Battle Report - Harad vs Gondor and Dwarfs

The Thursday night league at Collectormania has come and gone and I got in another fun and interesting game.  I was there early and Micah showed up.  I haven't gotten to play him yet so we agreed on a game.  600 points using the old composition rules but he, kindly, agreed to my request to play one of the new scenarios.  We divided our armies up between our heroes, to serve as our warbands.

This is turn two.  You can see each of the warbands in action.  Boromir and the two Knights are just visible behind the wood, top right.

The Knights and rangers battling the Mahud.  Almost everyone in this picture was dead by the end of the game.

Battle Report - Hard vs Galadrim

Last night was League night down at Collectormania again.  Rhys and I got there early and hung out for awhile.  We talked about the new books coming out this weekend.  We talked about what new models we are likely to see.  We talked about Russ's new orc models.  We watched Craig (Harad with a Mumak and Serpent Riders) play a game against Jonathan (Galadrim).  When that game was over I asked to get one.  I wanted to play Craig as I have not played him yet and I haven't played against a Mumak in years.  On the other hand Evil is behind in the League and I wanted the game to count.  I played Jonathan, which is not second best by any measure.  He is a great opponent and he has beaten me the last two times we played, both good reasons for a re-match.

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.

Battle Report - Harad vs Eagles

Last night was the second night/week of league play.  We had a large turnout with nine people getting games in.  Off the top of my head we had two Harad armies, one horde infantry (mine) and one with a Mumak.  There were the Eagles of the Misty Mountains.  There was a woodelf army and an Isengard army.  Two Moria armies, one with a cave troll and one with Black Shields and a Dragon.  There was also a Dwarf army led by Durin.

My game was against Russ and his eagles.  He had six eagles including Gwahir.  I had the same list as last week, Nazgul, Harad King, Harad Chieftan, Taskmaster, horn, banner, 6 Abrakhan Guards, 26 spears and 14 bows.  I don't like the banner.  I will not play it after this round of the league.  I never make my re-rolls with them and even if you accept the odds at 50% I think the 3 inch range is too short to make it worth while.  The horn, on the other hand, paid for itself again last night.  In this case it was the huge number of terror tests I had to take in order to charge the eagles. 

The table, looking towards the Eagle deployment zone, after the battle.

Battle Report - Harad vs Galadrim

Last Thursday Jonathan and I played my first game of the league. It was a reprise of the game from the week before, his Galadrim led by Glorfindel and Rumil against my Haradrim. I was tripped up at the last second by the League rule that you can only ally one faction into your army, a rule I believe we should change, by the way. Consequently I was forced to drop my Far Harad and went with a list that consisted of Bob the Budget Nazgul, a Haradrim King, a Haradrim Chieftan, a Haradrim Task Master, a banner, a hornblower, six fat guys (Abrakhan Merchant's Guards), fourteen archers and the rest spears for a total model count of 56. We played Domination with the MitM change of only three objectives.

I had a big hill in my deployment zone. there was a ruins between my zone and the objective to my left. The rest of the terrain, of which there was a lot, did not really factor in the game so I'll leave it off. I made a lot of mistakes in this game. Jonathan only made a couple. He, again, got a well deserved win with a minor victory. One more turn would have given me the minor but two more would have made it his game again. This was a real nail biter and I found myself thinking about it quite a bit the next day, which is the mark of a great game, to me.

We started off with a general advance on the part of the elves towards the left and center objectives. The elven phalanx headed towards the left while the cavalry and archers, with Glorfindel riding along, went towards the center. I left my archers behind the hill, firing in volleys most of the game (mistake number 2, I waited way too long to start firing directly). I split my force with a strong infantry force heading towards the left objective and a smaller force going over the hill and towards the center, (mistake number 1. I shouldn't have split them the way I did and had too many high value units in this group with no meat shields.)

My volley fire was average over the course of the game but started out strong. I killed both knight archers and another model in the first round. I got rid of most of his highly prized archers over the course of the game with volley fire. Jonathan killed all of my fat guys with arrows, a very disapointing development but well deserved the way I left them hanging out in view.

I pushed my infantry up into the ruins, about twelve inches short of the left objective, and stayed there. This was where Jonathan made the only real mistake of the game. He brought his phalanx up and charged me. Between the wall bonus and some good use of transfix/compel, I kept Glorfindel out of the fight, killed Rumil and managed to bounce the phalanx. Jonathan realized that he didn't need to fight me and pulled back to the objective, still too strong for me to sally out and contest him.

He also shifted his archers and remaining knights to hold the other two objectives. this is when I realized that the reason I was feeling outnumbered was that I had 15 models hiding behind the hill. I marched my archers out to contest the center and right objectives. Killing Rumil had made me a happy little Haradrim. I had also put a wound on Glorfindel with a Black Dart, something generally frowned upon in tournament play. Most players consider it too risky for too little pay off. Now Glorfindel found himself facing down a haradrim gatling gun of fourteen poisoned bow shots. This is where I made mistake number 3. I rolled all the dice at once. I killed the hell out Asfaloth but didn't have enough left to finish off the elf, though I did put another wound on him. I would have been better off taking the individual shots. The reason I did this is becase it was almost 2100 and I had Rhys (7yrs old) with me. I had already gotten a testy phone call from Mama and 2100 is closing time, though Chris very nicely and characteristically offered to keep the store open for us. So I was rushed. I took another turn to kill Glorfindel. Another moral victory in my eyes.

I managed to take the right objective and was one turn away from having more models on the center objective. I had broken but my hornblower more than paid for himself. Jonathan was one model away from breaking. I had moved my Nazgul up so his phalanx would be taking break tests with no heros on a -1 courage. He was moving troops up to the center objective, who would start arriving a turn after I controlled it. We survived the roll on the first turn after I was broken but the second one ended the game.

More Test games

I played another game of LotR the other night.  We are all fine tuning our armies and just trying to get some practice in.  This time I played against Chris Ward, who is always a fun opponent.  We rolled randomly for scenarios and got the night fight one, which is my favorite.

Chris has a nicely painted Uruk army led by Saruman.  I was anxious to play against him because I do not have a lot of experience vs magic.  In addition to Saruman there were a captain, a handful of crossbows and an equal mix of shields and pikes as well as three berserkers.  His model count was 37.

I was running my new list.  Faramir, Captain of Ithilien with rangers and Osgiliath veterans.  My model count was 50.  I really feel the lack of might in this army, with only Faramir's three.  On the other hand the 12" banner, fight 4 within six inches of Faramir and the high model count all work well.  Faramir's better stats are nice too.

As I said, we rolled for a scenario and got "Ill met by moonlight".  We each divided our army in half, with a hero forward.  We were playing on part of the Osgiliath table.  I say part, because we only had some of the tiles and none of the scatter terrain.

Chris had Saruman, the five crossbows and berzerkers forward with the rest of his numbers split, pretty evenly, between pikes and shields.  I had Faramir, all of my rangers and veterans forward with only veterans to the rear.

Chris had to set up first and he built a firebase in a ruin in the very center of the table.  I placed my rangers to each side of that, with veterans in front.  Faramir, valiantly, hid behind a ruin so the crossbows and Saruman couldn't start the game by crushing him.

The first few turns were fairly even.  Our shooting was effective, as usual in this scenario.  The +1 to hit meant he was killing rangers on a 3 and I was killing Uruks on a five.  I had more shooting his was better.  It evened out.  He rushed everything but the crossbows and a couple of shields towards my right flank, which is where Faramir was now.  Both of us were moving our reinforcements up as fast as we could.  My left flank archers were sliding up towards his table edge.  In the way rolls were saving his crossbows, I only killed one through shooting the whole game, though his normal warriors and a beserker were not so lucky.

We finally engaged on the right flank, Saruman threw out a scorerous blast which killed one veteran and knocked over a couple of rangers.  The first round of combat was pretty tame.  Faramir got in one charge, killing two Uruks.  Saruman then blasted him six inches.  Faramir lost his horse but was unhurt, and no one was behind him.

Chris had moved his reinforcements over towards the brawl, dropping a couple off on my left flank, with the crossbows and their guardians, and a couple more in the center, forming a wall between two buildings.  I split my reinforcements, just about evenly, between my right and the center, with a couple heading over to help my left flank out.

Things were looking pretty bad for the forces of good.  Faramir was locked down every turn.  Chris had more models in the main fight and many of mine were squishy rangers.  We then had two brutal, for the Uruks, turns of combat.  In the first turn I killed six Uruk Hai.  I blew away nearly his entire center formation, between the buildings, opening up my route into his rear.  I killed a couple in the main fight, evening things up there enough for me to hold my own.  I also gained clear dominance in the flight on my left flank.

The rest of the game was just me closing the trap on the Uruks who were pinned in on my right.  I broke him but Saruman's standfast meant he didn't have to take any tests.  The fact that he had no room to maneuver and that I was coming at him from, literally, all four directions, meant that almost all of the fights were going my way.  With F4 and a reroll out to 12 inches Chris just couldn't win enough to make a difference.

Chris had some bad rolling going on in the end there, but I think my banner is what made the biggest difference.  In the end, the last turn, I killed Saruman when I jumped him with nine dudes.  He rolled a 1 for the fight, which was not really epic at all.  I offered to let Chris re-roll it, since that seemed like a sour note to end the game on, but he stuck to his guns and took the 1.  We hit 25% over the rest of the turn and the game was over.

I was not broken so it was a Major victory to me.  We didn't keep track of the kills for our heroes, but I think Saruman got one or two and Faramir got two or three.

On my side, I was really pleased with how my army worked.  I really feel the lack of might in the late game, with only one hero.  On the other hand the F4 is pure gold.  The 12" banner really paid off in this game, though this is the first time that it has.  Ranger shooting was as good as always and the large numbers were really useful.  I shielded more in this game and that helped me stay above break until the end.

For Chris, as he said, "I don't know if my army sucks or not with rolling like that".  I had two good rounds of combat that pretty much determined the game.  Saruman was good, making all of his spells and fighting off my troops until he was really, really, outnumbered.  There were a couple of places that Chris could have played differently, but with his center getting blown away in one round of combat there was not much he could have done to salvage it.

It was a fun game, as always against Chris, and I learned more about how my army works.  I'm pretty sure this is the list I will take to MitM.

LotR gaming

We had Lord of the Rings day down at the shop today.  It was a very successful day, in my book.  We had eight people playing, including two new players, one of whom ordered the rule book.  We got to play two of the scenarios that we are developing for the, as yet to be named, tournament.  We kept up interest among the folks who have armies and a couple of us tried out new armies.

I played three games this afternoon.  One of the advantages of 350 point games.  I was trying out the High Elves, and I really need to make some changes.

The first game was against Rob and his Easterlings.  Rob played it better, tactically, and my elves just did not work the way I had hoped they would.  I set up first.

We had some of the new Osgiliath ruins in the center, with trees and wall around it.  We were playing the same scenario as my game against Keith the other night.  The picture above shows my initial set up.

Rob held me in the center and flank and crushed my elves on the right.  After that it was all mopping up.

My second game was against Curtis, who has never played before.  I have been trying to talk him into it for awhile, so he agreed to come down today and give it a shot.  I brought my Isengard army for him to test drive.  He had a good grasp of the rules and had been asking a lot of questions in the game with Rob.

The initial set up of the Uruk's.  Five crossbows are under the hand to the right.

And my elves on turn two. This was a straight up meeting engagement, since it was a teaching game.  My shooting was a lot better this game and I was able to force him to come to me.  I set up just my side of the line of walls, allowing me to gang up on him as he came through.

I did not get any pictures of my third game, against Russ.  He had a Mordor army made up of a generic Nazgul (10 Will) two specters, four trackers, a bunch of Black Numenorians and orcs backing them up.  We were playing a scenario in which each player has a hero in the center of the board and the rest of their army six inches in.  You are pretty much forced to fight at least one round of combat, as otherwise you can't use your stand fast.

This was a really annoying army to fight as the specters kept pulling my troops out of position, leading to the death of my captain, while the Wraith kept my courage down and black darted things.  We played that there were no In the Way rolls or any effects of casting in to combat.  That doesn't feel right to me, but I can't see where, in the rules, that would be wrong.

We both broke and he just got me down to 25% first.  That army build is definitely one that works your skills.  Terror, the specters and the Nazgul are all things that work well together to throw a monkey wrench in your plans.  I have not beat Russ with that army yet.

This was a game between High Elves (cleverly disguised as Galadrim) and Dwarfs.

We got two of our scenarios tested by a bunch more people.  Everyone liked the Stormy Weather one.  (Half your army in the middle of the table).  The Parlay scenario had a lot of questions.  We will have to work on it to see if we can simplify it and still keep the intent.

As far as my Elves went.  Their shooting was as good as I thought it should be, though S3 is not a huge improvement over S2 it is twice as good in a lot of conditions.  My spears did exactly what I wanted them to but my Elves with Elf Blades were too squishy.  I will have to give them shields.  I think the archers also need to have spears as they were squishy in the later stages and would have been better off providing more attacks to my other models.

I may have to re-consider my desire to not ally in Galadrim.

All in all, a very successful day of gaming.

Play testing

As part of the tournament we are planning, for the fall, we are developing new scenarios and testing table layouts.  Wednesday night, my wife being out of town, Kieth came down and we played in my basement.

I laid the table out in the Bree layout that I had come up with.  The table was laid out with a village in the center.  There was a large village square with a fountain.  Surrounding the square were houses, two per side.  There was a road, lined with walls running out of the east side (north being Keith's side of the table - to the right in the picture below).  There were some fences and trees in various places around the town.

(The sunken road is nearest the viewer in this picture.)

The effect of this layout was that there was a good sized area in the center to fight in, divided in two by the fountain.  The road turned out to be a pivotal location, allowing flank charges into the village and a defended wall on each side.

(The sunken road is top right in this picture).

The scenario we came up with is a combination of several others.  Each player divides their army in half.  We are still trying to decide if we want to have the opponent choose the force that will be deployed forward or the player, though we went with the player choosing their army last night.

Half of the army deploys between 18" and 24" in, on the table.  This means that the two armies start with half of their troops right in each others faces.  The other half of the army deploys three inches in from the table edge.

Night fight rules are in play, meaning that bows can only shoot 12 inches but they get plus one strength.  This had the effect of forcing players to close on each other and, theoretically, it shortens the time they have to shoot.  It also makes the shooting much more dangerous than normal.

The other scenario element that we added in was a modified contest of champions.  Normally in that scenario it is decided by the champion who kills the most enemy models.  A lot of people (including me) really dislike this scenario.  In our scenario a major victory means that you have reduced your opponent to 25% but you are not broken.  A minor victory is achieved by reducing your opponent to 25%, but you are broken.  The kills of your champion add bonus points.  In our game Faramir ended up killing eight dwarfs while Dain only got three kills.  That gave me five bonus points for my minor victory.  We liked this because it makes the scenario about more than just what two models do, and it also has the potential to really get some spread on the player's points in the tournament.

Keith deployed first.  He had Dain with half of his force, divided equally by type (Khazad Guard, ranger, etc), in the village square.  Half of this company was on each side of the fountain.  The other half of his army was set up in the center of the table in his rear deployment zone.

(Dain is the red beared fellow, second from the right in the left hand company.  The shield bearer is the unpainted mini to the left).

I also divided my army in half by type, except that all three of my knights were in the rear deployment zone.  Faramir and Cirion were both forward with their half of the army.  Faramir, a bunch of WoMT and three rangers were set up in the road, just outside the square.  Cirion and the rest of the forward WoMT were in the east corner of the square, as far back as I could get them.  There were five rangers to the west of the village.  The rear deployment zone had knights, the horn blower and six rangers, off to the west.  The WoMT were in the center and five rangers were in the east.

(Faramir and his company along with the three rangers who are bait for the trap.)

I got priority first turn and moved Fararmir, in the second rank, and his band so that they were across the road, right on the edge of the square, with both flanks secured by buildings.  The rangers in the road moved up to the wall.  Cirion's lads backed up so that they had their flanks held by buildings, but they bulged out into the square.  Another part of his force moved up to fill the gap between two buildings, to the west of Cirion.  All of the rear troops moved forward at full speed.

Cirion's troops were setting up a trap for Keith.  By bulging out into the square they gave the Dwarfs an opportunity to have more Dwarfs fighting than humans.  If they moved forward to engage these troops then they would have to ensure that they split off enough troops to keep Faramir and his company locked up in  the street.  Once the Dwarfs had committed to this course of action, Cirion and his lads would fall back, past the houses, so that the situation was reversed and fewer Dwarfs would be forced to fight against more humans, who would have both flanks protected by houses.

(Cirion and his boys move back to increase their odds.  The Dwarfs have bounced off of the wall after their first attack, top right.)

The second part of my trap was based on Faramir, and was, by far, the riskiest part of my plan.  If Faramir and his lads got locked in combat to the front then they would not be in a position to react if the Dwarfs could get over the wall and into the sunken road, from behind.  It appeared that the only thing keeping this from happening was three rangers along the wall.  No problem, thinks the Dwarfs, we can take some D4 rangers.

In Keith's first turn he pushed forward on both sides of the fountain.  The eastern block pushed up so that their flank was on the house, with Faramir's lads just around the corner.  Dain's lads moved forward, trying to minimize how much shooting they would take from my rangers on the west side of the village.

My shooting was completely useless.  Keith managed to kill a couple of WoMT.  The additional strength from the scenario rules made the bows much more deadly.  I, again, won priority in turn two.  I used the opportunity to move the rear half of my army forward, running everyone as fast as they could go.  The knights moved up the western board edge.

Keith moved Dain's forces forward, leaving the other half of his force in the square in place.  He split his rear force in two, half heading directly towards the square and half heading towards the sunken road, which was still only guarded by my three rangers.  Shooting was, again, inconclusive.

Turn three Keith finally won priority and decided to move into combat.  His eastern force swung in to engage Faramir's company and block of the road.  He split the force advancing on the sunken road, sending a third of it off towards the square and the rest towards the wall.  Dain's force advanced against Cirion's company, pushing off a force to guard against the small group of WoMT between the buildings.

My shooting, this turn, was finally decent, with a bunch of Dwarfs falling.  All of the combats were inconclusive, with losses on both sides.  At the end o this turn we had each lost seven models, meaning bad news for Keith with his smaller army.

Turn four finally saw the Dwarfs reach the sunken road.  Two Dwarfs got in to combat with three rangers.  All of the troops who were originally deployed in the square were now in combat.

I pulled Faramir away from the street fight, where he had been in the second rank, and threw him up to the wall against the Dwarfs attacking the rangers.  The WoMT in the center pulled back behind a building, leaving the alley open.  I was hoping that Kieth would try to cross the fence, allowing me to engage his force piecemeal.  He didn't fall for it.  The WoMT who were coming up the center, from the rear deployment zone, split, with half hiding behind a building and the rest moving to reinforce Cirion.  Keith ended up forgetting how many troops I had behind the building and, when they finally came out, late game, he was shocked by ten fresh troops piling in to combat.

The fight in the sunken road went against the Dwarfs, with Faramir getting his first kills.  In the square, neither battle line was moving.  Dain was not getting kills but a few models were still falling to archery.  My rangers, on the western edge of the village, kept moving forward, behind cover, and dueling with his rangers, who were in the open.  My knights were swinging around the rear of the village.  I'm sure that Keith expected them to get in to the fight in the square.  My plan was to have them hit the Dwafs at the sunken road from behind, then swing back around to the square.  Additionally, I had gotten the reserve rangers up to the road and there were now eight there instead of three, along with Faramir and a WoMT spearman supporting him.

This was the decisive turn.  Keith's force in the square was engaged all along the line.  His rangers were losing the archery duel and hid behind the fountain, short buggers.  The force at the wall had just seen its advantage in numbers disappear.  Keith pushed everything he could up against the wall and bounced, losing several dwarfs.  In the next turn he pulled back, allowing Faramir to shift back to the fight at the edge of the square and the rangers, along the wall, to shoot at will.  The dwarfs along the sunken road evaporated over the next couple of turns.

In the road, Faramir managed to turn the fight and break through the dwarf line.  The knights finally reached the fight, one being dismounted by rangers and one killed, but they killed off the last dwarf in the way and the remaining, mounted knight, charged into the combat in the square.

(The Dwarf attack on the sunken road is over.  Faramir is about to blast his way through the dwarf line and Cirion is about to eat Dain's axe.)

Dain was slowly pushing back Cirion's company, killing Cirion in the process.  The WoMT line just wouldn't break though, with the ten troops behind the house providing the numbers to hold Dain and his band.  The dwarf Shield Bearer was having no luck in killing hi opponents, even with his free Heroic combat every turn that he was within three inches of Dain.  Only once did he get into a combat that involved Dain.

(Cirion's last moments.  You can see the shield bearer off stage left, in all his mithril glory.)

My rangers moved forward to engage hand to hand, Faramir's company finally broke out of the street and the Dwarfs were steadily pushed in to a smaller and smaller corner of the square.  When Keith finally broke, the shield bearer kept all but one Dwarf in the fight with their re-rolls of failed courage tests within 12 inches.  By the time the shield bearer failed there were not enough dwarfs left to really affect him much.

(Faramir leads the breakthrough.)

Keith finally broke me but with Farmair's stand fast and the horn blower I only lost five models to failed courage tests.  (Actually that seems like a lot, looking back on it.)  We called it when Keith got to ten models.

(The final moments of Dain's warhost.)

I really enjoyed both the scenario and the table layout.  As always, Keith was a great opponent.  We made some changes to the rules and clarified some issues.  We were going to play it out to total annihilation, thinking that with the two armies starting so close together this would not be a difficult threshold to reach.  It turns out that it just takes too long to wipe out an army so we changed that to 25%.  We also decided that throwing weapons would not benefit from the additional strength, since they were unaffected by the range restrictions.

My trap worked as I hoped.  If Keith had pushed everything against the sunken road, as he started to, it might have been different, and he had me very worried until he split his force.  He underestimated the advantage that a defended obstacle gives.  Faramir was a star, killing dwarfs right and left.  I manged to limit Dain to only three kills, but I just couldn't kill him.  I put one wound on him, even when I had him trapped by three models with support.  He is a tank.

This is probably the most enjoyable game of LotR I have played, which is saying something.  I think both the table layout and the scenario will be good to go for the tournament.

Practice Game

I got another practice game in on Saturday night.  It was against Keith, again.  Our first practice, a couple of weeks ago, he used his Fiefdoms list.  Saturday he used his Dwarfs.  This was a last minute change for him as he was planning on taking a Morgul Knights list.  He is painting frantically right now.  I only got a couple of pictures, and none of the table as a whole.

The dwarf battle line.  Dain is in the center.  There are ten rangers, a bunch of iron guard and Khazad Guard and the rest dwarf warriors.  He also has a single captain in there.
Dain
Captain
1 x Dwarf warrior w/ banner (He forgot this guy in this game)
10 x Dwarf Rangers
? x Khazad Guard
? x Iron Guard
? x Dwarf Warriors (some w/ 2 handed wpns)

600 points
2 heros
5 Might
34 Models
Break Point 17

I played with:

Faramir
Cirion
Warrior of Minas Tirith with Horn
8 x Rangers of Gondor with Spear
9 x Rangers of Gondor
16 x Warriors of Minas Tirith with shield
1 x Warriors of Minas Tirith with shield
8 x Warriors of Minas Tirith with shield and spear
5 x Warriors of Minas Tirith with shield and spear
4 x Knights of Minas Tirith

600 points
2 Heroes
6 Might
52 Models
Break Point 26

This is an illegal list, by the way.  I discovered after our second game (another report) that I have too many bows in the Ithilien section of the list.  I had also forgotten to pay for the shields on my spear WoMT.

 

Here is my battle line awaiting the Dwarfs as my Rangers duel with his.

We were playing contest of champions, as this is one of the scenario's for the Gathering in the Desert.  I had changed my list from my original list by adding Faramir and Cirion, specifically for this scenario.  The plan is for Faramir to try to kill things while Cirion works to counter his champion, without dying, of course.

We started out edging forwards.  I put Faramir and some Rangers in the tower, which was a mistake.  Keith just kept out of range and I ended up having to move him out.  Three turns to get up, three to get down.  I lost a lot of shooting.  The rest of my rangers were cleaning up and killed a lot of dwarfs, even with their D7.

Keith eventually got tired of the long range archery duel, which he was losing, and moved Dain and his entourage around a ruins to try and hit part of my line.

Dain is the orange spot in the center.  Six of these guys will go right to block my Cavalry.

I kept back up as long as possible to enable me to keep shooting him.  I managed a lot of kills through bow fire.  S2 shooting is not great, but enough of it will get through most of the time.  We finally engaged and the fight broke down in to two big fights.  Dain was in my line just forward of where he is in the picture.  The other half of Keith's army had advanced on the left (picture left) and hit my line by the tower.  Faramir went in there.

I managed to win a couple of priority's that Keith wanted and he burned through Dain's Might store making Heroic moves.  Cirion moved in to counter Dain and managed to hold him.  Dain got three kills before Cirion got there but none afterwards.  Keith realized, at home after the game, that he had forgotten that his Khazad and Iron Guards are S4.  This would have meant more dead WoMT.

On the left Faramir managed to get three kills.  The dwarf line was starting to bend but there was no real end in sight when the store had to close.  We added up the points, since our heroes had tied and I had killed 25 points or so more than Keith.  A draw really.

I learned some things in this fight.  That tower was very tempting but not worth the turns of lost shooting to get in to.  My Rangers need to be direct firing at the enemy for as many turns as possible.  Moving forwards full to get in range is better than moving half and volleying.  Faramir will need to kill some things by whacking on them with his sword.  He can't get enough kills with his bow.  

Keith also did some interesting positioning with his guys which worked really well.  I will keep that in mind as well.

It was a good game.  Keith is the one who taught me to play in the first place.  He learned from some of the best players in the country and has been to several tournaments.  My only regret is that I play him more than anyone else.  He is a great opponent but I would like to play other people so that I can face different tactical minds.