Bilbo's Birthday Bash!, Day 1

11/6 @ Chicago Battle Bunker




whole lot of dwarves

So I have been home for a few hours, had some dinner and decompressed from 3 games of LotR today at the Chicago Battle Bunker. I figured I would write it up while its fresh. 21 player showed up with one drop so today was 11 tables with one ringer army. Had my work cut out for me with 27 Models and a 14 break..but I had magic and fly 12" eagle. on my side.

Game 1 vs Chris - Dwarves (Erebor)

Gimli
6 Iron Guard w/ throwing axe
16 Dwarf Rangers/ bows
16 Dwarf Rangers/ throwing axe
14 Dwarf Ranger/ two handed weapons
53 models/ 27 break


Once Gimli had the artifact getting back was going to be a tall order

My third time playing in Chris in a LotR event, awesome guy, great player. He's had a different army everytime I've faced his this times it was the kings of the LotR hierarchy..The Dwarves with their brutal defense. The Scenario was called "The Artifact" basically a dig up the football and move thru your opponents D-zone and off the board for a win. I knew I couldn't just run up and grab the thing without seriously thinning out the Dwarves. or I'd just be cut to pieces. I have faced Gimli many times before..there isn't much my Army can do to him. The tables were terrain heavy, what you want for a game like this...I spread out wide into 5 small groups, Gandalf with one and sent the Eagle full on down my right flank, right toward his archers, which I knew where the biggest threat to my army until late game. The eagle got out of a couple dicey situations but did his job tying up the archers and I keep the pressure on his archers with mine shooting for hill with some good cover. Gandalf did his thing moved around, let the magic fly a couple big "sorcerous blasts" got me some kills. The hand to hand started when Gimli dug up the "Artifact" and had to clear the way to get thru my lines..I did better that expected against the T5 dwarves in fact I broke Chris's army probably 3 turns before Gimli got off the board. The unwounded Eagle...tried to get into Gimli and tie him up for awhile but had to get thru two Iron Guard on the way, he lost the combat and his defense of "8" didnt help him when Chris rolled 3-6's to wound and I had burned my 1 point of fate on an earlier wound. The bird was dead. Gandalf was head his way as I saved a couple points to try to immoblize Gimli but he still had all his will, laughed as shot him with arrows and walked away with the Artifact. Chris got the Minor victory, as his force was broken..in a fact all but around 8 dwarves were dead...I was 12 down..2 short of break.
Minor Loss- 7 points


Gandalf, went all three games without taking a single wound


Bunkered up on this hill I was hard to dislodge



Game 2 versus Jamie (Tower of Ecthelion)

Faramir, Captain of Ithilien/ Warhorse
5 Knights of Minas Tirith
8 Warriors w/ Shields
7 Warriors w/ Spears and Shields
10 Warriors w/ Bows
5 Citadel Guard
Angbor the Fearless
5 Clansmen of Lamedon
43 Models/ 22 Break

This scrap was all Gandalf, there 8 plus the Banner to start


Jamie's one the usual organizers of LotR events in this area, aside from being an great guy he's awesome painter, bringing my hands down favorite army of the event to table. Brent the T.O. called the game a "White Dwarf Battle Report" in action, and I agree it sure looked awesome..too bad we both don't get to play much other than to hope for the occasional game. Scenario was
"contest of champions" where your main hero (Gandalf/Faramir) had to tally up the most kills.
I basically had the same strategy as last game break out into groups spread him out and send the eagle after his archers. A loss of Priority at key point led to the Eagle getting surrounded way too early by the Citadel Guard, which hurt because Jamie was rolling pretty hot with Volley fire. He brought out some warriors with the guy with the banner to engage Gandalf who got off a big "Sorcerous Blast" the follow up melee brought Gandalf up to 5 kills. The distraction with the Eagle in his back field had Jamie totally redirect his cavalry with Faramir to the opposite side of the board..my eagle again died and he start gaining ground kill some of my guys on the right flank. However I had cleaned up the whole other side of table, whittled down his archers and shot down all the Clansmen by Angbor. At this point Jamie was broken and started losing more guys..I had few remaining guys one his flank tie him up on the side, while the majority of my force shot at the stragglers from a good distance away..another big blast from Gandalf had him up 8 kills to Faramirs 3, Jamie fell below the 25% mark and I got the victory, still 4 models
short of breaking, I took 10 casualties total, including Gwaihir.
Major Victory 20 points


I gambled on priority here, and lost..getting surrounded led to Eagles death every time, but not this particular one, I survived and flew away.


Faramir, got into the mix far too late to catch up to Gandalf kill count


Faramir and his Knights to the rescue of those archers


The Dragon isnt the Balrog, but damn close

Game 3 vs Raymond (Moria)

Durburz
12 Goblins w/ Bow
13 Goblins w/Shields
13 Goblins w/Spears
Dragon, breath fire , tough hide
40 Models/ 20 Break

After practicing against the Balrog the other night, the Dragon didn't really phase me..At Defense 9 and nasty, auto kill breath weapon..I knew I had one tactic.."immobilize" the Dragon, long enough, I could break the goblins. Scenario was "Domination" which is probably my favorite scenario for this army. Same strategy again, except this time I brought the Eagle up giving the Dragon the opportunity to engage it and be tied up, it passed for the chance to use it breath weapon and killed 2 Rangers...after that I just engaged it with one model and had Gandalf "immobilize" it every round. Ray didn't want to burn up his will to defend it so kept letting the spell go to try to get the extra breath weapon shots..a critical error..he put way too many eggs in one basket with the Dragons breath weapon..he should burned up his will to stop me the 1st time, then used his free one..and just smashed the thing into me for close combat..it would have been way more effective. by tying up the Dragon for 4 turns or so...I shot the pants off the Goblins and flew the Eagle over to the far objective (where he beat 5 goblins readily even while surrounded and taking double strikes at least once). Once Ray was broken, it was all over.. Durburz hung in there and on the lucky break Raymond rolled a "2" on the 1st try to end the game..and it ended before I could kill Durburz and get control of the 4th objective. Ray was a great opponent and sport..I could tell he just hadn't dealt with problems I was giving him before.
Minor Victory 15 points


A lone model holds the immobilized Dragon at bay



At a certain point I realized it was easier to kill Goblins in hand to hand than shoot them.

With 43/60 points on day one, I am pretty happy and it was a good day. Although don't expect much from me tomorrow as know that I am in the top third scoring wise, I am going, inevitably to play some very high model count armies I am going to have really tough time with..there are few 50-60 model armies I saw that are pretty scary. Hats off to Brent S. for running such a great event. I'll wrap it up tomorrow.


Gwaihir, had no troubles handling this, especially once broke and the remaining
goblins start testing on a "2".