TMAT GT12: Game Background

So we have a LOT of pictures from the tournament, though we are conspicuously lacking in pictures from two of the games. But, the tournament has been well-covered and we'll show a bit of the action here.

Army Lists:

Glenstorm's "Raiders of Isengard:" Vrasku, Uruk Captain with heavy armor and shield (surrogate is Ugluk in these pictures), 16 Uruk Scouts with shields, 8 Uruk Scouts with Orc bows, 8 Orc Warriors with shields, 8 Orc Warriors with shields and spears, 1 Orc Warrior with banner, 3 Orc Warriors with two-handed weapons, 2 Orc Warriors with Orc bows.

A closer look at Vrasku and some of his minions, getting ready to tear into an army of blonde-headed men.

Zorro's "Vanguard of Rivendell": Elf Captain with heavy armor and shield, Legolas with armor, 10 Elf Warriors with heavy armor and shields, 10 Elf Warriors with heavy armor, shields and spears, 10 Elf Warriors with heavy armor and Elf bows.

Despite being the smallest army in the tournament, this team is armed to the teeth. You can see Legolas in this shot (as well as a Ranger of Arnor, who populated every game table somewhere...).

Tiberius' "Host of Erebor": Gimli, Balin, 8 Dwarf Warriors with shields, 6 Khazad Guards, 10 Dwarf Warriors with Dwarf bows, 3 Dwarf Rangers with throwing axes, 3 Dwarf Rangers with throwing axes and two-handed axes, 4 Dwarf Rangers with two-handed axes, 2 Dwarf Rangers with Dwarf Longbows.

Unlike most of the armies in the tournament, the Dwarven mail gleams in the sunlight. These little blokes are also anxious for a fight and prepared to repel any beating they are faced with.

Tavros' "Mountain Alliance": Durburz, Buhrdur, 20 Goblin Warriors with shields, 14 Goblin Warriors with spears, 6 Goblin Warriors with Orc bows, 4 Goblin Prowlers, 3 Wild Wargs, 1 Cave Troll.

The units in this army are varied and include a few neat conversions, like the Goblin you see here with a hat he claimed from a wizard who visited Moria once...

Captain Glot's "Free People of the West": Theoden, Haldir (Defender of Helm's Deep), Boromir of Gondor, 12 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears, 10 Warriors of Rohan with shields, 11 Warriors of Rohan with bows.

The Warriors of Rohan in this army form a solid number of units to support hte three heroes of this army. Each is well-detailed and solid fighters (though severely lacking in the resist-enemy-spell-casters department...which unfortunately we didn't have in this tournament).

The final army was Sir Percy Blakeney's "Isengard Unleashed": Uruk Captain with shield, Vrasku, 18 Uruk Warriors with shields, 8 Uruk Warriors with pikes, 6 Uruk Warriors with crossbows, 4 Uruk Berserkers.

Blakeney came all the way from Michigan to play with us (well, not really, but sort of) and he fielded an army of Uruk-Hai with smelly breath and eager spirits.

The Three Game Boards: Understanding the Rules and Terrain

Table 1 was an "Urban Meeting Engagement" game. Usually, in Meeting Engagement games, the center of the board is clear of terrain, forcing armies to fight on an even battlefield without gaining an advantage from terrain. What terrain pieces are on table are placed on the periphery and since the game is played until one side is reduced to 25% of its starting size, one army could sit behind terrain for most of the game if they wanted to. In this particular scenario, we have a ruined building in the center, surrounded by a marsh (difficult terrain) and a rocky ground (rocky difficult terrain). Next to these terrain pieces there were a few small walls that could be defended or fought over and a few pieces of terrain around the edges if people wanted to use them.

Here's a close-up of the building, brought by Tavros and Capt. Glot. The marsh you may recognize from a previous post.

Table 2 was a "High Ground" game. Instead of playing with the rule that a tied priority round results in everyone getting knocked to the ground, we instead nullified that rule and focused solely on the rules for getting up this particular high ground terrain piece. I'll be the first to say that there were a lot of rules, but you'll see more about that later.

You can see the level of detail that Zorro put into making this piece of terrain. Up close, it was quite the work of art - major kudos to him for putting this together and really making the games on this table tactically strenuous.

The final game was a "Domination" game. This game featured four objectives that were fought over by both sides, each starting in a corner (and basically claiming one at the start of the game). Splitting the board in half was a river that could be jumped over or crossed via bridges, but the current was too strong to swim across. This made for interesting choke points and daring jumps from bank to bank.

Tavros and Captain Glot brought this piece as well. You can see some of the detail on the water (and you may even recognize some of the Dwarf terrain pieces scattered on both sides of the river).

With this backdrop, the next few posts will be on the rounds of the tournament, with the results posted at the end of each post. Until tomorrow, happy battling!