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 Post subject: WOTR - battle report 1450pts Elves vs Mordor
PostPosted: Fri Nov 26, 2010 10:07 am 
Elven Warrior
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WOTR – Battle report

Armies: 1450points each Elves vs Mordor. (Dol Guldur –themed)

Elves had:
Legolas
Elladan
Ellrohir
Glorfindel (monster)
1 formation Wood Elf Warband (full command) longbows (3 Coy)
1 formation Mirkwood Sentinels (full command) (1 Coy)
Gildors Household (2 Coy)
Allies:
Ent
Grey Company (3 Coy)

Mordor had:
Khamul on Fellbeast
Kardush
1 form. Mordor orcs with full command and shields (3 Coy)
1 form Mordor orcs with cap & banner, bows (2 Coys)
1 form warg riders with captain (3 Coys)
1 Mordor Troll
1 Mordor drummer troll

Allies:
Cave troll
1 form giant bats (1 coy)
1 form wargs with chieftan (3 Coys)
1 form spiders (2 Coy)
1 form spiderlings (1 Coy)


Played Shieldwalls, with Kingslayer.

6’ x 6’ board. Each army deployed 24” in. Several clumps of woods, small hills and a few ruins dotted about.

Rather than go into lengthy discourse, the game was over in 2 turns.
Elves won priority in first turn and waiting in firing line till evil army advanced, then shot them to bits. Warg riders destroyed by rangers. Spiders and wargs wrecked by elves.
Second turn, Evil got priority. In desperation used wings of terror to get main orc formation in towards rangers. Advanced Khamul in support down centre, and Kardush led bow orcs towards ent on flank. Fire-balled ent with epic ruination causing 2 wound markers.
Glorfindel moved round to rear of orcs threatening rangers.
Legolas used Crippling shot and Epic Shot, and killed Khamul.
Orcs charged rangers, but were then flank charged by Glorfindel. They were massacred. Bow orcs charged burning ent, but were beaten back badly.
What was left of spiders and bats charged wood elves, and spiderlings emerged from ambush and charged the sentinels in a wood.
Sentinels killed spiderlings.
Bats and spiders damaged wood elves, but spiders killed off, elves lost and were disordered. Trolls were too far back to do anything.

Evil conceded defeat.

Thoughts:
Elf firing line dishes out a lot of damage.
Trolls almost pointless, can’t keep up with army. 325 point of trolls would have better been spent on orcs, (but I took what I had painted.). More orcs would have weathered the arrow storm better perhaps?...

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 Post subject: Re: WOTR - battle report 1450pts Elves vs Mordor
PostPosted: Fri Nov 26, 2010 10:43 am 
Craftsman
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Just checked out your blog, really like the new Arnor/Angmar stuff. Buhrdur is one of my favorite miniatures from the LotRs range and have still yet to acquire him for my collection. Warg Chieftain look awesome too....
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 Post subject: Re: WOTR - battle report 1450pts Elves vs Mordor
PostPosted: Fri Nov 26, 2010 8:43 pm 
Elven Warrior
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Your blog is very cool and some very nice painted miniatures.

About the battle report it is not very detailed and there are no pictures maybe something for the future? and for the armylists command groups are almost useless in Wotr try to use epic heros for that.

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 Post subject: Re: WOTR - battle report 1450pts Elves vs Mordor
PostPosted: Sat Nov 27, 2010 10:10 am 
Elven Warrior
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Thank you both for your kinds words about my blog. Feedback, especially positive, is always appreciated.

@hero of gondor - yes you are quite right, a battle report is better with pictures and a more detailed write up.
But the fact that the battle was so one sided, and over so quickly - didnt really merit a "full" report.

I offered it merely as an observation into the effectiveness of an Elven firing line against a foot slogging army that couldnt get there quick enough, with enough numbers left to matter.

Your comments on command groups are interesting. Again I took them as I had painted them up, and they bumped the points up of both armies allowing more points to be spent on allies to again make the overall armies bigger.

I thought on this more afterwards:
As previously mentioned : drop the trolls
need more basic orcs
consider upgraded to morannons with shields, thats D7 against the shooting.
Consider more wraiths in a bigger block of orc warriors.
Take some black numenoreans ( foot & cavalry)
I have heaps more options I could have fielded, but I like to play with painted armies, so simply put on the table what I had painted...

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 Post subject: Re: WOTR - battle report 1450pts Elves vs Mordor
PostPosted: Sat Nov 27, 2010 10:48 am 
Elven Warrior
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jscottbowman wrote:
Thank you both for your kinds words about my blog. Feedback, especially positive, is always appreciated.

@hero of gondor - yes you are quite right, a battle report is better with pictures and a more detailed write up.
But the fact that the battle was so one sided, and over so quickly - didnt really merit a "full" report.
I offered it merely as an observation into the effectiveness of an Elven firing line against a foot slogging army that couldnt get there quick enough, with enough numbers left to matter.

Good report.

Sadly for the Elves, they do not get to face many lists like that. If you have a look at my Batrep of the poor Elven bow line vs sixteen coy of cav cowering behind a shieldwall (1000 pt Ithilien vs Galadrim, battle for the pass), you'll get a sense of the types of problems and Elven player usually has to cope with. Even if you play it longways and the whole enemy army moves at the rate of the foot, Elven bow do not do much against heavy infantry. Even when they get to shoot at something else, enemy numbers are generally too great to stop before they hit and the expensive Elves start to die!

I agree with you about playing with the painted stuff. We've all modeled our command groups here. Many of us have also just permanently stuck all the models to scenic bases. None of us actually use the rules for those command groups though, they are just for decoration. The only time this would even be an issue for us is if we were fielding a legendary formation that actually had a banner (say Osgiliath Veterans) then we'd need to take the rest of the command bases off the table.

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 Post subject: Re: WOTR - battle report 1450pts Elves vs Mordor
PostPosted: Mon Nov 29, 2010 9:18 am 
Elven Warrior
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Xelee wrote:
Sadly for the Elves, they do not get to face many lists like that. If you have a look at my Batrep of the poor Elven bow line vs sixteen coy of cav cowering behind a shieldwall (1000 pt Ithilien vs Galadrim, battle for the pass), you'll get a sense of the types of problems and Elven player usually has to cope with. Even if you play it longways and the whole enemy army moves at the rate of the foot, Elven bow do not do much against heavy infantry. Even when they get to shoot at something else, enemy numbers are generally too great to stop before they hit and the expensive Elves start to die!

I agree with you about playing with the painted stuff. We've all modeled our command groups here. Many of us have also just permanently stuck all the models to scenic bases. None of us actually use the rules for those command groups though, they are just for decoration. The only time this would even be an issue for us is if we were fielding a legendary formation that actually had a banner (say Osgiliath Veterans) then we'd need to take the rest of the command bases off the table.


I had reread of your report, and can see how an elven line can be overrun by fast moving heavily armoured foes. Perhaps one extra to consider, although expensive is Glorfindel. He only acted once in our game but it was decisive
Leave him out of harms way behind the elven line, then, when your opponent has priority and moved forward to attack your line, "fly" Glofindel over the top and land behind them, ready to charge their rear. He'll go first (monster), probably cause horrendous casualties, and reduce their return attacks to 1 die due to being caught in rear. Between the hammer and the anvil.
Of course this will only work if your opponent attacks in one wave. Perhaps even if in two waves, a heroic fight might allow him to carry on into second unit??

I think I'll always try and take him in my elven forces... he's just cool; devastating on the charge and a nice model. :-)

I agree with you taking command figures, they look great in a unit, and even if not pointed for, and your opponent knows clearly which are real and which are not, its fine.

As a general point, one thing with WOTR is that low points games will be over fairly quickly as the first main charges will usually be successful. I found this the same when I used to play Warmaster. That game improved radically once armies got bigger, and you had successive waves of troops crashing into each other. I feel WOTR will be the same, its really a game for big armies.
The smaller size games are fine for learning the rules and getting the hang of things, but I reckon games will become a real spectacle both visually and game-wise, as we increase army sizes to 3,4 or 5000 points... Of course you'll need a big table to get the feel for these size battles and allow room for maneuver.

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 Post subject: Re: WOTR - battle report 1450pts Elves vs Mordor
PostPosted: Mon Nov 29, 2010 11:03 am 
Elven Warrior
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Well we are going to have to learn to hurry up our play! Our 1000pt games are taking long enough, with all those troops. :)

WOTR is a bit deceptive in terms of points standards. I genuinely think that the ruleswriters assumed a different game where we all took command upgrades (85-100 odd points per formation) as standards, actually liked Legendary formations and loved to take multiples of big monsters. That makes sense for bigger points totals. However, without those things, 1000pts of WOTR is quite a big game.

I'm not averse to the idea of 1500 pt games, but we are finding that 1000pts fills up our 2.5-3 hour evening slots as it is.

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Last edited by Xelee on Mon Nov 29, 2010 8:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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 Post subject: Re: WOTR - battle report 1450pts Elves vs Mordor
PostPosted: Mon Nov 29, 2010 11:56 am 
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Had a look at your blog and I must say your painting is at a superb level. I am also really interested in all of your Flames of War collections. Really nice stuff there.
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 Post subject: Re: WOTR - battle report 1450pts Elves vs Mordor
PostPosted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 7:55 am 
Elven Warrior
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Sticky Fingersss wrote:
Had a look at your blog and I must say your painting is at a superb level. I am also really interested in all of your Flames of War collections. Really nice stuff there.

Thank you for your kind words. I must admit my two favourites are probably Lord of the Rings and World War 2. The former ever since I read the books as a teen-ager, and the later as you can't escape it, in either movies or documentaries on the TV!

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 Post subject: Re: WOTR - battle report 1450pts Elves vs Mordor
PostPosted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 8:00 am 
Elven Warrior
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Xelee wrote:
Well we are going to have to learn to hurry up our play! Our 1000pt games are taking long enough, with all those troops. :)

WOTR is a bit deceptive in terms of points standards. I genuinely think that the ruleswriters assumed a different game where we all took command upgrades (85-100 odd points per formation) as standards, actually liked Legendary formations and loved to take multiples of big monsters. That makes sense for bigger points totals. However, without those things, 1000pts of WOTR is quite a big game.

I'm not averse to the idea of 1500 pt games, but we are finding that 1000pts fills up our 2.5-3 hour evening slots as it is.


You may raise a valid point.
I would like to think that even large games could be handled in a reasonable length of time, once folks get conversant with the rules, and use sufficient pre-arranged play aids like army list orbats, and the spells cards etc for quick reference rather than constantly leafing back and forth through rulebook. It always seems to be spells that slow us up, mostly in trying to decide what to play and in what order...!

I am sure a 1to 2k battle could be held in an evening, larger games 2-5k probably a whole weekends afternoon, or even whole day if you are lucky enough to dedicate the time to it, or have an area where the game can be left set up between gaming sessions...

best of luck
Scott

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 Post subject: Re: WOTR - battle report 1450pts Elves vs Mordor
PostPosted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 2:42 pm 
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I'm still painting up my old figures to a reasonable standard (I hope), and hope for the rule books for Christmas, but...

A situation like that seems to cry out for some skirmishers on the Mordor side. It sounds like the situation the French were in at Waterloo, huge columns advancing against a steadfast firing line. Without some skirmishers, by which I mean bow-armed goblins or orcs used in front of the main formation, to keep the Elves' heads down and buy you one or two moves of forward movement before they're annihilated, you've got no chance. I appreciate there might be a problem with morale, when your block of advancing orcs has to step over the skirmishers' corpses, or see the remnants fleeing the field, but I've done it in other periods, using other rules, and it seems to work.

I've been planning my Morgul armies round that sort of idea; please tell me it might just work! 8)

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 Post subject: Re: WOTR - battle report 1450pts Elves vs Mordor
PostPosted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 7:04 pm 
Elven Warrior
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Problems are:
The elves can start shooting you from 36" away, ie into your deployment zone.
Goblin orc bows only have range of 18"
Wood Elves wear enchanted cloaks, can't be shot at from more than 12" away (I think)
To shoot a bow a formation can only move half pace (3"), so it will take longer to walk towards elves, giving them more time to shoot at you.
Other than that a cannon fodder screen of cheap troops is a fine idea, just dont expect to "keep the elves heads down"

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 Post subject: Re: WOTR - battle report 1450pts Elves vs Mordor
PostPosted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 7:28 pm 
Elven Warrior
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At the moment however, Durburz could use his Overlord to let Goblin Archers run up and 'heroic shoot' with a huge line of goblin Archers (you have to love 20pt bow in this game). Even without that kind of ability, a Captain or even just an Epic in there could do the job. Woodelves on the back line (for a shieldwalls deployment) will be out of range of this though.

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Last edited by Xelee on Tue Nov 30, 2010 8:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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 Post subject: Re: WOTR - battle report 1450pts Elves vs Mordor
PostPosted: Tue Nov 30, 2010 7:31 pm 
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Xelee wrote:
At the moment however, Durburz could use his Overlord to let Goblin Archers run up and 'heroic shoot' with a huge line of goblin Archers (you have to love 20pt bow in this game). Even without that kind of abilit, a Captain or even just an Epic in there could do the job. Woodelves on the backline (for a shieldwalls deployment) will be out of range of this though.


Yes, I've noticed that this works incredibly well with the twins in 2 seperate wood elf bowmen formations especially if you have galadriel to lend a free epic renewal.

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 Post subject: Re: WOTR - battle report 1450pts Elves vs Mordor
PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 11:03 am 
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We have had another go at this battle tonight.
But we have upped the points to 1775 per army.

Changes the evil army:
Only one formation of orcs of 5 coys w/ shields
3 wraiths, one on fellbeast.
dropped the cave troll.
took a formation of 2 coys of goblins with bow, and 3 coys with shields and captain.

Changes to good army:
dropped the ent
took elrond, and
one formation 3 coys riders of rohan
one formation 1 coy rohan oathsworn bow
one formation 2 coy rohan oathsworn with banner and captain

Put a lot more terrain on board (woods, ruins, impassible rocks).
And deployed shieldwalls again but this time Take the high ground - a central hill.

We didn't get to complete the game due to a late start (hassle with alarm at work , grrr!) I would have taken pics this time, but for the late start...

But a much different game this time. The greater terrain narrowed down many fire arcs for the good guys, and the need to take the central hill, forced the elves to advance.

We have left the game set up, and hope to finish one night next week.
I will fill you in more then

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