Iron Hills Annihilates Angmar

This week Nick and I were back in Middle Earth for another 700 point match. I decided to take Angmar, an army I traditionally find hard to use, while Nick returned to his Iron Hills. We rolled the Assassination scenario. This provided an interesting contrast with last week as the scenario, this time, weighed heavily against the larger army. As we would see, assassination was almost impossible for Angmar as Nick only had two heroes - so I was forced to target a dwarf captain riding the chariot. On my side, Nick could choose a mere 50 point barrow wight - a FAR easier proposition. 

Deployment was all about where the chariot would go. I initially hoped to lure it forward but Nick, inspired by Durin, played cagey and placed it right at the back. 

In the centre was the rest of his force ... all 4.5 models of them - not quite but this force is extremely small. Dain with his piggy rocket sits behind the line. This single model, Dain, completely foiled one of my armies biggest 'strengths' = terror and leadership reduction. He radiated a 12" bubble of fearlessness. In MESBG, which only has a 4 foot wide table, such a bubble is most of the battlefield. 

As for the Iron Hills chariot ... whoops .. always getting confused with that one! 

The chariot. What can I say? Its about 1/3 of the army points, kills everything near and far, with a defence that makes solid granite appear pissweak. Yep, and I had to kill that thing THEN take out the defence 8 dwarf captain that emerges unscathed from its ruin. 

To give an idea of its impact ... I worry more about this than I do about Dain. 

And he is the stuff of nightmares! 

Oh yes, the scenario happens at night ... which meant shooting was +1 to wound. I had NO missile weapons (actually not true ... I had two warg riders with spears but I totally forgot these were +1 to wound when they threw their spears throughout the game!) The chariots alone spat out a torrent of shots each turn and with this added bonus Nick could do serious damage. 

And we were off! Angmar tromped down the battlefield. I started to edge around to, hopefully, take the dwarf line from both ends and the centre. 

My spectres did some early work luring warriors from the line. But, I did not attack at once - which I should have. I was not in position and didn't like my chances frontally with the dwarfs. In retrospect, swamping these dwarfs may have been a better move and this would have forced their line forward. 

I set up a flanking force to pounce on the chariot when it moved down the only avenue on the battlefield free of terrain. 

From above, Dain has moved to one side, guarding the dwarf line from flanking. The chariot drives along the back. 

As I said, I didn't take advantage and the ensorcelled warriors moved back into line. The dwarfs were cagey this night and moved back, making it a little harder for the orcs to flank. The spectres and Witch King were now having little luck luring more warriors forward. 

Here's Johnny ... Orc sphincters tightened just seeing this 300 point juggernaut of death. 

But, I had now maneuvered around the sides. I had warg riders and a werewolf into position to attack the Dwarf banners (Nick had two!) I attacked a couple of dwarfs at 2-1 odds but failed to wound ... a theme that would run throughout the night. 

This was my best chance of the game ... I had surrounded the dwarfs. Nick fell back and parked the wagons in a circle. The Witch King failed successively to transfix Dain. I'm not even sure old Witchey Poo remembered the spell, instead he mumbled some words, flicked some playing cards about and almost tripped over his horse with metres of multi-coloured hankies. What an ass! 

The melee looks great but this was the last time in the battle Angmar seriously threatened the dwarfs. It was by positioning alone that created the threat as few duel rolls went the Orc way and any that did lead to no wounds. 

But, Angmar had deployed an even bigger witless goofball than the WK! Alderac was here! This 120 point waste of space did kill one dwarf. In the following turn, with his free heroic combat no-less, he lost, failed his fate roll and suffered a wound. For the rest of the game this first class asshat would lose many more duels and kill absolutely nothing else. 

Then, we figured out the barrow wight could paralyze the whole chariot! Wow! So Angmar threw two werewolves, two warg riders, a barrow wight and an orc into the incapacitated warmachine. 

And we only managed two wounds ... 

After my hopeless two rounds of hurting nothing, the sun parted the clouds and Aule himself blessed the weapons and armour of the dwarfs. They didn't miss a trick, winning duel after duel with ease and slashing down Orcs. In return, blunted Orc scimitars barely scratched their shields.

Nick had husbanded his forces back to defend and hold off attack, now they slowly stepped forward, carefully to always engage with support. This was aided by the fact his line was simply undiminshed in combat. 

After another turn or two, all Orcs, riders and werewolves that had flanked the line were eliminated. It was now a frontal fight and the dwarfs cut the Orcs apart. Spectres were now useless. Terror was meaningless. The Witch King's spells failed again and again. 

And Alderac ... raised incompetence to unheard of levels. At a higher fight, 3 attacks and strength 5, he should have been slaying a dwarf a turn. All he needed was to win a duel then roll one 5! NUP! 

Then, after only one turn, the chariot shook off its paralysis. The next attempt by the barrow wight failed and now the bloody thing was spitting out missiles - which it does regardless of being in combat. A werewolf quickly fell. The barrow wight also took too bolts right in his insubstantial face. 

The centre was lost ... The Witch King turned to transfix the chariot which finally happened. Even though my spells only needed a 3+ to cast, both the WK and barrow wight proved unsuccessful. 

Dain has splattered his foes and now pressed forward. At no stage did I launch an attack on this unstoppable hero. My tactic was to just throw small amounts of orcs in his path. I tried to drain his might by forcing him to call heroic combats. This failed as I forgot Dain also had master of battle and Alderac fed him a free heroic combat enabling him to kill 5 orcs in a single turn (or something close to that.) 

Now even the Witch King attacked the chariot. It had also killed my barrow wight - which was Nick's objective for the game. My previous turns saw duel roll failures and wounding failure. I did not get the required 6 I needed on 9 dice then couldn't get a single 6 on 8 dice to wound. 

In the end, the WK used his last might to use heroic strength and destroy the chariot. BUT, now I had to kill an unscathed Dwarf captain who was my actual objective. Many might, will and several of my toughest warriors had all been spent just to take out the chariot which gave me no particular advantage in the scenario. It was just 250-300 point suit of armour for a dwarf captain! 

Over the last few turns, I would repeated charge the Dwarf Captain. I think I even knocked him on his arse but, under the curse of Tulkas, I lacked the strength to strike him down. Some days the Valar can be a right pain. 

The dwarfs were back in a controlled line pushing forward and annihilating orcs. My front line with shields were down exposing my paltry defence 4 spearmen to attack. All dwarfs are strength 4 in this force making them very deadly. Add this to FV4 and defence 8 and ... well ... forget it. 

Mere Orcs can't kill that!

And so Dain punched the poo out of Alderac - Twit of Carn Dum. 

What a shit smear he had been!

And the WK was forced to battle basically every dwarf that had started the game in the final turn. 

Well, after a brief flicker in the first third of the game, it had been an embarrassing defeat for Angmar. We killed the chariot and 3 other dwarfs I think. Angmar has lost about 30 models. We lost at all points of the game - movement, shooting, combat (especially) and magic. 

Nick marshalled his battle line well. He stuck in a choke point and was more difficult to move around. I did achieve this but I had a singular inability to win duels and score successful wounds on the hardy dwarfs. Iron Hills continually fell back into their battleline for defence. Alderac, my line breaker, broke nothing - my three werewolves were little better. I failed to lock down Dain with magic - perhaps not using enough will points at times but, at other times, rolled snake eyes when I did commit these resources. As for the chariot, not sure theres a lot of tactics with this monster. It can only drive into spaces free of terrain - which makes positioning a little easier - and then it just runs down or shoots everything in its path and is terribly difficult to kill. I'd really like to ignore it but assassination - and the fact Nick's army only had two heroes - compelled me to attack it. What a disaster! 

The scenario really crushed Angmar's chances as did the match up against a fearless army - making my biggest army advantage (and quite a bit of point value) obsolete. Added to this the relentless dwarf duel wins, hopeless Orc (+ Alderac) wound attempts and a couple of missed decisions with Angmar allocation of might + will - all made victory most unlikely or, really, simply out of reach. With such large Dwarf advantages, the margin for error in Angmar's game was extremely small and possibly relied on luck and some mismanagement by my opponent. And both of these were in very short supply. 

MESBG Cirith Ungol invades Osgiliath

 

It was another warm and sweaty Tuesday in the wargaming dojo and Nick had joined me for MESBG after about 3 weeks without a game. It was 700 points with Reclamation of Osgiliath versus Cirith Ungol. To my great shame, my Shelob was not on the new correct base size basically because GW can get fucked. 

Nick rolled up a scenario and got one with five equidistant objectives in the centre of the table. Our aim was to occupy the objectives and accrue victory points each round - more if we held each uncontested. 

Nick deployed in the centre and on his right while my forces were more evenly spread across the table ... but then again, I had 49 models to about 34 or 35.

Shelob, most famous spawn on Ungoliant, ranged about on my left together with 10 orcs led by a captain and the first of two banners. 

Shagrat, or 'Shaggers', was in the middle with 10 two handed weapon armed uruks. 

Faramir led one force mixed with tin cans, rangers and 2 knights. In their midst was an Osgiliath veteran or two.

Then, Big Bad Boromir had a more tanky army group. On the far end of Nick's line, Madril had a small group of 4 rangers. 

Evil sprang away advancing up the table. The usual tactic of making your opponent move first was in effect ... as is traditional in any game of MESBG. Shelob climbed a nearby barrow and threatened to charge knights or rangers. I wanted the knights dead as these could threaten my flanks and steal objectives. It was a mistake to put Shelob on the side of the terrain as it delayed her ability to charge by a turn as Nick would back away from the nasty arachnid. 

The armies advanced ready to push and shove over the objectives. Atop this image, my orc forces being to align and intermingle into two strong forces. My centre was thinning. 

The taskmaster cracked his whip to drive the orc maggots forward. 

My evil orcs began to crab across on both sides. This enables me to link up and mix Uruks and Orcs to try and take advantage of the animosity special rule (which I didn't do once all evening.) Also, it allowed my less well protected uruks to advance behind my wall of orcs - whose front line had marginally better defence. I didn't want my uruks dead from ranger fire. Moving slightly outward on each side formed my force into a pincer formation allowing me to claim the two outer objectives. 

The Minas Tirith warriors moved closer together to form a mighty battle line. Also, being closer allowed them to unite under the powerful effects of Boromir's banner. This choice would effect the course of the game. 

The orcs claimed the left objective uncontested and Shelob was now in the right place. A couple of arrows chinked harmlessly off her chitinous hide. However, soon several shafts would pierce the Orc Captain taking his fate point and one wound. 

The lines always look great in MESBG the moment before the big clash ... I matched the length of the Gondor line, positioning Uruks at each end of my Orc line. 

Madril's rangers assumed a commanding position on a steep hilltop, ready to rain down fire. My orcs were presented with a tough choice to ignore this small force as inconsequential or attack and drive it off. This orcish force was also threatened by two knights but it did have many more numbers directly on the right objective. Points were being amassed each turn. 

The centre of the battle was now formed. 

And the orcs charged ... Boromir was out of position for the first combat but soon moved to engage for the second and subsequent turns. Shagrat had charged directly into warriors. The Osgiliath forces had been forced into an 'L' shape to defend itself and maintain a shieldwall. At the top left of the image, the rangers of Faramir had fallen back to form up with the shieldwall. The orcs quickly engaged here, pouncing on the lowest defence value Osgiliath troops. 

Orcs leapt up to attack the rangers while others ringed the objective to keep the knights away. If they charged, orcs would swarm over and around them. It was here that Gorbag stayed all night. 

Ah, the MESBG drone captures the main battle. The Osgiliath forces were in defensive formation while Orcs attacked at all points seeking to work around the edges. Shelob had charged down to murder the knights while orcs killed the rangers. The evil left flank had been secured. 

Boromir battled on the end of the shieldwall. I really had no hope against this juggernaut of might, banner and horn. All I could do was slow his efforts. To this end, I engaged with a single orc then placed enough orcs around him to limit his kills to two per turn. 

It was then that the skies darkened as a thick fume from Mordor arose. At this, Orcs hurled themselves at the Osgiliath warriors and wicked scimitars cut down 3-4. This doesn't seem like much but it served to break up the battle line. For the next couple of turns, it felt like evil had the momentum with several initiative wins - and a roll off or two when heroic moves were called - allowing evil to press their advantage. 

Above shows the result. The shieldwall was broken open and Orcs surged through. Shagrat was an indomitable monster who slashed straight through the good line using a heroic combat. Boromir moved slightly away from the centre and the orcs enjoyed the absence of his banner's special power. 

At this time in the game, good seemed to be regularly losing warriors - not in a flurry but a steady drip that drained their army's life blood. Evil also lost warriors but had a much larger buffer to their morale tipping point. Superior numbers seemed to weigh heavily tipping the scales of battle. 

Orcs threw themselves over the rocks to kill the rangers but this had little effect. One knight threatened the objective but evil still contested it. Climbing the rocky slope protected them from the knights charge. Boromir fought to reduce orc numbers on this flank but even he lost a duel roll which only seemed to further dull his impact. 

Unfortunately, the arrows from the rangers had done little damage on this side. Many had targeted the orcish banners but to little avail. Now, the rangers fought for their lives and their archery fell silent. 

Faramir furiously yelled orders trying to reform the line and hold on against the vicious orcs. Steadily, orcs slew warriors. Now, without the shieldwall, the Osgiliath defence value was lower. The Orc captain and the Taskmaster joined the fray. Shagrat kept up his efforts regularly claiming life after life. Good losses were mounting. To the right side of the above image Shagrat can be seen, axe raised glorifying in carnage. 

Faramir was forced to engage Shagrat. I had feared facing Boromir but eagerly accepted the change to slay Faramir. I decided to heroic strike giving me the duel advantage and I subsequently won. Shagrat then rolled two sixes which doubled my wounds on Faramir who crumpled to the dust, his armour rent and sword broken. At the time, and even now, I'm not sure Nick did this correctly as Faramir did save one wound with his fate.(Actually, Nick has a better grasp of the rules than I, so he probably did do this properly.) Regardless, the killing power of Shagrat held me in thrall. 

On the far right of the above image, Boromir stands tall and undefeated. But, he was ringed by orc warriors who stood about in a checkered pattern to slow any of his heroic combat charges. Boromir had killed several orcs but this was not enough to deplete the forces of Cirith Ungol. 

Also, my forces on the left had demolished their opposition and now joined on the attack in the centre. At times, it was challenging to get all into the melee. Orcs gibbered and howled sensing victory. They were eager to despoil the corpses of their hated foes. 

The remaining warriors held onto the middle objective but three had now been claimed conclusively for evil and the other was constantly contested. Victory points were being steadily amassed. Also, good was reaching its break point for morale. Evil still had many soldiers to lose. The orcs would die for Sauron without question. 

Even the centre was lost and orcs amassed to kill the last few warriors to quarter the Osgiliath forces and claim victory. At this late hour, a veteran warrior plunged his spear into the heart of the Orc captain claiming his life. A nearby orc smirked at this opportunity for promotion ... 

By now, evil was out of might but the damage had been done. 

Boromir was ringed with orcs but was unable to fell a sufficient number of his foes. The rangers, likewise, had survived but their arrows had not proven deadly. Their swords were kept busy defending themselves rather than being able to launch a rear attack to threaten the right objective. 

Okay, these pictures are just gratuitous shots of Orcs hunting down the shattered remnants of the Osgiliath forces. The battle was now a foregone conclusion. 

With more surging forth and hacking down ... 

... the battle was now done. Boromir would cut a path out and ride back to the White Tower, but his forces were left dead on the field. Shelob was sated as she dragged the dying into the nearby woods. 

Good was quartered and the result was 13 vs 0 VPs (i think.) 

As Nick said at the end, it was a tough battle for his army with so many (5) objectives to try and cover. His army is great in choke points but their advantages do not favour wide coverage of the board. Cirith Ungol was able to form a pincer claiming objectives and attacking each end of the line. It could also monster the small forces on each side ... well, it didn't 'monster' the rangers but it did keep them busy for a limited investment of troops. 

As I reflected, evil seemed to claim the initiative at several pivotal times and won a couple of 'roll offs' when might was spent. Shelob and Shagrat were simply on a rampage of death. The Taskmaster saved around 3-4 might for the evil side stretching the expenditure of good resources to match evil's extra might bounty.

 

The below image really highlights the predicament of the Osgiliath forces. Evil matched their frontal combat numbers while striking at each end of their line, and the hinge, with significant forces to gain an objective. In the end, Boromir could only be in one place at one time and his effect was blunted. He simply can't cut down orcs and keep the line bolstered all at once. I was able to keep my heroes away from him allowing them to kill rank+file with impunity, dragging good toward their morale limits before being finally quartered. 

My only regrets were poor positioning of Shelob for a turn and being unable to get Gorbag into the fight. I should have used him to dislodge the rangers from the heights but he was useful in defending the right objective. I think my right hand banner placement also left something to be desired (or it may have just saved my orcs from dying quickly as they hurled themselves at the ranger defended rocky outcrop.)

MESBG wargaming again triumphed with a fun game. I really thought that the killing power of the Reclamation of Osgiliath (against Mordor specifically) combined with their higher FV and Boromir's banner (and a round of 'For Gondor') would be too much for my low defence force (most orcs were only D4 or D5.) This night, enough Strength 3 orc spear struck home and my heroes/monster accounted for around 12-14 dead. The rest seemed down to numbers, momentum, some effective placement and a friendly scenario for a horde of mediocre orcs.