The Event
Throne of Skulls is quite simply one of, if not the, best event on the calendar. 1000pts with theme and sportsmanship as important as your gaming results.
My Army
Early on in the year, I spoke to regular co-conspirator, James, about his TOS plans, and floated the idea of a joint display.
He mentioned that he was intending to do the Defence of Minas Tirith. So I ended up bringing the attackers. How I made the army is here:
https://eastangliasbg.blogspot.com/2025/12/aragorn-you-need-more-men-backlog.html
I also decided that I would begin each game by ‘releasing the prisoners’ and firing the severed heads once, just for the theme.
Game 1- Stake A Claim (Vs. Gary (Dragons of the North))
I’ve never played against the Dragons army, so didn’t know how this would go. I quickly realised that Amdur would be a big asset, with his high fight value and 5+ limit on wounding heroes.
I called a Heroic March with Guritz to move up the board quickly as the dragons flew to the centre and got early fortification points.
Then the dragonfire started….😆
I lost nine of my guys to the first two fireballs. As they hit my big group hard. I ‘released the prisoners’ in return, but it just seemed to make the Dragons angry rather than frightened.
The next turn, I charged in with as many troops as I could, alongside Amdur and the troll, into the Yellow/Red dragon. Gary’s leading Dragon, the Golden one, blew another fireball into the Enforcer’s warband as the Red Dragon also blew one at Guritz’s. I had another six incinerated.
Amdur then helped me give some clap back, as he and his troops overcame the beast and dealt three or four wounds. Some of which were saved by fate.
In the following turn, I managed to get all two Dragons into fights to avoid most fire this turn, and luckily the spare dragon missed. Amdur, and his troops again took on the Yellow and Red and dealt another three wounds. He would then fail a courage test and fled the battle. However, the other two fights wouldn’t go as well, as I lost the Enforcer and several orcs.
If I could now, just flood another objective and also kill another dragon, I could have the last flee and win by default, or maybe reclaim the VPs that I needed. I called a Heroic Move with Gothmog to try and grab the Goldenboy, breaking and leader VPs in him after all. He called one in response and won the roll off, he flew backwards out of Amdur’s range and landed behind the Enforcer’s surviving orcs.
I pursued but the orcs in charge range, failed their courage tests and refused to pin him. So another fireball came and hit my troll square in the face. He was slain immediately, and Amdur survived with his fate. I fired my catapult in response and dropped a rock onto the Red’s head, but he was saved by fate. Guritz tried to seize the right objective but was eaten by the Red. The following turn saw Amdur attack the Gold again but lose and fell to the beast.
Over the last few turns, I closed down the fortification point difference but the game ended before I could equalise. Gothmog also fell to the Golden Dragon in a heroic last stand. I had less points, owned less objectives in the last turn, was broken and had lost my leader.
Result- 12-0 Loss
Game 2- Treasure Hoard (Vs. David (The Easterlings))
I knew that against David’s mostly mounted Glimmering Horde, I needed to be quick off the mark and take my three treasures early. So I called Marches with Gothmog and Guritz, pushing up quickly and taking the first.
I then ‘released the prisoners’…it was supposed to be a gimmick…a prank…it scared off five of his kataphrakts…
We claimed three objectives each and they rushed towards each other. When the lines hit, we formed two big fights either side of the central house. An easterling was carrying my left objective, Gothmog took my right one and another easterling held the central one.
On my left, Amdur and the troll pushed into the Glimmering Horde. The troll ended up fighting the enemy Amdur for the rest of the game, taking the blows but not falling. My Amdur edged towards the Dragon Knight when a catapult shot landed and knocked them all prone.
On the right, Gothmog and his Enforcer skirted around the side and started cutting down kataphrakts. A handful of spare troops ran through the garden of the house and started flanking the cavalry. Beside them, I ran my easterling with a treasure up alongside an orc, with the intention to try and cause damage to the left flanks rear and cause a breakthrough.
I was getting lucky early on and the damage was snowballing. A catapult shot scattered onto an enemy treasure and stopped its progress dead for me. Gothmog and his unit managed to kill most of the right flank off.
On the left, the troll held Amdur in place and kept him from doing any real damage to me, but causing a wound myself eventually. My orcs and easterlings were taking down a good number while not losing too many in return. My Amdur stepped up to face the Dragon Knight, when a scattered rock came sailing down and flattened them both! At which point, time was called.
At the end, I held four treasures, David had two, I had broken him, I had wounded Amdur and he had a kataphrakt close to my board edge.
Result- 12-5 Win
Game 3- Sites of Power (Vs. Ossie (Thorin's Company))
Ossie is a guy, who I have encountered at many tournaments, but never yet played against. We arguably had a good scenario for me in this.
I had brought Guritz in first, and used his bonus to reduce Amdur's roll of 2 to a 1 and give him a second chance. When he came the next turn, he reinforced Guritz. The rest of the army all arrived further up the same board edge. The prisoners were released, missed and who knows where they ended up.
I tried to move up quickly to engage the dwarves ASAP and start draining their resources. I got a couple of orcs to hold the South-East objective, a couple of Easterlings moved up to the North-East, my catapult sat on the South-West and Ossie had Balin later sit back on the North-West.
Once we were in charging range, Ossie won the Heroic Move off and had Gandalf immobilise the troll before the dwarves charged. I tried to undo the damage as best I could with the troops. Amdur was just out of range of Dwalin, so couldn't remove him from the troll, but the orcs and Easterlings got a lot of the others including Gwaihir.
The first turns of combat went pretty well for me, as the dwarves were forced to spend might/fate and lost some wounds. I had some real momentum building and quickly had a small group of orcs all pouring past to go for Balin and his objective. Things were going really well...until disaster struck.
This was a night battle and so the catapult had been largely uninvolved...until it wasn't. It finally rolled a 6 to hit. Heading right for Gwaihir, and then quickly deviating sharply to the left and striking Gloin. This knocked all the dwarves prone, but didn't cause any wounds...but killed all five of my orcs in range. Suddenly the dust clears and Gothmog is left awkwardly staring down the barrel, exposed as five dangerous dwarves are all very close.
Suddenly, the game turned on a dime, Amdur was torn to pieces by Gwaihir followed qucikly by the Enforcer, who stepped up to protect Gothmog. The orcs near the North-West objective finally brought Balin down, but Gothmog didn't last much longer as I broke. Several of the dwarves were on their last legs, but were clearly inspired by how their fortune had turned and I couldn't kill any more of them.
I had the orcs on the South East objectives both flee, and lost me a vital objective right at the end of the game. Ossie pulled some of his heroes to the North-West objective (Thorin and Bombur, I want to say) and edge me out as he outnumbered me on it.
Ossie had outnumbered me on one objective (x2), while I solely held two, he had broken me, slain Gothmog, and he had slain my troll.
Result- 10-6 Loss
Game 4- Escort the Wounded (Vs. Jake (Men of the West))
Opponent Heroes: King Elessar (converted from a Hurin), Legolas, Gimli and Gwaihir
Opponent Troops: Minas Tirith Warriors and a Great Eagle
Day two began with us trying to carry our poor beaten soldiers to safety. I was a little concerned about facing another Gwaihir after he did so much damage in the previous game. I began by getting two orcs to carry one to my left, another couple took the central one and my troll took the right. I released the prisoners, but the army bonus meant that the Men didn't care.
Gwaihir made a swift attack, flew over my army and viciously attacked the troll, winning the fight and Jake picked up his dice. I remember saying this'll be where you get all 5/6s...and he rolled 4, 5, 5 and 6. Obviously, it's too good a chance for Gwaihir and he mighted it to one shot the beast. That was a very bad start on my part.
I then set up my lines to goalkeep against Aragorn to the right, and Legolas/Gimli to the left. I threw handful of orcs at Legolas to occupy him as my wounded guy was run past. I managed to get by and saved one.
On the right, I tried to keep the men back, but they pushed hard and started slipping by with their own wounded. Amdur was attacking the flanks, trying to thin out the ranks and isolate Aragorn.
One on the back of an eagle, the other two in the hands of men. Gwaihir, meanwhile, had taken a rock on the head, but passed his fate, and then flew towards my crew. In the ensuing combats, I threw my troll in and we started well, managing to remove two fate. In the second, we got him down to two wounds, zero fate. But then the troll failed his courage...Gwaihir attacked the orcs instead, so the troll threw a stone...and killed his engineer captain...whoops...
He did make up for this, right at the end of the game, as he charged in one last time and rended the bird into oblivion, scoring three wounds!
On the right, Amdur was successfully keeping pace with Aragorn's unit, killing many in exchange for the fallen orcs and easterlings. On the left, Gothmog and his Enforcer were slaying many of Legolas and Gimli's men, but Jake was about to rescue his last two wounded (top right corner), and mine were nowhere near safety.
As the last turn was coming to a close, Amdur had finally made his move and charged Aragorn. We were both out of might with elven blades, equal fight value, and I had elected to go 2h with Amdur to increase my wounding rolls to 4+, so naturally, being evil I brought two orcs in to trap. We both got a six and in the roll off...Aragorn won! He dealt two wounds to Amdur as the game ended. (I rolled after the fact, to torment myself, and I'd have done four wounds, if I had won. But nevermind.) It was a great game!
I had saved one wounded, broken Jake and killed his banner bearer. He had rescued all three wounded and broken me.
Result- 13-7 Loss
Game 5- Convergence (Vs. Liam (Rivendell))
My last game would be against Liam and his all mounted Rivendell army. I’ve never had much luck against Rivendell knights, but maybe there’s a first for everything.
I deployed Amdur and Guritz in one corner, near the catapult and Gothmog with his Enforcer in the opposite. Liam put Elrond and Arwen together and the twins across from them.
I called Heroic Marches with Gothmog and Guritz to try and seize a couple of heirlooms, as I reckoned that if the elves got them, I’d not get them back. Gothmog led his guys towards the Northern one, and Guritz towards the Eastern one. I figured the elves would focus down one or the other, so I could at least guarantee getting one. The prisoners were freed and the elves rolled their eyes.
As we closed in, Gothmog and his unit stood before the elven cavalry, in charge range. And both sides called Heroic Moves. I won it and rushed into the elves, but couldn’t clear the fence to reach the objective. In the combat phase, the orcs had a blinder and cut down several. A catapult shot landed square on Elrohir’s head with my first direct hit of the weekend and killed his horse along with several of his cavalry. Elrohir survived.
On the Eastern side, Guritz’s unit took the heirloom and pulled back towards the easterlings, who were covering the catapult from the approaching elves, led by Arwen.
Amdur had started approaching the centre, helped his men kill a few elves, who rushed in and then pulled back to join the catapult. Liam had taken both the southern and western objectives and also stepped in with a dismounted knight to pick up the northern one as the orcs and elves fought.
It was another game if the catapult troll showing his quality, when the elves flew in and charged the defence I had put up.
Arwen had cast a Nature’s Wrath and knocked down several of my guys. My troll regained his footing in combat and the next turn began hurling, taking down pairs of elves at a time. I wanted him to hurl at Arwen, but his intelligence kept failing him (what an idiot!) 😆
Over the game a heroic effort was put in by them all, but we never managed to even dismount the she-elf.
Back in the North, Gothmog’s orcs were gloriously winning against the elves, getting the move offs and killing a handful each turn. That was until we lost the move off…the elves immediately turned the tide and slaughtered sooo many of my guys! This was compounded as Elrond arrived and slew the Enforcer and before long, only Gothmog and a handful of orcs remained. The lead orc tried to put up a heroic last stand with Heroic Defences but, before long, all but one grunt were slain!
I was in trouble, my leader was dead, I was broken and I only had 1/4 objectives. When priority was rolled, I won. Amdur, who had led a push into the centre, attacked an heirloom holder and pinned him. Liam then moved his guys onto the edge of the centre. He only eyeballed it though…and I realised Amdur could be in charge range of another heirloom holder…I also had my heirloom firmly in the centre…but, this was Amdur’s last night..Elrond was closing in with a tsunami of elves, unbroken and would wash me away easily if the game continued…
But it’s TOS, where this sort of reckless gambit is encouraged! Fuck it!
Amdur spent his last might, calling the Heroic Combat. He slew his first opponent, taking the heirloom! He then rushed into the next as he was in range! And managed to slay him too! Because he is a hero, he is able to hold more than one!
But then the truly crucial moment came, where I had to end the game or die…I rolled and sighed with relief as I had got a 2!
I held three objectives in range of the centre, Liam held one off the centre, I had more models in the centre, while I had been broken and lost my leader.
Result- 11-7 Win (All thanks to Amdur and sheer dumb luck. Two mins earlier, Liam had been winning 13-5!)
End Results
By the end of the tournament, I had one major and one minor win as well as two minor and one major loss. I had also had a favourite game vote and three favourite armies votes, getting me 43rd place out of the 80 players.
As always it was another awesome Throne of Skulls and a great weekend, always a great way to bring the years events to a close...but maybe I have time for just one more this year...
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