Battle Reports

The week ended with a lot of gaming, too many for individual reports.  On Wednesday I got off work early and was able to meet up with Keith for a game.  We played Seize the camp.  Smaug went off on his, sadly, normal, solitary blood lust infused charge and chewed through my troops to get into my camp.  I was finally able to see him off with three Black Darts, after which I had to rush a third of my army across the table to get to the center where the remainder were facing off against the rest of the army, a bunch of Black Shields.  Keith thought the fight was over once the dragon was dead but he managed to drag it out for several turns and limit me to a Minor Victory.  As always against Keith, I had to think fast in this game.  I only win about a third of my games against him, one of the things I'd like to turn around this year.

Smaug Munching on Haradrim warriors

Smaug about to get Black Darted for the third time.  The Nazgul is in the forest, top right.

The battle in the center of the table.  The Dragon has just run away.

The battle-lines are drawn.

My next game was on Thursday against Jay.  He was running an all mounted Rohan force led by Erkenbrand, Gamling with banner and three outriders.  We rolled Reconoitre, which is the scenario where you have to get more of your models off of the other player's table edge.  Crap.  I had to deploy first.  Crap.  There was a lot of terrain across the table so I spread my line to cover the gaps.  This deployment cost me the game.  I should have made two big blocks on the flanks with my archers in the middle.  That would have allowed me to react to whichever direction Jay went and try to block him.  He set up everything on the right flank (from my point of view) and bashed his way through.  I got six guys off of his table edge so it was a minor loss for me.

The Riders; most of the way across the table on turn two.

The part of the army that would have to try to stop 33 cavalry.

These Rohirrim are covering the rear for the rest of the army to escape.

This is four turns from the end.  The only reason it took that long is that Jay had to callsome heroic moves to get his horsemen out of the way when he lost priority.  Gamling couldn't leave the table, nor could his riders, due to the "start and end within six inches" rule of heroic moves.

There was a game going on at the table next to us.  We had to take a break to watch the Mumak and Balrog square off.

My next game was against Holly and her Witch King on Fell Beast lead Isengard army.  In addition to the big baddie she had a shaman, an Uruk Captain, six scouts with bows, six (I think) berserkers and a bunch of pikes and sword/board Uruks.  For this game we rolled up Seize the Artifact, which we played with the change that you have to get it off of your opponent's table edge.  We both rushed our infantry lines into a ruin in the center of the table, which contained the artifact.  We fought almost the entire battle in this one foot square section.  I dug up the prize on the first turn and called a heroic to get it out the back of the ruins.   The Witch King did his thing off to the side until Bob (the Budget Nazgul) was finally able to Sap Will him.   My troops tried to get the prize around the left side of the ruins but berserkers and scouts put a stop to that, forcing Bob to pick up the prize and scurry behind the ruins.  It came down to the battle there, which was a slaughter but finally the Haradrim numbers told.  I made one banner re-roll the entire game.  It was won by the only Abrakhan Gaurd to kill anything the entire game.  I'm glad they all died.  They deserved it. They failed.  My king managed to kill her Captain and my Taskmaster hacked his way through to the Shaman and killed him.  After that it was just a matter of whittling down the Uruks to the point where they had to take courage checks at minus one with no heroes.  This was a very fun game.  Holly was a great opponent and the battle in the center was epic.  It reminded me of the fighting, in Osgiliath, from the Return of the King.

The battle line formed and ready to charge.

The Witch King and his minions prepare for their dash for the prize.  The ruins in the center would be where the battle was fought out.

The Fell Beast is beautifully painted.  I was still happy to kill off the Nazgul and get it off the table.

The initial fight over the artifact.  The Uruk Captain bounced, Holly failed her roll to dig it up, my guy passed.

The Witch king killed most of these guys off before he went off hunting other prey.

This guy is trying to get around to the left.  He got himself shot over there.

The Nazgul picked it up and hid in the back of the ruins.  The rest of the battle was a fight by the Uruks to get through to him.

The final battle was an Ill Met by Moonlight type scenario.  Each army was divided in half with one half deploying between 18 and 24 inches in and the other half three inches in.  This puts the two armies face to face with race to bring up the reinforcements.  I front loaded my Mahud and archers along with a handful of spearmen.  The Dwarfs were split with Durin in the rear.  All shooting in this scenario is plus one to wound, so I was killing Dwarfs on 5/3's instead of 6/4's.  I wreaked havoc with my shooting, crushed his left flank and then encircled and destroyed his right, with Durin.  Durin managed to get to move for the first half of the battle but the rest of the army was melting away.  This was a major win for the Haradrim.

Mahud deep in the Dwarf lines.  Only the King survived but they put a hurting on the Dwarfs before they died.

Some more Dwarf on Mahud action.

The Mahud numbers are dwindling.

The final moments of the half troll.  The rest of my army is about to appear from frame right.

Four games in three days.  All of them were against great opponents and were fun games.  Each army was very different and the scenarios changed things up quite a bit as well.