Thursday, February 26, 2009

Batrep: 2nd Annual LotR Independant GT (Mesa, AZ)

Hello everyone,

Well, it has been nearly a week since the dust has settled from the GitD event. I know you are all wondering how well I did, well let me go over each round first.

The event was held at Empire Games in Mesa, AZ. This was a awesome venue. There was lots, and I really mean LOTS, of space for gaming. Also the store was stocked full of merchandise. This was a welcome sight as many of the game stores I have been to locally have been a bit lacking in product. Anyway, there were plenty of Gaming tables and the tables were solidly built at standing height, although some had a few issues.

So, my list for the GitD event was an expansion of my November Primer list. It was also the same army I played against Dragi, Dean and Tim in December and January, so I had been getting a little experience with the army and its good parts and bad parts.

First my list:
Dol Amroth Fiefdoms

Imrahil Prince of Dol Amroth(Mounted)
7x Knights of Dol Amroth(Mounted)
12x Knights of Dol Amroth(Foot)
8 Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth
4 Axemen of Lossarnache
12 Rangers of Gondor

Total Models:44
Bows: 12

The GT had 5 rounds; Bilbo’s Treasure, Light the Beacons, Look to the East, The Artifact, and The Last Alliance. Basically these boiled down to 3 pitched battles, a modified Capture the Prize, and a To the Death.

Game 1 (Bilbo’s Treasure) - Opponent Frank Brown

Yes, that Frank Brown. The winner of the last years Tournament Circuit. The one who came last year and took best overall at the first GitD. That Frank Brown. Yes, I shuddered when I found out who I was up against.

Dol Amroth versus Gondor(Led by Boromir, Baragond, and I think Cirion). This was a tough matchup and a tough game overall. We squared off across a Realm of Battle table that was modeled to have a large hill in the center which also had a ruin of some sort on top. The main objective was kill the enemy army, however the secondary objective was to find ‘Bilbos Treasure’. Across the table were 6 burial sites that could contain the treasure. At the beginning of the game we rolled a D6 which would identify which pile was correct, but we have to dig the pile up to find out. The game started out with both Frank and I racing our armies forward and I was lucky to have a slightly easier path to 4 of the 6 treasures. Unfortunately, none of them had the treasure and Frank was able to find its location first. The mission allowed Frank to take the treasure to any board edge, which his was still closest so he started making for that edge while I engaged his main line on both sides of the ruin.

Imrahil showed his strength here as his banner ability helped sustain my line to allow my side more winning fights, and also he held his ground against a attack by Boromir and his pile of Might. In the end however, Imrahil was still standing and the treasure was still on the board when time was called

Outcome: Draw(10 pts)

Game 2 (Light the Beacons) - Opponent Howard Beam

Dol Amroth version Last Alliance Elves and Numenorians. Howards Elves and Numenorian army was awesome to see. His painting is truly top notch! Anyway, the objective of the mission was to light as many beacons as possible and then eliminate the opposing army. Setup saw me take advantage of my side, while limiting Howard’s options to only 2 paths around impassible water.

Unfortunately, I was unable to capitalize on this as I moved my Knights incorrectly by forest, not knowing that they cannot charge in the trees. Oops. Bad move and probably cost me the game. This had the effect of eliminating Imrahil from being a benefit as he was out of position the entire game. I was able to light 5 of the beacons though gaining me 2.5 additional bonus points.

Outcome: Draw(10 pts + 2.5 Bonus Points).

Game 3 (Look to the East) - Opponent Andrey Zubkov

This was an interesting game. We were on the Mirkwood forest table which had lots of trees and difficult terrain scattered across the entire table. The missing called for us to deploy half our models and keep the other half in reserve as they would enter the ‘east’ board edge during play. East is relative as it was really from the right for each player. For this I tried using my right side of the table to help keep my models together and thought I had done well as when I got my reserves to enter Andrey was about a third of the way across the table and was still missing his reserves. I decided (incorrectly) to deploy Imrahil and my mounted Knights behind Andrey’s line in a hope to engage and squash them. Unfortunately, his Moronon Orcs were tougher than I thought and my attacks broke like the ocean against the beach. His wraith transfixed or compelled Imrahil for 5 straight rounds (3 of which he was attacked) but Imrahil held his own through seriously lucky rolls. That can’t be said for the rest of my models though and when time was called and the math added up, I was 8 point past the cut for a draw.

Outcome: Minor Loss(7 pts)

Game 4 (The Artifact) - Opponent Robert Brightwell

So I had played Rob before in the past and had seen a prior iteration of his Angmar list at the last GitD. Rob did make changes, including the addition of wild wargs and a shade. Overall this mission was a good matchup. The mission was to collect the Artifact from the center of the table and then carry it off the opponent’s table edge. The artifact could be carried by any model (mounted or foot) but could only be dug up by models on foot.

Well, I was able to run for the artifact and extract it prior to Rob getting his orcs to me but then the real game started as I tried to figure out a way around or through his defensive line. At first I thought I could take the artifact off his left side(where his wargs had deployed) as my knights had done well in the prior round engaging them, unfortunately as I committed my knight to the direction my dice failed me as the next round saw nearly every knight gone and the wargs in the free. I think the major factor in this however was the shade with its Fight lowering ability. Man does that hurt!

Well, I had to change my knights’ direction and by this time I had caused Robs rights side to collapse back on it leaving a nice path to freedom. This is the direction I took and eventually won just prior to time being called (I think it was like 2 minutes)

Outcome: Major Victory(20 pts)

Game 5 (The Last Alliance) - Opponent Keith Hruska

Dol Amroth against Dol Amroth on the Osgiliath table. This was a tough match that really only had a chance to end in a draw. Considering the terrain and the matchup of models it devolved into a simply pushing match as he pushed me one round and I pushed back the next. We both lost very few models this entire game.

Highlight was 6 Rangers of Gondor holding up all of Keith’s Knights the entire game, effectively eliminating them from any concerns.

Outcome: Draw(10 pts)

In all, I was 11th out of the 20 players. I had a great time and Tim and Dean put on another great LotR tournament!

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