http://roughwotr.blogspot.com/2010/11/wotr-1000-pts-carn-dum-vs-rohan.html

I am going to run this as a commentary on the houserules we have been trying out. Key housrules in terms of this matchup are: Wraiths (aside from the 200pt Witchking) are only mastery 2, No Epic Strike in duels, all Rohan Cav count as having lances for free, and 'Will of Iron' works on a 3+.

Jason did not take Eowyn, so I did not take the actual Witchking. We are boring and half wanted to just chat and have a beer - so it was Shieldwalls and until one killed the other!I won the roll off and opted to choose table side and have priority.

Here is the Carn Dum Line. Left to Right: Buhrdur is in ambush, single Siege bow, four coys of warband with 'the King of Carn Dum', five coys of warband with 'The Dwimmerlaik', two siege bows in the wood, and lastly five coys of warband with 'The Tainted'. I use the Dwimmerlaik statline for the Witchking model, since Dwimmlerlaik is what Eowyn called him when she faced him, and I take her to be the most first-hand account available.

The Rohan line. Left to Right: Four coy of Royal Knights with Eomer, four coy of Royal Knights, a unit of three coy of bowmen to the fron on the hill, Gandalf the Grey inside, then nine coys of Riders of Rohan with Theoden King.

I have both 'home-field' and 'painted army' advantages. Also, Jason played my boy at a little 40k before we got going, and Josh beat him soundly. Apparantly Jason's boy had managed the same earlier today, so was the theory that 'third times a charm' or that 'bad luck comes in threes'. Of course, I am sure the better tactician will win on the day, etc, etc.


Speaking of which, I've skipped to the end of turn one (above). Nothing much happened before his point - I shot up some Rohan bowmen, the Rohirrm approached and.... why the heck did I leave a formation of troops out on the flank, separated from my main army by occupied defensible terrain?

A cunning trap? Hardly. Smash, Eomer and his Knights hit hard. Eomer duels the Ringwraith. Despite being two points behind to start (+1 for calling duel +1 for fight 6 vs 5, no Epic Strike allowed), the Ringwraith pulls through alive. I lose two coy of troops in the ensuing melee.

So on turn two (beginning is shown above), I win priority and have Jason go second. There is some half-hearted moving by my troops (I keep the troll hidden) and I fancy my chances and leave the Tainted in the flank unit. Jason takes the opportunity to add a second unit of Royal Knights to beat up on the flank unit duty. Theoden keeps his riders safely behind the bow, where arty cannot reach. And Gandalf begins, Jason was going second so got to ensure he was in range. The victim formation is now enfeebled, as well as hopelessly outnumbered. I try to Pall of Night the threatening units, and actually block Eomer's one from charging... but Gandalf has lept into the other and hit my Wraith with 'Blinding Light' I am still confident I can take them. We exchanged a bit of fire, my artillery seems to be doing ok, his bow less-so. Then the charge and fight phases ensue. Gandalf is going to have to do the duel on my fight 0 Wraith himself.

It transpires that I could not 'take them'. Well, I didn't need that left flank, right?

But look, who is that over in the back left? It's Buhrdur - revealed to do battle at last. Jason has priority and goes first for turn three (beginning shown above). He decided to send the Knights against the artillery in the trees, reasoning that Javelins will be 'just the thing'. In response, Buhrdur exits the terrain, but is not keen to get too close to the bow this turn, I am also trying to keep my warband back, just over 1' from the bow, biding my time. Jason did bring Theoden's riders out to play, thinking he would bag himself a another warband... but the Dwimmerlaik hits him twice with spells - first off 'Pall of Night' Theoden rolls will of iron and gets a one. Then the Wraith follows with 'Strength from Corruption' killing two horses and their Riders. Jason's bowfire actually kills an artillery crewman, while my artillery fails miserably. The Knights charge into the forest, and kill nothing, while taking no casualties.

So it's looking pretty good for Rohan so far, will third time really be a charm? We will have to see, in tomorrow's second installment...

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Jason got priority once more, in turn four (above). Seeing Buhrdur tentatively emerging from the wood in his rear, he had Eomer peel off a unit of Knights and lead them to deal with the lone troll. To make sure of it, he then had his Archers 'about face', to rain death upon the hapless Monster. Of course, the Dwimmerlaik could not believe his luck, using magic, he raced up with some warriors and prepared to charge the Archers in the rear, at the same time he hit Theoden's Riders with 'Pall of Night'. Buhrdur was cunning, he let the knights come to him, but quickly sidestepped and raced around their flanks. Carn Dum artillery wiped out the other formation of Knights, while Rohan archery failed to pierce the troll's tough hide.

So, in this special closeup (above) of the turn it all swings around, we see charges into the rear of the archers and into the flank of the Cav. Eomer manfully tried to duel the troll to death... but to no avail, and sees half his faithful knights getting smashed in all directions by the troll's great hammer. The archers fared little better, the Dwimmerlaik's warband messed up the charge and inflicted casualties upon themselves, but still easily beat the archers, killing them to a man. The Grey Pilgrim goes down, trampled in the desperate route.

In turn five (above), Jason again has priority - I have learned not to expect to get priority in WOTR. He decides to Run Theoden's boys around the wood, to salvage some pride by finally getting that other warband. Eomer's Knights leg it for their backline, with Buhrdur in hot pursuit. The Dwimmerlaik attempts to bring his men back from the hill, but they lack the will to double-time. The King of Carn Dum is leading the other warband, but also fails to sufficiently motivate them out of harms way. In a perfect storm - the artillery also fails to do much damage to Theoden's Riders.

Here (above) Theoden's Riders have their turn to shine. Eomer has me an ignoble end, hammered to death by a troll. Theoden charges, since Rohirrm count as having lances, they eviscerate the warband, almost killing them before they strike back.


It all ends for Theoden's boys in turn 6 though. Unable to escape, they face the prospect of being hit by two warbands of angry berserkers. Luckily for them, the larger formation fails to double-time again and is out of range. Unluckily for them, the other warband has a priority and even executes a particularly ferocious berserk charge - hitting the cav on 4s! The Rohirrm do not have the attacks to win it without charging, and are butchered, along with their King.

Comments:
I was really lucky there, I can't really claim much credit for the fact that Jason 1. neglected to use Gandalf's magic to kill the artillery in the woods and 2. sent Eomer off to chase down a troll out alone somewhere, then compounding his error by turning the archer's backs to my warriors in order to gain a marginal chance to kill a troll. I better learn to not deploy so stupidly if I want to beat this list again, me thinks.

Speaking of which: House rules.

The hourserules really worked to balance this better. Magic was less potent, especially Ringwraith magic being restricted to mastery 2. Rohan can also bank on likely stopping most spells thrown at them for the first couple of turns, using 3+ Will of Iron. This, combined with giving the Rider formations lances, means that this is a list that can smash a few things before they get whittled down too much. Without the lances rule, Theoden's boys would only have killed half as much, pretty pathetic for cav hitting a flank. Dropping Epic Strike helped a lot too - Eomer clearly outclassed a Wraith in a duel, but not by too much. Also, more importantly, the King of Carn Dum (Thrydan) is not able to cheaply best the likes of Theoden just by pulling an Epic Strike.

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Cheers for the game mate,

It was really quite fun, and even though the brave men of Rohan were routed from the field I can now see the light in how to use them more effectivley. Magic in particular was quite handy and if the Grey Pilgram remembers (damn that halfling leaf) to use Visions of Woe on the Artillery then next time im expecting big things form him.

The house rules are working really well, I (obviously) like the "lances for all" for my Rohan but without it I struggle to see how you can get good service out of the Rider of Rohan Erods. Which a) makes me sad and b) is why everyone just takes Royal Knights!

Having two Touched by Destiny heroes is mighty handy too, but I really need to shave some points and field a unit of Foot Royal Guard, just to give the army some substance. I think I i will straight swap out one of the 4 strong units of Knights for this.

Overall the army is alot of fun to use, and more so with the houserules we use.

I will get you next time Dwimerlaik!

Cheers
Jason

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I almost wondered if you couldn't just swap out all Royal Knights for Riders and say the foot unit is Theoden's bodyguard unit? That creates 40 points, which could then (with one less coy of riders overall?) go to have a proper foot unit? Ideally, you'd want that to be four strong. You could then have three equalish sized Rider units and they could shoot or charge, depending on how the battle unfolds. You might even be able to wrongfoot a low formation count army, like Carn Dum.

I have the new version of the houserules finalised, so I should post it up tommorrow, here. Something for everyone in it, I think and does the job or repointing the units - without having to repoint all the units.

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