Battle report WOTR @ My place 9/9/2010

Jason gave me a 1000pt game of WOTR tonight.

He took:
Saruman
'I can't believe it's not Thrydan'
Block of four pike
Block of three shields
Block of three shields
Block of three crossbows
Block of three scouts

I took:
Gandalf the Grey
Faramir
Elphir of Dol Amroth (Isildur)
Block of Six Shields
Block of Five Axemen of Lossarnach
Block of Five Knights
Block of Five Knights
Block of Three Rangers

So I outnumbered him, not that it helped!

I'm trying a more impressionistic account this time.

Essentially: I am deployed to the bottom-right and him to the top left. The Rangers jumped into the nearby woods and stayed there all game, shooting up crossbowmen. His crossbowmen raced up and, over two turns, swung around to pour fire into my flanks. My Shield troops pushed up the centre with some knights and kept the hill between themselves and his melee troops. My Axemen and Knights pushed up to my right (bottom), the Knights were nailed by arrow fire and the Axemen were unable to make the Scouts pay for it. Saruman was, in the meantime leaping about the centre killing scores of troops with his ruin arsenal. Gandalf attempted to shield the troops with Epic Defense, but it wasn't working. So I put Faramir and him together into the Axemen and thrust them back 'up the board', toward the centre of the battle. They went there to try and pin down the elusive Saruman. The beige Wizard began in the Crossbows, until Elphir ran right at him, but was beguiled and unable to continue the fight. The wily wizard then skipped to a unit in the middle and the heroes resolved that 'enough was enough' and tried to hunt him down. They never quite got him before attrition wore their army down below an effective strength, though. Saruman ended up right on the opposite side of the table, skulking amongst some scouts.

That gets us to here. I have successfully lured him into my trap, with my unit contacting three others. The shield troops were meant to be pinning the troll, but failed terror. No matter, he rolled a '1' to charge. In the ensuing combat - Faramir (recharged with might via Gandalf) saw off 'Thrydan' using Epic Strike, and then many of his troops, doing 20 casualties once the combat was done. However, the combined Uruks did 21, so still managed to win. My army staggered on for another turn, and I did bag that troll using the remnants of those knights you see cowering in the woods there, led by Elphir.

Not the most stellar showing for my Gondor Army, and I missed my chance to complete the 'hat-trick' vs Jason in WOTR. I am seriously reconsidering my cavalry heavy armies. I think they look cool, but infantry just go so much better and can be usefully fielded in smaller formations than the more brittle cav. This means that infantry are also effectively cheaper. Another possibility would be to have less terrain, it is always the heavier boards I play on at home that stymie the horse a bit. But, excuses, excuses, I should just admit I know how to use infantry, but not cavalry. Less terrain would mean it is even more likely Saruman could reach out and nuke a vulnerable cav unit somewhere.

Well done Jason, Saruman was brutal as ever, and he is very hard to take out when he is 50% charge proof and Epics can leap 18" a turn into other units. Right from game two, it's always been a tough back and forth vs Jason, and this was no exception. I think I might need to alter the toolkit somewhat (read: Epic Challenge). I'm not sold on Gandalf the Grey. His Epic defense is awesome, but works only for a phase, not a turn. The ability to make free might each turn and dole it out via Epic Renewal is also handy but there are other ways to manage that.