WOTR: Noldor vs the People of Carn Dum

This picture shows the fate of literally DOZENS* of Elves, after the Heroes of the People of Carn Dum met them in glorious battle near the what's left of some forgotten village, in what used to be Cardolan. Unfortunately for the Heroic Army of the Workers and Peasants of Angmar, the Elves were using the new Noldor list  we had come up with. This was nothing like the one the Carn Dum strategists had been crimping up on by reading the WOTR rule book before the battle. These Elves belonged to Andy and there seems overall to have been quite the surge in the incidence of Elven armies round here, since I wrote that new Noldor list. We played 1200 points and Field of Swords/Kingslayer scenario. Problem was, I was the only guy who brought a King... 

Andy's Noldor had a very solid formation of five companies of Longbow, with a Wilderness Caster inside, Gandalf the Grey and some Arnorian Rangers and then two units of Noldor melee troops. I have The King of Carn Dum, a Twilight Ringwraith, two units of tough Carn Dum Berserkers, two units of Siege Bows (and Andy gave me the hill!), a unit of Orc bow and a unit of Carn Dum bowmen. And Buhrdur the Ambush Troll. 

 It was after deployment that I noticed the problem with my initial plan to push my archers forward to occupy terrain and then smash into their weakened targets, with one of my infantry formations. There were a LOT of well armoured Longbow to deal with. In fact, the assigned troops didn't really even outnumber them by that much.

 My prospects on the other flank weren't that choice either. Noldor Cohorts. Perhaps after about 7 turns of softening up with my siege bows?

 It would be a shame to lose the only thing in my army capable of hurting Defense 8 Elves without risking Terror and the likely prospect of losing any attached heroes in the process. So I sent my left unit of Berserkers to march right rather than braving all that Longbow. Let the Elves shoot up the cattle-herders and old men that we'd given some bows and told to hide in those 'safe' ruins. Yes defensible terrain is the reverse of 'safe' when there are Wilderness casters about, but better 'Natures Wrath' than approximately 60 longbow dice a turn without cover to protect you. The big issue with my new approach was that the King of Carn Dum and my Twilight Wraith were both right in the path of that Elven Cohort.

When the Cohort got tired of getting shot, they actually decided to get their white cloaks dirty. The Twilight Wraith decided to use his Epic Cowardice. The King of Carn Dum A. Has no such Rule and B. We took Epic Strike out of the game. Ruh Roh. Overall, the combat went well. Sure the brave warriors of Carn Dum lost, and the King died, but the line held firm and some Elves died too. In fact, the situation showed some promise of the forces of Carn Dum being able to eventually grind that right side of the board - between Siege Bows, the impending arrival of a Troll, and two largely intact units of Carn Dum warriors to pin our prey between. Then the Elves remembered that I had a whole another unit of Carn Dum warriors on my right flank.

Frustratingly, the Elven strategy from that point involved a lot of not fighting. Eventually, the Warriors of Carn Dum did manage to get stuck into some Rangers and finally got to grips with the Cohort at the end of the game. However, we lost! With our King dead, Andy was ahead on victory points.

Well done Andy - the new Elven list is a tough prospect to face. It might be time to either select a less weedy candidate for overall command or have another Twilight Wraith take over the leadership duties. This game was AAAAGES ago too, we need to play again!