A Meeting of minds
On some plains several kilometres from Isengard, Saruman awaits a high elf army. However, it is not known to the wizard that Elrond himself is leading the army, with the intent of capturing Saruman and Grima Wormtongue, in revenge for the damage waged across the elven lands. The two armies meet in the early morning mist on October 11 and it is a simple battle to the death.
Special Rules
There is much low lying fog at this time in the morning and as such, the archers of both sides will not be able to fire their bows until the third turn.
Forces:
The shield of Isengard (josephaghababa's force)
Saruman – 170pts
Grima Wormtongue – 25pts
13 uruk hai with sword and shield – 130pts
14 uruk hai with pikes – 140pts
8 uruk hai with crossbows – 88pts
37 models, 3 might, 553pts.
The warriors of Rivendell (jackharrison's force)
Elrond with heavy armour – 170 pts
14 high elves with heavy armour and elven blade – 140pts
12 high elves with elven bow – 132 pts
10 high elves with heavy armour, shield and spear – 110pts
37 models, 3 might, 552pts.
Jack’s predictions
After I looked at the terrain, I decided to advance my army down the centre, with Elrond at the head. My plan was to force Joseph to spread his uruks out thinly, so my elves would not have to face a whole phalanx, and I would be firing elf bows all the way. When I was to reach him, Elrond would use nature’s wrath and knock Joseph’s uruks to the ground. After getting some kills in that turn, I would be able to defeat his uruks in open combat.
Joseph’s predictions
Having evaluated both of the forces, I realised that they were both very similar. Strangely enough, both had the same amount of troops and the main heroes were both of the same points value. I wanted to force Jack’s forces into open combat with my phalanx whilst hopefully pinning Elrond in place with a few well placed bolts from my crossbows. I had not used Saruman since his change of rules, so using him was somewhat of a risk, although I knew of the effectiveness of sorcerous blast and was determined to utilise it accordingly. Grima was an important addition to my army. Jack is the sort of person who always manages to wipe out half your force with volley fire, so I placed Grima in front of my phalanx to make volley fire difficult. This would also help reduce the effectiveness of Elrond if I were to unfortunately meet him in battle – probably my biggest fear.
Deployment
Joe deploys his forces in a phalanx formation with Saruman and grima at front of army, crossbows on flank.
Jack deploys his army in thin rows of two, Elrond is positioned on the centre right of the force
Turn 1
Joe gets priority and moves his forces at full pace.
Jack moves his forces at half pace.
Turn 2
Joe gets priority, moves crossbowmen behind a convenient barrier and the rest of his forces march at full pace.
Jack moves forces at half pace.
Turn 3
Joe gets priority and slightly advances uruk hai phalanx, crossbows stay behind barrier.
Jack advances.
Shoot phase - Jack volley fires, killing 2 crossbowmen
Turn 4
Jack wins priority and continues to advance forward.
Joe advances with an incline to the right.
No shoot phase - nothing in range.
Turn 5
Joe gets priority and is manoeuvring.
Jack manoeuvres.
No shoot phase -nothing in range.
Turn 6
Joe gets priority and advances phalanx to centre.
Jack sends small detachment of forces to woods on right flank, including Elrond. Bulk of his army advanced on centre.
No shooting - nothing in range
Turn 7
Jack gets priority and moves Elrond and a group of elves into woods. He moves the rest of his army towards Joe at full pace.
Joe moves to left flank to combat Elrond and his band.
Shoot phase - Joe kills an elf bowman with his crossbow fire.
Turn 8
Jack says “It’s almost 7:30 we should be finished by 7:00” – This is a stupid comment on two levels: 1)It is actually 5:00 and 2)the statement doesn’t make sense. Nice one Jack.
Joe wins priority and furthers his advance to the left flank
Jack wheels the bulk of his forces around to face Joe, Elrond and his band retreat slightly.
No shoot phase - out of range.
Turn 9
Joe wins priority and Saruman casts sorcerous blast through the trees killing an elf with an elven blade, knocking over 3 others. He turns the uruk hai phalanx to face Elrond’s company.
Jack wheels to the left to face Joe, retreats Elrond and his bodyguards.
Shoot phase - Joe kills an elven archer, Jack responds by killing a crossbowman.
Turn 10
Jack gets priority and retreats Elrond further.
Joe casts sorcerous blast onto elven line and kills two more elves.
Shoot phase - Jack shoots at crossbows - no kills from 7 hits!
Joe kills 2 more elven archers from his 5 remaining crossbowmen.
Kill count at turn 10:
Jack -3 crossbowmen
Joe -3 elves with elven blade, 4 elves with bow.
Turn 11
Jack gets priority and advances all except archers at full pace towards Joe.
Joe tries and fails to cast sorcerous blast, wasting 2 points of will.
Shoot phase - Jack kills a crossbowman, Joe’s crossbowmen miss completely.
Turn 12
Jack gets priority but Joe uses Saruman’s palantir. Joe blasts away Elrond’s bodyguard with sorcerous blast and surrounds Elrond with a phalanx of 18 uruk hai.
Jack tries to reduce the pressure on Elrond by charging his archers into the Uruk hai surrounding him.
Shoot phase – Joe’s crossbowmen once again fail to kill anything.
Fight phase - Elrond uses might to win the fight thanks to his superior fight value - he kills one Uruk.
Turn 13
Jack wins priority and casts nature’s wrath with Elrond - 17 Uruk hai and Saruman are knocked down. He then charges into the uruks on the floor.
Joe desperately tries to save the bedraggled uruk hai with the other part of his force, which he advances towards the fight.
Shoot phase- no kills
Fight phase- Jack kills 4 uruks who are on the floor. Joe bangs fist onto floor, causing pain much to the amusement of Jack
Turn 14
Jack gets priority and charges some uruks who are yet to stand.
The Uruk hai pick themselves off the floor and reform the phalanx, ready to face the main elf force.
Shoot phase – Joe kills 1 elf with his crossbowmen.
Fight phase – A further 4 Uruk hai are killed by Elrond and his troops.
After a delicious meal, both sides come back to the battle with renewed vigour, the uruks have the upper hand in terms of kills, but the elves are ready to crush the filthy orcs with a cunning pincer movement both leaders know that the next few turns will prove decisive…
Turn 15
Joe vitally gets priority, giving him the chance to re group and evaluate the enemy. After blasting several elves away from the uruks, Saruman orders his Uruk hai to charge the elves head on with a phalanx. 2 Uruk hai are given the unlucky task of holding off Elrond and his bodyguard until the uruks can turn and kill him.
In the fight, Joe’s uruks show no mercy and 4 elves are slaughtered. Though the elves fight with grace and fervour, their numbers are too few and they only manage to slay a single uruk in the fight. Meanwhile, Elrond’s band kills the two uruks in the pass.
Turn 16
Joe gains priority again and reverses the phalanx, using a pillar and a barrier to protect his flanks. Saruman tries to slow the elves by blasting three of them away from the battle line, managing to kill one spearman.
Despite Grima’s best efforts to direct bowfire away from his master Saruman, two elven bowmen found their mark, however Saruman’s fate saved him and he was spared two mortal wounds.
Turn 17
Jack wins priority and reforms his own battle line, preparing for the uruk onslaught. Elsewhere, Elrond and his bodyguard occupy Grima – his incessant whining is beginning to become annoying.
Joe’s crossbowmen rush to the aid of their comrades and together they charge the elven line with a frontal phalanx. Even Saruman decides to charge the Elves.
In the fight, a further 5 elves become mincemeat, and the elven line is pushed back – 2 uruks are killed but the forces of evil keep on coming.
Turn 19
Joe gains priority and charges the elves once again, destroying what was left of the elven formation. Seeing the vicious uruks, two elves fail their courage tests and are routed.
Elrond and his group of archers desperately rush to the aid of their friends.
In the fight, Elrond can only watch as 20 uruk hai surround 6 elven spearmen, who desperately try to fight off the orcs. They slay a single uruk hai but inevitably 3 of the elves fall to the floor, skewered by pikes.
Turn 20
Jack wins priority, but Saruman seeing the threat of a counter-attack on both sides of the phalanx calls a heroic move and orders his uruk hai to split – some move to combat Elrond and his archers and others charge some survivors of the last turn’s meat grinder. All the troops on the field are now in combat except Grima who continues to pester Elrond.
The elves courage is held together only by Elrond who stands fast and orders his troops to withstand the onslaught. Unfortunately, the Uruks are too many and a total of five elves are killed – Elrond can do nothing but protect himself and his repeated attempts to cast natures wrath are overshadowed by the superior will power of Saruman.
Turn 21
Joe surrounds Elrond and the few remaining elves. The elves still fight gracefully, even though outnumbered and manage to kill 2 uruks. Saruman responds with wrath, killing a single elf.
Turn 22
Jack wins priority, but this proves to be useless as all of his troops are trapped, the small scale fights that are going on result in the death of all but 1 single elf, and Elrond.
Turn 23
Elrond knows his fate now, but is determined to die fighting - swinging his mighty elven blade in arc, he severs the heads of three uruks. One lone elf endures, and fights off a massive six uruk hai and Saruman, if he ever gets back to Rivendell, he’s deserving of a promotion!
Turn 24
Grima shows his true colours and attacks Elrond, who is still winning all his fights, Jack witnesses the brutality of the fighting uruk hai who crush the lone elf warrior, Saruman’s attention now turns to the Master of Rivendell himself, Elrond…
Turn 25
At a momentary lapse of strength, Saruman seizes his chance to kill Elrond. He casts a powerful spell, completely immobilising Elrond who can only watch as his muscles slowly freeze and the Uruk hai phalanx crushes his body, tearing the elf’s limbs away from his skeleton and cracking his skull. In a single fight, the only one Elrond had lost in the entire game, he received 7 wounds from 12 Uruk hai, Saruman and Grima who were the only survivors of the battle.
Jack decides to then complain after which Joseph ends the five hour long battle with spasms of uncontrollable laughter…
Elronds last moments
What really happened
Jack:
Well, that didn’t turn out too well did it? I ended up having to react to Joe, because he wheeled his forces round near to the woods and pillars on the far side. I ended up doing exactly what i didnt want to do: facing his phalanx. Also, my elf bowmen were largely unsuccessful because Grima protected the volley fire. I ended up largely underestimating Saruman after his recent reduction in power- although he is still obviously a viable force!!! On the bright side though, I managed to let loose a natures wrath on him, which he got very angry about, but ultimately after some unlucky rolling in that turn it still wasn’t enough to clinch the battle.
Well done Joseph!!!
Joe:
The forces of Isengard have prevailed once again – I’m glad I had faith in my phalanx, as it performed admirably. Jack did have the upper hand around turn 14, after a devastating nature’s wrath. Fortunately for me, the bulk of his army was too far away and unable to follow through so I regrouped and won the battle. Had those elves not lingered on the hill for so long, I would not be telling a tale of victory. Saruman was definitely a worthy investment. His sorcerous blasts kept on reducing the number of elves I had to face and he managed a fair number of kills. Without that immobilize at the end of the game, Elrond would have kept on winning all his fights and killing the Uruks that surrounded him. Grima did his job well and was definitely worth his points. I suppose my crossbowmen could have performed better, but they relatively few in number anyway. Elrond was too far away from the major battle at the end and I think it was that, that allowed by Uruks to destroy his elves in a simple meat grinder. It’s amazing how a simple no frills battle can turn into such a tactical and well fought battle.
Well played Jack, but I think Saruman clinched it!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed our first battle report albeit with some unpainted minis (sorry about that)! Please leave your comments as they would be much appreciated. We'll be happy to accept criticism if you can find flaws (and there are many!) in our tactics and choice of troop.
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