IntroductionAfter last week's epic "Battle of how to lose your girlfriend in 8 hours" marathon 1000pts battle, it was clear going into this week that a repeat of such a game wouldn't just put me in the dog house but probably into "no house."
With this in mind, our little team discussed that this week we would bring 250pts each, 2 vs 2 and try and finish by midnight.
With Knighty looking to bring his new and menacing looking spider queen infestation and Ste keen to try Mordor, it would pair up Hashut and I for the first time, draw aside guaranteeing at least one record would be broken.
Either my unbeaten streak or his lack of victory streak!
Whilst discussing via text the best way to compliment each other's force and what lists we had in mind, Knighty unfortunately had to drop out on this occasion, freeing Ste up to bring 500pts all to himself.
The plan was to use Hashut's hard dwarven warriors with shields, led by Balin, to make the core fighting element of our force as a single warband. My own force was designed to hopefully compliment it, supporting his flanks with 4 warriors of rohan with throwing spears and shields (to hopefully hinder whilst his harder dwarves smashed the centre) supported by 4 outriders on foot with their 3+ bows. I also wanted to try Knight of the Pelennor Eomer and with him, bring 2 x mounted RRG with throwing spears plus 2 sons of eorl, for a hard hitting cavalry force. One of the sons of eorl would need to be glued with Ste's super super super trade super glue and the other Knighty would bring...
But by late afternoon we were not only Knighy down, but Ste was now held up too. Hashut didn't know at this this point, but once again, we would clash on the field of battle!
The Set-upHashut arrived just as my final clients disappeared after a full night of hardcore circuit training and yoga and both of us were still clearly feeling the hangover of last week's mammoth game.
We were goosed!
I broke the news to Hashut that we would have to do battle again and this time he HAD to kick my ass!
However, we had both designed 250pt lists to compliment each other, my own original list being quite a bit over as Hashut's Dwarven warband with Balin left 57 points for me to play with.
Ever thoughtful, it was Hashut's idea to stick to 250pts each, to win back some brownie points with the lovely Jayne... and hence the battle earned it's name!
We set up the table and rolled for the scenario before I quickly redesigned my list.
Tonight we would be playing a new scenario that I hadn't tried before... DOMINATION. We rolled to place the five objective markers around the board, taking it in turns with Hashut starting of procedings. In the coming pictures, you might notice 5 Dwarves placed around the board!
With Hashut springing a surprise 250pt reserve list of Easterlings, the dwarven bases would merely represent our objectives.
Despite springing a surprise list, it was still quite clearly designed to compliment the more support based force that I would be bringing to the table.
Hashut's list comprised of
Khamul the Easterling, Ringwraith on foot
6 Easterling pikemen with shields
Easterling captain with fancy Halberd
6 Easterling pikemen with shields
Allied with my force, the above might have been fab for holding objectives in this scenario. But on it's own, with no bow support, no cavalry with objectives spread out across the field, this could be tough for him.
Especially with my own redesigned list...
Desperate to try out Eomer's powerful Knight of the Pelennor profile, he would lead my force. With the scenario in mind, I went for all cavalry. Knowing objectives would be spread out, that the force numbers and therefore breaking point would be low, I opted for 6 mounted outriders with their vanguard rule and with Khamul in the enemy force, also included 2 x mounted Rohan Royal Guard with throwing spears to assist with charging the terrifying ringwraith if necessary!
We started deployment, with Hashut splitting much of his force to cover or with atleast an eye on the three objectives he had placed.
On my side of the table, all the cavalry deployed together, deep and close to or on the hill where I had placed an objective. I had made a point to deploy the other as far across the other side of the table as possible to spread his forces if I could and use my maneuverability to isolate, overwhelm and steal objectives.
The BattleKhamul and 6 Easterling pikemen began an advance across the centre towards the central objective whilst some stayed with the captain at the objective closer to his board edge and the rest moved towards another on a rocky outcrop further to his left.
I planned to take advantage of the 3+ shoot value by staying static and had a cheeky round of fire at Khamul. Only two hit and with his high defence 8, I needed 6's and 5's... two sixes rolled!!
Only to falter miserably with the second throw, but it was almost a glorious first turn assassination.
I became aware of the range of Khamul's black dart and he was clearly gunning for Eomer. Using two will, he cast the spell successfully with his single might point, initiating a cat and mouse chase across the right of the board until Eomer was out of range, out of will and 2 might points down (bumping up a will roll to avoid the casting and heroic moving at one point) Before giving chase, Khamul managed to transfix an outrider moving up on the left flank but it came to nothing as he escaped next turn.
With very very little might in his force, I didn't mind using mine as wounds on Eomer would give Hashut points, although I would do things differently in future and maybe to see whether the strike would do damage first. With Khamul giving chase and expending will trying to land the shot on Eomer, who was accompanied by his bodyguards, back at the starting point I had withdrawn from the original objective as Hashut further split his pike blocks.
With cavalry now at three points across the boards, I tried to even the odds with some shooting and it wasn't long before Hashut started to take casualties. Even his captain, who had begun an advance towards the two outriders out on the left in the ruins, started taking hits... having to expend his two might points to bump his fate and avoid wounds.
But with another cracking round of shooting, the two outriders both picked him off and with no might or fate and two arrows hitting home, the captain was felled.
With Hashut already two from breaking but in control of all the objectives, it was time to start making a move and picking off some of his now isolated pikemen trying to secure their objectives.
Khamul had given up the chase on Eomer and his bodyguards, perhaps wisely with him being so isolated now and had instead headed towards the objective wide on my right, well out of the way of everything on the battlefield.
The Knight of the Pelennor wheeled around onto the rear of some easterlings protecting the rocky outcrop objective and prepared to charge in...
It was not just Eomer charging in now, with four outriders closing in on the single Easterling holding the central point, whilst two more brutally wrestled the one we had originally held from another lonesome Easterling. 4 objectives to 1...
With Eomer and his bodyguard slaughtering their charged Easterling, the enemy was broken, although the Easterling charged by the single RRG survived simply knocked down. This knocked down foe clearly couldn't rely on his comrade, hiding behind a ruin in some woods just metres away (he rolled 1's for the rest of the game, failing his jump test to get involved)
Eomer now butchered the final easterling holding the rocky outcrop and moved to support the royal guardsman who was winning his fights but unable to kill the knocked down Easterling! Now we had two objectives to the enemies three, but they were broken and the Rohirrim were yet to take a casualty, or lose a combat for that matter.
Courage tests were taken, with Hashut hoping for the two objective holding easterlings and Khamul to pull through, but for the one trapped behind the ruins holding a one to fail and therefore, end the game as a draw...
Our non jumping pikemen from the east duly did his part, running away from the horse lords, but so did one easterling holding Hashut's deepest objective. 2 objectives each but with the Easterling broken and the Rohirrim unscathed, his only hope would be a surprise wound on Eomer in the fight between the Easterling that had survived the RRG fights. But his death would signal the end of the game, with The Battle of Brownie Point being a flawless victory for Eomer's warband, 9vps to 6.
Not only had both our streaks continued, but I was home with time to spare, making up for last weeks shenanigans!
SummaryWith a force built to accompany one which could support it with bows and cavalry, it was always going to be tough for the Easterlings... splitting their pike forces to grab objectives but falling foul of the old addage, "to try to defend everything is to defend nothing." His objective grabbing groups were overwhelmed piecemeal by a force suited to this kind of game, able to use the cavalry movement to overwhelm each group before nicking objectives. No bow fire to counter my own, Hashut revealed at the end his plan literally amounted to the game ending quickly with his troop count down but holding the most objectives.
Another great night - Middle Earth Manchester marches on!!
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haha!
) and 2 royal guard. With 8 models you could take 3 models with bows. Other than that, good battle report. How long did this battle take?
not 250pts. glad you had fun though.
Besides, I don't much care anyway 