A New Year Sacrifice

I won't lie, countless orcs were harmed in the making of this battle report. 

It was MESBG (old edition) with 650 points. Mordor vs the White Council (well, 4 of them - Galadriel, Gandalf, Saruman and Elrond.) 

Mordor had the Witch King about 20 Morannons, about 20 more Orcs and 3 Warg riders. 

The scenario was capture and hold (?) ... the one with five objectives precisely spaced out around the table. We could have been fighting anywhere in Middle Earth but it was probably a little green for Gorgoroth. 

(Above, my big hope, a Morannon Captain, 11 Morannons and a banner.)

My Mordor list featured the Witch King - who I had only just painted around New Years. He was also holding a Morgul Blade but - I won't lie - he was secretly shitting himself as he knew the most powerful casters in ME were going to be using his empty hood as a target. I hoped the Morannon Orc higher defence and strength might help me out.

The WHOLE army ... yep ... 4! For 650 points!!! I was in for an utterly torrid time. 

The game kicked off with Mordor trying to encircle and get to all of the outlying objectives. The White Council kicked off with Elrond going crazy ape shit and punching a big hole in my main Morannon battle line. The Elvish lord threw out approximately a metric fuck-ton of water and my lads are scared of baths. 

The centre of the table was the place of action with Saruman, Galadriel and Elrond laying waste to Orcs. Their lower defence didn't matter a jot as I couldn't charge them due to terror (or only in a piecemeal manner) or just couldn't win a duel roll due to higher fight values. 

Time and again Orcs surged in only to be battered away with losses mounting steadily. 

My flanking forces did their job securing side and rear objectives. 

(The foreground has my right flanking force - 6 Morannons, Grishnakh, Orcs with 2HW, a warg rider, some bows and an Orc drummer. Their whole job was to flank and surround.)

Ah, the Valar themselves, far across the ocean, care little for the struggles of lesser creatures. 

Orc numbers were getting thinner ... Honestly, after 7 Morannons went down in 2 turns I was pretty shaken and didn't know what to do. I debated swarming them or just surrounding them to reduce movement (without attempting combat) or running away to stand on objectives? 

But then again, lots of initiative felt like it was going the way of the Council removing a lot of my choices. Against these guys, my big hopes - Morannon Captain and Grishnakh - just appeared underpowered and pretty foolish. I was hoping to use might to get a wound on at least one enemy before the end of the night. 

Now the Mordor flanking forces were in - including warg riders who tried to charge from behind but basically didn't pass any courage tests to do so - so I committed the Witch King too. In one turn I spent 4-5 might. I charged, used Heroic Strike and then used more to actually win the duel rolls. Then I threw a bag of pus dice. Not even the Morgul Blade helped. 

After that, all my might was gone (my will points had been used earlier - the WK had 5-6 left) and my fate was soon to be used. 

Looking back, I think I totally forgot my Mordor rule to re-roll ones. As I said above, just having my army dissected for 10 turns while not even winning a single duel roll and few initiatives (although I did manage to compel Elrond once or twice) had me totally flustered with no idea of how to respond. 

I tried to compete as best I could be repeatedly throwing in my hordes. My luck had to change at some stage. I was just fishing for a way of feeling like I was actually being a part of the battle rather than just being a target for heroes to hack down. 

Numbers are thinning above. The red dots show the objectives controlled by Mordor. The one at the top should be red too as you can see a warg rider parked on top of it. 

It looks like a heroic combat ... but it wasn't. The Witch King fought for three turns - I think - winning one, then spending all his fate points on the next and finally being hacked apart. He was about as tough as the old bedsheet he had wrapped about his insubstantial body. 

The only question remained ... why had Saruman decided to wear that ridiculously over-sized necklace? I think Elrond told him that it suited his eyes ... lying fucker. 

Now Gandalf was punching everyone on the centre objective ... Saruman still in huge necklace. Galadriel stood about like a terrifying pontifex ready to slap Orcs to death barehanded or perhaps dunk them in her mirror until they drowned. 

The only danger to Elrond was that his sword would go blunt from shearing through Morannon neck bones or he might slip in a slick of Orcish entrails. 

Finally, the supply of Orcs had run out. Right near the end both Gandalf and Galadriel had died ... not due to Orc inflicted wounds though. Both were just worn out slaying masses of Orcs and took themselves to the bench. Personally, I think they feigned injury and were just bored of killing. 

A small donny erupted as Saruman pushed for the objective at the back. Even this act showed his superiority as he could have walked the shorter distance to the centre but chose to go clear across the table - almost unscathed - to challenge the Mordor objective in their deployment zone. 

And he won that fight too ... 

Although good sense had prevailed and Saruman had taken off that stupid necklace. Perhaps Elrond's lie about accessories began Saruman's spiral toward evil?

Mordor did win on points but didn't feel like they were really "in" the game at any time. 

For the last couple of turns I was trying to figure out the benefits of being quartered - and how to hurry the process along. MESBG seems a strange game due to routing from the table seems like a good tactic at times. This ends the game and if you can finish ahead on points ... you win. This is very difficult for me to understand after decades of playing historical wargames where routing is bad. Here, there seems to be a time and a place for it. There may just be an art to getting your last guys killed then maximising your chances to fail courage tests. But, like lots of tactics in MESBG, I don't get it. 

MESBG Orc Night Assault

 

This evening witnessed a perfidious Mordor ambush of the valiant fellowship on their way south. In the deep of night the orc forces rushed on the heroes. Above and below the Mordor forces are arrayed to envelop the brave warriors. 

I just recently completed my warg riders, so all of these were present in the game. I had 8 'honesty' bows in all - including the warg riders. These played an important role later. 

The eagle eyed view of the battlefield with rocky hills along the left flank of Mordor. 

The game was off and running and the orcs moved to surround the heroes. Aragorn directed the fellowship to stay close to the rocks to lessen the chances of being overwhelmed. 

The main battleline held back giving the flanks a chance to extend forward. 

Boromir and Legolas were at the lead. Legolas' bow would soon begin to sing while Boromir relied on his horn (oo-err) and his pile of might points. 

Gorbag (i took the incorrect orc hero for this game - an error) led 6 orc plus 4 with two handed weapons. These were my great hope in cutting down the heroes. What I didn't know was - apart from Gimli - their defence was not that impressive. 

The orcs closed in. Bowfire had been ineffective from the orcs but Legolas steadily killed 1-2 orcs. Arrow range was limited in the dark conditions but wounded gained a bonus. 

Aragorn desperately gave the company orders - this mainly consisted of ... guard Frodo. 

The Mordor forces had worked around the back with the aid of swift wargs and an orc drummer pounding incessantly. This drove the evil forces into a frenzy of movement. 

The fellowship gave way cleverly dragged the orcs into a more constricted space where numbers would count less. I finally realised that climbing up onto the hills would give me an advantage for arrow fire and an additional avenue of advance. 

The first orcish push led to several deaths and the concept to also pull back trying to drag the heroes out of their good terrain position. I was also realising - after Boromir had suffered two wounds - that my bows were not quite as pathetic as I thought. 

I really didn't know what to do with my wargs. I wanted to add more missile fire but feared being sniped by Legolas. Also a hoped I could charge one at a time giving a chance to knock down the fellowship combat heroes thus swinging melee into my favour. 

Reorganised, Mordor surged back into the fray. Archers now manned the heights and an orc line - led by Gorbag - approached from the rear. 

Aragorn waded into the battle. 

The orcs pushed into every orifice surrounding as many heroes as I could. Mordor was denied priority for some time clearly representing the recognition of just who they had cornered in the dark of the night. No doubt orcs feared the skills and weapons of these brave souls. 

The swirling melee went on for a long time. Mordor squandered many opportunities with their weapons being turned away by the armour, fervent actions or skills of the heroes. Slowly, VERY slowly, they began to fall. First Legolas, then some hobbits, finally Boromir. Aragron battled on. Samwise finally succumbed but all the fellowship were aided by the Valar with impressive fate rolls. The Orcs steadily lost soldiers but they had 45 on the table. Frodo put on the ring and became a harder prospect to handle. 

Eventually the heroes, some buried under mounds of Orcish dead, gave way with the indomitable Gimli fending away the enemy. The Fellowship broke but all the Orc heroes had fallen (although I may have stuffed up the wound counting???) The Morannan Orcs had performed well stabbing down the last of the heroes. No doubt, Gimli led the survivors - many with severe wounds - into a darkened crevice away from the Orcs. Perhaps the sun rose driving Mordor away. In any narrative, the fact was the game was over with the Fellowship being broken. The Orcs were only two models away from breaking too and - with no heroes - would have largely routed. Overall, it was a draw which felt like a fair result but Sauron was left cursing in his tower of Barad Dur due to the ineptitude of many Orcs who were supplied with wonderful chances to hew the foe but could not land sufficient wounds. Despite being clearly outclassed, numbers eventually told the day. 

MESBG Mordor battles Isengard

This week was back to MESBG in a 650 point match as Nick's Isengard took on my Mordor. It was Saruman against the Witch King in a contest for who could win the heart of the most eligible bachelor in Arda ... Sauron. 

The scenario was 'Seize the Prize' (or something to that effect) which is basically MESBG's version of Blood Bowl - as two forces chase the ball about then try to run it into the end zone. 

The field of battle was the Barrow Downs (don't try and geographically figure out why Isengard and Mordor got there) and I liked my mix of standing stones, felled statues and barrow tombs. 

Mordor started and the sounds of a drum resonated driving the Orcs into a flurry of movement. They approached the objective (possibly a hobbit, rodent or Elvish knick-knack) swiftly picking it up. 

The forces of Mordor flanked their large central force with two smaller forces while a pair of warg riders, led by an Orc Captain on a warg, watched the back and flanks. This was a real threat as Isengard had a similar number of mounted troops and a single crebain flock. 

In addition, Isengard was led by Saruman - whom I had never played against - and had a strong force of fast moving Uruk scouts. The Mordor Orcs picked up the prize with trepidation knowing full well that they would get compelled or just thumped by the stronger Uruks with their superior fight value, strength and armour. And yep ... thats what happened. 

(If you look very carefully you can see the poor little orc bastard compelled out of the line already ... monstered by 5 Uruks. In retrospect I might have marched my battle line beyond the objective and picked it up with a back line orc.) 

The Mordor Orc was compelled, escaped one combat but then Saruman used his palantir to win the next activation. The Uruks took the objective/prize and Isengard did not relinquish it for the remainder of the game. Nick summed up the scenario better than I did and just tried to gum up my forces as best he could. This worked well aided by better fight values, better armour and pikes. He blocked a gap between two fallen statues which took my Orcs significant time to work around. 

I really need to better understand the drum special rules so I can get maximum effect of this movement bonus ... or just how to use it. It would have made a big difference to my lapping about the flanks. 

The centre became a prolonged slogging match as Orcs poured into and around as many Uruks as possible. Fortunately for the Witch King, Nick was rolling quite bad dice to wound and few Orcs fell ... throughout the entire night. Likewise, my two Moranon captains were doggedly killed nothing. 

(Above shows a band of Uruk scouts who would die holding up surging Mordor Orcs in a key sacrifice for the outcome of the scenario.)

I tried to break Isengard but didn't realise that their break point was far higher ... in fact close to their quartered number. While Uruks were falling, it wasn't happening fast enough and the objective was being passed back toward faster troops. 

The Witch King tried to thin numbers with regular black dart spells. He felled two warg riders and took out the Uruk banner. I pressed as hard as possible but it was slow going getting around the flanks. Most of my warg riders were taken out by the single crebain slowing my forces. But the Orcs kept pushing forward trying to break through the armoured Uruks and get at the softer scouts. Here too there were just enough to slow my progress. 

In the centre the fight was desperate. Had I better understood the scenario, how to use my all Orc horde army (I usually had a troll soaking up points) and the high Isengard break point ... I think I'd have pushed less troops into the middle. 

The Witch King's will was getting low and a single Isengard warg, who refused to die, attacked him opportunely draining further will. At this point Saruman was threatened and considered whether he should engage in combat. After a tough struggle with his back to a stone monument, he extricated himself. I was astonished by his seemingly endless will stores and variety of spells. He even threw Sorcerous Blasts against the Witch King felling his horse. (Positioning that ethereal poser is a nightmare.)

I was having a hard time identifying my Orcs from Uruks in the swirling and increasingly chaotic melee. The objective was passed toward a small group of Uruk scouts (about 5-6) who ran down the edge of the table. Saruman followed behind ready to lend support. 

(Above shows Isengard had fallen back reducing their frontage and preventing being lapped around. Even outnumbered two to one - or maybe more - the Uruks died very slowly and those two wargs in the top left of the image were damn near immortal delaying Mordor troops greatly.)

I don't have any images of this final stage of the battle. The Mordor forces struggle to rush archers across to the Uruk scouts who hugged the board edge. The horseless Witch King did his best. Finally, I took advantage of my drummer to rush orcs in and started felling a few of the scouts. Any time I did drop the objective carrier it was simply picked up again and moved on. In retrospect I could have done a lot of things differently ... perhaps trying to compel the bearer or sapping will from Saruman or Snapping his staff  or ... dunno really. After three games I still have not got my head around magical powers. I'm still at the point where pushing a truck ton of Orcs about is fun. 

In any case, my Mordor forces, aided by the drum and interior lines, gained on the Uruk scouts. Now only 3 were left and Saruman trailed behind. Isengard finally were quartered and to great surprise Saruman fled the field but all the Uruk scouts passed their tests. After a hotly contested priority roll ... a draw but I won due to not winning the previous turn ... my chance came to kill the remaining two Uruks. My black dart went off but failed to wound and my Orcs lost the combats being pushed away. 

In the next priority I lost and the final Uruk ran from the field. Isengard won with only two warriors left.  

What a game ... as close as it gets! I had my chance and I blew it! The Witch King blew it! I can't really blame the Orcs ... they're not very good at anything. 

I'm learning a bit more about my army. Placement of the Witch King is very difficult. I'm finding him quite fragile and that will seems to disappear fast. Moving that many Orcs was tough but I think the horde is better than the Troll. There seems to be lots of easy counter tactics to such as model. I greatly value the drums, Morannon Orc captains (though they killed very little in this game) and a smattering of two handed weapon Orcs. Higher fight values are very hard to deal with ... even when you totally surround a figure. Mordor just seems to have lower fight values to most armies - or the Isengard, Iron Hills and Ent armies I've played in any case. I don't think I've figured out shooting yet either ... the lower bow range and poor hit chance makes orc bowmen a risky investment. I only take some due to the phrase and concept of 'honesty bows' in MESBG. Maybe more warg riders would be better than bowmen? 

Lots to learn and I greatly look forward to my next game. It was lots of fun and I did get a thrill from pouring masses of Orcs into and around my enemy. 

 

Mordor vs Iron Hills

(above my main battle line with 12 Mordor orcs, a drummer, a banner (still without a design), 4 two handed weapon orcs and the witch king - now with a horse.) 

My second game with my Mordor MESBG army was fought on Saturday in the wilds of Telarah against my old foe, Nick. He had been busily expanding - or I should really say decreasing - his Iron Hills army. I type 'decrease' due to his army becoming much smaller in model count. This was the result of Dain the pig boy and a rather large, impressive chariot. 

I had no real idea what the chariot could do but at 250 points (in a 600 point game) I knew it would not be nice. As it turns out it could fight, run down anything and shoot anything on the table - and by anything I mean a troll, the witch king, orcs and a Morannon orc captain. All my best stuff in fact. 

Another image above of my Mordor right flank consisting of 12 Mordor orcs in a typical line with spears at the rear. The Troll - who is building a impressive reputation for doing absolutely nothing in both beginning battles - can be seen lumbering in the distance. 

The scenario was 'I don't recall' and this consisted of having to hold as many of the five objectives as possible at the end of the game. This was certain to involve my army breaking but I hoped my superior numbers might win the day. This almost happened in fact ... but the game ended in a creditable draw for both parties concerned. 

The above image shows the initial set up on the dwarves. They held a strong position in the centre of the table. The walls made their position strong but also further hampered their already modest movement ... and I needed to rely on movement to have any chance in this battle. 

Yep, above is 'Numb-nuts' or 'Kills-nothing' ... or some other name denoting shithouse performance. 

These are from much later in the battle. My orcs had flanked the Dwarves and were now attacking from the front and rear. The Dwarf warriors were sandwiched between my orcs and the walls. Many were trapped but ... this didn't really help. The higher fight value, high defence and lack of commitment to killing all hampered the Mordor attempts to beat their foes. 

In the background, my troll was doing nothing to the chariot despite his higher fight value. For much of the game the chariot's impact was limited (except smashing a Morannon orc captain after 3 rounds of combat then killed 8-10 orcs too.) It needs to point in the right direction and my flanking move on the right had drawn its attention away. 

Dain too had been drawn away - and once transfixed or compelled I can't recall - before returning to thump orcs. My tactic with both was to feed a model at a time inter the whirling death machines that both indeed were. Dain is a superb warrior, feeds of enemy might usage and his mount enables him to ignore the one and only disadvantage that Dwarfs have - movement. 

(By some freak of nature it kept snowing wherever the dwarfs were but it was warm for the Orcs.)

The same is true for the chariot as it thumps around at 8" a turn - which is in fact much higher as when its enormous base pivots it easily gains another 2-3 inches each time.. My only hope was winning priority - which is a fools hope as it will always swing - and my magic ... and I stuffed that up when bad positioning let the Witch King get within range of Dain and the chariot. I lost the priority to get him away AND the roll off for the heroic move. The chariot minced the Witch King easily despite his Defence of 8 and 2 fate points. 

Oh, why did I take so many pictures of this bloody useless troll??? 

In the final two turns the Mordor casualties were soaring and I was well on the way to being tabled. I was hoping my force would break - thus ending the game - while I was still standing on enough objectives. This had not been an issue all game - in fact I was holding three for much of the game and had orcs running for a fourth. 

Then the chariot happened ... the troll was decimated in two quick turns after some earlier resistance. The chariot then turned one way, sending 1d6 (6!) bolts shooting across the table gunning down my guys on one objective. I was broken and next turn it turned the other way, sending 5 more blots searing into hapless orcs and another objective was cleared. Then courage did its part causing me to lose another objective. I lost control of three objectives - that had been safely mine all game - in 2 turns. Mordor orcs fell like leaves. My losses went from about 20 to over 30 in a blink. 

I really thought I was 'IN' the game for the whole scenario. This had really hinged on moving away from dwarves (the drums really helped in this), hiding (as shown below ... the two clever orcs on the left were the only ones to hold an objective at the end of the game) and using magic - which is something I did very poorly as the witch king was killed. In retrospect, the chariot could have turned its brutal bolt thrower attack at the witch king at any time in the game gunning him down. Perhaps I was lucky Nick didn't decide to kill him earlier. Maybe the only way to keep him somewhat safe is with a body shield too. In any case, I didn't do this and my leader was isolated and died in one chariot charge. 

It was a good game throughout which required a lot of thought for both of us. I'm only glad it wasn't a game where Mordor had to try and kill its opposition as this is a very hard ask with Iron Hills. On the other side, Mordor did manage to quarter their army so ... not all bad.