one/two Royal Guard with even a mediocre throw here. Naturally, however, I lost the combat and, with a tear in my eye, watched the chance slip away.
Elfhelm called a Heroic Defence and so I got Thranduil to take out his horse, then remove a fate point.
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The next turn, I felt that I had forced the Rohirrim to commit enough into the main fight so I sent Tauriel with all her glaive wielding elves around towards the central objective, then onto the rear one and finally the rear right one, claiming the two at the back.
Theoden decided that he wanted to get rid of the bear, so he led the charge alongside, Eomer, Deorwine and a Royal Guard, trapping the beast. I got very fortunate as I won the combat with my last might point on the bear and then successfully rended the king to death. Thranduil had called a heroic combat against the trapped and heroic defending Elfhelm, who he, with his elves, slew. They used the movement to push closer to the left flank as the elves in the arches held against the charging Rohirrim, but were taking casualties.
In the next couple of turns, Thranduil found himself on the receiving end of a furious cavalry charge, as Dernhelm, Deorwine, Gamling and Royal guard charged him. The first time, he won and dismounted Eowyn and Merry. The second, he had pushed his luck far enough and fell to a flurry of blades as Rohan spent a lot of might to confirm the kill with heroic move, strike and adding to the wounding rolls.
The celebration of the Rohirrim was short lived, however, as Grimbeorn, just behind this combat, barged Eomer and the Royal guard off and slammed into Gamling. The bannerman was brutally mauled and slain, just after Rohan had used so much might..
In the last few turns, some Royal guard pushed back to the centre objective and fought a few archers of Tauriel's unit for it's control, managing to just have more men on it. Eomer, Eowyn and Merry attacked Grimbeorn but the elves stepped in and Merry was pulled off and slain. In the ruin, a vicious melee was being fought for control of the objective but the elves held out.
The game ended as Grimbeorn finally fell to the blades of the horselords, but he had served his purpose.
Results:
Me 9-2 Major Win
Jake 5-3 Minor Win
James 6-4 Minor Loss
Tom 9-2 Major Win
Team total TPs- 12
Game 3- Vs. Element Staff of Power (Fog of War)
This time I was first put down, followed by our challengers, James and Jake, in response to the Host of the Dragon Emperor being put down. This was because we wanted to be able to play Tom against the elf army, and so when they as well as the Return of the King were played as their challengers. We had an easy choice to make.
After the matchups, our pairings were:
Me (Elves and Bear) v (Charlie) Return of the King
Jake (Dwarves) v Mordor
James (Night-time orcs) v Host of the Dragon Emperor
Tom (Elf hating orcs) v Rivendell
James had received another unfortunate matchup, facing a very tough foe. But we had managed to get Tom the chance to crush some elven skulls! Jake and I had got opponents that we felt confident with.
My opponent's army
Heroes: Aragorn (L), the King of the Dead and Legolas
Warriors: Warriors of the Dead and Riders of the Dead
While the Army of the Dead can deal heavy damage, I knew I would have the advantage in the fights and had a good dependable selection of heroes to hold them off. I also had a couple of cavalry who could gatekeep and seize my objective. I also decided to deploy on the side away from my objective to lure the battle away from it.
For my objectives, I chose to kill the King of the Dead (KotD), since he would almost certainly be at the front and I had the means to kill him. I would defend Tauriel, thereby freeing up Grimbeorn to go forward and kill the enemy, as I thought Tauriel is the easier target and will probably be chosen as theirs. And finally, I would attempt to capture a ruin to my right.
I chose to stay still for the most part in the opening turn, except for my rangers going towards a ruin to my left for cover. The Dead also stayed still and I opened fire, causing a wound on Aragorn. The next turn, Aragorn called a Heroic March and the ghosts rushed forth as I did myself,. Grimbeorn went into bear form early, just in case. My two cavalry went around to the right, one preparing for the flank, as the other rushed to the unguarded ruin.
The lines hit as Tauriel called a Heroic Move, with Aragorn and KotD behind two warriors and my elves caused a blockage to keep them out of the combats for the turn. In the shoot phase, the Mirkwood rangers opened fire at Legolas and caused a wound, saved by his third fate. In combat, Grimbeorn hurled a warrior of the Dead through their lines, killing him and knocking their banner prone to avoid rerolls.
In the following turns, the riders of the Dead charged into my flank and were counter charged by one of my cavalry, Tauriel kept taking cover behind the bear, who faced Aragorn and KotD. The elves slowly cut their way through the Dead, holding their lines as Thranduil pushed through the right flank. Eventually, he pulled Aragorn off of Grimbeorn as he cast Nature's Wrath (first time I had remembered all weekend and also sadly the last). The bear managed to win the fight and land three wounds on the King, who had to use all his fate to save one. While the Elven King failed to wound Aragorn, allowing him to stand. My Mirkwood rangers managed to shoot dead Legolas, after he had scored a wound on Grimbeorn with some might.
A lone warrior of the Dead broke free and ran forward, I suspected to take their objective, so I sent both cavalry after him, chasing him to a piece of ruin and contesting him. Eventually, pulling the second rider back towards my own objective. Aragorn managed to call a heroic move and charge Grimbeorn with KotD, but the latter was pulled off by an elf and Tauriel charged into Aragorn to double up and almost guarantee the kill. Amazingly, she and Grimbeorn lost the fight and the bear was slain. However, with the wounding bonus, from nearby Thranduil, the elves managed to finish off KotD. I had slain my target, was holding my objective and had also now broken the Dead. Over the last couple of turns, I avoided breaking with plenty of shielding.
It turned out that Charlie's objectives were: Kill Grimbeorn (woops), defend Legolas and capture the neutralised piece of ruin.
Results:
Me 12-3 Major Win
Jake 10-7 Minor Loss
James 12-3 Major Loss
Tom 5-2 Major Loss
Team total TPs- 5
Game 4- Vs. Armies for Shire (Command the Battlefield)
We knew that, again, we did not want Jake's slow moving dwarves against cavalry, so we put him first to give him a choice. We also wanted Tom to face the elves so sent him in last for the same reason. The Easterlings were put forward first and we got lucky as they put forward Dol Guldor and the elves as the challengers.
After the matchups, our pairings were:
Me (Elves and Bear) v (Jack) Host of the Dragon Emperor
Jake (Dwarves) v Dark Powers of Dol Guldor
James (Night-time orcs) v Minas Tirith/Fiefdoms
Tom (Elf hating orcs) v Rivendell
This matchup went about as well as we could have hoped, I had the Easterlings, as I didn't want to put James through it again and had avoided our low courage orcs facing Dol Guldor, while getting Tom a second elven opponent.
My opponent's army
Heroes: The Dragon Emperor of Rhun (L), Easterling Captain and 2x Dragon Knights
Warriors: Black Dragon Kataphrakts, Black Dragon warriors and Easterling warrior bowman
I suspected that this could potentially be my hardest game of the weekend, but knowing that my army was the most well suited to facing it, I took the shot. I would have to hope that I could take out the Palanquin early to gain an advantage.
The opening turn went about as well as I could possibly have hoped, with the Easterlings arriving first and the Emperor with the Captain, ending up on the South side of the board, while the Kataphrakts ended up on the North. I then had my entire force, minus Grimmy, arrive right beside the Emperor. There was a large gap beside the Emperor, through which, I intended to charge through to go after him early.
I then got another blessing, when I won the Heroic Move off with Tauriel over the Emperor. And threw both her and Thranduil with spear supports onto him. My elves then pincered the end of the pike formation and some were counter pincered. Grimbeorn arrived to the West, nearby to the elves. As you'd imagine, the Emperor called a Heroic Strike, so I countered with both Thranduil and Tauriel to lessen the chance of a screw up. Unfortunately for the Easterlings, the Emperor rolled a 1. So I called a feint with Thranduil and Tauriel scored a wound on the Palanquin, using her last might. Thranduil then scored another three, hobbling the Palanquin to half movement. A few elves and Easterlings were killed in the fighting as the Captain made a move towards the centre (I assume to try and reinforce the other corners).
It was also around this time, that I heard a squeal of delight followed by a victorious ululating from Tom, as Razgush brained Cirdan with Bonebreaker.
In the next turn, Thranduil called a Heroic move and charged the Emperor again with Tauriel as the elves doubled down on the pikes. The Emperor hadn't attempted to counter as he knew that he would need his might for counter Strikes. Grimbeorn moved up, in bear form and charged an Easterling. The combat again went against the Emperor and Tauriel took another wound from the Palanquin, before Thranduil finished it off. Then he removed a couple of fate from the Emperor.
The bear had called a Heroic Combat as I had seen a great opportunity and he charged into the closest of the Kataphrakts then hurled him through four others, dismounting half the enemy cavalry in one fell swoop.
Over the next few turns, Thranduil and Tauriel slowly led their unit to finish off most of the Emperors unit as well as him himself. The two Dragon Knights joined the fray after one took a wound to elven shooting and Grimbeorn held the centre with a small unit of elves at, what I assumed was, the edge of the centre circle. Before he rushed off after the second band of Kataphrakts.
Tauriel then fought a Dragon Knight until he finally fell, after killing several elves. Thranduil and his elves managed to slay the other, before running East to kill off the four archers in the SE corner.
In the dying stages of the game, Grimbeorn managed to catch two Kataphrakts and kill them, before rushing North to assist a ranger and glaive, who were challenging for the NW corner. The elves at the ruins held the line to keep the Easterlings out and Tauriel, with her elves slew the Easterling captain, who tried to help his warriors hold the line. The Kataphrakt charge did some damage, but luckily I managed to still have more than, but not double their numbers.
By the end, I had double the numbers of Easterlings in two corners, while a Kataphrakt had held the NE corner. I had also broken them and slain their leader
Results:
Me 9-2 Major Win
Jake 10-1 Major Win
James 12-0 Major Loss
Tom 4-3 Minor Win
Team total TPs- 11
Game 5- Vs. The Wanderers of the Wild (Destroy the Supplies)
I put myself forward first as I figured that the Black Riders would be a challenger and I could have the best chance against them, while the Iron Hills would probably be put first. We would then, as we have each time, play Tom as our last option, to let him face the elven force. We were caught off guard, when in fact the Black Riders were put out first. And then I made my first cock up, as I put out the wrong card as we unveiled them, and Tom was amongst the challengers rather than James. We rolled with it and did the best we could with this slip up. Guttingly, if we had done as I intended, we would have been three for three with getting Tom elven opponents.
After the matchups, our pairings were:
Me (Elves and Bear) v (Jonny) Rivendell/White Council
Jake (Dwarves) v The Black Riders
James (Night-time orcs) v The Iron Hills
Tom (Elf hating orcs) v Denizens of Mirkwood
I got so close to getting through the weekend without screwing up, but alas Tom's third elf matchup slipped away (he did, however, say after that he had a great game so nevermind). I had a good army to face off with the elves anyway. It was unfortunate that James ended up facing the Iron Hills, but it meant that the low courage orcs weren't against the Black Riders.
My opponent's army
Heroes: Erestor (L), Gildor, Rivendell Elf Captain and Galadriel, Lady of Light
Warriors: Rivendell Knights, Rivendell Elf warriors and Noldorin Exiles
Knowing that Jonny had Blinding Light in his army, I knew that I couldn't depend on using my shooting to weaken his army, even though I had more firepower. So I decided that I'd need to be aggressive. I also knew that I couldn't afford to divide up, despite the terrain forcing me to one side, if I wanted cover from the shooting, meaning that I'd be leaving a flank exposed to counter attack on my objectives.
I ran up the right side, keeping cover behind the field as Jonny cast Fortify Spirit on Erestor. In the shooting, I lost a small handful of elves and one wound and two fate off of Thranduil. In the second turn, I moved some of my archers half distance as a few elves moved up for cover behind the houses. Grimbeorn changed into bear form to move faster and Galadriel cast Fortify Spirit on the Rivendell Captain, I was excited as I believed that he had forgotten to cast Blinding Light.
As some of you, who are more familiar with the Lady of Light profile will know, he had not forgotten. Instead, it was already, in effect, active due to the wargear she carries. Unsurprisingly, this meant that I didn't kill anything with my shooting, but lost another few elves in the return fire.
Over the next couple of turns, I moved the majority of my army up behind the house and threw Grimbeorn into the wood elves with my two cavalry, to prevent a flank on him. I left a Mirkwood ranger as Jonny then sent his Captain down the opposite flank and I hoped to shoot out the horse.
Grimbeorn hit like a train and killed several wood elves and quickly was charged by Gildor, in hope to do some heavy damage/kill the beast with a good trap. Unfortunately for him, the bear won, killing his warriors and took his fate. The rest of my elves engaged the wood elves and killed them off over the next two turns.
Jonny then got priority so I called a Heroic Move with Grimbeorn grabbing Gildor and spun around the far side, towards the Rivendell battle line. This was because they had been edging back for the last two turns and I needed to avoid advancing into more of their shooting again. At the same time, I assume Jonny wanted to seize the chance to trap the bear again and didn't want to continue conceding ground towards further objectives, as I destroyed my first this turn. I then charged into the remaining wood elves and threw Thranduil upon Gildor with a spear support. I also pulled my remaining cavalry guy back behind the building, intending to charge him into the flank in the coming turns.
Erestor charged with both of his knights into Grimbeorn. The bear won again, using his final might for the Heroic Strike, slew both knights and took both fate from Erestor. The remaining wood elves were slain. In my board half, the Captain avoided the arrows of my ranger and destroyed a supply.
The next turn, Jonny got the move off and trapped Grimbeorn with Erestor and Galadriel, along with several spears and warriors. They also engaged my frontline to stop me flanking, I'd have to just hope the bear could survive a turn and maybe next turn, I could save him.
I had better luck in the shooting as my ranger in the field had another join her as she fired an arrow that sailed over the fence and killed the Captain's horse. This was going to crucially slow him down for me.
In combat, Galadriel called a Heroic Strike and unsurprisingly went higher than the bear, who they then caused four wounds on. Sadly, I only managed to save one and he fell. My elves fought back and killed several in return.
Over the next few turns, the Captain went to my next supply, just as my two rangers and cavalry hit him. They managed to stall him for the rest of the game and he never achieved the destruction of this second objective.
Back in Jonny's half, a vicious skirmish was being fought for the game as I lashed out at anything I could to try and score some further VPs. I tried to trap Erestor, but Jonny was cautious and despite me managing to catch him at one point with Thranduil, he got away with 1w, 0f. I managed to break Rivendell, but then they used a priority that they won to secure breaking me in return. I pushed Tauriel forward to destroyed their supply and she was charged by a spearman from beyond my reach. Both of us went after each other's banners, yet failed to destroy them.
Maybe if the game had had another two or three turns, I could have claimed it, maybe I would have lost my chance. But by the end, we had both destroyed an objective, had a banner each, broken one another and I had wounded Erestor. I had won!
...But then Jonny reminded me that Thranduil had taken a wound to shooting early on. It was a draw! And despite not quite managing the win, a great final game to a great weekend!
Results:
Me 5-5 Draw
Jake 4-2 Major Loss
James 6-2 Major Loss
Tom 7-6 Minor Loss
Team total TPs- 3
After all was said and done, I had managed three major victories, a draw and a major loss. Across our team, we had achieved 35TPs and ended up in 13th out of the 18 teams. This has honestly, shot into the top tiers of my favourite events. As others have said, playing your games alongside the rest of your team in a row is just great. You can glance up and down as your opponent does their move to get a quick idea of how their own games are going and are free to encourage/jeer them as you please.
I wholeheartedly recommend this event to anyone who didn't try this year. But not to the degree where I can't get a ticket myself in 2023. 😉
Events that I'll attend in future
Oct 22/23rd- Strider Cup
Nov 5th- Scaring of the Shire 2: C-Evil War
Nov 26th- Will you follow me, one last time? (EAHC Finale 2022)
