Erebor vs Cirith Ungol

Lord of the Rings Battle Recap and SBG update

I got the rare chance to get out the Chicago battle bunker last weekend, for some LotR SBG with my fellow blogger, miniature painter and LotR enthusiast Jamie W.

Jamie's got numerous beautiful armies and this time he brought out his Erebor Dwarven force for the upcoming Bilbos Birthday Bash and I brought out the Orcs of Cirith Ungol and their Spider Queen. Its was great game and we demoed one the event scenarios. I was happy to give the dwarves a go, as their brutal defensive stats make them one of the toughest armies in the game.


I forgot my camera so grabbing pics of Jamies great army of his blog is best I can do here.


Erebor

Balin
Dwarf Captain with Shield
Dwarf Warrior w/ Banner
12 Dwarf Warriors w/ Dwarf Bow
7 Dwarf Warrios w/ Shield
8 Khazad Guard
6 Iron Guard
6 Dwarf Rangers w/ throwing axes and two-handed axes


Cirith Ungol

Shagrat, War Leader
Shelob
Orc Shaman on Warg

8 Warg Riders, w/Hand Weapon and Shield
18 Orcs w/Hand Weapon and Shield
10 Orcs w/Spears
1 Orc with Banner.
4 Uruk Hai with two handed weapons


The scenario was a "control" scenario based on 5 objective points...how many you controlled at the end of game dictate either Major, Minor win or Draw.

My deployment was very straight forward..and I cant see it particularly different in any game I play with ths Army, The Wargs on one flank the, Shelob on the other and the mob of Orcs in the middle.

Jamies deployment was a bit more nuanced he had his captain and a mix of Khazad and Iron guard with a couple rangers on the flank opposite the Wargs. the warriors with Bows in the center. Balin, The Banner Bearer and mix of remaining troops spread out on the other flank around the objective.



Worried about Volley fire directed at Shelob...I held her back and pushed hard with Wargs slamming into their brick wall of defense 6 and 7 troops by my second turn. The shaman leading the way had cast "Fury" and away they went for long struggle. My infantry need 4 full moves to really mix it up with dwarves and Jamie just waited for me to come to him in the middle. Shelob played cat and mouse with some of the dwarves that where screening for Balin, I survived many a ranged attack and during a run of many lost priorities in a row. Jamie just fed single dwarves to the spider to keep her tied up. eventually when the brawl in the middle broke out there was no where for the spider to get to that could cause alot of damage, so she just stayed on the edge, killing single dwarves hoping to break his hold on the objective. The Warg vs Khazad/Iron Guard flank was were alot of the action was...I literally charged, bounced off and charged again, and again...eventually whittling him down to the Defense 8 Captain who survived a 3 Warg Rider charged and was also trapped..by the time I killed all the dwarves on the flank I'd lost most my Warg Riders and the battle of attrition in the middle evened us up on losses and both our forces broke at exactly the same time. According the scenario when one player breaks we roll to see how many turns the game continues. I roll "1" and then win priority. I start making break checks...Shagrat and his Orcs around him via standfast all stick around, so does Shelob, but none of my Wargs or few troopers I left camping on Objectives do...I go from having 2 objectives and contesting 1, to having zero....One more turn gets me some good kills and Jamie has bad break check run too. so in the end, it winds up 1 objective for him 2 contested by me...and a Draw...but its was literally down to the last turn, and we both easliy lost 75% of our forces with our main heroes and small entourages remaining.--a bloodbath, as it should be.



It took me half the game to get my head back in the rules, While I have been playing Legends of the High seas all summer and it uses the same basic rules, LotR is alot more complicated due to alot of Might, Will and Fate being continuely used plus alot lot more special rules. I stupidly forgot that your banner bearer needs to be touching another model it keep the banner on the field if the bearer dies...and a sloppy move cost me banner at a key point toward the end. It was all good thou as a great bloody scrap like this got me pumped up to get a few more practice games in before the tournament. I was happy with my armies performance, Shagrat was a beast and Shelob had alot more staying power than I thought given her Hunting Instinct liability. Great game to Jamie, and I look forward to the next one.

With a notable crew of regional LotR players in attendance its was very cool to see the renewed interest in the game from the older players and a lot of new players too. I was totally surprised to see Brent sweating that he only had enough swag for 39 players, as he had over 20 paid with inquiries from another other people that he had to post a 1st come, 1st serve notice on the local forums in regards to swag for the event. My reaction was of course -39 players!! are you kidding me?..when I played in the original Bilbo's bash in 2009, it was 7 players and a ringer, with 300% percent bump in 2010 to 21, with a projected another 100 % attendance bump this year? If you read various popular forums you won't have to go far to find some 40K of WFB fanboy crowing about how LotR is dead and just eating resources from the other games. I don't think so guys. because when the chips are down, its the good games that have legs. It is the only low investment, high return game that GW puts out. For a tournament turnout comparison -Core, Competency one of area's bigger fall WFB tourneys only had 29 players last year (although its looking at over 40 this year) but for whatever reason, (points, scheduling) Adepticon numbers for LotR remain anemic, while other games are in triple digits..However, let be clear. Rumors of this games death are greatly exaggerated..with the Hobbit coming out next year, if you are in the IL, WI, MN, IN region, its definitely a good time to get or get back into this game.