Hey all
Once again, James and I paired up to head to Twickenham for the themiest event on the GBHL calendar.
The Tournament
While Seven Stones is well known to many, for those who haven't heard of it, it's a doubles tournament of seven rounds. Three games are played on each day (Day 1 in your preselected group, Day 2 all the top spots play off in a knockout, as do all the 2nds etc), but at the end of Day 1 is the arena of champions, where a 100pt or less hero for each player is thrown into a small arena in pairs and tries to be the last standing. The last standing of each goes into the final against the other 7 groups champions, with the runner up getting Orcrist for Day 2 and the winner getting Anduril!
So in short, an amazing weekend for all! But, as said above, this is a tournament which is incredibly heavy on theme. To get a nomination as one of the 7 (8) best armies, fancy dress has become almost a requirement, and one many take up vigorously (to avoid potentially putting anyone off in future, there are still many not in fancy dress). The display boards are incredible throughout and many people create some custom profiles to do something different, but never do it to their advantage, there's always something to harm their army's potency rather than help it.
Our army
James and I had come up with several ideas for a theme to do, but the one that James was particularly keen to bring to life was from the appendices of RotK, the Kin-strife of Gondor (fancy dress pictured (please excuse the paw, a dog was taking the pic), I am King Castamir with his appropriate crown, and James is his 'loyal' servant, the Raven).
A brief summary would be the ~1400yrs prior to the events of the War of the Ring, King Valacar of Gondor married a woman of the North, Vidumavi, they had a son, Eldacar. Many in Gondor were outraged as they saw this as the blood of Numenor being tainted by that of lesser men. So when Eldacar, was due to be coronated, a rebellion broke out led by Castamir, Lord of Ships, who was a distant relative.
They beseiged Osgiliath and sacked it, in which the Dome of Stars was destroyed and the Palantir inside was lost (rumoured to have fallen into the Anduin). Eldacar fled and was exiled to the North and his son Ornendil was murdered by Castamir. It is at this point in time we take our theme with the forces of Castamir.
There is later a brief mention of his sons, which gives us some creative liberty to get some more named heroes in. And, having three sons, and it only indicating that two sons are canonically required for the lore, James and I agreed that the son who is slain the most in the 6 games, falls alongside Castamir when his reign came crashing down.
So in the end we made our armies from these lists, with Castamir added as a custom profile and Tyramir, a slightly adapted Raza one (seen in the below profile cards).
Note: When I refer to 'the Scythe', I mean Castamir's Scythe, the assassin group that we created of two Hasharin and the two Watchers of Karna.
James (Corsairs of Umbar)
ARMY LEADER Castamir the Usurper (Custom profile)
Wardens of Pelargir (Black Numenorians w/o Terror) x4
Arostamir, First Captain of the Ships (Delgamar)
Gondorian Sailors (Corsairs of Umbar) x10 w/ 3x Shield, 4x Spear and 3x Bow
The Raven (Hasharin)
Sam (The Serpent Horde)
Tyramir, General of the South (Custom Raza)
Swordsmen of Belfalas (Abrakhan Merchant Guard) x2
Warriors of Harondor (Harad warriors) x8 w/ 2 Bow and 3 Spear
Camemir, Governor of Pelargir (Haradrim Chieftain) w/ Horse
Errand-Riders of Harondor (Harad Raiders) x2 w/ War spears
Warriors of Harondor (Harad warriors) x9 w/ 1 Banner, 2 Bow and 3 Spear
The Osprey (Hasharin)
The Hawk and the Falcon (Watchers of Karna) x2 w/ Twin Blades
Men: 41
BP: 20.5
25%: 10.25
James also made an awesome display board for us to put our army out on and he blew it out the water.
Game 1- Reconnoitre (Vs. Corsairs of Umbar (James+Billy))
Opponent's Heroes: Dalamyr, Knight of Umbar and 2 Hasharin
Opponent's Warriors: Corsair Reavers
Opponent's theme: James and Billy were using an army of Corsair Reavers with no Bo’Sun to keep them under control, meaning in the early game, many of them would turn and fight one another. They were also fundraising for men’s mental health for the weekend, it was also Billy’s first tournament in 7yrs!
The game began with all but Tyramir and Castamir arriving for us, and both Hasharin failing to arrive for our opponents. The next turn, the lack of discipline showed as many reavers laid into each other and the bodies started piling up. The remaining heroes arrived, so we had Tyramir and Camemir on the left. The Scythe moving up the middle and Castamir with Arostamir to the right. For James and Billy, Dalamyr and the Knight of Umbar were both to our left and the Hasharin were to our right.
As we got into range, Camemir sensed a chance for glory and threw himself upon the Knight of Umbar, as his Errand-riders rushed into the reavers to keep them back. As both Errand-Riders were cut to ribbons, Camemir was unfortunate as the Knight got his 6 and the fell beast tore him apart.
As Camemir was falling, the Harondor warriors and sailors were crossing the river and sadly our banner-bearer drowned, leaving us forlornly watching the banner flow downriver. The reavers then charged us as we got out the water, with many of the Harondor warriors getting cut down. But Castamir led like a true King and cut down reaver after reaver, calling his Hasharin up to help. At this point, the Knight landed his fellbeast beside them. The Raven rushed in and mistimed his attack, being clamped in the jaws of the beast and dying instantly.
On our left, Tyramir managed to swim across the river and slay a handful of reavers before rushing Dalamyr, enraged and ready to avenge his brother. Both called Heroic Strikes, Dalamyr went to F10 and the surrounded Tyramir, with reavers on all sides, only managed to reach F9. He lost the fight and was torn down, many of his warriors falling around him. But the Swordsmen of Belfalas came in hard and cut down a few, while The Falcon claimed the Palantir out of the kennels on our side of the board.
To the right, Arostamir led his sailors across the river and engaged the reavers, cutting down several personally, before coming face to face with a Hasharin. While he managed to cause some heavy wounds and get him to 1w, 1f, the assassin then retaliated and came in hard with the knives and took him out.
Back in the centre, things looked dire, we had lost 4/6 heroes, we were broken and there was an assassin beside Castamir. Our King met the would be killer and in one brutal swing of his sword, took the head from his foe. He then ordered The Osprey to fight the Knight of Umbar as he fought more reavers, the Osprey refused and rerolled his courage test*, he failed again and so was executed for treason by the King. The Hawk was behind the failed killer and received the same order, for some reason he felt more inclined to obey and rolled a double 6. It was at this point that I remembered that he has Hatred Spirit. He not only managed to win the fight, but roll 5/5 to wound and slay the Ringwraith, breaking the enemy and securing us a last minute draw!
Since we were both broken, it was a 1-1 draw.
*We realise that we were only supposed to reroll courage tests for Corsair Warrior models, we realised this after the tournament so did it a lot throughout. Sorry, our bad.
Game 2- Total Conquest (Vs. Arnor/Minas Tirith (Ed+James))
Opponent's Heroes: Arvedui (Aranarth (Hope I'm remembering the right name!)), King of Men (Earnur), Arnor Captain and Minas Tirith Captain
Opponent's Warriors: Arnor warriors, Rangers of Arnor, Warriors of Minas Tirith and Knights of Minas Tirith
Opponent's theme: Seems to have been the wars in the North between Arnor and Angmar. Earnur is currently one of my big bets on a coming profile for the almost guaranteed expansion.
Our opponents laid down the gauntlet to Castamir, as both leaders held a Palantir each, to duel to the death for possession of both! Castamir, with his little piggy eyes aflame, obviously accepted. So he, Arostamir and the Raven deployed in the middle of Weathertop against Aranarth and the Arnor Captain. Arnor got the initial move and slammed into the lightly armoured sailors hefore they could throw thier knives. Many sailors were slain quickly along with a couple of the Wardens. But Castamir and Aranarth met and neither declared a Heroic Strike after some deep thinking. After the roll off, Castamir had prevailed and rolled 4, 5, 6 to wound. With his lust for another Palantir burning hot, he spent the might and cut down Aranarth!
Outside the ruins, Tyramir and the rest of the Scythe had arrived to the South, and began moving towards the nearest objective. Not far away, Earnur arrived alongside (rolling a 2) and pulled back, ready to engage. The following turn, Camemir arrived on the East edge not far away, being hotly pursued by the Minas Tirith Captain.
The knights engaged and a few were slain or dismounted, being counter charged the next turn by the furious Harondorians. Tyramir engaged Earnur and called a Heroic Challenge! It was accepted. In combat, he dismounted the Prince and suddenly things looked less confident for Earnur (James, however, wasn't too upset by this as he got to use his awesome dismount conversion). The Osprey was in his element as he killed 1/2 knights each turn and was quickly thinning them out.
In the ruins, the Arnorian Captain took up leadership and led a brutal counter strike on Castamir, who continuously cut down all challengers that came his way. In the fighting, Arostamir fell as he was outnumbered by the men of the North and the Raven too. With those heroes, the sailors were absolutely decimated!
Camemir launched a savage attack upon the Minas Tirith Captain after riding down a couple of his warriors, but was repelled and despite a brave display, was eventually cut down by the swords of Gondor.
With Camemir down, his troops were mopped up, the Rangers ran across open ground and helped outnumber the objective and Tyramir/Earnur fought to a standstill. (We carried on after the game ended and Earnur had eventually come out on top).
Our one chance to get something from this battle was with Castamir, who somehow still stood against so many foes with his two Palantirs on him. He lost the last fight of the game, and we prepared for him to be cut to pieces by the 8 strikes coming his way…but not one landed! Somehow, he had escaped! James also tells me he had two archers holding up the right flank, who eventually fled and allowed the two objectives there to be captured.
By the end of the game, …. This left the score as a 11-1 loss for us, but we had come away with two Palantiri!
Game 3- Fog of War (Vs. Erebor Reclaimed/Halls of Thranduil/Survivors of Laketown (Paul+Adam))
Opponent's Heroes: Thorin, King under the Mountain, Balin, Champion of Erebor, Dwalin, Champion of Erebor, Fili, Champion of Erebor, Kili, Champion of Erebor, Legolas (riding a War bat), Tauriel and Bilbo, Master Burgler
Opponent's theme: The heroes who scale Ravenhill to have the final showdown with Azog the Defiler and Bolg.
James and I decided to target Tauriel as she would be on the frontline, defend Camemir and capture the watchtower on their side of the board. Paul and Adam, if I remember correctly, wanted to kill Camemir, defend Bilbo and capture the central house on our side. There was also a loose Palantir that had been lost by the previous game and left behind for one of us to claim.
We deployed as a solid line, Castamir, Arostamir and the Scythe on the left. Tyramir and Camemir on the right. Our opponent's deployed in one central block.
We marched forward, firing some shots as we did so, but failing to dismount any heroes. When combat began, we got the initial charge and pinned their heroes. But they killed several of our warriors. Tauriel and Bilbo managed to slay the Osprey with a trap and Heroic Combatted from him to then also kill the Raven.
Legolas swooped in to attack Arostamir and after a few turns was dismounted as his bat was slain. Dwalin charged in and took down Castamir, disasterously also claiming both his Palantiri! We had to endure three consecutive Palantiri claiming priority and call Heroic Moves in response. We got lucky and won a fair few roll offs. Tyramir, triggered by his father's death rushed in and trapped Thorin with several cronies, won the fight and slew the King under the Mountain!
Bilbo found himself trapped several times, but each time managed to wriggle free of the attacks. His allies however, had some unfortunate luck, as Fili was trapped and slain by a group of sailors and Harondians. Tauriel was being a thorn in our side and cutting down anything that came her way. So as she ran out of might, Dwalin pulled back ready to rush in the next turn and avoid Tyramir's rage. I opted to send Tyramir after Kili, who he wounded, and then Tauriel and use his last might to call a Heroic Strike on her and take her out. Tyramir got to F7+ and lunged viciously with his spear...but to our horror, we managed a 5 highest, to her 6! Suddenly, all the troops trapping her came back to haunt us as she repaid the attempt in kind and slew Tyramir and several troops!
As all this was happening, Camemir took his cavalry round the right house, giving the appearance of looking like they're going to capture the central one. As the game's end approached, the two Errand-Riders rushed out and charged Balin, who had their palantir. Over the course of several turns, the riders lost one and relentlessly attacked, getting Balin to 1w, 0f with their warspears, but were unable to finish him. Camemir, in a way suitable to his character, opted to 'guard' the watchtower, that was under no threat of recapture.
In the centre, a lot of tit for tat was happening, as we managed to bring down the surrounded Dwalin with the brute force of the Swordsmen of Belfalas, but as we broke, Arostamir's will to fight went with it and he fled. We were unable to bring down Tauriel, not even win a fight against her (seriously, she had anger issues in this game), wound Bilbo nor kill Kili. We did manage to bring down Legolas, who had been another thorn in our side.
So by the end of the game, we had defended Camemir and captured our watchtower. While Paul and Adam had broken us and protected Bilbo, leaving us at a 6-6 draw!
We had finished day 1 with 2 draws and a loss, putting us in 3rd place for our group and into the Palantir Mug!
Arena of Champions
For every 5pts below 100pts, your champion may gain a point of Might/Will/Fate (stacking evenly)
Our Champions: Arostamir/Tyramir (both 5/2/3)
Opponent's Teams: Double Hasharin (James/Billy), Earnur/Aranarth (James/Ed) and Fili/Kili (Paul/Adam)
The game began with our priority and James (Earnur) claimed that he and Tyramir had unfinished business. So, not being one to refuse a challenge, Tyramir ran at towards him, Arostamir forced to follow or risk being isolated. The Hasharin both looped around behind us and threw knives, but failed to cause harm. The Dwarves opted to sit back and let us fight, taking a cheeky shot at Earnur's horse but not landing the shot.
Then it came to Ed/James' turn, Earnur rushed Tyramir and both called a Heroic Strike, Tyramir came out on top and dismounted the King. Aranarth opted not to charge Tyramir, who still had an active strike and went after Arostamir, landing two wounds and forcing fate rolls, James rolled unfortunately and had to use might to save it.
Then it was our turn, Tyramir once again attacked and was forced to spend some fate after Earnur came out on top. Unfortunately for James, the sharks had sensed blood and both Hasharin went after Arostamir consecutively, slaying him despite burning a lot of might and fate from us both.
Tyramir now standing alone, fought hard against both Earnur and Aranarth, taking several resources off them, as he caused several wounds, but eventually falling to Aranarth's fury.
The remaining heroes fought hard, but the Hasharin were taken out by the charging dwarves and then the Kings of Men followed not far behind. Kili was sent through to the final. In there, he fought hard, managing to controversially wound Tauriel (who was 2w, 4f) and have her roll 4 1s on the trot for her fate, to Damians horror. From there, he went on to outlast many others and end up toe to toe with Gloin for the topspot, where he finally fell. Grats to Adam for a great performance!
Game 4- No Escape (Vs. The Shire/The Rangers (Sam+Mark))
Opponent's Heroes: Gandalf the Grey, Wil Whitfoot, Holfoot Bracegirdle, Arathorn, Dunedain and Rangers of the North
Opponent's Warriors: Hobbit Militia, Hobbit Archers and Hobbit Shirriffs
Opponent's theme: The hobbits and Rangers that fought the Warg assault in the fell winter (they shared a display board with Larry and Kieran’s Warg army).
Castamir and Gandalf deployed in the centre with their respective forces, meaning that Tyramir and Arathorn would be coming to the rescue of their allies.
Castamir began as you expect him to, lunging at the nearest Hobbits, getting into combat the next turn and cutting down a few with his cronies. Meanwhile, the other flank of the Hobbits saw Camemir call a Heroic March and start leading a mass rush of troops towards the halflings. The Hobbit archers opened fire and the first five shots got the less than desired result seen in the below pic. They did manage to take out Camemir's horse with their last shot.
As Castamir hit combat, Camemir was leading the charge and not far off himself, the Hobbits bravely rushed forward and engaged the King's men, even managing to kill a couple of the Wardens, but several of them fell in response.
The reinforcements for both forces arrived, half the rangers engaged the Sailors to the rear, beside the Prancing Pony, Camemir led the charge into the Hobbits, bringing all the warriors and the Scythe into the fray. Tyramir rushed in to support the combat against Gandalf, who had been charged.
Castamir and Arostamir caught the surviving Hobbits on the flank. With the stage set a couple of Heroic Combats were called; Arostamir called to throw himself into the thick of it, and the Osprey called one to try and get the jump on Gandalf and trap him.
Arostamir went first and killed his hobbit, both he and his Warden joining a couple of combats to open up the flank. The Osprey killed his hobbit and as he prepared to charge Gandalf, saw a much more appealing political target, as he saw the Mayor, Wil Whitfoot exposed! He rushed in and before the halfling could react, struck him down in the name of the King!
Gandalf managed to survive the attack from his foes, but was dismounted, the hobbits and men of Harondor killed a few of each other in the North side, and the Sailors did unexpectedly well and killed a few of the Rangers to the rear! The Raven looked to be in trouble as he was surrounded on all sides, but pushed them all back and killed two of the three.
The numbers of the Shire's defence were dwindling now as they broke, but they stubbornly kept on going. Camemir led another push into their lines and speared the Hobbit Hornblower before him. Over a couple of turns, Arathorn managed to Heroic Combat into the Osprey and slay him, before engaging Arostamir and falling himself. The Raven found Holfoot amongst the melee and brought him down with a savage knife attack. And finally, a lone ranger managed to slay the Hawk in single combat after being dismounted by him.
As the game came to a close, Tyramir surrounded Gandalf and brought down the wizard, despite the heroic efforts of the Rangers to help him. Despite Sam and Mark facing very difficult odds, they took us on honourably and it was a fun game all round.
By the end of the game, we had slain Gandalf and Arathornas well as broken our opponent's. They had slain our banner bearer to prevent those VPs, meaning we had won 10-0 and progressed to the Mug's Semi Final.
Game 5- Lords of Battle (Vs. Rohan/Woses of Druadan (Cameron+Tom))
Opponent's Heroes: Theoden, Ghan Buri Ghan, Aghan (Custom Profile) and Rohan Captain
Opponent's Warriors: Rohan warriors and Woses warriors
Opponent's theme: The men of Druadan assisting the Rohirrim in passing through their forest on the way to the Pelennor. (Aghan was a non combat focused profile, who could place up to 9 statues that would grant 6+ fury saves to their friendly models).
We deployed face to face, both with low defence armies, ready for a bloodbath. Castamir, Tyramir and the Raven deployed to the right of the central house, to the left were all the rest. To our right the Rohan Captain was across from us with Aghan. To our left was Theoden and Ghan, ready to engage.
And engage they did, as they won the Heroic Move off. They killed several of our men with their throwing spears as they charged in. The Osprey was pinned against the wall, overestimating his abilities and was slain immediately. Arostamir led from the centre and caused some damage with his troops in response.
Camemir went to go and try causing damage in return with a sneak attack as he led his cavalry around the far house and to the flank. He lost a horse on the approach, but led the charge nonetheless. He rolled poorly in combat, was dismounted and then slain in the following turns. Bless, he tried.
Castamir and his men hit the Rohirrim like a train and killed several, although he lost a Warden or two. Tyramir rushed up the steps of the wall and engaged the two archers. He lost the fight and his footing, falling down them again and taking a wound from it. The following turn a friend rushed along the wall and engaged one as he climbed again and took the other. This time slaying them. The Raven was dispatched by Castamir and went after the Rohan Captain, removing a fate.
Castamir and his warriors pushed forward, with the men managing to slay Aghan towards then end of the game. Tyramir came back down the stairs and joined the Raven, managing to kill the Captain and give them the edge over their foes, who now had no heroes on this flank. With the way clear, they both pushed around and attacked from the rear, killing multiple Woses.
Back in the centre, Arostamir called a couple of Heroic Moves on the trot, winning one or two and returning damage with their own throwing weapons. As the numbers thinned out, Arostamir's might ran out and Theoden struck, rushing in and outnumbering him in a fight, calling a Heroic Strike and promptly losing, being wounded twice and having to spend his remaining two might to save the wound and survive.
In the final few turns, Theoden narrowly avoided death as he fought a warrior and lost the combat, Arostamir was finally laid low by a horde of Woses, and Ghan was slain by the Hawk in combat.
By the end of the game, we had a wound tally of ~36 to their ~19, to make our score not quite double theirs, we had wounded their leader and both had broken each other, putting us into the Mug final with a score of 5-1.
Game 6- Seven Stones Domination (Vs. The Grey Company (Nat+Dan))
Opponent's Heroes: Aragorn, Legolas ,Gimli, Halbarad, Elladan, Elrohir and 2 Rangers of the North
Opponent's theme: The banding of heroes and Rangers from the North accompanying Aragorn to the Pelennor.
Getting the final matchup, seven stones domination (domination with two additional objectives, meaning a max VP score can be 16), we were feeling positive being against an all hero force and thinking we had good odds to claim the win!
We deployed in a line a little back, hoping to bring them forward, envelope and then take objectives as one of us started to fall. We had clearly underestimated our opponents. We exchanged shots, they managed to pick off a handful of archers and we dismounted Legolas and Gimli with a lucky shot. We then realised that they weren't going to move from the back and were getting an advantage in the shooting, so began moving up. We left a handful of troops on our rear three objectives and met Aragorn and his troops in the centre.
We pinned Gimli with several troops and set the Osprey upon Legolas, going for an early big hero kill. The Strike off went against us and the opportunity slipped. We also tried to get some helpful damage done elsewhere but failed to kill horses, where we won the fights. We did however, manage to drain a fair bit of might away.
We decided to make an attempt on Gimli as he was down to 1 might, throwing both assassins upon him at once and Tyramir upon Legolas. We both called Heroic Strikes on either again, but an elven twin Heroic Combatted to help Legolas, saving him and helping his fellow elf slay Tyramir!
We were no more fortunate against Gimli as he won the combat and survived a very dangerous situation. Aragorn was causing a fair bit of damage from horseback, along with his rangers to our right.
With the second failed assassination, and fall of Tyramir, the Grey Company cut a very sudden bloody path through our army. We dismounted a couple of rangers and made an attempt to send some troops to claim objectives at their rear, but Dan and Nat played it masterfully and managed to thwart all our attempts. Eventually we just had a small handful of troops left on the centre with Castamir and Arostamir. Camemir was on a rear objective, intending to be the stand fast that kept our troops in line, but he rolled snake eyes on his first courage test and fled.
Staring down the barrel, Arostamir bravely faced Gimli and several enemies, before being cut down. Then in the final turn, Castamir faced multiple enemies including Halbarad, if I remember correctly, and managed to once again show his impressive ability to not die, winning the fight and leaving Legolas on 1w, 1f, but most importantly, keeping both Palantirs in our possession!
As the game ended, we both had 3 objectives held uncontested, Nat/Dan had the centre outnumbered and had broken us to win 8-6. This meant that they had beaten us against the odds on the final hurdle for the Mug, congrats to them, it was thoroughly deserved.
Those who live, will remember
As I said earlier, we had the agreement that the son who died the most, canonically dies alongside Castamir.
Well the results are in:
Arostamir: Died 4 times
Fled 1 time
Lived 1 time
Tyramir: Died 3 times
Fled 0 times
Lived 3 times
Camemir: Died 3 times
Fled 1 time
Lived 2 times
Arostamir, loyal to the end. This means Tyramir and Camemir escape to Umbar to have their descendants become the Corsairs and the enemies of Gondor!
This was an amazing weekend managing to score runner up in our day 2 group, and best of all, we left with the Palantir for Best Theme! Marking off the biggest bucket list item either of us had! A hugely memorable moment!
Tournaments that I will attend
The Wolfs Lair Returns (GBHL 100)- 29-30th June
Send Forth All Legions 2 (EAHC)- 6th July
Ardacon- 9-11th August
