Batrep 14/12/10 The Duplicitous White WIzard

Jason and I faced off last night somewhere in the snowy hinterlands of the White Mountains. Saruman had persuaded the 'Wizard's Pupil' (Faramir) that the Uruk threat was to the West, so as to draw attention away from the Duplicitous Wizard's upcoming plans for Rohan. I took: Faramir, Elphir of Dol Amroth (Isildur), Saruman the White, 2 formations of 5 coy of Minas Tirith Lancers, 2 formations of 4 coy of Minas Tirith Warriors and a formation of four coy of the Axemen of Lossarnach. Jason took: Lurtz, Grima, 2 formations of 3 coy of Uruk Warriors with shields, 1 formation of 3 coy of Uruks with crossbows, 1 formation of 6 coy of Orcs with 2HW and 1 formation of 4 coy of Feral Uruk Hai. Above you can see him putting Grima into my Warriors, deployed by the farmhouse. His forces are huddled in front of him in one corner of the board, with Ferals in ambush (this could be the far, the walled field or that forest in his deployment area) while I have chosen (I deployed second) to set up in that farmhouse, with infantry and the Wizard pushing the middle and Elphir and Faramir leading the Cavalry around that hill.

The first turn had me moving first, and I occupied the farmhouse, swept the Cavalry round the hill and pushed my infantry up the middle. Jason moved Uruk Hai into striking distance of the farm and occupied the walled field with his Crossbow. I threw a few spells but only managed to kill a single Uruk. Jason's Uruks assaulted the farm and were beaten off.





In turn two Jason pulled the ambush, it was the occupied farm! Surprise, surprise.




I still have it and Jason must have been worried about Saruman's Ruin Spells, so he gambled on pushing the warriors out of the farm in melee, and deployed on the far side of it. I rushed all my Cavalry up into charge range. You can only see one of the formations in these 'before and after' photos though.... There was a (75pts with hourserules!) Ruin Shaman in that Orc rabble and he blasted Faramir's Knights with a bolt of fire - killing five cavalry models, half the formation gone in an instant. Crossbow fire, from the now set and ready to go Uruks in the field, kills more and Faramir is suddlenly at risk of being killed though loss of his formation! So only Elphir's Knights go into the charge, hitting three coy of Uruks and smashing them with a heroic fight.
The Ferals fail to push the warriors out of the farm on the far flank, and so are now stuck there miles away from the action - that'll teach you to try and game the defensible terrain space/time bending effects, Jason :)

In the next turn (three), I had priority and managed to pull Faramir from his battered Knights and into some of the infantry in the middle. Elphir also leaves his Knight formation to take over the Axemen, reasoning that the knights are where they need to be. This was, in hindsight, a silly move. Jason is left slowly walking his ferals around that Farmhouse to bring them closer to the action, and hoping he can push my boys out this turn. However, that smug look is wiped off my face when Jason uses the Shaman's one point of might to 'Heroic Charge' my Cavalry to their front. Sigh. My Axemen assault the crossbow in the field and fail to eject them, while Jason's Ferals smash the warriors out of the Farm and his Orcs cackle with glee as they butcher my horse! 

The Battle has now become desperate. I have managed to whittle down the 2HW Orcs and the crossbows in the field, but my cavalry are almost all gone and one of my Warrior formations is disordered by the Farmhouse and Jason still has plenty of good troops. What follows then is a lot of shuffling in and out of terrain. I manage to smash into the attrited crossbows once more and occupy the field with  Saruman and his warriors. At the same time, Jason's own troops have been experiencing the full annoyance of Saruman's voice of command ability and just cannot get the charge off on his warriors. Good old Faramir joined the disordered warriors, auto rallied them, and then when the Uruk charge failed he found himself in position for a sneaky charge into their flank!

So by turn five, most of Jason's troops are still in the fight. The sole formation I have destroyed is the crossbows, while even his 2HW Orcs, despite being the target of two formations of cavalry and two Epics in turn 2, are still trucking on. Jason won priority, and... let me go second! Hehehe. He moved his troops out of the farmhouse to get two units lined up and ready to smash my forces, while his troll readied itself to charge Saruman in the field. But did Saruman remain in the field to be smashed on two sides? No he did not. He fired off his spells then retreated to the far side and made ready to charge and eliminate the remaining 2HW Orcs. I also got to sneak my warriors back into the farmhouse. The upshot of all of this was that after surviving successive charges, from multiple units, those 2HW Orcs finally died!

We rolled priority for turn six and Jason won it, going first again. His Ferals approached Saruman'sAxemen. In my move, Saruman again made a rapid 'repositioning' (ie he kept running for cover) and made it into the nearby wood. The Axemen sat there on the backline, hoping to avoid being charged, while the warriors awaited another round of combat in the farmhouse. The Feral and Troll completely missed their target, while the warriors in the farmhouse managed to hang on for grim life.

I won priority for turn 7, letting Jason have the boon of going first. He lept Grima from the farmhouse to the wood and lined up the troll and the Ferals even closer to their targets, to make sure this time. I had Faramir follow Grima in his flight from the house into the woods, where Elphir also joined them, almost all the Epics in one basket! Sadly for Jason, he just could not 'close the deal' - Lurtz was unable to manage to get off the charge and somehow my axemen lived on too. His one consolation that turn was that he finally and fully evicted the warriors from that far, slaying them to a man as they fled.

We were out of time so did not play our turn eight. It was a very close game, that's for sure. Cheers for the battle Jason, intense and very fun.