In round 1 of my MESBG League my Gondorians faced an army of spiders led by Sauron The Necromancer. It, uh, did not go well.
First off, let me apologize for the lack of unique photography in this post. The game was played on Tabletop Simulator and I did not take any screenshots. Thankfully, that will be my only TTS game of the league. So, with that out of the way:
Round 1: Rise of the Necromancer
This list was pure nightmare fuel for yours truly. Apart from being surrounded by arachnids (a recurring phobia) it featured maybe the best spellcaster in the game. I am still wrapping my head around some of the core rules that come up less frequently, so my knowledge of spells and how to protect myself from them is next to none. Sauron was backed up by a Ringwraith, a host of Giant Spiders and several Myrkwood Spiders, who have a thrown weapon attack that can paralyze. Every single model in this army causes terror, and Sauron gives a (-1) to all Courage Checks within 18 inches. It went about as well as you might expect.
My opponent, Justin, was a great guy I had not had the pleasure of meeting before our matchup, but he was a real pleasure to play against. I have not had enough reps with the game to tell how sweaty of a list this is, but I did hear his dad (also a gamer) in the background chiding him for playing his spiders against “the new guy.” Thanks for looking out for me, Dad! Regardless of whether or not this was a list more appropriate for a GT than a friendly club league, Justin really was genuinely a fun guy to spend a few hours gaming against. While he did not pull any punches that I could tell, he also did not condescend or treat me unfairly, and he was happy to give me a few pointers both during and after the game, which I greatly apprecaited.
The scenario was Domination and we wound up with a decently spread out set of objectives. I planted my shieldwalls dead center and hoped I could win enough combats to force an early break on the relatively smaller army. My advantages were that my entire army had a higher fight value than the spiders and wounded them on 4+. Unfortunately, I overeagerly charged Faramir and the knights into the Ringwraith’s knot of spiders and was quickly surrounded. Faramir pulled off a truly heroic initial combat that won me an extra couple of turns, but the knights got surrounded and destroyed in detail fairly early on.
Though significantly outnumbered, Sauron and his host of spiders consistently caused enough terror to keep nearly half my battle line out of action on any one turn. My banner was killed with a spell on the first turn due to some poor placement on my part and Sauron’s ability to cast twice in a turn. My captains did solid work, but they are only so mighty, and one literally withered under Sauron’s evil sorcery. That was so thematic I really couldn’t be mad!
Though I held or contested four of the five objects for nearly the entire game, it all fell apart pretty quickly. The Ringwraith killed Faramir on the same turn I was broken. The next turn saw me fail enough courage checks to be quartered, including nearly every unit standing on an objective. The final score was The Necromancer 17 – Minas Tirith 2. While this looks like the spanking of a lifetime it felt competitive for much of the game, even with my questionable play. This was a tough first opponent but one that I would happily face again, especially with Justin at the helm, whom I am truly glad to have met. Now I have some time to lick my wounds (and paint a few more minis) before my next matchup in Round 2!
