The Event
Similar to how the Warhammer World Teams events are run, teams are made up of four players; two good and two evil. No one within the team can use a hero that has already been used within the team.
Matchups would be slightly different though, a pool is rolled for and each team will see what their opponents’ lists are. They then must each choose one of the scenarios from that pool so that each scenario is chosen by a player from each team. This decides the pairings within the teams. You can either play the scenario that you think fits each of your players best, or try to predict what scenario your opponents will choose for themselves and attempt to pair accordingly.
Our Team
Our team was the same as our first for the Warhammer World’s first team event; Tom and the Mellon (Myself, Tom, Jake and James). Tom and James would be our good players, while myself and Jake would be the evil ones.
Our Armies
Tom
James
Jake
Me
Round 1 Vs. Boil ‘em, Mash ‘em, Stick ‘em in a List
Pairings
Me (Grand Army of the South) v Sam (Usurpers of Edoras) playing Destroy the Supplies
Tom (Army of Thror) v Kieran (Lindon) playing Retrieval
Jake (Lurtz’s Scouts) v CJ (Ugluk’s Scouts) playing Seize the Prizes
James (Reclamation of Moria) v George (The Eagles) playing Treasure Hoard
Game 1
No pics for this one because I’m a pro at journalism and forgot.
Raza target: Freca
At deployment, I had Suladan to my right flank, and the Harad King along with Raza to my left. Sam had deployed Freca to my right and Wulf with Lord Thorne to my right.
Sam began moving forward with most of his guys. Freca’s men shuffled forward a little and the archers got up against cover. Wulf led the other half of the army down my right side towards Suladan. I held firm in order to try and weaken his army with shooting.
Having a low defence army and considerable shooting on either side, I called a Heroic Shoot with Raza. I intended to thin out Sam’s shooting to give me an edge. But not even one of my thirteen archers got as far as rolling to wound. 😆 Sam returned fire and luckily had no more luck than I.
We had a similar approach in the next turn, but this time I directed my bows at his melee force that was seeming to prepare to come at me down the left. I had better luck this time and killed three of them. Sam’s shots, in return, killed a couple of my archers.
On the right, Wulf and the traitors rushed towards me. Fortunately, their throwing weapons failed to find a mark. And the next turn, I called a Heroic Move to charge them. We were surprised to see the Haradrim manage to hold their own and kill a few of the traitors. Wulf had charged around the flank into a couple of my guys. During the shoot phase, I turned some bows on the right and fired at Wulf, scoring a hit and killing his horse. Suladan, saw his chance and Heroic combated off his opponent, in order to trap the dismounted Wulf. He then got a five high and was forced to spend might to avoid almost certain death.
In turns after, the Haradrim held firm for a long while, and Wulf fought Suladan again, taking a wound and going down to 1m, 2w and 0f. But managed to bring him down later as the numbers came to bear. Eventually, I couldn’t keep them off of the right supply and they destroyed it.
Back on the left, Sam had pulled back after losing a handful of guys to shooting. And I was seeing my right under pressure, so decided to apply pressure of my own. I left five archers to cover the central and left supplies from bird attack and the King led a rush up the centre at Freca’s men.
We withstood shooting on the approach, picking a few off in return through the gaps we could find and once in range, charged in. The King saw a golden opportunity to catch them with their pants down, and charged in. He called a Heroic Combat and ran around the side of the warband, right into Freca. He won the combat and suddenly the enemy leader was on the floor with six strikes with bane of kings raining down on him. If I could get three 5+s with rerolls, I would kill the leader and potentially, cause the collapse of the flank, without the fight value advantage. This could then help break them, and maybe allow me to destroy a supply or two in kind, potentially winning the game! I managed to score two, and Freca went down to 1m, 1w and 0f in his efforts to survive.
The Harad King was then brutally surrounded and ripped apart by angry hill men for his actions. Raza took up the lead of the flank and got to the front. If I could just get him to Freca, I could still secure it. But sadly, it was not enough.
The game ended with me broken, one of my objectives destroyed, meaning Sam had destroyed more than me, he had protected his banner, and slain my leader while I had wounded his. So I had lost 14-1, but it felt closer.
Results
Me (Grand Army of the South) 1 v 14 Sam (Usurpers of Edoras)
Tom (Army of Thror) 0 v 18 Kieran (Lindon)
Jake (Lurtz’s Scouts) 4 v 6 CJ (Ugluk’s Scouts)
James (Reclamation of Moria) 17 v 3 George (The Eagles)
We thought James had been the expected defeat for this round, but kudos to him, he pulled it off.
Round 2 Vs. The Four Horsemen
Pairings
Jake (Lurtz’s Scouts) v James (Atop the Walls) playing To the Death
James (Reclamation of Moria) v Nick (The Black Gate) playing Lords of Battle
Me (Grand Army of the South) v Phil (Umbar) playing Assassination
Tom (Army of Thror) v Will (Rivendell) playing Contest of Champions
Game 2
Raza target: Delgamar
*Through this round, I had Tom to my left, a notorious elf hater (hence the team name), up against Will, a man who is fiercely pro elf, in contest with Thror v Glorfindel. So for the 2hrs, I was hearing the occasional yelp or terrified squeal from Tom.
I knew off the bat that this would be a tough fight, as Phil had a literal assassin army for assassination. I had chosen the King for my assassin, as his horse and bane of kings could be crucial, and targeted the Bo’Sun.
We deployed very closely and I lost the initial priority, so called a Heroic Move, as I was worried about how many men that I’d lose to the corsairs throwing weapons. Phil didn’t contest it, and I saw Delgamar right behind his frontline.
I threw Raza into the guy in front of him, and piled the Haradrim into the rest. In the combats, we managed to slay a few and lost a few in return, but crucially, Raza had called a Heroic Combat and got into Delgamar. He won the fight and lunged hard with his spear, managing to get him down to 1m, 1w and 0f.
The following turn was a similar setup as I called the move to charge again, but this time, I lost every single fight. Even Raza failed to beat the almost dead Delgamar. Phil then ended the turn by using his rule to have a Hasharin assassinate Delgamar and pass leadership to the Bo’Sun.
This meant that now the Bo’Sun was potentially worth up to 15VPs…I HAD to get him. I had second consecutive turn of losing a lot of fights and men, so was getting desperate, as I knew that I had to keep the flank open, to allow me a shot at the new leader. So I called a Heroic Move with Suladan’s last might, who was right on the edge of the line. It had to be him in my mind as Raza was stuck behind troops and couldn’t reach where I wanted Suladan to get.
Suladan wanted to get on top of the Bo’Sun and potentially slay him, but some control zones were stopping him. So he charged into the rear. I then wanted to get the Harad King in instead but he wasn’t able to get past Phil’s frontline.
It was here I realised my mistake, as Phil then rushed a Hasharin over and trapped Suladan along with several troops. I had given in to frustration and now my leader was going to pay for it. Unsurprisingly, Suladan was absolutely destroyed.
For the rest of the game, I was just hoping for a sudden shot at the Bo’Sun but Phil was careful with his positioning and didn’t give me that chance. Raza and the King fought side by side against the two Hasharin. The former fell in the final turn, but the King managed to stay standing and deal a wound onto his would-be assassin.
By the end, I hadn’t managed to get near the Bo’Sun, but Phil had got the correct Hasharin to slay his target, Raza, he had broken me, kept his assassin and my target alive and killed my leader. I had kept my assassin alive, just! So I had lost 20-1.
Results
Jake (Lurtz’s Scouts) 9 v 11 James (Atop the Walls)
James (Reclamation of Moria) 0 v 20 Nick (The Black Gate)
Me (Grand Army of the South) 1 v 20 Phil (Umbar)
Tom (Army of Thror) 0 v 20 Will (Rivendell)
A rough one for Tom and the Mellon, by the end of this round, we were dead last and three places beneath ‘Team Wooden Spoon!’
Round 3 Vs. Nellowship of the Ferds
Pairings
Tom (Army of Thror) v Brin (Kingdom of Khazad Dum) playing Hold Ground
James (Reclamation of Moria) v Ed (Beornings) playing Heirlooms of Ages Past
Me (Grand Army of the South) v Alex (Moria) playing Sites of Power
Jake (Lurtz’s Scouts) v James (Army of Carn Dum) playing Command the Battlefield
Game 3
Raza target: Durburz
I had won the priority roll off and so got Alex to arrive first. He got a 2 for Durburz, so I put him close to the corner of the South-East. Next Druzhag rolled a 3, so I put him a little higher up but also close the the South East. Finally the cave drake got a 5 and came on near Druzhag.
I then rolled 2s for my entire army. Alex chose to bring the Harad King on in the middle of the Southern edge, Suladan close to the South West corner and Raza near the North West corner.
The King lined up his archers and fired at the approaching cave troll in the second turn, causing a single wound. Durburz, Druzhag and the Drake were bearing down on him and I felt that he was going to die, but I could buy time for the rest of my forces to fortify objectives. The cave troll ran in and charged a couple of my guys. So I ran my guys forward in response, to fight the goblins. The King charged one with a warrior and called a Heroic Combat. They killed the goblin and then he ran forward and trapped the cave troll. We won the fight and the troll was slain before the King even had to roll.
In the next couple of turns, the King would be charged by a couple of goblins, win and slay them. The Cave Drake was charging my guys and trying to hurl them at him, but failed her intelligence test and threw them at a random archer instead. My King finally lost a fight in the third combat and was ripped apart by enraged goblins, but had paid for himself very well.
Suladan’s unit, meanwhile, had moved up and the infantry passed through a tunnel to the South West objective, the South East was claimed by a lone goblin. I moved so that my Abrakhan Merchant Gusrd formed a line across an alleyway leading from where the goblins were to the objective and backed them with spears. Suladan and his raiders hung around the left side and the raiders fired pot shots at the Cave Drake but failed to land a blow.
Raza had sent two bows and two spears to hold the North West objective and the rest of his warband went with him towards the North East, which had Druzhag’s spiders and wargs heading for it.
We both got there at a similar time and clashed hard, a few Harad were torn up by angry beasts. But Raza made his presence known as he speared both spiders and helped to kill the wargs off. Their job now was to just sit on the objective.
Back in the South, the goblins and drake finished off the Kings men. Then the Drake led the way toward my blockade. Realising one they got there, that it wasn’t going to fit through, so killed a few of them and then rushed around to slaughter my raiders who were trying to snipe the goblin on the South East. The game then ended her due to time.
I had sole claim over three sites and Alex had one, we had broken one another, and he had slain my second most expensive hero (the Harad King), giving me a 10-6 win.
Results
Tom (Army of Thror) 17 v 2 Brin (Kingdom of Khazad Dum)
James (Reclamation of Moria) 8 v 10 Ed (Beornings)
Me (Grand Army of the South) 10 v 6 Alex (Moria)
Jake (Lurtz’s Scouts) 7 v 6 James (Army of Carn Dum)
A great round for us, our only defeat was a narrow one, despite James not being the one to find the Heirloom!
Round 4 Vs. A Chance for Zach to Show his Quality
Pairings
James (Reclamation of Moria) v Ben (Cirith Ungol) playing Domination
Jake (Lurtz’s Scouts) v Matt (Grand Army of the South) playing Capture and Control
Tom (Army of Thror) v Zach (Riders of Eomer) playing Breakthrough
Me (Grand Army of the South) v Ben (Lothlorien) playing Stake a Claim
Game 4
Raza target: Galadriel
I deployed my King to the right, Suladan to the left and Raza in the centre. Ben deployed his elves in a block beside his rear objective. In my experience, the player who gets a good start in this scenario for fortification points, generally wins, so that was my strategy, take all three in the middle and hold them as long as I can.
Suladan and Raza bunched up and marched for the central Ford (the three central objectives lay on the river (L-R on a bridge, on the Ford, and in the water). Meanwhile, the King made for the right objective and a couple of warriors and my raiders went for the left. I left two bowmen on the rear one.
Ben also moved for the centre and left his wood elf sentinel on his rear, but also moved his wood elves towards my king.
The shooting had no casualties so we went into the next turn. Ben got priority and so carried on his march. I realised that he’d left a couple of wood elves in range of my king so ran forward and cut them down. On the bridge, the two warriors ran forward and lay down to hide from archers. I got within range of the Ford and claimed the middle too.
The following turn my king was charged by a wood elf that he took down. And on the Ford the fighting started in earnest as our lines locked. I kept Suladan close by to give me plenty of rerolls and the following turn, charged him in as I wanted to break his flank to envelop him. Suladan quickly ended up burning his might over the next few turns as the elves piled numbers into him, alongside F6 guards of the galadhrim court.
I decided to send in my raiders, who had been shooting off the bridge and sent one towards the sentinel, hiding behind the dead mumak and the other two into the rear at the left.
My king had got very bolshy and charged into two wood elves, before being surrounded by five in total. He won the fight and killed three. The turn after, his warriors joined and killed the last two with him in a Heroic Combat. This sent them to the centre to try and relieve the pressure there and him around the back to the sentinel. The following turn, he can’t see the sentinel, due to the elven cloak and distance, so runs onto the objective to neutralise it instead. The raider from the other side rushes over and draws his bow. But is sang a song and runs off instead. The sentinel charges the king but is cut down. I now hold four of the objectives, as the elves had slightly better numbers on the fifth.
Over the last few turns, the elves come dangerously close to killing the trapped Suladan, but he gets away wounded (1w, 0f) and then takes all of Celeborn’s fate away in the last turn. Raza had been inching towards Galadriel, who had spent two fate against a warrior, I hoped my assassin could make a sudden end to her. But simply didn’t get the opportunity.
As the game ended, I had triple the fortification points (60/19), held more in the last turn, he had wounded Suladan and we had broken each other, giving me a 15-2 victory.
Results
James (Reclamation of Moria) 1 v 13 Ben (Cirith Ungol)
Jake (Lurtz’s Scouts) 7 v 14 Matt (Grand Army of the South)
Tom (Army of Thror) 10 v 5 Zach (Riders of Eomer)
Me (Grand Army of the South) 15 v 2 Ben (Lothlorien)
A nice even matchup to finish, with a good split down the middle for results.
Overall Results
At the end of the day, we had managed to win 1 matchup, drawn 1 and lost 2. Won 6 of our 16 games and we had scored 107VPs and conceded 170VPs. So we ended in 6th place of the 8 teams, which wasn’t bad, considering how rough we were looking by the end of round 2.
The podium ended up being:
3rd: Fellowship of the Nerd
2nd: Boil ‘em, Mash ‘em, Stick ‘em in a List
1st: Squirtle Squad
Congrats to them all, and to ‘A Chance for Zach to Show his Quality’ for taking home ‘Best team armies’ and ‘Most sporting team’.
Events that I will attend
Fog of War 4 (TO) (16th May)
Seven Stones (23-25th May)
What about Second Breakfast? (13th June)
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