Well the time has finally come, I have been looking on the One Ring at all of the awesome tournament reports for months now so I thought it's finally time to contribute my own rookie report!
Firstly I will just note that unfortunately this report is quite low on pictures, it's very easy to forget when you are absorbed in a match!
The tournament was set at 800 points for a total of 4 games, 3 of these games would be random (old scenarios and new DOS) and the final game for the day being To The Death!
Going into the tournament I decided I wanted to take a competitive force after taking a fun all hero list to my last tournament. As I am well and truly a Haradrim at heart I decided to bring out my trusty Harad.
When writing my list the biggest thing I was aiming for was synergy, I really wanted every model in the force to gel with the other. After a lot of umming and ahhhing here's the list I decided upon...
Warband 1
The Betrayer w. horse
4 x half trolls
6 x haradrim w. spear
1 x haradrim w. banner
Warband 2
Suladan w. horse
3 x serpent riders
4 x serpent guard
4 x haradrim w. bow
Warband 3
Chieftain w. bow + spear
6 x watchers of karna
6 x haradrim w. spear
Warband 4
Taskmaster
4 x haradrim w. bow + spear
5 x haradrim w. spear
1 x haradrim w.horn
The big risk I took with this list was to make my Taskmaster the leader, the hope was that this would Suladan to charge in without fear of giving away VP's.
Match 1
Scenario: The High Ground
Opposing Force: Isengard
The dice were rolled for the first match and it was "high ground"! My match would be against a brand new player to the tournament scene bringing what was an absolutely fantastic looking Isengard force.
His force was a fairly typical Isengard set up, it consisted roughly of Vrasku, lots of crossbows
, ugluk, and a bunch of standard uruks (luckily no beserkers!). The big curve ball was the force also included a troll chieftain and mordor troll. Going into the match I was nervous, Isengard are always tough for Harad with basically everything wounding me on 4+!
We rolled for deployment and the match began!
Deployment was a fairly standard affair, our forces were deployed about 1" away across the length of the hill. His isengard phalanx against my half trolls.
Attachment:
photo 1.JPG
Attachment:
photo 2.JPG
From the get go this match was a meat grinder, pretty much every model was in combat with the exception of the 2 trolls! I had been able to use the Betrayer to amazing effect during the whole game not allowing the trolls to get into combat once the entire match, a fact that I know definitely swung the match in my favor.
The game ended (roughly) 7-1 in my favor. The real man of the match for me in this game were the half trolls, turn after turn they went up against the uruk phalanx and gave as good as they got!
Result: WIN
Match 2
Scenario: Seize The Prize
Opposing Force: High Elves
So after an excellent game with a great opponent I headed into the 2nd match with some confidence. My list had fared very well against a strong list.
The 2nd match was to be Seize The Prize, I had never played ANY of the DOS scenario's before so I made sure to read the objectives in great detail before starting. My opponent for this match had a force consisting of rivendell knights (6 or so) with Elrond and Lindir, high elves on foot and radagast on sleigh.
My biggest worry for this match was the rivendell knights, I've heard fantastic things about them but never seen them in action. For deployment I decided to put all my warbands together in a tight square so I could get every model with a heroic march from my taskmaster.
The first turn was as expected, my opponent moved all his cavalry straight towards the prize and I heroic marched. Then came the roll off for priority in turn 2, I won, my opponent called heroic move and I countered. Luck was not with me and I lost the roll off.
As a result my front line was welcomed by a bunch of rivendell knights, this however played into my favor as I counter charged with my half trolls. The ensuing combat was some of the best dice rolling I think I have ever done before, after the dust had settled all but 1 knight of rivendell was slain to no casualties. Elrond had attempted a channeled natures wrath but with the watchers of karna resistant to magic ability I was able to resist!
After that 1st turn of combat my opponent was never really able to come back, I had the numbers to bog down his big heroes (elrond and radagast), swamp the objective, dig it up and comfortably move it off the field.
Result: WIN
So with 2 wins under my belt we broke for lunch! A fantastic start to the day, I was pleased with how my list was performing and with 2 games remaining I was feeling confident about a good placing.
It is very late now so I'm going to leave it here, I will hopefully have Part 2 up by the end of week!