Throne of Skulls report
I had an amazing time at Throne of Skulls last weekend, got in 10 games at 600 points plus the deadliest warband so felt exhausting but great fun!
Thanks to all my opponents – sorry if I got anything wrong in these reports but all from memory on train home - and congratulations to all the winners.
As most of my models are out of the country due to moving for work I had only got my Gondor army from previous events to use, adding in some Knights and giving Faramir a horse gave me a little more killing power thanks to lances. The aim was to use my infantry to fix the enemy in place using their high defence and rangers to give me fight 4 via their spear support and then hit them with the cavalry on the flanks.
Faramir, Armoured horse with armour/shield/lance
6 Knights with shield
Denethor
3 Fountain Court with shield
2 Citadel guard with spears
1 WoMT with banner
3 WoMT with shields
3 WoMT with shields/spears
Captain of Gondor with shield
2 Fountain Court with shield
5 WoMT with shields
5 WoMT with shields/spears
Damrod
7 Rangers of ithilien with spears
So Friday morning we made the early trip to Warhammer world from London was eventful, lots of references to how much mertaal loves JarJar Bink's.
He really does, has a shrine and everything...
Then tom’s car engine went bang only 6 miles from Warhammer world which was Devlan Mud for him!
We eventually arrived and started with a quick three way fight on the amazing goblin town board and then had some good warm up games in throne of lols run by Damian which I think I got 2 draws and a loss
Then it was into the Deadliest warband run by Jamie from gbhl
I took Gondor as could not find my Dwarf captain
Captain with armour/shield/lance on horse
3 Knights with shields
4 Guard of Fountain Court
3 Rangers of Gondor with spears
1 WoMT with spear/shield
1 WoMT with shield
I think the first game was against Gondor as similar list to mine, was low scoring affair but I won by about 60 points to about 40.
Then I was lucky to beat dwarves using 4 vault warden teams, used knights’ speed to flank and charge to their rear as he tried to face my fountain court. Got lucky dice, plenty of 6’s rolled to almost wipe him out.
Game three was against High elf knights with captain, weathered shooting to close in on either side. Won roll of for heroic move to charge knights in and got spear support so won and took several down. Trapped his captain to eventually win by tabling
Final game, table one and three wins...eh how that had happen. Again all high elf knights and captain, got lucky 6 to kill with shooting in first turn. I tried attacking through ruins and lost a few to shooting as they backed away. I closed in to try and charge but then the games had to end as warhammer world was closing. Just behind on points so lost but ended up third which was good.
Throne of Skulls - Day One
Game One - Andy, Ring Wraith & Spiders
High ground – Win
I had not seen Andy at any events before but he was a nice and fun opponent to start of ToS! He had some lovely painted spiders (believe they got a painting award) and I think led by the shadow lord
We placed a ruins in the middle and he quickly swarmed over it. I sent Denethor and his warband to take it back while Faramir flanked him on my right
Faramir and his knights took out the right hand spiders on the charge with some brutal dice rolls. Once they were cleared his ring wraith did transfix Faramir but was forced back 10” afterwards by the potential charge of my knights
In the ruins my fountain court and denethor cleared out spiders as he struggled to crack defence 7 and his low def made it easier when I won. His Spider Queen failed on the charge – he rolled all 1’s & 2’s for his attack and the reroll so she was killed by my captain and some WoMT.
Eventually I forced his army out of the ruins and the game ended with me ahead on VPs for the win. Andy didn’t have much luck, he lost quite a few important fights and his rerolls rarely helped either.
Game two - Ali, Gandalf + Eagles
Lords of battles – Loss
I think I faced Alistair in the deadliest warband, I believe he also eventually went on to win his faction in ToS overall as well.
First thought was Lords of Battle against eagles with Gandalf and Alfrid was going to be tough. Terror was also going to be an issue for me throughout as well
Alfrid stole some might from gwahir but topped him up again in turn one. Alistair had some trouble winning the first few fights around an old ruin where I sheltered but when he did the hurls really hurt my other fights and dismounted my cavalry. Definitely needed to consider positioning more carefully.
When I did win the 6/4 to wound wasn't easy to get so I think I did only 4 wounds over the entire game and he won by quite a few VPs
Game three – Ed ball, Fellbeasts & Shelob
Hold ground - Loss
The Fellbeasts list I'd seen at a few tournaments and ed had always placed well, wining at Stockport, this time he added Shelob in to the mix as well.
Turn one I had Faramir and knights come on behind Shelob, calling a heroic move in eds priority so all but one got her surrounded
Ed was able to fly within range to compel the last knight into combat, heroic combat to kill it, move into combat again and then hurled into Faramir to dismount. Very skilful piece of play
I wounded Shelob with the other attacks from the charge but she stuck around, the rest of my army was scattered and I tried to get them moving to the objective
The ring wraiths then had board control for the rest of the game so were able to take out the separated warbands. I almost killed the knight of umbar but he survived with no fate remaining as ed wiped me out.
Game four - George Perkins, Thraundil/Legolas/Tauriel with palace guard and elf rangers
Domination – Win
George had lovely painted models but awful luck with dice, I on the other hand didn't kill a model in the first hour of the game.
We had three objectives within my third of the board so I secured them early on. The other two were central so advanced on them.
George’s army wasn't going to win a stand-up fight so needed to whittle me down with shooting but that meant moving away from objectives.
He essentially had to commit to combat early to have time to reach objectives, nature’s wrath was horrid but he forgot to cast terrifying aura
George won priority after Nature’s Wrath but could not find any 6s to crack my high defence with loads of unlucky rolls.
Tauriel held up Faramir, he charged her twice but I could not win the fight, called two heroic strikes but each time I rolled a 2 so drew on fight value and George got the roll off. But his rotten luck continued with him unable to hit a 6 again.
Eventually I killed a few rangers and two fountain court held up Legolas, as Faramir finally got a successful charge on tauriel the round ended.
Because George was entering the painting competition we ended there as I controlled three objectives so won by a few vps
This was a hard matchup for George, if it had been another scenario he could have kited me for longer to whittle me down but he had to get stuck in to reach objectives and low defence rangers are squishy.
So day one ended with 2 wins and 2 losses, which I was happy with as both losses were bad matchups for my Army - terror, magic, speed and high defence beasts
Saturday night had the lotr/hobbit quiz night, apparently there was some confusion over how many people fit in a 6 person team but was all a good laugh :) Then followed by a few drinks before bed and ready for day two.
Throne of Skulls - Day Two
Game five - Melvin, Mordor
Rescue – Draw
Melvin had played his allocated opponent so I swapped with him beforehand for a nice theme of Mordor versus Gondor!
He has shadow lord on horse leading castellans, black guard, mordor Uruk-hai and a drummer troll
I picked to be the attacker, betting that as his general was 1 wound (but admittedly a hard ring wraith) that doing a wound would be max 3vp and be easier than breaking him and keeping Faramir alive when transfixed.
Castellans circled the ring wraith, I had Knights on one side and everyone else on other. His force then grouped up on Melvin's side of the board
I felt that if I got charges then I could block his advancing forces and his escape route with my other warbands to then finish the wraith, sadly every knight and Faramir (snake eyes) failed courage. The shadow lord got back to his Lines and we started to grind it out, Faramir was dismounted but then killed an Orc captain while the troll hurled a WoMT 10" through 8 guys. He survived all the hits, won a combat next turn to stand up and then slew the Orc which attacked him, total MVP!
Melvin kept the ring wraith away from me but was not near breaking me, still 9 models off when the round ended in a draw.
Melvin was a nice opponent, I think he enjoyed the hurling quite a bit as well. Some of the guys who went out until 5am mentioned hurling as well but think it wasn't to do with sbg...
Game six - Damian, The Five Armies (Dwarves/Elves/Men)
Blockade – Draw
Damian is obviously very well-known and had won 4 games the day before, he ended up placing very highly. Also helped he was a really fun opponent and I felt it was a great game, even if his luck wasn’t great.
He had a pretty amazing display board which had lots of cool little details as well, he deservedly won best army as it was a really nice battle of 5 armies’ force of Thorin, Thranduil, Bard and Bilbo leading a force of dwarves, elves and men.
As the defender he was facing a hard task moving 5" speed Thorin off the far board edge but he gave it a good go.
I split my forces but Damian rightly concentrated on his own table edge so they foot slogged it across for entire game so wasted about 1/4 of my army but I could say they arrived exactly when needed to save the game in some respects.
The Rangers of ithilien were immense, they wiped out almost every elf ranger with their bowfire
In return bard dismounted several knights and Thorin was held up by my captain but he killed him with help from bilbo.
Faramir charged in and killed a few dwarves but then got dismounted by bard, Thorin in turn charged and slew him.
Damian got Thorin through my lines and within 8 of board edge when the round ended, he had also broken me but we were told to finish the turn we had started. Damian was 1 off breaking so moved everyone away from my lines but in my final phase of shooting I killed one lake town guard to break him so we had 1vp for a draw
Great game, came down to final set of dice rolls and Damian was very sporting! Had we had another 10 minutes he would have won as you can see from the photos – Thorin in the top left was so close!
Game seven - Vesa, Sauraman plus Isengard Wargs with Goblins & Spider Queen
Seize the prize – Loss
My last game was seize the prize, a scenario I am honestly not a fan of as feels like someone can have essentially easily won by turn two with just a few lucky rolls
Vesa had 6 wins and had won previous events, I just went for the prize and hoped to luck I might get it back behind my wall of men. Alas it wasn't to be, I didn't dig up the prize and vesa got off a sorceress blast with Sauraman and hurled with a Spider Queen to take out the rest of my cavalry in turn two while also recovering the prize.
I killed a few goblins and wargs but he passed the prize to a warg rider and screened him with a dozen goblins. He then heroic moved off the board on turn four to win.
Was very good opponent throughout and we had a quick chat over a beer afterwards. He ended up on 7 wins but placed second in his faction
Conclusion
Awesome weekend, it was great to catch up with people I met at Stockport and meet/play some new opponents!
Overall I think my army was fine, the usual things like Monsters and Magic were difficult but the Knights could do with some more thought as they need to be used carefully as die unsupported due to low fight and single dice is they are charged.
Not disappointed in any of my games, all 3 loses and 1 draw was against players in top 15 but it’s good to see the standard I would like to at least aspire to meet.
Only thing which was a tiny niggle was that 90 minutes per round made several games feel bit rushed but I can understand its limited by opening/closing times. But apart from that it was great, thanks to awesome organisers and great opponents! Also this was my first trip to Warhammer world, brilliant venue and hope to revisit again for next TOS!
Now I can get in one more tournament at east Grinstead before moving to Geneva after which will need to fly back and take part which actually isn’t going to be as difficult as I imagined.
