For the first ever LOTR Tournament at Games Day Atlanta, we had eight players total. Three were from a store club in Cleveland, Tennessee, Dice Head Games: Jon Baker (first overall), Josh Parchman, and P.J. Jarell. Three more of us were from the Tampa Bay area, Eric Adams, Alexander Adams, and Frank Brown, all of whom play at another excellent indie store, the Goblin Shoppe. Keith Hruska from St. Louis and Tim Haselton from the Atlanta area rounded out our competitors. While it was a small group, it contained some very sporting and capable generals. Best of all, Andy Campbell, long-time LOTR devotee and guru, served as the referee.
Here were the armies, all 500 points Legions of Middle Earth forces: Jon brought a dwarf army painted in Chicago Bear colors, with Radagast as an ally; Josh brought a Goblinhorde with two cave trolls; P.J. and Keith both had Dol Amroth/Minas Tirith forces led by Imrahil and Beregond; Eric had his Shire army with Aragorn and three Dunedain for extra muscle; Alexander a dwarf army with ranger support; Tim had a formidable High Elf force with the High King of the Noldor himself, Gil-Galad; and I had an Isengard army with Vrasku and a generic captain. We played four rounds, with Legions scenarios Reconnoitre, Domination, Contest of Champions and To the Death, the last one modified to a 75% kill count. The rounds only lasted 75 minutes. We played on 4' x 4' boards with moveable terrain.
As usual, GW used a Swiss system for the tournament, so that players got matched to opponents and tables based on results after the first round. It's always pretty cool to see how you are doing against the field by moving up or down on the boards.
RESULTS:
BEST OVERALL – JONATHAN BAKER
BEST APPEARANCE – KEITH HRUSKA
BEST SPORTSMAN – FRANK BROWN
ROUND 1 – Reconnoitre vs P. J. Jarrell's Dol Amroth/Tower of Ecthelion
It’s always worth remembering that you have to adapt your strategy not only to the scenario at hand, but to the amount of time you have to play it. Better yet, its good to KNOW how much time you have to play it. The rules posted on the GW US site in advance said 90 minutes per round, but we only had 75, actually a few less since we got started a little late in the first round. I didn't pay attention to the schedule posted at the event, and that dumb mistake cost me dearly in round one.
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| P.J.'s Gondorians |
P.J. had several mounted knights of Minas Tirith and Imrahil on horse. Since my force included no wargs, I used my standard strategy for this scenario (when there's terrain on the sides) of placing my cross-bows on the wings and massing my main force in a phalanx in the middle, driving forward. My cross-bow shooting was very effective early, and by the fourth turn I had unhorsed or killed all but two of his riders, including Imrahil who was now on foot. He had a small holding force of infantry on his right wing (my left) and after feinting towards his center, I turned and charged left. Outnumbering him greatly, it didn’t take too long to overwhelm this force, and my captain started leading a group of about 8 uruks off the board that P.J. wouldn’t have been able to stop, as they had moved around the far side of an impassible lake. It was looking good. One problem – time. I expected there to be another 20 minutes or so, but there wasn't. P.J. sent his two remaining knights down the boundaries, one on each side. I was prepared for this, with my cross-bows taking aim. What I wasn’t prepared for was all four crossbows on my right flank whiffing at one knight two consecutive turns. On the last turn before time was called, the knight made it off the board, and I failed to remember that P.J. (who was well-past broken at this point) should have checked courage before moving. My exit force was still two turns away. I suffered a major defeat, even while inflicting over 20 casualties and suffering only 5. C'est la vie. I’ll have to revisit my strategy for this one if we play 75 minute games again.
ROUND 2 – Domination vs. Josh Parchman's Goblins
Fearing my crossbows, which I moved into the center of the board to cover all approaches, Josh kept his cave trolls on the boundaries and behind terrain as they moved forward. Each of us moved our infantry in two groups towards the two central objectives. Ultimately, the crossbows were able to whittle down some of his goblins, and his roundabout route with the cave trolls got them there too late to turn the tide. I achieved a minor victory by controlling three objectives. Had the game gone on another couple turns, Josh might have squeezed a draw out of it.
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| My Uruks Advance on the Objectives |
In the third contest, we played Contest of Champions, and once I again I found myself squaring-off against my comrade-in-arms Frank. However, this time he was using an Uruk-hai Force with 10 crossbowmen, not including Vrasku, his named Hero for this contest. In case you forgot, (I never will after this day), Vrasku is armed with a crossbow, but is considered an expert shot, allowing him to fire 2x/turn! My initial strategy was to avoid Vrasku at all costs, as the objective of this game was for your Hero to have more kills than you opponents Hero. Now I have Imrahil as my named Hero, and in battle he has few equals, that is unless of course he is outsmarted – and I’m saddened to say he was … As mentioned above, my misconceived strategy had me rushing to my far right the first few turns, as Frank had positioned V on the the left. Unfortunately, he had a contingent of 5 or so crossbowmen on the far right as well, and one by one, my heavies, (the GoTFC with shield, D7) went down…”message for you Sir!” V quickly racked-up two kills, and I realized I needed to Imrahil to “get dirty in battle." That’s were my second mistake occurred. I sent my cavalry to deal with the crossbowmen on the far right, (I was out of Vrasku and the left-flank crossbowmen’s range at this point), while moving my main force towards his. And in true Elven fashion, he simply retreated his main force, while his crossbowmen carried the day. But here’s why Frank is truly a great Sportsman. Risking a major victory, his main force held fast the last two turns, allowing Imrahil to get busy. Calling Heroic Combat, Imrahil took down a Beserker, and subsequently an Orc spearman, but this was all he was able to accomplish as our friend, “Father Time” was called. Vrasku had 7 kills at this point, and a major victory! In our post-game discussion, I realized I should have sent my cavalry into his main force. Yeah, they probably would have been mowed-down, but this would have prevented them from retreating, giving Imrahil time to get into battle.
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| Keith's Knights in Action |
ROUND 4 – To the Death! vs. Tim Aselton's Eregion
We actually played To the “Near Death,” 75% kills, it was possible to win in the time we had. This scenario has a bizarre deployment rule which can result, as it did in our game, with one force concentrated in the center with the other force divided in two. Since half my army was near the board edge, I had to retreat on the first few turns in order to reform my phalanx. My trusty crossbows didn’t shoot so well this game, not good against Elven archery. However, once the forces were formed and engaged it was pretty much all hand-to-hand anyway. This battle turned into a very even match-up – while Tim rolled a lot of sixes, automatically winning fights with his higher fight value, he was not as successful rolling to wound. Gil-galad was lethal, carving my captain up in one turn and punching threw my center like an unstoppable killing achine. However, my Uruks were doing the damage on the flanks, and by the last turn, Tim had just barely been broken while I was only a casualty away. It was a very even draw for both of us.
Meeting Andy Campbell, maybe the best LOTR tactician in the USA, and Adam Troke, one of GW UK’s two principle design team members for LOTR, was a real highlight. Andy did a superb job running the tournament. I hope GT Las Vegas goes as well!
Meeting Andy Campbell, maybe the best LOTR tactician in the USA, and Adam Troke, one of GW UK’s two principle design team members for LOTR, was a real highlight. Andy did a superb job running the tournament. I hope GT Las Vegas goes as well!
