Hello dear readers and welcome once more to the ongoing adventures of Dr Grant in the UK tournament SBG scene. It’s been a long time since I’ve published one of these reports, there was a long gap between the October tournament in Preston and the Mansfield tournament in February and this report, despite being started soon after my return from Mansfield, has taken me about 6 weeks to write up. On the plus side, I’ve been to another two tournaments since Mansfield and I’m hoping to get those reports written up pretty soon so, hopefully, there should be a fair bit of Tournament reporty-goodness to come from Dr G in the next few weeks!
As ever, this is a leisurely account of 48 hours of wargaming goodness so grab that mug of tea, find that comfiest of arm-chairs, settle down and let Dr G’s witterings delight and surprise.
The Mansfield tournament at Dreamlike Gaming was a 500 point, 6 game, 2 day affair in which we would play all 6 scenarios from the main Hobbit rulebook in order. My decision of what to take was broadly simple, I knew I wanted to take a lot of my recently painted Hobbit Heroes (as in Heroes from the Hobbit movies, not Heroes who are Hobbits) in some sort of all-Hero force. This would be very different to what I normally take, present a fun new tactical challenge and allow me to use all the shiny new toys I’d been buying and painting over the last few months. I initially wanted to bring Beorn, Dwalin, Tauriel and Thorin with Orcrist and the Oakenshield but, sadly, at the time of the tournament GW were yet to release the bear model so I went back to the drawing board. I’ve been playing with some fun Thorin’s Company all-Hero lists a lot lately and I’ve decided that, to stand a chance, every member of an all-Hero list needs to have 3 attacks and Fight 6. A high defence is also very handy for the times when you roll 3 1s and have to take a bunch of hits. I was less worried about strength and/or killing ability, winning fights is far more important than killing the enemy quickly. I did want to go for some kind of theme (all from the Hobbit movies) and looking through my models the first few choices were clear, Thorin, Gloin, Dwalin and Tauriel would all come to play. I then allowed Dori into the mix, he’s only F5 but those 3 attacks more often than not kept him going, he’d struggle against elves though. My final additions were a tribute to the gods of cheese as I added in Alfrid and Bombur, Alfrid to boost everyone’s Might and Bombur to restore Alfrid’s Will. It’s a dirty, dirty combo but I thought there was at least some sense of theme as Bombur was part of Thorin’s Company and Alfrid encounters them at Laketown. Maybe. I also didn’t think (and practice game confirmed this) that the combo would be that overpowered in my list, Bombur and Alfrid will be at their absolute worst tacked onto a normal Good army, hidden behind loads and loads of troops to generate In The Way rolls and to prevent the enemy charging. It was going to be incredibly hard for me to keep Alfrid and/or Bombur out of the way of enemy shooting as I had very few models to put them behind. As soon as the lines clashed I had no doubt that Alfrid and Bombur would find themselves quickly assailed and killed. 4 days before leaving for the tournament I found myself with 5 points to spare (I’d bought the Oakenshield for Thorin but not Orcrist) and decided to stick Thorin on a pony, after an absolutely manic week of painting I got him finished and was actually pretty pleased with the result, hopefully this extra movement and combat punch would help me no-end over the course of the weekend.
My army
Ultimately, despite the cheese I was genuinely taking this list to try something different (I’ve never taken all-Hero to a tournament before) and have a bit of fun. Assuming I fought balanced, tournament armies I thought I had a good chance at Lords of Battle and To the Death, a slim chance at Domination and no chance at all at Recon, Hold Ground and High Ground - Recon for obvious reasons and Hold Ground and High Ground because the game could end as soon as one force is broken. Assuming we were all scrapping in the middle on or around the objective I was fairly confident of breaking my opponent first but then I’d still be woefully outnumbered (probably around 15 to 7 if none of my models had died) and would need the game to keep going for multiple turns to allow me to kill enough of my opponent’s army to swing the tide - not likely. I would have my best chance if I came up against similar all-Hero armies where Alfrid’s Might regeneration would hopefully allow me to outfight them over a long period of time. There had been a huge number of all-Hero armies at the first event of the season in Huddersfield so I was fairly hopeful.
So, on February 14th (oh yes, Valentine’s Day), Tom Harrison, Sam Page (Southern Dunedain) and Joe Horsfall (Suicidal Marsbar) all headed over to Chez Grant for some dinner before the drive. We managed to squeeze in a couple of practice games and I was able to rout Southy’s Hunter Orcs, it was a good match up for me, he had Fimbul, Narzug and a Shaman so no-one who could really worry my heroes and with only defence 4 my dwarves could just slice through them. We both agreed this had been a great match up for me and that I would have the best chance of winning against similar D4 armies. Mrs G was, of course, thrilled to find the house full of excited nerds on Valentine’s Evening but did a good job of acting like this was a normal state of affairs and waved us off with a teary hanky. We had a great drive up to Mansfield, completely free of some of the traffic problems that have plagued us on long drives North in the past and arrived at our B&B around 10:30pm. We headed down to the B&B bar where we met up with Thomas Macklen who was attending his first tournament, a few bevvies later and we headed for bed with dreams of blood and glory before us.
After a 7:30 start and a quality breakfast at the B&B we headed to the venue. Dreamlike Gaming is an independent games shop/hobby centre in an Industrial Estate; inside the unit, the guys have created a hobby nirvana, a small shop area, 15-20 tables, a mezzanine floor with a huge gaming table and much more make it a cracking centre for gaming in Mansfield. Upon arrival there was the usual catching up with old friends and peering around figure cases to see what other people had brought. As all the figures were removed my heart sank, to my great surprise there was not a single all-Hero army to be seen, it looked like there would be no easy passes for me in Recon, High Ground and Hold Ground. As things got underway I enjoyed my first of many cups of tea from a real mug, it might seem like a strange thing to get excited about but often these tournaments are held in venues hired by the TOs and if there are any tea-making facilities they’re often vending machines with paper - finding out the staff would make you a cracking brew in a real mug and deliver it to your table was a really great bonus and I was essentially on a tea-drip for the whole weekend. We were greeted by Tom and the rest of the staff at Dreamlike and all waited with baited breath to see who our first opponents would be and, in a rather hilarious twist, I was drawn against Sam and his hunter orcs again. BWA-HA-HA-HA!
The first game was To the Death, a scenario I was pretty confident about against an army I had beaten under 24 hours before - this was a good start! In addition, we were drawn on the cool looking Goblin Town board which suited me down to the ground - there were plenty of narrow walkways where dwarves could form a roadblock and just have to face the orcs 1 or 2 at a time without fear of being swamped.
We got stuck in fairly quickly, my army took up a strong defensive position in the centre of the board with Dwalin, Thorin and Dori blocking one route up and Tauriel and Gloin blocking the other, Bombur and Alfrid were tucked away behind the other 5 helping out when needed. I got off to a good start with both Fimbul and Narzug losing their respective Heroic Strike offs against my Heroes and being taken down early in the game. Without any high Fight heroes there was little to trouble the big 4 (Thorin, Dwalin, Gloin and Tauriel) and I was able to carve through the Hunter Orcs fairly easily.
Thorin, Dwalin and Dori make a formidable roadblock
Thorin and Dori clear their walkway whilst Dwalin holds the orcs back at the rear and Gloin and tauriel refuse to be overrun on the left
Sam’s Mordor Shaman’s Fury was keeping him in the game on one flank and eventually his sheer weight of numbers started to make a difference with one heroic orc leaping a gap to jump into combat and trap Dori, eventually killing him and claiming Sam his first dwarf casualty. When Sam broke, most of his army that wasn’t covered by Fury ran off and my Heroes who had managed to retain at least one Might point each all called Heroic Combats in the last turn cutting down the few orcs who remained. Tauriel was particularly effective at this, calling a Heroic Combat, killing two orcs and then moving into the Mordor Shaman and another orc and killing both off them - fantastic stuff!
The last two orcs were thankful the game ended when it did!
The game ended with two terrified orcs left on the table and an 8-0 victory to me, it was a good start to the tournament and I’d got a win at one of the two scenarios I had a chance in. Sam got a rough draw in this game, he would have been up against it on an open table but on the goblin town board he just really couldn’t bring his numbers to bear. Full credit to him though, he gave it everything and the game was really good fun and very thematic with Sam never letting his slim chances spoil the mood or his enthusiasm for the game. Great game.
After that we broke for lunch and the guys at Dreamlike had laid on a big buffet lunch spread for everyone. Now that all the armies were out on the tables, conversation turned to which was the most broken/cheesy (my Alfrid/Bombur combo? Ed’s 70 Hobbits + Malbeth? Charles’ 17 Watchers of Karna?) and which was most likely to win the day (Ed’s Hobbits, Charles’ Harad & Jamie’s Tournament Winning Wood Elves all seemed to be early contenders).
The second game saw me drawn against Joe Horsfall on the giddy heights of the top table. For anyone who follows the various forums it’s fair to say that me and Joe (or rather Dr Grant & Suicidal Marsbar) have a fairly bitter rivalry going on, mainly due to the fact that the three (I think?) times we have faced each other in tournaments, Joe’s dice have inexplicably deserted him time after time leading to some quite galling defeats. Going into the game I had the feeling this would be the time he took revenge, the scenario was Domination and he had some 30 models to boss the table and claim the objectives compared to my 7. Joe had brought The King’s Champion, and a Shieldbearer leading some dwarf archers, Khazad Guard and Iron Guard and an Erebor Captain leading some warriors of Erebor with spears and shields - it was a tough looking list. I’d decided that, whoever I played at Domination, my only hope was to charge straight into my enemy’s forces, kill his leader and break his army and then hope that the models on the outlying objectives fled while I grabbed a few of the closer ones myself.
Naturally I deployed close to the centre line and Joe (who, thanks to my Alfrid and Tauriel deployment ‘drops’ had to deploy first) had laid his forces out in a long line to cover the whole battlefield. I placed my whole force directly opposite his archers and in the first turn called a Heroic March, this sent my whole force flying toward the weaker troops in the dwarf army.
My force uses a Heroic march to exploit the dwarves deployment and heads straight for the weaker archers
The next turn inevitably resulted in us both calling Heroic Moves and Joe won the roll off, charging his Erebor captain into Gloin and cancelling my Heroic Move. Thorin was able to charge into a couple of dwarf archers and the rest of my Heroes were engaged but thankfully, for now, the Shieldbearer and King’s Champion had not reached combat. Gloin managed to kill the Erebor Captain in one turn of combat and Thorin rode down a few archers, my Heroes were performing pretty well so far. The following few turns saw Dori charged by the Shieldbearer and a bunch of dwarves, knowing he planned to use the Shieldbearer’s free Heroic Combat Thorin charged in to relieve Dori and managed to kill the Shieldbearer in (I think) one round of combat, Thorin’s pony was proving a wise investment and made him a combat monster on the charge. Dwalin waded into combat with the King’s Champion, flanked by Gloin and Tauriel so he couldn’t be surrounded and outnumbered. Joe had moved a Khazad Guard onto each of the 3 outlying objectives knowing that their Bodyguard rule would keep them in the fight once Joe was broken, it did however mean he was 3 dwarves down in the main ruckus. I realised that to stand any chance I was going to have to go all out to kill the King’s Champion both to get Leader VPs and to hope the Khazads would run. Gradually Dwalin was able to wear down the King’s Champion’s Fate from the heralds, the early death of Joe’s Captain and Shieldbearer had left him very low on Might so I was able to boss the board with my Might (that Alfrid was helpfully topping up) and often out-strike the King’s Champion in combat. By this stage Joe’s numbers were getting pretty low so, with the King’s Champion out of Might and my Heroes still having a fair bit, I sent Alfrid rushing for the furthest uncontested objective with an Erebor Warrior hot on his tail. Meanwhile with the dwarf numbers falling, Tauriel left the main battle line and headed for the centre objective guarded by one Khazad Guard. Dwalin ran behind the King’s Champion to engage his heralds, denying Joe the banner re-rolls and extra defence, after killing them in combat it was Gloin who actually dealt the final blow to the King’s Champion.
Whilst Tauriel sets her sights on the central objective, Dwalin kills the King's Champion's Heralds allowing Gloin to land the fatal blow on the dwarf leader.
With their leader dead the dwarves’ resolve faltered, one of the Khazads on the objectives ran and another was killed by Tauriel, meanwhile, Thorin, Dori, Gloin and Dwalin were now free to carve through the remaining dwarves. When the game ended Joe had one objective, I had 2, I had killed his leader and broken him for a 12-3 win (I think) and I was pleased to see that I hadn’t lost a single model! It was a fun game played in good spirits by Joe and although I had some good luck I don’t think the dice deserted him quite as much as they have in our previous games. That said, Joe did tell me later that he didn’t think he’d won a single Duel roll in the entire game! I hadn’t quite noticed this but he may well be right, it’s the benefit of High Fight all-Hero armies, if you roll the 6s and/or have the Might to top your rolls up to 6s then you stand a good solid chance. Overall I was delighted to win Domination with a 7 model army and Joe took the defeat with his usual good grace, by which I mean he told me he hated me and spent the rest of the tournament trying to get everyone else to hate me too.
Round 2 in full swing
At this stage I was rather surprised to find myself staying on the top table after accruing two solid wins and who should I see rock up to the table but my chief rival Tom Harrison. Interestingly, despite him probably being my most regular opponent, we’ve only ever played one singles match at a tournament (East Grinsted last year where we played an incredibly cagey match to decide the winner of the tournament and I managed to sneak a cheeky win right at the death), Tom’s a great player and a great guy so I was pleased to end day 1 with a game against him, even if it did mean that all my day 1 opponents had been the people I’d driven to the tournament
Tom had bought along a pure Easterling army that he’d painted specifically for this event, I think Tom plans to paint a new force for every tournament this year which is a big ask but a really great idea. As memory serves he had Amdur on horse, An Easterling Captain on horse, 3 Kataphrakts, a Kataphrakt with a war drum, An Easterling Captain on foot and about 25 Easterlings on foot. I had played 2 practice games against Tom’s army and victories were even at 1 apiece, unfortunately the scenario was Hold Ground and it was going to be a tough ask for my 7 models to outnumber his 30 (ish) model army by the end of the game. I got relatively lucky with deployment, getting Alfrid and Tauriel deployed alongside the dwarves (phew!) and managed to isolate 1 of Tom’s infantry warbands from the rest of his army. I immediately head for the isolated warband in a bid to kill a bunch of his warriors early on without breaking him (I didn’t want to break Tom too early as the game might end with him at a heavily numerical advantage). Of course the slow speed of the dwarves prevented this and it was only Thorin who, thanks to his pony, was able to charge 4 of his archers and kill them before the main lines met (even then he had to burn Might to ensure the win, I wouldn’t have minded two archers having a swing at Thorin (needing 6s followed by 4s to wound) but I knew Tom would target my pony and the pony was worth more to me than the Might. Ultimately, after a cagey few turns lining up the battle-lines the armies clashed and my fortunes varied wildly in two key combats. Gloin was trapped in a Fight against Amdur and about 4 other Easterlings but, despite being knocked to the ground and only having 2 wounds & 1 Fate, somehow managed to survive about 30 rolls to wound! Tom was not amused. At the other end of the line, Dwalin found himself fighting against the mounted Easterling Captain, another mounted Easterling and about 4 infantry. The inevitable Heroic Strike ensued, Dwalin went up to Fight 10 and I watch confidently as Tom rolled his F4 captain’s dice and got a 6! We were both Fight 10 and I was suddenly a lot more nervous, in the ensuing Fight we both got our 6s for the duel so it came down to a 50/50 roll-off that we were already thinking could well decide the game. This time the dice were on Tom’s side, he won the roll-off, knocked Dwalin to the floor and killed him. When Dwalin is your first casualty you know things aren’t going well! After that there wasn’t an awful lot more to report, the lines continued to clash, my remaining heroes desperately fighting for their lives and slowly breaking down Tom’s numbers while he doggedly protected the objective and kept pushing me away. I seem to remember that Gloin managed to kill Amdur’s horse with a throwing axe which was pretty cool! I was eventually able to break him and engage his leaders to prevent Stand-Fasts but his Easterlings proved stronger willed than most and refused the flee. When the 1/2 was finally rolled for the game ending I think Tom won 6-4 - I had broken him and got one model into the middle and he had managed to get 6 models around the objective. It was a great game and my dwarves gave a far better account of themselves than I expected, they were always going to struggle in this scenario against such a numerically superior army but they got stuck in and got reasonably close to pulling off an upset. When you take all-Hero armies there are far more ‘big’ dice rolls that decide games and I couldn’t help but look back on the combat with Dwalin and wonder what would have happened if Tom hadn’t got a 6 for his Heroic Strike or I’d won the roll-off. I likely would have killed his captain, removing some Might and a Stand-fast and, far more importantly, I still would have had Dwalin smashing his way through the ranks of Easterlings. Ah well, you could equally say that Gloin should have died much earlier (Tom did eventually take him down) so I guess it all balances out. Most importantly it was a great game against a great opponent and it was a good way to end the first day. Somewhat unsurprisingly, Joe looked happier that I’d lost than Tom did…
It's always interesting looking back though my camera at the end of a tournament, clearly the game against Tom was far too intense to take any photos - sorry!
Whilst that was the end of the formal gaming for the day, it was certainly not the end of Day 1. Dreamlike was open for another 90 minutes after the last game finished so X-Wing boards were set up and a few challenges for some friendly games of SBG were laid down. I was really keen to play something different and see what all the fuss was about so I challenged James Clark (Thermo) and his infamous all-mounted ROHAN! to a game. James seemed baffled by the idea that we could play a game of SBG in an hour but after a few jibes I convinced him and we got set-up. James had brought Eorl the Young, Erkenbrand, Eowyn, 5 Sons of Eorl, 4 Outriders, 3 Royal Guard and 6 Westfold Redshields or similar, all mounted of course! This was a really fun game, we didn’t have long so I perhaps didn’t play the best game strategically, instead just hurling my Heroes forward towards the nearest horsey! I was perturbed to see Alfrid shot dead in the first turn or two, he had been doing really well for me throughout the day and knowing I’d have to win the game with the Might I started with was a little unnerving! My Heroes ended up Fighting Eorl/Erkenbrand and about 10 of James’ cavalry for most of the game whilst Eowyn led another warband over from the flank. Things started promisingly enough with me taking down a few riders for the loss of a few wounds/Might points, Erkenbrand and Eorl were fighting against Gloin and Dori who were doing a good job of holding them off (although Eorl was rolling infuriatingly well for his Legendary Hero rule) and things were pretty tight. Then it all went bad. Very, very bad. James charged in and surrounded Tauriel, Gloin, Bombur and Dori; determined to help them, Thorin and Dwalin (who were only fighting 1 model each) both declared Heroic Combats. In the Fight phase they both won but somehow both failed to kill their lone opponents with To Wound rolls of 2,1,1! This quite rightly had James laughing in the aisles (how does Dwalin not kill a rider of Rohan?!?!?). With neither Thorin or Dwalin able to come to their aid, all my other Heroes lost their fights, I think Gloin lost a Heroic Strike-off against Eorl and was killed, Tauriel was cut down and so on and so forth. It may well have been the worst turn of SBG I’ve ever played! With that done things looked bleak, I was now all but out of Might and James had got to that horrendous point in Lords of Battle where he had a couple of mounted heroes riding around, killing my Heroes and getting Might back, thus allowing him to charge another one of my Heroes, Heroic Strike up and kill them too. Suffice to say, the next few turns consisted of James mopping up my survivors until the game ended. It was a fun game and a nice way to end the first day, James is a great guy and he deserved the win, again, a few different dice in that decisive turn could have made all the difference but that’s just the way it goes in SBG sometimes!
Chalk up another scalp for James’ all-mounted ROHAN! At least this one wasn’t filmed….
And so with that Day 1’s gaming was complete but of course the night was just getting started. 15 of us all headed to a local curry house that Owen (Cereal_Thief) had booked for a massive feast and a sly pint or two. Various war stories were told along with discussion of the surprises of the day and likely winners of the tournament. James Clark had held Ed Ball’s Hobbits to a draw and Jamie’s Wood Elves had lost to Ed putting a dent in both their chances. Owen was sitting pretty on 3 wins but Owen’s favourite tournament tactic is to destroy everyone on Day 1 and then throw it all away on Day 2 (best demonstrated at the inexplicable event known as Preston-Gate). Perhaps most surprisingly, Tom Harrison’s fluffy, themed, under-rated Easterlings were also sitting pretty on 3 wins; people started to whisper that if Tom won the tournament with a pure Easterling force then we’d never hear the end of it… Discussion then turned to the recent community FAQ that I had helped write and which was in use for the first time at this tournament. It was great to hear that people were largely in favour of the FAQ and almost everyone agreed that, even when some rulings were made that negatively affected their armies, the idea of a consistent FAQ being used across all the games at a tournament was a good one. Other rules queries that had arisen were discussed and, as always, everyone debated the intricacies of SBG like it was the most important thing in the world. We somehow ended up back at the bar in our B&B which worked out really well for the 5 of us staying there (and not bad at all for the B&B as we turned up with 15 thirsty wargamers!) where we spent the next few hours debating, discussing, laughing and just generally proving my long held belief that the best part of a 2 day event is the Saturday night camaraderie and banter that goes on between players. it was a great evening and everyone slunk off to bed sometime after midnight.
Saturday night's revellers after several hours of revelling
Another 8am breakfast at the B&B set everyone up for the day nicely and we headed back to the venue. After warming myself through with my 85th mug of Dreamlike tea we got stuck into the day’s gaming.
My first game of the day was against Alastair King and his Dwarf and Laketown army at Lords of Battle. Alastair had brought along a King’s Champion (urgh, another one!) and Floi leading some Iron Guard and SIX Vault Warden teams and Alfrid leading about 6 Laketown spearmen. Hmmm, it seemed it was time for an Alfrid-off! I fancied my chances here, as mentioned at the start I thought Lords of Battle was one of the scenarios where I had a good chance as my force could deal a lot of punishment early on and potentially gain an unassailable position. The Vault Warden teams worried me though as they’d be very hard to crack. Dwalin grabbed his hammer and set his sights on them as he’d be killing on 5+.
My force heads straight towards the intimidating wall of dwarves
The game started and we headed straight for each other, Alastair had one dwarf archer taking pot shots at Thorin’s pony and Alfrid and I was irrationally worried about him (it’s odd how one archer can sometimes look far more terrifying than a line of 10!) so Thorin headed straight for him and the weaker (i.e. D6) Iron Guard and lined up his pony for the charge. A few turns in, Alastair won priority and left his King’s Champion just within charge range of Dwalin, I fancied my chances in that fight so, knowing he had already moved so couldn’t swamp/trap me, I took the bait and charged in. I figured if Dwalin won the fight he’d be wounding on 5s and with a fair few Might (from Alfrid) he had a good chance of taking a few Fate points off at the very least. We both called Heroic Strikes and got up to F10, both rolled 6s and so it came down to the roll-off which Alastair won, “ah well” I thought as Dwalin backed away, “he’s only got 3 attacks and needs 5s, not the end of the world”. Alastair threw the dice and got a triple 6…Suddenly I felt rather uncomfortable, I rolled Dwalin’s 2 fate and failed them both, they weren’t even close enough to Might up. For the second game in a row, Dwalin was dead very early on to some ridiculous dice rolling. He was my first casualty. Again. This had not led to good things in the last game…
After this, things got tough for me, I was starting to learn that as soon as one of my big warriors dropped, the game became exponentially harder for me as the remaining Heroes found themselves surrounded by even more enemy bodies and Heroes. However, Thorin, Gloin and Tauriel all did a great job of fighting off many times their number and giving me a narrow VP lead whilst Alfrid and Bombur were doing a good job of lurking near the back and topping everyone’s Might up. Gradually though, Alastair’s numbers began to tell and he surrounded me, getting dangerously close to the squishy Alfrid and Bombur, and killing Gloin and Dori in the process. In an attempt to protect my weaker members and prevent Alistair breaking me Thorin and Tauriel fought their way back towards Alfrid and Bombur and got what was left of the company back together. Things were still looking good for me as, due to the VP conditions of LOB, every turn I held on I was getting more and more Victory Points as I cut down the regular dwarf warriors - I was in the lead, as things stood, if one side broke and the game ended I would win. Unfortunately, Floi had been repeatedly negating Tauriel’s Blade Mistress special rule and eventually she was cut down and killed, leaving me with just Alfrid, Bombur and Thorin, one model away from being broken. A few more turns of manoeuvring and Thorin was eventually caught and trapped by a vast host of dwarves and Laketowners including the King’s Champion. I still had a Might point from Alfrid and Alastair had been getting Might back by killing my Heroes. We both called a Heroic Strike, we both got to Fight 10, in the Duel we both rolled 6s so it would come down to a 50/50 roll-off. We held our breath and the roll-off went to Alastair, the vast number of dice were too much for Thorin who went down and broke my force at the same time, Alastair had just gained 9 VPs in one turn!
Despite putting up an admirable fight, Thorin is eventually overwhelmed and killed by sheer weight of numbers
By this point I was almost certainly down and out but the game didn’t end. Bombur and Alfrid fought a brave retreat, performing surprisingly well, in the last fight phase before the game ended Alfrid lost a fight to a Laketown Guard and Bombur beat off 2 Vault Wardens but was unable to kill either.
Despite their best efforts, Alfrid and Bombur are unable to turn the tide of battle
As the game ended we counted the cost and realised Alastair had won 24-22, it had been agonisingly close, even worse, I realised that Alastair was only one model away from breaking, if Alfrid or Bombur had killed their opponent in the last turn I would have won the game! Ultimately it had been a tight and very hard fought contest, it was a great game but, as in the pervious game against Tom, Dwalin going down so early was a handicap I was never likely to recover from.
Now finding myself tumbling down the tables I came to the scenario I had been dreading most - Reconnoitre. With the complete absence of all-Hero armies, all I could hope for was an army with a relatively low model count and an awful lot of luck. Unfortunately, as Nick Bramwell (Farmer Maggot) set up next to me, I was greeted by Burdhur, the Witch King, a Barrow Wight, 3 Dead Marsh Spectres and about 30 orcs. Oh dear.
The rather overwhelming odds I was facing at Reconnoitre
On the plus side I was pleased to find myself drawn against Nick, he’s an absolutely top bloke and I knew it would be a fun 2 hours. We’d been on the winning quiz team together at Throne of Skulls before so I knew we’d have a relaxed and friendly game. However, as we deployed I didn’t have much hope, the scenery could essentially funnel models down three channels and I could only block one with my force, all Nick had to do was walk his 3 warbands towards the table edge, I’d only be able to stop one of them and he would gain an absolutely massive victory. However, something strange happened, instead of doing this, Nick kept all of his army together and headed straight for my Heroes! This was certainly not a mistake on Nick’s part but he had clearly decided that he had entered the tournament to have 6 great games, not to win at all costs and he would far rather have a real scrap and earn the win than game the system and exploit the victory conditions. It was an unexpected and quite humbling move on Nick’s part that truly embraced the spirit of the game and set the tone for what was to be a fun hour and a half. Now that we had something of a game on our hands, I initiated my standard plan of attack and charged full pelt towards his lines. I still didn’t rate my chances at all, the Dead Marsh Spectres, Barrow Wight and Witch King could all play havoc with any plans I had, not to mention the massive form of Burdhur lurching towards me. In addition, Tauriel had rolled really badly for deployment, only got onto the board in turn 3 and was a long way behind the dwarves (who had been Heroic Marching up the table to engage Nick as far up the table as they could).
Tauriel arrives late to the battle, some way behind the rest of my army
Early on, Thorin found himself paralysed by the Barrow Wight, knocked from his pony and trapped by a swarm of orcs, he managed to survive the combat with 1 Wound and 0 Fate and, with the help of a point of Might, was able to shake off the effects of the Paralyse. However, the next turn he wasn’t so lucky and, paralysed again, he found himself overwhelmed and killed.
Alfrid looks on from a position of safety as my Heroes find themselves swamped by orcs (note the Thorin shaped hole in the middle of the orcs on the far left...)
For the next few turns Nick steadily gained control of the board, it didn’t really matter who won Priority as my Heroes were surrounded by generic orcs with all the Heroes lurking safely in the back ranks. Nick played really well, either using the Dead Marsh Spectres to move my Heroes away from his ranks so he could deal with them one at a time or moving Alfrid more than 6” away from my guys so he couldn’t boost their Might in the next turn. Meanwhile the Witch King would Immobilise one of my guys per turn and then swarm them with orcs. Over the course of a few turns Nick was able to take down Dori, Gloin and Dwalin with these tactics and was clearly in control. However, quite against the run of play Tauriel found herself in a fight to the death with Burdhur (Nick’s leader) and managed to win the fight, not really thinking I threw her dice to wound (she needed 5+) and scored a 4, 5 & 6! She had inflicted 2 wounds on Nick’s leader! Looking down I despaired as I realised she had already used all her Might so couldn’t convert the 4 to a 5, without thinking about it I’d come pretty close to killing Nick’s leader! As it was, Nick saved one wound with Burdhur’s Fate point anyway so it didn't matter. In the following turn Tauriel found herself trapped against Burdhur and about 6 orcs (3 B2B and 3 with spears) boosting her to an impressive 6 attacks with which she easily rolled her 6. Nick also easily got a 6 and, sadly, I lost the ensuing roll-off and Tauriel was ground into the dirt. That just left me with the less than terrifying duo of Bombur and Alfrid so Nick started walking his models towards the table edge whilst Bombur chased after them desperately trying to kill a few more orcs. Ultimately they were unsuccessful and the game ended with a solid and much-deserved victory to Nick. I don’t recall the exact VPs but I think it was about 15-1 or similar. After the game I was surprised to see that I’d definitely had some chances towards the end, if Tauriel had won the roll-off against Burdhur she almost certainly would have killed him (only needing 2 5+’s from 6 attacks) and possibly a few orcs too. Nick was only about 4 models away from breaking and had Tauriel killed his leader she may well have gone on to break the enemy force, suddenly, all those orcs running for the table edge would have been at real risk of failing courage tests and fleeing the table, possibly ending the game with a draw (both leaders dead and both forces broken). However, obviously that didn’t happen so it’s all a bit irrelevant! It’s also worth reiterating that the only reason I had any chance was because Nick allowed it, he purposefully sacrificed an easy win and a massive VP count in the interests of having fun and making sure his opponent enjoyed the game - it was a kind and inspirational decision and earned him my Most Sporting Opponent vote. A great game against a great player, no problems losing in those circumstances!
And so I continued my downwards tumble and found myself drawn against Chris Murfitt, one of the Scottish players, in the last game. I’d never met Chris before this tournament but, as two of the elder statesmen of the group, we had spent a long time fondly reminiscing about early 90s GW over a beer on the Saturday night and he was a lovely, lovely bloke so I was looking forward to a fun final game. The scenario was High Ground - great, I would have all the same problems I’d had against Tom with Hold Ground, I’d need to break him and then pray that the game didn’t end before I killed enough of his models to outnumber him. Chris had brought Gimli leading some Khazad Guard (and a dwarf banner), Malbeth leading some Rangers and about 3 Rangers of the North. He would essentially have a D7 front line with spear support all of whom would have 5+ saves - tough to crack. We set up facing each other on the hill and just got stuck straight in, my guys being heavily outnumbered of course but being able to hold their own thanks to a steady supply of Might from Alfrid and Bombur (who were cowering behind the hill, just in range).
Whilst Alfrid and Bombur cower beneath the hill, my 5 big heroes charge head-on into the wall of dwarves and rangers
Gloin deserves a special mention for going toe-to-toe with about 3 Piercing Striking Khazad Guard supported by 3 Rangers for several turns, always getting that magical 6 and gradually chipping away at their numbers. Thorin had charged straight into Gimli in a battle of the leaders and was eventually able to overwhelm him and take the doughty dwarf down (although I think it might actually have been Dwalin that dealt the final blow). Things were going well for me but the victory conditions were still very much in Chris’ favour (probably around 18-8 or so at this point) and the game was getting really exciting. However, I then got some good luck when at the end of a turn I had killed 1 model less than I needed to to break Chris; this was the perfect number for me as it meant I would be guaranteed at least 2 full turns of combat to chip away at his numbers before the game might end. Shortly after this point I lost Dwalin (my first casualty for the 3rd game this weekend!) who had done a stirling job of smashing his way through the D7 Khazad Guard but over the next two turns I was able to keep chipping away at his numbers and gradually start to gain a foothold on the game.
Dwalin falls first (again) as the game reaches its conclusion
However Chris was by no means down and out and his banner and Malbeth saves were keeping his army in the game. By the time we got to the first roll for the end of the game Chris was winning about 13-12 but it didn’t end, instead the game continued on for about another 6 turns or so with the advantage swinging back and forth again and again! I would take down a few of Chris’ warriors but then he would manage to take down one of my big Heroes (who by this point were all running on empty), Dori, Gloin and eventually Tauriel all fell in this way making it ever harder for me to win the game, thankfully I was still unbroken (just!) and Thorin (my leader) was alive and kicking. Malbeth had made his points back many times over saving countless wounds (including about 4 on himself as memory serves!) and despite my best efforts to charge his heroes his rangers were simply refusing to flee! Finally, after a desperately close few final turns, the game ended with Thorin, Bombur and Alfrid on the hill alongside Malbeth, the dwarf banner and two rangers, it had been an absolute bloodbath but, as I was unbroken and my leader was alive, I had just about scraped a victory, somewhere in the region of 9-5.
The last models standing on the blood-soaked hill!
Reading back over this I’ve completely failed to sum up how utterly thrilling and engrossing the game was, it swung back and forth so many times and we both could have won it several turns earlier. By the time it ended quite a crowd had gathered and I can honestly say it was one of the best games of SBG I’ve ever played, Chris was a fantastic opponent and it was a great way to end the tournament. It was a shame there had to be a loser but I must admit I was incredibly proud of my 7 model army which, against all the odds, had managed to win a scenario based on numbers - brilliant stuff!
And so that was that, all in all I’d managed 3 wins and 3 losses which I was more than happy with. A surprisingly loss at Lords of Battle was more than made up for by far more surprising wins at Domination and High Ground. I’d managed to come 12th out of 22 which seemed a pretty fair placing based on my win/loss results. GBHL Jamie had eventually emerged victorious with his Tournament Winning Wood Elves earning him his first win of the season (but not the last I fear….) and I was thoroughly chuffed to be awarded Best Army and get £10 credit with Dreamlike (which I’ve recently blown on all those lovely new Gundabad orcs!). I’d spent a long time painting each of these hero models over the last 6 months or so so it was nice to see all my hard work rewarded.
It was really interesting using an all-Hero army at a tournament for the first time, the various special rules of each model made it quite a fun army to use and I liked having such a cool group of named Heroes at my command. However, I didn't like the extent to which using an all Hero army is down to luck, you simply have to roll 6s consistently (or have enough Might to get you to a 6) and often I found that if I didn’t get a 6 I lost a Hero. That doesn’t particularly suit my play style, I didn’t enjoy the fact that a single roll-off early on could all but decide the game (as it did against Tom when Dwalin dies and and Alastair when Dwalin and Thorin died), I think I’ll be retuning to a traditional army set-up just as soon as I get some of these lovely new Desolation of Smaug troops painted up!
All in all it was a brilliant weekend and well worth the trip up North, I had 6 great games against 6 great guys and, as always, it was brilliant to catch up with everyone. Dreamlike hosted an amazing event and I’m really looking forward to their 1000 point tournament in May, I would heartily encourage everyone who can to attend!
Until next time!
Everyone poses for a pic at the end of the event
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Incredibily sporting of him to do that 
