Hey Reader!
Welcome back to the blog! This is the last post in my TMAT Grand Tournament 2021 series, and I hope you've enjoyed following me on this journey.
As we came to Round 3, I was sitting in 5th, facing off against Tiberius who was...I believe #3 at this point behind Rythbryt and the Strider/Dronak team. Walking into this fight I knew this one was going to be tricky, as Fog of War requires you to get to an objective on the other side of the board, kill a pre-selected enemy hero, rewards you for breaking the enemy army, all while keeping one of your preselected heroes from being killed, and against Tiberius's Lorien force (which had over 30 ranged weapons), this was going to be an uphill battle.
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. At 750pts, I had the following force:
Warband 1
Lurtz with Shield (Army Leader)
1 Uruk Scout with Banner and Shield
2 Feral Uruk-Hai
3 Orc Warriors with Shield/Spear
5 Uruk Scouts with Shields
Warband 2
Ugluk
2 Feral Uruk-Hai
3 Orc Warriors with Shield/Spear
5 Uruk Scouts with Shields
Warband 3
Mauhur
2 Feral Uruk-Hai
2 Orc Warriors with Shield/Spear
5 Uruk Scouts with Shields
Warband 4
Uruk Shaman with Armor
1 Feral Uruk-Hai
1 Orc Warrior with Shield/Spear
3 Uruk Scouts with Shields
Warband 5
Isengard Assault Ballista with Siege Veteran
Warband 6
Isengard Assault Ballista with Siege Veteran
TOTAL: 44 models, 449pts, 12 Might
Game 3: Fog of War (Opponent: Tiberius)
Tiberius has a great army list - lots of shooting, Blinding Light to protect from archery, cavalry (including a mounted F6 captain), and of course elven-made weapons for winning ties against all of my heroes. Add onto this the ability to immobilize heroes with magic and restore all expended Fate Points on a hero within 6" of the Mirror, and oof: killing heroes is going to be very hard, getting to objectives is going to be hard, and keeping them from getting to objectives is going to be hard. And that...is most of the Victory Points for this scenario.
His army list is below:
Lothlorien
Warband 1
Galadriel, Lady of Lothlorien with The Mirror of Galadriel (Army Leader)
3 Wood Elf Warriors with Throwing Daggers
1 Wood Elf Warrior with Elf Bow
7 Wood Elf Warriors with Throwing Daggers and Wood Elf Spears
Warband 2
Haldir with Heavy Armor and Elf Bow
7 Wood Elf Warriors with Elf Bows
1 Wood Elf Warrior with Elf Bow, Wood Elf Spear, and Banner
3 Wood Elf Warriors with Throwing Daggers and Wood Elf Spears
Warband 3
Galadhrim Captain with Horse, Elf Bow, and Shield
3 Wood Elf Warriors with Throwing Daggers
6 Wood Elf Warriors with Throwing Daggers and Wood Elf Spears
3 Galadhrim Knights with Shields and Elf Bows
Total: 750 pts, 3 Models, 8 Might
This is going to be tough. Really tough. Stopping the cavalry will require me to pluck a few off with ranged attacks before we close to melee, and then there's a good chance that, even if they don't charge, they will win in combat against us due to a high Fight Value. This means stopping him from reaching his objective, let alone outnumbering him at it, will be hard while still trying to outnumber him at my objective.
Strategy: My plan is kind of upside down, but absolutely necessary when fighting Lorien: we are going to intentionally suffer brutal losses to archery to break quickly. I will send a few guys to various places, force the archery to guess which objective is mine, and then land a few people at our objective just as we break. And then we hope that we roll a 1-2 to end the game quickly before we lose everyone at our objective, :P
For the scenario, I chose to kill the Galadrhim Captain, as he can hide Haldir and Galadriel in the Blinding Light, so the captain will be the easiest to kill. I chose to keep the metal ballista siege veteran alive, as I can put him near the edge of the map and screen him with Ugluk's troops to keep the elves off of him. And for the terrain piece, I went back and forth, but I opted to choose the wooded terrain piece here:
I suspect that he will want to kill either the shaman or one of the ballista siege veterans (depending on where he wants to send his cavalry), and then he will likely select a wooded terrain piece as he gets Woodland Creature. He will opt to keep Haldir alive, as he can hide him in the Blinding Light, and that's likely points in the bucket for him, as I don't think I can break the "gun line" with my army.
In the words of Caesar, "Alea iacta est" - the die is cast. We go to war!
Round 1 (Priority: Isengard)
Move Phase: We move up, and I cast Fury (not channeled) successfully (1/3W). Galadriel successfully channels Blinding Light (1/3M, 1/6W + Free Will), and the elves basically scoot forward a shy bit with the cavalry screening to the side. Either he's on to me, thinks he can hold down Ugluk's boys without his cav, or his objective is on my right flank. We will see what happens.
Shoot Phase: In the Shoot Phase the ballistas amazingly hit and wound someone through the blinding light, so that was unexpected! In exchange we lost a few uruks to the elven shooting, and Haldir successfully puts a wound on Lurtz, so that's less than ideal, but at least the match doesn't give you points for wounding the enemy army leader, so we're not coughing up points yet.
Fight Phase: No fights this round, so we move on to Turn 2.
Round 2 (Priority: Isengard)
Move Phase: We continue to move up, and the elves begin to evade, halting their forward advance with the gun line, while a group of the elves peel off to meet Ugluk's men on the far side (and deftly using the rocks for cover against the ballistas). The elven cavalry continue to maneuver past the trees, moving outside of the Blinding Light range.
Shoot Phase: The ballistas successfully unhorse the Galadhrim captain, and put a wound on him which is blocked by Fate (1/1F and 1/2M to pass the Fate roll), so that is exciting! In the rest of the Shoot Phase the elves slaughter us, and Haldir spends a Might Point (1/3M) to kill two uruks this turn.
Fight Phase: Still no fights, so we move to Turn 3.
Round 3 (Priority: Isengard)
(Sorry - no picture here as things were moving fast)
Move Phase: Since Tiberius wanted his cavalry to move to safety beyond the trees, the Galadhrim Captain calls a Heroic March (2/2M) so that he can stand up and move 4.5" forward, giving his cavalry the ability to move 6" away from him to a safer vantage point behind the trees. They are also able to get in throwing weapon range of us as we cruise around the side, sheltered for the most part from the Gun Line but not from the knives coming our way. Galadriel and the Gun Line do the "3 Inch Scoot and Shoot" that you should do with this kind of army, and we brace to take yet more casualties. After the match, Tiberius realized he should have regrown the Fate Point on the Captain with Galadriel's Blessing of the Valar magical power (as he was still in range), but in the moment it was forgotten.
Shoot Phase: In the Shoot Phase the ballistas are able to hit and kill the Galadhrim Captain, so that's points for me (shhh, don't tell Tiberius)! He responds by just mowing down more of my men, including my banner, which puts us down quite a few guys in the center.
If that weren't enough, he also puts a wound past Fate on Mauhur (1/1F, 1/2W) as Mauhur rolls a 1 on his Fate roll.
Fight Phase: Still no fights, but we should have some next turn. Fell deeds await (wait, wrong army)...
Round 4 (Priority: Lothlorien)
Move Phase: And we're in combat! Mauhur calls a Heroic Move (1/2M) so that we can engage him before he chucks throwing daggers and charging horses at us, and we're able to engage most everyone on the right flank. If he's going that way with this horses to get to an objective, we might be able to keep him from getting there.
Shoot Phase: In the Shoot Phase it's more of the same, with us getting mauled by the archery, and we do get an elf archer in return with the ballistas on the left flank near Ugluk.
Fight Phase: In the Fight Phase both Ugluk (1/3M) and Mauhur (2/2M) call Heroic Combats, and they both win and charge other elves. Mauhur then proceeds to FLUB his second attack, so the horse he engaged gets away. We trade blows with me losing more men up there, but we still barely outnumber them over here with Lurtz's band coming up to join (or at least what's left of it).
On the other side, Ugluk's men are heavily engaged but making progress: we chew through a few more elves, and seem to have this side decently in-hand.
Round 5 (Priority: Lothlorien)
Move Phase: I really don't want to get hit with throwing weapons, so Ugluk calls a Heroic Move on the left flank (2/3M). I don't really have well-placed Might on the right flank, so I just have to weather it. Ugluk and his boys wrap around the elves, and we get some good fights lined up on that side.
On the right side Galadriel casts Immobilize on Mauhur (2/6W + Free Will) and gets a 4, which Mauhur resists on a 5 (so 1/1W and won't be able to resist magic for the rest of the game). The rest just pile in, with a few cavalry starting to head toward my side of the board. It will be up to Lurtz and what's left of his warband to stop them, as I just assume the ballistas won't be that lucky...
Shoot Phase: Talking about luck in the Shoot Phase, the elves have a lot of it, killing a feral, and uruk scout, and orc, and pluck off the Fate Point from the shaman (1/1F), so that's exciting. The ballistas miss the cavalry, so our opportunity to unhorse them is probably gone.
Fight Phase: Ugluk calls a Heroic Combat (3/3M) and loses, and not only does he lose, but he suffers a wound after botching his Fate roll (1/1F, 1/2W), so he's sitting on 1 wound left. That...was unexpected, and could be really bad. The rest of the fighting on that side goes pretty well (though we only kill one elf), and we're able to hold our own, but we'll see what happens.
On the right flank a couple of elves die, two of our ferals are now prone thanks to charging cavalry, and the big thing is that stopping these horses is going to be an issue if we still want to try to hold the woods.
Round 6 (Priority: Isengard)
Move Phase: We engage hard, catching the cavalry with Lurtz and his boys, and rushing the cavalry that remain up top so that we can at least protect some of our characters from the Gun Line that is moving our way. Galadriel is able to cast Command on one of the orcs (3/6W + Free Will), and she pulls him closer so that the elves can shoot him to death.
Shoot Phase: Turns out it works, and the orc is mowed down. This also puts me at like 3 away from break, so when the feral passed his Oblivious to Pain save on a 6, I was quite delighted. The ballistas fail to hit, and we move to the Fight Phase.
Fight Phase: Lurtz calls a Heroic Combat (1/3M as he's finally doing something), kills the knight, and joins the feral in the fight. We then proceed to lose the fight (5 dice against his 1, and believe it or not we flubbed the whole thing), and while the knight does a wound, we save that wound with Oblivious to Pain as well (crazy - shouldn't have happened).
On the left flank Ugluk and his boys do really well - we've basically mopped up the elves here, which means we can start setting up guys for the, "Hey - shoot at us because you think we're claiming objectives" maneuver we can make on the next turn.
Round 7 (Priority: Isengard)
Move Phase: We are getting very lucky with priority, as we would likely be quite dead if we hadn't gotten it this many times so far. We move up, putting guys in places where they can fake objectives on the left flank, and consolidating our position on the right as the Gun Line starts swinging toward us. Galadriel casts Immobilize on a feral (Free Will only), and she is still protecting basically half the army in the Blinding Light radius.
Shoot Phase: Against all odds, not only do both of the ballistas hit, but with one of them spending 1/1 Might, they both wound! So there's two more kills for us, bringing Tiberius close to breaking. The elves flub their rolls for reasons that defy reason, and we move into the Fight Phase.
Fight Phase: Lurtz calls a Heroic Combat (2/3M) so that I can get him up and through to help up top because the rest of Lorien - and a near mint condition Haldir - are upon us. We are able to finish off the knights, and this side of the board is looking clean just as a massive wave of elves is about to descend.
On the other side Ugluk's boys polish off the last of the elves, giving us room to bring them all the way across the map, mostly across open terrain to help us on the other side, save for the guys we're going to sneak around to different places to try to keep his archery busy.
End Phase: And in an amazing turn of events that I never expected, Lorien broke first after losing this model. I had expected that I'd be the first shredded, but I'm still not broken. So I guess...maybe see if I can keep my guys alive and not break? But unlikely as I put my men out as tempting targets with no cover, so that's probably not going to happen. We rolled to see if the game ended, and it did not, so we continue.
Round 8 (Priority: Lothlorien)
Move Phase: The elves rush into us, they successfully kill a feral with their throwing weapons, and Ugluk's boys start racing across the field, drawing fire as they go. Galadriel also casts Immobilize on Mauhur (4/6W + Free Will + 2/3M) and gets it off with the help of Might, and so Mauhur will be doing no damage this turn.
Shoot Phase: The elves are able to take out an uruk, but otherwise there's a lot more missing this turn than you'd expect from the math.
Fight Phase: Fights continue (sorry for no picture - was too into the moment to stop for a photo), but a few more elves die, with nothing really to report (other than that Mauhur is miraculously still alive).
End Phase: Amazingly I am still not broken, and we rolled to see if the game ended. It did not, so we continue.
Round 9 (Priority: Lothlorien)
Move Phase: The elves charge us, we continue to race to aid Lurtz and his boys, and I believe Galadriel tries to cast Immobilize on just the free dice and it doesn't go off, as I don't have a note about magic in my notes from the battle.
Shoot Phase: In the Shoot Phase the elves kill one of the uruks, so our reinforcements continue to grow fewer and fewer, but we are still, somehow, not broken (by like 1 at this point).
On the flip side, the ballistas both hit past Blinding Light and both wound, so that's some useful kills right there! Definitely didn't count on them, but I'll take them.
Fight Phase: Okay, so here things got messy, so I should explain what's happening. Haldir, having charged a feral, calls a Heroic Combat (2/3M). Lurtz, not wanting to sacrifice Mauhur, also calls a Heroic Combat (3/3M), which is really dangerous, but whatcha gonna do? Haldir wins the roll-off, kills the feral, and goes into Lurtz's fight to save his elf friend. Lurtz's fight then resolves, and somehow I not only win the fight, but I kill Haldir and the other guy, allowing Lurtz to continue moving though Haldir does a wound to Lurtz as he dies, bringing him to 2/3 Wounds (so only 1 left). So that was a harrowing way to start the round, but turned out better than I could have hoped.
As the fighting continues a few more people fall, but not much.
End Phase: I believe I am still not broken (by a hair), and we roll to see if the game continues. It does, and we move on to Round 10 (which I was not expecting to reach in this game).
Round 10 (Priority: Lothlorien)
Move Phase: To save Mauhur (and my chances of holding this objective) I call a Heroic Move (1/1M) on the shaman as he's the only guy with Might still left on my side of the board (beyond the one siege veteran), and we are able to charge a lot of the elves, consolidating our position in the trees.
Shoot Phase: We lost no one in the Shoot Phase, amazingly, and also hit no one in return, so we moved into the Fight Phase.
Fight Phase: And then in the Fight Phase, since we still have heroes rocking around, we are able to kill 4 of the elves, and while I think we might have done 1 Wound to Galadriel she easily blocks it with Fate and restores the Fate to herself, so nothing really going on there. We do lose a guy in the process though, so we are now broken as well.
End Phase: We rolled to see if the game ended, and it did not. We continue.
Round 11 (Priority: Isengard)
Move Phase: So I get to start by Courage testing for my orcs, and thankfully the only one still left is near Ugluk, who passes his test to keep the men in line. Ugluk and his men are getting close, and we continue to pour into the elves near the trees.
Shoot Phase: There isn't really any shooting this round, so we move into the Fight Phase.
Fight Phase: We kill a few more elves, they are still unable to wound Mauhur or Lurtz (who are both down to 1 wound remaining), and things are looking on the up and up for us.
End Phase: We rolled to see if the game ended and it did not end, so we continue.
Round 12 (Priority: Lothlorien)
Move Phase: Not wanting to be tied up, Galadriel drops Blinding Light to cast Command (6/6W + Free Will) on the feral, and gets it off, moving him into the middle of nowhere. An elf with a throwing weapon charges Mauhur, hits him, but fails to wound (which is when I began to realize that this is the hero that Tiberius wanted to kill this game - I am one lucky dude, because he should have been hit with several throwing weapons already this game).
Shoot Phase: Nothing really in the Shoot Phase other than that I shoot at the Mirror and proceed to miss with both ballistas. That would be nice to get off the table, but alas.
Fight Phase: In the Fight Phase Lurtz kills someone, Mauhur loses, and is miraculously not wounded.
End Phase: We keep rolling (and this point we only have like 4 mins left on the clock), and the game does not end. So we go into one final round, as time will run out after this.
Round 13 (Priority: Isengard)
Move Phase: We Courage test for the last of the orcs and he flees, so we lose another guy, but otherwise everything goes our way. The shaman casts Transfix on Galadriel (2/3W) and gets it off on a 6, which is not blocked, so we can guarantee she does not get the Heroic Defense up.
Shoot Phase: We shoot at the mirror but we miss, so nothing happens.
Fight Phase: No need for a picture on this one - we kill the elf with the banner with Lurtz, aren't able to polish off Galadriel, and the fights come to an end.
End Phase: With time expired, the game ends.
SCORING: As we calculated up the points, since all of my heroes were hanging on with 1 Wound each, and only my models were present on the objective I sought, it was an 8-2 Major Victory for Isengard. This was not what I expected going into this match, but I will take it.
I'm not gonna lie: I think Tiberius got the raw end of a lot of fights. A lot of rolls didn't go his way that should have, but sometimes the game is like that. I don't see much he could have done differently (as I got really lucky in killing so many of his cav before he came close to his objective, was able to catch them without them getting the charge, etc.), but I definitely expected to lose my whole force in the woods, and somehow they held on. So fortune smiled on our army, and I'll take the win.
Conclusion
In the final standings, I came in 2nd at the tournament just ahead of Strider and Dronak, and behind Rythbryt (who did not lose a single match the entire tournament - well done, buddy!), which is far better than I thought I'd do. I mentioned in my predictions for the tournament that I expected to finish in the middle of the pack, as I didn't have a good high-end hero, so finishing second is far better than I expected to do.
Really fun tournament, very well run, and really looking forward to the next one. Hope you all enjoyed the write-ups, and sorry for the missing pictures! I will try to do better next time.
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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