CJ's "More will come" Legions: The Battle of the Five Armies Part 1 The Armed Host

 

After the death of Smaug, three neighbouring races descend upon the Lonely Mountain with individual claims to the treasure found within, unaware that an army of Orcs is also on their way... The Battle of the Five Armies as portrayed in Peter Jackson's film adaptations is more akin to an evolving chain of temporary alliances being made and dissolved as the battle progresses. This suits a short series of Legendary Legion articles looking at some interesting ways you could represent the dynamic combinations of Factions from the film in a themey and challenging playstyle. Part 1 is the alliance between Men and Elves that marches on the mountain.

Feren 50pts

Elf, Mirkwood, Infantry, Hero - Hero of Fortitude

F5/3+ S4 D5 A1 W2 C5 M1 W1 F2

Wargear: Armour, Elven Blade, Signal Horn

Heroic Actions: Heroic Resolve, Heroic Defence

Options:

Heavy Armour 5pts

Horse 10pts

Elf Bow 5pts

Special Rules: Woodland Creature

Signal Horn ACTIVE

If a Mirkwood Hero within 3” of Feren calls a Heroic Move, March, Shoot, Accuracy, or Resolve, you can resolve the Action as though Feren himself called it. The range of Feren’s “with me!”, “at the double!”, “take aim!”, “loose!”, and Heroic Resolve is 12” instead of 6”.

Feren doesn't get an awful lot to do in the Films, but most prominently in a battle context he is the one that Legolas commands to use his Horn to signal to close the river gate, as well as the one Thranduil commands to use his Horn to "call back your company". To have his profile work inkeeping with these moments, he has the option to extend the effects of a Heroic Action from a nearby Hero. This would allow rangers to be more efficient at spreading out and surrounding enemies, as well as using the additional range to move away towards objectives. With Thranduil's key weakness being Magic, Feren has an opportunity to cast a very large Heroic Resolve whilst being an ideal Hero to call it and remain stationary. He also has a brief appearance delivering a message to Legolas at Laketown on a horse so the wargear option is there.

ARMY COMPOSITION

Thranduil with Heavy Armour (Elk, Circlet, Sword)

Feren with Heavy Armour (Horse)

Mirkwood Captain (Swap Elven-made Glaive for Spear and Shield...free)

Mirkwood Elves (Elf Bow, Elven-made glaive, Shield, Spear, Banner)

Bard with Armour (Horse)

Gandalf

Bilbo

Lake-Town Militia (Shield, Spear, Bow)

This is a very restricted selection of the models usually available to these Factions in order to be inkeeping with the protrayal in the film, which just means that the Special Rules will have to make up for it! The Elves as depicted in the film also have spears and shields instead of Glaives so that Wargear Option is available for those who'd like to convert. It does cost the spear having the benefit of an elven blade roll-off but that extra defence could make all the difference to your expensive Elves.

ADDITIONAL RULES

Thranduil and Bard must both be taken, and Thranduil is always the Leader.

Bard gains the Arkenstone from Thror’s profile (pg19 AoTH).

Gandalf and Bilbo gain the Laketown keyword. Bilbo is treated as an Independent Hero, and Gandalf a Minor Hero.

The Arkenstone serves to make Bard extremely tanky if he has a bit of luck on his side! The downgrading of Gandalf and Bilbo represents their lack of standing amongst the Men of Laketown when they march to Erebor, as well as limiting the size of your Laketown component given that they make up a fraction of the Armed Host.

SPECIAL RULES

Form up!

Once per Game, when an enemy model is in charge range of one of your Mirkwood Heroes, they can call a Heroic Move including “with me!” which automatically goes first if contested. Elf models gain +1 to Wound when making Strikes within 3” of Thranduil.

The Elves depicted in the film are a highly skilled military outfit, with perfectly synchronised coordinated maneouvers and pre-planned commands and formations. The one used in the picture above was actually used against Hannibal's elephants! As the goats approach they switch their archers and spears and form the lines ready to receive the impact, which this Special Rule allows you to do if you need to cycle archers behind lines or react to your opponents moves. It'll definitely make Cavalry more cautious about charging in when you can definitely get the jump on them...

“Stand your men down”

The Mirkwood and Laketown models taken as part of this Legion are treated as Red Alliances with the following exceptions to those rules. This Legion only counts as Broken if both the Mirkwood and Laketown contingents are individually Broken. Your opponent will only score VPs for wounding/slaying your Leader if the conditions apply to both Bard and Thranduil. Laketown Warriors can only be lead by Laketown Heroes and Mirkwood Warriors by Mirkwood Heroes.

The Elves issue commands in elvish which the Men won't understand, and the Elves won't respect the military leadership of a citizen's militia. It's also abundantly clear that Thranduil is entirely indifferent to Bard joining him in his march on Erebor. By using the Red Alliance mechanic, the two Factions will behave independently for Heroic Actions and Broken Tests but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. If you can move half your models, let your opponent react, and then send in your other half you may find a different tactical challenge running this Legion than you're used to! Bard covers the Laketown people for their Banner needs without benefiting from and Elven one. The downsides of a Red Alliance are also softened by forcing an opponent to deal with both Factions rather than focus on killing the softer Men. Bard reinforced with the Arkenstone also provides quite a handy buffer for VPs based on Thranduil being wounded/slain.

Devastating Charge

The Elk gains the Impaler special rule (War Camel, pg203, AoLoTR) at S5 instead of S4. When Charging whilst mounted, instead of making normal Strikes after winning a Combat, Thranduil may make a single strike against all enemies in base contact.

This steroid Bambi absolutely takes names in the film. This ten foot threat to Canadian health insurance is based on a genus with a 4m antler spread and weighing in at 700kg. As the orcs showed us, if Moose-olini here decides you're up next in Eru's waiting room your best survival strategy is to shoot it point blank in the face otherwise your next career move will be as an involuntary tie on his antler rack. At that point Thranduil issues the c-c-c-c-combo breaker! It makes Thranduil without the additional sword on Elk a little more viable, and the Impaler is cos when a furry haulage truck with a cowcatcher that works more like a needle wall is coming at you at 40mph your continued existence is no longer your choice.

Loose!

Once per game, Thranduil can call a Heroic Shoot or Accuracy without spending Might. Elves benefitting from Thranduil calling a Shoot or Accuracy (including those affected by Feren’s Signal Horn), improve their shoot value to 2+ if they have not moved, and of those shots models within 3” of Thranduil will gain +1 to Wound.

Thranduil having a 2+ shoot value was something I loved about his original Fall of the Necromancer profile from way back in the distant past of 2006, so this is a little homage to that. Additionally the 6-10 Elves with bow you manage to bring after also having the Laketown contingent will get a little added punch either when using this rule or Thranduil calls any additional ones afterwards. Combined with Bard's triple shot and some harrassing Men arrows this should have enemies rushing towards you in time for you to make use of "Form up!"

 

Example list 800pts:

Thranduil, Heavy Armour, Elk, Circlet

5xMirkwood Elf (Shield)

6xMirkwood Elf (Bow)

5xMirkwood Elf (Shield and Spear or Glaive)

1xMirkwood Elf (Banner, Spear and Shield or Glaive)

Feren, Heavy Armour

4xMirkwood Elf (Shield)

4xMirkwood Elf (Bow)

3xMirkwood Elf (Shield and Spear or Glaive)

Bard, Armour, Horse

12xLaketown Militia (spear)

3xLaketown Militia (bow)

3xLaketown Militia (bow, spear)

800, 49 models

Tournament Report- Desolation of Stowmarket (23rd April)

 The Tournament

This was an 80pt GBHL event of Good vs Evil teams, using 600pt armies and the regional rules at the back of the Match Play Guide.

My Army

I decided to continue the trend of my Moria use and although I love me a Cave Troll, couldn't fit him and the Drake in together.

Durburz (Leader)

Goblin Prowlers x5

Moria Goblins x9 w/ 2x Shield and 7x Spear

Groblog 

Moria Goblins x12 w/ 6x Shield and 6x Spear

Moria Goblin Captain w/ Shield

Batswarm

Moria Goblins x8 w/ 4x Shield and 4x Spear

Moria Goblin Shaman

Moria Goblins x6 w/ 3x Shield and 3x Spear

Cave Drake

Might: 10

Numbers: 46

Game 1- Breakthrough (Rivendell/Lothlorien (Jonathan)) 

Opponent's Heroes: Glorfindel (L), Gildor and Haldir

Opponent's Warriors: Wood elves and Noldorin Exiles

Region: Rohan

Bonus: All Heroes gain 'Horse Lord'.

This was going to be a great opening game, as I’ve played Jon before and he’s always been a joy. I was worried about Glorfindel, but decided that, if need be, I can slow him down with Groblog calling a Heroic Defence for a few turns. If possible, I could slip the bats in too and try my luck on him. 

We deployed and ended up with the bulk of my force to the right of the tower, covering the centre and right objective. While Durburz and the Drake’s warbands were to the left of it covering the other side. Jon put Gildor and his wood elves to my left, Haldir’s unit to my right and Glorfindel in the middle.

He got the first priority, which suited me. He threw an elf at the Cave Drake, to keep it from advancing. Glorfindel charged into the Durburz’s unit from the other side. Haldir’s unit pulled back towards the alley, preparing to shoot. I attempted to throw the bats upon Glorfindel, but they failed their courage test. So I kept the spear support behind the goblin and advanced the rest of the warband towards the wood elves. The rest of the army split, with Groblog and a small unit peeling behind Glorfindel and the rest pushing towards Haldir.

The shooting killed a good pile of Goblins with their elven bows and throwing knives. But in the combat, Moria got off to an obnoxiously good start. 

The Drake called a Heroic Combat and killed the elf, charging into the wood elf on their line’s flank, hurling him down it. Killing 5 more of them, flooring their banner and Gildor! This wasn’t unexpected with what I had planned, what was unexpected, was Glorfindel losing his combat and Asfaloth, through all 3 of his fate!

Tasting blood, Groblog called a Heroic Move to pin the Elven Lord and Gildor with his warriors. Gildor got the move off though and attempted a counter attack. An elf was thrown to hold the Drake back as the rest held the line to prevent a pincer. Durburz was blocked from joining the fight by his fellow goblins, so I kept him back, ready to pounce on Glorfindel, when the chance arose. The bats failed to charge him again, so I threw Groblog upon him and called a Defence. The Captain led the rest of the goblins into a frontal assault on the Lothlorien lines.

The elves hit back and killed some more goblins, but the Defence convinced Glorfindel to target the warriors. Another couple of wood elves fell along with a small number of Galadhrim. 

A war of attrition began on both fronts but the goblins had the upper hand on the left, forcing Gildor and his banner to pull back. He took a wound from a throwing dagger however. The bats finally charged Glorfindel, allowing Durburz to launch his attack along with Groblog and his goblins. The elf fell to the overwhelming attack and Durburz sent his goblins up towards the elven objective. The Drake sat on the left, two goblins remained on the right and the bats flew back to the rear one.

Up at the front, the captain led the goblins in their attack on the Galadhrim. Haldir leapt from the wall and joined the fray, slaying the Captain. The wood elf sentinel also fell the the blades of Moria and Gildor, despite a heroic effort (not losing a single fight all game), fell to another throwing knife. His banner also killed just after.

The game ended with me owning my objective, the two centreline ones and outnumbering the elves on their own. I had also slain his leader and broken him, giving me a 10-0 Major victory.

Game 2- Domination (Khazad Dum (Stuart)) 

Opponent's Heroes: Durin (L) and King's Champion

Opponent's Warriors: Hearthguard, Iron Guard, Dwarf Warriors and Dwarf Rangers 

Region: Rhovanion

Bonus: All failed courage tests for breaking, must be rerolled

Previous round bonus: None (Teams drew)

I hadn’t played against Stuart since before lockdown so had high expectations for this. Last time we had played, I was mobbed by a tsunami of hobbits. This time, he had a smaller more elite force of heavily armoured of dwarves.

With the numerical advantage, I deployed across the centre with the intention to push them back and wrap around the rear to kill off a flank and continue folding around until dominating the board. I deployed Durburz’s unit to the far left with this task, with the shaman and Captain on the wooden structure to hold the centre. And Groblog alongside the Drake to the right. Stuart had placed Durin opposite my centre and the Champion across from Groblog.

Stuart began well, as he destroyed many in Groblog’s unit with the Hearthguard. The Drake killed two Iron Guard on the charge and Durburz began his flanking move. In the second turn, the Champion charged into the Drake and Durin got onto Groblog. I called a Heroic Defence with Groblog, but Durburz managed to climb over some crates on a 6 and charge a warrior with the bats. He then called a Heroic Combat, allowing the bats the fly over the battle and pull the Champion off of the Drake. The champion then heavily wounded the bats and a warrior finished it off the next turn. 

Groblog quickly fell to the King as I couldn’t get help to him quickly enough, after losing roll offs for Heroic Moves. But Groblog and Durburz both kept up the momentum, killing many dwarves on my left flank. A big red flag came up, when the Drake lost its roll off to the King’s Champion and was destroyed in two turns of combat. Opening up my right flank to the Iron Guard. Stuart then ran a couple of warriors through the gap to my rear objective. I realised, too late, that I couldn’t depend on them fleeing due to the region’s bonus.

Durburz pushed round the back and, with a prowler, managed to seize the dwarven objective by killing the Ranger stood on it. However, a lone Iron Guard climbed the wooden structure and slew the goblins holding it for me. Eventually, time was called with many dead on either side. 

Stuart held the central objective, the left one and my one. While I held both in their half and we had broken one another, giving Stuart a 7-5 Minor victory! Sooo close!

Game 3- Divide and Conquer (Minas Tirith (Ryan)) 

Opponent's Heroes: Boromir, Captain of the White Tower (L) and Hurin

Opponent's Warriors: Fountain Court Guard, Rangers of Gondor, Knights of Minas Tirith and Minas Tirith Warriors

Region: Gondor

Bonus: All models gain +1 courage

Previous round bonus: (Good) Leaders gain 'Fearless' rule

Ryan was a brand new opponent for me, Boromir was a concern with his infamous banner and I would have to make sure that I slew Hurin too, if I want to make it count.

He was forced to deploy his heroes in opposite corners, while I put Groblog and Durburz together in one corner and the Captain, Shaman and Drake in the other. Figuring that that was the best way to not have a ‘weak side’. 

I moved the two Kings towards the centre, using the buildings to shield myself from a hard cavalry charge from Gondor as Hurin rushed through the centre to link with Boromir. Who had sent a small group of 10 men around to head for the centre. Due to this, I kept most of the Captain and Shaman’s warbands on the central and western objectives, away from the battle about to start in the East. The Shaman threw up a fury to keep the goblins there in line. The Drake gave a slow chase on Hurin but was munching her way through the sacrifices put before her.

The fight began as Boromir threw his men forward and galloped in himself. The Knights charged my right flank and Hurin joined in the centre, losing a fight to two goblins and taking 2 wounds, using a fate to save himself. 

The men began to get the upper hand, hacking their way through the lightly armed goblins, but eventually the Knights fell and allowed Groblog to pincer a flank. It was at this time, the Drake arrived and charged a lone man to the rear. She had the perfect hurl lined up, that would hit both Boromir and Hurin. She naturally lost the fight…

Luckily for me, I won the next Heroic Move off and this time lined up the hurl and got it off. Boromir was dismounted and two warriors were killed, but so was Hurin! This evened the balance out and I was able to hold them back and just edge ownership of the Eastern objective. 

As the game neared its end, the small warband assaulted the centre that I held. I had sent my captain back, and with one short intense turn of combat, to decide who took the centre, we just held it!

By the end, I held the western objective and outnumbered on the centre and the eastern ones. We had broken each other and I had scored a 6-1 Major victory.

Game 4- Assassination (Rangers of Mirkwood LL (Adam)) 

Opponent's Heroes: Legolas (L) and Tauriel

Opponent's Warriors: Wood Elf Sentinels and Mirkwood Rangers

Region: Mordor

Bonus: The Eye of Sauron is moved up to 6" by the player with priority. Good models within 3" get -1 courage. Evil models reroll 1s to wound, when making strikes. 

Previous round bonus: None (Teams drew)

Going into this round, to our horror, the only non drawn round, had landed in favour of good! Meaning the black land itself was in danger and evil needed to fight back to save face for the Dark Lord! I was placed against Adam for this round, another new opponent, who I recognised from previous tournaments, but had not played as yet. I chose to use the Drake as my assassin, figuring that she would be the best chance to nuke Tauriel, who would be my automatic target.

I placed the goblins in a large mass with the captain placed roughly in the middle, to allow him to call marches and get the army forward quickly, as the elves had (understandably) deployed in some woodland. I kept the Drake round the flank, as I was worried that she may get pinned in place and unable to move.

We advanced under heavy fire, losing about 10-15 goblins on the approach. But then the lines hit! And they hit hard! Taking care not to outnumber the elves in combat, unless via spear support, the numbers against them caused many elves to be slain quickly. The Drake rushed into a small group on the flank and trampled most of them in a Heroic Combat lunging forward with the she-elf now in sight. Unfortunately, I won the follow up priority, meaning that I couldn’t risk charging in and so pulled back to finish off the elves separated from friends. Tauriel turned to join the main battle.

The elves had a turn of pushback, where they killed many goblins and pushed Moria to breaking point. But I had wheeled my Drake around the tent, back within range of her nest and prepared to strike on Tauriel, who was out of might. Legolas was beset by Durburz, who time and time again won the fight, but the wounds were all saved by fate. Groblog attacked for the final turn but lost and narrowly avoided taking damage himself! The Drake rushed into Tauriel and both got the 6, Tauriel with her last dice, and she won the roll off! If she had lost it, she most likely would have died and got me the 7VPs.

Instead, the only VPs awarded were for breaking, as we did to one another. He failed to wound his target, Groblog, *Gulp*. So we had a 1-1 draw!

So after all was said and done, I had finished the tournament with 2 Major wins, a draw and a Minor loss. This left me in 6th place out of 30 players, which I was ecstatic about. Arguably, my best GBHL performance to date!

Winning team: Good *Angry goblin noises* 

We will be back to avenge this injury!

Tournaments that I will attend

Seven Stones (Oh yes!) 2x400pt doubles- 28/29th May

Republic of the Shire 500pt- 10th June

The Wolf’s Lair 750pt- 12/13th August

Clearing the Backlog, Part 11 – Backlog Admin

After two busy (but not at all hectic) months of painting, March was a much more relaxed month in terms of getting through my backlog. This time last year, I was battling with burn-out after I'd painted 70-odd models in the space of just a few weeks. This time however, it was more a case of real life getting in the way of hobby time, something which happens to all of us. Sometimes you're just too busy to sit down and pick up a paintbrush, or any painting time you do get isn’t quite enough to achieve what you want to. 

Whilst I made a start on some models in March, I just couldn’t find the time to get them finished, with the exception of one model – Khamul the Easterling. This is probably one of my favourite Ringwraith models, and I found painting him to be quite fun. His robes consist of multiple layers of cloth, so for each layer I added an extra highlight to try and give a sense of volume – the end result turned out great!

Whilst my hobby time may have been limited, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t productive – I managed to find some time to organise my hobby storage space and put together a host of models that were otherwise cluttering up said storage space with their boxes and blister packs. Which leads me onto the main theme of this post – how exactly does someone manage and keep track of their backlog? Keeping track of what you've painted is easy enough, but when your backlog is as big as mine (and that is really not meant to be a boast!), some extra admin is needed. Models in my collection tend to fall into five separate categories. Or rather, I've mentally put them into five separate categories…

Category 1: Still in the damn box…

Fortunately there's not too many of my models in this particular category, but there are a few. Models like these tend to be either miniatures I've bought purely for the sake of painting, or models for future army projects – one of the main reasons for models ending up in this category was an urge to buy new models when they go on pre-order – the fear of missing out on new models can be a serious problem for a hobbyist! Thankfully (from my wallet's perspective at least!), I've managed to teach myself some self-restraint over the last year, telling myself that I don’t need to buy the models immediately – they'll still be on sale when the time comes to start that new army project. 

Category 2: Assembled. Just assembled.

You wouldn’t think this would be a category, but it is. One thing I've tended to do in recent years is take a model out of its box or blister, assemble it, and then just put it back in storage. Because boxes take up a lot of space, I end up assembling a whole bunch of models just so I haven’t got loads of boxes lying around. Unfortunately, this means that in my head I'm reducing my backlog because there aren’t loads of boxes lying around, whereas in reality I'm just moving them from one category to another. There is however some satisfaction about putting models together – you get to see all of the details a model has, and you're already working on how to make them stand out when you paint it. 

Category 3: Undercoated

Finally, we’ve got some paint on the model! Well, we've undercoated it at least. Models that end up in this category tend to be for a single reason, and that's because I tend to prime my models in batches, depending on what colour spray primer I'm using. For example, if I have a model that's predominantly going to be painted with light colours, I'll use a white primer. On the other hand, if it's got a dark colour palette, I'll use a black primer. Sometimes however, you'll have a model that you're not intending to paint immediately, but you'll undercoat it anyway as you're using the same colour to undercoat a load of other models. Those models will then get painted, whilst the other model (or models) goes back in the box for another day…

Category 4: There's some paint on it…

Now we come to the largest category in my backlog – half-painted models. I've mentioned in previous posts about painting projects that get started, and then halfway through get abandoned for a multitude of reasons, including other models taking priority, a lack of time or the boredom of painting the same models over and over. Sometimes as a hobbyist, this is where perseverance pays off – I'm determined this year to try and get through the various half-painted models that have been cluttering up my desk for ages. Even if I'm only painting single models, I'm still happy to get it finished as I no longer have to feel guilty looking at it every time I'm painting other models…

Category 5: Finished!

My favourite category – it means the model is no longer in my backlog! This is probably the easiest category to track as I've been keeping a close count of models I've finished over the course of this series – I painted over 250 models over the course of 2022, and have managed nearly 50 so far this year. As to the total number of models in this category, that's probably a little harder to track – I've built up a large collection of models from most of the Middle Earth factions over the years. I'm not exactly sure, but I think I own at least one model from every army list in both Armies of The Lord of the Rings and Armies of the Hobbit. 

Repainted Models

I don’t technically count this as a category, but I probably could – one thing I tend to find as I pick up new skills and techniques over the years of painting models is that you become dissatisfied with a previous paint job when you compare it to your most recent work. This then results in me stripping the old paint job off the model and giving it a fresh new look – one such example is Khamul the Easterling – I repainted him after having improved my technique of painting cloth over the years. 

So that about wraps it up for this month's blog – not a lot of painting content, but hopefully you've picked up some useful tips that might help you manage your backlogs!