Yeah, I meant 100, not 1000! Just a typo.

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Free fan-made BotFA Supplement

Hahaha thats awesome. Ill edit the topic title. As long as its a healthy discussion in my topic lets talk about anything!

Keep em coming guys.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

Was playing Hunter Orcs + Goblin Town + Moria + 3 trolls at 2000 pts against Dwarves. All of the big dwarf heroes were there. Most of the game consisted of my orcs and goblins not doing too much, with Fimbul, Bolg, the trolls and the Great Goblin doing most of the work. Fimbul killed about 180 pts of dwarves on his own, he literally single handedly held my right flank. He kept rolling a 6 to win each fight before being cut down by a Shieldbearer back up by 3 other warriors in the second to last turn. Azog took 3 turns to kill Gimli before killing a decent amount of dwarves. Then at the half way mark, I started killing loads his guys, LOADS of them a turn. It was pretty tense. Many turns later, we decided that we would finish up with this last combat phase. By that point, GG had died to masses of wounds, Bert died after sneezing (which is an insanely powerful rule) all over Balin and Thorin, and Tom had squished his last dwarf. Azog was done defiling. I had a slight advantage in numbers, my right flank consisted of Bolg, still a whole bunch of goblins and some orcs. My center had Durburz, Groblog and 2 shamans left. My left just had William Higgins. He had Durin, Dain, Thrain and a Shieldbearer spread amongst his warriors. Durin had a single point of might, Bolg had 14 kills, but no more might, every other one of his heroes was completely drained. I won priority. Bolg charged into Durin with every single orc possible being supported by a spear. Will charged Dain and Thrain before being counter charged by the rest of the dwarves in the area. We started with Bill. I rolled a 5, he a 6. Bill backed off, but was still alive. We turned to Bolg and Durin. This fight would be the last fight of the game, winner take all. It looked really bad for the Father of Dwarves. He called a heroic strike, with Bolg responding in kind. He rolled a 3, all I had to do to match was to roll anything but a 1. Which is did. He then rolled pretty low, so I still had hope... until he rerolled a 6. Bolg and a bunch of other orcs backed off. During swung at the completely unharmed Bolg, who, as fate would have it, had already dodged a wound. Durin rolled 2 5s and a 6. I tested my fate twice, and rolled a 1 and a 2. Bolg fell as the rest of my army fled.

There were SO many ways Bolg could have survived that last fight. If he had rolled a 2 or more for the Strike, he could have either tied or won. If During hadn't rolled a six, I still could have beaten him. If he just hadn't rolled 3 wounds, I would have survived. If I had made a SINGLE fate roll, Bolg would have lived another turn, when he would surely have beaten the might-less Durin. The back half of the game had gone my way so well, and it all crumbled with that last fight. That was the biggest surprise ending I've had in a while.

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"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

Drar was my biggest letdown. I used him twice, and made one kill only (a orc with bow). Only good thing he's ever done was spending his might in other heroes's place. By the way, how on earth an Expert Archer has only average skill with a bow? Why can't there be a Dwarf hero with a 3+ and a decent bow?
Murin was the one who made their points back.
When I say "murin" I really refer to a blessed king of Dwarves I use as proxy. Every time the Proxy King went in battle, he came back as a winner. He proxied as Murin, Gimli (back in the day when I did not have it) and even as KC. He survived every time, and every time he made his points (his "proxy" points) back. He met trolls, nazguls, the whole forces of Isengard.
One time he was surrounded by Uruks. And I mean 5 uruks on base contact, each with at least a pike back. The whole flank of my army had fallen in a couple of turns (four D7 killed in a single battle phase in one vs one fights, none was trapped or anything...talking about near impossible odds). He stood still. He won 3 fights in a row, killing 4 uruks in the process. In the end, my opponent dropped the idea of killing him, and just fetched him one uruk each turn.

That new Thrandy has just been awful to play against so far. I hate Fight 7 as he somehow always manages to roll a 6, except in 500 pt game were I defeated
him with regular Goblins but the cowardly Goblin King had failed his courage test to charge him. Everytime they actually engaged, he lost. In another game (750) had thrandy consistantly beat up a Cave Drake, and yet another game he killed a Mahud King, coming close to killing Burdhur (who was in my Mahud army).

Then the Nature's Wrath spell in general. Warbands led by Shamans off no protection from magic to the front so the entire front line gets decimated and since its channelled 12 Goblins died too. And if you do have heroes in the front line then you risk then getting shot. It's lose, lose. Except on those rare occasion where the roll is fluffed or something.

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

If we have moved onto the better surprises, Elendil had been my star player ! He's taken entire flanks on his horse and help turn the tide of battle when I really needed it I hope my mounted Gil-Galad moves up there with him

A few years back, I was playing a Last Alliance campaign, and in one game, it came down to Elendil and Gig-Galad fighting back to back against a few dozen Orcs and Uruks. They lost eventually, but not before cutting down over half the enemy and surviving twice as long as the rest of the army. Of course, they both (fittingly) failed epically against Sauron in the next match, failing to score more than a wound, but their last stand against the hordes of Mordor is one of my best gaming memories.

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I thought you dont have a choice for falling? You take the regular attacks then fall. Are you able to choose?

My biggest surprise was in a Gondor vs Mordor match I played against a friend. We themed the game as a Mordor surprise attack on Osgiliath immediately after Boromir left, so Denethor would still be there and had to take up arms.

His army consisted of Denethor, Faramir with heavy armour (we figured he would have switched armour in the little time he had), Madril and Beregond as personal guard of Denethor. The warriors were a combination of warriors of Minas Tirith, Rangers of Gondor, Citadel Guard and some Osgiliath Veterans which Loyal to the Captains rule we applied with Faramir and Denethor (we figured they would fight harder alongside their steward as well). My Mordor army consisted of a combination of Orcs, Morannons, Mordor Uruks and some Harad bowmen. I don’t remember which hero’s I had, because they didn’t do anything impressive during that game.

The game was played on a close quarters city warefare with a river dividing the map in 2. We agreed on 1 big bridge in the middle and 2 small bridges on both edges. My friend sent Denethor with a small army with Osgiliath vets and citadel guards to the right side of the board. Once he reached the bridge he started defending it without much result. Denethor failed his courage test almost every turn, resulting in me attacking his banner bearer with Denethor and slaying him before combat in the turns I had priority. The rest of Denethor troops became so demotivated I was over the bridge within 3 turns, losing none of my models. I felt pity for Denethor so I let him live after all his warriors were fallen. I simply moved him away from my warriors whenever my friend failed the courage test. On the other frontlines he had more success. His Faramir was a real pain in the *** on the middle bridge, killing of almost all of my Morannons with the help of his Osgiliath vets (and some who were first assigned to Denethor but moved away when Denethor lost his mind the second time). But thanks to Denethors lack of defending his bridge I could trap Faramir on the middle of the bridge and a few turns later victory was mine.

My friend wanted a rematch the next day with me playing Gondor. Learning from the day before I decided to take a slightly different approach and I sent Denethor alone to the middle bridge, thus avoiding he would go mad and attack my own troops. All other troops were assigned to the small bridges on the outside and all my bowman would support Denethor from afar. My friend split his force in 3 equal parts, one for each bridge. The only thing I remember from that game is that Denethor passed ALL courage tests he had to take and killed of every single opponent that tried to cross that middle bridge! In the end another victory for me. Up until this day I only have to field my Denethor to let my opponent shiver in fear

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Fear the Duck!
My WIP: Baardeend's Big Book

If you're going to theme it as before Boromir's death AND change the vets' rules, you really should have removed Broken Mind. Denethor only started going crazy after Boromir died.

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"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

Alternatively, just use the King of Men profile for pre-WotR Denethor. Not as cheap, but better represents him before he went loony.

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Yup, those changes would have been better... But Denethor wouldn't have been such a surprise if we did

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Fear the Duck!
My WIP: Baardeend's Big Book

I feel like changing the Vets' rule doesn't really fit, as they would hardly be as inspired by Denethor, having not fought by his side and have him lead them to victories innumerous. That said, having Denethor hold off an entire central assault on his own is incredible.

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Old rules.



I'm developing a book-faithful campaign (of course, many elements are still taken from the movies) in which, if Boromir survives his "Fateful Day", Denethor's Broken Mind does not apply.

"My Boromir!": if Boromir has survived the Amon Hen battle and takes part to the Siege of Minas Tirith, Denethor's rule does not apply. If Boromir is killed, the Broken Mind rule will take effect starting from the next Good Player priority phase.

[Fateful Day (Hero's name/Killer's name): If the named hero dies in this scenario, he can no longer take part in the campaign. Should the hero be killed by the named killer, the killer will immediately gain a Might Point (it may bring the total above its starting value).]

Amon-hen, for example, has 2 Fateful Day Rules (Boromir/Lurtz and Lurtz/Aragorn)

My absolute nightmare was at a 850 points match where i had Gondor/fiefdoms and my opponent had Isengard/mordor and he fielded Saruman, the Undying and Kardush. Words cant describe how this magic fest with endless will ruined not only ruined my heroes but also all my elite troops...
Boromir did not strike the whole game, my banners were never in range of anything and most of my troops were either blasted or running away.

As for a good surprise to other games i always field Forlong every time i play Fiefdoms and he has earned his reputation. To 1 match he managed to hold and kill Dark marshal,3 morgul knights, 5 moranon orcs and 3 black numenoreans all of his own, not a single help and in the end of the match he even survived with nothing left but 1 final wound but still refused to die

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We shall not be forgotten, from the ashes we shall rise to become immortals in history!

Armies:Fiefdoms, Eastern Kingdoms

Pre-warband rules, it was the Woses. I just had no answer for them. Granted, I was much younger and not very patient, so I always tried trusting my superior numbers and high defence to march straight through their shooting. My Morannon Orcs would get absolutely decimated, and this happened many times over. Only time I ever beat that army was in a Contest of Champions game (and that's mainly because my entire playing style is geared toward never losing in CoC).

Lately, maybe it's because I'm not playing enough games, or maybe my opponents are too nice to bring the really dirty armies, but I can't really think of any particular hero or unit that makes my life that difficult. When I lose, it's usually more down to my own failings than it is about a superior opposing model. I face a lot of Gil-Galads, he's not pleasant, but there are bigger problems in the game.



As for pleasant surprises, I can't say it's a surprise anymore since I've been using her for so long (and I now build most of my armies around her), but Shelob is a superstar. No two ways about it, she's a local legend now. The number of heroes she has gulped down over the years is staggering, so I'll sum it up by saying that she's killed the opposing big hero(es) in pretty much every game I've used her in for the past seven or eight years. This past weekend, I played two games, she took down Amdur, Isildur, and Elendil (after surviving a few rounds of abuse from Elendil and Isildur, until some help came along). Other career highlights include winning a duel with a Spider Queen and killing it, slaughtering many MANY Aragorns and Gimlis, holding up Glorfindel for an entire game, and I think she's been the main protagonist in the deaths of a few Treebeards too.
She's died on me once, and that was after getting surrounded by three trolls and a Spider Queen. She is a gem.

Can you please either post here or pm me explaining how you manage this?

Ive possibly been incredibly biased but I can never, ever find a reason to field a model where you might have it run by failing a courage test.....she doesnt have many attacks, and one roll of a 2 and a 1 at some point, and youre screwed. Keep in mind....what if the other army has a wraith!?

It seems weird to me.....if I played you(lets say its our first few meetings) Ill always take Elves with a lot of bows, Uruk X bows, Harad, Wraiths, Hunter orcs to swarm, etc.


I just dont see a way you get your moneys worth against any of those armies.......please elaborate when you can. Thanks dude. Uh.....um.....Mr. Dude.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

Her courage is pretty good, she's more likely to pass a test than fail it, and she has piles of will to help out. I've never seen Shelob run. She's come close a few times, but by the time you take enough wounds off of her (and force her to spend a bit of will), chances are she's in combat and ready to do her job. She has a high defence and a lot of wounds, I'm usually pretty happy when people shoot her because it means the rest of my army is safe. If archers are really bothering me, I'll hide her in some terrain or something, she can catch up. Plus, at game sizes where you can take enough archers to do any notable damage to her, chances are I have other threats around.

Her job is simple: For the first little while, lurk near the flanks and disrupt your opponent's lines (so, charge one model and hurl). Then, one your opponent exposes a hero, decide whether Shelob needs the support of a Captain or just a couple of warriors (or if she can solo it), which is a decision often based on said hero's FV and Might levels. Once you win the fight, four rending attacks that reroll failed wounds will rip most things apart.

It's all about stacking the odds in your favour, Shelob gives you a high fight value but lacks attacks, so you give her extra attacks by charging someone else in. Once you've won the fight, you've killed the hero. If the hero has might, bring your own hero in to counter heroic strike. You have to know how to pick your moments with her, trust that she can survive most attacks, but don't be reckless. Don't take on swarms of warriors, because she will never win. One at a time if you can help it. It's important to lurk her near your target hero, not so near that she gets charged, but near enough that you can get her in as soon as the chance opens up. Chances are, you need to have priority to pull this off (or heroic move), and usually you'll have to tie everything else up so Shelob/her support don't get counter-charged and pulled away from the important fight.



Basically, it's really easy to make her points back when her job is to hunt expensive heroes. She can't do it alone, but when you give her the right tools, I've even had her play a big role in taking down a Dragon.

ally druzag, i took a balrog down with that combo she ends up at F and S 10 5A on the charge with knock down, best combo in lords of battle where she can kill a hero then heroic combat, pure devastation bestial fury means she doesn't need to take courage tests should she take a wound

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Ok I understand that. Thanks a lot for the information. I always shy away from it.

I still think Im a player whos more comfortable with all around heroes you dont have to worry about. I like synergy sometimes but I prefer taking units that are great alone.

For example its cool to take a bunch of troops that do special things when put together like spiders and stuff, but Id prefer to take Morannons that I know will do the job without a risk.

I still wanna try shelob one day. My idea is to surround her with some wargs or something that can keep up, and spear support with orcs. I dunno. Never faced it, and chances are with the players I usually play with, never will.

Maybe in my upcoming heroes and monsters tournament.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY