Tournament Report- Throne of Skulls 2022 (3/4th Dec)

 The Tournament

This is a staple event in the SBG calendar, a wonderful weekend of large, 1000pt, themey armies and sporting games. And the level players go to with their displays, means that it is insane what doesn't qualify.

There was also secret objectives in play for this event as another tie breaker.

My Army

Since I got my ticket without much time to prepare (2~weeks prior), I had to use a force that wouldn't require much preparation.

Because of this, I decided to go with a theme that I had wanted to try for a while, a Fords of Isen/Raiders of the Westfold approach. This led me to the following setup:

Vrasku (Leader)

Uruk-hai warriors x11 w/ 1x Banner/Pike and 10x Pikes

Thrydan Wolfsbane w/ Horse

Dunlending Huscarls x6

Crebain x2

Dunlending warriors x4 w/ 2x 2h and 2x Bow

Gorulf Ironskin 

Dunlending Horsemen x2

Dunlending warriors x7 w/ 3x 2h, 2x Shield and 2x Bow

Uruk-hai Scouts x3 w/ Bow

Frida Tallspear

Dunlending warriors x10 w/ 3x 2h, 4x Shield and 3x Bow

Uruk-hai Scouts x2 w/ Bow

The Wildman Oathmaker

Wildmen of Dunland x11 w/ 6x 2h

Uruk-hai Shaman

Feral Uruk-hai x3

Uruk-hai warriors x2 w/ Crossbows

Numbers: 69

Might: 16

Heroes: 6

Game 1- Breakthrough (Vs. Lothlorien (Chris))

Opposing heroes: Celeborn, Haldir and two Galadhrim Captains

Opposing warriors: Galadhrim warriors

Secret objective: Kill the most expensive opposing hero (Celeborn)

My first game was against Chris, a lovely guy, who told me his secret plan was to rush forward and slog it out (a man after my own heart). Chris sounded the charge and Celeborn rushed forward into my troops. To my left, his archer unit pulled back ready to shoot at the wildmen, who ran sideways to trap as many elves as they could. Those not in combat were very quickly shot dead!

The game from this point became one big dizzying melee spanning the middle of the board, with Frida holding one flank to the right, as the Oathmaker's men held the left from the archer unit from joining the centre. The Oathmaker rushed into the middle and attempted to Heroic Combat to join against Celeborn with Thrydan, but failed to beat his opponent. Thrydan, somehow, avoided being dismounted in the fight and held firm, while Frida began a push, in which she steadily killed elves to get forward.

My archers managed to run out to my right and set up in a ruin on the balcony for a vantage point. From here, they harassed Haldir's unit of archers to the far right. And in a fight, a lone uruk, not only ruined Haldir's Heroic Combat, but also managed to wound him!

In the centre, Thrydan and friends redoubled their efforts against the thinning numbers of elves as their pikes and flanking warriors piled up the casualties. Celeborn was getting slowly isolated and, eventually, Thrydan's sword caught him. The elven leader had fallen!

I finally got a priority, where I didn't need to call a Heroic Move after this, and allowed the Crebain to fly towards Chris' objective. Unfortunately, he had a small group of elves, making their way to mine. So Thrydan pulled back and charged two of them, but lost and pulled back within range, alongside two Uruk scouts, giving me control of it. On the left hand objective, I had a lone Dunlending rush in and fight the lone elf on it, to neutralise it.

As time was called, I had control of my own objective and Chris', while he owned a central one uncontested and the other was neutralised. I had also slain his leader and I had broken him for a close 8-5 victory to me. I had also achieved the secret objective of slaying Celeborn.

Game 2- Fog of War (Vs. Angmar (Wayne))

Opposing heroes: Witch King of Angmar, Buhrdur and two Barrow Wights

Opposing warriors: Angmar orc warriors, wild wargs and three cave trolls

Secret objective: Control a building at the end of the game (Minimum of three models inside, no opposing models)

When I saw that I was against Angmar for the second round, I was concerned, expecting to have several heroes paralysed for the game. Luckily, I had several so would be able to work with it. For my targets, I chose; to defend my shaman, to kill Buhrdur (figured that he'd be in combat and die eventually) and capture the ruins to my far left).

Similarly, to the first game, I went for a high line and advanced into their half. Vrasku and my crossbows fired into the wargs to kill a few off and Vrasku managed to put a wound on the far right troll in the following turn.

As the lines met, I had my wildmen facing down the fell wargs, Thrydan and Gorulf's warbands facing Buhrdur's unit and Frida along with the Shaman charging at the Witch King's. I had a very good turn of combats and inflicted a good amount of early damage, while Wayne was unfortunate and failed to cast any paralyses (this went throughout the entire game).

In the following turn, I managed to get Gorulf onto Buhrdur and Heroic Combatted Thrydan from an orc spear into the back of him. Gorulf called a piercing strike and I won the fight. Thrydan didn't make a single blow as Gorulf caused plenty and slew the troll chieftain. On the right flank, Frida's troops managed to barrier up against the Barrow Wight's warband that was about to flank them and get a troop to prevent the Witch King from casting.

I expected that Frida and her troops would be killed before long, so kept the Shaman round the back ready to pull away if the fight went badly, however, instead it went insanely well. The defenders of my flank held well, even with a troll pushing at them. And Frida's unit killed many of the Witch King's warband. Eventually, she got into a one on one with him and brought him down (obviously in a much more impressive and heroic manner than that strawhead Eowyn, also with a wittier line).

Around the board, I managed to fell a few trolls and managed to slay an orc, that I assume was trying to clear a ruin in my half, but had my archers inside of it.

With the fall of the Witch King and the army broken, there wasn't much more Angmar could do. By the end, I had slain Buhrdur, captured the ruins (also covering the secret objective), kept the Shaman unharmed and broken them while being unbroken, I had claimed a 12-0 victory.

Game 3- Destroy the Supplies (Vs. Defenders of Erebor (Matt))

Secret objective: Have your leader slay the enemy leader in combat (he must remove all the wounds himself)

I looked at this one with mixed feelings. On one hand, this was a fairly small force in a scenario that favours large forces generally, but this is a scenario that I have NEVER won. I have had several close calls, such as at the Team Championships, but never quite swung it.

I set up a large defence across two objectives and sent a small force for the third, more just to cause delays than actually hold it. Matt sent a large block of heroes (King Brand, King Dain, Thorin III, Dwalin, Bifur and the Iron Hills Captain) and their warriors towards the centre. Vrasku managed to dismount the captain after a well placed crossbow bolt, but that was all the damage that I did with my ranged attacks. 

Just as the lines met, I had won the Heroic Move off and charged the Oathmaker and Thrydan into Bifur. I then called a Heroic Strike with Thrydan and Heroic Combat with the Oathmaker to slay Bifur and throw Thrydan into King Brand, who was also slain by Thrydan.*

*I will put my hands up here and say that I marked that as my secret objective completed, after having a mind fart and getting it in my head that Thrydan was my leader. So this was in fact a failed one.

It was a good start nonetheless, killing the enemy leader and removing six might off the table. However, there was still plenty of teeth left in this opposing army, as I found out in the following turns.

Vrasku, having no shots left forward, moved over to the left and started firing through a doorway, causing a wound upon Bard and having his archers take out a knight of Dale. But the defenders of that objective were falling fast, and a few turns later, it was destroyed.

In the other half of the board, I managed to get a Horseman to destroy one of theirs and my Crebain were flying up the left to attack, but were met by a crossbowman, a goat rider and Gloin, who managed to kill off one flock of birds. The other slipped away towards the centre but was caught and also killed.

In the centre, Dwalin began a rampage, and I'm pretty sure never lost a combat. His first victim was Thrydan followed by untold numbers of Uruks and Dunlendings. Gorulf managed to get ahold of Dain and get him to 1w, 0f. But then just could not inflict the final wound. 

With such relatively low numbers, the men and dwarves were punching through my army hard. Since my numbers were doing the best they could, I sent all my archers and crossbows up through the ruins, towards the centre objective. They ended up in a fight with a goat rider and some Iron Hills warriors, mere inches from it. Eventually with minutes left on the clock, they punched through and destroyed it.

However, things were tight at my central objective. Gorulf finally landed the killing blow on Dain. And I was struggling to hold down Dwalin and Thorin, who were pushing through. I had lost most of my heroes, including Thrydan, Frida, the Oathmaker and my Shaman (I'm sure Dwalin killed at least three of them). So I just had Vrasku and Gorulf remaining. It was at this point, where we both broke.

To my horror, Vrasku abandoned his warriors and fled. Just as Bard came running in and pushed onto the objective. Luckily, some spare troops rushed in and saved it from destruction. With only 10mins~ left on the clock, we began the final turn.

Matt claimed it and again rushed forward, Dwalin tying up a couple of troops, including my banner, which he killed, and Thorin another two, both near the objective. Bard then rushed forward and charged another, as his last Knight of Dale jumped onto my objective, leaving me with just one Dunlending who could reach that knight and save it and the victory.

I realised that Gorulf, could reach the man and use his stand fast to keep him on, instead Gorulf fled. So with a lot of concern, with my history of important courage tests, I rolled to see if he would stay of his own accord...

Luckily for me, he did and saved the game. I had destroyed two supplies to Matt's one, I had killed Brand, while Vrasku fled and we had broken one another. We had no banners left either (damn you, Dwalin!), giving me a narrow 7-5 victory!

As stated above, I hadn't achieved my secret objective.

Game 4- Heirlooms of Ages Past (Vs. Rivendell/Numenor (Jacob))

Secret objective: Kill more models than your opponent with ranged attacks.

The objectives were placed, because of the 6x4 boards, we ended up with all the markers being in one half of the board (marked in blue below). And I got lucky, in that Jacob got priority and Isildur was forced to spend two might to avoid being isolated. I, meanwhile, arrived with all but one of my units on one side, with Thrydan on the opposite board edge, so that the Crebain could search markers on that side.

We quickly searched through all but two of the objectives, Jacob searched one of the ones before him and I searched the bottom right with uruks. And the top left and top centre with the Crebain. It seemed that we were going to end up in a stand off. I had Elendil then arrive behind the wildmen and get surrounded with Frida, being dismounted quickly. The Oathmaker moved beside the top right marker, to guard it for me, when I realised my mistake. I hadn't sat ON the objective, just beside it. So a Rivendell knight galloped up, dismounted and uncovered it, before a gobsmacked Oathmaker.

Suddenly, I was going to have to take the fight to the Last Alliance. Vrasku opened up by shooting dead the elf, who picked it up. I then formed up the bulk of my army and marched them over to the ruins that they were holed up in and launched a savage assault. My archers sprayed a volley into the doorway to kill a small handful of warriors as the Shaman, who had fluffed his fury casting led a attack on the left side of the ruins. Gorulf led the right to the right and used Heroic Combat to lurch forward and suddenly appear in front of the elven lines. Before long he faced Gil Galad and dismounted him.

Isildur ran down to the left and attempted to break up that assault but narrowly avoided taking a beating by using his last might point. His warriors were being killed around him as Thrydan arrived with his unit in the rear. Forcing him to abandon his Numenorean Captain to hold the line alone as he went to meet the new threat and avoid the army being pincered. It went brilliantly for him as he managed to not only beat but also slay Thrydan instantly. As he did so, the Captain also prevailed and held the line up long enough for help to come in. 

I continued to press hard, seeing how close I was (objective marked in blue).

Meanwhile, up by the woods, I had a good chunk of warriors with Frida and the Oathmaker, who had been having a nightmare, calling Heroic Combats off of the dismounted knight, but endlessly failing to do so. In one case, the knight rolled a 3 and I gleefully rolled, expecting to end him at last. But got this...

At the very end, the Oathmaker finally slew him, giving me some relief. But it was too late to help with the important central fight. Frida had done a stellar job of holding back Elendil for the entire game. 

In the middle, at the very end, it was as close as you could expect, Gorulf finally fell to Gil Galad and many of my troops fled the field. Though some were only two models away from the objective, but still not quite there to capture it. 

So by the end of the game, Jacob had held the Heirloom and slain my banner, while protecting his own. I had managed to break him leading to a 8-2 defeat. I had achieved my secret objective, getting 5~ ranged kills to his 1.

Game 5- Contest of Champions (Vs. Minas Tirith/Rohan (Louis))

Secret objective: Have more models within 6" of the centre than your opponent by the end of the game.

I decided that the best approach for this would be to just throw caution to the wind and put Vrasku up front supported by pikes to build up a kill count. What lessened the worry for me, was that Louis had thematically made the King of Men the leader, as opposed to Eorl the Young.

Before me lay a shieldwall of Fountain Court Guard, Citadel Guard and Knights of the White Tower. To the far right, Eorl sat with his Sons of Eorl, ready to engage. I had Frida with the Oathmaker and some archers ready to put up a fight with them.

I won the Heroic Move off and engaged, Vrasku charged into two Fountain Court Guards with his pikes and Gorulf charged a Knight of the White Tower. I had another great opening turn, as Vrasku killed both his opponents and two of the Knights were wounded in fights, although Gorulf came scarily close to being killed in one swing. On the right, the cavalry lined up ready to charge the next turn and the King had ridden through the ruins, aiming to go after the wildmen for easier kills.

I should quickly take a second to highlight the cool conversions that Louis had done for his Knights (in the below pic, all had Fountain Court Guard heads. The blue one was based off an Elendil model. The red, I believe, was based off a siege veteran. And the last, the yellow, was based off of Hurin. Apologies if I made any mistakes there, but they were all very cool. And secured a best army vote from me).

In the next turn, the cavalry hit and they came in like a wrecking ball. Many wildmen were slain, but Frida fought back and killed one of the Sons, as did the Oathmaker. Thrydan called a Heroic Combat to get closer to the King but he managed to slip away, just out of reach. 

Vrasku managed to kill another of the shieldwall, as Gorulf wounded his Knight. In the following turn, Gorulf called a Strike, as Vrasku called a combat, when they paired up on a Knight. They killed one and piled into the second, with Vrasku claiming both and regaining might.

On the other side, the King joined the fight and rode into two Dunlendings, I threw a Crebain in to prevent the Heroic Combat and the birds took three wounds (it turned out that Louis, had mistakenly believed it was wounds that was being tallied, rather than kills). Many more Dunlendings fell but Frida, the Oathmaker and Thrydan fought back, killing more Sons (assisted when I remembered that the OM and wildmen have Hatred Rohan).

It was at this point that my luck with the Trebutchet ran out and it scored a big hit, killing several of my Uruks on the left side of the central fight. But also killing a couple of his Citadel Guard. This isolated his banner and allowed Vrasku to slay it for his fifth kill.

The King round the other side, managed to slash down two Dunlendings to get his own kill tally started. But in the following turn, I managed to get him surrounded by Dunlendings, Crebain and Thrydan, then over a couple of turns, slay him.

By the end, I had managed to double the King's kill count with Vrasku (5-2) and we had broken one another, to give me a 6-1 victory. I had also achieved the secret objective of claiming the centre.

By the end of the games, I had achieved 2 major victories, two minors and a major loss, landing me in 10th place for game scores, however we all know that there's more to Throne of Skulls than that...

I had received three favourite army votes, and ended up in 27th place (looking at  the scoreboard, luckily my mistaken secret objective doesn't seem to have made a difference). Clearly there were a lot of very sporting players with great armies, and that is what makes this one of the must attend events of the year. Next year, I'll hopefully do the army that I intended, but will have to start it much more in advance.

Events that I will attend

The Fog of War (EAHC opener)- 7th Jan

The 7th City Middle Earth SBG Grand Prix 2023- 4/5th Feb

March Fourth, All Legions (EAHC league)- 4th March