yesterday i played my first game of wotr and i loved it. being a long time GW player of 16 years im very used to warhammer and 40k and frankly find them a bit tired at this point. wotr was a breath of fresh air, a good mass battle system that is easy to play and strategic enough to keep me thinking without being a break ache after a few turns.

i played mordor 1500pts using...

gothmog

6x morannon orcs / captain, shields
6 mordor orcs / captain, shields
6x warg riders / captain, shields, banner
3x mordor uruk hai / two handed weapons, captain, drummer

troll chieftain
2x mordor trolls
4x morgul knights / captain, banner (allies)

against gondor 1500pts (roughly, can't remember equipment, placement of captains, banners etc)

boromir
faramir
legolas

3x numernorians
3x warriors of minas tirith - led by boromir
3x warriors of minas tirith
1x archers of minas tirith
1x archers of minas tirith
3x knights of minas tirith
3x knights of minas tirith
1x rangers - led by faramir
3x high elves (allies) - led by legolas
1x trebuchet.

we played on too small a table so it was a line up and fight affair which neither of us minded as it was both our first time playing and getting the rules right seemed better than confusing ourselves with strategy overmuch.

nik won priority and handed it to me. i set up first, went first, called a pair of heroic moves on both of my cavalry units and had them charge into his elves and both his knight companies. won both combats but failed to break either unit, they would whittle each other down over the course of the game.

from the moment nik handed me priority he never got it back all game so i had a huge advantage in luck there and meant i was getting off all the charges. the main battle lines crashed with some tough fights but the orcs had the numbers and it was telling on the gondorians who couldn't cause enough kills to win combats. borormir called an epic duel on my mordor uruk hai captain who he swiftly and predictably hacked to death. i had to expend might to keep boromir from running me down. by the skin of my teeth i held against him.

on the far left flank my trolls made very short work on niks archers and due to several failed charges his trebuchet survived until turn 4 but eventually got trolled all over. the trolls were the then the tipping point in the game as it could have gone either way at this point. they began to rampage into the flanks and rear of his elves, swordsman, boromirs unit and numernorians and usually killed no less than 5-7 each time. each unit was now below half strength and losing their combats wholesale and one by one was ran down and taken off the board.

faramir who had hung back to shoot all game made a final attempt to shoot, the remaining pair of minas tirith knights who were fighting the wargs (two units of knights and faramirs rangers all game to kill them off, go wargs!!) charged into the flanks of gothmogs orcs but with basically that as the only survivors we shook hands and ended the game.

i won pure and simple on luck. priority was mine all game and allowed me to charge early on and pin his cavalry and elves down which IMO were going to be his most dangerous units besides the one with boromir in it. if it would have been the other way around he'd had got the charges and rolled me up. still the gondorians are a tough nut to crack, good courage and with alot of banners he held firm against several charges i thought sure to break him with.

i was really impressed with my trolls, serious carnage and seemingly unkillable. trolls are my favourite part of mordor armies so it was ace to see them smashing stuff up. i was also really impressed with my warg riders who smashed up a pair of knight units and despite being killed off in the end really did me proud as i thought they would die quickly.

i learnt alot about the game and how it works and will be rewriting my army list today to fit in more banners which are invaluable for when i like to fluff my crucial charge distances and also i can benefit from gothmogs special rule with them too.

overall a great game vs a great opponant who im sure is thirsting for revenge. cheers for a great game nik and thanks to mike for refereeing and rereading the rulebook about 3 times during the duration of the game answering our questions.

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If I advance, follow me! If I fall back, kill me! If I die, avenge me!

Good to hear you had fun with your first game!

Formations of 6 companies of cav are strong and durable, and I guess you saw how they can outperform formations of just three companies, which get too vulnerable to taking casualties and losing effectiveness.

Winning priority consistently during a game is a massive advantage. It may seem like not much but ut adds up over several turns.

It was my priviledge to take part in a great game, and couldnt of wished for a better opponent.

Like Alistair, I found the game to be as good as expectations, and have already plotted my revenge, lol...

Thanks again, mate, look forward to many more classic encounters

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There will be no dawn for mankind...

It was a pleasure Chef.looking forward to more encounters with you be it in Middle Earth,The Blood-Bowl pitch or the far flung future. Cheers dude.Mike.

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Always out numbered,but never out gunned.

Well done dude, im geting started with WOTR too. Since theres a campaign going on at liverpool GW i go down every sat. Glad you enjoyed it
CJ

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Would you like me to describe it to you... Or would you like me to get you a box.

Well I'm glad it worked out for you. My first WOTR game was at the launch in my local GW. I was playing with 5 others in some big battle, just throwing loads of dice and removing dozens of models. It wasn't explained very well what was going on so I didn't like it much. Nearly got in a fight because my opponent kept touching my figures which really annoys me.
My pal bought the rule book and we had another go at it one on one at his house, but the whole thing was over in 6 turns. We looked at each other, said "this is lame", and had a good ol' game of SBG which we both love.

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You don't have to be great to start. But you do have to start to be great.