Well, the Friday before last Friday, I attended a multi-player battle, and brought a recent version of my 2,000pt Angmar army (see below) and a camera, this time with batteries. It was meant to be Ride of the Rohirrim, but noone actually brought any Rohirrim, hence the title, we nicknmaed it the Battle of the Five Armies, because there were 5 armies. The Good side was Elves, Dwarves and Gondor, and the Evil side was Angmar and Isengard. I brough more troops then anyone else, but the evil side was still out-points-valued, so bear that in mind. Also, almost every army here is an illegal army with too many rare formations.
Before I begin, proper, I'll give you an overview shot of the battle before it begins:
The armies were, to the best of my memory:
Angmar
Battlehosts:
Buhrdûr’s Warband
Buhrdûr
3 Cave Trolls
Angmar Orc Warband (3 companies) with bows
Moria Goblin Warband (3 companies) with shortbows
Warg Pack (6 companies)
Epic Heroes:
The Dwimmerlaik
The Tainted
Durburz
Drûzhag the Beastcaller
Legendary Formations:
Gûlavhar, the Terror of Arnor
Common Formations:
Carn Dûm Warband (5 companies)
Carn Dûm Warband (5 companies)
Ghostly Riders(3 companies) with Captain
Angmar Orc Warband (6 companies) with two-handed weapons
Rare Formations:
Gundabad Blackshields (3 companies)
Isengard
Epic Heroes:
Saruman the White Hand
Lurtz
Legendary Formations:
Sharku's Hunters (4 companies) with bows
Shelob
Common Formations:
Uruk-hai Warband (4 companies) with shields
Uruk-hai Phalanx (6 companies)
Uruk-hai Scout Warband (1 company) with bows
Rare Formations:
Uruk-hai Sappers (1 company)
Isengard Troll Captain
2 Isengard Trolls
Isengard Battering Ram
Gondor
Epic Heroes:
Boromir
Faramir
Legendary Formations:
Rangers of Ithilien(4 companies)
Common Formations:
Minas Tirith Warriors (6 companies) with Captain
Knights of Minas Tirith (6 companies) with shields
Knights of Minas Tirith (3 companies) with shields
Knights of Dol Amroth (3 companies)
Minas Tirith Archers (1 company)
Rangers of Gondor (2 companies)
Elves
Epic Heroes:
Galadriel
Legendary Formations:
Haldir's Elves (3 companies)
Common Formations:
Galadhrim Regiment (3 companies) with shields
Galadhrim Regiment (3 companies)
High Elf Archer Regiment (3 companies)
Dwarves
Epic Heroes:
Dain Ironfoot
Gimli, son of Gloin
Common Formations:
Dwarf Rangers (2 companies) with bows
Dwarf Rangers (2 companies) with bows
Dwarf Rangers (2 companies) with two-handed weapons
Rare Formations:
Khazad Guard (3 companies)
Iron Guard (1 company)
Dwarf Ballista (1 company)
Dwarf Ballista (1 company)
These are the preliminary pictures. i.e of deployment Some are blurrier than others, I think some of the pic deleted themsleves though as I could of sworn I'd taken more anyway. It starts with Good deployment, then Evil:
And, since I have a battlehost in ambush, I thought I'd take a picture of the evidence, And yes Druzhag is there, he's hiding in one of my archers formations. My ally's Shelob is also in there, even though its my figure case.
In turn 1, not that much happened, our armies had moved closer together. If i'm not mistaken, my six company block of Orcs was in charge range but was driven out of it via shooting. And thus, the game would take a full turn before we could reach combat. With the use on Wings of Terror, cast by the Tainted, one of my Carn Dum Warbands, moved right towards the shieldless Galadhrim hiding in the forrest, while the immense block of KoMT marched in single file to assist the Elves. Also, (and at the beginning of the move phase) after a suggestion from me, my ally uses Saruman's overlord ability to send the Sappers 18" forward rught next to enemy formations.
When it came to shooting, none of my atchers arrived and my ally was out of range so we had to sit this bit out. The enemy launched a lot of arrows. Unfortunately for them, the first formation that they targeted with Dwarf arrows were the sappers, needless to say the sappers were wiped out, and exploded. They destroyed both dwarf ballistas and 1 company of dwarf rangers. The rest of their archery saw 2 Warg Riders, and many Barbarians and Angmar Orcs fall.
There was one fight in turn 1. The Carn Dum Beserkers succesfully charged the Galadhrim and, with the roll of a 6, were strength 7. Unfortunately, the Knights got a good charge in after miraculously passing their courage test to charge the Tainted's formation. Many of the faithful and loyal Barbarians were skewered on the end of KoMT lances. In the infantry strike, more Elves than Barbarians died, but, due to losses at the hands of the Knights. The Barbarians, lost, fell back and were steadfast.
These are the photos between turns 1 and 2:
I would post the board overview shot agin, but the only picture I have has someone who I think is under 16 on it, so I cannot legally post it as that is GW's polocy.
The ambushers arrived here, with the exception of the goblins with bows, but I took no photos. The Wargs moved out of the big forest towards the Rangers of Ithilien. Shelob and a Cave Troll apperead behind enemy archers. Buhrdur, the Orcs with bows and Druzhag, and a Troll appear on the left flank. And the other troll appeared behind our army. The enemy had no ambushers.
In turn two, the majority of the formations moved into charge range with each other. In the centre, the Orcs, led by Durburz and Warriors of Minas Tirith, led by Boromir moved against each other. The Uruk-hai with shields, led by Lurtz move in to support them. The Cave Troll at the far back attempt to move towards that fight to, but is far to far away. In the left flank, the Carn Dum and Galadhrim meet again.The Knights move in again, but the orc archers, and Saruman's pikes move to intercept, as do Sharkey's hunters. Both the Battering Ram and the left Troll approach whilst Saruman and Druzhag begin to soften up the enemy, Saruman also brought some Uruks back from the dead. Also, Galdriel uses magic to kill Buhrdur. On the right flank, the SKoDA and KoMT prepare to charge the men of Carn Dum, who failed the roll to cast Wings of Terror with the Dwimmerlaik, making them out of charge range, but had passed a SfC. Many of the monster lined up flank or rear charges, including Gulavhar.
In the shooting phase, they enemy continue to pepper our army with arrows, though few Orcs and Men fell. Unfortunately, through rolling many 6s, they killed Shelob, even though few companies actually fired at her. Her Cave Troll guard was likewise slain. My Orc archers killed 2 KoMT.
In the fight phase, Duels were called. The first was between Boromir and Lurtz, Boromir called the duel and both called ES, Boromir won, killed Lurtz and some Uruk-hai Warriors. The Durburz called an ES duel against the Captain, but rolled badly. I won but the Captain was unscathed and lost only 1 or 2 WoMT. Dain, also killed Sharku and destroyed half of his Warg Riders. Gimli, who was in the 1 company formation of Iron Guard, dueled the Troll Captain and won, but only caused a single wound, in combat the chieftain wiped out the Iron Guard and Gimli. The Carn Dum Warband on the right flank was anhialated in the fight proper. Though Gulavhar killed a SKoDA or was it a few KoMT, probably the latter, as the Barbarians killed the one SKoDA that died, whilst Gully killed several Knights. The 2 lesser Isengard Trolls killed a few archers.
These are the photos from between turn 2 and 3:
Due to time constraints, turn 4 was the last turn, which meant the battle could not come to a complete conclusion.
Nothing much happened in the move phase, save my ally and I's monsters moving into charge range, with several Trolls surrounding the WoMT in the centre, and my Cave Troll and ally's battering ram, move in to save my remaining orc archers (Druzhag had joined Saruman's formation) and barbarians. And the enemy's SKoDA set up a flank charge into the Lurtless Uruks, whilst Gulavhar carefully placed himself in charge range of the enemy SKoDA whilst avoiding being within arc of sight of the Rangers of Ithilien (now at half strength thanks to the now deceased Wargs).
More Warriors died by shooting, particular the forces of Evil, It was at this point that I remembered I had forgotten to bring the goblin archers out of ambush, a great mistake which, had I known, could have affected the outcome of the battle.
In the charge phases, most of what we expected to charge, as aforementioned did so, with 2 crucial exceptions. My left cave Troll and the Battering Ram both stalled!
In the fight phase, quite a few models died. A heroic Fight was called by Gulavhar who had rear charged the SKoDa who had flank charged the Uruk-hai. Gulavhar wiped out the SKoDA, and went to charge the Rangers of Ithilien. The centre fight between WoMT with Boromir on his last might point, and the mightless Durburz leading Orcs, with support from Ghostly Riders, a Cave Troll and an Isengard Troll. Boromir called a non-ES duel with his last might, skewering the Ghost Captain and 3 Riders. The Trolls took out nearly 2 companies between them, but the remaining company of Ghosts failed to do any damage against Boromir's Courage of 6. The Orcs and WoMT exchanged blows, and in the end the WoMT prevailed. The Orcs, Ghosts and Trolls sufferd no ill effects from losing. Gulavhar ES-dueled the mightless Faramir, who had failed the Terror test for being chrarged, thus being Fight 1. Needless to sat Faramir died, and so did all of his Rangers. In the left flank, the lack of a troll, and some in the rear elven archery, meany the Carn Dum Barbarians, despite being Strength 7 again were wiped out, even though they actually killed more elves. The Battering Ram who was supposed to save the 1 company of orcs w/ bows from the remaining 1 company from the 6 Company block of KoMT, had also failed,a nd needless to say again, the Orcs with bows died. Also on the right flank. the other company of KoMT wiped out the Blackshields.
Here are the pictures, from the ned of the last turn, before pack-up:
Oh and I forgot to mention, one of the Dwarf Formations had the new Finecast hornbloer, couldn't stop looking at it at first.
As you can see from the end, Good side has a slight adavntage. We called it a draw howevr, though the Good side probably would've won just by shooting. Although, if Durburz moved into the shield Uruks, who were then used as a shield for Gully we could've pulled it off, though the odds are against us. Overall it was a very fun battle, which I greatly enjoyed. Thank you for being incredibly patient.
