Yeah... I'm more than a little late on this one. You Haven't Got Any Friends was run back on the 27th of June, but this blogpost languished in my drafts for at least a week. Life can be busy you know, children to raise, terrain to paint, sleep to be slept.
As we all bake in the repeating heatwaves that is 2026's British Summertime, let's step back just over a week, to a GBHL Teams Event in Brum.
You can check out my list here, at the end of my review of the Defenders of Helm's Deep.
Game 1 - Vs Assault on Helm's Deep in Breakthrough
Having seen the teams and their lists ahead of time, this was the matchup I wanted, purely for the theme of it. My other options essentially boiled down to various flavours of goblin, or Shadows of Angmar. Fate served us well and I was granted the chance to fight many, many Berserkers.
I went in confident. Berserkers are dangerous, but I could match them with Elves in combat and I vastly outshot the single crossbow-uruk. Uruk Captains could be dangerous also, but my own heroes outclassed them nicely. Of course, this confidence may have been my downfall.
With a mind for the objectives, I deployed decently far forwards, but split my warbands around two buildings, with Theoden in the centre and Aragorn and Haldir on the flanks. The Uruks deployed in a long line right at the front of their deployment zone and charged forwards, right at Theoden. Shooting knocked a couple off, with Aldor notably wounding one of the Captains with his first shot, paying for his points nicely and securing near-instant VPs.
I brought Aragorn around to the flank with his archers to target the back ranks, and this was answered with the Uruks staying just out of his charge range. This space they gave him was smart, completely zoning Aragorn out of the fight. Worse still, I intended to answer with a Heroic March to move him and his warband into range, but completely forgot to call it and lost a turn to the mistake.
There's not much else to note from here. Both armies ground each other down in combat, whilst I sent my Rohan Archers up the left flank to at least secure that objective. The Uruk Captains waited patiently whilst the Berserkers chopped through my troops, eventually jumping on and slaying Theoden and my banner.
Perhaps I needed Gandalf to arrive with reinforcements! The final score was 4-13 in favour of my opponent, but it was well fought and Cameron was great to play against.
Game 2 - Vs Thranduil's Halls in Hold Ground
Deploying first, I got Theoden down in the Southern corner, and with a bit of Might on Haldir, managed to deploy my full list in one large group, moving the full distance forward. In response, Legolas arrived directly in front of me on the Eastern board edge, just out of charge range. Thranduil would arrive on the 2nd turn, and after some deliberation, my opponent James Paterson chose to squeeze him in behind my list, perhaps in an attempt to pincer me.
I'd given away priority this turn, so rather than engage directly, I shuffled most of my army westwards, setting up a new frontline with a building to anchor my northern flank, and using the southern flank to try and mob the end of the Mirkwood lines, avoiding Thranduil for now. Aldor yet again does work on the cavalry, dehorsing a knight.
The next turns basically amount to the main parts of each list fighting each other, whilst our archers tried to find shots at each other, myself targeting the cavalry and Legolas especially. I believe I did manage to remove a Fate or two from the prince, and eventually dehorsed or killed the cavalry. On the combat front, Aragorn was unable to get at Thranduil, the Elf King carving through my troops with Heroic Combats. Even with both Theoden and later Haldir chopping towards him, James keeps bodies in the way as I am just unable to grind through the elven heavy armour.
Bogged down in combat, I'm unable to move towards the objective in the centre, as it is covered by Legolas and the Mirkwood archers, despite my attempts to creep around and shoot them down. Eventually, the game ends 3-13 to James.
I think the mistake here was trying too hard to win the fight rather than the go for the objective. When I initially reformed my line, the smarter move should've been to leave a screening force and have Aragorn march the majority of my list to the objective. Rather than trying to pin down Thranduil, I would've been able to focus (if only briefly) on the less combat-oriented elements of Legolas' warband.
That's my tunnel-vision again!
Game 3 - Pits of Dol Guldur in Destroy the Supplies
After lunch we got the inter-team face-off, with me being matched against fellow Brumdabad member Rik Jones. He'd brought an interesting all-mounted Pits force, and this ended up being the best game of the day, which was actually saying something.
With me being massively outsped, I decided to deploy back, bunching around the central and left objectives. I left the right open on purpose, mainly just to avoid spreading out my force to much. The game starts with some top-tier shooting, de-warging several Orcs. Aldor yet again scores his points back by wounding the Captain, which is followed up with Haldir removing his Fate in the following turn.
With some luck, I get the first charge and push forward around a small ruin which does well to keep limit the wargs a little. Even with me taking the initiative, the mass dice from charging Hunter Orcs drops a fair number of my warriors, quickly levelling out the shooting damage. Rik naturally gets my rightmost supply, despite the token warriors I sent to dissuade this. In the melee, I have to focus to keep Theoden and my banner safe from Azog.
On the front line, Aragorn kills the Captain and tries to start Heroic Combatting towards Azog, but he's just not quite dealing enough wounds, and there are more than enough Orcs and Wargs to keep getting in the way. I keep my archery focused on the left flank, trying to clear out the Orcs there so I can sneak warriors forwards to claim a supply, but I fall short on that goal.
In the centre, with enough of my troops dead, Rik steals priority with the Surprise Attack army rule and with a bit of clever movement, pounces on Theoden. I'm largely walled out of my efforts to save the king, and he is struck down in a single turn. The game ends to quartering, though I don't recall which force now!
We have to recheck the points once or twice due to a miscount (I didn't read the rules right!), but in the end the game comes down to an incredibly close 8-7 to myself. A great game against Rik, I hope we get a chance to play again as it was a real gentleman's game.
Game 4 - Vs Men of the West in Conquest of Champions
List was built prior to the recent FAQ, when Gwaihir was 150pts
I'd been dreading facing Men of the West, being one of the premier meta lists in the game right now. The list had a nice mix of Rohan and Gondor warriors, and even a Captain of Minas Tirith. Henri was at his first event, but was a great lad to play against and I hope he enjoyed the game and day as much as I did.
Perhaps naively, we both selected our respective Aragorn as our champion. I get first move and target some warriors with Aragorn, electing to feed Elessar just one of mine. Mindful of Gwaihir getting Theoden or my banner, I set up to shield them, so the big bird simply jumps on that shielding force.
Terrain and deployment doesn't leave much space for shooting even with Haldir being deployed in the rear half, ridding me of one of my list's strengths. Instead I move my archers to try and find flank shots.
Another grinding melee, with my army basically trapped between the actual men of the west and Gwaihir. The Eagle chomps through a ton of my models, hurling several Aragorn's way. I get lucky there on the wounds, with even one of the hurled warriors surviving against the odds. In the centre, both Aragorn kill a single model each before clashing for most of the game. Henri brings my Aragorn to a single wound first, but I'm able to return the favour soon after.
We both manage to break each other's force around this point either, despite my struggle to kill Minas Tirith Warriors. Eventually, I get lucky and kill Elessar with Haldir, only for Gwaihir to kill Aragorn in the exact same turn. We play a bit longer, grinding against each other and Theoden eventually goes down before I can quarter him as he is able to shield to keep the game going. We eventually call the draw as one of Henri's teammates points out that neither of us can score any more points.
I'm not sure how I could've played this differently. Perhaps with the winning priority, a full retreat may have been the option, trying to draw out Gwaihir so he could be dealt with separately whilst I harassed the rest of the force with bow fire. Always easy to get focused on the combat, especially as I needed kills on Aragorn, and dealing with Elessar's Might stores was a priority too.
4-4
The End of the Day
As the dust settled, and the heat was finally peaking in the event hall, my team, Brumdabad 2, sat at 5th place overall. Considering the competition, that's really not bad and the four of us had done decently. What's more despite ending in 10th, the other half of the wider GBHL team, who had competed under There And Back Again: A Dwarf's Tale, had picked up best theme for their fantastic set up that involved Balin in two separate eras with dedicated foes for each. Rik, who I'd faced in the third round picked up Best Army for the day as well.
A great showing for the lads all round!
I'm also nominating Aldor as my MVP for the day. Despite his low shoot value and Str 2 bow, his re-rolls made him incredibly consistent. He more than paid for himself every game and I would heartily recommend his inclusion in every list for Defenders.
As it stands, my next event will be another teams one, this time BLANK, an 800 points GBHL90. I'll be taking Army of the White Hand to this one, which if that sounds a bit meta-chasy, just know I'm intending to bring a number of Dunlending Warriors, Vrasku and only four Crebain.
That said, recent conversations plus a recent episode of Entmoot as me eyeing up the Grey Company again, and so whilst I don't yet know how many more events I will be able to attend this year, I'm almost 100% locked in on taking them every single time, just to see if I can get them to podium. So wish me luck, I may need it!
