Well met dear readers, fear not, this unexpected adventure won’t be quite s long as some of Dr Grant’s previous epics but it should hopefully still make a good read. Get cuppa, find armchair, relax, begin.
So, as anyone who’s following the UK SBG tournament scene will know, there’s a 500 point tournament coming up in Preston at the end of October. If you’ve no idea what I’m talking about then check out the thread below and get involved:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=26381&p=333818&hilit=great+success#p333818
As I’m doing pretty well in the league I was keen to get some practice games in to try out a few lists so got in touch with a few mates from my local games club in Finchley (hosts of the recent spectacular Longbottom Carnival). My hope was to get 4 players together to play a round robin system where everyone played everyone so we all got 3 games, not that easy a task with a week’s notice. However, in a lovely twist of fate, we were actually able to find 8 SBG players who were all itching for a bit of action - fantastic!
As it was organised in a week and was mainly for fun, I thought it would be cool to play a knockout style tournament, for which 8 players was perfect. Rather than scoring 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw and seeing who had the most points at the end of the day, we’d treat it like the quarter finals of the World Cup. We’d play 4 games, the winners would then go on to play in the semis and the winners of those two games would play in the final. The winner of the day would be the person who won all three games - pretty simple but it would make an interesting change from the traditional tournament system.
Another change was that each player was allowed to change their army in each game, this was primarily a testing ground for the Preston tourney so this would allow people to try out different configurations or entirely different armies if they wished. It was also exciting as it would potentially allow for 24 armies to be present!
I decided to try a 500 point iteration of my Isengard Feral list which has dome really well in tournaments this year and is probably what I’ll take to Preston. I had 4 or five different iterations of this list in mind and so was keen to try them out and figure out their strengths and weaknesses.
However, I’d also been painting Thorin’s Company recently and worked out that Thorin, Dwalin, Gloin, Oin and Gandalf made a fairly cool 500 point army, it’s always fun to play with your latest figures so I decided to give that a go as well.
My 'unstoppable horde'
So, with the details all worked out we rocked up to the club early on a rainy Sunday afternoon (there’s no better weather for wagaming!) and set up the 4 tables. We were able to use almost all of the club’s growing supply of LOTR terrain across the 4 tables which made for some really interesting battlefields, full of terrain, just how SBG is supposed to be. There were at least 5 One Ringers present and it was nice to catch up with people at this unexpected event.
Erebor
The Mines of Moria
The slopes of Caradhras
The ruins of Osgiliath
The first scenario was Hold Ground and I got drawn against my chief rival Tom Harrison, currently ranked number 1 in the Hobbit League - curses. I decided to kick things off with my dwarves, I figured they could wade into the middle of the board and hopefully Thorin, Dwalin and Gloin would start chopping stuff up left right and centre. Tom had a Mordor army consisting of a mounted Ringwraith, Shagrat War Leader, an Orc Shaman on warg, 6 Black Numenoreans, 6 Mordor Uruks and 24 orcs or something similar.
We were playing on the club’s awesome Erebor board which is always fun. I was hoping he might roll badly for deployment allowing me to pounce on one of his isolated warbands and destroy it quickly but, alas, he rolled well and everything turned up together. There were some early worries as his Ringwraith drained 4 of Gandalf’s Will but in doing so left himself quite exposed close to my Dwarven powerhouse, I then lost the roll-off for a Heroic Move that probably would have let me trap and kill Shagrat and possibly get the Ringwraith too. The Ringwraith and Shagrat then legged it back behind his lines and I knew I’d missed my chance. We then exchanged blows for a few turns, Gandalf Immobilising the Ringwraith each turn and then my dwarves getting stuck into his orcs, unfortunately, my dwarves really weren’t doing their part of the deal, despite having 3 attacks each they just couldn’t seem to win fights and were barely making a dent in his numbers. There was then another incredibly important roll off, Gloin was trapped fighting Shagrat and a bunch of orcs, they’d both called Heroic Strikes and tied their Fight values, Gloin had used piercing Strike, we both rolled 6’s and so everything hung on the roll-off - Tom won, Gloin fell.
Things start to go ill as Gloin falls to Shagrat and the remaining members of the company start to feel the pressure
I can’t honestly remember how but somehow he managed to kill Gandalf, I think through trapping him in combat, unfortunately, with Gandalf gone, the Ringwraith who had been Immobilised for most of the game suddenly found himself with about 11 Will to cause havoc with. For the next few turns, he swamped my dwarves and then Immobilised 1 a turn and slaughtered them, Oin fell first, then Thorin and finally, only Dwalin was left fighting against the tide before he found himself transfixed by the Wraith’s magic and cut down.
Last dwarf standing Dwalin bravely fights on against overwhelming odds unitl he's finally brought down by cowardly magic
The game was over and Tom had claimed a comprehensive 19-0 victory. Tom thoroughly deserved the victory and I was never really close to breaking him, let alone claiming the objective (it’s always going to be hard for a 5 model army to win a game based on number of models) but I couldn’t help thinking my dwarves didn’t really turn up, they lost an awful lot of fights and failed to kill when they did win, if you’ve got an all hero army you really need them to be cutting swathes through the enemy, not ineffectually bumping off them. I also couldn’t help looking back on those 2 50/50 roll-offs that had had such a huge effect on the game - another downside of an all hero force is that because you have so few models, one poor roll tends to have a bigger impact long term. Ah well, I didn’t bring the dwarves to win and I really enjoyed using the army, Tom was a great opponent as always and we had a good laugh.
More importantly, everyone else seemed to be enjoying themselves too, phew, it seemed the day was going OK.
Round 1 in full swing. Looks like things aren't going well for Suicidal Marsbar in Osgiliath.
So, I was now in the losers bracket, fighting it out between us for 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th place.
The next scenario was Domination and I found myself up against The One Ring’s Damian and his Rohan list in the ruins of Osgiliath, he had a King’s Huntsman, Grimbold with about 12 Helmingas, Erkenbrand leading 2 mounted Royal Guard, 2 Sons of Eorl, 7 Royal Guard or similar. Then a strange thing happened, I was all ready to use my Ferals and exact bloody vengeance on the strawheads when I decided I didn’t fancy that, I packed all my lovely Uruks away and set up my dwarves who had just been pounded, attempting to win Domination with 5 models with 5” movement - why? God knows, should be a laugh though.
The packed club in full swing during round 2. We had 22 players playing 4 different game systems along.
I set up and immediately ran for the centre, channelled Blinding Light helped to stop Damian’s 12ish throwing spears having any real affect and I deiced to get stuck in as quick as possible. I knew there was no way I’d hold all 5 objectives but I hoped that if I killed Erkenbrand (his leader) and broke his army then the Rohan holding the objectives might leg it - fingers crossed. We closed quickly and traded some early blows, Gloin fought the same 3 Rohan warriors 3 turns in a row and failed to win the fight once (that’s 9 dice!) and I began to fear a repeat of the first game was on the cards. Things looked up as Gandalf Commanded Erkenbrand towards Dwalin who was then able to smash him from the saddle (Dwarf lesson 1 - Dwalin is an absolute beast). Gandalf had a few worrying turns separated from his dwarven bodyguard and absolutely refusing to win fights against the Rohirrim throwing themselves against him. Thorin also had a bad run, using a Might to Heroic Strike in response to Grimbold’s Heroic Strike, then only rolling a 4 and having to burn his last 2 Might to tie the scores only to then lose the roll-off and have to use 2 Fate. 3 Might used to achieve absolutely nothing - oh dear. The luck swung back my way when Might-less Dwalin was trapped by the King’s Huntsman and 3 Royal Guard and whilst they rolled a 6 Dwalin could only manage a 5. Thankfully Oin was in range and, in a Hail Mary shot, Dwalin rolled a 6 and won through his Fight value - phew. I was then able to break Damian having taken out all his heroes and so eagerly awaited his courage tests, Damian had warriors sitting on the 4 outside objectives, sadly, their morale largely held out and only one of them ran, in the centre however it was a very different story and about 6 Rohirrim legged it. Unfortunately this worked out really well for Damian as it meant he was now down to 25% and the game would end after this turn, I’d actually needed about 2 less warriors to run off in order to keep the game going for another turn in which I could assert my position. There were three Rohan warriors in the centre (who I hoped Thorin, Dwalin and Gloin could deal with) and 1 rohan warrior each on 3 of the external obejectives, This meant that if I killed the three guys in the middle the game would be a 9-9 draw, if 1 of them survived Damian would win 9-7. I had no way to get the warriors off the outside objectives in one turn. Or did I? Suddenly, I had a plan, Gandalf ran through a ruined doorway and into range of a lone Rohan warrior guarding the objective, throwing his remaining 4 Will he Sorcerous Blasted the warrior, I only had to roll a 5+ to push him far enough away, the dice tumbled across the table - a 3. He then took a S5 hit, I only had to roll a 5+ to kill him and I had a might point, the dice tumbled across the table - a 1.
I screamed a little.
So we came to the the fights in the middle, Dwalin slaughtered his foe, Thorin slaughtered his foe, Gloin fluffed his attacks and got knocked onto the dirt by the Son of Eorl, leaving one Rohan Warrior to contest the central objective and give Damian a 9-7 win. Damn that was close.
As the dust settled I couldn’t help feeling pleased with the game, my dwarves had performed far better this game and my big three warriors had really earned their points, chopping the Rohirrim up with reckless abandon. Ultimately, I was a couple of dice rolls away from winning Domination with 5 slow models and there was a certain satisfaction from that, I hadn’t lost a single dwarf and I think Damian had 4 models left at the end of the game. He’s ultimately won the game by his guys running away too fast! That’s not to take anything away from Damian, he played a good game and wisely grabbed all the outlying objectives, I just felt quite proud of what I’d achieved looking at the state of play at the end of the game.
That was until Tom H. came over, whilst telling him about how agonisingly close I was to killing the warrior with my Sorcerous Blast he said “Why didn’t you just Command him away from the objective?”.
I stared at him.
My mouth fell open.
A screamed some more.
I was literally staggered, I had 5 dice, I chose Sorcerous Blast and cast it easily, if I had chosen Command I could have walked him away from the objective and claimed a 7-6 win. You often look back on poor rolls (like in the game against Tom) and think if only that roll had been different I would have won. This was the first time I can ever remember thinking “If only I’d said different words I would have won”. No dice did this. No bad luck. Just me and my entirely cretinous choice of spell. I guess my mind was just so excited by the possibility of blasting him that I didn’t stop to consider my options, I guess I went for the drama!
In terms of moronic ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory it ranks pretty high. What.
A.
Cretin.
Fair play to Damian though, he played a great game and we had a fun hour and a half, to be fair to him he then realised he’d forgotten all his warriors were Helmingas which probably would have had some effect when trying to wound Thorin, Oin and Dwalin so I guess these things even out. Maybe.
So I plummeted down the rankings again, ready for the final game and my chance to fight for the glory of 7th place!
I found myself on a snowy landscape covered in trees - very evocative - and up against The One Ring's SteveVenezia and his Gondor army. Steve had been using Isengard in the earlier games and I was glad to dodge his Saruman/Grima combo that would have made a right mess of my Might based army. I’d played Steve once before and won so he was keen for revenge, the scenario was Lords of Battle and I was really looking forward to this as I thought of all the scenarios my dwarves had the best chance of winning this one. I only had 5 models and a total of 22 VPs to give away, I was also hopeful the Gloin, Thorin and Dwalin would be able to chew through a few of his heroes and get their Might back.
My intrepid band of warriors advance through the snow
Steve had brought along Faramir leading about 7 Fountain Court with shields and 4 warriors of Minas Tirith, Damrod with 6 Rangers and Boromir of the White Tower (ouch) with 3 Minas Tirith Knights - something similar anyway, I remember he had 23 models and about 32 VPs available to me.
And find their way blocked by the armoured might of Gondor!
I charged forward as quickly as possible, keen to get to grips with his knights ASAP to remove the cavalry bonus. Things started well, I was able to get the jump on his knights and kill a couple before they could charge and I won the first three Heroic Move roll-offs to ensure that Boromir didn’t charge and was Immobilised by Gandalf whilst my big three attempted to chew through his followers. Channelled Blinding Light was in play and meant that his archers had no effect on the game, Dwalin was also proving his worth again, at one point killing 3 D7 Fountain Court in one turn (he only needs 4+ to kill them)!!! Don’t think I’ve ever seen that before and Steve was clearly shocked.
My band of warriors find themselves trapped between the Knights' hammer and Fountain Court's anvil
However, things weren’t going all my own way, Gandalf was trapped in combat a couple of times and took a few wounds, Thorin went toe-to-toe with Boromir and lost (although took no damage) and I was starting to run out of the Might I knew I’d need to out-Heroic-Strike Boromir. I was still comfortably ahead though, maybe about 9-3 ish and Boromir now only had 1 point of MIght left so had been largely dealt with. Unfortunately, Steve then used his last point of Might and won the roll-off for who got to Heroic Move first (Steve’s army was about the only one that could compete with mine on a Heroic Action level due to Boromir’s massive store) and was able to charge Gandalf with Boromir - oh dear - one of the biggest problems I had all day was that I couldn’t protect my weaker models (Gandalf and Oin) as I just didn’t have the models to surround them. Gandalf was promptly ridden down and I lost my ability to Immobilise Boromir, still, I wasn’t too worried, I still had all 4 dwarves and just needed to keep chewing through his ranks using my 2 remaining Might to call Heroics and boss the table (Steve was now out of Might). Unfortunately, as he’d killed Gandalf, Boromir received an extra MIght point and was able to call a counter Heroic, win the roll-off, and charge Oin, ride him down, kill him and get a Might point back. Again. Steve had also wised up to Dwalin and was feeding him one archer every turn to limit his effect - deeply frustrating. I was now out of Might and Steve then won priority and charged Gloin with Boromir (and surrounded him with warriors to trap him), he used his new Might point to Heroic Strike, rode Gloin down AND GOT ANOTHER MIGHT POINT BACK. The next turn, Steve won priority, charged Thorin with Boromir, trapped him, called a Heroic Strike and killed Thorin AND GOT ANOTHER MIGHT POINT BACK. This was even more frustrating as Thorin had reduced Faramir to 1 wound, 0 Fate and was close to killing him and getting a Might point back. Unfortunately, with only Dwalin left standing (again) I had been reduced to 25% and I rolled the 1 and the game ended with a 21-16 victory for Steve.
Once the cost had been counted we decided to play another turn to see ‘what would have happened’ as I still thought Dwalin could turn things around for me. Steve won priority, charged Dwalin with Boromir, trapped him, called a Heroic Strike and rode him down. Right. Maybe not then.
Last dwarf standing (again) Dwalin is finally ridden down by a quite frankly unstoppable Boromir
It was an absolutely brilliant game, really great fun and it really hung in the balance for most of the game. We realised in amazement that Boromir had killed all 4 of my heroes (5 if you count the extra turn) and had done that AFTER he’d used up his Might. What a beast.
I felt slightly unlucky in that Steve had won priority for the last 3 turns, meaning he didn’t have to use Boromir’s new Might to call Heroic moves and could it save for the crucial Heroic Strikes that killed Gloin and Thorin. Still, that’s just the way the game goes sometimes and I had my fair share of luck throughout. Steve played a great game and, particularly in the final stages, played very cleverly in neutralising Dwalin and taking down the dwarves one by one. It was a shame to see them all fall but they put up a good fight and I couldn’t complain.
And so that was that, after a hectic day we packed all the gear away whilst I counted the cost. Tom H had managed to win the final against The One Ring’s White Wizard and so claimed the top place so a big congrats to him and to Chris for a well fought day.
Other One Ringer’s did well, Southern Dunedain had put in a fine showing coming 3rd, Dwarfendale 4th, Suicidal Marsbar 5th, Damian 6th, SteveVenezia 7th and me? Well, as the only player to lose all three games I proudly brought up the rear placing 8th. Out of 8. Perhaps not my best day
Most importantly though everyone seemed to have a lot of fun and smiles on their faces as they left and I was chuffed with what had been a thoroughly unexpected but thoroughly fun day at the club. Five of us headed to the pub to swap war stories and discuss the finer wording of Oin’s Prognostication rule over a pint or two before heading home.
So, lesson’s learned, well, firstly, I really enjoyed using the dwarves and I’m glad I stuck with them for all 3 games. I grew very attached to them over the day and it took me right back to my early days of SBG controlling the Fellowship against a tide of goblins. It was fun having only 5 named models as you felt really drawn into the battles, caring deeply about how each one performed rather than just throwing a horde of orcs forward. My games felt very cinematic with the various dwarves performing heroically and throwing off massive odds to come so close to victory on a couple of occasions.
I thought Gandalf brought a lot to the party, Blinding Light neutralised shooting in 2 games (the bane of small all hero armies) and his Immobilise was endlessly helpful at allowing me to pick fights on my terms. The big three were all good, I was pleasantly surprised by not just how much they killed but how much damage they were able to take, their high defences made them very viable choices for an all hero force as they are going to lose fights at some point, probably when trapped, and they need to be able to take hits. Oin was great (he’s not a complete slouch in combat either) and his Prognostication rule came in really handy in all of the games; I was never able to use Gandalf’s Strengthen Will on Oin as planned as by the times the battle-lines clashed I needed Gandalf’s magic for Immobilises etc. In addition I didn’t use his Healing Herbs rule once throughout the day, this was largely due to having so few models - by the time my guys started getting wounded I needed Oin to be fighting, not spending a turn Healing someone, it was a little frustrating perhaps but maybe I just need to work on how I use him.
All in all though, the dwarves were a lot of fun and it was nice to have a break from my normal Isengard list and have proper, fluffy fun again. I think it’s safe to say I won’t be taking the dwarves to Preston (at this point I still need to put in a good performance to protect my ranking), however, once this ‘season’ ends I’ll be retiring my ferals for some time and as of next year, every tournament I enter is going to have something dwarf related in it - you heard it here first!
Finally I’d just like to say a massive thanks to the 7 guys who came along and made the tournament possible, it was a lot of fun and great to see the club so busy, hopefully we’ll be able to run another similar event before too long.
Until then
Dr. G.
A few more photos from the event:
Elves take up sniping positions in the ruins of Osgiliath - note Legolas lurking in the distance doing the same!
Uruks clash with Arnor in the depths of Moria
elves creep through the depths of Erebor
A proud host of Rohirrim inexplicably ambushes a Hobbit picnic in the snowy wastes
Elves desperately fight off a horde of uruks for control of a vital crossing in Moria
If you enjoyed this meandering tournament report, you might also like these other adventures starring Dr Grant:
Longbottom Carnival SBG tournament in August
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=26392
East Grinsted SBG tournament in June
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=26183&p=330413&hilit=east+grinstead#p330413
Warhammer World Battle Brothers doubles tournament in June
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=26054&p=328532&hilit=east+grinsted#p328532
Warhammer World Throne of Skulls in February
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=25237&p=313935&hilit=grant+throne+skulls#p313935