If you've seen Part 2 already, then you'll be aware that I took the Defenders of Helm's Deep to a four game, 624pt tournament this past Sunday. Over in sunny Walsall, at Board in Brum, who are a great bunch and very welcoming. Like the previous event I attended, I figured I breakdown the games of the day, and see what lessons I could learn from each one, in an effort to improve my skills as a player.
Take a look at Part 2 again if you want to see my list.
Custom Event Dice
Game 1 - Assassination
The first game brought back a scenario from the previous version; Assasination. Theoretically, I had a decent chance here with Aragorn and Haldir, providing I could protect Theoden well enough.
My opponent was Thomas, who was fresh of a tournament win just the day before with his Buhrdur's Horde list.
Buhrdur
- Hill Troll
- Orc Warrior: Banner
- 6x Orc Warriors: Shield
- 6x Orc Warriors: Spear
Warg Chieftain
- 2 Wild Wargs
Warg Chieftain
- 2 Wild Wargs
- 4 Orc Warriors: Orc Bow
Orc Captain
- 5 Orc Warriors: Shield
- 5 Orc Warriors: Spear
I chose my target as the Orc Captain, and in an attempt to be tricksy, set Haldir as my assassin. I believe Thomas' assassin and target was one of his Warg Chieftains and Theoden respectively.
Playing across a lovely rocky board with a Weathertop-style ruin on one side, the battlelines split down the middle either side of a rocky outcropping. Aragorn went left, at the largest group of Orcs, whilst Theoden led his shieldwall right, and Haldir sat in the middle with his archers. With Buhrdur waiting in ambush, Thomas kept most of his force hidden from my elven bowmen until the lines clashed, with his own Orc archers claiming Amon Sul and using it's pillars to hide and shoot down at Theoden's warband. I sent an elf to attack them, but he had a long climb ahead, only to die to Wargs near the end of the game.
When the lines clashed, disaster came in the form of the two Warg Chieftains chomping through most of the Royal Guard in one turn. This led me to panic and send Haldir off to fight alongside Theoden, on the complete opposite side of the rock from his target. For his part, the Orc Captain stayed hidden amongst the rabble and simply targetted warriors, whilst Aragorn got bogged down in kind. This did draw Buhrdur over to that side of the fight, giving Aragorn time to chop through a bunch of warriors, even using Heroic Strength with his free Might to get a couple of extra kills, but it was ultimately in vain as I wasn't able to even break the horde.
Theoden got chomped by the Wargs, and Haldir went down to Buhrdur. Haldir's death blow did at least wound the troll chief, giving me a sole VP for the game. Some concern that Buhrdur was a target for Aragorn to kill kept the two from fighting, but the game ended with him as the sole survivor.
I made many mistakes in this game. Fear of Buhrdur's Ambush led me to rush into combat in an attempt to kill as much as I could early, especially with his force hiding from being shot. This same fear also led to me ignoring the objective and sending Haldir the wrong way, though I'm sure this would've drawn the trolls over into a messier fight. Differences in deployment may have helped to secure me better shots early on to trim the horde and fight from an entrenched position. At the end of the day, it's a difficult one to say what I could've done better against a skilled opponent,
Final Result: 1VPs to 19VPs
Game 2 - Reconnoitre
This game featured a much more magical opponent, and something quite scary for my Rohirrim; Man-hating Morannon's and Blades of the Dead. Liam was a great opponent with his Minas Morgul, and both of us suffered with some unlucky rolls here and there.
The Witch King of Angmar: Fell Beast, Morgul Blade
- Mordor Troll: War Drum
- 6x Morannon Orc: Shield
- 5x Mordor Orc Warrior: Spear
- Mordor Orc Warrior: Two-Handed Weapon
- Mordor Orc Warrior: Banner
- Spectre
Ringwraith: Horse
- 3x Mordor Orc Warrior: Shield
- 4x Mordor Orc Warrior: Spear
- 2x Mordor Orc Warrior: Two-Handed Weapon
Attempting to learn a lesson from last game, I tried to set up firing lines with the elves again, trying to keep it in mind to target the mounts of the two Wraiths. Once again I was thwarted my terrain, with a large central building blocking sight for much of the game. Aragorn raced forwards to try and catch the Ringwraith, as Theoden was running late with most of the battleline and Haldir's boys spread out to try and get a shot wherever they could. With my force being all on foot, I didn't think much towards escaping myself, just trying to stop Liam and kill the Witch King.
Luck was on my side for much of the game as magic either failed or was resisted, including that of the Spectre trying to pull my spear-supporting warriors away. I managed to catch the Witch King in combat and kill his mount, though Fate saved him from dying to Aragorn.
The other Ringwraith made a run for it, and eventually Haldir was able to put an arrow into his mount thanks to Sharpshooter, but he was still able to get off the board next turn to net VPs.
Whilst Aragorn, Theoden and a number of Royal Guard were distracted by the Witch King, my warriors fell quickly to the Orcs thanks to their Hatred boosts and ignoring Armour, so I yet again found my force breaking.
Post-game it's clear that I spent more time trying to kill the Fell Beast than simply trying to kill the Witch King, for which I had plenty of dice to push through his Fate. Haldir was also out of the fight in trying to hunt the other Ringwraith, which may have slowed me down. With archery failing, I did start moving elves towards the other board-edge on a long flanking run, but they were several turns short. It feels like yet another game where my archery just wasn't in play, wasting a good chunk of my army, though with this scenario it may have played in my favour as it slowed his advance and allowed me to take the fight in the centre of the board, despite the Troll's War Drum giving him a speed advantage. Unfortunately, it was simply another loss, though a closer one.
Final Result: 0VPs to 8VPs.
Game 3 - ???
The third game brought back another older scenario, this time against Thomas' (a different Thomas) Lothlorien. Thomas was having a poor day of it and struggling with the nuances of the new version of Lothlorien, so we vowed to simply try and have fun with it.
Galadriel, Lady of Lothlorien: Mirror of Galadriel
- Galadhrim Warrior: Banner
- 5x Galadhrim Warrior: Lorien Guard, Shield, Elven Spear
- 5x Galadhrim Warrior: Lorien Guard, Sheild
Celeborn, Lord of Lothlorien
- 7x Lothlorien Warrior: Elf Bow
Haldir, Galadhrim Captain: Elven Cloak, Elf Bow, Heavy Armour
- 4x Galadhrim Warrior: Elven Spear
I deployed Theoden first in my Side A corner, then placed Aragorn on the opposite side before placing Haldir alongside Theoden. I reasoned that Aragorn was most able to hold his own and the bigger contingent would draw more focus. Thomas deployed the Lord and Lady together with thier battleline, and his own Haldir in the opposite corner.
Ignoring the objectives early on, I ran Theoden's shieldwall at the Elven one, Haldir's group shooting past them to thin out the elven battleline. Aragorn's group ran towards the objectives initially, using the terrain to hide from Elven archery as my previous opponents had done. They eventually made it into combat with the Lothlorien bowmen and were able to wipe them out, despite Aragorn trying to lose with a triple one roll. Haldir later took out the survivors as they tried to take the objectives.
Aragorn himself went over to join the combat against the Lord and Lady and their entourage. Whilst I'd managed to thin their numbers with bowfire, I lost a number of the initial combats, and Celeborn's +1 to wound aura helped the Lorien Guard to level the numbers. Haldir and Theoden spent a good few turns transfixed, Haldir himself being a statue for going on 4-5 turns. The King eventually made his way into combat with Galadriel however, and with heroic moves, I managed to take initiative with Aragorn slaying the banner bearer, then fighting alongside Theoden to kill Galadriel.
At this point I had once again broken, and an unlucky roll saw Theoden flee the field the turn after Galadriel fell, with no Will left to boost it. The game lasted a few rounds past the potential ending point due to dice rolls, but it did end with more of the objectives in Lothlorien's hands than Rohan's.
A fantastic game that was fun for both of us.
Final Result - 7VPs to 13VPs
Game 4 - Domination
The final game of the day was against Sean's Army of Carn Dum. I'd heard this army was in the room earlier in the day, on account of it fielding no less that three Hill Trolls. As I'm looking to build a Carn Dum army myself, it would be fun to see how it plays. Sean later went on to win best painted for the day, and it was a truly nicely looking army.
Aldrac, Warlord of Carn Dum
- 2x Hill Troll
- 10x Carn Dum Warrior: Spear
- Carn Dum Warrior: Banner
Fraecht, Vassal of the Witch King
- 6x Angmar Orc Warriors: Shield
- 3x Angmar Orc Warriors: Bow
- Hill Troll
2x Warg Riders (unsure on warband and equipment, looks like his submitted list missed them off).
With objectives at play and having ignored them in the previous game, I pushed forward quickly to engage, but did leave a firing lane open enough for Haldir's group to shoot two wounds off of one of his trolls. On the left flank, Aragorn's two archers shot down a Warg and it's Rider whilst walking forwards to shoot the other. On a turn with priority, I elected to charge in rather than allow him to get the +1FV. This may not have been the right choice, as backing up into spear range and shooting for another turn may have finished off the troll and netted me a warrior kill or two.
Aragorn got stuck into the Orcs and eventually took down the left-flank troll, his archers taking down the second Warg Rider in combat. Haldir left behind a lone elf on an objective and ran forwards to support combat. Finally, Theoden engaged the men of Carn Dum, hiding amongst the Royal Guard to try and avoid Aldrac and the third troll.
Unfortunately, Aldrac's free Heroic Combats did allow him to get at the King of Rohan and killed him in single combat with 3 wounds. Haldir struggled for a number of turns to take the centre-trolls final wound, almost dying before Aragorn ran over to lend a hand. Whilst I kept calling Moves as needed to avoid the F4 and keep fights for my basic warriors at least tied, I yet again found my army ground down into being Broken and eventually Quartered, ending the game.
What worked for me was the two Galadhrim managing to clear and take an objective in his deployment zone, whilst also shooting his sole warrior off of another. He had managed to get an objective on my side and had the majority on the centre objective, but the game ended in a draw with both armies being broken and both leaders being either dead or wounded, as Aragorn had put a wound on the Warlord towards the end.
Another fun game and it was fun to see the strengths of Carn Dum in play. The Hill Trolls are certainly scary and only really Aragorn and archery was able to deal with them. Likewise Aldrac hits hard and is a big threat on his own. Fraecht I did not see perform all too much, and I don't recall any of his Incantations doing much, though Sean did activate them.
Final Result: 8VPs to 8VPs
When the dust settled, I sit once again at last-place-but-one, with three losses and a draw. On paper it does not really look like I've improved at all in my gameplay, but whilst I can certainly see where I've made rash decisions and rushed in too quickly in places, I can also see where I've made smart choices on the small scale. That might be ordering the combats to avoid being trapped, or moving a model to create a control zone blockage. There were also cases where I could not do any better than the dice would allow (Aragorn's triple ones for example).
That said, I'm still playing for fun, and I was definitely paired up against some skilled opponents. Thankfully they were happy to give me pointers and I've been able to learn from each player directly or indirectly.
Board in Brum continues to be a fanstastic environment, and the crowd there are a good bunch.
Next time, I'm off to play in a brewery with 200pts of Carn Dum. Until then!