Good morning reader,
In our last two posts, I've been using a Last Alliance battle company against some of my mates here at TMAT. I recently got together with some of my other TMAT buddies and got 3 games in with a new battle company: Isengard!
Isengard plays differently than the Last Alliance in one key respect: while getting a Rally Horn is really good for the Last Alliance because it gets you Elves on a 4+, you don't have an upgrade tree (so what you see is what you get). For Isengard, while their 3-5 troops are fine (Uruk-Hai Scout with whatever you like, Uruk-Hai Warrior with shield, Uruk-Hai Warrior with whatever you like), their special upgrade tree on a 6 is where the real power in Battle Companies arises: two different warrior choices, both of which have 2 Attacks base (and the ability to shrug off Wounds on the roll of a 6). Getting the Rally Horn is important, but you also want to recruit when you have 6 Influence, so you can boost that roll by 3 if you need to in order to get to the special chart.
Uruks also have access to Uruk-Hai Grog - an expensive but powerful item that costs 4 Influence to acquire, but gives you a battlefield-wide banner bonus for the entire game - which is KILLER if you have 2 Attack Ferals/Berserkers running around, protected by Uruk-Hai bows or crossbows. While difficult to buy in the early part of a campaign, if you can keep your Battle Company rating artificially low, you could buy this after every game and use it in the next game so you always have a banner working for you. Pretty slick...
Game #1: A Daring Rescue vs. The Black Prince's Rohan
There is nothing more thematic than to have an Isengard player start off his Battle Company than fighting Rohan. And among the possible missions we could play, there's probably nothing more thematic than for my Isengard Uruk-Hai Scouts to have captured an enemy hero and try to keep her from being rescued. The board had the King's Seat from Amon Hen in the center, with lots of tree cover around it. I set up my two archers on the roof of the structure, while my five melee soldiers guarded the bottom.
The Rohan soldiers moved to be within skirmish range with their throwing spears, which were annoying for my soldiers. My hope was to break the Black Prince's army before his hero could get off the board. What we didn't notice about the rules during the game was that while my Uruks couldn't charge the escaping model, I could shoot at the model. Both I and the Black Prince were under the illusion that this was not a valid tactic for me until after I was broken, so I focused on shooting my opponent's models.
During the fight, each of my archer heroes scored a kill (Torbok is on the Path of the Ranger and took down a horse, while Duthurz is on the Path of the Scout and took down a Rohan archer). My melee troops were soon engaged by charging cavalry, and we managed to kill the other two horses during the course of the game (for some nice tidy XP). We did manage to kill a strawhead or two, but mostly we were run over and overwhelmed by the slightly-more-advanced Rohan Battle Company. As the Black Prince's imprisoned hero escaped off the board edge, the last two models of my force were killed, giving us a sound defeat.
In the aftermath of the battle, all of my models except one got a Full Recovery. The one that didn't was Torbok, my Ranger hero, who got an arm wound (so no more bow for you until you get a Full Recovery). Since I only have 2 Uruk-Hai bows in my army for starters, this is pretty rough, but it meant I could save the 2 Influence I got for the Battle Company Rating disparity and the 2 Influence I got for losing and get a Rally Horn after the next mission. I wanted to get some Uruk-Hai Grog for some one-game-pop battlefield-wide banner bonuses, but since this equipment costs 4 Influence, I figured it was too early to get it.
Game #2: The Contest of Champions One vs. Zorro's Isengard list
Moving from fighting a Rohan army to an Isengard army was an interesting one, especially since Zorro's list was also less than 45-points higher than mine. Zorro in some ways had kept his Battle Company Rating artificially low, choosing to purchase upgrades/gear for his units instead of recruiting more models. As such, the power heroes that Zorro had were far superior to my stock-standard Isengard ones (and I wasn't going to get much extra Influence after the mission). Still, being outnumbered by 30-44 points means that even if you lose, you and your opponent get the same Influence at the end of the game (and that's not horrible).
The mission wasn't a great one though: my lieutenant isn't an archer, so I knew I'd have to get locked in against nearly-equal-in-power warrior models in order to stand a chance of winning (his heroes were too powerful). As you might expect, I got a thrashing - I don't recall doing a single Wound to anything! I got roasted and toasted and life was pretty hard.
In the aftermath of the game, I had one model survive (my first one!), one who died (Gozad), Duthurz got an Old Battle Wound, and three models got a Full Recovery. The seventh member of my team (Torbok, my arm-wounded-Ranger) rolled a "Just A Flesh Wound." Knowing how many results give you a Full Recovery (and I really wanted that arm wound gone), I decided to roll again instead of having him miss my next game. And I rolled...a Lost result. So...I get to rescue the one-armed archer in the next mission. Aren't I lucky?
However, due to getting one wound on a horse and dealing 1 Wound that wasn't saved by Fate against the Black Prince in the previous mission, my lieutenant (Trintru) got a level-up at the end of this mission. He got (drum-roll please) the Lead by Example trait, which gives all of his Battle Company models +1 Courage when they're within 6" of him. With a C3 starting force, I'll take this - one of these days, Dunharrow is going to show up and C4 will be greatly appreciated. I could have swapped it for my army bonus, but seeing as how a single Rohan army appears to be the extent of the forces of Men here, I thought the Courage boost would be better.
I also had 8 Influence available after this mission, so I picked up a Rally Horn for 5 Influence and rolled on the Reinforcement chart. To my great happiness, I got a 5, which promoted to a 6 to give me a roll on the advanced upgrade chart. I got a 2 on my second roll, which promoted to a 3, giving me a Feral Uruk-Hai (Dunud - so basically my Uruk-Hai Scout with no gear got replaced by a Feral Uruk-Hai . . . worse things have happened). With +1 Trait, +1 piece of gear, and a slightly more expensive warrior, I saw my Battle Company Rating rise by 15 points (and will fall by 24 if we play Secure the Area), giving me a very respectable 121 points.
Game #3: A Daring Rescue vs. Zorro's Isengard list
So the Black Prince and Red Jacket were still trying to bash a Cave Troll into the ground on their board and Zorro and I had nothing to do, so he asked if I wanted to do another round. I said, "Sure." Since I got to choose which of the two LOST missions I got to do, I decided that having a mobile objective was better than having an immobile one that I'd have to get to and guard (no chance of that happening). It was at this time that Zorro pointed out that while the rules for the scenario said you can't charge the prisoner who was trying to escape, you could shoot the prisoner. My heart sank a little, because Zorro's Path of the Ranger hero just got the Expert Shot rule after our mission, so my ability to escape him was going to be really, REALLY tiny.
I think Zorro had some pity on me, because he told me straight-up (not an exact quote), "Give me something else to shoot at and I won't start off the game by shooting your prisoner - I'd prefer some XP." I, knowing that losing this hero would be bad, happily obliged and set up my guys to be in clear line of sight to the Expert Shot hero. What a great strategy.
The fight went better than I expected: I ran Torbok like mad for the board corner (because of where the blocking terrain was) while my troops (including my new Feral) raced forward towards Zorro's troops. I got my boys locked in quickly, tying models down, but my other archer hero (Duthurz) was the clutch player. Taking down an Uruk-Hai Scout with Uruk-Hai bow and plucking the Fate point off the Expert Shot hero on two consecutive turns, I got enough XP to upgrade him at the end of the mission before he died.
Torbok raced for the board edge as the game drew to a close, but something weird happened: Zorro had been chasing my hero with a Warrior who happened to have Manacles (which can Paralyze someone - and in this mission, that would force a draw until I could free myself). We then discovered that my inability to wound anyone was actually paying off, because the manacle guy couldn't actually charge my hero because I hadn't broken him yet (or charged any of his models or freed my guy). So I kept running.
But victory wasn't mine to have: Zorro cleared out my other models (again) and with just my prisoner on the board, my force was quartered before I could get Torbok off the board, so the game ended in a draw.
I brought my kids with me and one of them (the toddler) was done for the day, so I raced off as fast as a dad with kids can and didn't get a chance to do the combat resolution until afterwards. Torbok will miss the next game because I got a draw, but that's not bad (more on that later). Trintru got an Old Battle Wound (to match Duthurz's old battle wound), one of my warriors (Glat) was injured, and three of my other units (including my Feral) all got Full Recoveries.
In a stunning turn of events, my Scout sergeant (my other archer) ALSO got an Arm Wound, so he too will be unable to shoot. Thankfully, he got enough kills in that game to get a level-up and his upgrade was Poisoned Blades - though the wording of this indicates that any weapons he uses get Poison, so I don't have to get a backpack to hold both the poisoned blades and poisoned arrows upgrades (yaye for me).
While I don't think Path of the Scout is one of the best paths you can take, most of the upgrades in it are very good for Uruk-Hai: poison for all of your weapons, Fell Sight, the equivalent of Stalk Unseen without actually getting Stalk Unseen, treating all terrain as open ground, F6/3+, Courage 5, and the ability to get throwing daggers are all really good things. Sure, you max out at 2 Attacks/Wounds, but that's alright - most Uruk-Hai heroes do. :)
I also had 6 Influence available after this mission (3 Influence for the Battle Company Disparity and 3 Influence for the draw), so I made a recruitment roll with 3 Influence and managed to get a natural 6. When rolling on the advanced chart, I got a 3, but the Rally Horn promoted it to a 4, giving me my first Berserker (Gukhnurz)! While my team's pretty beat up, the first two recruitments we got were well worth it.
Seeing as how both of my archers have arm wounds, I feel like getting more bows is important. But what I chose to do with my remaining 3 Influence is to get some Healing Herbs for my army and give them to Turbok, who is missing the next game (due to the draw). If I lose lots of guys (which, if the first three games is are any indication, is likely), Turbok will not have been removed as a casualty and can administer the healing herbs to my team (and hopefully get some Full Recoveries/extra Fate/extra Influence). With any luck, going into Game 5, we'll be a much healthier, much stronger team (and we might finally get our vanilla Scout an Uruk-Hai Bow like I've always wanted. :)
Well, that was a pretty rough day for Isengard, but I had a lot of fun. As I mentioned our next game is going to be tough (no archers who can use their bows), but my hope is that with a fairly low battle company rating, I'll get lots of Influence to buy more Uruk-Hai bows and get another recruit. We'll see how it goes.
Until our next Battle Companies meeting, happy hobbying!
In our last two posts, I've been using a Last Alliance battle company against some of my mates here at TMAT. I recently got together with some of my other TMAT buddies and got 3 games in with a new battle company: Isengard!
Isengard plays differently than the Last Alliance in one key respect: while getting a Rally Horn is really good for the Last Alliance because it gets you Elves on a 4+, you don't have an upgrade tree (so what you see is what you get). For Isengard, while their 3-5 troops are fine (Uruk-Hai Scout with whatever you like, Uruk-Hai Warrior with shield, Uruk-Hai Warrior with whatever you like), their special upgrade tree on a 6 is where the real power in Battle Companies arises: two different warrior choices, both of which have 2 Attacks base (and the ability to shrug off Wounds on the roll of a 6). Getting the Rally Horn is important, but you also want to recruit when you have 6 Influence, so you can boost that roll by 3 if you need to in order to get to the special chart.
Uruks also have access to Uruk-Hai Grog - an expensive but powerful item that costs 4 Influence to acquire, but gives you a battlefield-wide banner bonus for the entire game - which is KILLER if you have 2 Attack Ferals/Berserkers running around, protected by Uruk-Hai bows or crossbows. While difficult to buy in the early part of a campaign, if you can keep your Battle Company rating artificially low, you could buy this after every game and use it in the next game so you always have a banner working for you. Pretty slick...
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| Initial Battle Company: 7 models, Battle Company Rating of 106. |
Game #1: A Daring Rescue vs. The Black Prince's Rohan
There is nothing more thematic than to have an Isengard player start off his Battle Company than fighting Rohan. And among the possible missions we could play, there's probably nothing more thematic than for my Isengard Uruk-Hai Scouts to have captured an enemy hero and try to keep her from being rescued. The board had the King's Seat from Amon Hen in the center, with lots of tree cover around it. I set up my two archers on the roof of the structure, while my five melee soldiers guarded the bottom.
The Rohan soldiers moved to be within skirmish range with their throwing spears, which were annoying for my soldiers. My hope was to break the Black Prince's army before his hero could get off the board. What we didn't notice about the rules during the game was that while my Uruks couldn't charge the escaping model, I could shoot at the model. Both I and the Black Prince were under the illusion that this was not a valid tactic for me until after I was broken, so I focused on shooting my opponent's models.
During the fight, each of my archer heroes scored a kill (Torbok is on the Path of the Ranger and took down a horse, while Duthurz is on the Path of the Scout and took down a Rohan archer). My melee troops were soon engaged by charging cavalry, and we managed to kill the other two horses during the course of the game (for some nice tidy XP). We did manage to kill a strawhead or two, but mostly we were run over and overwhelmed by the slightly-more-advanced Rohan Battle Company. As the Black Prince's imprisoned hero escaped off the board edge, the last two models of my force were killed, giving us a sound defeat.
In the aftermath of the battle, all of my models except one got a Full Recovery. The one that didn't was Torbok, my Ranger hero, who got an arm wound (so no more bow for you until you get a Full Recovery). Since I only have 2 Uruk-Hai bows in my army for starters, this is pretty rough, but it meant I could save the 2 Influence I got for the Battle Company Rating disparity and the 2 Influence I got for losing and get a Rally Horn after the next mission. I wanted to get some Uruk-Hai Grog for some one-game-pop battlefield-wide banner bonuses, but since this equipment costs 4 Influence, I figured it was too early to get it.
 |
| The Battle Company after Game 1: 7 models, Battle Company Rating of 106. |
Moving from fighting a Rohan army to an Isengard army was an interesting one, especially since Zorro's list was also less than 45-points higher than mine. Zorro in some ways had kept his Battle Company Rating artificially low, choosing to purchase upgrades/gear for his units instead of recruiting more models. As such, the power heroes that Zorro had were far superior to my stock-standard Isengard ones (and I wasn't going to get much extra Influence after the mission). Still, being outnumbered by 30-44 points means that even if you lose, you and your opponent get the same Influence at the end of the game (and that's not horrible).
The mission wasn't a great one though: my lieutenant isn't an archer, so I knew I'd have to get locked in against nearly-equal-in-power warrior models in order to stand a chance of winning (his heroes were too powerful). As you might expect, I got a thrashing - I don't recall doing a single Wound to anything! I got roasted and toasted and life was pretty hard.
In the aftermath of the game, I had one model survive (my first one!), one who died (Gozad), Duthurz got an Old Battle Wound, and three models got a Full Recovery. The seventh member of my team (Torbok, my arm-wounded-Ranger) rolled a "Just A Flesh Wound." Knowing how many results give you a Full Recovery (and I really wanted that arm wound gone), I decided to roll again instead of having him miss my next game. And I rolled...a Lost result. So...I get to rescue the one-armed archer in the next mission. Aren't I lucky?
However, due to getting one wound on a horse and dealing 1 Wound that wasn't saved by Fate against the Black Prince in the previous mission, my lieutenant (Trintru) got a level-up at the end of this mission. He got (drum-roll please) the Lead by Example trait, which gives all of his Battle Company models +1 Courage when they're within 6" of him. With a C3 starting force, I'll take this - one of these days, Dunharrow is going to show up and C4 will be greatly appreciated. I could have swapped it for my army bonus, but seeing as how a single Rohan army appears to be the extent of the forces of Men here, I thought the Courage boost would be better.
I also had 8 Influence available after this mission, so I picked up a Rally Horn for 5 Influence and rolled on the Reinforcement chart. To my great happiness, I got a 5, which promoted to a 6 to give me a roll on the advanced upgrade chart. I got a 2 on my second roll, which promoted to a 3, giving me a Feral Uruk-Hai (Dunud - so basically my Uruk-Hai Scout with no gear got replaced by a Feral Uruk-Hai . . . worse things have happened). With +1 Trait, +1 piece of gear, and a slightly more expensive warrior, I saw my Battle Company Rating rise by 15 points (and will fall by 24 if we play Secure the Area), giving me a very respectable 121 points.
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| The Battle Company after Game 2: 6-7 models, Battle Company Rating of 97-121. |
So the Black Prince and Red Jacket were still trying to bash a Cave Troll into the ground on their board and Zorro and I had nothing to do, so he asked if I wanted to do another round. I said, "Sure." Since I got to choose which of the two LOST missions I got to do, I decided that having a mobile objective was better than having an immobile one that I'd have to get to and guard (no chance of that happening). It was at this time that Zorro pointed out that while the rules for the scenario said you can't charge the prisoner who was trying to escape, you could shoot the prisoner. My heart sank a little, because Zorro's Path of the Ranger hero just got the Expert Shot rule after our mission, so my ability to escape him was going to be really, REALLY tiny.
I think Zorro had some pity on me, because he told me straight-up (not an exact quote), "Give me something else to shoot at and I won't start off the game by shooting your prisoner - I'd prefer some XP." I, knowing that losing this hero would be bad, happily obliged and set up my guys to be in clear line of sight to the Expert Shot hero. What a great strategy.
The fight went better than I expected: I ran Torbok like mad for the board corner (because of where the blocking terrain was) while my troops (including my new Feral) raced forward towards Zorro's troops. I got my boys locked in quickly, tying models down, but my other archer hero (Duthurz) was the clutch player. Taking down an Uruk-Hai Scout with Uruk-Hai bow and plucking the Fate point off the Expert Shot hero on two consecutive turns, I got enough XP to upgrade him at the end of the mission before he died.
Torbok raced for the board edge as the game drew to a close, but something weird happened: Zorro had been chasing my hero with a Warrior who happened to have Manacles (which can Paralyze someone - and in this mission, that would force a draw until I could free myself). We then discovered that my inability to wound anyone was actually paying off, because the manacle guy couldn't actually charge my hero because I hadn't broken him yet (or charged any of his models or freed my guy). So I kept running.
But victory wasn't mine to have: Zorro cleared out my other models (again) and with just my prisoner on the board, my force was quartered before I could get Torbok off the board, so the game ended in a draw.
I brought my kids with me and one of them (the toddler) was done for the day, so I raced off as fast as a dad with kids can and didn't get a chance to do the combat resolution until afterwards. Torbok will miss the next game because I got a draw, but that's not bad (more on that later). Trintru got an Old Battle Wound (to match Duthurz's old battle wound), one of my warriors (Glat) was injured, and three of my other units (including my Feral) all got Full Recoveries.
In a stunning turn of events, my Scout sergeant (my other archer) ALSO got an Arm Wound, so he too will be unable to shoot. Thankfully, he got enough kills in that game to get a level-up and his upgrade was Poisoned Blades - though the wording of this indicates that any weapons he uses get Poison, so I don't have to get a backpack to hold both the poisoned blades and poisoned arrows upgrades (yaye for me).
While I don't think Path of the Scout is one of the best paths you can take, most of the upgrades in it are very good for Uruk-Hai: poison for all of your weapons, Fell Sight, the equivalent of Stalk Unseen without actually getting Stalk Unseen, treating all terrain as open ground, F6/3+, Courage 5, and the ability to get throwing daggers are all really good things. Sure, you max out at 2 Attacks/Wounds, but that's alright - most Uruk-Hai heroes do. :)
I also had 6 Influence available after this mission (3 Influence for the Battle Company Disparity and 3 Influence for the draw), so I made a recruitment roll with 3 Influence and managed to get a natural 6. When rolling on the advanced chart, I got a 3, but the Rally Horn promoted it to a 4, giving me my first Berserker (Gukhnurz)! While my team's pretty beat up, the first two recruitments we got were well worth it.
Seeing as how both of my archers have arm wounds, I feel like getting more bows is important. But what I chose to do with my remaining 3 Influence is to get some Healing Herbs for my army and give them to Turbok, who is missing the next game (due to the draw). If I lose lots of guys (which, if the first three games is are any indication, is likely), Turbok will not have been removed as a casualty and can administer the healing herbs to my team (and hopefully get some Full Recoveries/extra Fate/extra Influence). With any luck, going into Game 5, we'll be a much healthier, much stronger team (and we might finally get our vanilla Scout an Uruk-Hai Bow like I've always wanted. :)
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| The Battle Company after Game 3: 6-8 models, Battle Company Rating of 108-144. |
Until our next Battle Companies meeting, happy hobbying!
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