Middle-Earth Miscellany...

The long holiday weekend here in NZ, gave me a chance to catch up with Brett.

Brett is getting to grips with the game, having played it occasionally, off and on in the past...

He has acquired a bunch of figures of various factions and has been learning the ropes with a small Elven force of Galadhrim... Our last meeting saw me take a Moria force with a couple of Cave Trolls and they turned out to be a bit of a handful, so this time I decided to just go with regular troops, nothing flash but the upshot is, there's lots of them.

So I selected a Mordor force, with 4 Orc Captains each leading a full orc warband, one of which was my newly completed archer warband. I also added a Castellan to make the points just over 500pts.

Bretts elven force was fairly small and compact, with Rumil, a Stormcaller and a captain leading the Elves and an allied contingent of Riders of Rohan, lead by Eomer (proxied by Boromir).

We rolled off for mission and got Domination - which puts 5 objective markers on the board to take and hold...

We played on a relatively small table... deployment below...

The game played out fairly predictably with the orcs moving forward into the shooting of the elves and riders... the shooting took a slow but steady toll of the orcs as they advanced, until range became the issue as the orcs closed in...

The riders had a bit of a redirection , causing the orc pack to change their course of advance, but the orcs had managed to collect all but one of the objective markers by this time, which the elves held in the building courtyard...

Brett wanted to try out his cavalry charge and duly did so, but making his charge on his own priority, allowed the orcs to move in and surround them. One rider that was positioned to try and block some of the orc response only really served as a spring board for a mass of orcs led by a captain to strike him down and move on to join other fights, thanks to a heroic fight from the orc captain...

The rest of the orcs pressed on towards the elves...

The riders went down, with Eomer resisting for a turn until he too was slain in the following turn. The Elven storm caller tried to come to his aid, unleashing Natures Wrath in the midst of the chaos, but despite rolling a 5, an orc captain managed to resist the spell... this pretty much sealed Eomers fate...

Sorry but no more pictures as we both concentrated on the game...

The orcs then advanced and brought numbers to bear on the thin elven line, with spears backing up the orcs along much of their battleline...

But the elves clung on grimly for several turns whittling down the orcs, their high Fight skill keeping them in the game....

Eventually though the pressure became unbearable. Rumil was surrounded by 2 orc captains and another orc, and though resisting for a turn, he was felled in the subsequent round. The stormcaller had also been killed by an orc captain who had again used a Heroic fight to kill an elf and leap into action against the the elven spellcaster..., the turn previously...

Eventually it was all over and the Game came to a close as the elves dropped to 25%, though the orcs were broken too...

The orcs had won fairly convincingly claiming all but one of the objectives, I think... the one in the building courtyard was possibly contested....

However it was only after finishing the game that I realised I had completely forgotten about taking courage tests, for both sides, for being broken. The elves with their high courage would probably have been relatively unaffected by this but the orcs certainly could have lost more troops...

So apologies to Brett on that score... The game wasn't 'serious' as such, still a learning game in some ways for Brett, and I hope the forgotten courage tests will go forgiven as I tried to help with the other rules  and tactics in the game :-)

The main lessons I think Brett got from this game were perhaps the cautious use of cavalry, and being careful when to commit your charge... and also the effect of heroic fights allowing troops to leapfrog from fight to fight... and also how a thin elven line can still put up a lengthy resistance due to their high fight skill.

Hoping to have more games with Brett, as he gets a better grip on the rules and his elven force.

-----o0o-----

Th rest of the weekend was pretty wet and miserable with a cold southerly blowing through, so a mug of tea, and a bickie or two, and The Hobbit playing in the background let me press on with some modelling and painting...

So here's a couple of WIP's...

I am busy working on 6 Mounted Rohan Royal Guard, here having just finished their base colours... shade wash and work up still to go... The horses have been shade washed...

Rohan Royal Guard - WIP

And I thought I'd have a go at a conversion I have seen done before; Grima on horse. The recent KWC 'Bring and Buy', saw me pick up a cheap Grima and spare RoR... so I set to, cutting out the central leg area of Grima but leaving his robes at the sides and chopping the top off the RoR to allow his legs to be Grimas mounted seated pose.

Some greenstuff to fill gaps, and we're just about ready for paint...

Mounted Grima - WIP

That's all for now, hope you all had a good weekend...

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...

Galadhrim Knights

The Galadhrim Knights. Beautiful elven cavalry, of the Galadhrim from Lothlorien.

Equipped with the fearsome elven glaive, and may also be given either shield or longbow.

I have to admit, I like the similarity to the Samurai in their style, which I found quite noticeably after watching The Last Samurai, with Tom Cruise. Especially the mounted longbow armed riders. There is definitely an oriental feel to these troops, which I think mirrors the elite status of both the Elves and Samurai, in warfare.

Galadhrim Warriors

The Galadhrim, Sindarin for "people of the trees". Here depicted as warriors from Lothlorien.

I like these warriors a great deal, and find them a good, medium infantry for the elves to use to defend their woodland realms and go on the offensive at need, against their ever present foes in the Misty Mountains and from Dol Guldur in the south of Mirkwood.

Interestingly, whilst the elves are not directly featured in the Lord of the Rings book as a fighting force, PJ made the decision to involve them at the battle of Helm Deep. Purists may argue this was near 'blasphemy' and against canon, but it does bring the elves as a fighting force at the time of the War of the Ring into the movie, and because of this fact alone we have a template for the model makers to make figures for us. If it hadn't been for this, we may not have had elven warriors, other than those from the scenes of the Last Alliance battle, or the wood elves of the Woodland Realm.

Plus I quite liked the idea behind PJ's thinking to involve them at this point in the tale. I guess it could be argued they took the place of the Grey Company, who did not make it into the movie.

The only thing I find a little strange with the models (but true to the movie armour depiction) is the two holes in the top of the helmet. Presumably to save weight and allow ventilation? But from a protection point of view, a little odd perhaps...

I just have to finish the banner bearer and the unit will look complete.