Middle Earth and its heroes

At Stephens today (who by the way won the Cork competition so practice well worth it) and he decided to play the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game.

I stuck with my favoured Minas Morgul force and he choose two Heroic Fellowship type lists.

My list had usual Witch King on Fell Beast, A Troll a couple of Spectres and assorted Mordor and Morranon Orcs for 34 figures total.

First list Stephen tried was Breaking Of The Fellowship (?) with Aragon, Boromir, Gimli, Frodo and Legolas (very much the movie version) with Eleven support including Haldir.

Second game he used The Grey Company with a mere 9 figures but all being heroes again with Aragon, Gimli, Legolas, a trio of Ranger Captains and Eleven Heroes.

The heroes are just that with a long list of abilities and traits which make them a very potent even in small numbers and able to blow through the Orcs in short order.

But great to see such figures in action and watch them shine 

Against the Grey Company it was a Capture The Flag type scenario with a central objective but random arrival table edges for each Warband

The Company of Heroes trouncing a Warband that appeared behind them (awful pic quality) 

Whilst the Witch King arrived on opposite edge. My third Warband appeared on right flank  but the Company just crushed both enroute to the objective

Against The Fellowship a capture the Supplies type scenario with Legolas, Aragon and Boromir (lots of horn blowing) having a field day killing Orcs. 

Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game - 2 games played

At Stephens today and he chose to play MESBG and I took a force from the 'Army Of The Great Eye' list with a bunch of Wargs and riders and Mouth of Sauron to try alongside usual Witch King (on horse this time) a Troll and bunch of Orc types and an interesting Eye Of Sauron rule (eye acts like a search light that gives banner bonus to friends within 3").

First game was against 'Last Alliance' list so mix of Elves and Men with Elendil and Elrond in charge.

My Orcs mostly had 2HCW which I did not realise meant a -1 to hit in duel phase which of course saw them decimated quickly.

Elves in this list have a nasty trait of killing charging enemy on a 6. 

The Wargs did not get to charge due to error on my part so did not really see them at their best and their throwing spears failed to hit anything.

Scenario had a target enemy hero, defend your own hero and capture a terrain piece.

I did manage to capture a target wood, but failed to defend my own and then despite transfixing an enemy hero 3 times I failed to inflict even a wound on him so lost 11-3 after my army imploded.

Second game was against Fargorn list so Elves and Men again but with that git Glorfindel and a few Hobbits led by a Ranger. 

Also had that nasty hero (Kaster ??) who could blow figures down which he did twice to my troll and blew Witch King off his mount. I targeted him with Black Dart twice but he countered successfully both times.

I swapped my Uruk Kai with 2HCW for Morranan Orcs with spear and shield and made much better use of Wargs (on flanks) but still failed to win many duels (lots of drawn combats which went to enemy) and whilst things were fairly even early on a couple of horrible turns saw my army broken and then as usual destroyed due to failed rolls to stand (even though Witch King and Mouth issued stand fast to several units)

Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game - two games with Minas Morgul

Game at Stephens today and he choose MESBG and so I used the Minas Morgul list again as I have at least some familiarity with its intricacies. 

We managed to play two games both at 750pts

First up I faced a Rohan list with Theoden and Eomir and an entirely mounted force all of whom could shot with either a bow or spear but had only 25 units. My force was 34 units with Witch King on his Fell Beast and a couple of Trolls.

This one was really decided on first couple of turns as the Roharimm stood off and shot my lot to bits. I had lost 12 figures before getting anywhere close to combat and game was over before my Trolls or Witch King got into action.

Next up Stephen used a list whose name I forget but had a mix of Hobbits (led by a Ranger) Elves, Ghondorian Foot and Knights. Characterwise he had Knuster (?), and that utter 'barsteward' Glorfindal on his horse (is it odd to actually hate a small figurine ?).

I used a 56 unit version with Witch King on a horse (bah humbug) and a horde of Orc types.

Despite the Eleven bows being superior shooters, Stephens shooting was considerably worse than last game and so I was able to close with minimal casualties and at least got to slug it out.

Elves are no slouches in combat either but did take some losses as did the Hobbits.

But of course that sod Glorfindal managed to pulverise everything in his path winning every Heroic Combat or Strike. Witch King and he squared off and we both unhorsed each other, but he then inflicted a single wound on Witch King which I failed to save with my 3 Fate rolls and so killed him (his 1 wound level is a real weakness), just as Orc losses led to army defeat.

As always all kit from Stephens growing collection (he is kind of hooked on game)

First game vs Rider of Rohan 

Game 2

Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game - two games played (and a WIN !!!!!!!!!!!)

Game at Stephens and he choose the MEBSG he is so enamoured with for another outing and we managed two games at 750 points

First game I used Minas Morgul list again with the Witch King on his Fell Beast, 2 Trolls, 2 Spectres and a bunch of Orcs with only 2 Bowmen (of which more later).

Stephen used a Numanorian list with Elindeal (and another named hero ?) and multiple warriors with several archers.

The scenario was a new one to me (we rolled for this) being a Reconnoiter which entails getting as many units of enemy board edge as possible.

This was a hard fought game with Numanorians quickly breaking my army and eventually defeating it including losing the Witch King, but the two Orc archers I had managed to get off enemy table edge (they never fired or fought all game) whilst Numanrians failed to exit any mainly due to pulling back at start and this gave me 8 VP to their 5 VP and so a WIN !!!!!!! yes folks that is correct its not a typo a victory for once.

Mind you it was close as the two archers survived being shot at and passing their break tests (needing 8+ on 2D6) just prior to exiting !!

Second game Stephen took the Minas Morgul force although amended to include a Taskmaster, a War Drummer and a Banner Orc (only 1 Troll) whilst I used the Khazad-Dun Dwarf army Stephen had used in our last session and the Domination scenario.

This was a straight up rugby scrum from get go and a one-sided game as Stephen had awesome dice rolls from get go and even the Combats I managed to win I could kill very few enemy. My archers of which there were several were hampered by terrain and failed to have any real effect ending up in melee mostly.

Dwarves soon broke and then suffered a total defeat as Orcs overran them in short (pardon the pun) order.

Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game - Orcs vs Dwarves

Another game of MESBG at Stephens (he is very taken with game) using the usual Minas Morgul chaps versus his new Dwarf army, not sure which version.

We tried a 750pt game which is largest so far and this saw 41 Dwarves facing 56 'Baddies' (I had Witch King on a horse this time and no Troll but had 4 Spectres and mass of Orcs in 4 Warbands).

Dwarves have some nice abilities making them tough, as better strength means they win drawn duels vs my lot (happened a lot), several units get re-rolls in combats (again happened a lot) and they benefit from most terrain, they also shoot as well as Elves, only real downside is they move 1" less (short legs).

Game was a pretty brutal slog as I deployed right up to table center and being orc horde went straight for enemy, indeed we played whole game in Dwarf half of table.

Dwarf shooting took out 6 of mine before units clashed and then I lost tons quickly but began inflicting losses.

My Army reached break point first and several Orcs fled (failed morale checks) but I did manage to break the Dwarf army just before mine was auto-defeated.

Not great or many pics as involved in game

Action starts in Dwarf half of table

Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game - Orcs vs Men and Elves

Game at Stephens and he selected to play MESBG and I choose to use the Minas Tirith list again (points upped to 700) and he used a list (forgotten name) with Elves and Men.

Of course I had Witch King on Fell Beast (I mean how can you not !?) with a Troll (again !) and usual mix of Morannon and Mordor Orcs with couple of Spectres in tow.

Stephens lot had Glorfindel on a horse as main character with nasty Elvish Archers and several Elven swordsmen and Men (Gondorians ?) with sword or spear and couple of archers with two chaps on horses.

Fun game once again although I struggled to recall how best to use all the varied options available to characters and armies.

Troll was hammered by Elevish bowfire then dispatched by Glorfindel but he did tie up a flank for a bit.

This allowed my Orcs to get to grips with enemy and the Witch King flew in behind enemy ranks to inflict multiple casualties, but not enough to out do the losses inflicted on my Orcs and Evil doers defeated.

Fun game with a Fantasy subject matter I can live with :-)

Off to Middle Earth again

Game at Stephens today and he choose to use his Middle Earth Battle Game stuff again (he has several armies to try).

I used the Minas Morgul army again as wanting to try to use them better.

We managed two games (in between waffling).

First up was a Roharrim force with 14 mounted chaps, some supporting foot and Theoden and Eomer.

This was fun with my Witch King and Troll getting fully  into action this time and better use of Spectres (one drew a cavalryman to his doom as Orcs surrounded him)

I managed to kill both Eomer and Theoden (also set him on fire !) and hurl a Rider and his mount with the troll (fun trait) but still managed to lose the game as army fully broken ! First shooting volley by Roharrim was pretty good killing 5 of my lot but they do have 10 or so shooters (bows and throwing spears)

Second game was against a Last Alliance army (mix of Elves and Numenoreans) with Elrond and Elindel in charge. 

Again my Witch King and Troll both got into action (Elrond failed to topple Troll) but much less successfully and again army broke. 

Army maybe a tad small by Orc standards when including tooled up Witch King and a Troll but they are so desirable.

Nice playable game (if you can keep on top of all the special abilities and suchlike) and Stephens figures are excellent (most are 3D prints) and system a nice occasional change from 'proper' wargaming :-) 

Lines approach each other in second game (Blogger keeps reversing pics)

First game with Theoden visible on right as Eormer in trouble in center facing an Orc Captain and other Orcs

An unseen Spectre targets Roharrim rider (pulls him towards Spectre against his will)

As Troll makes his presence felt

Riders battle line of Orcs 

Witch King in range who later fly behind Eomer and dealt death blow 

The rather fetching Troll clad in armour and wielding a nasty 'toothpick'