First Impressions: Harad and Umbar, Part I

Good morning gamers,

Today we're combining the factions of Umbar and Harad from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplement. When the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement arrives, we should have a lot more to talk about, but right now, we've got four profiles for each faction . . . that didn't seem like enough to justify two posts. As a result, we're lumping the "evil men who aren't Easterlings or Dunlendings or have big mouths" into one post today - but expect Parts 2 and 3 to come out when the new book hits the market.

Umbar Profiles: How Have They "Changed?"

We're starting off with Umbar which . . . really need some updating. :) In a way, the Corsairs can still play the game they've always been able to play - spam a bunch of cheapish F4 guys. Each Corsair unit isn't "cheap" exactly, but when you factor in the sub-60pt cost for their Heroes of Fortitude, you can get a full warband of guys for just 158-163pts. Copy/paste that a few times and you've got a horde list (52 models at 650pts).

The Corsairs of Umbar are only available in one list - the Corsair Fleets - which I assume is because they never actually made it to the Pelennor. We'll see if they're integrated into the new "Army of the Red Eye" list from the Armies of Middle-Earth, but I'm only a little optimistic. Their faction also got paired down in this supplement to four models which are . . . possibly still competent.

Top 10 Ringwraith Profile Rankings - Centaur Edition

Hey Reader!

As I was looking at army lists for this year's TMAT Grand Tournament, I took some time to just look over the named wraith profiles again (as it's been a little while since I've looked at any beyond the Witch-King), and I realized that there are some that I really like, and some that I really, really don't like. So as I sat on my couch, and having not used wraiths nearly as much as the rest of the admins, I thought, "Why not: how about we rank these for the fun of it, and see how off we are from he real wraith players," :P

So here you go! I've named this "Centaur Edition" because the other admins may disagree (again: out of all the admins, by far I run these the least), but as a quick note before we begin, here's what I'm ranking them on:

• We are not ranking Dol Goldur Ringwraiths, mostly because 1) none of them can be mounted, so I feel like there are dramatic disadvantages from a combat perspective for these wraiths that are hard to overcome, and 2) because the whole, "We have 2 wounds, but we might come back from the dead" side of things complicates calculations for resilience, so I figure we can do a separate ranking for those in the future if you're interested (as my favorite of those is probably last on most people's lists).
• We will consider the typical considerations (resilience, combat effectiveness, casting capabilities), but we will also look at efficiency: does the wraith offer options that are an effective/efficient use of their resources? Does their ability synergize well with what they are built to do? Because wraiths can look good on paper, but then find they are only good for 3-4 turns because they burn through Will Points too quickly.
• We will not be looking at cost - they are all more or less the same cost, and inasmuch as they are not, it just means more investment if you want the benefits. So yes, that probably gives the Witch-King the biggest boost, but that's fine for this ranking.

And before you tell me, "Centaur, (fill in the blank) wraith is actually great because I played them once and won a match because (insert ability that totally worked and did good stuff for you)," yes: that does happen. That is valid, and I'm glad it worked for you! But I'm judging these based on how likely I think they will be in general to provide you with success, not on one-off exceptional performances. 

And with that, let's get to the rankings!

2023 Hobby Bingo: Tiberius's Board

Good morning gamers,

Well, 2023 has been a year - and it's been full of hobby fun! With Fantasy Fellowships, the Minas Tirith board, several tournaments, and lots and lots and LOTS of Morannon Orcs, there's been a lot to keep me busy during my off nights. I haven't officially done the hobby bingo challenge before, though I've always looked at the boards and thought, "I should do that." Well, this year, I said, "Darn it, we're gonna do it this year" - and I am proud to say that it turned out pretty well. Let's have a look!

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

Row #1: Lots of New Models (and some movies and a tournament)

Our first square in the first row requires us to start a new army, and for me this year, that was easy: Corsairs of Umbar! Throwing weapons are my thing and these guys have them everywhere. I also had these models sitting around for a while, so I don't have all the guys I painted shown here because . . . well, I need a guy for another bingo box:

Box two is easy - watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Yes, I watch the extended cuts every year at least once, usually while I'm working on batch painting something or working on a terrain project. It took me longer than usual to watch them this year, since I had to catch up on a bunch of Star Wars shows, but I finished watching the extended editions of The Fellowship of the Ring on June 28th, The Two Towers on August 14th, and The Return of the King on September 9th.

Box three was checked off on June 24th when I attended our annual Grand Tournament - I got last place with a Quest of the Ringbearer Angmar army (you can read about my process of picking that list here and some thoughts on the scoring system - and a brief overview of my games - here).

Box 4 requires scenic bases for one of my armies and I decided to showcase my basing style for my Erebor Dwarves, as shown on Ori. The bases were done by painting white through a dryer sheet, then washing in black, then spot-highlighting in black, and then making piles of gold and emeralds from green glitter, PVA glue, and gold paint:

Finally, I needed to finish a Good army of at least 600 points. Because of the way Hobby Bingo works, I wanted to have a list that "just" reached 600pts (because I need elements of this project to cover multiple boxes, and you can't double-count a model) and since I spent quite a bit of time this year converting up Grim Hammers, Warriors of Erebor, and Thorin's Company heads into a War of the Ring era Erebor Reclaimed list, I figured I'd grab over 600 points from them. You can see here Thorin III Stonehelm, Dwalin, Bifur, Bofur, Nori, Dori, Gloin, and 7 converted Iron Hills Dwarves with shields and spears:

Gondor At War Inspired Lists: The Corsairs of Umbar Revisited

Good morning gamers,

We're almost done with this mini-series on how to take your Gondor at War collection and use it in Matched Play and today we look at one of the nastiest, shooty-est armies that Evil has to offer: the Corsairs of Umbar. A mix of light-defense horde models, high-defense shooting models, and throwing weapons on nearly every model (and Backstabbers - don't forget those Backstabbers if you keep your army bonus), this army can be a pain to deal with whether you're running a spam horde or a smaller, elite force. But while Corsair players have access to nearly all the models they'd usually want in their army, the limits on force construction imposed by Gondor at War's two missions that feature Corsairs leaves us with some interesting choices. Here are the models we can take:

• Dalamyr, Fleet Master of Umbar
• Delgamar, Gatemaster of Umbar
• 2 Corsair Captains with no additional gear
• 2 Corsair Bo'suns with no additional gear
• 12 Corsairs of Umbar with shields
• 12 Corsairs of Umbar with spears
• 12 Corsairs of Umbar with bows
• 12 Corsair Arbalesters
• 12 Corsair Reavers

That's a whopping 66 models - though bow limit makes it a still-impressive 61 models. What you're missing from a normal Corsair list is a) Hasharins as pinch-hitter heroes (though as I noted in the what-you-need-for-Gondor-at-War post, you could take the two Hasharins you get with Dalamyr and convert them up into Delgamar and Raza pretty easily if you want to save some money), b) Black Numenoreans for high-Defense Terror models, c) the Knight of Umbar (if you like the guy - I don't), and d) Black Numenorean Marshals (if you like these guys - I do).

We're also TECHNICALLY missing any gear options on the Captains and Bo'suns as listed above, but quite frankly, I'm not going to worry about that. Bo'suns probably don't NEED extra gear if they intend to stand around as banners, but having a spear for 1pt is always a good thing - and having a crossbow on either a Captain or a Bo'sun for 5pts is a really good deal. So . . . I'm going to ignore this constraint as we delve into the list - our first pure list of this series!

Mastering Magic: Precision Damage

Good morning gamers,

Today is our seventh post in our series on magic and we turn our attention to spells that do precision damage (that is, damage to a single target). While we've already covered Sorcerous Blast and area-of-effect spells, these spells require a lot of thought to use well - just plucking off a Wound here and there or sniping a random warrior could leave you drained by the end of the game without doing enough for the cost you pay. The spells we'll be covering today are the feared Chill Soul, the deceptively alluring Black Dart, the cool (mostly for Kardush) Flameburst, the very-much-hated Paralyze, and . . .

BANISHMENT!!!! Credit: Quora.com

As I was preparing this post, I didn't see a lot of places that needed pictures, so I've passed on them again. Call me lazy, I guess.

What Do These Spells Do?

Two of these spells do Wounds: Chill Soul does 1 Wound against whoever the target is (need to specify if the mount or rider is the target if the model is a cavalry model), while Banishment does 1 Wound against a target Spirit model. If Chill Soul is channelled, you add 6" of range to the spell, which means you'd only want to do this if you need that range (more on this later). Banishment moves from doing 1 Wound to doing D3 Wounds against your target. This could mean one-turn-killing many Spirit models in the game (even if they pass all their Fate). As has been discussed in previous posts, sometimes that D3 roll will still result in a single Wound - whatever.

Two of these spells do Strength-something hits: Flameburst does a Strength 6 hit (which is a pretty decent hit - any model in the game will be wounded on a single die, most warriors will be wounded on a 3+ or a 4+, heavily-armored troops and most combat-oriented heroes will be wounded on a 5+), while Black Dart deals a Strength 9 hit (which will wound most things on a 3+, really tough things on a 4+, and Sauron on a 5+). While you have to specify the mount or rider for Black Dart, Flameburst damages both mount and rider.

When channelled, the Black Dart deals D3 hits instead of one hit, which (again) means that sometimes your channel will do absolutely nothing because you will roll a 1 or 2 and end up doing 1 S9 hit. Flameburst, when channelled, adds Set Ablaze to the target (mount and rider), which deals an extra S9 hit and a S5 hit at the end of each turn until the model a) lies down and crawls (aka, chooses to be prone for a turn), b) walks through water (aka, risks drowning or is entering difficult terrain), or c) dies. This can be REALLY useful at forcing an enemy hero to step away from the fighting for a turn or two, but more importantly, this will make whoever you're facing think twice about whether their hero can just press through and kill stuff. 

Finally, Paralyze on its own doesn't do any damage, but functionally, models that are Paralyzed will take damage from whoever charges them. As we discussed in our podcast on evil spell-casters, when you choose to cast Paralyze, you need to make it count - charge that model with strong stuff, beat the model into a bloody pulp, and move on. Paralyze, at the moment, cannot be channeled - it's channelled version is cool, but not game-altering (each turn the model is Paralyzed, they take a S5 hit - this would be really good in some cases, but since most of the targets for Paralyze tend to be big models that you don't want to deal with, you probably aren't wounding on better than a 5+ each time).

The Bare Necessities, Part XXIII: The Corsairs of Umbar

Good morning gamers,

This is the final post for this volume of our series on list building - and we're ending it with an army that I've wanted to collect from the very beginning (just haven't settled on what I wanted it to look like): the Corsairs of Umbar. Corsairs are great troops - F4/4+ for most of their troops with throwing weapons on their most basic troops (Corsairs of Umbar) and their most basic captains (Corsair Captains and Corsair Bo'suns) AND their most killy captains (Dalamyr, Delgamar, and Hasharin). Throwing weapons are my thing - so naturally, I should own some of these guys. So what's the hold up, you ask?

The Corsairs of Umbar: Do You Need Allies (and how important is Heroic Strike when you have lots of throwing weapons)?

Corsairs have a pretty good army: 

• They've got options for cheap heroes (Captains/Bosuns cost under 60 points);
• They've got 3 Attack heroes (Dalamyr and Hasharin - who are Heroes of Valor in this list);
• They've got heavily-armored heroes (Black Numenorean Marshals - who can also be mounted on horses with lances);
• They've got crossbows/normal bows to supplement their throwing weapons; and
• They've got average-cost troops (8-10 points all-around).

What they don't have is what makes the list challenging:

• Most of their models don't have great Defense, capping out at D4 for warriros and D5 for heroes (if you don't include the Knight of Umbar, Black Numenoreans, Black Numenorean Marshals, and the pavises);
• Their 3 Attack heroes are strapped for Might (Hasharin have 1 Might, Dalamyr has 2 Might);
• Their heavily-armored troops can't take spears, so you're likely to have light troops in your army regardless of how you try to run it;
• Black Numenorean Marshals are the only fast/mounted models in this list;
• Your crossbows are great, but unlike crossbows in other armies, the models who carry them are only D3 when they finally get engaged;
• Their troops might be average cost, but that's because they predominantly have average stats (Strength 3 and Courage 3).

While I think having throwing weapons makes up for a lot of these weaknesses (of course I do, right?), not having fast troops is a big problem. Sure, you can March (Corsair Captains, Black Numenorean Marshals, and Corsair Bosuns can all March), but with as little Might as the Corsairs have in their list, I'm not inclined to rely on Marching. 

The question then becomes: how important is it to have fast troops? If that's important, then you need to look for allies (the Serpent Horde is a Historical Ally and has great cavalry options; Mordor is a Convenient Ally and has good cavalry options too).

But there's another question: since you only have Heroic Strike on two models (Dalamyr and Hasharin), how important is it to be able to call Heroic Strike? Most players use Strike as a means of contesting an enemy mega hero who has a higher Fight Value than you have - but if you can use your throwing daggers to shoot a friendly model that's been charged by a big hero (your Mega-Boromirs, King Aragorns, Gil-Galads, you get the picture), do you really need to have it in your army? I'm not convinced you do. Ergo, here's the list we have for today - it has exactly one specialized Heroic Action (and personally, I think it's the most important Heroic Action of all).

Throwing Weapon Theory: How to Make Them Work, Revisited

Good morning gamers!

In our last post, we looked at how shooting has changed in the new rules of the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game and what kinds of considerations you should think about when it comes to including archery in your army. In general, I think all armies benefit from having some kind of archery presence, but some definitely benefit more than others. While most armies have a limit of 33% of their models being able to carry bows, you can allow more of your army to contribute to shooting damage by including throwing weapons in your army (especially on your non-bow-armed models). That’s what we’ll be looking at today. This post revisits a topic we covered back in July 2015, for those who want to see what was written there . . .

How have throwing weapons changed?

There are three big changes that have come to throwing weapons since I got started playing the game back in September 2010. The first and foremost change is that the number of “throwing weapon types” has grown. While whips existed as a special rule and not a fully-fledged piece of gear, all other kinds of thrown weapons (be they daggers, axes, or spears) were the same – 6” range, Strength 3 hit. With the Hobbit Strategy Battle Game, a distinction between throwing spears (8” range) and all other kinds of throwing weapons (6” range) was added. This has been retained in the new rules, with some other throwing weapons (like whips) being canonized as gear items as well.

The second change is that unless you’re shooting your throwing weapon on the charge, you suffer the “scoot-and-shoot” penalty (see our last post for what this is). While only a small change to your To Hit roll, it makes running away from an assaulting force a bit less effective (which, in a game where 1 pip of difference a die can have huge consequences, is no small thing). Still, throwing weapons are still quite valuable despite this reduction – and the fact that you don’t suffer it when you charge means you should be charging into combat with these guys (because you might just get a lucky wound in!).

The third change (and perhaps the most nuanced of them) is the addition of Heroic March. When I did my last post, the Hobbit rules were introduced and Heroic March became a thing (but we didn’t adopt it in our gaming group until the new release). Heroic March allows infantry models to overcome the greatest problem with throwing weapons: getting extra movement to start the next round as close as possible to the enemy throwing weapon models. While Heroic March doesn’t allow you to charge anyone, the extra 3-5” of movement (which stacks with movement gained from a Drum, if your team can get one) is invaluable. Where Dwarf and Goblin teams were at a distinct disadvantage with 5” move against 6” throwing weapons, now they can clear 8” of ground in a single turn (which should be enough to stand just outside someone’s control zone OR make up ground if your opponent ran like mad away from you to buy himself more space). While this doesn’t make your soldiers more resilient against throwing weapons, it might take a turn or two less to close with them (which can be huge).

With these changes in mind, we’ll dive into what makes throwing weapons so great (and probably my favorite aspect of the MESBG game).

Using/Fight Spellcasters: Multi-Purpose Will Mages, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Today we continue our series of revisiting old posts and updating them for the new rules set. We recently revisited discussions on Combat Mages and Auxiliary Mages. In this post, we turn our discussion towards mages who use Will both for casting magic and for fighting/staying alive/other things. As a reminder, here’s our magic taxonomy:

• Multi-Purpose Will Mages: Anyone with the Will of Evil rule (or a similar rule) and has spells (who uses Will to cast magic AND stay alive…and possibly other things);
• Unlimited Mages: Anyone who gets "free Will," has spells that can be cast, and does not fall in the previous category;
• Combat Mages: Anyone with 2+ Attacks, has spells that can be cast, and does not fall in either of the previous two categories;
• Auxiliary Mages: Catch-all for everyone else, usually limited casting with some kind of immediate/lasting benefit to the army.

Multi-Purpose Will Mages: What’s New?

While we looked at Ringwraiths in the original version of this post, the actual list of magical users who qualify is much larger. Behold, 13 profiles that fit this taxonomy:

• Tom Bombadil & Goldberry (available in the Wanderers in the Wild list)
• The Witch-King of Angmar (available to Angmar, Barad-Dur, and Mordor)
• The Tainted/Dwimmerlaik (available to Angmar and Mordor)
• The Knight of Umbar (available to the Corsairs of Umbar and Mordor)
• Khamul the Easterling (available to the Easterlings and Mordor)
• The Betrayer (available to the Serpent Horde and Mordor)
• The Dark Marshal/Shadow Lord/Undying (available to Mordor)
• Ringwraiths (available to Barad-Dur and Mordor)
• The Necromancer of Dol Guldur (available to the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur)

While most of these models are Ringwraiths, there are several different spells that are available to some of these wraiths (and how difficult it is to cast said spells varies). So let’s get into it and start cracking on their strategy. For those who are keeping score at home, we’re also updating an old post I did during Riders in Black month where I went through each Ringwraith spell and talked about how to use it. Much of what was written there is still accurate today.

Before we dive into the spells themselves, let’s take a quick stop and talk about one other preliminary topic: apportioning your Will when there’s so much it can be used for.

A Pocket Full Of Power, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

A long time ago (almost seven years ago now), I put up a post on different allied contingents you could get from the White Council to add to a traditional force in order to compensate for weaknesses or just include some White Council characters into an existing army (in that case, I looked at Minas Tirith, though in the comments I noted that you’d get a more thematic feel from Rivendell or Mirkwood). Today, we’re coming back to this idea of allies from a slightly different tact:

Given the historical/convenient army restrictions of the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game, what are some heroes/warbands you can ally into your army that would compensate for some key weaknesses without being an overly-large burden on points?

We’ll be going beyond the White Council today, but I’d very much like to hear the allies you like to use. The requirements I’m providing for this post are that they can’t be more than half of your army’s point value (we’re playing 700-pts right now on TMAT, so for me that’s 350). I will note that the Forces of Evil will not show up prominently here, since most evil armies are Impossible Allies with each other (and so you suffer a LOT by spending points on models that won’t be able to call heroic actions/Stand Fasts that affect models from another contingent). That said, you will see some evil models here, though they may not trait as high as you want. Without further ado, here we go:

New Rules - Part IV: The Fallen Realms, Part I

Good morning gamers,

In our previous posts, we’ve talked about the general rules changes, and then walked through a few thoughts on the Mordor and Angmar/Moria army lists. Wrapping up our discussion of the armies of evil is the old Fallen Realms book, which include the armies from Isengard, Harad/Umbar, and the Eastern Kingdoms (now seven different lists). I’ve decided that trying to tackle seven armies in one go was going to be too overwhelming, so instead, we’re breaking the Fallen Realms up into two different discussions. Today we’ll focus on the Southron armies (Serpent Horde, Far Harad, Corsairs of Umbar), and next time we’ll conclude our discussion of Armies of Evil by tackling Isengard and the East. As mentioned in our previous posts, you should also check out Mik's Veni Vidi Vici blog for thoughts from the “experts” – though at the time of this writing, none of these lists have been reviewed yet.

1) The New Lists: The Serpent Horde, Far Harad, Corsairs of Umbar

Back in the Legions of Middle-Earth days, there were many different Harad lists – three of which were very similar to what we see in the book today. But there were other lists – a generic Umbar list that allowed you to run generic heroes crossing the Serpent Horde and Corsair armies, allowing for great pairings of cheap spears and high-Fight value skirmish troops.

With the new rules, while the lists have been broken out, the Serpent Horde gives you the unique benefit of being able to ally easily with more civs than any other evil faction. With three historical allies (Corsairs of Umbar, Far Harad, Mordor), the Serpent Horde has the greatest possibility for force diversity of any Army of Evil (and rivals most of the Armies of Good).

The draw-back is that while the Serpent Horde can ally with any one of these factions and retain their army bonus, none of these other nations can ally with the others, so getting a three or four faction alliance will result in none of your beloved army rules lasting. Still, if you’re planning on playing any of these civilizations, you don’t HAVE to be mono-focused in your army creation.

As far as Far Harad and the Corsairs are concerned, they’re not much changed and both can basically be run either mono-focused or with the Serpent Horde. As we’ll see in a bit, taking convenient allies with these civs is not a big deal, since their army bonuses are nice but not necessary for the team’s survival.

TMAT GT13 - Round 3 and parting thoughts

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more! As we return for one last recap post on TMAT Grand Tournament 2013. Round three of the tournament was as yet more bloody as, by now, players had settled into the format a bit better and were now jockeying for that one final push to the end.

Round 3, Board A: The Dwarves are for the Dwarves! vs: Fire from the East

Exhausted after their long travels, the dwarves return home to find enemies wandering their very halls! After enduring the mocking of Dol Amroth and the sting of the desert, by this point the dwarves had had their fill of haughty men. For their part, the Easterlings were looking to top off their haul of loot with mithril from the deeps. Balin swore to end the life of the easterling captain, and Shagrat was determined to test the mettle of the old  dwarf in battle. The clash of blade against heavy armor rang throughout the halls and both armies struggled around the arkenstone. While dwarven steel is legendary for its resilience, the armorers of the east proved to be of the highest caliber as well - neither army was able to find a significant advantage over the other. In the midst of the melee, Shagrat met Balin on the battlefield. As sword crossed with ancient axe, each recognized that the other had some hidden agenda at work. [Shagrat's oath succeeded, Balin's failed]. Grabbing a few crates of mithril armor, the Easterlings vanished into the darkness as the dwarves rallied around the banner of Erebor.

TMAT GT13 - Rounds 1 & 2

Welcome back for part two of our TMAT GT2013 recap (played Sat, Mar 9). All eight participants were assigned a number, reported to their respective boards and we kicked things off with:

Round 1, Board A: Isengard’s Outriders vs: Defenders of the Forest

The animosity between elves and dwarves is second only for their hatred of orc-folk. So much so that the elves of Lorien found need to abandon the sunlight for the darkness of dwarvern halls in order to face off against the pillaging Vrasku and his uruk horde. As both sides closed upon the chamber room that holds the Arkenstone, Vrasku claimed he would live to fight another day, and Celeborn swore to kill more than the foul uruk could. The dank air was filled with elven arrows and crossbow bolts, ricocheting off pillars and causing carnage on both sides. While the elves defended the Arkenstone mightily and prevented it from falling to enemy hands, it was at a very great cost. Celeborn himself had to be carried from the field of battle, grievously wounded, with his army decimated - the taunts of Vrasku and his army ringing in his ears [Isengard oath passed], and with the bodies of far too many of his elven kin pierced by crossbow bolts [Elven oath failed].

TMAT GT13: Tournament Recap

This past weekend the TMAT crew got together with a few other people we were able to rope in (after a flurry of practice games to get them up to speed) for our second annual TMAT Grand Tournament.

I'd have to say, I think this tournament probably had the most formidable series of armies to date. In any game setting, you get armies that your particular build is stronger against, and others you just hope to avoid. I think this year, most of us took a look around and just went "ick." We each had a list of opponents (containing most of the field) that we were really hoping not to draw against.  For a quick recap, we had the following participants for our third TMAT tournament:

Harad update: Corsairs, Watchers, Serpents and more!

So with TMAT GT 2013 just three short weeks away, the crafting benches have been in a flurry to get my army ready for the battlefield. My force contains a mixture of Corsair Reavers, Serpent Guard, Watchers of Karna, and warriors with both bows and spears. Guess how many of those my collection supported before posting my army? =P

As you can see from my post here, the Corsair Reavers had been converted, but that is about it. But now, after a couple weeks of effort, they stand ready to take the field!

To the Death: Uruk-Hai vs. Harad

Recently, the guys in the club got together for a fun, recreational pair of games to test our armies that we plan to take to the spring TMAT tournament. I was only able to stay for one game, but managed to remember my camera to chronicle the event. The game I got to play was against Zorro's famous Haradrim, but he was excited to try out his Reavers (WIP, see recent post here).

The Fist of Isengard: 600 points

Saruman the Colorful - 170 points [Army Leader]

18 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields - 180 points

7 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes - 70 points

3 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows - 33 points

Ally: Mauhur - 60 points

Ally: 6 Uruk Marauders with shields - 60 points

Ally: 3 Uruk Scouts with Orc bows - 27 points

39 units, 3 Orc bows + 3 crossbows, 2 heroes

The Golden Horde: 603 points

The Golden King of Abrakhan - 115 points [Army Leader]

11 Haradrim Warriors with bows and spears - 88 points

10 Serpent Guard - 80 points

8 Abrakhan Merchant Guards - 64 points

4 Watchers of Karna - 36 points

Ally: Dalamyr, Fleetmaster of Umbar - 100 points

Ally: 8 Corsair Reavers - 80 points

Ally: 4 Corsair Arbalesters - 40 points

47 units, 11 bows + 4 crossbows, 2 heroes

To fully appreciate this game, you need to know that we were trying out various kinds of scenarios for the upcoming Grand Tournament in the spring. Here's a quick look (and description) of the tables we were trying out:

Domination game, with parts of rivers on either side but a wide open space with some littered terrain for the center objective. This differs from the set-up at the recent Hunter's Red October tournament, which had a bridge in the middle as the objective. Tavros' Dol Amroth force fought against Glenstorm's "Chill of Angmar" army - brief recap in comments, one/both of you?

A variation of "reconnoiter," which involves attempting to escort diplomats from your board edge to the other instead of trying to get your own units across. Zorro and Glenstorm developed this scenario in preparation for the TMAT GT and the forces of Harad and Angmar faced off after I left.

Ah, the lush grounds of battle that hosted an epic To the Death between my Isengard army and the famed Southrons of Zorro. The twist to this scenario is that sitting on the hill is the "Arkenstone" (portrayed here by my Mirror of Galadriel). At the start of the Fight phase, the number of units from each army are counted up who are within 3" of the stone: the side with the most gains the benefit of a 6" banner from the stone. The opposing side (or both sides in the event of a tie) gains a 3" banner from the stone. This will be this battle report that we'll cover here.

Scoring for this game is as follows:

• Game-play is until one side is reduced to 25% of its starting force or 90 minutes elapses.
• 3 point if the enemy army is broken OR 5 points if the enemy army is broken and your force is unbroken;
• 2 points if the enemy army leader is slain.
• 1 point if you have a banner remaining at the end of the game. If you have a banner and your opponent has none, score 2 points.
• [Added scoring points] 3 points if the enemy army is reduced to 25% before the game ends.

We also experimented in this game with "oaths of battle": each army leader declared a separate objective it would attempt to achieve. If completed, this would provide additional points to its final tournament score. If both players achieved their oath, 1 battle point was scored. if only 1 achieved their oath, they scored 2 battle points. The oaths we had to choose from were:

• Blood-sworn Enemy: Choose an enemy hero - he is your arch enemy and they must die before the end of the game
• Future King: Your army leader must be alive at the end of the game, neither slain nor "heroically departed".
• Chivalry in battle: Your army leader must fight the enemy leader in close combat (not shielding) for at least one round and survive.
• Line in the Sand: Nominate a piece of terrain in your opponent’s deployment zone (or place a marker if there is no suitable terrain). Your leader must end its move within 3" of it at least once during the game.

Zorro chose the oath of killing Mauhur, while I declared I would keep Saruman alive. We alternated placing warbands (within 6" of the board edge on a 1-3 and within 12"on a 4-6) and the Uruks won the roll to go first.

---

Turn 1: Charge! (Priority - Uruk-Hai)

No pictures of this round, but a few things of note happened: first, Saruman successfully cast Terrifying Aura, so hopefully he won't be ganged on this game. In the Shoot phase, the famed archers of the Haradrim killed two Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields, while the crossbows who could shoot killed no one.

Kill count: Uruks 0/47, Haradrim 2/39.

---

Turn 2: The Fearless March (P - Harad)

The armies continue to move up against each other. One of the Serpent Guards on the hill decided to lie down while within range of the Arkenstone, so all of the Haradrim within 6" of the Archenstone benefit from a banner this turn (yeah, really useful) (hey, I thought there was a chance your marauders would close the gap!).

The Corsair Arbalesters, not to be outdone by their Haradrim allies, level their crossbows towards the Uruk-Hai ranks. In an impressive move, three of their quarrels find their targets and each takes down his target - two Uruks with shields and one with crossbow. The Haradrim attempt to pierce the armor of the Uruks but fail to cause a wound. The remaining Uruk archers respond by killing...nobody (great...just great...and ouch...).

Kill count: Uruks 0/47, Haradrim 5/39.

---

Turn 3: The White Wizard (P - tied, Uruks!)

Now within range of the enemy lines, Saruman unleashes a Sorcerous Blast on the enemy (free + 1/6W, 1/3M) and successfully killed both the targeted Watcher of Karna and a Haradrim archer, while knocking down an Abrakhan Guard and a Serpent Guard (it's a start...yaye first kills!) (hmm... that bloke is going to be problematic).

The rest of the Move Phase was spent forcing the armies towards each other and engaging everywhere. A Watcher of Karna mustered his resolve, vaulted over a set of rocks and engaged Saruman (I had hoped that he would get stuck on one side of the rocks, but the control zones of my Uruks were taken away...bummer) (+2 to courage for charging terrorizing models for the win!).

In the Shoot phase, a Corsair Arbalester killed one of my Uruk Scouts with Orc bow and once again, no one else did anything in the Shoot phase (come on guys, do something!).

In our first round of combat, things look pretty grim for the Uruks. Mauhur killed a Corsair Reaver (1/2M) on my left flank, but the Uruks lost all the other fights thanks largely to the Reavers. As a result, three Uruk Marauders were killed, as was one Uruk Warrior with shield. My lines are really messy, and there are still four Fight 5 units (3 Reavers and Dalamyr) and a banner alive on that flank...methinks this won't end well.

In the center, I manage to kill an Abrakhan Guard and a Watcher of Karna (yaye!), but am not able to wound in two other combats that I won. Luckily for me, my archer who was fighting two-on-one managed to not die, but unluckily for me, one of the Reavers killed an Uruk with shield. More unluckily for me, Saruman lost his bout with a Watcher of Karna, took two Wounds, and failed ALL. THREE. FATE. POINTS (3/3F, 2/3H). (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!) (Do we have a new head of the order here? I dub thee, Bane of the White Hand!). So, with 3 Fate gone and 2 of 3 Wounds dealt, my ability to fulfill my oath is looking pretty slim.

On the far side, a Reaver-Abrakhan team killed one of my Uruks with shields (not really a surprise, right?).

Kill count: Uruks 5/47, Haradrim 12/39. Three rounds in, and the Uruks are 8 units away from breaking, while the Haradrim are at a blissful 19 units away...yeah, I need a stroke of really good luck.

---

Turn 4: Smoke and Fire (P - Saruman uses his Palantir, Uruks)

Saruman's Palantir spawned a battle of Heroic Moves (Saruman and the Golden King): Saruman won the roll-off and unleashed yet another Sorcerous Blast, killing two guys (Corsair Reaver target and Serpent Guard) and knocking down a Reaver, who was promptly charged (free + 2/6W, 3/3M). With 4 kills totaling 35 points, I've still got a long way to go before I pay for Saruman's points. I'd like to get over to where his heroes are, but I kinda need to deal with the Watcher of Karna in front of me...

Charges got resolved as you see here: we noticed after we finished moving that we mixed up the movement (we moved my Heroic Move, then all the Haradrim - including the ones on the right flank who were outside the Golden King's range, then the rest of the Uruks), but we didn't want to go back and re-do it. Maybe a few of my guys on the right would be in slightly better positions, but not much would have changed considering how badly they are outnumbered.

In the Shoot phase, my Uruks continue to do nothing (what?), which makes me finally decide to take the "archers are swordsman" mantra to heart and prepare to just charge with them. The Haradrim  for their part, are not silent and kill two Uruk pikemen with a well-placed Haradrim arrow and a Corsair quarrel (man, I needed those). By the way, the Uruk with the green token is "transfixed" thanks to one of Dalamyr's smoke bombs in the Move phase (yeah, that's going to end well...).

To add insult to injury, Dalamyr calls a heroic combat (1/1M) and easily defeats the transfixed Uruk with shield he's fighting. He then charges into the rear of Mauhur, trapping the great Uruk captain (that's really, really, REALLY not good...) ("knife" to meet you Mauhur-ting).

The fights worked out as follows: Mauhur won his fight (2/2M) and succeeded in killing an astounding...nobody! (come on...) An Uruk Marauder was killed, as was a Corsair Reaver (yaye!), but elsewise, nothing else interesting happened here.

On the hill, Saruman and his helping Uruk archer won their fight, but neither were able to get the 4s required to kill the Watcher of Karna (you really thought you were going to kill Bane so easily?). Elsewhere on the hill, one Uruk was killed, as was the Corsair Reaver on the ground and an Abrakhan Guard (Go team!).

On the far side, things are not going well at all. I have one Uruk with shield out of the original 6 (lost two this round) and a handful of other guys trying to keep this element of the army at bay. I think it's safe to say that this flank has been rolled up (and the other flank isn't doing well either).

Kill count: Uruks 10/47, Haradrim 20/39. I'm broken and things are not looking good at all...this game's done, but we're pressing on because there's still time.

---

Turn 5: A Powerful Shot (P - Uruks again!)

Saruman passes his courage test (3/6W, score of 16),  thumbs his nose at the GK, and lets loose yet another Sorcerous Blast (free + 4/6W) and this time kills the targeted Serpent Guard and kills another Serpent Guard and a Haradrim archer. A third Serpent Guard and an Abrakhan Guard were knocked down and almost wounded, but not quite. 7 kills with SB and 59 points claimed...certainly helping to make up for my complete lack of archery kills. His Stand Fast covers everyone except Mauhur (who I forgot to test for, but Zorro was content to have remain) (I hadn't killed him yet!) and my army stays to fight to the bitter end.

The rest of the fights are as follows: the guys on the ground were charged, but there's little I can do elsewhere. I'm trying to push the Haradrim away from the stone (which has been benefiting them all game, I might add), in hopes that I can get 6" coverage for the units in the fights surrounding the hill. Kinda hazy on where guys died this round (started removing some of them before the pictures were taken), so I adjusted the final score to reflect the number dead at the end of the round...in case you actually go back and check my math. :-P

In the Shoot phase, a Corsair Arbalester levels a deadly aim, passes his in-the-way test on the rocks, and despite my claims that the quarrel needed to test for its courage, the great wizard of Isengard fell (Grrr...game over and no oath point...sad).

Why do my pictures keep rotating? Anyway, the Haradrim succeeded in killing a pikeman and a Marauder, but I managed to kill an Abrakhan Guard and a Serpent Guard. Still, the day was woeful, as the great Mauhur lost in a roll-off and fell to a great many blades (I think the GK alone wounded him 5x).

On the hill, not much changed - the Uruk Scout with Orc bow died, but so did 2 Serpent Guards (Yaye team, here we can kill more than we lose...).

But, life is just bad over here. I lose two more units and fail to kill the Serpent Guard on the ground - I beat him, but couldn't get the needed 4s on 2 dice to kill him (that's just wrong).

Kill count: Uruks 18/47, Haradrim 26/39. Yeah, life is really not good, but we keep playing, because there is time on the clock and I'm not at 30 units yet, :-P.

---

Turn 6: The Sun Sets (P - Haradrim)

Basically, all but one of my guys was charged before I got to move, he passed his Courage Test (not drained by the Golden King - don't know if I was that unimportant, if the King had pity, or if I blitzed through my Move phase too quickly to be noticed in time), and took a Serpent Guard off of a friendly. Not Shoot phase because everyone's fighting. Here, you can see the tide has really turned on the hill and I lose a swathe of guys (killing one in return, ironically with the guy who wasn't bribed) (technically, only heroes are worthy of bribe, per the rule) (oh...that's...comforting).

Left flank: things are really getting rolled up now, but only one of my guys is killed. In return, I killed a Watcher with the Warrior on the far right.

Yeah, lost the last of my crossbows in what was hardly a fair fight. Thankfully, I lost enough guys that the game came to an end a few minutes before the timer ran out.

Kill count: Uruks 20/47, Haradrim 33/39. I was 4 units away from breaking the enemy, so I feel good. But...final score:

• Uruks score 0 points for failing to break the enemy army, while the Haradrim score 5 points for breaking the enemy and not being broken;
• The Haradrim score 2 points because Saruman was killed.
• No banners this game, so no points scored for either side.
• The Haradrim finally score 3 points for reducing the Uruk-Hai to 25% before the game ended.

With a score of 10-0, this game is a major victory for the Haradrim  The Haradrim also scored an additional 2 tournament points for fulfilling their oath (killing Mauhur) while the Uruks failed theirs (Saruman did not survive), so in a tournament, this game would have scored the Haradrim 12 points (major win + oath) and the Uruk-Hai 2 points (for a major loss). (If it's any comfort, there will be a couple other small "kudos" bonuses in the tournament that you likely would have received - thus boosting your score another point or so).

---

Conclusion:

Assessment by Tiberius:

Yeah, tough game today. The Haradrim are a fearsome army to fight, but all told, I did well against them. They were nearly broken (and with Courage 4 heroes standing beside each other, others could have run off) and if I hadn't botched all my Fate rolls, Saruman probably could have survived. Breaking the enemy and keeping Saruman alive would have adjusted the points to make the score a lot closer (4-1). I'm thankful that I got this game in before the tournament, since I'm not likely to face the same mixture of volumes of archery combined with really high Fight values.

Assessment by Zorro:

Well, considering that Harad has never faced Uruks, I was a little apprehensive about how they would handle a force that wounds them on 4s. The victory was a bit hollow considering how many bad rolling streaks Tiberius had, but it was well fought on his part. Given a rematch, Harad probably would have broken, which is a contingency I really need to plan for better. Historically this army has broken so rarely (only 3-4 times in 20-30 games) that, as Tiberius mentioned, I left a large portion of my army hero-less. Rather a bad situation to be in with C3 troops. All told, a fun match. I'm really looking forward to seeing what Tiberius's army is capable of given a gambit of opponents and scenarios. 

Stellar unit for the Uruk-Hai: Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes

As great as Defense 6 is for keeping units alive, supporting attacks are the best way to ensure that the good opposing units die. In this particular game, I had a single pikeman kill three units - mostly on his own - which highlights another reason to give the award to these guys. I also need to note that Saruman ended up getting 33% of the army's kills - not bad for a spell-caster (and not good for the rest of the army).

Stellar unit for the Haradrim: Corsair Reavers

No question here. When you have a unit that can walk up to a Uruk pike block single-handedly and smack them in the face, you can't not give them the award. Otherwise it would be a bit of a toss-up. There was plenty of good work being done all around. The Arbalesters held their weight and more (for once), the Abrakhans did their share of cleaving, and of course the wizard-hunting Watchers of Karna certainly made a name for themselves with what was probably the most pivotal moment in the match (or in any game I've played in a while): cutting the enemy leader down to size in the first round of melee combat. But without the edge that the Reavers brought, we would have seen a lot more roll-offs, which would have lead to a lot more dead Haradrim, and in a force that has no capacity to shield, any thing that can preserve units is worth it's weight in Mithril. 

Avast matey! Corsair Reaver conversions

Ahoy! It here be time for another update from the halls of Karningul, savvy?

With the obligatory pirate-speak out of the way.... I have toyed with the idea of adding a Corsair contingent to my Haradrim army for quite some time. Dalamyr has pulled his weight many a time, and the idea of throwing in some xbows to increase my ranged damage and reduce ranged deaths was super tempting, but the notion of the squishy D3 units that I would need to pick up to offset them did not (yes, I know technically this changed under the new warbrokens scheme).

The hasharin fleetmaster and his motley crew. Note the dashing chapeau on the bloke second from the right.  Made up from some cardstock and a spot of modeling clay

Unlike Tiberius, I have no great love for throwing weapons. They are a handy asset, but I have been unimpressed with their effectiveness as a primary means of damage dealing - especially when you trade off defense for them (see wood elves). However, since obtaining the new Harad/Umbar sourcebooks last summer, I now have another option - in what I'm pretty sure is the only official profile that has no model (and no plans to create one?): the Corsair Reaver.

I have seen a number of conversions for Corsair Reavers, typically consisting of taking the shield troops  and either sticking a weapon under the shield, or cutting off the shield arm and attaching a weapon hand. This leads to two problems: 1) you have maybe three poses in your force (since one of the shield corsairs has his shield tucked into his body and is not conducive to swapping out), and 2) you can only use 1/3 of your box of corsairs, requiring multiple boxes to make even a halfway decent group (a very expensive prospect at the current rates for a single sprue).

Forcing roll-offs with elves, multiple attacks, and now on equal footing with Haradrim in terms of armor (yay profile boosts!), these guys are significantly more viable than their knife throwing counterparts.

Craftsmen of Karningul, it's time to take the converting skills up a notch (or three)!

Thankfully, I recently acquired the spare parts from the new plastic Easterling Kataphrakt sprue - along with a number of warg rider weapons from my bits pile. So I had an assortment of swords to work with. It took a bit of creativity, but in the end I managed to come up with a decent conversion for 10/12 poses! If I really wanted to, I could come up with something for the last two, but I'm really not a fan of the constipated archer or the lunging spearman models, so I was okay with letting those go.

L-R: Archer, spearman, another archer. I sorta missed it in the photo, but I used the speartip to make a hatchet for  the reaver on the right. The center reaver got a boarding axe made from some cardboard and a bit of brass rod.

I know technically corsair reavers don't have spears, but a boarding pike seemed
like a suitable weapon  for these crazed blokes

using some of my experience sculpting warg fur for my hill trolls, I decided to give this guy a bit of a queue. Because nothing says "freakishly scary pirate" like a carefully unkempt hairstyle!

"But what about the archer quivers?" I hear you ask. Just hollowed them out, and used them for sheathes! 

The whole crew so far. A few poses are still WIP at this point. 

I'm really happy with the way the conversions came out, and in the few test games I've gotten in so far, they  performed very well. There is nothing quite like halting a charging mounted KoDA in its tracks (repeatedly) or beating back an Uruk pike block. I'm really looking forward to forcing elves and heroes to roll off. ;)

next on the agenda for these guys, finding a paint scheme that I like. So far my Corsairs have been a bit eclectic. I figure, these guys have been roaming the seas, pillaging and thieving. They wear whatever they can get their hands on - which sometimes means the clothing of wealthy Gondorians or it's fiefdoms.

Although before we get there, my sculptors tell me things about some new ideas they are floating for Serpent Guard conversions, maybe it's time to head inland...