|
I will not write a full battle report! I will not not NOOOOOOOT!
Whilst Fridays tend to be a winding down of most people's week, mine tends to be a winding up! But I'm determined to keep this One Ring community up to date with our gaming progress at our regular little Manchester gathering, since we have you to thank for our friendships in the first place.
Scenario - Lords of Battle
Armies - Having had muchos success with his all hero dwarf army in this same scenario when smashing an unfortunate Orc army led by Ste just a fortnight previously, Hashut went for the same list again -
Balin, Dain, Dwarf King, Gimli and the King's Champion and his banners.
In Lords of Battle, his advantage being that his Dwarven Chieftain's are tough to kill, so whilst you're trying to get wounds and exhausting his fate rolls for points, he is busy making you pay by accumulating VP's as you accumulate body bags.
With this in mind, I chose my all mounted Rohirrim over the Grey Company, fancying to outmaneuver, skirmish, probe and overwhelm where possible rather than spend the game either trying to roll sixes and fives/sixes or having my soft grey company turned to messy pulps in combat. Atleast Eomer and Erkenbrand would prove a more capable pairing than Arathorn and Halbarad considering my heavily armoured foe.
My list was -
Eomer (KOTP) armoured horse
Son of Eorl
Mounted RRG (TS)
8 Westfold Redshields
Erkenbrand (horse)
Son of Eorl
Mounted RRG (TS)
8 Westfold Redshields
The Battle
My strategy was pretty straightforward. Try to use my movement and missile capability to create opportunities to charge and overwhelm softest targets piecemeal, wherever I could isolate them.
Hashut gave me a slight hand with this at the start, with his forces split across the centre of the board... Gimli and the Dwarf King on one side and Dain, Balin and the King's Champion with his banners on the other.
I wanted where possible, to keep my riders out of the way and effectively use eomer, erkenbrand, the 2 rrg and 2 SoE as a hit squad, trying to isolate one of his heroes and pick them off. The rest would shoot, move, and surround.
As i moved in on Gimli and Dwarven King, what became clear in the ensuing combats was that whilst his might was high, he was going to win most of the combats. I quickly lost a SoE, a rider and his horse and an rrg and his horse as Hashut paid for their deaths with might.
I would be wary of engaging for along time now. Interestingly, as I pulled the noose tighter, took the flanks and started to surround, whilst doing NOTHING with missile fire, Hashut, with so few models was actually dictating the positioning battle, usually where I would have the advantage. His "squishies" were his defence 8 models. So I continued to hope I could take Gimli and the Dwarven King down whilst they remained isolated from the more "solid" group.
And again, I was made to pay... with Eomer's horse and a couple of riders "getting it" but again at a cost of might as heroic moves and combats were called and dice scores bumped up. Mightless, I got my own first points on the board by killing the King, but Balin, Dain and the King's Champion were now closing together in the centre.
Surrounded and often with no cover for the many shooting angles I had on him, still no arrows were getting through. As I closed in he would move to engage on one side, forcing me back whilst the other moved in. He was in control and a number of points ahead.
Balin and paired up with Gimli whilst the King's Champion and Dain gave chase on the unhorsed Eomer.
Finally, I was able to get the wounds on the fateless, mightless Gimli, whilst elsewhere, Dain found himself heavily counter charged after getting to grips with Eomer. However, might was used to win and get the wound and I stupidly failed three fate rolls instead of bumping up the first with might, giving Hashut a clear points lead. In a sequence of combats where once again, might was expended on his side to heroic move to get the charge and bump up rolls, the sheer weight of my cavalry came into effect, as I took down one his banners and knocked down the other giving me a chances to win fights against now mightless heroes against whom I was rolling more dice against to win the fights. The King's Champion, his defence severely dimished, was slaughtered as Dain lay shielding on the ground beside him on one side, and the banner on the other.
With Hashut now broken, we rolled to see if the game would end... and it did!
Final score was 19-12 in my favour, having killed the dwarf king, gimli, a banner and the king's Champion, whilst I had lost Eomer's armoured horse, an RRG mounted, a son of Eorl and four Westfold Redshields.
Summary
Really intense but fun game which I was convinced I would lose... and it looked like I would maybe right up until the Gimli wounds. Both of us executed our strategies well, Hashut just ran out of might in end... and when he did, that's when my combats started coming off.
Well met Hashut.... looking forward to more next week! Who is joining us?!
_________________ Subscribe to the GBHL YouTube for daily SBG content http://Www.youtube.com/gbhlpodcast*5th in 2014 GBHL |
{ PORTAL }
Print view
Top
) and I had 13 VP at the end