Battle Report: TMAT GT 2021 Round 1

 

Hey Reader!

Welcome back to the blog! It's been a while since my last battle report, so as I prepared for the tournament I opted to bring some scratch paper and record what happened in each battle. As the tournament was three rounds, this will be the first in a three-post series showing how my army did in the tournament.

I.  Overview: My Army

As a bit of background, I ran an Isengard army, centered around the theory I had for rethinking Isengard to optimize points for the value you receive. So for your knowledge, this is the army I was running for this match:

Warband 1

Lurtz with Shield (Army Leader)

1 Uruk Scout with Banner and Shield

2 Feral Uruk-Hai

2 Orc Warriors with Shield/Spear

3 Uruk Scouts with Shields

Warband 2

Ugluk

1 Feral Uruk-Hai

2 Orc Warriors with Shield/Spear

4 Uruk Scouts with Shields

Warband 3

Isengard Assault Ballista with Siege Veteran

Warband 4

Isengard Assault Ballista with Siege Veteran

TOTAL: 23 models, 449pts, 8 Might

So these are the lists - List 1 was slotted to play a Hold Ground scenario, so we needed to rush up to the center and have more models, with a few extra points for wounding/killing the enemy army leader and breaking the enemy/not being broken.

List 2 was slotted to play a To the Death scenario, so wounding/killing the enemy army leader, having a banner, and breaking/not being broken was all that counted.

List 3 was slotted to play a Fog of War scenario, so you need to kill a secretly selected enemy hero, keep alive one of yours, have more/the only models on another objective, and breaking/not being broken.

I knew it would be a smaller tournament, so there was a good chance I'd hit any given army at the tournament. Turns out I hit three really tough armies, all commanded by good generals who used their models well.

Today's match is Round 1, where we play Hold Ground against a small but deadly army that can wreck uruks with relative ease.

Game 1: Hold Ground (Opponents: Strider and Dronak)

Since we had an odd number of people sign up for the tournament, we made a last-minute addition: two of Rythbryt's sons jumped in as our sixth player, allowing every team to play each round. I have played with these guys in the past, and I've always enjoyed it. This game was no exception.

Their army list is below:

Radagast's Alliance

Warband 1

Beorn

2 Great Eagles

Total: 400 pts, 3 Models, 3 Might

That's it - that's the army. As the tournament escalated they added Treebeard with Merry and Pippin at 600pts, and then Gwaihir at 750pts, and needless to say, this army hit like a truck. They did very well in their 600pt match (and finished 3rd at the tournament in its final rankings), and are really good sportsmen all around.

I was concerned going into this match. I built my list to have answers for big heroes, and it kind of has answers for eagles (as you have both ballistas and two heroes that can call Heroic Strike starting from F5), but I was less than eager to fight them. While I had by far the numerical advantage, against eagles and Beorn (in whatever form he's in) they can easily maul 5-6 people each turn, and that means it won't take long when they are in the middle to even out the numbers. Add onto this the fact that they can barge/hurl people out of the scoring radius, and we have a problem.

Strategy: My plan going into this fight was to do three things: 1) use the ballistas to tie up the enemy, whether that be through shooting them out of the sky or making them a tempting target to buy me a few turns to get to the middle, 2) kill the eagles, and 3) drop quickly to 50% before they can reach the center. Since the eagles can fly 12" each turn, the last one was going to be the hardest, while #2 and #1 were also very dicey propositions thanks to terrain.

Round 1 (Priority: Isengard)

(Gonna take a moment to just quickly say: this was a beautiful board provided by Rythbryt. Absolutely recommend you check out his how-to posts when those go up, because this thing was an absolute pleasure to play on)

Move Phase: I deploy the ballistas on the western board edge, and Ugluk came in far to the south. Seeing that Strider and Dronak would have one warband, I took my chances with Ugluk and his boys being alone and deployed Lurtz and his boys near the ballistas. 

Strider rolled for deployment and got a 3, and opted to spend 2/3 Might on Beorn to come in right next to the ballistas.

So my answer to monsters - ballistas - are...not likely to do anything to them this game, :P Oh boy, :P

Shoot Phase: We moved too far to shoot, so there is no shooting this turn.

Fight Phase: We can't charge on the first turn, so there's no fights. We rolled for priority.

Round 2 (Priority: Radagast's Alliance)

Move Phase: Beorn and the eagles charge. Lurtz and a number of the uruks jump into a fight with one of the eagles, and I make a point to run like crazy for the center with Ugluk's regiment.

Shoot Phase: There was no shooting in the Shoot Phase, so no shooting.

Fight Phase: In the Fight Phase Lurtz called a Heroic Strike (1/3M), and went from F5 to F6 (so still losing to the eagle - ugh), and yet somehow we still won the fight and, despite trapping the eagle we can only land 1 wound. Whatever you may think of eagles, that D8 is incredible.

Beorn engaged just the ballista, naturally won against it, and decided to bear hug it, dealing 3 wounds easily without a single Might Point. So good news: my ballista crew is free to roam! Bad news: there's nowhere we can go that he cannot reach.

Round 3 (Priority: Isengard)

Move Phase: In my mind, the biggest thing right now is to slow down the beasts until we make it to the center. I don't want to, but I can technically win so long as I have three times as many at the center when the game ends, so I'll feed him models, kill an eagle or two, and try to break as quickly as possible.

So Lurtz and a few of the uruks charge the eagle again, I try to tie up the others, but my uruk doesn't pass his Courage test to hold down Beorn, so he's free to move. Beorn opts to pull Lurtz out of the fight with the eagle (which is bad), and things are looking dire.

Shoot Phase: No shooting again, so we move on to the Fight Phase.

Fight Phase: In the Fight Phase I call a Heroic Strike with Lurtz, naturally, and I up my Fight Value from 5 to 7 (still not enough to beat Beorn - come on, Lurtz!). Lurtz loses, as you can expect, and I get lucky as the bear hug only deals 1 wound past Fate. The eagles tear up, and we're starting to lose guys on that side faster than I'd like.

Round 4 (Priority: Radagast's Alliance)

Move Phase: Lurtz decides to call a Heroic Move (3/3M) so that we can at least take away the charge bonus from the eagles, and Ugluk calls a Heroic March (1/3M) to insure that we get in and past the center objective. One of the ballistas is getting into position now, so we're hopeful that we will get in a shot or two in the following rounds.

Shoot Phase: No shooting this turn, so we move to the Fight Phase.

Fight Phase: In the Fight Phase the monsters tear up: we lose all of the fights, lose a number of guys, and Lurtz falls (which is not surprising, as he was out of Might and only had 2 Wounds). As we head into Round 5, the writing is on the wall: the monsters are coming.

Round 5 (Priority: Radagast's Alliance)

Move Phase: The monsters are finishing off what remains near the beach (which unfortunately includes my banner), and one of the eagles starts coming toward us. The ballista is in position, though, so we'll try to clip him as he approaches.

Shoot Phase: In the Shoot Phase we get a shot off! The ballista takes a shot, and...misses. This...could be bad.

Fight Phase: In the Fight Phase, amazingly, my shielding orc wins against Beorn! We might yet hold him up just a little longer. We lose the banner, though, and the eagle takes out the warrior he charged, just as Ugluk and his team arrive, ready to fight.

Round 6 (Priority: Isengard)

Move Phase: We charge the approaching eagle in the center, and do our best just to buy time near the shore. With Ugluk and two ferals in the mix, hopefully we'll be able to win the fight and crack the eagle in 1-2 turns before the rest of the monsters arrive.

Shoot Phase: No shots this turn, as it's too dangerous to our troops to fire into combat.

Fight Phase: Ugluk calls a Heroic Strike (2/3M), gets up to Fight 10, we win the fight against the eagle, and we put 2 wounds on the eagle (not bad). Beorn hurls, and yeah - we're wrecked at the shore. We are also very close to breaking, so hopefully the game will end quickly once we do, ideally after we kill the eagles.

Round 7 (Priority: Isengard)

Move Phase: We got really lucky here, as we need to take the charge bonuses from the eagles. Ugluk and the rest of the gang pass all of their Courage Tests, and we are poised to stop them here.

Shoot Phase: No shooting, as it's not safe for us to shoot.

Fight Phase: Ugluk calls a Heroic Strike (3/3M), gets up to Fight 8 (which is good enough), and we win the fight. Our 8 attacks go up to 16 dice to wound, looking for a single 6, and we don't get a single one. Wow. Just wow. Oh well.

The other eagle wins as does Beorn, they kill everything, and we are broken by the end of the round.

End Phase: We rolled to see if the game ends, and we rolled a 1, so the game ended.

SCORING: As we looked at the points, the final score was a 7-5 Minor Victory for Isengard. We only won because of numbers near the center, but the strategy is reliable, and it worked out. Had this gone on for 1-2 more turns we might have been in serious trouble, but as it worked out I really can't complain.

I really enjoyed fighting this army: it's just so different from a conventional army, and Strider and Dronak were great opponents. Beorn is hard to wound, and while the army is small it is very hard to hold down and can move very quickly. I'd definitely look into running something like this in the future.

Conclusion

Following this fight I was in 3rd: there were two Major Victories, placing me behind Tiberius's Lothlorien army and Rythbryt's Holy Northern Alliance army (Lake-Town + White Council + Radagast's Alliance). Round 2 will be against Red Jacket's Rohan force, which should be exciting. See you next week!

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"Trivial hurts, tiny human accidents," said Firenze, as his hooves thudded over the mossy floor.  "These are no more significant than the scurrying of ants to the wide universe, and are unaffected by planetary movements." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix