Thsi is a battle report for a test battle against a 300 point Uruks army formed by "The Director" from my small collection and a friend volunteered to play the Uruks side. In my learnign to form a good army I formed a Rohan Army to challenge the Uruks in this battle and here is a quick report (sorry in advance if it is not really good reports, it's my first one
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The thread that included both armies is:
http://www.one-ring.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=12665
Your comments and advices will be very appreciated, so please comment to know how can I improve next time. You can comment the army or the tactics of course.
The terrain was an open field, and the battle was to the death.
- I used the formation above for the Rohan army, while the Uruks Army prefered to take a defensive stance due to the crossbowmen need not to move in order to shoot. so he put the pikes in the first line and cople more covering the 2 sides, while the crossbowmen were in second line shooting from over their friends shoulders. The Captain was in the dead center of the first row as advised to benefit from the pikes support (the only one in the first row that had 2 supporters from the beginning of the game)
- I advanced the Rohan force half movement to shoot with the bowmen, while the riders were advancing on the far left side of the battlefield.
- After couple of turns there were still no warriors down by arrows, and I stopped the riders just out of the reach of the forces of evil (more than 16cm away) ready to attack next turn.
- I attacked with the rider in the following turn trying to weaken the evi lforce and force them to show weaknesses on the center or the opposite flank so that the Captain can RG along with the other warriors can cause much damage there, but I think that was premature as he coutered with moving all his back lines pikes and berserkers to support the attacked flank while my main force was still 2 turn away.
I lost either the riders or the mount in almost every fight. The pike wall proved to be very effective against the riders, and the berserkers were deadly in wounding.
- couple of warriors from each side fell to the other side's arrows. Then after couple of turns the Rohan main force finally charged, with 2 RG trying to concentrate on the Uruk Captain at the center, and the Rohan Captain is trying to break the evil left flank. The 2 berserkers manuevered and headed to counter the Rohan Captain attack, which somehow weakened the evil's right flank.
- the royal guards made a great job both on the center and evil's right flank, while the captain was held back by the berserkers for a while with no one is winning. The Uruk Captain was out numbered every time but survived taking 2 wounds but using 1 successfu fate roll to stay alive.
- In the following turn, the evil moving first tried to attack every warrior around the Uruk Captain and guarding his position trying to give him a chance to make a heroic move. This heroic move was to kill his opponent and head to help the falling right flank. Unfortunately he rolled bad in the hit and had to spend the other might point to win the fight, but then he couldn't slay his opponent. That was a turning point in the battle for the favor of the Good side.
- The evil right flank was broken and winning the priority the next turn the Royal Guard there lead an attack to surround the Uruk Captain along with the Center attack agains him. The Rohan Captain could finally kill the berserksers spending one of his might points to do so. The warriors with him tried to give him a chance to go to the ceter to help against the Uruk Captain who was surrounded and outnumbered but still standing killing one of the Royal Guards.
- The next turn was anoter point of break to the evil army, they lost half there forces and had to take courage tests. I am still playing the retreat rule, so many of the evil warriors was driven away from the battlefield and that gave superiority to Rohan army and they took the chance and slayed many evil warriors but not the Captain yet. The Rohan Captain was stil away from the center blocked by some of the remaining Crossbowmen in a desparate move to buy their Captain some time, may be he can soften the Rohan attack and he didn't waste the chance killing the second Royal Guard.
- In the following turn, the final Royal Guard was killed by 2 Uruk Pikers, while the Rohan Warriors surrounding the Uruk Captain manged to waste him. The Rohan Captain destryed the evil's left flank and was persuing the fleeing Uruks and it was declared a win for the Good Side.
I learned a lot from this battle so let me know what you think.
1) The Uruk Pike Wall was very strong both against the Riders and the first wave of charge and took a lot of sacrifice to break them.
2) The Royal Guards proved to be very stout fighters and same were the berserkers standing right in the face of the Rohan Captain preventing him from out flanking the force.
3) The Crossbowmen seem to work best with defensive than offensive stance due to their shooting attitude (not moving at all in order to shoot)
4) Bowmen are doing good at the second line of the force. Protected by the shield in the first line while shooting from over shoulders. Even if the army have supporting pikes the bowmen can always fall back when the fight begines giving the space to the pikes to join in and support their warrior friends.
5) Can't figure out yet what's the best tactic for riders and the best time and manner to attack.