Hey Reader!
Welcome back to TMAT! This is the battle report for my first match of the annual THRO tournament, and my first match is against my good friend Kirk, sporting an army of dwarves. There were two dwarf forces at this tournament, and of all the armies I was arrayed against, this was one of the few that I was really afraid of facing, as they are a good counter to my force (passing Courage automatically for over half the force, wounding on 5+ for over half the force, and almost half the force have 2+ attacks).
A quick rundown on the army list for Kirk (you can find mine on my initial post here):
Warband 1
-Durin (Army Leader)
-11 Khazad Guards
Warband 2
-Dwarf King
-7 Iron Guard
TOTAL: 19 units, 2 Heroes, 5 Might
Our match was on a dwarf board, setup for the Fog of War scenario. In this scenario, we have to nominate a non-Army Leader hero to keep alive (or the army leader, if you only have one, as is the case with me); if they are on table when the game ends, you gain Victory Points. You also nominate a non-Army Leader hero to kill (same rules apply), and a piece of terrain to have more models on than your opponent at the end of the match.
So for this match, I've nominated the Dwarf King as the hero for me to wound or kill (as he's the only other hero), the King of the Dead as the hero for my opponent to wound or kill, and the horizontal catwalk as my terrain piece (I'll show it to you as my men approach it below).
Initial Assessment: As noted in my initial post, I felt pretty good about this scenario: I forced everyone in the tournament to go for the King of the Dead (which, with F5, D8, 3 Fate, 2 Wounds, and Terror to keep away low Courage enemies, he's hard to kill), my troops are better than most at killing heroes, and with Courage 6+ on everyone in the army I can leave a few guys on an objective no problem.
Kirk's army though is well-built to counter mine, as he has a ton of Fearless and Bodyguard models, allowing him to bypass my Terror test with over half of his army. Their S4 all around also makes wounding easier, and with Durin adding +1 Courage to all his models, wounding them is actually rather hard (5s, instead of the 4s I'm used to). And with a host of two-handed weapons, he can wound on 5s as well. So I knew walking into this that this would be an interesting fight.
After rolling for deployment, the setup looked like this:
We rolled to see who would have priority first, Kirk won, and we began Round 1.
The armies moved up, but were unable to charge each other. A few of the Iron Guard threw their axes at us, but we suffered no wounds (which is mathematically accurate). With nothing else going on, we moved to Round 2.
We win priority, and we engage! If there's one thing I love about facing Khazad Dum, it's that they are overwhelmingly melee-oriented as well, so I'm expecting at least 6 rounds of combat in melee, which should play to our strengths.
He continues by wrapping up my guys on the right flank, but I'm okay with that - I think I can sneak a wound on the Dwarf King (which will get me points) if not outright kill him, and if we can roll the Iron Guard in the next 3-4 turns I should be able to tie up Durin and push the King of the Dead to that side to finish them off.
The dwarves win a ton of ties on duel rolls (one of the problems of this list: Fight 3), and they manage to kill 2 of my troops. At the end of the round, the board looks like this:
Things really begin to matter starting from this round: I've got two of my men running toward my terrain piece, and we need to hold on the ground long enough to get some wounds on the Dwarf King. Priority right now would be really nice.
We win priority! We charge up on the left flank, and I consolidate my lines into a unified (and spear-supported) fighting force on the right. I figure that if we can just hold and kill off some of the Khazad Guards, we stand a better chance of getting to the Dwarf King and plucking off his wounds. I also opted to charge Durin with the King of the Dead, hoping to sneak in a wound past his 6+ Save and his 1 Fate (as this +1 Courage on everyone is making it hard to wound them, as I suspected it would).
In the Fight Phase I declared a Heroic Strike with the King of the Dead, and he counter-called with Durin (so there goes 1/3 of his Might). During came out of it with the higher Fight Value, and he rolled a 6 to win the fight. The King of the Dead suffered no wounds, so it all turned out okay (though it would have been nice to remove him quickly from the field). Other than that we lost two warriors and killed a few dwarves, so the match is still anyone's game.
The dwarves come out swinging, charging our ranks (which thankfully are holding). The Iron Guard are absolute champs for Kirk, killing 2 Warriors of the Dead with their throwing axes (yes, you heard that right: 4+ to-hit, 6s to wound, and he gets two of them this turn. Well done). Unfortunately for Kirk the Dwarf King fails his Courage Test to charge, so he sits in the back unengaged.
As we head into the Fight Phase the combats favor Dunharrow, as the banner does its work (and reinforces why I always take this thing, even if it costs 25 points in a small army list): we kill 5 dwarves this turn, reducing the dwarves by almost 1/3 of their force.
But there are a few sneaky dwarves coming around the back: will they reach their objective piece and hold it by the end of the game? Here's hoping that my single spearman can hold them off until the game ends.
For this round I decided to default to an old Dunharrow strategy: charge everyone in sight, :P My swordsman reaches the objective piece I nominated, my spearman comes to meet the dwarves on the stairs, and I push the King of the Dead up to help him break through to the side with the Dwarf King (because those Khazad Guard just won't die, and I'm going to need a bit more firepower over there).
In the Fight Phase (and I knew this was a possibility) Durin calls a Heroic Combat (2/3 Might spent), kills his man handily, and then engages 2 more Warriors of the Dead (who he also kills), removing the spear support from the King of the Dead. The Iron Guard also hold on valiantly, so my force on the left flank is decimated and in trouble. This...is when I began to realize that things were going south quickly.
On the other side (and I'm sorry about the blur: it was the best picture) we break through and kill another dwarf, but we still haven't been able to land a hit on the Dwarf King yet.
Kirk's men charge (sorry for the blur), and no wounds are dealt by the throwing axes. As we head into the Fight Phase, I am worried for my banner, and that we won't have a lot more time left, so I need to find a way to wound the Dwarf King ASAP while keeping the King of the Dead from getting wounded.
In the Fight Phase a lot happens: the King of the Dead kills his man, Durin kills 2 more guys, and the left flank is completely broken, though my banner is still waving! My banner was a champ, winning his fight and taking it to the Iron Guard who assaulted him. It was great.
On the right flank the Dwarf King kills a Warrior of the Dead at the expense of a Might Point (1/2 Might spent), and an Iron Guard kills a Warrior of the Dead, which is just enough to break my army.
On the bottom my spearman is unable to win the fight, and things are looking down for Dunharrow. Kirk is only two few dwarves from breaking, so the stakes are high as we head into Round 7.
Not gonna lie: I really needed priority this round, and I didn't even know it, :P At first my thought was, "This is actually good: anyone he tags can't run (not that I'm worried: it's Courage 6+ for the whole army), and anyone he doesn't is free to move to the right flank to fight our way to the Dwarf King. Then the unthinkable happened:
That's right: Courage 6, so he needs to roll higher than a 3 on two dice, and doesn't do it, :P That...pretty much cost me the game right there. But no matter: the King of the Dead is still unwounded, and depending on what terrain piece he chose we might have a chance of denying him any points other than breaking our force, which means we've still got a way to win this thing.
As the second nail in the coffin, we don't manage to wound anyone this round, while an Iron Guard plucks off yet another guy (though we also don't get wounded by Durin, so I can't really complain that much).
On the right flank the dwarves hold on, and we're unable to wound the Dwarf King.
And down below our spearman is still unable to kill one of the dwarves (even though they are two-handing at this point). Time is running out, and it's clear to us that the next round will be our last round.
The dwarves continue to charge, and thankfully none of my other warriors run, :P The lines are drawn, and I only have a single Warrior of the Dead against the Dwarf King, so it all comes down to whether or not he can wound the Dwarf King and whether my spearman in the backfield can wound one of the dwarves (as that will deny him points for the objective, if the piece we're on is the objective).
Then things went really bad. Durin was able to land two wounds on the King of the Dead, and one of them got through (so Kirk will score points for wounding my hero).
On the right flank the dwarves continue to hold, and even though we don't lose any men we were unable to sneak any wounds on the Dwarf King. So the scores are basically set by this point, save for one last thing...
Then the spearman wasn't able to kill off the dwarves in the backfield, so not only does he have more models in that area (if that's his objective, which it was), but we were 2 dwarves away from breaking his force.
Final Scoring: So at the end of the game, it was an 8-1 Loss for the Dead of Dunharrow.
Overall Assessment: Yeah, this went mostly the way I thought it would. I didn't expect my Warrior of the Dead to flee off the map (which cost me points), but honestly the game wasn't unfair. Sure, a Courage 6 model shouldn't run, but his Dwarf King (Courage 6) failed a Terror Test, so it happens in this game, and that's fine. On the whole I was pleased with my force: the F3 came back to bite us (as we expected), and Kirk did a great job maneuvering his forces while denying me points. It was a really fun match against a really great opponent, and I hope to face Kirk again in a future tournament.
What amazed me about this scenario (as this is a new scenario in the GW Lord of the Rings world) is how small things would have swayed the Victory Point totals. Had I snuck a wound on the Dwarf King, prevented him from having more models on the terrain piece, or been able to avoid wounds on the King of the Dead (not to mention kill 2 more dwarves to break his force), the score would have looked every different. In a 600 point match with more time on the clock, I'd be very curious to see how matches will work, as I could see it being a real roller coaster.
Starting in the lower half of the pack is not new for me, so I was actually pretty upbeat headed into Round 2. In my next match I get to take on an Isengard force (one of two that were at the tournament), using one of my favorite terrain sets I own: a CASTLE!!! So watch this space next week Monday for that battle report!
Watching the stars,
Centaur
"Remember, Firenze, we are sworn not to set ourselves against the heavens. Have we not read what is to come in the movements of the planets?" ~ Bane, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Welcome back to TMAT! This is the battle report for my first match of the annual THRO tournament, and my first match is against my good friend Kirk, sporting an army of dwarves. There were two dwarf forces at this tournament, and of all the armies I was arrayed against, this was one of the few that I was really afraid of facing, as they are a good counter to my force (passing Courage automatically for over half the force, wounding on 5+ for over half the force, and almost half the force have 2+ attacks).
A quick rundown on the army list for Kirk (you can find mine on my initial post here):
Warband 1
-Durin (Army Leader)
-11 Khazad Guards
Warband 2
-Dwarf King
-7 Iron Guard
TOTAL: 19 units, 2 Heroes, 5 Might
Our match was on a dwarf board, setup for the Fog of War scenario. In this scenario, we have to nominate a non-Army Leader hero to keep alive (or the army leader, if you only have one, as is the case with me); if they are on table when the game ends, you gain Victory Points. You also nominate a non-Army Leader hero to kill (same rules apply), and a piece of terrain to have more models on than your opponent at the end of the match.
So for this match, I've nominated the Dwarf King as the hero for me to wound or kill (as he's the only other hero), the King of the Dead as the hero for my opponent to wound or kill, and the horizontal catwalk as my terrain piece (I'll show it to you as my men approach it below).
Initial Assessment: As noted in my initial post, I felt pretty good about this scenario: I forced everyone in the tournament to go for the King of the Dead (which, with F5, D8, 3 Fate, 2 Wounds, and Terror to keep away low Courage enemies, he's hard to kill), my troops are better than most at killing heroes, and with Courage 6+ on everyone in the army I can leave a few guys on an objective no problem.
Kirk's army though is well-built to counter mine, as he has a ton of Fearless and Bodyguard models, allowing him to bypass my Terror test with over half of his army. Their S4 all around also makes wounding easier, and with Durin adding +1 Courage to all his models, wounding them is actually rather hard (5s, instead of the 4s I'm used to). And with a host of two-handed weapons, he can wound on 5s as well. So I knew walking into this that this would be an interesting fight.
After rolling for deployment, the setup looked like this:
We rolled to see who would have priority first, Kirk won, and we began Round 1.
Round 1 (Priority: Khazad Dum)
Round 2 (Priority: Dead of Dunharrow)
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| WARRRR!!! |
We win priority, and we engage! If there's one thing I love about facing Khazad Dum, it's that they are overwhelmingly melee-oriented as well, so I'm expecting at least 6 rounds of combat in melee, which should play to our strengths.
He continues by wrapping up my guys on the right flank, but I'm okay with that - I think I can sneak a wound on the Dwarf King (which will get me points) if not outright kill him, and if we can roll the Iron Guard in the next 3-4 turns I should be able to tie up Durin and push the King of the Dead to that side to finish them off.
The dwarves win a ton of ties on duel rolls (one of the problems of this list: Fight 3), and they manage to kill 2 of my troops. At the end of the round, the board looks like this:
Things really begin to matter starting from this round: I've got two of my men running toward my terrain piece, and we need to hold on the ground long enough to get some wounds on the Dwarf King. Priority right now would be really nice.
Round 3 (Priority: Dead of Dunharrow)
Round 4 (Priority: Khazad Dum)
The dwarves come out swinging, charging our ranks (which thankfully are holding). The Iron Guard are absolute champs for Kirk, killing 2 Warriors of the Dead with their throwing axes (yes, you heard that right: 4+ to-hit, 6s to wound, and he gets two of them this turn. Well done). Unfortunately for Kirk the Dwarf King fails his Courage Test to charge, so he sits in the back unengaged.
As we head into the Fight Phase the combats favor Dunharrow, as the banner does its work (and reinforces why I always take this thing, even if it costs 25 points in a small army list): we kill 5 dwarves this turn, reducing the dwarves by almost 1/3 of their force.
But there are a few sneaky dwarves coming around the back: will they reach their objective piece and hold it by the end of the game? Here's hoping that my single spearman can hold them off until the game ends.
Round 5 (Priority: Dead of Dunharrow)
For this round I decided to default to an old Dunharrow strategy: charge everyone in sight, :P My swordsman reaches the objective piece I nominated, my spearman comes to meet the dwarves on the stairs, and I push the King of the Dead up to help him break through to the side with the Dwarf King (because those Khazad Guard just won't die, and I'm going to need a bit more firepower over there).
In the Fight Phase (and I knew this was a possibility) Durin calls a Heroic Combat (2/3 Might spent), kills his man handily, and then engages 2 more Warriors of the Dead (who he also kills), removing the spear support from the King of the Dead. The Iron Guard also hold on valiantly, so my force on the left flank is decimated and in trouble. This...is when I began to realize that things were going south quickly.
On the other side (and I'm sorry about the blur: it was the best picture) we break through and kill another dwarf, but we still haven't been able to land a hit on the Dwarf King yet.
Round 6 (Priority: Khazad Dum)
Kirk's men charge (sorry for the blur), and no wounds are dealt by the throwing axes. As we head into the Fight Phase, I am worried for my banner, and that we won't have a lot more time left, so I need to find a way to wound the Dwarf King ASAP while keeping the King of the Dead from getting wounded.
In the Fight Phase a lot happens: the King of the Dead kills his man, Durin kills 2 more guys, and the left flank is completely broken, though my banner is still waving! My banner was a champ, winning his fight and taking it to the Iron Guard who assaulted him. It was great.
On the right flank the Dwarf King kills a Warrior of the Dead at the expense of a Might Point (1/2 Might spent), and an Iron Guard kills a Warrior of the Dead, which is just enough to break my army.
On the bottom my spearman is unable to win the fight, and things are looking down for Dunharrow. Kirk is only two few dwarves from breaking, so the stakes are high as we head into Round 7.
Round 7 (Priority: Khazad Dum)
Not gonna lie: I really needed priority this round, and I didn't even know it, :P At first my thought was, "This is actually good: anyone he tags can't run (not that I'm worried: it's Courage 6+ for the whole army), and anyone he doesn't is free to move to the right flank to fight our way to the Dwarf King. Then the unthinkable happened:
My Warrior of the Dead on the objective runs away, :P
That's right: Courage 6, so he needs to roll higher than a 3 on two dice, and doesn't do it, :P That...pretty much cost me the game right there. But no matter: the King of the Dead is still unwounded, and depending on what terrain piece he chose we might have a chance of denying him any points other than breaking our force, which means we've still got a way to win this thing.
As the second nail in the coffin, we don't manage to wound anyone this round, while an Iron Guard plucks off yet another guy (though we also don't get wounded by Durin, so I can't really complain that much).
On the right flank the dwarves hold on, and we're unable to wound the Dwarf King.
And down below our spearman is still unable to kill one of the dwarves (even though they are two-handing at this point). Time is running out, and it's clear to us that the next round will be our last round.
Round 8 (Priority: Khazad Dum)
The dwarves continue to charge, and thankfully none of my other warriors run, :P The lines are drawn, and I only have a single Warrior of the Dead against the Dwarf King, so it all comes down to whether or not he can wound the Dwarf King and whether my spearman in the backfield can wound one of the dwarves (as that will deny him points for the objective, if the piece we're on is the objective).
Then things went really bad. Durin was able to land two wounds on the King of the Dead, and one of them got through (so Kirk will score points for wounding my hero).
On the right flank the dwarves continue to hold, and even though we don't lose any men we were unable to sneak any wounds on the Dwarf King. So the scores are basically set by this point, save for one last thing...
Then the spearman wasn't able to kill off the dwarves in the backfield, so not only does he have more models in that area (if that's his objective, which it was), but we were 2 dwarves away from breaking his force.
Final Scoring: So at the end of the game, it was an 8-1 Loss for the Dead of Dunharrow.
Overall Assessment: Yeah, this went mostly the way I thought it would. I didn't expect my Warrior of the Dead to flee off the map (which cost me points), but honestly the game wasn't unfair. Sure, a Courage 6 model shouldn't run, but his Dwarf King (Courage 6) failed a Terror Test, so it happens in this game, and that's fine. On the whole I was pleased with my force: the F3 came back to bite us (as we expected), and Kirk did a great job maneuvering his forces while denying me points. It was a really fun match against a really great opponent, and I hope to face Kirk again in a future tournament.
What amazed me about this scenario (as this is a new scenario in the GW Lord of the Rings world) is how small things would have swayed the Victory Point totals. Had I snuck a wound on the Dwarf King, prevented him from having more models on the terrain piece, or been able to avoid wounds on the King of the Dead (not to mention kill 2 more dwarves to break his force), the score would have looked every different. In a 600 point match with more time on the clock, I'd be very curious to see how matches will work, as I could see it being a real roller coaster.
Starting in the lower half of the pack is not new for me, so I was actually pretty upbeat headed into Round 2. In my next match I get to take on an Isengard force (one of two that were at the tournament), using one of my favorite terrain sets I own: a CASTLE!!! So watch this space next week Monday for that battle report!
Watching the stars,
Centaur
"Remember, Firenze, we are sworn not to set ourselves against the heavens. Have we not read what is to come in the movements of the planets?" ~ Bane, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Despite having the lowest model count in the tournament, those elite dwarves packed a whallop. Very dangerous over short distances.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, I love my elite dwarves! Next time I'm looking forward to honing the list even more from the lessons learned. :)
DeleteThis was a great game! I was absolutely "terrified" to face it: we had a pickup game with the same forces a week before and I was absolutely obliterated. It was definitely close and a handful of rolls would have completely changed the outcome! Big kudos for a game well fought. Dunharrow, especially if Aragorn is brought along, has the potential to be extremely nasty, and if it weren't for the fact that Durin has the Horn of Zirakzigil I think I would have been toast very quickly.
ReplyDelete