The day has finally come and gone. Let’s see how I did!
Tournament Day was this last Sunday, the 3rd and I could not have been more excited! I got to play three games and test my mettle against opponents who came to win. The gloves were coming off and I was being thrown to the wargs! Let’s go through my day match by match and take a look at the outcome.
Round 1: Fog of War vs Lurtz’s Scouts
A common theme of these games will be my total unfamiliarity with the lists I am facing. Luckily, in this first match I was playing the TO, who thought I was brand new to the game and that I needed to be taught the rules. I disabused him of this idea before we started playing, but I still suspect he was taking it rather easy on me, and there was definitely some friendly advice thrown my way more than once. The army I faced contained Lurtz, Ugluk and a captain, leading a boat load of scouts. The scenario required us to pick an objective, and assassination target and a protection target all in secret, so I picked the Scout Captain and one of my own as the assassination and protection targets, respectively.
My opponent deployed it decent defensive positions on top of buildings, but moved everyone forward on the first turn. His incredibly fast battle line left his significant contingent of archers in the dust with relatively little to do for most of the game. The heavily armored Gondorians seemed like the perfect counter for this army. The Uruk-Hai scouts hit hard but wear little armor, which gave me the edge in combat, and Faramir was a non-stop murder machine. Lurtz and Ugluk were not particularly inspiring in combat, wasting themselves on my shieldwall as I slowly cut down their retinues. The Scout Captain, carrying a two handed axe, was isolated and taken down by my Captain and the other heroes followed after a time. I easily secured my objective and we ended our last turn contesting my opponent’s objective. My first game was a convincing win, 14-5.
Round 2: Destroy the Supplies vs Cirith Ungol
I could describe this list in detail, but really it was Shelob and the rest was filler. Having never played against a monster, this was a truly unpleasant introduction to some new rules. The scenario put three objectives in both deployment zones that the opposing players needed to destroy. seeing a lot of chaffe orcs in front of me I felt confident deploying my equally sized infantry warbands apart from one another. I was hoping to see where Shelob would drop before I placed Faramir as I was terrified he would be eaten in a single turn, but my opponent had three other warbands, forcing my hand. Faramir went in the center, and ultimately so did the monster.
The opening turns saw Shelob jump onto a ruined building in the center of the board. I was able to hit her with a volley of arrows, hoping to trigger her Survival Instinct, which would make her take a courage test to stay on the board, but it was not to be. Shelob pounced on a knight and I counter charged with another, but she won the combat, knocking both down with her Monstrous Charge and easilly dispatching them. Faramir skirted her charge range, attacked the left flank, and the infantry moved into the space between him and the monster. This turned out to be a terrible idea, as Shelob happily devoured several warriors and deflated that warband. There was an opportunity to save this dire situation but I missed it. I won initiative with Faramir within charge range of the monster, but thinking only to preserve him and I charged some orcs instead. Not only did I rob myself of my best opportunity to wound the beast, but I screwed up my order of operations and the troops sent to distract Shelob failed their terror tests. Shelob was able to charge Faramir, surround him, and eat him in a turn.
The rest of the contest was never really in doubt. I did manage to get one warrior free who was a turn away from destroying some supplies, but with the army broken he ran before he could complete the mission. The final score was 12-1, a resounding loss to follow my first win. It was humbling for certain.
Round 3: Breakthrough vs Reclamation of Osgiliath
Civil War in Gondor, brother is pitted against brother! Faramir leads a host of Gondorian warriors against Boromir and the remnants of the Osgiliath garrison. It was a peculiar feeling to face Boromir, a hero about which I had heard so very much, and to be thankful he was not a giant monster. He lead a large warband of veterans, warriors and a couple knights, and with him was Madril, leading a contingent of rangers. Assuming I could keep Boromir tied down, I liked my odds. Breakthrough puts an objective in each deployment zone and two on the center line, with points awarded for holding any of them I deployed all my infantry on my right to counter Boromir’s warband, which freed up Faramir and the cavalry to go left.
Two factors very heavily influenced this game that were entirely unrelated to army composition, strategy or any other purposeful input. The first was that my dice began to glow white hot for reasons only the dice gods can know. I won a truly unseemly number of combats, no matter the odds or situation. Boromir plunged into the middle of our huge melee, fired his ability granting +1 to wound rolls, and every combat but one around him went in my favor. To give you an idea of how bad it went for my opponent (who was unfortunately deserted by the dice gods), at one point a lone archer charged Boromir to keep him away from an objective. I rolled a four and with only one point of might remaining my opponent rolled three ones. The archer proceeded to wound Boromir and my opponent failed all three fate rolls, using his final point of might to change the final roll to a 3. It was a wild series of events.
The second factor the drastically influenced the game was that my opponent played at a speed far more conducive to a friendly game than a timed tournament. I can’t pretend that I am some sort of speed player, but it was clear we were moving at the speed of fun, which was fine by me until we hit the time limit. When the match ended Faramir and Boromir had not come near one another, neither had taken a wound, and the game was still very much in doubt. I held my home objective and one of the center objectives, while contesting the other two. My opponent equaled my score by virtue of having killed my most expensive, non-general model, leaving us with a 4 to 4 tie. Another turn would likely have seen Boromir taking my rear objective, creating a six point swing in my opponent’s favor, but it is not impossible that Faramir was contesting my opponent’s objective, and more turns would likely have seen me take the second objective in the center, but we agreed to end it before tallying the score.
Final Thoughts
That was FUN! My final record of 1-1-1 got me solidly in the middle of the pack, 5th out of 8. Crushing the Uruk-Hai to start things off felt great, and definitely put me in a good headspace. If I had fought Shelob first it might have been much different. That was an unpleasant experience, though my opponent was a nice guy. We got lunch together and talked about a variety of games and I am sure we will play again, but that list did feel pretty sweaty and was no fun to face. He ultimately went 3-0 on the day and took first place.
I wish my third game was fun but I wish we had been playing casually, rather than with a time limit, so we could have seen it out to the end. Also, while rolling incandescently hot dice is every gamer’s dream, I could tell that it was really frustrating my opponent the longer it went on, and that detracted from my enjoyment. He was a nice guy and I did not want his last game to be a bummer. I felt better, however, when I found out he tied twice that day and somehow wound up in second place.
Lastly, the TO brought prizes for all 12 registered contestants, though only 7 showed, and the store hosting the tournament chipped in store credit for the top three winners, which was all very cool. All the prizes were MESBG minis or items, some of which were from the TO’s personal collection and/or OOP. I was very tempted to pick up a Gondorian Bolt thrower I saw in the pile, but ultimately I decided on a box of Mordor Orcs, foreshadowing my next project for this setting! Until then, happy hobbying!
