Full version (without the pictures chopped) here: http://roughwotr.blogspot.com/2010/11/batrep-281110-1000pts-reunited-kingdom.html

Jason + kids dropped by on Sunday so we could reprise our ongoing Good vs Evil clash, while still doing our share of the 'supervising'. We've been swinging back and forth on this matchup ever since Jason got into WOTR. Last time King Elessar and his soldiers crushed the Uruks in an away game (http://krugerskreations.blogspot.com/2010/10/minor-setback-for-beige-wizard.html), but could they manage to translate the home field advantage into a repeat of that? In sporting terms, these are the 'Test' rather than the 'Exhibition' matches. This time would be our first of these clashes using our new house-rules (http://roughwotr.blogspot.com/2010/11/houserules-redux.html). The key rules for this matchup were:

All of my warriors become 30pts! Aaargh. But my Allied Rohan Cav (which I had just rebased) now count as having lances; Epic Strike now only gives base fight + 2, so 'I can't believe it's not Thrydan' and Faramir are much less deadly in duels; also crossbow cannot Heroic Shoot; and Will of Iron works on a 3+, which will hopefully be very helpful vs Saruman and the Ruin Shaman Jason was packing in his list. Jason won the roll off and elected to deploy second.
Here are the Isengard battle lines. Up on that hill (top) is a unit of three Uruk coys with Shields. That big block of six at the back is a unit of six Orcs with 2HW and a Ruin Shaman (Dark Fury FTW). The unit of three coys lined up in front of them are Uruk Xbows, led by the Beige Wizard himself. The flank to the bottom/right of hi line is held by another unit of three Uruks with Shields... and four coys of Feral Uruks, with 'Thrydan' inside, lurk somewhere in ambush (I wonder where?).

There. A convenient capacity four forest, right in my deployment zone. The only other place could be a capacity six forest, which you can see half of up to the top-left of this pic.

Here are the heroes of the Reunited Kingdom. I have taken leave of my senses and brought along a legendary formation, just to do something 'different'. Starting at the bottom - four coys of the brave veteran warriors of Ithilien (MT wars), led by Faramir; Beregond and the White Company (Grey Coy) three coy strong; a line of four coy of the Warriors of Eriador (MT Wars, and the only guys dressed for the weather), led by King Elessar himself, strung out in a long line to the front; behind them are five coys of Riders of Rohan and then five coys of the Axemen of Lossarnach.

(picture above is between my and Jason's moves) Terrain was pretty important to my plan, so I used priority to go first. My line shifted to one side, the White Company ran for the ruin in the middle and occupied, Faramir left the Ithilien Warriors to Join the Rohan Cav, the Ithilien Warriors occupied the wood (where the ambush was almost certain to be), while Faramir led the Rohirrm around the other flank (screened from missiles/spells by the hill and ruin), joined by Elessar and the Warriors of Eriador. The Axemen of Lossarnach slowly bring up the rear. The forces of Isengard are unable to be joined by their ambushers turn one, so the xbows advance, hoping to dominate the center of the board with fire next turn (no Heroic Shoot for them!). They are however packing a walking artillery piece and Saruman smashed the White Company with a fireball, killing over half a coy. The White Coy Heroic Shoot back, but are only armed with bows, so just kill a couple of Uruk xbows. There are no charges for turn one.
On Turn two, I get priority and opt to go second. the Ambushers arrive (bottom right of picture, picture taken at start of our moves). They have to deploy outside of the forest, so opt to set up with it between them and the rest of my force. In his move, Jason sends the Beige Wizard into the Ferals and then begins to pound the Warriors of Ithilien with spells, before they can flee the wood. He Shatters their shields, then his focus fails him (no doubt distracted by the ravings of the demented Uruks). Jason largely leaves the rest of his deployment intact, but brings the edge of the 2HW Orcs up the side of the hill, so that their Shaman can also lob a spell at the White Company, who Will of Iron... only to fail. In my move, the forces of the Reunited Kingdom, led by their brave heroes, race up that flank, ready to charge the Uruk's who protect it. The Axemen of Lossarnach continue to slowly bring up the rear, while the Warriors of Ithilien exit the wood... only to be hit by crossbow fire from the waiting Uruks, losing half a coy. The White Company where all set up to nail the ambushing Ferals, but are only armed with bows, so just kill a couple.
Above you can see the outcome of the move phase. Elessar intends to charge up his side of the hill, while Faramir intends to use the path between the cliffs to to get at the Uruks (though he will hit their front). Will they be successful in turning the flank before the Feral mincer goes to work? Second half report to follow, tomorrow.

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The End of turn 2 was the high-water mark for the forces of the Reunited Kingdom. Proving the maxim that painted units perform better, Faramir led the Rohirrm in a frontal charge on the Uruks anchoring the Isengard left flank. They smashed into their front with a Heroic Fight, killing half of them, losing a couple of horses in return, then they got to have a second charge vs a now disordered Uruk formation. They killed them to the last. What you see above is an empty space where the formation used to be. Now, with my lines rotated so that the Ferals were out of position, the Crossbow constantly jockeying to even line up a shot on something that mattered, and the guardians of the Isengard left flank obliterated, I only had to press my advantage and make a game of it.

Here in turn three you see my lackluster efforts to do so. I won priority and elected to go first. He responded by popping the crossbows back into a forest (so here was my chance to advance without having to take their fire) , bringing the Uruks with shields around from his right flank to bolster his center, refacing the 2HW Orcs, and of course beginning to bring the ferals back to where they could participate. Here, my lack of faith in cavalry led me to hold them behind the hill while I sent Faramir back to help bring up the Axemen of Lossarnach. King Elessar refaced his unit, so as to be ready for a combined assault in a couple of turns time. There was no crossbow fire this turn (due to houserules) and the White Coy still only had bows, so did not even manage to take the remainder of the depleted Coy off the Ferals with their shooting. Saruman lobbed a fireball at them, they used 'Will of Iron', and it failed them once more. Jason remarked that this made sense, you'd think a fireball would be pretty deadly when unleashed into stone rooms! No charges for us this turn, due to my excessive timidity.

At the start of turn four I once again got priority, and elected to go second again this time. The photo above shows things midway through my move phase. Most of the Isengard troops awaited the arrival of Saruman and the Ferals, who were running toward the big hill. In my move, the White Company jumped out to threaten their flank, or even rear, if their got their hopeful charge off against King Elessar's unit of Eriador Warriors. Faramir and the Axemen of Lossarnach were moving around to reinforce the High-King, but they were suffering a bit for lack of space - so I spent a second turn not really doing anything to threaten the forces of Isengard and without my own shock-troops concentrated. Shooting was not much of a factor for either of us, though the Isengard casters did take the shields from King Elessar's formation. Then the charges... the Ferals roll a 1! The Beige Wizard lacked the might to make that work, then the White Coy attempt to hit the flank, they have the might to make the charge distance, but are beguiled by the Voice of Saruman

Which means that on the final tun (final, since we ran out of time to get the kids home for their dinner!) the Isengard and Reunited Kingdom lines face off along the length of the hill. Jason got priority, and had me go second. I used King Elessar's only point of might this turn to attempt to Epic Challenge the Beige WIzard, but like a couple of times already this game, this was unsuccessful. So he lined up his three melee formations, then I lined up mine (the Axemen finally having Exsiccated the approaching Axemen, but had been sick of endlessly failing focus roles so used Epic Channelling instead of the usual Epic Ruination. Then there were the charges - the 2HW Orcs hit the Rohan Cavalry. However, I had carefully 'stepped' my frontline, so they did not catch King Elessar's formation and he could still choose his charge target. With the Orcs blocking the Uruks with Shields from also charging, it was left to the Ferals, who went berserk and smashed into Faramir's Axemen with an Unstoppable Chage, only to then be flank charged by King Elessar's men.

Fearing all hope was lost, Faramir seized the opportunity provided by the Wizard in close quarters to duel him out. But some genius decided that Epic Strike should now just be the +2... and Saruman contemptuously blew the Prince of Ithilien to dust and ashes before he even got within sword reach.

Here I discovered just how effective Ferals were when everything went right for them. They caused 32 Casualties on the Axemen, which added to the effects of the spells already this turn, wiped them out. The Axemen and King Elessar's men did cause a fair bit of damage back, but at the end of the turn there was a huge gaping hole where Faramir and his formation had been, the Ferals had another good charge in them, the 2HW Orcs had of course seen off the Cavalry, so I think we can safely call that a win for the Beige Wizard.

*I'll get him next time*

Good game Jason!

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http://www.roughwotr.blogspot.com

Mmm. Mince. I like Mince.

Seriously you had the game well in hand at this point, and I was floundering about taking opportunistic shots with my "mobile artillery"

Looking forwad to part 2

Cheers
Jason

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Feel free to come visit my blog: http://krugerskreations.blogspot.com/

Normally, I'd like to say "it was a game of two halves." However, this is what? The end of turn 2 out of 5?

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Cheers Jamie.

It was looking pretty bad until the final charge of the Ferals. Damn they are awesome (ie: Will now be in vevery army I feild)

Ruin as the spell list is not as cool as Darkness but Dark Fury on the Ferals (and the 2H orcs) is wicked nasty.

Im glad the Beige Wizard had his revenge after his "minor setback"

Looks like Game Three will be the Title Fight!

Cheers
Jason

_________________
Feel free to come visit my blog: http://krugerskreations.blogspot.com/

I think the clashes will be ongoing, I can think of a couple of changes to make for next time, and I'll try to remember not to 'choke' - and you will have to get that Rohan army of yours sorted and painted.

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