It's been officially a full year since my first MESBG tournament experience, and I've returned once again to that very event; Board in Brum's A Ranger Caught off his Guard. If you haven't seen last year's post (Read here), or just don't remember, the format is very simple. Five games at 395pts, with a minimum model cap of 3 and a maximum of 40.
The points level was chosen quite simply to reflect the Road to Rivendell list mirroring the scene in which the tournament's title is spoken. Aragorn, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin, alongside Arwen riding Asfaloth, clocks in at a 395pts.
Last year I took a Riders of Theoden list, headed by Theoden and Eomer. I struggled to get much in the way of success, but learned a lot. This year, after a rather successful 7th place result at A Pull of the Old Toby with the Grey Company, I figured I would take the Rangers again and see if I could not replicate the success.
The List
The Grey Company is an elite list. At the previous event I'd crammed Aragorn and Legolas and 8 Rangers into 500pts, with a few bits of equipment dotted around. The 105pts difference was going to really hurt my numbers...
Seven models is incredibly low. I expected to be outnumbered in any case, especially packing two named heroes into the list, but with an average model count for the event of 21, I would later end up being outnumbered 3-1 and even 4-1. The Elven cloaks were a must for ensuring Aragorn and Legolas could act without being overly impeded, especially as neither could take armour (as Aragorn can't and I couldn't afford Leggy's). It was also a shame I couldn't spring for Aragorn's bow, but with some consideration and looking at the expected scenarios, I needed him either marching for objectives or otherwise chopping things up with Anduril.
Spears I was happy to do without, especially at these numbers, but I did miss the armour on my Rangers a little bit, as there were a number of occasions the extra Defence would have saved a wound. It can really be a pricey investment in most Ranger lists, and the extra body (and Might) is usually better, but I always slot in a few bits of armour if the points allow, just to avoid that Str 4 where I can.
The Scenarios
Once list submission was complete, the TO's released which scenarios we would be playing. This was nice as I was able to familiarise myself with each one and prep a little game plan for each. It would be match-up dependant of course, but having a couple of ideas of how to deploy and move in the early turns pre-loaded the thinking for the games. It also helped me keep the Scoring Objectives in mind, something I can forget in the thick of things.
Round 1 - Lead from the Front
Round 2 - Divide and Conquer
Round 3 - Destroy the Supplies
Round 4 - Conquest of Champions
Round 5 - Capture and Control
Four objective based scenarios. Two with random endings on a Break. No Maelstrom.
It felt like a fairly hero-centric day, which on the surface felt good with a full hero list. But we'd have to see how my planning survived first contact.
Round 1 - Edd Quick's The Last Alliance
Edd was a lovely chap and a newcomer to the venue. He'd brought Isildur and Erestor with a mixed Elf-Numenorean battleline and a small cadre of Elven Bowmen. The army looked lovely with a nice lava-riddled basing scheme and display board. (Sorry for no photos on this report, I completely forgot!)
The early game was entirely shaped around us fearing each other's archery. Five Elf Bows vs Legolas and five ranger bows. Using buildings as cover, I advanced a Ranger up each side at half-pace, with Aragorn leading a small group up the left-side centre. Legolas took up a spot on a balcony, but would be unable to get a shot for 3 or 4 turns. Isildur led the majority of the battleline wide to my right, once again skirting a building completely out of shot, though I was able to fire a few arrows his way, the stilts of the Laketown-style building offered too many In-the-Ways to get much bow fire through.
Arrows caused a couple of casualties on either side, with me heavily relying on In-the-Ways to avoid damage. Eventually the battleline came into view and I was able to start working on my plan, focus-fire the banner, taking pot-shots at Isildur where I could as both would give me VPs.
The banner would ultimately last right up till the final rounds, including surviving two rounds of combat with Aragorn, who seemingly forgot how Anduril worked. Neither King of Gondor would see combat against each other, only expending Fate to avoid wounds, and I think we were both concerned about how that fight could go badly for us.
Eventually, Isildur would put on the Ring on take the right-hand objective, contested by a Ranger. I held the centre, with Erestor and a Ranger contesting the left. A tie for objective points
The final score was 9-6, owing to me quartering his list down to just the two heroes and an archer or two, and killing the banner to grant us both the 2VPs there.
A fun game that I actually wonder how it could've gone had Edd been more aggressive with his battleline, but his concern was valid as I believe I shot out as many of his troops as I slew in combat. An Aragorn-Isildur face of could've been interesting, especially with the Ring, but far too risky for either of us. I do hope we can face each other again in the future.
Round 2 - Edward Hodges' Khazad-Dum
The second Ed of the day, Edward is someone I've actually played a number of times at other events and have always lost to his dwarves, including at Old Toby with my Rangers.
Divide and Conquer was good for me. Ed had a Dwarf King and a Captain, leading some 25 dwarves split between Khazad Guard, Dwarf Warriors and his own, arguably much more deadly Rangers. The deployment would force him to split his force in two, whereas whilst my list was built with four warbands (Aragorn + 2 Rangers, Legolas + 1 Ranger and two solo drops), the army rules gave me the option to deploy as a single warband.
I considered splitting so that the two solo drops were on the far side of the board, but opted instead to consolidate my position. The game had a chance to end on a Break, and the objectives rewarded taking and holding the centre. Being outnumbered 3-1 by dwarves, I kept my plan simple. Aragorn would take some Rangers and rush towards the Captain, whilst Legolas would try to snipe out the King's own Dwarf Rangers, trying to get them before they got into range of the more centrally deployed mirrors. If I got the chance, I would try to shoot his King as well. I'd worked out that if I could wipe the Captain's warband, I'd only need to kill a few of the King's warband to break him, and the smaller warband would be much easier to deal with.
Running up on some terrain, Aragorn's team avoided bowfire whilst also trading the odd arrow. Eventually they got stuck in a slowly ground through dwarves, with the Captain giving Aragorn a wide berth, especially as he'd spent all of his Might on Marches. Legolas succeeded in removing most of the dangerous longbows with a Ranger's support, though had to keep backing up as several dwarves were trying to hunt him down.
Eventually I broke him and started maneouvering to grab objectives whilst Aragorn tried to run at the King. His Captain pounced on a Ranger, almost coming unstuck in one round as I rolled doubled 6's to wound, saved only by Fate, and angrily struck down his opponent the following turn. Legolas had lost his Ranger pal also, but between them had taken out the Khazad's, only for him to lose every fight against the Dwarf Warrior remaining.
The game ended as expected before I could get to the King. The scores totted up to an extremely close 6-5, and on reflection it was a matter of the Captain being a mere half inch out of range of contesting an objective, and one of my Rangers passing a Fate roll either of which would have called it a draw, and both flipping the score in Ed's favour.
Always a fun person to play against, and I look forwards to hopefully evening up our relative win-loss ratio at future events.
Round 3 - Matthew Hare's Halls of Thranduil
Destroy the Supplies was perhaps my least anticipated scenario for the entire day. I lacked the model count to sufficiently defend my objectives as well as target my opponents and realistically had to just try and trade out. Matthew's list had both the Elk and three cavalry though so I would be heavily outmatched in terms of speed.
Naturally the game started with the elves doing their level-best to avoid being shot at, whilst I tried to manoeuvre to target the horses and Thranduil himself. With a large ruin offering a lot of cover, he was able to push his battleline forwards, though thankfully not without casualty. He flanked me with two cavalry, and although with some luck I was able to dispatch them with the lone guard Ranger, he was still able to destroy my supply on the the right-flank.
When combat was joined, Aragorn yet again got stuck in, with Thranduil skirting the melee and picking off Rangers whilst Legolas tried desperately wound his dad or his mount with PinPoint shots, but failed to make an impact.
Eventually, the superior numbers and mobility of the Elves won out, and he completely destroyed all of my supplies. Aragorn made a break for one of his supplies, with Heroic Combats, but was a full turn away when one of my Rangers decided he'd had enough of the multi-turn melee he was in and took out the two Palace Guard with a double 6 roll, quartering them and ending the game before Aragorn could get where he needed to be.
This was my first loss, 3-11. My only points came from breaking his army and him not having a banner, and with 3 supplies destroyed to zero, a clear loss. I always like to analyse my losses to understand what I could've done better and I do wonder if it was simply more of a deployment issue. Feinting left with a solo Ranger and deploying on the right would have given me much more clear firing lines, and I had the advantage in firepower as his list only had a Sentinel and a single Mirkwood Ranger in it for range. I'd have still needed to give up perhaps two objectives, but may have been able to draw Thranduil and his cavalry out earlier.
Ifs and buts, and lessons learned. Matthew would later go on take 3rd place in the overall tournament, so I'll take it on the chin losing to a solid player. Well done to him!
Game 4 - Jack Buckler's Army of Thror
Hot off of the FAQ presses, Jack had bought the Army of Thror with it's new 50% throwing weapon limit. Contest of Champions is definitely Aragorn's chance to shine, but with the deployment forcing us to be close and the dwarves outnumbering me 2-1, this would be a struggle. Jack is another player I've faced before, where I'd take a close win against his Radagast's Alliance by utterly abusing the terrain, so I knew he was another tough player to face.
The game started with an Heroic Move-off, which I believe he won (my memory is getting foggy the day after). The line clashed quickly, and only Legolas and a couple of Rangers avoided turn 1 combat due to being deployed slightly back. We fought between two terrain pieces, which levelled the numbers initially, but several of his dwarves scaled the cliffs to the right and as the battlelines shifted, he began to start enveloping the Grey Company.
Legolas spent much of the game once again using Pinpoint shots to attempt to avoid traps, whilst my Rangers slowly dropped one by one. In the centre, Aragorn and Thror clashed for multiple turns, Thror surviving a good few turns thanks to poor Wound rolls on my behalf and some great Arkenstone Fate rolls on Jack's. Eventually however, Aragorn remembered how his sword worked again and got a triple wound through.
With the score 1-0 on kills, Aragorn tried his best to boost the score, but was only able to kill one more Grim Hammer before Legolas was taken down and I was left quartered, ending the game.
Final score was 13-3. I don't have much to say about this game tactically, as it was just pure slog fest. Perhaps give room I could've backed off and gotten in a round or two of shooting, but the lines were so close this was unlikely to have scored more than a single wound and may have meant Thror could've gotten into my Rangers instead of Aragorn. The terrain was also helpful as it was, so all I can do is thank my dice and move on to the last round.
Round 5 - Dale Groves' Goblin Town
The final round, and I'm riding high, with three wins to my name, despite my low VPs so far, a 4-1 ratio could see me contesting the podium (post tourney I realise it've been a likely 5th place, but still worth pushing for!) Dale, as the TO of the event had to juggle a little bit of his duties with the game early on, but the event is really run well and he was able to focus on the match. Good stuff that he still gets to play!
If I thought I'd been outnumbered before, Dale was about to reteach me the meaning of the word. With the Goblin King, two Captains and 33 goblin warriors, it was the most outnumbered I'd been all day, and the Goblin Town's propensity for surrounding you with hordes was especially dangerous with my own low model count.
I realised early on I'd have to give up and then fight my way to the objectives, but also would need to try and deal with the Goblin King. To this end, I set up in two rough groups, with a solo ranger skirting Weathertop off to my left flank to try for that side's objectives. I ended up having Legolas across from the King and Aragorn across from one of the Captains.
Early game shooting was poor, and the few shots Legolas put into the King were all saved. Very few goblins fell as they skittered over the objectives, and even as I backed away with Legolas' group they kept coming and I soon found every model I had in combat.
Unfortunately, things continued to go wrong for me. The goblins fell slowly despite their low defences as the dice just did not want to cooperate and a number of times I roll 5 high against sixes and was forced to spend Might just to not have the Grey Company drown in dice. Pinpoint shots continued to bounce off of the King and he took out the Rangers and then finally Legolas through sheer pressure, the Elf Prince never getting a single wound on him.
On the other side, Aragorn's band lasted longer, and mostly chopped up their own goblin horde, but as I broke, with Aragorn and that single flanking Ranger each in position to reach an objective, the random chance to end roll came and I rolled yet another two.
The final score was 16-1, with my sole point coming from breaking the Goblins. That last point could've really turned the tide had there been a turn or two for Courage tests, but alas. Dale took a well deserved win and got a solid fourth place in the tournament overall. It's funny how my two losses for the day were against top 4 players.
Looking back, I'm trying to think how I could've fought this different. I probably should've sent Aragorn straight at the King, but it would've been tricky to ensure he didn't get surrounded and I didn't want to get into a situation where a bad roll would see him dead. Perhaps overly cautious however. The other thing is my deployment, splitting the horde into three did work out but I do wonder how running as a solid block my have helped to avoid being surrounded. Using the terrain would've really helped and the Weathertop ruins would've been a prime location to defend and stymie their numbers.
Regardless, I could not have stayed there the whole game, and would've had to wade out to catch the objectives sooner or later.
Round Up
At the day's end I sat in 16th position with 3 wins to my name, and I'm very happy with that. Sure there are things I could improve, and that may have resulted in more decisive victories to give me a higher position. Still, whilst I did have the power of Aragorn and Legolas on my side, I was able to take a mere 7 models in a non-meta list to another damn good showing and I'm proud of that.
Biased as I am as it's my local, I will also always recommend Board In Brum's MESBG events, they're well run and the players that show up are a damn good bunch, so check it out if you have the chance.
Next event is the April Doubles event at BiB, Best Bit of the Book, to which I've already aluded to be attending with my girlfriend. Hobby progress on that one soon.
Once again though, thanks for reading. If you want to follow my hobby progress, Instagram is always the best shout where I can be found at @Manic.Hobbying, but for now, take care and catch you next time.