Tuesday, March 29, 2011

WOTR battle report

I managed to get my brother into a game of War of the Ring this weekend, so here is my very first battle report!
We played Isengard vs an Eriador alliance. My list was: Saruman the White Hand.
               2 coy Uruk-Hai with shields
               2 coy Uruk-Hai Phalanx
               2 coy Uruk Scouts with shields
               2 coy Dunlending Huscarls with shields
               1 coy Uruk-Hai with Crossbows
               1 coy Uruk-Hai Scouts with bows
               Cave Troll ally (I wanted to try monsters)
               3 coy Warg Riders
His list:    Treebeard
               Forlong the Fat (We used the profile from the legendary formation as Epic Hero)
               Meriadoc, Esquire of Rohan
               2 coy Dwarves with shields
               1 coy Dwarf archers
               3 coy Rangers of Arnor
So I felt rather confident at the beginning, until I saw the map he'd made. It was a river flowing through a barren plain with an island in the middle, with 2 fords on my side and one on his, and 1 in the piece beneath the island. The island was heavily wooded and had several impassable hills on it, which prevented effective arcery. There also was an inn on his side of the river.

Turn 1
Eriador won priority and kept it. both advanced at full speed, so no shooting. I forgot about At the Double! (we forgot a lot of things, such as the boosts heroes give to formations). With no charges we went on to turn two.
Turn 2
Eriador won priority and again kept it. He pushed on with Treebeard, the Rangers and both Dwarf formations. I pushed forward too, placing the Uruk Warriors close to Treebeard (too close!). I then moved Saruman in to them, big Mistake no 2. I then started on spells. First I cast Exsiccate on Treebeard, rolling a 1. Then I past the Focus test on a 2 and cast Dark Fury. A 1. Again rolling a 2 for the Focus, I cast Bolt of Fire on Treebeard, which resulted in another 1. Saruman uses overlord to make the Crossbows Heroic Shoot, missing Treebeard completely (my brother had pointed out the Heroic Duel possiblity, so I panicked a bit). In the Charge phase, Treebeard charges the Uruks. On to the Fight fase, where Saruman gets punished for his ineptitude, being ripped to pieces by Treebeard, and taking half a company of Uruks with him. The rest get butchered in the ensuing fight phase. Oops!
Turn 3- Here my memory fails me as to what was in which turn
Eriador wins priority again but gives it to me out of pure kindness. Not that it helped... The Dunlendings and Troll turn around to exact revenge on Treebeard, but only one formation can charge him at a time, thanks to those bloody hills! The scouts fire at Treebeard, scoring two actual hits, my only proper rolls in the whole game! Treebeard gets one wound thanks to this. The warg Riders kill some dwarves, and Treebeard picks up some grass (? He was in a plain, but still has throwing weapons) and kills three scouts with it. On the other flank, the Warg Riders charge his Archers and get flank charged by the dwarf warriors. They die.

I can't remember the rest (I'll take notes or pictures next time), but it went on like that, Treebeard slaughtering everything in his path and the rest of my army generally failing in everything they're supposed to do. In the 6th turn I surrendered, saving him the pain of moving Treebeard all across the board to kill my only remaining formation, the Phalanx.

Conclusion: I don't think Treebeard is that overpowered once you get big formations to face him, but we put on the table what we had, and in 600 (ish) points, he's just overkill. The terrain was a mighty help to him as well, preventing multiple charges and flanking maneuveres. It reminded me of the last game we had, using my own (worthless in comparison) rules, where his rangers stood behind some Dwarves with shields and shot everything in range.

Ps: Next time there will be photos... If I remember.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Annatar, I hope you've been having some good fun with the game since then.

    I've put you up on my blogroll.

    Cheers

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  2. Thanks, but I've been neglecting this blog a bit much (as you could see). I should pick it up again. On day...

    BTW, I'm Telchar on One-Ring, so that's where you'll get some more activity from me.

    ReplyDelete