I played an odd battle today. My buddy and I prepared two good forces. In the end we decided to play. It was woodelves vs rangers! He played a Galadrhim force led by Legolas, elladan, elrohir and an elf captain. I played a grey company lead by Aragorn, Arathorn, Malbeth and 4 Ranger's of the North. For those keeping notes, that is 22 bowmen.
Despite the huge number of archers, I had failed to make my offerings to the dice gods. As a result my roles were very poor. After 2 rounds of huge archery volleys (17 shots the first round and 22 shots the second), I kill … 2 of his elves. He knocked out a few of my rangers, or at least he would have except Malbeth used his fury-like ability to prevent their death. Once our two forces clashed, the elves higher fight value proved extremely effective. Despite my best efforts I was being killed at a rate of 2:1.
Despite that, I had to divert a lot of power to killing off his cavalry warband. I was hoping my archery would have taken care of that, but as mentioned, my dice did not treat me well.
In the final 2 rounds Aragorn, who proved to be very helpful with his free might and banner-like effect, became surrounded by Legolas (who proved to be a very inept archer this game), elledan and a few high elves. Aragorn burned up all his fate in the first round of abysmal failure in combat, then, in round two (the last round of the game), Malbeth failed to prevent any wounds. Once gorn died my force was broken.
The final score was 26 to 13 (we were playing Lords of Battle).
Some lessons I learned: -Elves are tougher than we give them credit for. They sport a high fight value and though their defense is lacking they many options available to them: throwing weapons, elven bows, elven swords, spears capable of shielding, armor and shields (wood elves and galadrhim elves respectively). Not to mention many of their heroes have terror and woodland creature. -The twins are brutal! they clock in around 70ish pts apiece and must be taken together making them 140 pts if I am not mistaken, but they pack a huge punch. 4-6 attacks, 6 might, horses, armor, berserker status, shielding, and elven weapons. -Rangers of the North are okay, but oh how I wish they had at least 2 might. Other than that, they fight just as well as regular rangers. Sporting a low defense of 4-5. -Malbeth is AWESOME! Even though he ran out of steam by games end, he was worth every penny. -I love arathorn. with 3 attacks and 3 might, he is a great "poor man's" captain. -Aragorn < Boromir, Captain of Gondor. The free pt of might is great for taking priority at key moments. However (magic swords aside), in the thick of melee, I prefer Boromir.
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