Battle Report: THRO 2018, Game 2

Hey Reader,

Happy Friday! Sorry for the delay: between a busy Thanksgiving weekend and preparations for the recently announced Brawler Bash tournament, I am running behind on battle reports. But here we are with Game 2 from this year's THRO Tournament!

This match is against my good friend Zorro (yet again - I'm sure we've faced at virtually every tournament so far, and I enjoy facing him), sporting an Isengard Uruk-Hai force. There were two uruk forces at this tournament, and the higher Fight Value of Uruk-Hai was something that concerned me going into the tournament. But with his entire force wounding me on 6s and my whole force wounding him on 4s, I figured this would be a decent fight, if not a steamroll for my men (as I actually bring banners, so low rolls can be fixed!).



A quick rundown on the army list for Zorro (you can find mine on my initial post here):

Warband 1
-Lurtz with shield (Army Leader)
-Uruk Drummer
-7 Uruk Warriors with shield
-2 Berserkers
-4 Uruk Warriors with pikes

Warband 2
-Mauhur
-7 Marauders with shields
-5 uruks with crossbows

TOTAL: 28 units, 3 Heroes, 5 Might

Our match was a Storm the Camp scenario, and we got to use my fort pieces! I started collecting these pieces from GrandManner a few years ago, and every few years I add more pieces to it. This year I get to sport my two new gates: they are wide with good archways over them (so trolls can easily fit through, for better or for worse), so it meets my desire for a fort in its most basic form (as we're still trying to figure out how to do a good points equivalent for a fortification in tournament play).

In this scenario we score points based on how many people you have in the two camps, in addition to wounding the enemy army leader and breaking the enemy force.

Initial Assessment: This match could be tricky for me, as I have a limit of 6" movement, and between both 8" movement for the marauders and a drum, catching the uruks could be hard. But if I can meet him in the middle, break his force, and keep a small contingent back at the camp to fend off and slay what he sends, I should be fine. Breaking the main line will be the key, as I both need the Victory Points for breaking him (and hopefully enough of his men running from the field to reduce how many men he has in the camps), and I trust it is the only way I will reach his camp in the 60 minute timeframe.

After rolling for deployment, we moved into setup and I forgot to get a picture (the only one I missed all tournament!), but we all deployed within our camps, mostly at the edges of the gates and the breaches in the walls.

We rolled to see who would have priority first, I won the roll, and we began Round 1.

Round 1 (Priority: Dunharrow)

Sorry for the blur: the armies move forward (we'll say they are running fast - because the uruks are), and Zorro's forces beat the drum, bringing his normal warriors and heroes to 9" of movement and Mauhur and his marauders to 11" of movement (which is just so crazy - I love that upgrade). The crossbows shoot at us, but whiff their rolls to hit (which was very common in this game, so don't base your opinion of crossbows on this match), and the few that hit didn't wound. So we moved on to the next round.

Round 2 (Priority: Isengard)

The uruks beat the drum again, and their battle line surges forward, forming at the center of the map (as I suspected they would, cutting me off from their camp). I widen my line to try to catch them and force them wide, as I've only left 2 of my 22 units in my camp to hold the wall. This should buy me some time to crush through his line, and then reinforce.

The crossbows are able to down one of my warriors, and we move to Round 3.

Round 3 (Priority: Dunharrow)

And we have combat! I slam into the main body of the uruk-hai, leaving a host of them on the far side free while protecting my flank with control zones. This him a chance to fain some Courage tests (which does happen, as you can see from the image), but it also gives him the option of running past me. This is what I want: I want his force to run to my camp, so that once I kill Mauhur and the troops near him I can turn the bulk of my force back toward my camp while sending a hit squad of 8 guys over to his camp to take it.

Nothing happens in the Shoot Phase, so we moved into the Fight Phase.

In the Fight Phase I didn't win combat as often as I wanted to (mostly due to having the lower Fight Value), and he managed to kill 2 of my Warriors of the Dead. So the uruk line is still holding (which is not bad yet; we can break through in 1-2 turns of good combat, and there's plenty of time on the clock). We roll for priority.

Round 4 (Priority: Dunharrow)

The uruks begin to move toward the camp, and I rearrange my guards to meet them. I am able to tie down some of the uruks from reaching the camp, and our lines are fully engaged. A few of his uruks fail to pass their Terror tests, but on the whole it's a pretty fair fight in the middle. Most notably, the King of the Dead squares off against Mauhur, so hopefully we can polish him off early.

Nothing happens in the Shoot Phase (as Zorro doesn't have a lot of shots with the crossbows), and we move to the Fight Phase.

So in the Fight Phase Lurtz calls a Heroic Combat, kills his man, and keeps moving. We polish off some of the uruks, our line holds, and all things considered we're looking pretty good at punching through the uruk lines, as there is only a one-rank line keeping us from his camp.

Round 5 (Priority: Dunharrow)

We push up into the Uruk force, and the King of the Dead returns to his position to face Mauhur. Lurtz and his boys start to wrap around the edge, though the Fighting Uruk-Hai near the bridge fails his Terror test to charge (Keep an eye on this guy - this is just sad).

I would say that the crossbows didn't do anything this turn, but that's not true: one of the crossbows aims at my spear support for the King of the Dead (with the fight involving the King of the Dead and Mauhur in the way), hits the fight instead, hits Mauhur in the fight, and wounds him. It was so sad to watch.

(Sorry for the blur) But not as sad as the Fight Phase: we are able to kill most of the uruks in the battle line, and while Mauhur wins and forces the King of the Dead to spend 2 of his Fate Points, on the whole we are looking good to break through his ranks.

Round 6 (Priority: Isengard)

Zorro goes full offense, pulling back his men going for my camp to hold me up. He is able to get into a lot of combats between Lurtz and the berserkers (those Courage 7, becoming Courage 6 near the King of the Dead, is insane), with some of the other Uruks coming in to support.

...Well, at least, most of the uruks pour in among us; the uruk near the  (this is like his third failed attempt - Zorro was so ticked with this guy), as does the uruk scout near him. So just to be clear, it's not that Zorro forgot to move these guys: they just didn't want to move.

The crossbows take out one of my spearmen, but otherwise not much happening in the Shoot Phase.

Combat continues as the uruks pour in around us. The King of the Dead calls a Heroic Combat, wins his fight, and kills the berserker, and we are able to polish off Mauhur (which is huge, as those 3 attacks are just brutal). We weren't able to kill the pikes though (which is a problem, because those control zones are what is keeping me from getting to his camp), so we head into Round 7 and I'm concerned. We need priority so that we can run hard.

Round 7 (Priority: Isengard)

Well, we didn't get priority, but honestly it's not that bad: if we can punch through the line this turn we can reach the camp in the 14ish minutes that still remained in the match. My guards are outnumbered now in my camp (so currently that's 6 Victory Points for Zorro, as I don't outnumber him in his camp), but we at least have guys running toward his camp.

His uruk fails to charge again (fourth turn in a row, I believe)...it was just getting ridiculous at this point. We laughed a lot together over this.

At the end of the Fight Phase we've done a good job polishing off more uruks, but still has control zones keeping us from getting past him. The King of the Dead fails to wound Lurtz (which would have been huge, as that's both Victory Points for me and a lot of attacks off the table) and he is able to kill the banner and remove it from the table, so the lower Fight Value is really going to start biting hereon out.

Round 8 (Priority: Dunharrow)

We have priority! We run like mad, trying to tie him down as best we can and I'm going for the wound on Lurtz (as we need points ASAP).

We kill a bunch of uruks in the Fight Phase, but we are still caught in the middle, and as we start the next round we realized it would be our last. My guards in the camp are still outnumbered by the uruks, and with no hope of taking out any of the guys in his camp, the game is pretty much over unless I can finish off some of the uruks behind my walls, or perhaps if I can break him without being broken myself (as we're both running low on models).

Round 9 (Priority: Isengard)

So we move up, engage the uruks as best we can, and go for Lurtz with everything we have. We rush into the other camp, but there is nothing really that we can do; the most important part of the battlefield is actually the lower right, as there are 3 uruks and 2 Warriors of the Dead, so I need to kill 1 of them to prevent him from getting points for my camp.

In the middle there is a lot of fighting, but no serious wounds are dealt, and we are both 2 models away from breaking the other army (so no points for breaking either force).

And down below we aren't able to sneak any wounds in, so there are more uruks in the camp.

Final Scoring: So at the end of the game, it was an 6-1 Loss for the Dead of Dunharrow.

Overall Assessment: The movement disadvantage played a factor into this match, but honestly it wasn't that bad all things considered. The bigger issue in this match was my lower Fight Value, as I did a good number of wounds when I won fights, and winning more fights would have helped me break through the lines 1-2 turns earlier, which would have been enough to storm the camp.

The other thing that I began to realize at this point in the tournament was that having Terror on all my models added a lot more time to each round, so I got in less combats than I was used to in a 60-minute period. The fact that my opponent has to roll to charge for virtually every charge both elongates the Move Phase (which is already a long phase) and causes opponents to pause and reflect more on their movements. So something to keep in mind for future games: if you have a lot of Terror models, plan on longer Move Phases.

And to be clear, my opponent wasn't "slow playing": he just had to roll 2 dice, calculate the total, often with a -1 from the King of the Dead, on top of measuring distances and planning strategy, and with some of his uruks failing (which is the point of having Terror), plans will go awry and must be reevaluated.

Round 3 for me is against the other dwarf force, so we get to see another force that has an above-average chance at wounding D8. I was actually really excited about this match-up, as we get to do the one scenario that I thought my army would excel at: To the Death! More on that next week when the battle report comes out!

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"Centaurs are concerned with what has been foretold!  It is not our business to run around like donkeys after stray humans in our forest!" ~ Bane, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone