Hey Reader,
Welcome back to TMAT! We are back with Game 3 from this year's THRO Tournament! This match places me against my brother Tiberius, who sports a dwarf army that did really well against my army in testing. Tiberius boasts an army completely comprised of axe-wielders, allowing him to use the special strike for axes with impunity since no one in my army attacks against Defense (the ironic disadvantage stemming from my advantage of wounding against Courage Value). So while he boasts a primarily S3 army, he will be wounding my D8 on 6s (because AXES).
Here is Tiberius's force; you can find mine in the original post here.
Warband 1
-Balin, King of Moria (Army Leader)
-5 Dwarf Warriors with shields
-2 Khazad Guards
-5 Dwarf Warriors with dwarf bows
-4 Dwarf Rangers with throwing axes
Warband 2
-Dwarf King with throwing axes
-4 Dwarf Warriors with shields
-2 Khazad Guards
-5 Dwarf Rangers with dwarf longbows
-1 Dwarf Ranger with throwing axes
TOTAL: 30 units, 2 Heroes, 5 Might
Our match was a To the Death scenario, a scenario that I predicted I'd do well at in this tournament. Since the scenario only rewards us for killing enemy models, wounding the enemy army leader, and having a banner at the end of the match, I am currently sitting on a 2-0 victory against the dwarves as they do not sport a banner.
Initial Assessment: So pound for pound I should do well in this match. The To the Death match requires him to fight me openly, as skirmishing will give me the win if he can't remove my banner from the table. At the same time, though, he outnumbers me by almost 10 models, so it's going to be hard to actually break him if he is able to get his full force into battle.
So my plan is to stay in a tight ball around the King of the Dead, winnow down his warriors, hope that Terror keeps him from overwhelming me, and pray that his archery doesn't land wounds (which, in practice, he was very successful with). If we can break their force, the reduced Courage should give us a chance of routing the dwarves, ending the match before he can reach my banner or kill the King of the Dead (as Balin and the Dwarf King are both good counters to the King of the Dead).
Tiberius's Pre-Game Assessment:
In a practice game against this army, I had the dreadful experience of having Balin fall victim to the Drain Soul power of the King of the Dead. My goal for this game? DON'T LET THAT HAPPEN AGAIN!
After rolling for deployment, we moved into setup and the board looked like this:
We rolled to see who would have priority first, I won the roll, and we began Round 1.
As you can imagine, the first round was very straightforward: both armies charged toward each other, with my soldiers easily moving over the water terrain as if it was normal terrain due to our Spectral Walk special rule. The dwarves form into two detachments, anchoring off of the ruins between the trees. The dwarves are running a thin line with the Dwarf King and Balin near the edges, which will likely keep them from being bogged down in combats they don't like (smart play, Tiberius) (thank you, thank you).
The dwarves shoot at us, but no wounds are dealt. We moved to Round 2.
I didn't want priority this round, but I got it, so WE ATTACK! The dwarves also committed heavily to melee combat, with only one dwarf failing his Courage test to get past Terror. You can see the dwarf king (far right, cat-a-corner combat on my battle line) lined up to crunch in from one flank, and Balin (right-most dwarf on the other side of the ruins) prepared to tackle my thin line on the other side.
In the Shoot Phase the dwarves kill one of my Warriors of the Dead as we prepared to move into the Fight Phase.
So this Fight Phase was bloody. Both Balin and the Dwarf King called Heroic Combats, and both of them killed their men and moved into new targets. Balin is shown above, as he clears through the swordsman and then manages to kill the spearman in the ensuing combat. We are able to pick off the dwarves near him, though, so I still have guys to hold him down (hopefully).
Across the rest of the battlefield dwarves and Warriors of the Dead are lost on both sides, and the lines are muddied as we head into Round 3.
The dwarves get priority, and they charge! Unfortunately it's not as strong a charge as it could have been, though, as a ton of dwarves (close to ten, I think - you can see five of them here with the dice near them, as well as the hand of Tiberius) fail their charges (Harbinger + Terror = Brutal).
This left me with a number of men free to shore up my lines and push my advantage, using my signature "Wag" formation, where I throw as much of my force against one side of my opponent's force to break it apart, and then swing my guys back to the other side to weaken the other elements, much like how a dog wags its tail. When all was said and done, the battle lines looked like this:
Critical to successfully pulling off a wag is having a reliable chance of killing what you're fighting. In this case, I have a 2-1 advantage in all but one fight, and all of my warriors are wounding on 4s, so if we win the duel roll (which is what the banner is for), we should land a wound in each fight.
In the Shoot Phase the dwarves shoot at us, but there are no casualties. As we head into the Fight Phase things get bloody:
The dwarf line is breaking on the right, with most of the power units being pushed to the outside (freeing up my forces to wag left), and I now have a clear path to the archers.
Meanwhile on the other flank Balin is steadily chomping through my squad. He is now free to engage my troops (which could spell trouble for the King of the Dead if he can reach him), so as we move into Round 4, stopping Balin becomes the priority.
We charge into the dwarf lines, continuing to thin the lines and take away the numerical advantage of the dwarves. The dwarves fail more charges (you can see them with the dice near them), so I actually have more warriors in combat this round than he does (we're pretty close to 15 failed Courage tests so far...).
I also intentionally leave Balin alone as he's out of charge range of us, so I'm hoping that he'll continue attacking my guys on the left (as it keeps him in front of my shield wall). Balin, however, is not an idiot, and moves in such a way as to threaten my banner and spear support. So dealing with him next turn will be less than fun.
With no shots in the Shoot Phase, we go to combat.
...And it was brutal. A lot of dwarves fall, and while the line is still holding for Dunharrow, I lost a surprising number of swordsmen, so I'll need to concentrate my line, probably forming a schiltrom (or "porcupine" formation) to keep out the larger numbers of dwarves. But with Balin now free, I am entering Round 5 expecting a full charge by the King of Moria. And that will be interesting.
So, I got priority again, which is really important because it allows me to pick the fights. I decided to charge the King of the Dead into Balin, with an eye toward calling a Heroic Strike and going for a one-shot against him (as I only need to sneak one wound past his 1 Fate Point to kill him, per the King of the Dead's special rule) (recall my pre-game objective - don't let that happen). After I engage he fails two more charges (which blocks his archer from charging into my swordsman) (it's bad when you just start expecting to fail Courage tests), but gets enough guys in to press my lines.
In the Fight Phase I call the Heroic Strike (1/1M used), only add +1 to my Fight Value (so we're tied), and I don't roll as high as he does, so it's not even a roll-off to see who wins. He gets a Wound on me, but I save it with Fate (1/3F used). So now I have no Might against a mighty hero with a higher Fight Value.
There are casualties on both sides, and while I deal more wounds than he does, I am only a few models away from breaking, and my banner is exposed.
My banner is able to kill his man in his fight, which is a point I want to dwell on for a short while. So, on the stats banners shouldn't be in melee combat: you should keep them in the second or third rank to provide support without risk of losing it. But on a practical note I've discovered that my banners tend to fight just as well as my normal soldiers, and are actually more reliable at killing things. I don't know why that is, but it is. So, I don't know where that is going, but there it is for the interwebs to see. I might do a write-up on this in the future as it crystallizes.
So the fact that I got priority in this fight was huge: we are almost broken, so the fact that we get to go first means that we get to pick fights that we like. This allowed me to pin down and trap Balin, move men to protect my banner, and form a schiltrom formation to protect my force and maximize my fighters. (Has anyone else noticed that in 6 rounds my bearded fellows have only won priority once?)
The dwarves continue to press (though a number of them fail again - I think he's up to over 20 failed charges so far) (sounds about right) and we go to melee combat.
In combat more warriors fall on both sides, with a special note that I lose my 12th model, so my force is now broken. So as we end the round my force is broken, and starting next round we begin the Courage tests to see if we stick it out (which I feel pretty good about, since the entire army is C6+).
So to start off I roll Courage for the King of the Dead, and he passes (which is not surprising as he is Courage 7 with 6 Will, so he won't fail for at least the first six break checks he makes). He charges and calls his "Stand Fast!" and I begin moving the rest of the troops. I only need to test for two warriors, and would you believe it: one of them runs away (Courage 6, and so far in both games that I've been broken one of them has run away - just wow, :P). You can see the model running away at the bottom-left of the picture.
More dwarves fail to pass their Courage tests to charge (it's ridiculous by this point - he's at almost 30 failed charges, which should not be happening), and while throwing axes and one dwarf bow are used in the Shoot Phase, no wounds land. (To the critics who ask, "Why are you shooting at D8 units?" I will kindly remind them that you don't have to test for Terror if you shoot instead of charging) (Fair)
As we move into the Fight Phase Balin loses the fight, and while he's able to block a wound with Fate he suffers 1 wound (which scores points in this scenario). The dwarves are 1 away from being broken, and everything rides on me being able to kill another model (as he'll gain 5 Victory Points if I don't break him). We looked up at the clock and realized we had about 4 minutes left, so we knew this would be the last round.
We get priority again, and I felt bad for Tiberius, because priority really didn't favor him in this match (which is part of why, for Brawler Bash 2019, almost every scenario gives the player who doesn't get priority something tactical and useful to do, because not having priority is huge in this game). We cage up around the banner, engaging dwarves in fights that should secure me one more casualty, and as more dwarves fail to charge, we head into the final Shoot Phase where no wounds are caused.
...And at the end of the Fight Phase (we were short on time so I forgot to take a picture) both armies are broken, both Army Leaders are still on the table, and the King of the Dead is unwounded. Since my banner is (miraculously) still alive he also scores points for me, which is excellent.
Final Scoring: So at the end of the game, it was a 6-3 Win for the Dead of Dunharrow.
Overall Assessment: So, I knew that walking into this tournament this would be a strong match for me. Since I didn't need to count models next to terrain pieces, chase people down for an heirloom, etc., this scenario plays to my strengths: opponents have to close with me, they have to get past D8 with spear support and likely banner support, and I wound against their Courage value. So it went about as well as I could have hoped.
A lot of the success of the match, though, was due to the dwarves failing critical Courage tests to charge, and not only failing but failing in droves. In practice for the tournament the dwarves tore my ranks apart, mostly due to the sheer number of models in the army (so they were able to get me in a number of 1-1 and 2-1 fights) where their F4 gave them an advantage. And in a scenario where you have to kill things, even if they wound on 6s the chances that a single Warrior of the Dead wounds someone is only 50-50, so if you lose the majority of your fights and only wound on half of the ones you win, you don't do a lot of wounds to an army that is almost twice your size.
In this fight Terror really kicked in for me, giving me the numerical advantage in many fights which allowed me to cleave through the lines. But as always, I loved playing against Tiberius, and it was nice to finally have a win on the board for Dunharrow.
Tiberius's Post-Game Assessment:
No matter what list you have and how skilled you are with it, there's only so much you can do when you don't win priority and can't charge critical people. Ultimately, I kept Balin from dying and I managed to break the list - both very important requirements for To The Death. Centaur and I have fought countless times and this match was disappointing in some respects but very suspenseful right up to the end.
Round 4 places me in a Domination match against the largest army in the tournament, as I take on an infantry-based Rohan army. So tune in to see how the tournament ended for me next week!
Watching the stars,
Centaur
"I set myself against what is lurking in this forest, Bane - yes, with humans alongside me if I must." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Welcome back to TMAT! We are back with Game 3 from this year's THRO Tournament! This match places me against my brother Tiberius, who sports a dwarf army that did really well against my army in testing. Tiberius boasts an army completely comprised of axe-wielders, allowing him to use the special strike for axes with impunity since no one in my army attacks against Defense (the ironic disadvantage stemming from my advantage of wounding against Courage Value). So while he boasts a primarily S3 army, he will be wounding my D8 on 6s (because AXES).
Here is Tiberius's force; you can find mine in the original post here.
Warband 1
-Balin, King of Moria (Army Leader)
-5 Dwarf Warriors with shields
-2 Khazad Guards
-5 Dwarf Warriors with dwarf bows
-4 Dwarf Rangers with throwing axes
Warband 2
-Dwarf King with throwing axes
-4 Dwarf Warriors with shields
-2 Khazad Guards
-5 Dwarf Rangers with dwarf longbows
-1 Dwarf Ranger with throwing axes
TOTAL: 30 units, 2 Heroes, 5 Might
Our match was a To the Death scenario, a scenario that I predicted I'd do well at in this tournament. Since the scenario only rewards us for killing enemy models, wounding the enemy army leader, and having a banner at the end of the match, I am currently sitting on a 2-0 victory against the dwarves as they do not sport a banner.
Initial Assessment: So pound for pound I should do well in this match. The To the Death match requires him to fight me openly, as skirmishing will give me the win if he can't remove my banner from the table. At the same time, though, he outnumbers me by almost 10 models, so it's going to be hard to actually break him if he is able to get his full force into battle.
So my plan is to stay in a tight ball around the King of the Dead, winnow down his warriors, hope that Terror keeps him from overwhelming me, and pray that his archery doesn't land wounds (which, in practice, he was very successful with). If we can break their force, the reduced Courage should give us a chance of routing the dwarves, ending the match before he can reach my banner or kill the King of the Dead (as Balin and the Dwarf King are both good counters to the King of the Dead).
Tiberius's Pre-Game Assessment:
In a practice game against this army, I had the dreadful experience of having Balin fall victim to the Drain Soul power of the King of the Dead. My goal for this game? DON'T LET THAT HAPPEN AGAIN!
After rolling for deployment, we moved into setup and the board looked like this:
Round 1 (Priority: Dunharrow)
The dwarves shoot at us, but no wounds are dealt. We moved to Round 2.
Round 2 (Priority: Dunharrow)
In the Shoot Phase the dwarves kill one of my Warriors of the Dead as we prepared to move into the Fight Phase.
So this Fight Phase was bloody. Both Balin and the Dwarf King called Heroic Combats, and both of them killed their men and moved into new targets. Balin is shown above, as he clears through the swordsman and then manages to kill the spearman in the ensuing combat. We are able to pick off the dwarves near him, though, so I still have guys to hold him down (hopefully).
Across the rest of the battlefield dwarves and Warriors of the Dead are lost on both sides, and the lines are muddied as we head into Round 3.
Round 3 (Priority: Khazad Dum)
This left me with a number of men free to shore up my lines and push my advantage, using my signature "Wag" formation, where I throw as much of my force against one side of my opponent's force to break it apart, and then swing my guys back to the other side to weaken the other elements, much like how a dog wags its tail. When all was said and done, the battle lines looked like this:
In the Shoot Phase the dwarves shoot at us, but there are no casualties. As we head into the Fight Phase things get bloody:
Meanwhile on the other flank Balin is steadily chomping through my squad. He is now free to engage my troops (which could spell trouble for the King of the Dead if he can reach him), so as we move into Round 4, stopping Balin becomes the priority.
Round 4 (Priority: Dunharrow)
I also intentionally leave Balin alone as he's out of charge range of us, so I'm hoping that he'll continue attacking my guys on the left (as it keeps him in front of my shield wall). Balin, however, is not an idiot, and moves in such a way as to threaten my banner and spear support. So dealing with him next turn will be less than fun.
With no shots in the Shoot Phase, we go to combat.
...And it was brutal. A lot of dwarves fall, and while the line is still holding for Dunharrow, I lost a surprising number of swordsmen, so I'll need to concentrate my line, probably forming a schiltrom (or "porcupine" formation) to keep out the larger numbers of dwarves. But with Balin now free, I am entering Round 5 expecting a full charge by the King of Moria. And that will be interesting.
Round 5 (Priority: Dunharrow)
In the Fight Phase I call the Heroic Strike (1/1M used), only add +1 to my Fight Value (so we're tied), and I don't roll as high as he does, so it's not even a roll-off to see who wins. He gets a Wound on me, but I save it with Fate (1/3F used). So now I have no Might against a mighty hero with a higher Fight Value.
There are casualties on both sides, and while I deal more wounds than he does, I am only a few models away from breaking, and my banner is exposed.
My banner is able to kill his man in his fight, which is a point I want to dwell on for a short while. So, on the stats banners shouldn't be in melee combat: you should keep them in the second or third rank to provide support without risk of losing it. But on a practical note I've discovered that my banners tend to fight just as well as my normal soldiers, and are actually more reliable at killing things. I don't know why that is, but it is. So, I don't know where that is going, but there it is for the interwebs to see. I might do a write-up on this in the future as it crystallizes.
Round 6 (Priority: Dunharrow)
The dwarves continue to press (though a number of them fail again - I think he's up to over 20 failed charges so far) (sounds about right) and we go to melee combat.
In combat more warriors fall on both sides, with a special note that I lose my 12th model, so my force is now broken. So as we end the round my force is broken, and starting next round we begin the Courage tests to see if we stick it out (which I feel pretty good about, since the entire army is C6+).
Round 7 (Priority: Dunharrow)
More dwarves fail to pass their Courage tests to charge (it's ridiculous by this point - he's at almost 30 failed charges, which should not be happening), and while throwing axes and one dwarf bow are used in the Shoot Phase, no wounds land. (To the critics who ask, "Why are you shooting at D8 units?" I will kindly remind them that you don't have to test for Terror if you shoot instead of charging) (Fair)
As we move into the Fight Phase Balin loses the fight, and while he's able to block a wound with Fate he suffers 1 wound (which scores points in this scenario). The dwarves are 1 away from being broken, and everything rides on me being able to kill another model (as he'll gain 5 Victory Points if I don't break him). We looked up at the clock and realized we had about 4 minutes left, so we knew this would be the last round.
Round 8 (Priority: Dunharrow)
Final Scoring: So at the end of the game, it was a 6-3 Win for the Dead of Dunharrow.
Overall Assessment: So, I knew that walking into this tournament this would be a strong match for me. Since I didn't need to count models next to terrain pieces, chase people down for an heirloom, etc., this scenario plays to my strengths: opponents have to close with me, they have to get past D8 with spear support and likely banner support, and I wound against their Courage value. So it went about as well as I could have hoped.
A lot of the success of the match, though, was due to the dwarves failing critical Courage tests to charge, and not only failing but failing in droves. In practice for the tournament the dwarves tore my ranks apart, mostly due to the sheer number of models in the army (so they were able to get me in a number of 1-1 and 2-1 fights) where their F4 gave them an advantage. And in a scenario where you have to kill things, even if they wound on 6s the chances that a single Warrior of the Dead wounds someone is only 50-50, so if you lose the majority of your fights and only wound on half of the ones you win, you don't do a lot of wounds to an army that is almost twice your size.
In this fight Terror really kicked in for me, giving me the numerical advantage in many fights which allowed me to cleave through the lines. But as always, I loved playing against Tiberius, and it was nice to finally have a win on the board for Dunharrow.
Tiberius's Post-Game Assessment:
No matter what list you have and how skilled you are with it, there's only so much you can do when you don't win priority and can't charge critical people. Ultimately, I kept Balin from dying and I managed to break the list - both very important requirements for To The Death. Centaur and I have fought countless times and this match was disappointing in some respects but very suspenseful right up to the end.
Round 4 places me in a Domination match against the largest army in the tournament, as I take on an infantry-based Rohan army. So tune in to see how the tournament ended for me next week!
Watching the stars,
Centaur
"I set myself against what is lurking in this forest, Bane - yes, with humans alongside me if I must." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
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