2007 Baltimore Games Day

We had about 16 registrants but a few no-shows, and a few more people who hadn’t seen the very recent schedule change that had the tournament starting early this time.  So Gary Lane and a couple other people were still outside waiting on the hall to open several minutes after the first round started.  By the time we got everyone together, there were 12 of us, plus a ringer for round one.

Players and Armies:

Frank Brown – Isengard
Shane Burkhardt – Isengard
Shane Burkhardt II – Gondor
Madelyn Chappell – High Elves
Andrew Eller – Grey Company
John Hoffman – Mordor
John Kelleher – Dol Amroth/Minas Tirith
Joe Krone – Isengard Raiders
Gary Lane – Dwarves
Chris Schloss – Gondor
Nathan Schloss – Harad/Khand
Patrick Weaver – Mordor

GW gave out nice acrylic trophies for 1st overall, best sportsman, and best painted.

In response to the feedback from the Atlanta Games Day Tournament, we played two-hour games, the same as 40K and Fantasy.  This worked out pretty well as the players were generally able to complete their games under the scenario victory conditions, rather than relying on points resolutions.  It also left some extra time for checking out other events or general hanging out.

Scenarios:

Round 1 – Meeting Engagement
Round 2 – Storm the Camp
Round 3 – Contest of Champions

We played on the 4 x 6 Warhammer boards which, this time, were not marked off at 4 x 4.  In my last game we played 4 x 4, but I suspect people played both during the day.  

RESULTS:

BEST OVERALL  –  FRANK BROWN

BEST APPEARANCE  –  PATRICK WEAVER

BEST SPORTSMAN  –  MADELYN CHAPPELL

CIRCUIT BONUSES

Best General  –  Frank Brown

Best Painted  –  Joe Krone

Players Choice  –  John Hoffman

Sportsmanship  –  Madelyn Chappell

Favorite Opponent  –  Madelyn Chappell

Click Here for Event Photo Gallery

As a final note, two of our tournament players also won Bronze Demons – Joe Krone for his Buhrdur and John Hoffman for his orc shaman.

FRANK'S REPORT

In 2004 GW-US held its first ever LOTR national tournament at the Baltimore GT. I attended that original event, and have proof! I missed the next event in February 2005 because of a business trip.  So it was nice to attend the tournament at Games Day in a familiar venue.

Round 1 – Meeting Engagement vs. the Ringer’s Isengard

I was originally scheduled to play an opponent on the last table, but when we had a few no-shows and late arrivals I was rescheduled to play against the Ringer army.  Parker Carlson, an Ohio-area “Kommando,” led the Ringer Isengard horde against me.  I had played against this exact same army at Las Vegas, and as before it was not a good matchup against my more balanced force in this scenario.  However, Parker played it well and we had a pretty good game of it.

Since I had a lot of crossbow firepower and Parker had none, I set up my crossbows on a large hill giving me a good view of the battlefield, and formed most of my heavy infantry in phalanx in front of the hill.  Parker split his force into a roughly equal contingents, one of which he sent on a flanking maneuver towards my left flank.  Parker had placed his terrain well and used it to get his troops reasonably close before I had lines of sight for shooting.  However, to protect his group attacking my front line, he had to move them around and through a copse of trees, slowing his advance.  Despite his use of cover,  I was able to kill 3 of his 4 berserkers before the main lines came into contact.  As a result, my banner and spearmen gave me the advantage in the ensuing combats, and I inflicted casualties at about a 2-1 rate.  My crossbows also managed to pick off a couple pikes to weaken his support for his front line. 

By this time his flanking force was arriving on my left flank, where I blocked it with a small infantry group and a few crossbows.  My shooting had not been able to reduce Parker’s flankers much, and the size of the force made it a serious threat.  I was able to transfix his captain to slow down the onslaught, however, and after Parker began to push back and kill a few of my defenders, Vrasku arrived to stabilize the situation.  Calling a heroic move, he reformed the line, and a subsequent heroic combat allowed him to take pressure off my extreme left.  I also was able to transfer some of my heavies from my front line to make successful counter-attacks.

With Parker’s frontal assault defeated with heavy casualties and his flanking assault stopped, I had inflicted enough casualties in the last turn to send him well past his break point towards the 75% mark.  Since time was now running out due to our late start, I decided to attempt to win the game in one blow.  When Parker won priority on the next turn, I called a heroic move with my ringwraith and transfixed Parker’s captain.  Deprived of their leader’s “stand fast,” about half of Parker’s remaining infantry fled, taking him past 75% casualties and giving me a major victory.  

Final Position

Round 2 – Storm the Camp vs. John Kelleher’s Dol Amroth/Minas Tirith Army

Storm the Camp is a very tricky scenario, and a lot of people lose it because they don’t read the victory conditions carefully and think through the implications.

We played the board at 4 x 6, and given the scenario set-up requirements, all the terrain was near the board corners, leaving a huge, open field between the camps.  This played to my advantage in shooting, as John’s force was limited in archery.  He had mounted Imrahil, a MT captain on foot, 6 SKODA mounted, 6 SKODA on foot, 3 KOMT, a banner, 7 MT archers.

Although I outnumbered John, I was very wary of his mobility, and the possibility of an end-run on my flanks.  I simply could not win a race across the board towards his camp, and so had to adopt a defensive strategy initially.  Thus, I deployed my army in a broad arc, with crossbows in the middle, and a lot of muscle on either side of the crossbows, ready to support them or to reinforce the small groups of infantry serving as pickets on the extreme of either flank.

John left 3 KOMT and his archers behind to hold his camp, and advanced with the rest of his army.  When John got within crossbow range I started shooting at his SKODA and Imrahil.  My results were about average, with a kill or two per turn.  It didn’t much matter to me whether I killed a knight or his mount, because either way I had weakened his biggest threat.  When I was able to take out Imrahil’s horse, however, I breathed a big sigh of relief.  A mounted Imrahil was perfectly capable of creating and exploiting a breach in my line, or calling a heroic move or combat to fly past my pickets, but that threat had now diminished.

Waiting for Imrahil

My crossbows forced John to come in a full speed, and so on the last turn before he reached me I was able to pick some countercharges.  Most importantly, I not only successfully cast sap will on Imrahil with a single die, but I rolled a 5.  John’s low roll of 2 meant he could only resist the cast by burning all his might, which he chose not to do.  Imrahil would become very familiar with the transfix spell over the next few turns.

Once we engaged fully I attacked John’s captain with mine, supported by a spear and pike.  Usually I don’t use might points in combat resolution, but the chance to kill John’s captain in one combat was too tempting, and when I rolled two 4s needing 5s, I used one might point and then the other after John failed his fate roll.  After a fairly even start, the dice had moved decidedly in my favor, and John’s luck only got worse as the game went on. 

With their numbers diminished and lacking spear support, John’s front line crumbled before my phalanx, while my wraith  continued to neutralize Imrahil.  John made one last bid for victory, taking his 3 remaining SKODA on a sweep around my left flank, into a picket line composed of teams of Uruks supported by orc spears spaced about an inch and a half a part.  The SKODA’s fight value enabled them to force rolloffs on two of the fights, winning both and killing the Uruks.  However, I had deployed Vrasku and a berserker along with a few spears to support the pickets, and the next turn John’s SKODA died under a swarm of attacks.  Meanwhile, having overrun the left of John’s line, I sent my captain and a handful of warriors towards his camp, and supported them with several crossbows.  John rode his KOMTs in to intercept, but they fell victim to my crossbows as I scored 3 kills on 3 shots. When my wraith finally failed to cast transfix, Imrahil woke up, declared a heroic combat, killed the single Uruk facing him and then charged and destroyed the wraith.  But by this time, John had little left to work with.  His archers began failing break tests and by the time I neared his camp, the only one left died bravely fighting my captain.  The two remaining warriors on foot died, leaving Imrahil as the only Gondorian on the board.  I swarmed him with the rest of my force while my advance team closed on the camp.  Imrahil won three rounds of combat but John’s bad luck with the dice resulted in only one kill.  Finally, Imrahil’s luck ran out and surrounded by a swarm of orcs including a pike supported Vrasku and 2 berserkers fighting 2-handed, he went down like a hero.  The last turn of the game was surreal, as I still had to move my figures the last few inches into John’s camp for a major victory even though John had no one left on the board.

Observations:  With no terrain to hide behind, this was always going to be a hard game for John, and his luck on the dice didn’t help.  The two-hour game time also helped me, as I probably couldn’t have won a major victory on a 4 x 6 board in 75 minutes, or even in 90 minutes, without taking serious risks.  Instead, I was able to play defensively, knock out John’s cavalry, and then advance once the battle had been won.

Round 3 – Contest of Champions vs. Madelyn Chappell’s High Elves

After two rounds, I found myself tied for first with Shane Burkhardt II, a youngster with two surprising upset victories over Gary Lane and John Hoffman, who would finish 2d and 3d overall.  Normally, I would have played against him – I was drooling at the possibility of facing Fellowship Boromir, whose lack of fate and will would play right into my tactics.  Instead, because the next two players in ranking, Madelyn Chappell and Nathan Schloss, had played in the prior round, I was matched up with Madelyn and her high elves with the twins.  This was probably the toughest match-up in contest of champions I could get.  She chose Elrohir as her general, who would be facing Vrasku.

Madelyn's Twins

Madelyn’s high elf army was very similar to the one I had used in Baltimore in the 2004 Grand Tournament, except that my twins had not been mounted and did not have heavy armor.  I was well aware how much killing power the twins could generate fighting in tandem, and I had no intention of getting pulled out into the center of the board where she could pin me with her shieldwall and then send a mounted twin into each flank.  So the game became a cat and mouse affair, with each side trying to use terrain to gain the advantage.  First blood and advantage went to Madelyn.  When I set up on a hill that gave me a good view of the field and also protected my front with difficult terrain, Madelyn patiently fired volley after volley, forcing me to abandon the hill for fear of taking too many losses.  Then she moved her army around cover towards my formation.  I had moved Vrasku and two crossbows into a shooting position in the cover of the side of the hill, but his only shots at her elves were partially obstructed, and he and his cohorts only managed to dust off a few rocks.  My last two crossbows on the hill, after surviving one last round of volley fire against them, scored two key hits. One shot Elladan’s horse out from under him, while the other wounded Elrohir, forcing him to burn a fate point.

The action picked up the next turn.  I had moved a crossbow into an open position on my left flank, hoping to bait Elrohir into a charge.  The trick worked, but the result did not.  I planned to cast transfix on him, and then shoot 4 other crossbows into the combat – killing my own warrior would take a potential kill away from Elrohir, while I might get another wound or two on him.  Elrohir repelled the transfix spell thanks to a might point.  Madelyn’s archers were able to move up into direct fire range, and cut down my two crossbows on the hill. My other two could not wound either Elrohir or my Uruk.  Elrohir thus scored his first kill, and I found myself not only down 1-0 in champion kills, but down 6-1 in total kills with four crossbows dead.  I fell back into phalanx while moving Vrasku into position to shoot at the oncoming elves.  I also moved
my three remaining crossbows on the right flank into direct fire position versus her archers.

Elrohir was having none of my strategy.  He fell back behind the hill, waiting for his brother and the elven infantry to catch up.  Madelyn also rained one last turn of volley fire on my position behind the hill, but scored no kills for a change.  My counter-fire was effective, as I scored two kills on her archers with my right flank crossbows, eliminating the volley fire threat to Vrasku and the rest of my army.

Knowing that she would have to solve this in hand to hand, Madelyn surprised me by charging Elrohir into my formation with the idea of getting at Vrasku via heroic combat.  Seeing the game very much on the line, I let loose with a two-dice transfix spell on the elf, and charged a whole swarm of Uruks at him.  Madelyn’s roll of 2 was not high enough to match my high of 5 on the transfix cast, even with Elrohir’s remaining might, and with 8 S4 and 4 S5 attacks on him, Elrohir’s fate was sealed.  The game was not yet won, however.  The next turn, Vrasku finally managed to score 2 hits on his shooting, and when I rolled a 3 and 4 needing 5s to wound, I quickly burned all three of his might points to clinch two kills and a major victory.

Observations:  In one of the most tactical games I have played in a while, Madelyn had the initiative for much of the game.  Killing one of her archers was key, however, because Vrasku could operate much more freely without the threat of volley fire.  The game came down to the last transfix cast – had she won that, she had an excellent chance of winning the combat, picking up a couple kills, and possibly even charging into Vrasku.

Final Thoughts:  After the Las Vegas Grand Tournament, I thought about switching back to a shaman instead of a wraith.  The two-hour games might mean a higher chance of my army being broken and fury coming into play, and my wraith did little of consequence at Vegas.  I finally decided against the switch on the belief that my luck with casting rolls couldn’t be that bad two tourneys in a row.  As it turned out, my wraith was easily my most valuable hero, playing a key role in each win.  I wouldn’t have won the tournament without him!

Another key player was my wife!  She stayed up late the night before helping me put details on my completely repainted Isengard army, which bears little resemblance to the force I used at Atlanta and Las Vegas.  My painting score of 20 was my best result yet and helped keep me in first place overall.  

2007 Las Vegas Grand Tournament

We had a total of 12 players (including a GW staff ringer) and played a total of 7 90-minute rounds over two days. Most of the players were from the West Coast, but Joe Krone traveled from the Midwest and I traveled in from Florida. The players and armies (500 points using Legions lists):

Players & Armies:
Mikey Bird – Easterlings and Khand
Frank Branch – WitchKing with Buhrdur and 3 Cave Trolls
Frank Brown – Isengard with Ringwraith
Jason Harrick – Dwarves with Beregond and Avenger
Tim Hixon – Haradrim
Matt Kimball – Mordor w/ Siege Bow
Joe Krone – Angmar
Gary Lane – Dwarves w/ Gimli
Peter Michalenka – Gondor w/ Saruman
Steve Shook – Easterlings
Chuck Savage – Dwarves w/ Murin and Drar
Ringer – Isengard

Scenarios:
Meeting Engagement (rounds 1 & 7)
Domination (3 & 6)
High Ground (2)
Contest of Champions (4)
Storm the Camp (5)

Click Here for Event Photo Gallery 

GW had very nice prizes as promised. All the superlative awards (best whatever) received plaques, while the top 3 overall received very nice matted and framed prints of the Warrior of Arnor that appeared on the White Dwarf cover and in the Arnor supplement. Also, each award winner received quite a bit of figures, 2-3 boxes each. GW staff handled the painting judging again. The terrain was one superb Weathertop table and the rest were flocked boards with movable terrain, but they worked well enough. We played on 4x4 sections of the boards. 

One welcome addition to the tournament rules was the addition of a points winner rule. In any game that was called on time in which none of the victory or draw conditions had been satisfied, the player who had inflicted the most casualties as measured by points received a minor victory. With 90-minute rounds, this rule came into play quite a lot. This was a first for national GW tournaments in the US but follows what the UK has done before.

This tournament reflected some additional improvements from Atlanta Games Day that made the tournament better overall. While there were still some difficulties, GW was definitely headed in the right direction. The only major problem was the scoring due to computer issues. GW miscalculated the scores for Steve Shook at the tournament and did not catch the correction to my score at the tournament when it posted the official results.

RESULTS

1ST OVERALL – GARY LANE

2ND OVERALL – MATT KIMBALL

3RD OVERALL – JOE KRONE

TIED – STEVE SHOOK

BEST GENERAL – GARY LANE

BEST PAINTED – JASON HERRICK

PLAYERS' CHOICE – JOE KRONE

SPORTSMANSHIP – FRANK BRANCH

FAVORITE OPPONENT – MATT KIMBALL

The Generals

Round 1 – Meeting Engagement vs. Gary Lane’s Dwarves

Gary Lane is the owner of Great Escape Games in Sacramento, California (www.greatescapegames.com), and a great guy and gamer, and a worthy champion. His Erebor Dwarf Army was led by Gimli and a generic dwarf captain. Since Gary had a contingent of 10 dwarf archers, the early turns became a shootout against my crossbows while the armies maneuvered into position. Luck was with Isengard and not Erebor, as my crossbows scored kill after kill while Gary’s archers had little success. Gary had a contingent of the new Iron Guard, and I managed to pick off a couple of these butchers during my shooting. Meanwhile, I formed my phalanx and found a good position with a terrain piece guarding my right flank to prevent Gary from overlapping on that side.

Ready for Melee

The game degenerated into a slugging match in the center, and because of the high defenses of the armies it became clear that nobody was going to lose 75% of their figures – in fact, neither of us were even broken. My wraith had what would turn out to be his best game of the tournament, successfully casting sap will and then transfixing Gimli for several turns after we joined battle. I held a significant lead on points going into the last turn, but Gary’s dwarf captain was beginning to make his presence known. Gary gained priority on the last turn, and since my line was in pretty good shape, I decided against a heroic move, hoping to transfix his captain instead. Using 2 dice, I managed a 6, but so did Gary on his one roll. I was not careful enough with my banner and after crushing two orc spearmen in his heroic combat, the captain then managed to charge my banner around his protector and take the banner out. Elsewhere, the dice were all in Gary’s favor as he inflicted 71 points of casualties on the last turn against none for me, resulting in a minor defeat on points at 150 – 135.

Observation: Gary was apologetic for the win, but he didn’t need to be, as he played well and most of my lead was due to his bad luck in the archery phase anyway. The game also brought home to me the value of quality of kills rather than quantity in the new points victory conditions, as Gary initially conceded defeat based on my larger number of overall kills, before I pointed out that he had killed a banner, which provided the winning margin.

Round 2 – High Ground vs. Peter Michalenka’s Gondorians w/ Saruman

My army is built for a slugfest scenario like this one, but this one had a wrinkle. We agreed up front that we would not roll to select sides after setting up terrain. Peter won the terrain placement roll and set the central hill in the middle of the board. This piece had rolling slopes on three sides, but a rugged, eroded slope on the fourth which we agreed would be difficult terrain and require climb tests. Peter placed this eroded slope facing my deployment side, forcing me either to climb or go around to an easier slope. I chose the latter. Peter thus gained the first foothold on the hill and moved Saruman in a position to blast away at my troops at the bottom of the side I was moving up.  Meanwhile, I moved my crossbows into a flank position where they could snipe away at Saruman and his guard.

The next two or three rounds followed a similar course with Saruman, rolling two dice each turn, blasted away at my infantry while I shot up Saruman’s bodyguard of Citadel Guard in an effort to secure a line of sight to him. I succeeded in killing four guardsmen but could never quite draw a bead on Saruman. Saruman’s blasts wounded my Captain twice, one of which I saved, and killed an orc spearmen. But this was all a prelude to the battle evolving on the hill. With a two-rank shieldwall of advancing Gondorians, Peter had blocked most of the hill, leaving me a narrow strip of hilltop to move my infantry up. Using his captain, Peter attempted to push my small force off the top of the hill, and came close to succeeding. However, on the crucial sixth turn, my Uruks won most of the battles, killing a few Gondorians, wounding his captain “Hackomir” and pushing the rest back. Winning priority the next turn, and a heroic move rolloff, I managed to pour
reinforcements onto the hill and begin forming my phalanx. Peter missed a crucial roll for sorcerous blast – he had targeted a warrior on the top of the hill, and had he succeeded he would likely have knocked that warrior, a banner and my wraith down the backside of the hill which may have required me to test for falling damage in addition to blast damage. After that I was able to tie Saruman up by charging him.

Finally formed up, my warriors faired well in combat, except my captain, whose attempt to kill a standard-bearer and guardsman resulted in his own death. However, Hackomir and several other Gondorians fell, giving me a numerical advantage on the hill. As time was running out, both of us poured our archers towards the hill to bulk up our numbers.
When time was called, I had managed a minor victory by a 17-13 advantage. Peter’s clever use of the terrain and his placement of Saruman had given him a chance at victory, but the higher strength and fight value of the Uruks finally carried the day.

Observation: An ugly win is usually better than a pretty loss.

Round 3 – Domination versus the Ringer’s Isengard

The Ringer army – played I believe by Ryan Loranger – was an Uruk Hai horde with one captain, no banner, no missile fire, but 40+ UH warriors including 4 berserkers. This army may have been real trouble for a human or orc enemy, but it was not a good match-up for my army in this scenario. The ringer’s home objective was a large hill; mine was a large forest. The objective on my left flank was a house, while the right flank held a small copse of trees.

With no opposing missile fire to fear, I set Vrasku and my crossbows in the middle of my deployment, with my captain, banner and wraith on my right flank and a smaller force on my left. The Ringer had the bulk of his infantry opposing my right flank, and a contingent of four berserkers each supported by a pike opposing my left. This force would easily have overpowered my left wing, so I concentrated my crossbow fire on it as the opposing infantry moved towards the objectives and each other. The second turn of fire was lethal – the last three berserkers and a pikeman fell to my quarrels, leaving just two pikemen in this force. Turning my fire towards the 25+ Uruks closing on my right flank, I began attempting to thin that horde before we closed to melee range.

With the Ringer’s right flank shot up, I overpowered the remaining infantry in two turns of combat and then sent my left wing towards the hill, leaving behind a single orc spearman to hold the house.

By now the Ringer’s Uruk horde had begun entering the copse. Afraid of the Ringer’s numbers overwhelming me, I held fast just outside of the copse, allowing it to slow and channel the horde. After a few more crossbow kills, I charged into his force just on the boundary of the copse, transfixing his captain for good measure. However, another problem arose – I had broken the Ringer, forcing game-ending rolls, and I had only grabbed two objectives. I would need to work fast and hope for some luck on the dice to keep the game going for a couple more turns. The first roll resulted in a three, giving me some hope.

With battle now joined on the right, Vrasku and most of my crossbows moved up to support my left wing. The Ringer’s hill was held by a force of 6 shieldmen, and we joined battle just off the hill. With numbers in my favor, I tied up most of his Uruks in combat and sent a few extras running up the hill. Vrasku made the difference in the ensuing battles, ensuring that the Ringer would not be able to retake the hill.

Battle for the Copse

The right flank had turned into a battle royale. Ultimately, my banner and wraith turned the battle, as I was able to neutralize his captain and either kill or push back most of his front rank. After surviving one more sudden death roll, we entered what would definitely be the last turn due to time. Calling a heroic move and winning the rolloff, I pushed as much of my force as possible into the copse, and ganged up on the Uruks that were also in it. The combats went my way again, and I had seized the copse and a major victory – just barely.   

Observation: My crossbows were insanely hot – 15 kills by shooting during the game. But they could have cost me the win by being too good.

Round 4 – Contest of Champions vs. Chuck Savage’s Wandering Dwarves

In every tournament you have a game where nothing goes right. This was almost that game for me. Almost. Chuck selected Murin as his hero, while I used Vrasku. We played on the beautiful Weathertop board (see pics in game 6 below), and I set up around Weathertop. My strategy was simple – win the archery shootout, plink a few dwarves with Vrasku, then dig in and prepare a nasty welcome for Murin. Didn’t pan out that way. Apparently, I had used all my hits in game three, because I simply could not buy a hit, much less a kill, while Chuck could have won a ton of money in the casino with his rolls. He rolled so many sixes I began to have flashbacks to Damien in “The Omen” movies to check for resemblance. Final tally of the archery battle: Chuck killed Vrasku, the captain, a shieldsman and 7 crossbows; I killed three archers, including one for Vrasku, who had never scored lower than 5 in this scenario before.

But meanwhile, Chuck had led his dwarven heavy infantry on a course which explained why they were called the “wandering dwarves.” Apparently worried about my rossbows, he moved his column in a wide arc around my position. I had originally planned to stop him in some difficult terrain outside Weathertop, but with the slaughter of my crossbows, I dropped back inside the tower to force him to fight through narrows gaps against two and three deep defenders. On the last turn, I attempted to transfix Murin unsuccessfully, but Murin was still a turn or two away from hand to hand. So Chuck announced that Murin was shooting instead, and then plinked a crossbow that was in partial cover. So the game ended in a tie with each champion with one kill.

Anyone see a problem with this?

Yep, Murin doesn’t have a bow. That’s what I thought when it happened, but Chuck was sure that both Murin and Drar had bows, and I didn’t have the SITE or K-D supplements handy. So we turned the scoresheets in as a draw, but when I checked and found I was correct, I brought it to the staff’s attention. I normally don’t make an issue of a difference of opinion regarding a rule during a game, much less after a game, but then normally they don’t directly and irrefutably decide the outcome of a game. And I think it fair to expect a player in a GT to know what equipment his army has, n’est ce pas? After a discussion with both of us, the staff awarded me a major victory, which put me in the lead on battle points, a lead I held until the end of the last round.

Observation: This was the only game this year, GW or RTT tournaments combined, where my Isengard army has suffered more casualties by head count than it inflicted. And I got a major victory to show for it. Never let the joy of shedding your opponent’s blood distract you from the scenario victory conditions.

Round 5 – Capture the Camp vs. Matt Kimball’s Orc Horde

Matt’s army featured two orc captains, a Mordor troll, a banner, four Mordor uruks with shield, a Mordor siege bow and a horde of orcs. I used a setup similar to round 3 – we were playing on the same table, with the terrain in about the same place. Matt set most of his orcs on his left flank, with his siege bow and archers on the hill. His right flank consisted of the troll, a captain and the Mordor Uruks. Given Mat’s substantial numerical advantage, and the nature of the scenario’s victory conditions, I needed to whittle him down before advancing too far from my camp. The presence of the siege bow required me to delay forming my phalanx, as I didn’t want to give him a chance to smash a whole file of Uruks in one shot.

My crossbows eventually got the better of the artillery duel, but not without a couple losses. Nomally, I would have concentrated my fire on the Mordor troll, but Matt kept him fairly well shielded, and I had a backup plan for him anyway. Matt had no luck with his siege bow, and after thinning the orc archers I concentrated on his quick-moving horde closing on my right flank.

When Matt won priority on the next turn and moved his forces forward into charge range, I decided to pounce on the left flank and hold on the right. My wraith successfully transfixed the troll, and I swarmed it with eight warriors including a berserker. On the right flank, I moved shieldmen in front of my crossbows so they could stand and fire, and moved up my spears and pikes so that they could be in range to support on the next turn. With nine attacks versus the troll’s one, that combat went even better than I had hoped, as I rolled the three sixes necessary to take it out in one turn.

The next turn saw combat become general as the orc horde on my right flank crashed in and began overlapping. Since each of my warriors was supported by a spear or pike, and I had a banner in range, I assumed my higher fight value would give me the day. It did not – at least not in the first two rounds of the combat, as his orcs began pushing me back and inflicting casualties. Quite quickly, Matt had placed me into a precarious position, as his numbers began to pour around my right flank threatening to charge into my camp and win the game outright. For two consecutive turns I was forced to call heroic moves – winning a crucial rolloff along the way – to fall back and reform.

Meanwhile, on the left flank, I swarmed the 4 Mordor Uruks with two warriors each, and surrounded Matt’s captain with four Uruks. My wraith failed to transfix him, rolling the first of several ones he would come up with in the tournament. Nonetheless, I won the combat via a rolloff and inflicted two wounds on the trapped captain. He saved one, a roll that would be crucial as the game wore on. Matt’s Mordor Uruks hung on, losing most of the combats but surviving anyway.

The next turn the wraith rolled 1 again, and the orc captain won the battle against my four Uruks, killing one of them. One Mordor Uruk fell, but the other three held on.

By now the situation on the right had become critical, so I recalled two swordsmen and my wraith to reinforce the right. Fortunately for me, the dice began to turn in my favor, and with my captain and Vrasku both holding down the extreme right, Matt was unable to run his flankers through. Matt made one last desperate bid for victory, winning priority, using a couple orcs to pin down four Uruks, and then charged two spearmen around the left side of my formation into my camp. Only my wraith was in the camp, so if Matt could keep his advantage through the turn, he would win. However, my Uruks
from the left flank arrived just in time to attack the orcs, and I was also able to move four orc spearmen and my banner into the camp and into the combats with the orcs. Both of Matt’s orcs in my camp were cut down, and I won most of the fights on the battle line, killing three orcs. Meanwhile, on the left flank, I had killed the rest of the Mordor Uruks and charged my forces towards Matt’s camp. The orc captain, who had tied up several of my warriors and killed 3, finally fell to a pikeman and spearmen.
 

Matt had to take courage tests and several of his archers holding his camp broke and ran. His line on my right flank had collapsed by this point, but my attacking force on the left was one turn’s movement short of grabbing his camp. Thus, I secured a minor victory on points.

Observation: Killing the troll so early virtually insured a minor victory if it came to points, so I wasn’t willing to take the risks necessary to secure a major after the battles didn’t go my way early on. Had I kept the wraith and two shieldsmen on the left flank, I would probably have won those combats fast enough to capture Matt’s camp on the last turn, but I would also have risked defeat had my right flank not stabilized when it did. Matt, by the way, was every bit the sportsman the favorite opponent award reflected.

Round 6 – Domination vs. Tim Hixon’s Army of Harad

What a difference a scenario makes. Tim and I knew after round five that we would play in either round 6 or 7, with me praying for 7. Tim got his wish, and I faced the mobile Haradrim horde in a scenario that played to their numbers. At least I got the best possible board for my defense, the terrain intensive Weathertop board. This was by far the most intriguing round of the tournament for me.

The scenario conditions required me to spread my forces more than I prefer, but with my crossbows placed in the middle, I could cover most of the approaches to the side objectives. Tim’s force was very well painted and constructed – 13 raiders, 7 with lances, 2 mounted chieftains, one chieftain on foot, one banner, and 25 spearmen. With all his archers mounted, he had very mobile firepower as well as a great shock force. We immediately began missile fire and while Tim’s raiders did well, my crossbows tore into his D4 raiders, reducing him to 3 in only 3 turns of fire. Tim concentrated on Vrasku, who I protected with a bodyguard, an assignment that turned out to have the life expectancy of a Shiite militiaman in Anbar province. Once I had Tim down to only three archers, however, I decided to screen Vrasku with my D8 wraith, and wound up getting a painful lesson about poison arrows. Tim concentrated all his fire on the wraith, and while two warriors missed, one hit and then rolled a one. Of course, on his reroll he rolled a 6, then a 5, exactly what he needed to kill my wraith, who had no fate point.

The objective on my right was closer to me, and I had seized it with a decent size force headed by a berserker. The objective on my left was too close to Tim’s raiders for me to advance to it first, so I waited until I could reduce his force to attempt to take it.

The hand to hand developed into 3 separate battles. On my right flank, a mounted chieftain won a crucial battle against my berserker, killing it and then its supporting spearman in a heroic combat. The chieftain then almost single-handily turned that battle against me, using a heroic move to pin my forces into place for his spearmen.

In the center, Tim’s larger force duked it out with my crossbows. Again, in a crucial battle, Tim’s chieftain killed Vrasku, but otherwise the middle was still in play. On the left flank, Tim charged his remaining raiders in, but I was able to support my warriors, and in the key battle with my captain against his other mounted chieftain, I burned the captain’s 2 might points to win the battle and kill the chieftain. The left flank battle was heading my way, the right to Tim, and the middle still in doubt when Tim’s army was broken, and he rolled a 2 on the first sudden death roll. The game ended in a draw, because I had just managed to get a berserker into contact with the left flank objective. Tim held 2 objectives, I held one, with the last one contested. It would have been very interesting to see how the game panned out had we been able to play a few more turns. It could have gone either way. Kudos to Tim on a well-played game and tournament.

Final Position from Tim's Viewpoint

Observation: Although it failed miserably this time, my tactic of guarding a vulnerable figure with the wraith has worked before. While wraiths are attractive targets, they are very hard to kill with archery. However, this time I probably would have been better off using a heroic shooting instead, as I probably could have wiped out his remaining archers before taking incoming fire, or at least forced Tim to counter it.

Round 7 – Meeting Engagement vs. Jason Harrick’s Dwarves

I knew a major victory in this round would have secured the best general award, so just my luck to have to play dwarves again. If you know any strategies for killing 75% of a well-constructed and capably commanded dwarven army in 90 minutes, please let me know – I haven’t found any, except maybe loaded dice.
This game was fairly similar to the first round against Gary, except that the Avenger hurt me quite a bit before my Xbows killed its crewmen, and then I finally reduced the archers to a couple survivors.

Once we got into hand to hand my phalanx allowed me to win fight after fight, but killing the stinking dwarves was another matter. One dwarf, attacked by a three-deep file of swordsman, spear and pike, took 4 turns to kill. And it went pretty much like that everywhere. In three turns, Vrasku was unable to take out Beregond who was joined by a dwarf warrior. Beregond saved the only wound Vrasku inflicted. Nonetheless, I held a decent lead going into the last turn.

When I tried to transfix Gimli for the last time, I rolled yet another one when I only needed a 2+. Of course, Gimli killed my captain, giving Jason the points necessary to inflict a minor defeat on me. What was shameful was my failure to attempt to go after the unmanned Avenger once I had killed most of Jason’s archers. I would have had to use a few x-bows and several turns to do it, but the points from demolishing it would have easily clinched a minor victory.

Observation: I seem to get a major case of brain-lock playing dwarves. I held off going after the Avenger hoping the crossbows could help me achieve a major victory by eliminating enough dwarves. Silly me – dwarves just don’t die. Had I secured a minor victory I would have tied for first on battle points, and would probably have finished in the top three overall. Instead, I finished 3d in battle and fifth overall.

Overall, it was a great experience to play in a LOTR GT for the first time in 3 years and I look forward to the next event in Baltimore.