Here's a brief synapsis of my games at the LV GT. I'm going to try to write up a bit longer battle reports but for now, here's what happened.
To start, my final army configuration was:
1x Mahûd King, Shield
6x Mahûd Warrior
6x Mahûd Warrior w/ Blowpipe
2x Mahûd Warrior w/ Spear
1x Skully, Morannon Orc Captain
1x Grônk, Mordor Orc Taskmaster
6x Morannon Orc Warriors w/ Shield
17x Mordor Orc Warriors w/ Spear
1x Mordor Orc Warrior w/ Banner
12x Mordor Orc Trackers
54 Models. 6+ Might.
Game 1 - Reconnoitre vs Chris B (Grey Company/Gondor). Chris was a great opponent and played his Grey Company like you should - lots of slow moving rangers shooting me to pieces. He was perhaps a bit too cautious with his cavalry and slow movements but in the end, his cavalry (in the form of KoMT) was enough to keep me at bay and force me contend with him and play his game. He was able to get Faramir and a KoMT off the board while I was only able to get the Mahûd King off the board. This resulted in a a Minor Loss for me (7 points). Not a good start but that means I dodged all the winners in Game 2.
Game 2 - Meeting Engagement vs Jeb Austin's Grey Company - Sitting on Table 8 (of 10) This was a fairly easy win for me as I had him outnumbers almost 2:1 and could just keep Aragorn tied up while I killed all the other squishy targets. He did have a small dwarf contingent but even they eventually fell to the overwhelming Mahûd warrios. Result: Major Win 17 pts (24 total).
Game 3 - Sieze the Prize vs Chris LS' Easterlings (eventually Overall winner) This one was lopsided with the game ending in 35 minutes. I played it about as well as I could with his cavalry he just got to the prize first and dug it up the first turn. My trackers couldn't kill him and I lost a heroic move roll-off that would have allowed me to at least contest the picking up of the artefact. The final result was a Major Loss for me (3 points)
So with a record of 1-2-0 after three games and with only 27 total points I was effectively out of the tournament. I was definitely disappointed as I knew my army was strong but I just got beat by two tough match-ups in games 1 and 3. I went back to the hotel room and told my wife that I'd have to find a way to get two major victories to get back in it. I knew that I had the army that could win in To the Death and felt like I could win Domination if I played smart. However, it was a long climb back.
Game 4 - Domination versus's David M's Dol Amoroth Army on Table 6 (13th in battle points) - I pulled the Major Victory with a perfectly executed battle plan. I controlled the whole table and effectly took out the Dol Amorth cavalry with good bow fire and an effective counter charge. I just fed Prince Imrahil a single Orc each turn and proceed to capture objectives. I had all the objectives layed out the way I wanted them and made sure I outnumbered him near each one before I let the killing begin. Once I opened up full force, the Gondorians could sustain the attack from the Mahûd warriors.
So with a Major Victory I pulled up to 41 battle points and was still off the leaders by at least 10 points. I knew I needed another Major to get me into the top 5.
Game 5 - To the Death versus Rob F's Isengard (White Hand and Warg Riders). I felt really good going into the To the Death game with my army. However, Isengard would be a tough match-up in that they matched the Mahûd fight to fight and strength to strength. I got extremely lucky early on when my Mahûd King killed an Uruk Captain outright on one turn of combat. Whenever I won fights I killed models and whenever I lost fights Rob couldn't wound. I managed the Major Victory wiping out the entire 40 model force with 10 minutes to spare (whew) without being broken.
So I did my part and at least won the day on Sunday. For the first time ever, my "soft" scores really paved the way for me to advance in the rankings. I got a perfect 50 on sportsmanship and won best appearance with the highest appearance scores and clawed my way up to spot #2. When I saw that last night I was obviously very pleased!!
My final record was 3-2 with 3 Major Victories, a Minor Loss, and Major Loss. My army performed flawlessly in the scenarios where speed wasn't an issue - I never got broken. One thing I learned for sure. You don't want to see the Mahûd in a straight up fight. They are as tough as they come.
The overall standings were Chris LS winning Best Overall. Gary Lane won best General and Matthew Johnson won best Sportsman.
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lots of pictures and a few battle reports.
