Included here are only a couple of photographs from my first MESBG game with my Mordor army. (The figures are from Oathmark and I'm very happy with the result - The Troll and wraith figure were kindly given to me by my good friend, Nick.)
It was Mordor vs Isengard at 600 points. Above you can see the battle lines clashing amid the fields of Rohan. No doubt both armies fell to bickering about the true will of their dark master.
Mordor had a numbers advantage for most of the game as I ran normal orcs. I also chose a banner and drummer along with a troll. The Mordor army was led by the witch king on Angmar in an undignified manner as he was on foot. The mounted model had not been painted yet.
In this battle we had to kill an opposing hero, while keeping one of ours safe, as well as capturing a piece of pre-determined terrain. Unfortunately, Mordor did not even scratch its target but it did capture some terrain.
Much of the middle and later stages of the battle did not go well for Mordor as they consistently lost priority rolls. This meant Isengard to freely engage my models in the most advantageous manner for them. Chiefly, this led to my troll achieving little or nothing all game. The superior fight value and strength led to quite terrible casualties for the Mordor forces too. It was difficult to find a nice open area without fields with fences (or rocks) to limit lapping around opportunities. Without such chances, my orcs were simply inferior to their enemies.
Below the Isengard warg riders circle around behind my army. My two archers look very forlorn and these were soon run down.
After being hacked up, I found the game a little demoralising and called an early end. Afterward, Nick said it was closer than I thought. I also found in difficult to transition to Mordor after playing Minas Tirith. That army has very little in the way of special rules or magical powers - and Mordor has both.
However, as normal with a new different army, it always awakens my curiosity to learn how to play them ... and I was eager for another battle soon to figure out this new conundrum.
