I've been slacking. I not only haven't been updating the blog but I haven't really been doing much, at all, hobby wise. I started a new job July 1st. It is killing my soul. I have no energy left at the end of the day. I'm getting to be in great shape, working off all of the angst though.
Today I got in a game of LotR. Keith had an, unexpected, day off and gave me a call. I arranged to meet him down at the shop for a game. He brought his Dwarfs and I brought my Gondor, with a twist. I have been trying the new Faramir, Captain of Ithilien. I changed out all of my Warriors of Minas Tirith for Osgiliath Veterans. This means they have fight 4 within six inches of Faramir. Along with this he acts as a banner for them and the rangers within 12 inches. I had to drop my horn, Cirion and my knights to get him in but he seems to be worth it.
Keith and were play testing one of the Scenario's for Mayhem in the Mountains. This is the one I wrote a battle report about earlier, on the Bree table. Each player divides their army in half. Hero's have to be evenly divided. One half deploys between 18 and 24 inches in, the other half up to 3 inches in. This puts half of the force toe to toe with the enemy. Night fight rules are also in play so bows and crossbows can only shoot 12 inches but they get plus one to their roll to wound. This makes bows MUCH more powerful than normal.
We were also playing with table layout for the Osgiliath table. We have five 12 inch squares of ruins, which work well, but we both think we need some barriers, walls and barricades as well as some difficult terrain we can throw down. We also need to bevel the edges of the MDF that the ruins are based on as the square edges caused us quite a bit of positioning problems over the course of the game.
I only have one hero, so had to place him up front. I also front loaded all of my rangers into the forward force, with the rest filled out with Veterans. I placed them as far back as I could, but they were easily in charge range of the Dwarfs, if Keith got Priority. Keith had Dain and Gimli, with Gimli forward. He also had a mix of Khazad Guard, Iron Guard and Dwarf Warriors. At the last minute I convinced him to try Dwarf Warriors with bows instead of Rangers. I'm not sure how well that worked out, since the plus 1 to wound made all shooting better. More play testing is probably called for.
Happily, I won priority. Gimli promptly called a heroic move, countered by Faramir, who won the roll off. One Veteran engaged Gimli, putting an end to his move. Everyone else fell back while Faramir repositioned to a more central position, closer to where Gimli was. There was some combat to Faramir's right, and my rangers started picking off Dwarfs like it was cool, which it was with me.
Keith had 40 models in his army, while I had 50. From the first turn on, I was ahead in the body count pretty much the entire game. Dwarf armies rely on their awesome armor saves to stay alive. With the shooting rules in this scenario, that is not as much of a factor for them.
Combats were going my way, my reserves were moving up faster and I had fire superiority. Keith's front line was not holding up very well and Gimli was not killing anything. By the time Dain and his boys got up there were not many of the first line Dwarfs left. Dain managed a Heroic combat into Faramir. Sadly, for Dain, Faramir had charged that turn, though a different model. This gave Faramir four dice, instead of three, letting him win the combat, knock Dain down and put a wound on him after using up his fate. This was the only charge Faramir got in the entire game, getting charged by Dain or Gimli every turn after that. Dain died in the next round of combat but Gimli lasted the rest of the game.
Once I broke Keith his Dwarfs started to fade, though slowly. It took several more rounds of combat for me to kill enough to get him to 25%. It is actually easier to kill Dwarfs with shooting, in this scenario, than it is with a sword. That plus one on the die roll is better than the +1 strength of a hand weapon over my shooting.
I walked away with a major win. Any time I get anything better than a loss against Keith I'm thrilled. He is a great player, probably one of the best in the country, since he took second at Adepticon.
I think we are both very happy with the scenario. We have played it twice, on different tables, and it worked very well on both. It changes the game a lot, forcing players to think on their toes and develop new tactics on the fly. The table needs some more work, but it is going to work out well once we add some more terrain to it.
I needed a good game to take my mind off of work and this, as always against Keith, was a great game and a lot of fun. I feel very good about where we are with the tournament preparations. I hope we have people actually show up.
Showing posts with label tournament. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tournament. Show all posts
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, April 30, 2010
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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 sunken road is top right in this picture).
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).
(Faramir and his company along with the three rangers who are bait for the trap.)
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.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Tournament
Tournaments. They are a lot of fun. They are a lot of work. There are not very many LotR tournaments, and certainly not many in our neck of the woods.
Three of us are talking about setting one up in the Denver area. We are discussing dates, locations, scenarios and terrain. I think we can make it happen but there are a lot of things we need to get sorted quickly if we are going to pull it off.
The first issue we are discussing is whether or not we want to do it as part of Tacticon, the big Labor day convention here in Denver. The first thought was to hold the tournament there. We are now leaning away from that for several reasons.
1. There is a $30 convention fee. We would have to charge on top of that for prizes and food. We are looking at a two day tournament, so there would not be a lot of time for people to use their passes to see/game the rest of the con.
2. Labor day is not going to work for me. Not a reason not to do it that weekend if that makes the most sense, but definitely a reason for me not to be all that thrilled about putting in all the work to make this thing go.
3. The convention organizers have not bothered to get back to Keith regarding his request for ten tables.
Reasons to do it somewhere else.
1. We run it at Tim's store, Collectormania, and it won't cost us anything. We can fit in ten tables, and he might be able to get a bigger space if we need more.
2. We can charge a reasonable amount and use all of the money for prizes and food.
3. We are not locked in to a particular weekend.
4. We only have to deal with ourselves, not the convention organizers.
We are going to have a meeting next Friday to discuss this. If we are serious the biggest issue will be coming up with the terrain. LotR is best with a lot of terrain on the tables. I have enough for two tables. I don't know about Keith. Tim has a few hills but nothing else that really fits. We will need to build a lot of terrain.
We also need to come up with the scenarios that will be played. We have, realistically, all but one or two figured out, so that should not be bad. It also gives us an excuse to play a lot of games to play test them. We will also have to decide if we are going to announce the scenario's before the event, or let people show up blind to them.
I think we can pull it off and make it a great event. Our goal is to have twenty players. I think we can hit that easily, but partly that will depend on when we decide to run it.
I am excited about this.
Three of us are talking about setting one up in the Denver area. We are discussing dates, locations, scenarios and terrain. I think we can make it happen but there are a lot of things we need to get sorted quickly if we are going to pull it off.
The first issue we are discussing is whether or not we want to do it as part of Tacticon, the big Labor day convention here in Denver. The first thought was to hold the tournament there. We are now leaning away from that for several reasons.
1. There is a $30 convention fee. We would have to charge on top of that for prizes and food. We are looking at a two day tournament, so there would not be a lot of time for people to use their passes to see/game the rest of the con.
2. Labor day is not going to work for me. Not a reason not to do it that weekend if that makes the most sense, but definitely a reason for me not to be all that thrilled about putting in all the work to make this thing go.
3. The convention organizers have not bothered to get back to Keith regarding his request for ten tables.
Reasons to do it somewhere else.
1. We run it at Tim's store, Collectormania, and it won't cost us anything. We can fit in ten tables, and he might be able to get a bigger space if we need more.
2. We can charge a reasonable amount and use all of the money for prizes and food.
3. We are not locked in to a particular weekend.
4. We only have to deal with ourselves, not the convention organizers.
We are going to have a meeting next Friday to discuss this. If we are serious the biggest issue will be coming up with the terrain. LotR is best with a lot of terrain on the tables. I have enough for two tables. I don't know about Keith. Tim has a few hills but nothing else that really fits. We will need to build a lot of terrain.
We also need to come up with the scenarios that will be played. We have, realistically, all but one or two figured out, so that should not be bad. It also gives us an excuse to play a lot of games to play test them. We will also have to decide if we are going to announce the scenario's before the event, or let people show up blind to them.
I think we can pull it off and make it a great event. Our goal is to have twenty players. I think we can hit that easily, but partly that will depend on when we decide to run it.
I am excited about this.
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