Tournament Report- Will you follow me, one last time? (EAHC Finale 2022 (26th Nov 2022))

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!

Clearing the Backlog, Part 7 – Beards and Axes!

Much like Sam's post about his Rhunish drakes, this blog post will also be a short one. 

October was a busy month for me – I attended three different SBG tournaments, and batch painted over fifty models (including an entire army of Morannons and Easterlings!) – it was a pretty intense month hobby-wise!

As you'll know from Part 6, the orcs and Easterlings were painted to take to the Lord of the Imps and Battle of Unnumbered Tears events. Whilst I struggled at the Lord of the Imps, winning a single game whilst drawing one and losing the other four, I was much more successful at Unnumbered Tears, coming away with three wins and three defeats. 

With that done, my attention then turned to an SBG event that I've been wanting to attend for several years, finally managing to attend this year's event – The Strider Cup! A two day doubles event where the main focus is on theme more than anything else. The Strider Cup also places emphasis on completing certain objectives to win "Strider Points" – whichever team earns the most wins the Strider Cup. 

I was paired with my friend Josh for this event, and he'd slowly been working on an Army of Dale, so we decided to do the Defenders of Erebor (although without any Legendary Legion bonuses, as all Legendary Legions were banned for the event). Fortunately, I had a small collection of Iron Hills Dwarves sitting in my painting queue (and like most of my painting queue, they'd been there for some time!), so I decided to put some paint on them!

Much like my Morannon Orcs, I decided to save some time on the dwarves by using Leadbelcher Spray over a black undercoat – this instantly basecoated all of the metal areas. A quick wash of Agrax Earthshade, a drybrush of Necron Compound, and the silver metals were done! The bronze areas were basecoated with Balthasar Gold, washed with Seraphim Sepia, and then layered with Hashut Copper and Sycorax Bronze. I picked out the belts with brown, and the underclothing and weapons with black – a few highlights later and my dwarves were done!

I also painted up the command set – the mattock captain, as he's become known, is arguably one of the nicest looking models in the range and is full of character. The difference to the other dwarves is his bright red cloak – I used progressive layers of red, getting brighter with each layer, until I had a look I was happy with

Next, they needed a leader, and who better than Dain Ironfoot? Dain's gold armour and white beard really helps him stand out from the rest of the army – I also spent some time (and much of that was cursing – it's very fiddly detail!) picking out the gold filigree found in his hair braids and axe handle. The armour was basecoated in Balthasar Gold, washed with Sepia and then layered with Retributor Armour and Liberator Gold. Dain's crown was done the same way, albeit with a black wash rather than sepia. 

With Dain and the dwarves done, I had a bit of spare time on my hands, so I painted up Dain's son, Thorin III Stonehelm! Another lovely model with a lot of character – I painted his armour in the same way as Dain, but went one colour further up, so I started with a basecoat of Retributor Armour, then Liberator Gold, applied a sepia wash and then highlighted it with Liberator Gold and Stormhost Silver. His hair was a bit of a challenge – bright, vibrant orange. I decided to experiment, applying a wash of Fuegan Orange over Zandri Dust, and it actually came out so well I kept it – adding a few extra highlights just to make it stand out – I now had a nice Erebor Reclaimed force ready to hit the tabletop!

So, how did the tournament go? Well, unfortunately, luck was not on our side and although we won two games, we drew one and lost three, putting us in the wooden spoon place. However, we also took home the Most Sporting prize, so we were very pleased with that!

So, with all those dwarves done, my models painted count for the year is now up to 225 models! As mentioned before, it feels great to get to this milestone, and I've also managed to complete several armies in the process (although, let's be honest – is an army ever really "complete"?). The only challenge now is: what can I paint before the end of the year?

Clearing the Backlog (Oct '22)

 Hey all 

This post will be a relatively short one, as I suspect that I will have to bundle Nov/Dec together, so wanted to get this month sorted now.

This month, I only managed to get 6 models painted, but they were all bigger models.

The first things that I painted were some Rhunish War Drakes, printed by Medbury minatures as I am told. I really enjoyed these and didn't want to go for a pure black skin approach. So I gave their skin a red tinge from washes (Carroburg Crimson) and painted the thin membranes on the ears and the spines down the back to be red (washed Carroburg Crimson x2 followed by Agrax Earthshade x1). I did their breastplates in Leadbelcher and washed them with Agrax Earthshade and for the eyes, added a little bit of Gehenna's Gold to give them a shine. The spines and claws were simple Rakarth flesh. 

They seem to help them mix into the Easterling hordes nicely and I tried two of them out at the Strider cup, where they didn't perform often (besides wounding the King of the Dead and lowering him to F4 A1 and then in another killing him outright.) However, they did look awesome on the table!

The other two models I did this month gone, was going to be my last two Mirkwood Elves. But then on the last Friday of the month, I saw that Battle Streams (or in this case Screams) of Middle Earth was doing a Halloween special. The theme being anything scary/spooky that you can make work for Halloween. 

So I had a quick browse of my 'To Do' list and saw a few options (mostly various forms of bat) and then saw something I knew that I'd love to get done.

My theme for the Stream was 'Monsters under the Bed' as I got out two Cave Trolls that had sat in the cupboard for a year or more each. One I had got in an MTO when the chance arose and the other I had won in a raffle at Strider Cup, I believe.

These guys were quite straightforward as I did their thick hide in Mechanicus Standard grey and their bellies in Ratskin flesh topped by Kislev flesh. Their loin cloths and nails were done in Steel Legion Drab and all metal was Leadbelcher over Warplock Bronze. In their mouths, I did Khorne Red for the tongue and gums and Rakarth Flesh for the teeth. The final touches being Corvus Black in the eyes with a small dot of Ironbreaker to give them a shine and Rhinox hide on the leather belt. All of this was washed over with (hold your breath...) more Agrax Earthshade. I honestly don't know how I would cope painting without the stuff, it's like Ketchup and just makes most things work.

It wasn't meant to be the best paintjob ever but I was happy that they look the part amongst a Moria army (something I'm hoping to chip away at next year, maybe alongside Galadhrim).

You may also note that the Hammer troll has a weird lump in his chain need his hand, it snapped not long after I started building and glue wouldn't fix it, so I had to attempt a (very poor) bridge of green stuff to hold it together.

As I say, there wasn't much achieved this month but I feel I got a fair amount done in size if not numbers. As we slowly approach the end of the year, and after trading the Khanish guys, that were going nowhere for some Vault Warden teams and buying the Breaking of the Fellowship box during the MTO (project for new year?) my paint queue, for now is: 380. I'm hoping that by the end of the year, I can trim this down to 365. That'd mean a model a day next year and I clear the lot! ...yeah I know

'There never was much hope, only a fools hope.'