The 2007 Tournament Circuit began with Adeptus Windy City's annual Adepticon event, which this year featured, for the first time, a LOTR event. Seven 2-player teams plus a ringer team appeared in the event. The format required each team to provide one good and one evil army of 500 points each.
Teams and Players:
CAGO – Ed Kravetsky and Paul Stuart
CAGO 2 – Mike Earley and Joe Troxell
Heroes of Middle Earth – Keith Hruska and Corey O'Brien
Reign – Josh Leon and Andrew Stuart
Taskforce Basement – Chris Pratt and David Pratt
The White Council – Joe Krone and Chris Rubright
Two Random "Ring"ers – Frank Brown and Brent Sinclair
We played three scenarios:
It is Precious to Me (similar to Domination but with 2 objectives)
Battle at the Border (similar to Storm the Camp)
Leave None Alive (similar to To the Death!)
We played on 4 X 4 boards with set terrain. What was unique was that every board had LOTR-specific terrain items in different environments. My games were on the Shire board which featured hobbit holes, and there were a variety of other boards with a lot of nicely made LOTR terrain pieces, such as an Easterling temple. Adeptus Windy City, and Tournament Director Jamie Welling in particular, did a great job with the tournament. The format makes it a lot of fun and this event is sure to become a favorite of LOTR players.
Teams and Players:
CAGO – Ed Kravetsky and Paul Stuart
CAGO 2 – Mike Earley and Joe Troxell
Heroes of Middle Earth – Keith Hruska and Corey O'Brien
Reign – Josh Leon and Andrew Stuart
Taskforce Basement – Chris Pratt and David Pratt
The White Council – Joe Krone and Chris Rubright
Two Random "Ring"ers – Frank Brown and Brent Sinclair
We played three scenarios:
It is Precious to Me (similar to Domination but with 2 objectives)
Battle at the Border (similar to Storm the Camp)
Leave None Alive (similar to To the Death!)
We played on 4 X 4 boards with set terrain. What was unique was that every board had LOTR-specific terrain items in different environments. My games were on the Shire board which featured hobbit holes, and there were a variety of other boards with a lot of nicely made LOTR terrain pieces, such as an Easterling temple. Adeptus Windy City, and Tournament Director Jamie Welling in particular, did a great job with the tournament. The format makes it a lot of fun and this event is sure to become a favorite of LOTR players.
RESULTS:
BEST OVERALL – Ed Kravetsky and Paul Stuart
BEST GENERALS – Keith Hruska and Corey O'Brien
BEST SPORTSMEN – Chris Pratt and David Pratt
BEST PAINTED – Joe Krone and Chris Rubright
BEST OVERALL – Ed Kravetsky and Paul Stuart
BEST GENERALS – Keith Hruska and Corey O'Brien
BEST SPORTSMEN – Chris Pratt and David Pratt
BEST PAINTED – Joe Krone and Chris Rubright
FRANK'S REPORT
I was excited about the prospect of playing in the first-ever Adepticon LOTR event, but also concerned about finding a teammate since my colleagues from the local store in Florida were not going to Adepticon this year. Fortunately, Jamie Welling managed to connect me with Brent Sinclair, who was also looking for a teammate. For those who aren’t aware, the team format required that the two player teams have one good and one evil force that are themed as armies that have some relationship with each other in Tolkien’s works. We chose Pelennor Fields themed armies of Rohan and Mordor.
Because I was playing Mordor, I decided to create a list that was a polar opposite in most respects to my Isengard lists. My top-heavy list consisted of Gothmog on warg, a Mordor Troll, an orc shaman, orc banner, 4 Morannon Orcs, 4 Mordor Uruks, and a bunch of orcs with shields, spears and bows. I went light on the archery since orc archery stinks, but I did bring one orc tracker. I only had four might points, less than normal, but I hoped that Gothmog’s special rule would allow him to make up for it. Brent brought a Rohan force balanced with cavalry and infantry.
After a brief strategy session over lunch, we marched into the tent for the first round, wearing our respective Rohan and Mordor shirts.
Round One – It Is Precious to Me
In round one I was matched up against Josh Leong's Gondorians, led by Boromir of the White Tower, tooled up with everything except the banner. Boromir commanded a sizable group of WOMT, while defending and one attacking group. Gothmog led my attackers while the defenders featured my shaman and the troll. Damrod led some sharp shooting Rangers. Since there were two objectives, each of us split our forces into one defending and one attacking group. Gothmog led my attackers while the defenders featured my shaman and the troll.
After a few turns of moving and shooting, in which my archers did nothing but catch a few of Josh’s arrows with their chests, we engaged in hand to hand near the objective I was defending, the ruined statute of the king in Ithilien. In the first turn, the troll matched up against Boromir, defeated him, and inflicted three wounds, all of which Boromir saved with the use of all three fate points and one might point. It was a good start, but Josh apparently decided that Boromir had had enough fun with trolls, and with priority on his side for several turns, tied up the troll with a sacrificial guardsman (automatically passing courage checks to charge the troll) while Boromir found Mordor Uruks more to his liking. He began carving up my orcs just like he did at Amon Hen, and while the battles elsewhere were somewhat even, Boromir fairly quickly put me a significant numerical disadvantage in defending on that flank.
On the left, Gothmog led a sturdy force of Morannon Orcs through some blocking terrain, which did not prevent Josh’s rangers from killing two of them. Once hand to hand began on this side, Gothmog fared well in combat, but Damrod helped keep the Gondorians in the fight, and I was scarcely able to kill more than I lost even with Gothmog.
The defenders on my right flank were slowly picked off, and I lost priority several moves in a row. Once I tried a heroic move with my shaman’s only might point, only to have Boromir counter and win the roll-off. My inability to win priority meant that the troll spent most of the game tied up, while Boromir had free “reign” cutting into my orcs. Finally, Boromir killed my shaman, and with my force having just been broken, I lost the troll to a courage check. That resulted in the collapse of my battle line, and Boromir led his remaining troops to my objective.
The left flank battle was slowly heading my way, but Josh reinforced his troops with his rangers, leading to desperate fighting to seize the objective. Finally, time ran out with the objective still evenly contested. Josh had won one objective and contested the other, so at first we thought he might have picked up a minor victory. However, the victory conditions required him to hold his home objective in order to win, and thus the game ended in a hard-fought draw.
Round Two – Battle at the Border
The second scenario had the “Ring”ers matched up against the Heroes of Middle Earth consisting of Keith “Thorhak” Hruska’s Bud Select Knights and Corey O‘Brien’s Goblins and Wargs.
This scenario was similar to Storm the Camp from Legions, and since I didn’t have as much mobility as Keith, I knew I would have to play it carefully to avoid getting outrun to one flank. Thus, I split my forces into 3 parts. Gothmog led a small contingent of Morannon Orcs towards Keith’s knights on my extreme left; the shaman and troll and the main body of infantry headed towards Keith’s troops; and the archers moved to my right flank as a screening force.
I was not surprised when Keith moved his knights away from Gothmog and towards my archers. I had expected it and fired at the knights as best I could. Meanwhile, Keith’s supporting archers were doing a fair bit of damage to my main force. I knew I would have to damage Keith’s force quickly to have any chance, because eventually Keith’s knights would overrun my archers and I didn’t have enough to stop them.
The first couple of turns of hand-to-hand went well. Gothmog steamrolled Keith’s right flank, killing Beregond in one turn. Meanwhile, the troll defeated Imrahil and inflicted 3 wounds, all of which Keith saved with the benefit of one might point. If I could merely get Imrahil and the troll to go at it another round or two, I could take out Imrahil and then bulldoze the rest of Keith’s force before he could get through my archers.
But then I started losing priority every turn. I had counted on Gothmog’s mighty hero rule to make up for my lack of might, but it only works when you win priority. Turn after turn, Keith tied up my troll with a guardsman – one of whom defeated my troll 2 turns in a row – while Imrahil simply slipped behind the troll and destroyed my line single-handledly. Even when I called a heroic move with Gothmog, Keith won the rolloff. By the time Imrahil reached my shaman and banner, the center of my line was broken and so was I.
My archers had managed fairly well against Keith’s knights. Despite getting charged, I won 2 of the 4 combats and killed a knight and another one’s mount. But with the benefit of his captain, Keith was steadily winning the battle and taking out my archers. In another turn or so, they would be gone and Keith’s remaining knights would storm unimpeded into my camp soon after that.
When Imrahil took out my shaman and his fury, the next turn he charged Gothmog first to take away my standfast. But Keith had gotten greedy, and it cost him. The tactic worked too well – I had so many figures fail that I dropped below 25% left and the game ended right then. We ended with a draw as Keith was 2-3 turns from my camp, while Gothmog, having demolished the right end of Keith’s line, would need about the same to blaze into Keith’s.
The game against Keith was particularly fun as his knights were magnificent to look at and play against. This was also a rock-hard army, with the high fight value, high defense, Imrahil’s special “banner” rule and supporting Citadel Guard with longbows and spears.
I was excited about the prospect of playing in the first-ever Adepticon LOTR event, but also concerned about finding a teammate since my colleagues from the local store in Florida were not going to Adepticon this year. Fortunately, Jamie Welling managed to connect me with Brent Sinclair, who was also looking for a teammate. For those who aren’t aware, the team format required that the two player teams have one good and one evil force that are themed as armies that have some relationship with each other in Tolkien’s works. We chose Pelennor Fields themed armies of Rohan and Mordor.
Because I was playing Mordor, I decided to create a list that was a polar opposite in most respects to my Isengard lists. My top-heavy list consisted of Gothmog on warg, a Mordor Troll, an orc shaman, orc banner, 4 Morannon Orcs, 4 Mordor Uruks, and a bunch of orcs with shields, spears and bows. I went light on the archery since orc archery stinks, but I did bring one orc tracker. I only had four might points, less than normal, but I hoped that Gothmog’s special rule would allow him to make up for it. Brent brought a Rohan force balanced with cavalry and infantry.
After a brief strategy session over lunch, we marched into the tent for the first round, wearing our respective Rohan and Mordor shirts.
Round One – It Is Precious to Me
In round one I was matched up against Josh Leong's Gondorians, led by Boromir of the White Tower, tooled up with everything except the banner. Boromir commanded a sizable group of WOMT, while defending and one attacking group. Gothmog led my attackers while the defenders featured my shaman and the troll. Damrod led some sharp shooting Rangers. Since there were two objectives, each of us split our forces into one defending and one attacking group. Gothmog led my attackers while the defenders featured my shaman and the troll.
After a few turns of moving and shooting, in which my archers did nothing but catch a few of Josh’s arrows with their chests, we engaged in hand to hand near the objective I was defending, the ruined statute of the king in Ithilien. In the first turn, the troll matched up against Boromir, defeated him, and inflicted three wounds, all of which Boromir saved with the use of all three fate points and one might point. It was a good start, but Josh apparently decided that Boromir had had enough fun with trolls, and with priority on his side for several turns, tied up the troll with a sacrificial guardsman (automatically passing courage checks to charge the troll) while Boromir found Mordor Uruks more to his liking. He began carving up my orcs just like he did at Amon Hen, and while the battles elsewhere were somewhat even, Boromir fairly quickly put me a significant numerical disadvantage in defending on that flank.
On the left, Gothmog led a sturdy force of Morannon Orcs through some blocking terrain, which did not prevent Josh’s rangers from killing two of them. Once hand to hand began on this side, Gothmog fared well in combat, but Damrod helped keep the Gondorians in the fight, and I was scarcely able to kill more than I lost even with Gothmog.
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| Battle for the Right Objective |
The left flank battle was slowly heading my way, but Josh reinforced his troops with his rangers, leading to desperate fighting to seize the objective. Finally, time ran out with the objective still evenly contested. Josh had won one objective and contested the other, so at first we thought he might have picked up a minor victory. However, the victory conditions required him to hold his home objective in order to win, and thus the game ended in a hard-fought draw.
Round Two – Battle at the Border
The second scenario had the “Ring”ers matched up against the Heroes of Middle Earth consisting of Keith “Thorhak” Hruska’s Bud Select Knights and Corey O‘Brien’s Goblins and Wargs.
This scenario was similar to Storm the Camp from Legions, and since I didn’t have as much mobility as Keith, I knew I would have to play it carefully to avoid getting outrun to one flank. Thus, I split my forces into 3 parts. Gothmog led a small contingent of Morannon Orcs towards Keith’s knights on my extreme left; the shaman and troll and the main body of infantry headed towards Keith’s troops; and the archers moved to my right flank as a screening force.
I was not surprised when Keith moved his knights away from Gothmog and towards my archers. I had expected it and fired at the knights as best I could. Meanwhile, Keith’s supporting archers were doing a fair bit of damage to my main force. I knew I would have to damage Keith’s force quickly to have any chance, because eventually Keith’s knights would overrun my archers and I didn’t have enough to stop them.
The first couple of turns of hand-to-hand went well. Gothmog steamrolled Keith’s right flank, killing Beregond in one turn. Meanwhile, the troll defeated Imrahil and inflicted 3 wounds, all of which Keith saved with the benefit of one might point. If I could merely get Imrahil and the troll to go at it another round or two, I could take out Imrahil and then bulldoze the rest of Keith’s force before he could get through my archers.
But then I started losing priority every turn. I had counted on Gothmog’s mighty hero rule to make up for my lack of might, but it only works when you win priority. Turn after turn, Keith tied up my troll with a guardsman – one of whom defeated my troll 2 turns in a row – while Imrahil simply slipped behind the troll and destroyed my line single-handledly. Even when I called a heroic move with Gothmog, Keith won the rolloff. By the time Imrahil reached my shaman and banner, the center of my line was broken and so was I.
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| Imrahil Carves a Gap for Keith's Knights |
When Imrahil took out my shaman and his fury, the next turn he charged Gothmog first to take away my standfast. But Keith had gotten greedy, and it cost him. The tactic worked too well – I had so many figures fail that I dropped below 25% left and the game ended right then. We ended with a draw as Keith was 2-3 turns from my camp, while Gothmog, having demolished the right end of Keith’s line, would need about the same to blaze into Keith’s.
The game against Keith was particularly fun as his knights were magnificent to look at and play against. This was also a rock-hard army, with the high fight value, high defense, Imrahil’s special “banner” rule and supporting Citadel Guard with longbows and spears.
Round Three – Leave None Alive
This scenario was essentially “To the Death” from Legions. Our opponents were Task Force Basement with Chris and David Pratt who also had a Pelennor Fields theme with Rohan and Harad armies. I would play against Chris’ Rohirrim. As is typical with the Rohirrim, Chris’ army had several mid-level heroes, and while no one could standup to troll, the number of cavalry Chris fielded made this a tricky matchup. I also would be outshot as the Rohirrim had several archers who were much better than my orcs.
Since Chris had superiority mobility and archery while I was strong in hand-to-hand, I advanced under the cover of as much terrain as I could.
This scenario was essentially “To the Death” from Legions. Our opponents were Task Force Basement with Chris and David Pratt who also had a Pelennor Fields theme with Rohan and Harad armies. I would play against Chris’ Rohirrim. As is typical with the Rohirrim, Chris’ army had several mid-level heroes, and while no one could standup to troll, the number of cavalry Chris fielded made this a tricky matchup. I also would be outshot as the Rohirrim had several archers who were much better than my orcs.
Since Chris had superiority mobility and archery while I was strong in hand-to-hand, I advanced under the cover of as much terrain as I could.
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| Mordor Advances Under Cover |
Chris’ archers did a little damage but I managed to close quickly led by Gothmog and the troll, my two figures who would not be troubled by Chris’ expected cavalry charge. As I had hoped, Chris made the questionable decision to charge his cavalry into the teeth of my formation, with three charging into Gothmog, three into the troll and one into a Morannon orc who was supported by his neighbor. The battles were a disaster for Chris as Gothmog and the troll, having superior fight value and multiple attacks, easily won their battles and then killed all six of their attackers! The last cavalryman was chopped up by my orcs as well.
Chris nearly conceded the game as a result of the loss of nearly one quarter of his force in one turn, but I encouraged him to hang in for a couple more turns at least, because the dice have a way of turning. They did indeed. The very next turn, Chris brought his heroes into the battle and won the majority of combats, killing three of my warriors and suffering no losses of his own. Gothmog found it nearly impossible to finish off the one cavalryman between him and the main battle, losing two turns in a row and then failing to wound on the three turn when he did win. His absence was sorely felt as Chris’ heroes kept my warriors and troll in check. Although I won most of the combats, it became difficult to inflict wounds and when I did, Chris’s fate rolls saved him. It was clear that it would take a while to wear through Chris’ might and fate.
Because the bulk of our figures were in a knock-down drag-out in the middle where Chris was hanging on, I decided to advance my Mordor Uruks and archers up to Chris’ left flank, and then roll that flank up. That would allow me to fall on Chris’ heroes from the flank or behind, and crumble his army in a turn or two. But the eight warriors of Rohan on foot holding down his left flank would turn out to be the true heroes of Rohan, because in the next few turns they succeeded in killing almost twice their number. They made short work of my Mordor Uruks, despite my warriors having higher fight and strength values. When I reinforced my line with the archers, they tore them up to. I had planned to move the finally freed-up Gothmog into the battle with Chris’ heroes, but I had to send him over to bail out my flank.
By now the game was wearing down, and I had finally managed to break Chris’ resistance as his heroes began to fall. But the battle on Chris’ left flank had taken too long, and as time ran out Chris still had 3-4 figures left on the board. Another turn would probably have resulted in the annihilation of the remainder of his force, but as it turned out we scored a draw. A frustrating result, since I had the momentum almost all game, but the durability of Chris’ heroes and the superb fighting of the infantry on his left flank gave him just enough staying power to hang on.
So we ended the first ever LOTR team tournament. Our results as a team were mediocre, but we had a lot of fun and I learned a lot about how to play my list, which unfortunately I had not had time to playtest. I came to regret my choice of a shaman over a wraith very quickly. With a wraith I might very well have neutralized Boromir and Imrahil long enough for my troll to finish them. I also found that Gothmog’s special rule is useless when you consistently lose priority rolls since your opponent does not need to call heroic actions. Gothmog and the troll were solid, but without the might to keep them active when I lost priority turn after turn my opponents simply tied up the troll while defeating me elsewhere. All in all, it was a fairly major accomplishment to avoid defeat in the first two games.
Chris nearly conceded the game as a result of the loss of nearly one quarter of his force in one turn, but I encouraged him to hang in for a couple more turns at least, because the dice have a way of turning. They did indeed. The very next turn, Chris brought his heroes into the battle and won the majority of combats, killing three of my warriors and suffering no losses of his own. Gothmog found it nearly impossible to finish off the one cavalryman between him and the main battle, losing two turns in a row and then failing to wound on the three turn when he did win. His absence was sorely felt as Chris’ heroes kept my warriors and troll in check. Although I won most of the combats, it became difficult to inflict wounds and when I did, Chris’s fate rolls saved him. It was clear that it would take a while to wear through Chris’ might and fate.
Because the bulk of our figures were in a knock-down drag-out in the middle where Chris was hanging on, I decided to advance my Mordor Uruks and archers up to Chris’ left flank, and then roll that flank up. That would allow me to fall on Chris’ heroes from the flank or behind, and crumble his army in a turn or two. But the eight warriors of Rohan on foot holding down his left flank would turn out to be the true heroes of Rohan, because in the next few turns they succeeded in killing almost twice their number. They made short work of my Mordor Uruks, despite my warriors having higher fight and strength values. When I reinforced my line with the archers, they tore them up to. I had planned to move the finally freed-up Gothmog into the battle with Chris’ heroes, but I had to send him over to bail out my flank.
By now the game was wearing down, and I had finally managed to break Chris’ resistance as his heroes began to fall. But the battle on Chris’ left flank had taken too long, and as time ran out Chris still had 3-4 figures left on the board. Another turn would probably have resulted in the annihilation of the remainder of his force, but as it turned out we scored a draw. A frustrating result, since I had the momentum almost all game, but the durability of Chris’ heroes and the superb fighting of the infantry on his left flank gave him just enough staying power to hang on.
So we ended the first ever LOTR team tournament. Our results as a team were mediocre, but we had a lot of fun and I learned a lot about how to play my list, which unfortunately I had not had time to playtest. I came to regret my choice of a shaman over a wraith very quickly. With a wraith I might very well have neutralized Boromir and Imrahil long enough for my troll to finish them. I also found that Gothmog’s special rule is useless when you consistently lose priority rolls since your opponent does not need to call heroic actions. Gothmog and the troll were solid, but without the might to keep them active when I lost priority turn after turn my opponents simply tied up the troll while defeating me elsewhere. All in all, it was a fairly major accomplishment to avoid defeat in the first two games.
