First of all, apologies for the delay. Such are the tribulations of untangling wires as my new job.
Anhow, the battle was at our newly formed Manchester LotR wargaming club, joining me yet again was Thermo and wonderfully, ste managed to join us as well! As a result, we decided that it would be a good diea to do two 250pt armies against a single 500pt force. Not wanting our new guest to be up against two people at once, Thermo and ste joined warbands against my host.
Note: I was stood on tiptoes for this and the beard was coming back - Dwarf time, baby!
Thermo's Grey Company, led by Halbarad and his 3 Ranger of the North buddies, leading a dozen Rangers of Arnor with spears had followed Denethor's descent into madness, declaring the noble Dwarfs of Erebor enemies, brining 7 Fountain Court Guards (with shields, no less!) and a Captain of Minas Tirith, with his company of 10 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and 8 spears. To defend the noble foothills of this vale, Balin, son of Fundin, brought Durin's mighty Axe and requested his cousin Gimli, son of Gloin, to aid him, who brought 11 Dwarf Warriors with shields to the field, meeting the half-dozen Dwarf Rangers with Dwarf Longbows who had reported the invading incursion when their Iron Guard friend informed them. Upon arrival, they found Radagast the Brown awaiting them, wishing to remove the demon inside Denethor's broken mind for the good of all Middle-Earth.
Well, my list is a bit peculiar because I decided Radagast would be a good way for us to learn the basics of magic (although one of his spells was useless and I didn't bother to check what Aura of dismay does, hahaha). If Thermo/ste had brought any cavalry, I'd have let us focus ont hose rules and used my other list (Captain w/shield, 7 Rangers w/Longbow,Balin w/Durin's Axe, VW team [to test them], 2 Iron Guard, 15 Warriors w/shields [5 for Balin, 10 for Gimli] and Gimli). Anyhow, we rolled up my favourite Dwarf scenario!
Reconnoitre... Well, looks like I'ma have to learn from week 1's mistakes then. We started the game and nothing happened in turns 1 and 2, except people steadily came onto the board. Turn 1 saw the entire Gondor contingent arrive and two of the Rangers of the North scouted ahead, whilst Gimli brought his force to bear (so Balin's troops could gather their breath, presumably!).
Turn 2 saw more reinforcements arriving, preparing for the lines to clash, with turn 3 seeing the rearguard of Arnor creeping in to aid the contest of the realms whilst the Dwarf surged forwards through thicket and brush, find defensible walls and hillocks to guard themselves with.
Unfortunately, it was until the end of turn 3 movement that we remembered Denethor's Broken Mind special rule - after all of ste's discussion about how it makes him a highly unusuable character and thene evrybody on the forums saying look at his stats and he'll rarely fail that test, then the three of us saying it before the battle: he promptly failed and I charged him into the Fountain Guard (FG)! Nothing came of it, but clearly Radagast had managed to rest the spirit from Denethor and reutrn his sanity, allowing him to plea with one of his bodyguards to stop this folly! He didn't listen, batting the old man away with his shield.
Radagast's mithrandic powers continued to abound as Denethor swiftly regained control (failed his Courage test) and sprinted face first at another FG, who promptly copied his companion. Not much beyond moving forwards again happened this turn until my regrowing Dwarfhood (read: beard) showed its true potential - The third dwarf Ranger shot seemed to get Hashut! symbol after Hashut! symbol (note: my dice have the Rune of Hashut for a 6
), sniping after moving, at the extremities of range, over a neck-height rock, into the soft mask of the Mithril-helmand promptly felled a FG, bringing first blood to the Dwarfs!
End of turn 4/turn 5 priority:
Come turn 5, Denethor's cretinous curse snapped his brain in twain and he returned his desire for Dwarf-slaughter anew (passed his Courage test). Balin and Gimli took a small number of their faithful warriors to intercept Denethor and his guard as Radagast tried to immobilise the stweard (staff + 1W, Denethor resisted, successfully, using 1W), to try to bring him to his sense, whilst the rest of the non-sniping force headed off to back up the sorely outnumbered kin on the bearded left flank. Come the shooting phase, one of the Dwarf Rangers took inspiration from his comrade and spied the FG way out in the open, took careful aim and managed to skewer his arrow through the neck joint, piercing both jugulars!
Thermo's retaliation to the dead FG (as the men had priority every turn so far) had been to loose with his tiny group of Ranger of the North and three Rangers of Arnor at a single shieldbearing Dwarf, guarding Balin's safety. The result to wound:
With the follow-up 4+s needed to kill him, the net result was:
Another arrow-bearded Dwarf and the first of Durin's line to die this day! Vengeance shall be had!
The end f the shoot phase looked as the next picture - as you can see, my left flank is heftily outnumbered, even if I seem to holding on the right and centre. That poor Dwarf behind the wall, stood alone, valiantly in a last stand. Will he best his foes?
Yep, that one there? What do you think? Because the answer is....
No... Bugger. I mean, avenge our fallen brethren!
Turn 6 and Denethor's hold of this madness seemed complete (passed his Courage again. Stupid old coot!), but nothign much seemed to happen this turn beyond redressing the ranks a lot (Gimli's troops on the left flank trying to regroup a little behind the forestry).
With Gimli and Balin forging towards Gondor's leader for rectitude, the Rangers pressed on through shrubberies (of Ekky-ekky-ekky-footang-zoop-boing-ni!) as Halbarad and the Minas Tirithians pressed on the opposite flank. In response, the eagle-eyed (fox-eared) Dwarf Rangers, sniped out yet another FG (Around here, Thermo commented on my remark that I lost before due to no beard, drew the next week because it was returning and now I was getting loads of 6s because it was thickening... No comment here
). The round finished with a mass of Minas Tirith oppressing the little demi-men, culminating in an epic battle. By which I mean a single shield-Dwarf bested and slew a single Warrior of Minas Tirith. Revenge! (Remember the PS1 and PC game Worms? Imagine I said it like that...) In almost all of the combats so far I had been using a rule I've used less than a handful of times before: shielding. It was proving very useful, but aggravating that either of the dice rolled would've won the fight and I missed the chance for sweet, sweet dishes best served cold. Alas, that jubilation meant no pictures this turn (or FAR too blurry to try to show).Come turn 8, Radagast found a cadre of Rangers hailing from Arthedain bearing down on him, spotted the leader and Immobilised him, only to find the man's strength of will was stronger than expected (again, staff + 1W lost to 1W from the Ranger of the North) and he found them preparing the rock as a defended wall. Simultaneously, the other elite squadron ont he same flank took potshots at my more stout rangers, leading to me exclaiming "Bam! Dead!" - turns out, I was wrong, but a point of Might rectified that and I re-exclaimed "Bam! Dead!" before sadly (and clearly reverently, based on my above attitude) removed his 4'6" corpse from the board. A slew of combats broke out on the left flank and a couple of skirmishes in the centre as well. In short, the following happened: the Captain butchered a shield-Dwarf, two Rangers of Arnor teamed up to take down another, Gimli annihilated a FG with a flurry of his twin axes, whilst Balin and his loyal servant took down another FG (self-defence, despite charging him, honest!). Radagast's fight went different o expected: for starters, I didn't use his two-handed weapon (cost my half-trolls too dearly last week) and it proved wise because if he had, he'd have lost the fight - instead, it came down to Fight values (which I was berating in Thermo's army thread earlier this week: much ribbing began as I tried to point out that I was saying 1 point of Fight rarely makes a difference [radagast's here was 2 points higher, so he'd have still won] and I feel Fight isn't used enough. This didn't stop them and myself mocking me about the Fight value coming up nonetheless
). Unfortunately for me, a Dwarf fought against a Warrior of Minas Tirith and again we drew combat. That was it, no more discussion of anything else for the night a theme and precedent had been set by my making a big deal of saving 16pts on an army list and may as well buyt he upgrade since you can't spend them elsewhere, but it won't often be of use 
Anyhow, I digress! A blurry picture of the decimated few defiantly standing up the verminous horde, followed by a titanic clash that was so powerful that Middle-Earth shook just as I took the picture and an overall shot to prove just how blurry I can make a picture:
Onto turn 9, full into the throws of battle, blood-lust boiling over, cries of Baruk Khazad! Khazad-ai-menu! being shouted desperately, all hope of Denethor's mind returning to the realms of sanity (Courage passed again - although we did remind ste about the fact that his first two turns of taking it, he failed!) and it was time for the carnage and utter decimation to begin! The Dwarves, tired from the sprint to inform their colleagues and return to defend their kingdom, were beginning to lag and the Men of the North and White City seized the initiative. But Gimli fought to find a burst of inner strength (Heroic Move!) sprinted at Denethor, his axe flying through the air as he did, the last of his extraneous resrves spent to make the blow land true (point of Might to cause a wound and Denethor has no Fate, so 1 VP to me!) before crashing into the greying man. Seeing Gimli's heroism, balin and the two remaining shield-Dwarves by his side surrounded the last two FG and readied to defend the realm. Radagast found the group of rangers leaping over the crag and through the tree to get at him (clearly Denethor's maddening taint had spread further than he feared for this men to be attacking a wizard!) - but nature, as ever, was on his side and the Northman and one of his lackeys tripped, whilst the others prepared for combat. On the left flank, it's just easier to say that what happened was... a lot. The numbers were brought to bear, shall we say? The shooting was utterly ineffective as it dawned on both parties the rivers of crimson about to flow, from either side.
To the fight phase, we moved with trepidation, my opponents choosing the order of the fights. Here, I must offer my apologies again: due to being tired (had worked two jobs, after a night's sleep best not talked about) and playing with a list not suited to the task (not saying the other was better, just it would've been easier for me to use - stupid wizards with their awesome ability to cast magic meaning I have less footsoldiers in an all footsloggers army
), I failed in my task as teacher of tactics and didn't make mention of the order in which the combats took place until after wounding dice were rolled - it simply hadn't clicked the FG against Balin and shield-Dwarf would be trapped! Resultantly, he died. Horridly. As should my pride, lol. Alongside this, the other Dwarf Warrior in the centre slew his foe and in all the gore underfoot, Gimli lost his purchase and had to step away from the made flailings of the ailing leader of the White Tree's Court (if I had a point of Might, I'd have won the fight!).The left flank saw two shield-Dwarfs fall to two Warriors of Minas Tirith each, the lone Iron Guard went down to a deluge of attacks from Halbarad and his 4 Arnorian minions (committing 4 wounds and reinforcing my opinion that the Iron Guard aren't for me - he failed in his other combats, done nothing with throwing axes and not caused a single wound: he spent 3 turns hidden and Thermo hadn't spotted the "Squishy" to target him with arrows.) as another warrior bravely fought against the Captain and two of his troops, whilst trapped (but only took one wound...). We'll return to the last "battle" in a moment, but first we pop over to Radagast,t rying to fend off the Rangers of Arnor - again, I used his one-handed weapon and AGAIN he drew the combat (see, two-handed weapons aren't much good for me because it means I lose instead of draw): instantly this elicited more comments harkening back to "Fight value nevers comes into it", with a defencive call "But his Fight is so much higher than an extra point for you wouldn't make a difference!" (Note: as grumpy as I'd been, this was actually all very funny and in light-heart and humour - I did as much ribbing to me about it as they did!). anyway, we'll forget that and return to the evaporated Dwarf - what do you mean I haven't told you what happened to him? Of course I did - just as we were reading about Radagast and Fight values... you can't see two things at once, you say? Fiiiiine... A lone shield Dwarf became ensnared ont he left flank by a ring and back up of no less than four rangers and three warriors - bottom line is the picture (that's right, I showed them who's boss!):
The left flank pre-turn 10:
Artsy left flank and centre:
Turn 10 starts and I'm broken, the men aren't, so it's currently 3VP to my one! I finally am winning priority and have to start taking my Courage tests, which don't last long - Balin stands, making his friend do so too, Gimli passes and the 5 rangers go one at a time and all succeed, desperate to fight to the last. Radagast made himself terrifying tot he mankind (using his stave) and the only parts of note this turn are that I made a note I don't understand concerning Radagast, but have a pretty (blurry) picture of him and some rangers, my rangers take a pew-pew at the right flank rangers (and my notes don't say they do anything) and Balin fought against Denethor (and I realised I seem to have missed a turn based on pictures, but oh well ^^ Not much must've happened, although I know Gimli started heading tot he mass of men on the left flank, waving axes angrily above his head!). I'll forgo the pictures this turn due to the lack of notes to support them, except for one to show how Gimli's warcry scared of Halbarad and his rangers towards the nearest board edge (NOOO! They're making a run for it!):
Balin and Denethor come to blows and, here's the other interesting part - both get a 6! So, yet again, we come to Fight values. More ribbing and I begrudginly point out (although I think the mocking hid the information from reaching Themro and ste) that the extra point of Fight would've made it a draw this time: regardless, Balin wins and beheads the serpent! Denethor's body collapses and I bring us equal on VP, mentioning it to the guys who swiftly agree to leg it to the board edge. I reckon two turns of movement should do it and by this point, I still need to kill 9 more models to break their force and will never reach the opposite board edge in time.
Turn 11, pre-priority: ste remembers Denethor's special rule and Thermo reminds him their leader's gone. Battlefield -
And I said I had a pretty picture of Radagast and rangers... Well, this one's not blurry either!
Again, I win priority and have to take my Courage tests. Balin and his friend easily pass, so does Gimli, ranger 1 and ACK! ranger 2 decides to return to the hold to warn the rest, swiftly followed by ranger 3 and ranger 4 thinks it best to follow and try to slow down anyone on their tail. Ranger 5 decides to slow them here and now. at this point, my army is now down to below 25% (if only ONE more had passed
) and it dawns on me we are on the last turn (which I make mention of - not entirely bad at pointing things out this week, but certainly nowhere near as good as previously and usually). Then I pointed out we were on equal victory points.There was hush...
Then desperate battleplans made (wound or kill Balin and somehow kill 9 models this turn respectively)...
To keep Balin alive, I went against my usual judgement and didn't have him charge into combat against the FG, I sent int he shield-Dwarf alone. Safe, I felt.
Until the shooting phase. I realised they were firing every single bow able to at Balin! My remaining rangers desperately tried to fend off some of the bows by firing at the rangers next to Radagast.
To no effect. Now I was screwed - all of these were firing at Balin:
Fortunately, the second set had to hit, then reach through three pieces of cover, then best his massive Defence and hope Fate didn't intervene.
10 bows were brought to bear.
3 scored a hit.
Halabard used 2 of his Might to join in.
Game result: a draw! Not a single arrow pierced the grizzled veteran's flesh! From the jaws of victory, my over-effective friends snatched themselves, well, not defeat, but certainly not the win they'd hoped for!
Technicalities aside, it was a blast of a game, I learnt some of the new Hobbit rules (and the difference between the jump chart and leap chart, which I forgot to mention in the report!), met a great guy and feel the guy's deserve that as a win. Until next time, fellow gamers!
OR killing Dain, which again, hadn't been really considered at all, after the fountain guard were smashed.
