My first MESBG tournament experience

This Sunday I joined a local tournament as a way to get back into the gaming side of this hobby. This ended up being a casual 395pts tournament named "A Ranger Caught off of his Guard". The points are this way specifically to reference the scene where that line is spoken, as Aragorn, the four hobbits, Arwen on Asfaloth and Bill the Pony total exactly 395pts. In fact, there were a few examples of this list were in attendance, though I did not get to face them, one of them managed to reach 3rd place in the final scores.

No points for what I took; Riders of Theoden.

1x Theoden, King of Rohan-Snowmane with Armour, Shield, Exchange armour for heavy
armour
- 2x Rohan Royal Guard-Throwing spears, Horse
- 2x Rohan Royal Guard-Horse

1x Eomer, Marshal of the Riddermark-Throwing spears, Shield, Firefoot with armour
- 4x Rider of Rohan
- 1x Rider of Rohan-Throwing spears
 

395 points | 11 models | 5 bows | 4 throwing weapons
Broken: 6 killed | Quartered: 2 remaining | Might: 6



A pair of blurry photos of the army and thier dismounts. I was quite glad I got to include a pair of my old plastic Royal Guard and a pair of my Shieldmaidens in the list.

Nothing revolutionary, but it has a couple of decent combat heroes, especially Eomer after his recent buffs. Half the troops are Royal Guard to help to mitigate Terror and bring that higher Fight Value. Finally, there's plenty of bows and the maximum Throwing Spears I could bring. The downsides are it's low numbers and lack of banner, but at this points range I figured I'd manage.

Game 1 - Domination

The first game was against Jacob's Muster of Isengard. He was another returning player, so we were both rather insure in our initial plays, and spent plenty of time consulting our rules manuals.

 Saruman
- 4 Uruk-hai Berserkers
 - 6 Uruk-hai Warriors-Shields
 - 7 Uruk-hai Warriors-Pikes
 - Uruk-hai Warrior-Banner 

A thematic game in some ways, but a touch match-up. Jacob initially split the Berserkers and a few pikemen off to run around a building, allowing me to focus most of my army on his shieldwall. Whilst I was initially able to clear out most of his front-line shieldbearers, I could not keep the momentum. Saruman locked Eomer down with Transfix's for several rounds, evading my attempt to flank a Rider around. Eventually, the Berserkers charged in and the Uruk's ground me down. Eomer redeemed himself in the later rounds, but it was too little too late. (Besides, the bar was low, he rolled triple 1's in the one round.)

I committed two Riders early to guarding a pair of objectives, but this left them out of place and thier bowfire contributed little. In hindisght, charging quicker with a simultaneous flanking manueovre would've served me better, perhaps even allowing me to lock Saruman down. More judicious use of Heroic Moves and Combats would've helped also.

Final Result: 0VPs to 12VPs

Game 2 - Hold Ground

This game was a mirror match (ish), against Brian's Kingdom of Rohan. However, he'd brought a Captain instead of Eomer, allowing him to bring three more Riders and a banner in exchange.

1x Theoden, King of Rohan-Snowmane with Armour, Shield, Exchange armour for heavy
armour
- 4x Rohan Royal Guard-Throwing spears, Horse

1x Captain of Rohan-Horse, Shield, Exchange armour for heavy
armour
- 7x Rider of Rohan
- 1x Rider of Rohan-Banner

Deployment here led to both of our Theoden-led warbands sitting next to each other, with Eomer and the Captain flanking from either side, leading to a situation where priority would decide which of us would get sandwiched. I lost and called a heroic move to take the initiative. Placement left me mostly of of range. The next turns saw incoming fire whittle down my Might and Fate as I rolled badly trying to keep Snowmane and Firefoot alive. Brian was able to smartly keep control of the battlefield, leaving me with few options and eventually near everyone died.

Hindsight here was after Theoden fell, I forgot entirely about Eomer's Grief rule, which may have allowed me to kill off Brian's Theoden and grab a few VPs. In the end, this was a fun game and I didn't need to claw for points like that.

Lessons from this game? Perhaps it's ok to let the horse die sometimes?

Final Result: 0VPs to 16VPs

 
Game 3 - Reconnoitre

This game featured something that I was worried to face; a large horde and plenty of magic in the form of Will's Shadow's of Angmar.

Shadow of Rhudaur
 - 2x Orc Warrior, Shield
 - 3x Orc Warrior, Two-Handed Weapon
 - 3x Orc Warrior, Spear

 Orc Captain
 - 2x Orc Warrior, Shield
 - 3x Orc Warrior, Two-Handed Weapon
 - 3x Orc Warrior, Spear

Barrow Wight
 - 3x Orc Warrior, Shield
 - 3x Orc Warrior, Spear

 Barrow Wight
 - 3x Orc Warrior, Shield
 - 3x Orc Warrior, Spear

Despite having the speed advantage, we both charged straight into the middle without thought for escaping initially, though later a single Rider and a trio of Orcs would peel off to run for the board edges. The middle of the board became a big scrum and I managed to better keep fights in my control, though Terror stopped a few charges where I couldn't get Royal Guard into play. This was a especially bad my first charge of the game and greatly slowed me down.

Eomer once again became the target of a magical hailstorm, though much of it failed, and he even managed to shrug off a Paralyse after it costs him most of his Fate and Wounds. In revenge, he killed the Shadow. The end of the game saw both of my heroes hanging on by a thread, and a single Rider escaped.

This easily could've gone either way, with the state my heroes were in. Lessons here are to lead with Royal Guard on big charges, as failed courage checks on Riders blocked me in places and stalled my momentum.

Final Score: 7VPs to 2VPs


Game 4 - Destroy the Supplies

This game I matched against Rob's Rivendell, a fairly numerous list led by Elrond. I have learned to fear him.

Elrond, Horse
 - Rivendell Warrior, Banner
 - 6 Rivendell Warriors, Elf Bow
 - 5 Rivendell Warriors, Shield and Elven Spear
 - 5 Rivendell Warriors, Shield

Rob set up in a gunline with Elrond in the back. Fearing the Elven bowfire, I charged forward, trying to use the terrain to get In-the-Ways where I could, but still lost both men and horses on the way in. I sent of a few flanking Riders once again to try and get to his supplies.

In the centre, I charged in and then Elrond stepped forwards and knocked them all down. Wrath of Bruinen is a nasty spell. In the following turns, I could not get any momentum and killed only a single Elf. My flanking Riders did nothing but waste arrows and then fail thier Courage tests as the Army broke. In his final moments, Theoden slew four elves in single combat, but ultimately I lost with two supplies and an army destroyed.

Lessons here is that you can be too gung-ho. Taking a larger loop around would've allowed me to avoid more fire, and perhaps split his forces. The other is that you must absolutely resist Wrath of Bruinen on a cavalry charge. I rolled bad, but I could've used an extra Will dice and didn't, thinking to save it for a follow up. Rob explained that he'd failed to successfully cast it in every proceeding game, but in this one it 100% sealed the deal for him.

Final Score: 0VPs to 18VPs

 
Game 5 - To the Death!

The final game, against an army that was already dead; Martin's Defender's of the Pelennor.

The King of the Dead
 - Warrior of the Dead, Banner
 - 6 Warriors of the Dead, Shield and Spear
 - 6 Warriors of the Dead, Shield

 Herald of the Dead

Another worrisome match-up, as I know the Dead hit hard and die harder. I took the lessons from the previous games and got in quick, sending a parallel flanking force and keeping Riders in reserve as the Fearless Royal Guard took the lead alongside my heroes. Death! netted me a good number of early kills, and whilst I kept going with judicious Heroic Moves, eventually attrition and the Blades of the Dead wore me down. 

Eomer and the King of the Dead duelled back and forth until they both had a single wound, but the King eventually took the win, and I was Quartered in that turn. A rather close game, and one where winning required just a few more sixes, when I already rolled more than plenty.

Final Score: 3VPs to 7VPs

So ending the day with 1 Victory and 4 Losses, leaving me in 39th place out of the 40 attending players with my mere 10 Victory Points. I was nonentheless satisified with my performance and had a fantastic day. Every match was close and could've gone either way with just a few different rolls or tactical calls, with the sole exception being such a well-placed and decisive strike it was impressive to witness. Every player I spoke to, as well as the organisers were friendly and accomodating.

I'd gladly attend more events at this venue, despite it being a little out of the way, so I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for future events like this one.

As for my list, I doubt there is much I can do to refine it. 395pts is small enough where you have to make sacrifices. Eomer was far too valuable to drop him for a cheaper alternative, but with Theoden being mandatory, it leaves little points for troops. A banner would've been nice, but then the list would've been far too small to perform I would think.

Riders of Eomer or Kingdom of Rohan may have been good alternatives, using Eomer as the General backed up by a Captain (likely the former, for the free Heroic Combats). However, having your General getting stuck in is a quick way to lose him, so there's pros and cons to that approach.

May be moot anyway, I doubt we'll see this exact points level soon.

Anyhow, without much further waffling, until next time. FORTH EORLINGAS!

 

 

 

Shieldmaidens of Rohan

After a much tinkering and procrastination, I finally finished the three Shieldmaidens of Rohan that I started back in June. Each one has a foot and mounted version so I've averaged a model a month, which is quite the poor show. In either case, here they are:

I've gone quite simple with this, and kitted them out in three wargear options available for Riders of Rohan (even though it's technically only two, it just depends on which weapon they are holding). This is simply because that is what they will represent on the tabletop, and it is a great way to add variety to my force of Riders as it grows. I really try my hardest to avoid duplicating models where possible.

The base of each shieldmaiden is one of the female Mirkwood Ranger minis. I wanted them to be "authentically female" rather than just giving a normal warrior slightly longer hair or something. Without going third party, the GW range has limited female options, most of which are hero options (Eowyn, Arwen and Galadriel). The Rangers however offer a good mix of options that are relatively easy to "Rohan-ify" and come in plastic, which is much easier to work with than alternatives.

Most of the rest of the components then come from existing Warriors or Riders of Rohan, although I did take some hands and weapons from 3D printed Rohan scouts (I believe they are Medbury). This was because they have smaller scaled hand sizes that better matched the Ranger's own. The Rohan models hands seem almost twice as large.

So, why Shieldmaidens? They don't exactly exist in the lore and Eowyn is the big exception to the rule. I have three reasons:

1) They add variety to my army.
2) They represent my girlfriend and two daughters.
3) They represent the real-life female jockeys that made up the cast of Riders in the Jackson films.
4) It's a bit of fanfiction that I accept is lore-innacurate.

With the upcoming "War of the Rohirrim" (WotR) film (two days away at the time of writing), the fairly recent culmination of Rings of Power's second season and also the recent announcement of the Hunt for Gollum... duology? Trilogy? (Tolkien help us), the conversation around Middle Earth canonicity is huge right now. I generally fall on the side of "stick to the canon" but not without wiggle room for a good adapation. For example, the Jackson trilogy? Good adapation. Rings of Power? Bad adaptation. WotR? Remains to be seen.

WotR is ostensibly the story of Helm Hammerhand, one of the greatest kings of Rohan and reads as almost mythological. It's the story of a man driven to wrath when his country comes under threat from both outside and in. What we are getting in the upcoming film instead seems to be the story of Hera Hammerhand. Whilst this character exists in lore (unlike RoP Isildur's sister. Where's Anarion gone Amazon?), she is little more than an unnamed plot device. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing, Tolkien's writings on Helm is a mere two pages, and addresses a period of several years. There is scope to build a story around Hera or her brothers there, however the film I want to see is about Helm and the war between Rohan and Dunland during the Long Winter. So long as we get that faithfully, even if Hera is the main character, I will be happy with the film... assuming it is well-written of course.

We know why we are getting this story as well. Ostensibly the producers wanted a female-led film. One set in Rohan, with parallels to Eowyn is an easy selling point. Middle Earth's stories are limited to Eowyn, Luthien and Haleth for good female-led options, and two of those are Simarillion-era stories, and not well-known to the average Lord of the Rings fan. That last one also being the name of Hama's son in the Jackson trilogy also throws people off.

I'd originally written a long rant extolling the virtues of good adaptions and trashing Rings of Power, even bringing up various video games (some good and fun, but very lore-innacurate) and The Hobbit films (bloated a messy with some good sections), but it's a discussions that's been done to death.

It's easy to say there is no perfect adaptation of Tolkien's works. Jackon's films are perhaps mostly highly ranked (excepting The Hobbit trilogy), but even it has gaps and changes. Tom Bombadil and The Scouring of the Shire are big ones many people point out, but I personally miss Aragorn and Eomer's banter at Helm's Deep, The Passing of the Grey Company, and Theoden slaying the Serpent King.

So, how am I resolving my shieldmaidens into the lore of Middle Earth? They will simply exist in my army as women who picked up thier husband's gear in their stead, be they away figthing, hunting or just dead. Rohan is a country with a long history of war, and there is many a time where the women of Rohan may have had to take up arms to defend hearth and kin. They just may not have ridden as official members of an Eored. I don't think this detracts from Eowyn's story, and I think it is lore-friendly enough.

Until next time.