Tourney Report- Bilbo's Birthday Bash.

8/22 @ Chicago Battle Bunker

As previously discussed here. I attended BBB this weekend at the Chicago Battle Bunker. The turn out was small, only 7 showed but it was group of dedicated veterans to the game. The median age of the players was definitely 40. why this game is attractive to us old grognards is something I'll talk about in a bit. The tourney consisted of each player bringing two 350 point armies, one good, one evil. Since we an odd number of players, Adeptus Windy City tourney organizers Brent and Jamie ran ringer armies of Angmar and Gondor. All forces of Middle Earth were well represent this day from Dwarves to the Army of the Dead to Mahud, plus the usual suspects. I was running Gandalf with some Grey Company as my Good Force and then a Cirith Ungol (Mordor) force that was too small for its own good. I ran out of time to finish the original 36 model force I had planned so I had to eat up 100 points by swapping in a Troll I had that was already painted. In the end My Mordor force was only 19 models so I knew I was in for trouble. Here is brief recap of my games:

Grey Company
(Gandalf the Grey, 3 Rangers of the North, 12 Rangers)

Game 1 VS Barad Dur.
Scenario- High Ground

The Barad Dur force numbered 35 ...so I had to kill alot of models to get him to break and out maneuver to take the hill in the center of the table. Even thou my Grey Company horde of bows hits on 3+ I need 6's to kill armored Orcs with Shields. The Barad Dur force also had 5 Ward Riders coming down the flank toward Gandalf...My dice weren't so hot initially as I try shoot down enough Orcs to find a spot to take the hill, Gandalf was having great success throwing Sorcerous Blasts..taking out numerous Warg Riders and knocking enough orcs for a flanking position that some of my Rangers could charge them while they were prone..the game only last 10 turns, Once the Orc Swarmed the Hill I was too tied up to get enough of my own men on the hill or kill enough Orcs to break him...I came very close to breaking him but ran out of time on my last turn...I had Gandalf use his last point of Might to do a Heroic Combat cutting down the Orc tying him up and charging the Hill...Resulting in a Minor Loss for me.

Game 3 Vs Angmar

Scenario- Domination

The Angmar force consisted of Burdur the Troll Chieftan, a Cave Troll about dozen Orc infantry and 7 Orc Archers. The goal was to capture Objective points in each corner of the board. My dice were on fire this game and I was dropping orc like flies with bow fire as most of the Orc infantry had spears so I only needed 5"s to kill them, I was rolling ton's of 5's. I had broke the Orc force by the third turn however, there were enemy models on two of the objectives despite controlling two and Gandalf using "immobilize" with a couple rangers taking down the Cave Troll. I had Burdur killing a couple of my guys on the one objective where he was outnumbering me by one model and lone orc Archer bunkered up in cover in the other. Once I break the enemy..the scenario requires you roll a D6 and on a 1 or 2 the game ends. I rolled a 2" so even thou I had 20 something kills to his 2..the game ended a Draw...shows my inexperience..in this game I shouldn't have broken him so early and got into better position to grab the objectives. This was a close as I got to a victory today.


Angmar



My Cirith Ungol force, Shelob's Banner

Cirith Ungol
(Shagrat (55 pt model) Orc Capt, Orc w/ banner, Mordor Troll, 3 Warg Riders, 8 Orc Warriors, 3 Uruk Hai)

Shagrat and Company

Game 2 Vs Rivendell
Scenario- Storm the Camp

Mordor outnumbered by expensive Elven warriors I thought this one might be tough, thankfully my Opponents 8 bowmen where playing very defensively and were defending his camp and not able to shoot my Warg Riders. The Troll waded thru the Elves like a scene from one the films and most of my Infantry mobbed the two groups of Elven warriors. I killed most of the elves breaking toward the end of the game, but with courage of 5, Elves dont run away easily and after two rounds or courage checks not a single elf fled the game. even thou I had two Warg Riders in his camp there were 6 bowmen defending, I had another 3 or models ready to get into scoring position next turn, among the Elf carnage, a lone spearmen broke from the combat making an end run for my undefended camp, as more Elves died, I tried to stop him but the lone elven captian ran interference and stop me. Once the lone Elf got into my Camp the game ended on the end of that turn. Outnumber in both camps (6 - 2 in his, 1-0 in mine) I suffered a Major Loss.
A major loss for a game the looked like I won, that's the scenario and the game.


My Troll, making uber hell for these Elves


the Elves came up short in this skirmish

Game 4 Vs Grey Company
Scenario - Meeting Engagement.

Ugh...this was the 30 model GC force, 6 Rangers of the North and 24 Rangers..not something I wanted to face..because it was the absolute worst match up of the tourney for my force considering Chris was the tourney leader (and eventual winner) and I had yet to win a game I was hoping I'd draw the Gondor ringer amry or the Army of the dead, hell even defense 7 dwarfs would have been preferable. With the limited number of players and need for alternating good evil match ups..there wasnt much to be done, I got the Grey Company..and on a table that was an open field to boot. Remember Faramirs Ride in Return of the King..think of this game like that but Gondor where the bowmen and the Orcs on foot..ouch I got pasted.
Major Loss.

I managed to get into in combat in game 4, but it didn't matter

Despite going 0-3-1..it didnt really feel like that at all...only in the last game did I feel like a loss 2 of my other games were razor tight and my 3rd game...were I stole the victory from myself. I did win the tournament "Best Appearance" award which was what I was shooting for..all the armies at this tournament were at or well above table top standard, so the "Best Appearance" was nice..I got a $20 Blister for that plus I won the pre paid raffle getting another Mordor Troll box (look out I am fielding another troll!, LOL), plus everyone I left over Adepticon 09 custom priority tokens..all in all a good haul.


Cool terrain piece used as display board, with some Army of the Dead and Barad Dur.


Brent and I spent some time talking about the lack of turn out and the draw of this game to the older crowd. The turn-out definitely got affected by a being too late in the summer (several notable local college age players returning to school) and several other locals just having pre existing commitments. The tourney also got cut from a two day event to one day event which kept some of the out of town crowd from attending. This is designed to be a LotR circuit event but a combination things kept that from happening this year which again hurt the draw. This tourney was as professionally run as it gets. So if your looking for a great game to get into with well run, professional events with great support look no further, go buy a box of troops and one Hero and you are up and running in the LotR SBG, if you're new to LotR and playing WotR you've already got the models so go ahead and give the skirmish game a try...keep an eye on the Forums at Adeptus Windy City for more Chicago area Lord of the Rings events. In the mean time I am going to do what I can get some more LotR gaming happening with my group.

Besides this whole D6 skirmish system (including High Seas and Old West) being the best ruleset GW has created one of things about the draw of these games is they tend to draw a more mature crowd..as I mentioned earlier I don't think there was a person in attendance under 35 at this event, there were no power lists or people trying to one up each other with list making, or rules shenanigans, no unber competitive Dbags blowing their stack because they just failed their break test. Just a bunch of guys chillin out rollin some dice on a Saturday afternoon and that's damn refreshing.