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.