Hold Ground skirmish - Galadhrim Elves vs Goblins of Moria Battle Report

Had a chance for a quick game with mate Brett.

Brett was wanting to try the game at a relatively small points level; 400 points, just to see how quickly the game could be played and without going into all the Uber characters and beasties... in other words trying to 'keep it simple'...

Brett was going to bring his Galadhrim, and I decided to bring some goblins down out of Moria...

Now my past record of Goblins vs Elves has not been the best... I have usually taken a few goblin warbands led by a few heroes and thrown a cave troll in for good measure... but one cave troll was invariable 'nerfed', either being turned into a pin cushion by elven archery or immobilised and cut down whilst in a 'stupor'... Once the cave troll was dealt with the rest of the goblins were usually either avoided, shot up, or mopped up by the rampant elves...

However having had some success with my Angmar force fielding multiple trolls, I wondered how many I could squeeze into 400 points and still have enough heroes to lead them and have enough goblins to back them up, and be a viable force...

So I took Durburz with a cave troll and 11 goblins,... and a Captain , with a cave troll, 10 goblins and a Bat Swarm.

[I did think about trialing a Dweller, instead of a troll, and swapping out the captain for a shaman, but despite a furious last minute effort I didn't quite get the dweller made in time]

Brett brought a force comprising a Captain, with Galadhrim spear and sword infantry... another captain with bow, with Galadhrim archers and spears, ... and a small warband of a captain, with a sentinel and a spear support.

 After chatting through the missions we decide to try Hold Ground.

This mission is basically to fight for and hold the centre of the board, marked by an objective marker. But you start the game with no troops on the board. Warbands come on each turn from a variable random board edge position, and have to make their way to the centre where they will no doubt engage the enemy....

We didn't take many pictures of the game but here's a selection...

The elves get their two main warbands coming on pretty much together from the Eastern board edge, archers to the right...

Whilst the small warband with the sentinel, finds itself coming on from the northwest corner...

Both goblin warbands come on from the south west corner...

The main elven warband headed towards the centre whilst the archer warband took up firing position behind a crumbling wall... from here they shot several volleys at the approaching goblins, dropping a few of them on their way to the centre of the board. The goblins also tried to get a little cover from the broken wall, from the elven shooting... I also peeled off one of the trolls, screened by the bat swarm to go after the archers and try to flush them out, making them move and reduce their shooting effectiveness...

The picture below shows the Cave troll and bats engaging the elven archers at the wall as the main goblin horde pushes on for the centre...

As the game progressed the power of the trolls became rather self evident and Brett struggled to deal with them...His archery had targetted the goblins, not the trolls, and he had no spell casters in range to affect them either...

The centre goblin formation, split with some heading south to deal with the archers and aid the troll and bat swarm there, as the other goblins led by Durburz, the captain and second troll pushed on through the centre and forced the elves back...

The elven archer captain was knocked about by the rampant troll and eventually slain, trapped against the crumbling wall... the bat swarm had done it's job, shielding the approach of the troll and getting in the way once melee with it commenced... The elven centre started to collapse, but the fight had by now drifted away from the central position where Brett still had his main captain and the remnants of his centre warband...

However after a brutal turn for the elves, they were broken and the dice thrown by Brett afterwards, summed up his dice for the game... a 1 to end it...

A final tally for VPs saw the goblins edge it 8-7... Brett had more elves left near the objective than the goblins did at games end, but the elves were broken and the goblins were not. Neither leader was injured either.

-----o0o-----

We discussed the game afterwards as is usual, and Brett was concerned at the viability of his compact force. He had expected elven archery to have a strong effect in the game, but that had not eventuated and without any magic to deal with the trolls, and once engaged with the greater numbers of goblins, had struggled hold them off...

Perhaps the two cave trolls were too much for this small simple game? But then I would have had another captain and an extra full warband of goblins and other beasties to make up the points, so the elves may then have been swamped by numbers???

So it appears a basic elven force of infantry and captains just does not cut the mustard, by itself... there clearly is a need for some elven sorcery to help tip the balance. Or perhaps some cavalry?

Perhaps the mission and random deployments had not favoured the elves in this scenario either?

Any thoughts on a 400 point Galadhrim force... comments below please...