This was the league finale for the year, to crown the winner as the champion. Places were earned by ranking on the EAHC table and we ended up with 16 players fighting it out for the top in a 650pt tournament.
My army
I have been meaning to try out the Men of the West LL for a while now, with so many people claiming it was underpowered or at least simply doesn’t offer enough to justify it over a green alliance of the same mix.
Obviously, I am required to take King Elessar as per the LL rules. And initially, I intended to take a Rohan Captain alongside him with Gimli. However, after a practice game, it seemed a better idea to make space for Eomer and swap the dwarf for Legolas, so I had a way of taking out unreachable valuable targets with the elf and a more durable leader for the Rohirrim.
Game 1- Domination (Vs. Ryan (Azog’s Legion/Azog’s Hunters))
Ryan's army:
Legion
Bolg w/ Fell warg (Leader)
Gundabad berserkers x3
Gundabad orcs x10 w/ 1x Spear/Shield/Banner, 5x Shield and 4x Spear
War Bats x2
Goblin Mercenary Captain
Goblin Mercenaries x6
Hunters
Fimbul w/ Fell Warg
Fell warg x1
Hunter orcs x9 w/ 2x 2h and 6x Orc bow
Hunter orcs x2 w/ Fell wargs
I deployed front and centre to face down Ryan and his Gundabad force. I had Eomer to the right opposite Bolg and Aragorn in the middle, hoping to cut through the opponents quickly to split them up. I had Legolas sat on a ruin beside an objective with a good view of the battle.
I rushed forward, after I got the Heroic Move with Aragorn and brought the lines together. Legolas managed to snipe out Bolg's warg as he had been charged by Eomer. The Men of the West managed to kill a chunk of Hunter Orcs to the left but suffered a few casualties to the right.
The next turn, Aragorn got the Heroic Move again. I pinned down all the lines and Legolas managed to snipe Fimbul's warg from under him (to the left). However, the Goblin Mercenaries had sprung up all around him. I rushed Aragorn into joining Eomer against Bolg. Calling a Strike against Bolg with Aragorn and Heroic Strength with Eomer, while their foe was trapped. I had also called 'For Frodo' to get Aragorn to F7 as a base. Frustratingly, Bolg managed to escape the death trap, as Aragorn got to F9, while he reached F10. Bolg managed to win and then take two of Aragorn's fate away. Ryan taking a deep sigh of relief. It wasn't all bad though as Aragorn's rallying cry had given me an edge and helped to thin out the Hunter orcs ranks further with my higher Fight Value.
Ryan then attempted to strike back, throwing some berserkers and bats round my right flank. Eomer detached himself to help the troops deal with the threat, slaying a couple of bats and berserkers over a few turns, as Aragorn tried to deal with Bolg. Eventually, the evil leader managed to break away, unharmed and keep to the edge. He got a berserker to pull back to an objective as his army broke and the orc guarding it, fled. I managed to break through the left side and rushed towards the rear left objective. There was a lot of back and forth on that one as we killed a model here and there, eventually ending neutrally on it.
In the dying stages of the game, Legolas was finally overwhelmed by the hordes of goblins and slain, allowing them to take that objective. Eomer, managed to slay his last foe and break free to my rear right one. This just left the central objective to worry about, as Fimbul was fighting for it. But as time was approaching, the Men managed to kill or push the orcs off of it as Aragorn stepped in and slew Fimbul with a sweep of Anduril.
By the end, this left me with the rear right and central objectives, uncontested and Ryan with the far right and rear left ones. And we had broken one another, leaving us at a 5-5 draw.
Game 2- Heirlooms of Ages Past* (Vs. Sam (Angmar))
*One small pair of changes were made to the scenario for the VPs, the maximum allowed for the Heirloom was 5VP and for breaking the enemy was 3VP
Sam's army:
Witch King of Angmar w/ 3m, +2will, 3f, Horse, Crown of Morgul
Dead Marsh Spectre
Angmar orcs x10 w/ 5x Shield and 5x Spear/Shield
Gulavhar
Angmar war riders x2 w/ Shield
Shade
Angmar orcs x12 w/ 6x Shield, 5x Spear/Shield and 1x Banner
We got the dreaded Heirlooms game for this round. Luckily, this would mean with the altered VPs that there is hope of victory for the team not holding the Heirloom.
I grouped up Aragorn and Eomer as they came in one behind the other, due to Aragorn rolling a 1 for his arrival in the first turn. Legolas opted to come in on another edge, near a tower to climb and use as a vantage point to snipe from. The Angmar forces all arrived in the opposite corner of the board.
In the second turn, things took a dramatic turn as Eomer's unit found the Heirloom... He and Aragorn quickly retreated to the nearby corner, as Legolas got onto the bottom rungs of the ladder, only to be attacked by two warg riders. He promptly lost the fight and fell from the ladder, taking a wound.
The rest of the army formed up a defensive position in the corner, with a no fly zone for Gulavhar, for them to back into. The archers lined up in front to try and thin out the Angmar ranks but failed to kill anything. Legolas, again tried to climb the ladder and was quickly pulled back down as he rolled snake eyes (he did this for three turns in a row, eventually using all his might and fate and being left on 1w).
Finally, Gulavhar came soaring in an hit the Men hard, with the Witch King immobilising Aragorn to keep him away from the beast, who then hurled an archer, killing several of the men. The following turns, the Men rushed forward to brace the impact of the orcs, Gulavhar got to move first, however, and charged Eomer, who withstood the charge with a Heroic Strike with a spearman managing to score a cheeky wound.
In the following turns, Aragorn managed to get into a fight with Gulavhar as his men were dying to the orcs around him, due to the Shade's interference. By the end, they had the vampire on his final wound, but had been broken. But, importantly, they had held onto the objective.
Legolas, meanwhile, had had a nightmare of a game, only making it up the ladder in the last couple of turns and being forced to fight the orcs back off the ladder, after only managing to kill their wargs all game! (The Witch King model is a dismount for a rider).
It was a desperate struggle but the Men had held firm! But it was then that I remembered...
I had adjusted the VPs, so for holding the Heirloom, I only got 5VPs, while Sam had received 3VPs for breaking me, while being nowhere near broken himself and still had a banner alive to my none. So the Men of the West were sitting on another 5-5 draw! But this means that they are undefeated*!
*Admittedly, in the cheapest manner
Game 3- To the Death (Vs. Kieran (Numenor))
Kieran's army:
Isildur w/ The One Ring and Horse (Leader)
Numenorean warriors x13 w/ 1x Banner/Shield, 4x Bow, 4x Shield and 4x Spear/Shield
Captain of Numenor w/ Horse, Lance, H.Armour and Shield
Numenorean warriors x12 w/ 1x Banner/Shield, 4x Bow, 4x Shield and 3x Spear/Shield
Captain of Numenor w/ Horse, Lance, H.Armour and Shield
Numenorean warriors x11 w/ 4x Bow, 3x Shield and 4x Spear/Shield
(Sorry, I forgot to take a picture for this one, but rest assured that Kieran's Numenoreans were lovely)
We began the game with me calling a Heroic March with Aragorn to get up to the middle, and anchor my lines between two pieces of scenery, as Legolas and some Rohan archers peppered the advancing Numenoreans on the left and the Minas Tirith archers, the right, losing a couple in the return volleys.
The next turn, I got priority and with a whispered 'For Frodo', Aragorn led the charge out towards Numenor, who charged back in return, falling just short of combat. The following turn, Aragorn engaged with all the Men of the West. He called a Heroic Combat to kill both swordsmen before him and both spearmen behind, exposing Isildur at the back. Eomer did similar on the flank, managing to slay several warriors. Kieran had a bad turn of rolling that led to the deaths of several of his swordsmen and a Captain being wounded. The next turn, Isildur called a Heroic Move, which Aragorn countered and won. His men followed on, launching themselves at the battered Numenoreans and killing several more, as Eomer worked his way around the back and managed to slay a banner through a Heroic Combat. In that phase, Aragorn called 'For Frodo', forcing Isildur to spend another might to Strike, which Aragorn did back, Kieran's luck remained constant as the Strike failed and Aragorn gave Isildur a few wounds, before finishing him off the following turn. I hadn't targeted the horse as I didn't want to make the Ring an obvious choice to Kieran.
The damage was piling up by this point and I managed to get them down to 25% not long after. It was a 10-0 win but the only real mistake Kieran had made was making Isildur a big target to Aragorn early on.
Game 4- Domination (Vs. Will (Lothlorien))
Will's army:
Galadriel (Leader)
Guard of the Galadhrim Court x6
Wood elf Sentinel
Wood elves x3 w/ Elf bow
Galadhrim Knight x1 w/ Elf bow
Galadhrim warriors x2 w/ Elf bow
Celeborn w/ H. Armour, Shield and Elven Blade
Galadhrim warriors x3 w/ 1x Banner/Spear and 2x Elf bow
Guard of the Galadhrim Court x12
For the final game, I was placed against Will. I had had a practice game against this army, where he had some abysmal luck, getting a maelstrom deployment and barely rolled above a 4 all game.
This time, it was going to be more of an uphill battle as I would need to slay Celeborn, who would also be his assassin, with my chosen one of Legolas (I figured that if I could get him down to 1w, 0f a cheeky 6 to wound with a direct hit would happen sooner or later.)
With Galadriel throwing up a blinding light early, I knew that I wouldn't win a shootout, so began advancing with Heroic Marches. Before long, I had Aragorn up against the pikes of the Galadhrim court and called 'For Frodo' with a Heroic Combat, managing to slay 4 pikes. The warriors managed to do similar damage, putting a good early dent in the elven lines. Eomer managed to get ahold of the Sentinel and slay her, as a small group of warriors ran around the ruins to the left, to kill the wood elves.
Aragorn managed to get into a one on one with Celeborn, however, Galadriel immobilised him and the King of Gondor fell to a flurry of elven blades! This really hurt my forces as suddenly, we weren't immune to terror. As time was drawing to a close, I realised that I had broken the elves, while they had slain my leader, therefore, if I could just avoid breaking, I would win.
Naturally, I then could not win a priority to save my life! But the determination of the men held out and they avoided having too many of them slain. There was another squeaky bum moment as Eomer was caught by Celeborn and the elves but narrowly avoided having any wounds stick, as he safed enough with fate!
With that, I had broken Will and lost Aragorn for a very close 3-2 victory!
So after all was said and done, somehow, the Men of the West had come through the tournament undefeated! Admittedly, I still didn’t win half of the games, but that seems very pessimistic. I ended up on 2 wins and 2 draws to take 5th place by VPD behind Sam from game 2, who had similar results.
Men of the west, they have their issues, but they can definitely put up a fight. Especially after breaking, when, with Aragorn alive, they’ll fight to the bitter end!
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