Battle Report

The Idea
The concept behind this battle (on my part) was to test the strength of the Uruk Pike men to the full. My 500 point army consisted entirely of Pike men; 46 of them.

The Captain
I did have a captain, bought for the lowest number of points, and stuck a pike in his hands as well. Perhaps he should have had a sword, but he was fighting on the front line with his two attacks just like a swordsman, so it doesn’t really matter whether or not a pike was in his equipment list. He had no shield or heavy armour because I didn’t want to shell out any more points than necessary on him. He was mainly there to make the game (more or less) LoME-legal but also to give some kind of leadership to my war-crazed Uruks.

The Opposition
I had no idea what enemy my army would be facing so fielding this army, although I was confident of its abilities (high fight value and fair strength and defence), felt like a bit of a gamble.


Evil Army List

1 Uruk Captain
45 Uruk Pikemen

Good Army List

Boromir
Ent
Gamling
6 Warriors of Minas Tirith Spearmen
3 Warriors of Minas Tirith Swordsmen

7 Warriors of Rohan Spearmen
5 Warriors of Rohan Swords/Axes
3 Riders of Rohan with bows

Seeing Boromir and the Ent made me a little apprehensive, especially knowing the ‘throw stones’ rule. However, I was pleased that so many points had been spent on enemy heroes because it reduced the size of the army and would make breaking-point quicker to reach as I would only have to kill 13 Good warriors, while he would have to take out 23 Uruks to break my army.


The Uruks march to battle


Turn 1
Priority: Good

Moves on both sides
No shooting


Turn 2
Priority: Good

WoR move to defend hedge barrier.
Ent throws stone and misses.
RoR Archers make two hits but fail to wound.


Turn 3
Priority: Evil

Ent throws stone. Kills one Uruk.
WoR Spearmen throw spears and kill two Uruks.


Turn 4
Priority: Good

Ent throws stone. Hits but fails to kill.
WoR Spearmen kill one Uruk.
RoR Archers make three hits but fail to wound.



Turn 5
Priority: Evil

RoR Archers make no hits.
Gamling attacked by six Uruk Pikemen. Gamling dies.
In other fighting:
3 Uruks die
3 WoR die
1 RoR dies
1 WoMT dies.



Turn 6
Priority: Evil

Boromir makes heroic move allowing Ent to engage two Uruks.

Ent kills Uruks.
Boromir is outnumbered and blows his horn.
Uruk courage test is failed.
Boromir kills 1 Uruk and uses a point of might to kill another.
Uruk Captain uses a point of might to win fight and then kills one WoMT.
In other fighting:
3 Uruks die
3 WoR die
1 WoMT dies.

At the end of this turn the Good side is just 3 away from breaking point, while the Evil side is 10 away from breaking.


Turn 7
Priority: Good

Uruk Captain makes heroic move.
WoR Spearman kills Uruk.
Uruks kill 1 WoMT and 3 WoR

Good army is broken


Turn 8
Priority: Good

Boromir passes courage test and all Good models are in range so stand fast.
Ent charges Uruks. Uruks then reinforced with supporting pikes and extra attacks. Ent is trapped. Ent loses fight and is hauled off to feed the fires of Isengard.
Boromir blows horn. Uruks fail courage again and Boromir kills one Uruk.
2 WoR die.


Turn 9
Priority: Evil

Boromir passes courage test. One RoR is outside range and fails test.
Boromir uses 2 points of might to wound Uruk Captain.
Uruk Captain uses point of fate and recovers a wound.
One Uruk dies.
3 WoMT die.


Turn 10
Priority: Good

Boromir is outnumbered but not trapped.
Boromir blows horn.
Uruks pass courage test and go on to win the fight. Boromir dies.
2 WoMT die.
One Uruk dies.



Turn 11
Priority: Good

Remaining WoMT fails courage test and leaves the field of battle.
Uruk Total Victory.

At the end of the battle the unbroken Uruks had only lost 17, which left 28 Uruks and their Captain on the field of battle.

Everyone who voted in my Army Help poll got it wrong.
My Uruk army, consisting of just Pikemen, trounced the enemy.

Why were they so strong?
During most combats, most of the Uruks were actively engaged in the battle by being in direct contact with the enemy or by supporting fellow Uruks. This made the total number of attacks each turn huge in comparison with the Good army’s attacks. Their strength 4 fight value was an incredible advantage and won a good number of tied rolls of the dice during the fight phase.
Another advantage was limiting the use of heroes to just one minor, low-cost, hero. This made it more likely that I would equal or outnumber the enemy. As it was, I began the battle with about 20 more warriors on the field.
In the latter stages of the game, it was the number of Uruks, surrounding their foes, and their massive number of attacks that swung the game so quickly.

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Painting again...

LMAO In one turn! You must have known it was game over at that stage. Great report, nice pics and an interesting point proven

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The Southern Fiefdoms: http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=21928

yeah, that ent has tiped the scale to your favor LOL And he only killed 1 Uruk I guess.
You beat him by good list in the first place. His is hero heavy as you noted initially.

Congrats and good thinking and playing.
Oh, and nice pics...

you wonn but his army list is imho rubbishe would like to see you face of my elfs

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live good and you will be rewarded
live bad and you will have fun

good battle report, but point imho not yet proven. although you wonn he has a imho rubbish army list, would like to see you face of my elfs

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live good and you will be rewarded
live bad and you will have fun

wow those uruks torn them apart lol
its great to see how a different type of army can be underestimated and actually be very powerful

lol i luv how fast u killed the ent and great battles report

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Form ranks, you maggots. Form ranks.
Pikes in front, Archers in back.

I'd like to go up against it with my dwarf list...its tailored to pike blocks

Looking at is army list, I'm not surprised that you won at all. He wasted way too many points on heroes and big units and didn't put enough troops in.
You're going to need to go up against a solid list if you want to convince me that this is a good idea. He only had three bows and a ridiculously small amount of troops.

This proves that any uruk swarm is effective, not just a pike swarm. Think about it: how useful WERE those front line pikemen? Did they make use of their pikes? You would have lost fewer Uruks if some had shields, I have no doubt.

I still stand by my opinion: an all pikeman army is just not a god idea.

your opponents army was not lome legal, The ent is from the Fangorn list and he had no hero for that list...

I wasn't surprised at all of you victorie, being outnumbered by uruks is not nice. I would still take shields in front.

well done

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Elves, the first?
No way, we Dwarves were there long before!

But it WAS a good idea. I thrashed him.

I would agree that it certainly wouldn't be a good idea to play this army every game (or even ever again). It worked because of the number and strength of the Uruks AND because it was unusual and unexpected. Being totally surprised by it, he did not think through his tactics carefully enough and suffered the consequences.

I agree that his army could have been better chosen as well. I'd certainly have had 33% archers to cut the numbers of Uruks reaching the lines.

There are three main factors that affect the outcome of a game.

1. The forces chosen by each side
2. The tactics used by each side
3. Luck (not to be underestimated)

He could have done better with a different force.

He could have done better using different tactics.

He could have been luckier.


So, using an unconventional army can be successful because it smashes the opponent's preconceived tactics. They have to think in a new way about the game. Some people can do that more readily than others.
My opponent's tactics weren't awful, but the combination of his forces, his tactics and his poor luck (in this game) led to such a drubbing.

You argued earlier that I had no berserkers to make him afraid. However, I can tell you that he was very afraid as my ranks of pikemen made their way towards him. Perhaps that helped in unsettling him and caused some disruption.

You are right that it's not a perfect Uruk army but it IS a good idea. It worked.

@IronFoot. It seems that I must get that book. I don't mind if our games aren't LoME-legal. We play for fun. But, it would be nice to learn all the official rules for tournaments. As long as the points are matched and the archers don't exceed 33%, you can have lots of fun and exciting games.

Some of you have argued, "Well, I'd like to see them against my suchandsuchanarmy." That's not reasonable. It would be relatively easy to form an army that would do well against any other listed army. It's not knowing exactly what you are going to face that makes forming an army a bit more difficult than that. If I were going to fight an elf army, then I wouldn't use a pure Uruk pike army... obviously.

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Painting again...

Still you're not hitting the point. IMHO, the point is, his army is weak, he'd lose against any descent list not just yours. So it was not "surprise factor" that made you win, it was your luck playing against this army. And that doesn't prove neither the success or failure of your pure pikes list. Put it against a good player's army, even with surprise factor and then you can decide how strong is it.

It depends on your opponent. This time, he was surprised at seeing an uruk swarm. I am not; I've fought it many times with different armies. this is not news to a lot of people, either. I would not be surprised to see an Uruk pike army against me; I would be PLEASED.

I'm going to go ahead and say that this victory was not due to your pikemen, but his list (If you're using Rohan and WoMT and you max out at 26 models, you're doing it wrong. And only 3 bowmen?)

I didn't ARGUE earlier that there would be no fear factor because you have no berserkers- I simply said it would help. Just facing an Isengard army is good reason to be afraid.

And I do see your point about list-making, and how it would be simple to tailor a list to destroy one you know is coming. That isn't fair to say.

However, here's a Gondor list I have used more often than not, and always in a tournament. I had no idea what my opponents were using or how they would play, and twice I have fought armies like yours. I remember having many problems with the shielded warriors, but once they were down, it was nothing short of a slaughter:

Boromir of Gondor
Beregond

12 Fountain guard w/ shields
5 Citadel guard w/ longbows
6 Citadel guard w/ Longbows and spears
9 WoMT w/ shields and spears
WoMT w/ banner

Not trying to have a bragging contest here or go "I'll totally win": I'm just simply trying to point out that using all pikemen in an army is just unnecessarily risky. You can still have your same ridiculous number of crazy warriors, but they'll last longer. As I asked earlier, how useful were those front-line pikemen in actuality? Did they just die, and would they have survived with shields? Did they ever get to use those pikes? Your tactic- massing a ton of warriors, works with Isengard, even if you didn't want shooting or elites. I'm just asking: why make the front lines weaker than they can be?

Just because it worked once doesn't mean it's a good idea. That's like testing a new drug on five people and saying it's safe.

Good points, Haar.

As I said, I doubt I'll field this crazy crew again. Even so, it was a pleasure to watch them smash his army so quickly, especially the Ent and Boromir.

Boromir in this game was near useless. He did help out with courage a couple of turns, but then he was dead!

Warriors with shields on the front line could have saved me some of those lost Uruks, but he did roll a few sixes to wound, so some shielded warriors would have been lost too. Having pikes on the front line did give me some flexibility in terms of supporting. Once the warrior they were fighting was dead, they could turn and give support to an adjacent friendly warrior. They were put to good use.

I usually play a much more rational army and I, once more, won't argue that this is a perfect one. It's just unusual. I can't even defend it against your idea of playing a better-chosen army, because I haven't tested it.

You would most probably win in that case. I'd need some tougher cookies and some crossbows to do your army some damage in such a battle and would rely more heavily on shields in the front line. With Court guards and Citadel guards having the same fight value as regular Uruks, my army's main advantage would be lost.


Was my pike army unnecessarily risky? Yes, it sure was! But I was thinking like an Uruk, rather than like Saruman. They charged with a blind hatred and showed no fear of any enemy warrior or hero (apart from when Boromir blew his nose).

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Painting again...

Well, as long as you had fun. ;]

actually, for the reasons natarn ulka said, an all pikeman army on that occasion WAS a good idea. he completely destroyed the opponent because of the surprise his army brought. any tactics his opponent had before the battle were rendered useless because of it. i agree that the opponent's list was not a good one, but is choosing a good force not part of the game??

well done in your victory, natarn ulka, and a brilliant battle report.

Thanks!

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Painting again...

"As I asked earlier, how useful were those front-line pikemen in actuality? Did they just die, and would they have survived with shields? Did they ever get to use those pikes?"

This is why I use easterlings, pikes and shields

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AlextheGreat789
Armies:
Durin's Folk
Eastern Kingdoms
Harad & Umbar
Isengard
Fiefdoms
Gondor
Rohan
Rivendell
Moria