Sorry in advance!
I know you people like to read well written stories (as do I) but I haven't really written anything down during our game.
I'll make the best of it. EDIT: my cousin (who was my partner in the game) said he was surprised at how much I still remembered!
At our next game, I'll certainly try to include pics, as that is something that makes or breaks a Bat Rep imo.
Intro
We played Domination on a battleboard scattered with self-made, half-finished terrain pieces.
Set-up was basically like this:
Central plateau with objective marker in the middle
larger hill in one corner with statue on top that serverd as obj.m.
An enormous encampment consisting of 4! tents
A small wooden watchtower in the opposite corner, also an obj.
A smaller hill/ruin thingy with objective marker.
My "opponent", let's just call him friend played a 600 points Mordor list.
He brought some orc captains with orcs and orc trackers to the field, as well as a troll chieftain and a warband of black guard of barad dur (reall killers).
My cousin and I played a rohan/ gondor list with Erkenbrand+WFRS, a mtd captain with infantry, cirion with WOMT and Damrod with rangers. And the King's Huntsman as well! I almost forgot him, as he was not as useful as I hoped he would be :p
Deployment was pretty straightforward, once one of our warbands had been deployed in the centre, we just deployed the others in the centre as well.
Battle
As our armies stood ready to face each other, it was the filth of Mordor that tried to rush into combat first.
At the sight of the Troll Chieftain, the horses grew restless and the riders had to back up their mounts towards the encampment.
In an effort to lure away the monster, Cirion led a charge towards the troll but halted halfway when he saw Orcs storming over the central plateau.
The valiant warriors of Rohan soon came face to face with the fierce Black Guard.
Between the arrows of the rangers, which shot down a few Orcs, the captain of Rohan rode his horse into the Black Guard in an effort to free his comrades from the grip of these foul smelling creatures. He managed to take one down but soon he dispaired as he saw his fallen comrades behind him. The Black Guard were joined by lower Orcs and the captain was swarmed.
Damrod and his rangers were able to shoot some of the Orcs, the captain managed to break free, everything was looking well but the enemy was soon upon him again, slaying him despite his courageous attempts to rejoin his allies. It was he who made it possible for four outriders to slowly retreat upon a hill to capture the strategic hill.
It became pretty clear early on that these Black Guards were no regular orc scum.
Cirion shouted orders to his warband to aid the Rohirrim but it came too late, all the Rohirrim had fallen before some could reach them. However, they were on time to support Damrod's now vulnerable rangers.
The rangers proved their worth as the Rohan outriders managed to climb the hill.
The King's Huntsman had a lot trouble with taking down the monstrous Troll. He managed to hit him quite a few times, though his arrows seemed not to get through the charging Troll's tough armour.
Cirion steadied his troops as the enemy came crashing in.
Great was his surprise as he watched some rangers come to his aid.
The orcs were baffled when they saw they were countercharged, the black guard had not been able to pin them all down yet they saw to their dismay.
The orcs soon fell but this wasn't Cirion's greatest worry. A great shadow blackened his view as the Troll was upon him. The bold warrior managed to fend him off a few times and once he had made a deep gash in the troll's belly -which had released a foul stench- but as Cirion's support died around him at the hands of a blood-thirsty captain, he stood alone, and the Troll came crashing down on him for the third and last time; Cirion would see no more sunlight after that.
Erkenbrand realized he had been pinned down and sounded the charge.
The Westfold Redshields charged from the encampment and rode down half a dozen of orcs.
Erkenbrand soon found himself in a dire position; a - for a change- well trained orc tracker had shot down a Redshield which gave the orcs the chance to gather round Erkenbrand and the remaining Redshields.
He did everything he could to cut his way through the orcs, to no avail, he was held up too long to offer help to his Gondorian allies.
Erkenbrand had sent of a pair of Redshields to aid their allies and it worked, the delayed some of their support troops and managed to kill a few.
The orcs seemed to pay no heed to conquering strategic positions, their bloodlust was too strong.
The rohan outriders were gathered round an ancient statue atop the hill, loosing arrows at the climbing Black Guards.
A few Redshields had made their way back to the encampment as they spotted orcs infiltrating the camp, no doubt looking for easy prey.
Damrod and his rangers had stood their ground for a long time but couldn't handle the orc swarm anymore. What was worse; some Black Guards had cut their way through the heavily armoured warriors of Minas Tirith.
Damrod was bravely and succesfully holding off two captains until he could no longer raise his sword and he was savagely cut down, leading to the breaking of the army of Good.
The King's Huntsman saw no use in sending his last arrows to be stuck in the Troll's armour so he turned to picking off stray orcs, with greater success.
Erkenbrand sounded his horn for last one time as he charged a poor orc that stood in between him and the encampment. To his surprise he saw orcs fleeing everywhere.
The sound of his mighty horn had broken the enemy force and given his remaining comrades the courage to fight on.
The outriders cried a loud cheer when they saw the Black Guars turning and running.
The King's Huntsman saw his last hour was near, as the slayers of Damrod came running his way. He struck one with the end of his bow, in a last attempt to save his life, which surprisingly seemed to work.
In truth, it had only maddened the scum and soon the fine bowman lay down beside his bow.
Two friends of Gondor had bravely fended off both the huge troll and an orc captain with nothing but their swords, though in the end they joined their already fallen friends anyway.
Erkenbrand blew his horn again and more orcs fled the field until only a handful of orcs remained besides their captains, along with the fierce troll.
The Redshields managed to secure the encampment, and the hill was safe in the hands of the outriders, while the orcs were out on the open.
And now I don't really know how to end this
.I was lower on numbers but I scored many more Victory Points.
I believe I had 6 whereas my friend scored 1 by wounding Erkenbrand, my leader.
My thoughts on the game (my side, not discussing the mordor army)
My King's Huntsman let me down a bit.
I am sure he is of better use against lower defence monsters or captains but he made no chance against the high defence captains and troll chieftain.
He did take down some orcs but I don't like paying that many points for him if that's his only use.
I don't know if I'm going to include him in my next game or not.
My cavalry was inefficient because I was too afraid of the troll.
We started another game after this one, and there I charged my cavalry in one a warband of orcs in the first turn.
Result: orc warband completely gone after 2 turns.
This might just have been lucky rolls, as this is not really a tactic that tends to work with light cav.
Still, it shows they're capable of cutting through a warband in no time, even without any elite (e.g. sons of eorl).
So I'm definitely not dropping them.
Rohan infantry got owned by Black Guard, which is no shame I think.
The Black Guard is a powerful unit at high fight and strength.
I don't know if I'll still include rohan infantry, the outriders were really handy though. Their vanguard special rule made it possible to keep an objective marker with Erkenbrand several movements away.
Rangers and Warriors of Minas Tirith did what I expected.
Killed some orcs and went down against the black guard, captains, and the troll chief.
Cirion was useful though I did not have to use his special rule.
Damrod is a good hero point-costwise and provided me with some more numbers.
Captain of Rohan, quite neutral. Had to charge into the enemy as a counter reaction and managed to take down a black guard and got away once from an orc swamp but died really early on.
Erkenbrand is top class, especially late game, giving everyone extra courage.
In the first game he wasn't really a killer machine but he led some heroic moves so my cav wasn't charged. Which is crucial as well.
In the second game he killed 3 orcs in 2 turns so that's not too bad.
Wow.
I did not expect it to be this long, so I'd like to thank everyone who has read through this.
C&C are really welcome!
P.S It's been a long time since I've last written anything story-like, so it's probably not that fun to read, any comments on that would be greatly appreciated.
I'll make sure to reward you with pics next time!
Sorry for any spelling errors as well, it's been a long day.