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 quick reminder, this was an escalation tournament, so while Game 1 sported a 450 point list, this match had the following 600 point list:
Warband 1
Lurtz with Shield (Army Leader)
1 Uruk Scout with Banner and Shield
2 Feral Uruk-Hai
2 Orc Warriors with Shield/Spear
4 Uruk Scouts with Shields
Warband 2
Ugluk
2 Feral Uruk-Hai
2 Orc Warriors with Shield/Spear
4 Uruk Scouts with Shields
Warband 3
Mauhur
2 Feral Uruk-Hai
1 Orc Warrior with Shield/Spear
4 Uruk Scuots with Shields
Warband 4
Isengard Assault Ballista with Siege Veteran
Warband 5
Isengard Assault Ballista with Siege Veteran
TOTAL: 31 models, 600pts, 10 Might
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. For this match, I got to fight a conventional army of "combined arms" Rohan, with a mix of cavalry and infantry sporting some of the best of Rohan's heroes.
Game 2: To the Death (Opponent: Red Jacket)
Red Jacket has always been one of my favorite opponents in wargames, as we are both very laidback, trust each other when it comes to calling In the Ways and banner radiuses, and I don't think either of us have our hearts set on winning the tournament, so we're cool no matter how the match goes. And as it happens, this one was a nail biter.
His army list is below:
Rohan
Warband 1
Eomer with Sword, Armored Horse, Heavy Armor, Throwing Spears, and Shield (Army Leader)
1 Warrior of Rohan with Axe, Throwing Spears, Shield, and Banner
1 Helminga with Axes, Shields, and Throwing Spears
11 Warriors of Rohan with Axes and Shields
Warband 2
Grimbold
1 Warrior of Rohan with Axe, Throwing Spears, Shield, and Banner
11 Helmingas with Axes, Shields, and Throwing Spears
Warband 3
Erkenbrand on Horse
1 Rider of Rohan
3 Rohan Royal Guards with Horses and Spears
Total: 600 pts, 32 Models, 9 Might
At 750pts the army added a host of additional riders, giving him high numbers (I think the largest army at the tournament, though it's possible that Rythbryt's Lake-Town alliance was bigger), good mobility, and diversified killing power.
I always have fears going into a match against Rohan cavalry. Not only are Rohan heroes generally better than Isengard heroes (which makes sense, as they cost more), but the charge bonus makes killing uruks very easy. The presence of Helmingas made this even more true, as now infantry can use Piercing Strike to wound on 4s. Add onto this throwing weapons galore and on models that can move farther than us, and you have a skirmish force that can take apart uruks with relative ease.
Strategy: My plan, since I don't need to be at a specific point on the map, is pretty straightforward: turtle up, let him come to me, and then pour into him after having whittled away at him with the ballistas. If we can unhorse a hero or two, still better. If we can pluck some Fate off of heroes, that's good enough too. But the big thing is going to be getting his numbers down and then pushing hard into the ranks to take advantage of my Fight 4. And ideally we keep the banner alive as well.
Round 1 (Priority: Isengard)
(Sorry - was too jittery and engaged, so I didn't snap a picture)
Move Phase: Red Jacket begins moving toward us (as he has basically no bows in the army), and that's when he realized that we were going to turtle in the back on our little hobbit smial. I didn't move at all, and we prepared to fire!
Shoot Phase: In the Shoot Phase both ballistas miss - it may just be one of those games, but that's okay. It's early, and he's moving up slowly behind terrain.
Fight Phase: With no fighting, we go into Round 2.
Round 2 (Priority: Isengard)
Move Phase: More of the same this turn: Rohan moves up carefully behind cover, and we move out slightly to prepare for the onslaught, but hang back to let the siege weapons (and Lurtz, our hidden attacker in the front line) have their day.
Shoot Phase: In the Shoot Phase one of the ballistas kills a Warrior of Rohan, but otherwise nothing happens.
Fight Phase: With no fights, we move to Round 3.
Round 3 (Priority: Rohan)
Move Phase: As Rohan continues to move up, Eomer starts going wide and takes cover behind trees to protect himself from the artillery. That's fine - it gives us a chance to maybe engage the front lines before he can arrive.
Shoot Phase: The ballistas don't do much, but Lurtz sneaks a wound onto Grimbold. Grimbold rolls a 1 on his Fate roll, so he suffers a wound and is down to 1 Wound remaining (1/1F, 1/2W). Excellent.
Fight Phase: No fights yet, so we move on to Round 4.
Round 4 (Priority: Isengard)
Move Phase: We hang back, waiting for them to come. Rohan moves up to throwing weapon range, so we'll see how their shooting goes (I'm not too concerned, as they will be hitting on a 5+).
Shoot Phase: We take out a few more of them, and then surprisingly he landed a wound on both Ugluk and Mauhur with his throwing weapons. They both pass their Fate rolls, but that means we have no Fate left on two of our heroes.
Fight Phase: Still no fights, but those are coming soon.
Round 5 (Priority: Rohan)
Move Phase: Red Jacket decided, since he was c. 8" away from us, to just stand and throw, so I opted to come at him. What I didn't do (and should have done) is charge with Mauhur against Erkenbrand or one of the horsemen, as he had the 8" distance and I just plain forgot to charge with him. That was a mistake. But otherwise we've setup the lines to be pretty decent for the upcoming melee.
Shoot Phase: In the Shoot Phase we got really lucky: not too many wounds, considering the 4+ Shoot on so many warriors. One of the few wounds that does land, though, is against Mauhur, who is now standing on 1 Wound remaining (1/2W). Oof.
Fight Phase: No fights this turn, but it's almost a guarantee for next turn.
Round 6 (Priority: Rohan)
Move Phase: This is where things get bloody. Ugluk calls a Heroic Move (1/3M, so that we can hold down the cavalry and blunt a lot of the throwing weapons), there's no counter-call, and we move in. One of the mounted Royal Guards kills an orc spearman with his throwing spear, and then careens into the fray.
Shoot Phase: Not much happens in the Shoot Phase; a few guys die, but nothing really earthshaking.
Fight Phase: A lot happened here: Heroic Combats were called by Eomer (1/3M), Ugluk (2/3M), Lurtz (1/3M), and Grimbold (1/3M), and Isengard won the roll-off to go first. Lurtz wins his combat but cannot wound the one guy he's against, and that proved fatal, as it meant Eomer was free to roam, won his fight, and threw himself into the fights around the banner.
Ugluk won his fight and got into combat with the men protecting the banner on his flank, and Grimbold cleared through the guy he was on. As the rest of the fights went down, it was brutal: lots of carnage on both sides. By the end of the Fight Phase, I was 2 away from break, and he was 5 away from break.
Erkenbrand and one of his boys are also running down the throat of my siege teams, so that's exciting.
Round 7 (Priority: Rohan)
(I am so sorry - things were moving fast and there's no picture here)
Move Phase: Ugluk opts to call a Heroic Move (3/3M) so we can take away charge and throwing weapon options (and thankfully was able to tag Eomer, so at least the big man isn't charging this turn). We are running out of guys, but if we can get the banners and wound Eomer we might just pull this off.
One of the ballista crews is engaged now, so we're down to one ballista shooting.
Shoot Phase: On the note about the one remaining ballista, he misses the banner, so that's unfortunate, but oh well.
Fight Phase: In the Fight Phase the vast amount of killing just keeps going - both armies are broken, the lines are just a mess, and we still have a rogue rider in the back with our siege crews. Lurtz is also wounded, so that's more points for Rohan in this scenario, and Mauhur is slain.
End Phase: We rolled to see whether the match would end and rolled a 5. We keep going. (EDIT: As Tournament Director, I didn't realize the players rolled for the game to end after break - this game is supposed to go to quarter. My bad for not checking in with them - I was fighting for my life on a different table. ~Tiberius).
Round 8 (Priority: Rohan)
Move Phase: Rohan charges (as we're out of Might), and it's devastating: good use of throwing weapons, lots of good charges, and the other siege crew is tagged.
Shoot Phase: No shooting, so we move to the Fight Phase.
Fight Phase: As you can imagine, the carnage continues: both of us take more losses, but neither has reached a quarter yet. Amazingly Lurtz won against Eomer but failed to wound him past Fate (2/3F).
End Phase: We rolled to see whether the game ends and rolled a 2, ending the game.
SCORING: After calculating everything, the final score is a 3-6 Major Loss for Isengard.
Looking back on this fight, in truth, I wouldn't change much - getting in that charge with Mauhur to thin out some of the cav would have been good, but honestly it comes down to Red Jacket playing an A+ game, holding the line, and using his heroes effectively. I really enjoyed this fight (even though my force got pretty battered all around), and am really glad I got to face Red Jacket in the tournament.
Conclusion
Following this fight I dropped to 5th, sitting behind everyone except Black Prince (who drew a hard schedule, having to face Strider and Dronak's army in Round 2, and Rythbryt's Holy Northern Alliance in Round 1). Round 3 puts me against Tiberius's Lothlorien army, which is not a great match-up for Fog of War, but we'll see how it goes. See you next week!
Watching the stars,
Centaur
"We watch the skies for the great tides of evil or change that are sometimes marked there." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
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