War of the Ring- Playtest!

I finally got my War of the Ring playtest in. It took awhile to set up but I got two actual full games in not just running thru the store demo armies today using my own Mordor Force, Couple things up front, the game is great fun, a couple of the rules are a little wacky to me (I'll go into that in a bit), but overall I think its great. It not a replacement for Warhammer, it is much more macro of a game than Warhammer and while very strategic based on the missions and overall dymanics, its still about throwing dice and lots of them. I played 2- 1000 point games today..I think the standard once the game is out and running will be 2K- but 2K in this game is ALOT of models, 150-200 models. War of the Ring is game a with Hordes of troops where monsters and heroes rule the day, just like in the movies. It much different than the strategy battle game in most respects even thou it uses the same models, which might take some getting used to.
I played the same list in both games, I didn't have my Camera as the majority of the models were unpainted.

My List- Mordor

Epic Heroes

Gothmog/Warg (with Warg Riders)

Ringwraith on Fellbeast

Shagrat and his Tower Guard (1 company, Legendary Formation)

Infantry Formations-

Mordor Orcs, 3 companies, Hand Weapon and Shield
Captain, Banner, Drummer

Mordor Orcs, 3 companies, Hand Weapon and Shield
Captain, Banner, Taskmaster

Mordor Orcs, 1 Company- Bows

Cavarly Formations-

Warg Riders, 3 Companies, Hand Weapon and Shield

1000 points/ 72 models.



Game- 1 Vs Gondor w/ Rohan Allies (Anthony)


Epic Heroes

Aragorn (with Warrior of MT)

Theoden (with Riders of Rohan)

The King of the Dead

Infantry formations-

Warriors of Minas Tirith, 3 Companies- Hand Weapon & Shield
Banner

Warriors of Minas Tirith, 2 Companies - Bows

Army of the Dead, 3 Companies- Hand Weapon & Shield
Banner

Cavalry Formations-


Riders of Rohan, 3 Companies, Hand Weapon & Shield, Throwing Weapons

1000 points/ 73 models


We rolled for a mission and came up with High Ground, we nominated on hill on the battlefield as the victory area, the then rolled for deployment and we rolled Maelstrom. Which means No models start on the table and you roll a D6 for each unit. Table edges are numbered, 3,4,5,6
you roll a D6 for each unit on 1,2 it stays off the table 3+ comes in from the corresponding table edge. You need to be careful because it real easy to get rear or flank charged when you opponent can come in from the same edge as you.

In this game our models came in over the first 3 turns on a pretty even level. The Army of the Dead came on from the edge 6 (my left table edge) early on and the majority of my models did as well. I had Shagrat and his Guard and Orc Infantry coming on the #4 table edge where the majority of the good forces where. My Infantry made into the near by woods by Shagrat and company just caught in the open and on the next turn 2 Companies of Gondor Bowmen show up behind him on the hill and let loose. 16 shots wounding on 5's, on which he rolls 5 hits. In WotR hits are kills. The one rule I think is a bit odd, is IF you only have one company (8 units ) and its reduced to less than 50%, its automatically destroyed. Even if its a Legendary Formation with 125 point Hero in it. So just like that they are killed- dead by 30 points of cheap infantry. Seems like the should get some kind of save or something or be able to flee to another unit. The answer is of course to have more companies in your formation, I could have had 3 companies with Shagrat if I did, those 5 kills from archers would have meant nothing until I was reduced to just the core company. Annoying my favorite hero is dead but I carry on.

Theoden and his Riders mix it up with some Orc Infantry and I lose combat and am disordered but regroup and am back in the fight..My Nazgul is flying around throwing the Enfeeble spell at Theoden and Co. and its seriously gimping him. Magic in WotR is another thing that seems odd, The first spell of the phase always go off..the effects can vary based on dice, and you need to roll to see if you can cast more spells..its bit odd, but as you will see in game two- magic is very powerful, we barely dipped our toe in it here as I had the only spellcaster (the Nazgul)

I got to see the results of great cavalry charge on the other side of the table..Gothmog and Warg Riders rear charge the Army of dead who are holding the high ground...I pass my Courage test and we storm in. Cavarly gets a base 2 attacks per company + 6 extra each company on the charge, plus I burn one of Gothmogs 4 points of might to try his Epic Strike ability giving him another 5 attacks, plus I have rear charge and am using Gothmogs fight skill giving me even more dice. I end up rolling over 30 attacks and do 19 kills leaving on 5 Army of the dead (one more and it would have been an Auto Wipe out given the above rule) the King and his cowards are disorders and do regroup moving away only to be killed by the Flying Ringwraith. Who also is still fighting with Theoden, throwing spells and is dominating that side of the table...his hard to kill ability and 8 defense makes him unstoppable you can swarm enough attacks on him to come up with enough rolls on the "Hard to kill" table to get him.

On the Gondor Side, Aragorn has the ability to make a pretty sneaky move. He can burn a point of might (In which he gets one "free" every turn) to invoke an Epic Journey...this immediately removes Aragorn and his formation from the table and allows them to be replaced anywhere on the table as a free move..they can't charge that turn (maybe shoot too, don't recal) but all of a sudden Aragorn is up my backside behind my Warg Riders and a Formation of Orc infantry who are now Holding the high ground. I also had my bowmen behind Aragorn (late late arrival via deployment) and the troll lumbering around and I was about to see what he could do.

On my turn I charged the Troll in and he busts up some Men of Gondor good..since he is a monster, he only fights the company he is touching which thanfully isn't Aragorn...so I kill a bunch of guys, win combat and Gondor falls back and reforms...This allows Gothmog and the Boys to come around in there move phase and eventually rear charging Aragorn. Aragorn calls out an Epic duel trying to kill Gothmog and fails and more Men of Gondor die. The next turn I get the Ringwraith into Combat as well, and that seals the Deal, Aragorn and Company are killed, but since its Simaltaneous combat here...He get's to see how many of my troops he can take down with him..He calls out another Epic Duel (using the 1 free might he has per turn, quite
handy!) This time he manages to kill Gothmog and my Warg Riders in the process. I killed Aragorn but its took, A Troll, Gothmog and 5 Warg Riders and a Ringwraith on a Fellbeast to do it...yes folks..Aragorn still is the man to beat in WotR...what you expect from the King of Gondor.

Theoden and a couple guys make a final attempt to storm the High Ground, but with 3 Companies of Infantry there..It dubious despite the King of Rohan's formidable stats. I bring the Ringwraith over in the move phase he's got distance to charge in the fight phase so Theoden Faces 3 companies of Orcs with a Ringwraith on his Flank and is scattered into the winds...MORDOR wins.

Anthonys "3 Kings" list was a good one, but splitting his forces proved to be fatal, I had enough infantry on the right side of the table that with the Nagul & Fellbeast, I kept Theoden out of the important part of the fight long enough to swarm Aragorn, an early rout of the Army of the Dead was key, but in the end the MVP for Mordor was the Nazgul, Watch how the Tide Changes in Game 2.



Game 2 VS Fallen Realms (Jeff)

Evil VS Evil is never a good thing, the Fallen Realms are the evil empires in WotR that are the Dark Lords auxillaries, with Mordor allies its an incredibly potent force, as I soon find out

Epic Heroes

Knight of Umbar (Nazgul)

Dalamyr, Master of Fleet
(Both with Corsairs)

The Dark Marshall (Nazgul)
(with Morgul Knights)


Infantry Formations

6 Companies of Corsairs of Umbar

3 Companies of Black Numenorians

2 Companies of Corsair Arbalesters

1 Company of Half Trolls

1 Company of Goblins

Cavarly Formations

4 Companies of Morgul Knights


1000 points/ 115 models



Jeff works for GW and has been going around promoting this game so he's been playing it for awhile at this point. When I saw all the extra companies at 1000 points..I knew I was in trouble we rolled "Clash of Swords" as the Mission (i.e he who racks up the most kills) and again Maelstrom Deployment. Jeff came out of the gate huge by getting everyone, but the Half Trolls on the table in Turn 1. I had Gothmog and his Wargs, the Trolls, my Bowmen and 1 Infantry formation sitting out. Again- Shagrat and his legendary formation turned out to be a waste without additional company support. He comes in on the #5 table edge..but so does most of Jeff's army..I do get a Charge off...but its not enough attacks against his big formations and the strike backs cut him down. Jeff obviously has figured out the Magic phase and he uses the spell "wings of terror" to give both his huge infantry formation of Corsairs and His Morgul Knights (both led by different Nazgul) movement as if they are Flyers. This is incredibly powerful as I find My Ringwraith on his Fellbeast Charged turn one by 48 Corsairs led by the Knight of Umbar and Dalamyr. Dalamyr has "Epic Poison" which lets Jeff reroll all misses that turn- that formation put out over 30 attacks on the Nazgul, so with rerolls he came up with 10 hits...which gives him 5 rolls on the hard to kill table...he easily kills my MVP from earlier in the afternoon and on the first turn!!...ouch two heroes dead turn 1, Its up to Gothmog.

Gothmog tries the Half trolls on for size..despite my huge amount of attacks...I cant close the deal. Half Trolls are "indomnitable" which is "unbreakable" if you play warhammer...meaning you got to kill every last one on of them and they dont run away. With two wounds each...I still had one left...after two rounds of combat.

My troll comes the far #4 table edge all by his lonesome, Again Jeff is using the magic ability of his Nazgul in each of his main formations to move each all over the map. Offensive Spells put wounds on the troll and he can't reach the Morgul knights on the Charge but they can easily reach him and he is killed...of the other side both my Infantry formations brace for impact against the Corsairs and Black Numenoreans..My Orc's bounce off the Numenorians...and the Sheer number of attacks from the Corsairs on the charge kill my other 3 orc companies easy...I disengage Gothmog from the Half Troll and get a charge on the Corairs...Gothmog burns his might to Challenge the Knight of Umbar to a Heroic Duel and kills him...yeah Gothmog!!!.
The celebration is shortlived because in the following fight my Wargs and the leader go down hard...I had some bowmen on the table and they got killed by a company of goblins!..Goblins..killing Orcs?? who heard of such a thing. Anyways I got TABLED in three turns, my previous game went the full 8 turns...Bad deployment and against someone who knew what they where doing and knew the value of large formations. Magic is very powerful- that is for sure, jeff's movement just killed me..I think there are magic counters for alot of these spells...but my one caster was dead before I could even cast a spell.

I learned alot today on how to play this game, despite some of the awkwardness of some of the rules (alot of which comes from my perspective as a Warhammer player) I do like this and think it will be a blast. I got the full-on experience today...I'm in and expect to play alot of this in the coming summer. If you have questions about some of the terms..I am sure they are confusing even to the Skirmish game Vet...ask away.

It's March already!!!??

Ok, this year is just flying by. Its been quite here of late as I briefly mentioned in my last sidebar. I've been working on a variety of things, too many in fact where as I am suffering from that dreaded project ADD we all try so hard to avoid. I am expecting a big backlog of stuff to start getting in to finished status in the next 2 mos, here is where I am at in March 2009:

Road to Adepticon- Just shy of month to go its all about Adepticon. With the current collapse of GW organized events, Adepticon is without a doubt the premier event in the US for the hobby. This will be my third visit to the convention and I am competing in two events. The Warhammer Escalation tourney on Friday and the Warhammer Championships on saturday. My goal this year is to win a freaking game!. LOL...last year I went a lowly 0-4 narrowly missing the bottom quarter due to high soft scores. I plan on keeping those soft scores and I've upped my game with a tougher Empire army and alot more experience under my belt. I'm bringing Flagellants and Greatswords, as well as my Inner Circle Knights this year, I've got some new models I'll be debuting, I'm doing considerable work on my display base and the whole army is getting a touch up..I'm well on my way "in progress" but I am sure I will be tweaking things until the last minute, (Just hopefully not until 4am the night before like last year). I want to get a bunch of practice games in this month as well, which I have been working on trying to set up..expect a full army spread and couple battle reports this month for sure on my "Road to Adepticon".


War of the Ring- A major distraction to my Adepticon plans is the new War of the Ring book for the Lord of the Rings line coming out on of all weekends, Adepticon Weekend . I love the skirmish game and don't get to play it enough so large scale battles is just icing on the cake. Rarity of playing is all going to change very soon. We've got a new summer campaign planned that going to comprise both the SBG (strategy battle game) and the new WotR rules. I've bought a bunch of new models (you need to for WotR, your couple dozen models for skirmish wont cut it.) and have been building and getting them primed up when I can. I've got around 80 models play ready for my Mordor force so far with another 30 or so waiting to be built..I'm playing my first game on tuesday afteroon, it will be bigger than demo games they've been running at our local GW, but smaller than what I expect to see one people get a handle on it post release. I assume you'll be seeing games in the 2K range as the normal in WotR. Lower cost troops and options for lots of monsters, mean games averaging 125 models or so. I can't wait. Look for lots of War of Ring talk here!.


On The Workbench- Again old projects still in the mix, Our current WFB campaign concludes tuesday evening, and my Daemons of Chaos army has grown along the way, I went from a Khorne / Slaanesh mix, to a Khorne/ Slannesh/ Nurgle trio to finally a Nurgle army led by the Great Unclean One with Khorne Support and just a few Daemonettes should I have enough campaign points to get a full 2250. Playing Daemons have been fun..but they really are the "For Dummies" WFB army..I love the models and will continue to paint and collect them, (I've been spending too much of my time working on my Forge World GUO, it will take me quite awhile to finish that monster to a standard I'm happy with) but when I want to play serious WFB I am still playing Empire.

Terrain wise I'm focusing on finishing my Osgiliath table I started last year..its gone thru a variety of changes and new additions since my last post on it...post Adepticon its my number one- modeling project until I get it to a fully playable status which will hopefully be soon. Other than that I've got my Old West posse and trio of buildings I want to do..AND believe it or not Wargames Factory is finally shipping my Celts- that are exactly one year behind schedule...hopefully I'll like the models more than my Warlord games ones, if so with new the Ancients edition coming out..I expect that my Ancient Celts might see some love this summer.

Recently I've started using some new financial software for keeping track of our families finances similar to what I use for my business. I must confess I was pretty shocked when I realized what I've spent on the hobby in the last 6 months and I need to back off a bit, no- alot for the time being. While I was seriously thinking about getting back into 40K with a new Imperial Guard Army this May, I am definitely giving it a pass for now..with so many other things "on the bench" I've got plenty to occupy my time this year for sure, not to mention my ideas for IG where going to be very pricey as in Forge World pricey. Anyway I am still on the bench for 40K for the near future, never say never but I will still write about it here and will definitely be monitoring my pal Bill's new IG army as it develops, maybe I can get him to talk about it here..but I still want to see the Treeman article first!.

That's it for how, Happy March people!.

Mighty Empires V- Round 6

2/24@ Games Workshop, Oak Park


Standings after round 5


Good Team- 29

Bill- Wood Elves - 8
Bob- Ogres - 6
Chris- Bretonnians- 9
Leo- High Elves -4
Nate- Lizardmen- 2

Evil Team- 33

John- Daemons of Chaos- 7
Joe- Warriors of Chaos- 4
Kenny- Daemons of Chaos - 10
Billy- Skaven- 8
Andre- Tomb Kings- 4

Round 5-The Bad Guys win one!


Strategic Events

John- Headhunter
Ken- Survey the Battlefield (via praise)
Bob- No Guts, No Glory
Bill- Land Grab
Billy- War Tax
Nate- Scouts
Leo- Building Boom
Andre- Diplomacy
Joe- All or Nothing
Chris- Survey the Battlefield

Campaign Events

John- Corruption -100
Bill- All is Well
Billy- Famine -150 ( again!!!)
Andre- Corruption -100
Leo- All is Well
Bob- Raid +220
Chris- Corruption -100
Joe- Infamy
Ken- Corruption -100
Nate-Raid +140


Revenue

John- 250 (cash point)
Bill- 200
Joe-210
Bob- Buys Point (250) +215
Billy- 0 (125 to Insurgents)
Chris- 125
Ken-0
Leo-175
Andre- 225
Nate- 190

Games
Daemons of Chaos vs Ogres
Scenario- Siege @ the Lair of the Damned
Result: Daemons- Hold (3) +2, Ogres - 1

Wood Elves vs Warriors of Chaos
Scenario- Pitched Battle
Result: Warriors- Massacre 5, Wood Elves- 1

High Elves vs Tomb Kings
Scenario- Eschelon Attack
Result: TBA

Bretonnians vs Daemons of Chaos
Scenario: Siege @ the Tower Fortress
Result. Daemons Capture (3) +2, Bretonnians- 1

Skaven vs Lizardmen
Scenario: Seige @ the Iron Stronghold
Result: Lizardmen Capture (3) +2, Skaven 1

Bonus Points remaining
Nate- 2 Luck , Bob- 2 Luck


A hallow victory for me tonight, although I won the scenario by having my rank and file units capture all three objectives...the majority of my army was wiped off the map by Bretonnian Charges...The Great Unclean One may be nigh invincible but eating a charge from a whole lance of Grail Knights led by a Lord with Killing Blow...is a sure way to get him killed, granted he lasted 4 turns losing- 9 wounds to Daemonic Instabilty and finally sucumbing to a killing blow for his last wound. the rest of my troops got smashed I couldn't roll a hit or make a save tonight. The entire game basically game down a die roll if the fleeing Trebuchet crew and Damsel holding on of the objectives had rallied (they failed) all Chris would had to do was kill one blood letter in the magic phase ro force the game to Victory Points...in which case I got massacred...like I said Hallow victory. Great game Chris.

Last Stand!

Here's a combination of a bunch of pieces finally seeing play..This piece I call "Last Stand" Ruin which I put together for our campaign and its part of my Osgiliath table. Its about 90% complete.. I just need trim out the edges with some paint, flock and some accent bricks...its all Hirst bricks..with some of the old plastic 40K ruins on the corners...I filled a bunch of the bulletholes..but plenty still remain, well just call em "crossbow bolt" damage on this fantasy piece.




I also experimented with some Woodland Scenic pigment here...I used "Raw Umber" which is much thicker than your normal wash but dries opaque. It created the nice dirty look to piece which is a nice contrast to all the drybrushing. Of course it sitting on my Realm of Battle table, which I've put into one of the hill configurations and I finished the full frame out of the table. It all comes together pretty well and since I don't have an actual game to to talk about you can just imagine what it would have been like from the photo's it's the Last Stand of "Square Basers versus the Round Basers." as 9 Empire Swordsmen, take on Shagrat, 3 Uruk-hai, a Troll, a Nazgul and and handful of Orcs..if you play both games...you're laughing at the slaughter that would ensue.

Mighty Empires V- Round 5

2/17 @ Games Workshop, Oak Park



Standings after round 4


Good Team- 29

Bill- Wood Elves - 10
Bob- Ogres - 5
Chris- Bretonnians- 6
Leo- High Elves -3
Nate- Lizardmen- 5

Evil Team- 27

John- Daemons of Chaos- 6
Joe- Warriors of Chaos- 2
Kenny- Daemons of Chaos - 5
Billy- Skaven- 7
Andre- Tomb Kings- 7

Round 4, Good team Wins


Strategic Events

John- No Guts, No Glory
Ken- Praise be to the Oracle
Bob- Sabotage
Bill- Survey the battlefield
Billy- Building Boom
Nate- Scouts
Leo- Land Grab
Andre- Praise be to the Oracle
Joe- All or Nothing
Chris- Diplomacy

Campaign Events

John- Raid- Ogres +120
Bill- Hidden Cache
Billy- Famine -100
Andre- Disaster- Needs to Roll
Leo-Corruption -100
Bob- Treasure Trove
Chris- Fame
Joe- Hidden Cache
Ken- Harvest Moon
Nate-All is Well


Revenue

John- 270
Bill- 275
Joe-50
Bob- 105
Billy- 0
Chris- 125
Ken-125
Leo-75
Andre- 475
Nate- 125

Games

Daemons of Chaos vs Lizardmen
Scenario- Battle for Skull Pass
Result: Daemons- Massacre 5, Lizards- 1

Wood Elves vs Daemons of Chaos
Scenario- Siege @ the Lair of the Damned
Result: Daemons- Massacre 5, Wood Elves- 1

High Elves vs Skaven
Scenario- Siege @ the Iron Stronghold
Result: Skaven Hold + 2pts, High Elves -1 pt


Warriors of Chaos Vs Ogres
Scenario: Loot/ Raid
Result.Warriors 3, Ogres 2
Warriors- "All or Nothing" + 5pts

Tomb Kings VS Bretonnians
Scenario: Siege @ the Tower Fortress
Result: Bretonnians -Solid Victory 4, Tomb kings- 1

Bonus Points remaining
Nate- 2 Luck , Bob- 2 Luck


My Daemons drew the Battle for Skull Pass tonight against Nate's Lizards...with maximum reinforcements at my disposal..I decided to field the Great Unclean One as my General...Level 2 Wizard, Slime Trail, Noxious Vapors, and the Trappings of Nurgle which basically makes him indestructible.

My job was to get thru the pass or get control of both hilltops...It was the Slaan and his guard, a pair of Ancient Stegadons and some Skink priests, Terradons and Skink filler against the GUO, a Slaaneshi Herald BSB, (No Banner of Sundering thou)...Bloodletters, Daemonettes, Plaguebearerss, 2 units of Hounds and a pair of Bloodcrushers.
The GUO took everything Nate could throw at it and laughed...shruging off an easy dozen+ wounds only ever taking two, He took out both Ancient Steggies Single handedly..Nate had at least 3 miscasts and I had one...The Slaan didn't have the magic impact he should have this game. I gave up both units of hounds and my some Daemonettes to get my GUO and one Unit of Letters in control on one side while everyone else went the other way...In the end the Daemons stood on both Hilltops controlling the pass...while the Slann and three temple guard stoon alone out numbered after 6 turns. I lost both units of Hounds, both units of bloodletters, and 1 units of Daemonettes, while the core point difference was +562 for me, I had 400 bonus points (2 Scoring full command units, 1 Captured Banner, and +100 team bonus) and scored double Victory Points for both Ancient Stegadons, via "No Guts, No Glory" pushing the game easily into massacre territory...Great game to nate, one my favorites of the campaign..The Fatman (GUO)
was sick!.

New plastic Greatswords!- Photo!

Here is a look at the upcoming new plastic greatswords!, courtesy of Plastic Legions reader David Gardiner at UK studio day, while I have 15, I can't wait for another 10 plus the new command squad woot!-




Another new Empire Captain or General..Great model!..that Orc Raider was also in the recent
newsletter!

New plastic "Stank"!!!- Photo

Welp as a devout Empire Player, I can't resist posting this. The photo just showed up in my mailbox courtesy of a Games Workshop newsletter. Here is the new plastic Steam Tank. I've never run a "Stank" before, but won''t be able to resist now! really looking for forward to this in May/ June. Please no comments on how its really the metal one and GW is bullshitting us with the photo!.
LOL!


Found this as well from todays..UK studio day

(photo courtesy of Syph @ Heresy Online)

Wish I could see those new models below it too!