After much dithering, I’ve finally led my men through a tourney; the Ouestfolde (sic) Lord of the Rings Tourney in Brittany!Some frantic painting at Midnight on the eve of battle allowed me to field my planned list in full; I don’t think too many people noticed the missing details on several of the models, given how many tactics and strategies were going through our minds. Note that I've named my captain Hygbeorn.
This was my first tourney, but I took great pleasure in beating the Frog, who usually bests me, during a practice run 4 days before the tourney; both of us used our tourney lists.
After sallying forth to Rennes from our stronghold in Nantes, city of the Dukes of Brittany, the Frog, his cousin (King in the Moria) and I arrived to press our rights through military strength on the local populace. We were greeted by a room full of nicely decorated tables, enthusiastic enemies and the sound of “Waaaarrgh!!!” cries as Warhammer 40K players battled it out beside us. A cup of coffee, a can of energy drink and I was ready to take on my foe.
What follows is my account of the first of the four battles.
Battle 1: “Bring him to me!”
Main objective: Capture a spy and take him across the enemy’s table edge. The spy moves randomly (2D6 & dispersion die).
Secondary objective: Get half your men across the enemy’s table edge.
In this battle, my valiant Rohirrim fittingly came up against Valentin’s Uruk-Hai of Isengard. The spy was placed in the centre of the table, in some ruins which had 2 walls; one closed corner facing towards one table edge, one open corner facing the other edge. My opponent won the roll to choose sides and wisely decided to take the side with open access to the ruins.
I formed by battle line up so as to send one of my wedges around each side of the ruins. He placed his main battle –a troll and a solid line of pikes- out on my right, a group of 6 warg riders in the centre, a captain and 3 beserkers just to my left and a small group of crossbows way out on my left.
To war!I moved my line up and, rather predictably, split it into 2 army corps; Théoden on the left, Hygbeorn on the right. My enemy sent a troll to block access from my right side of the ruins. His next actions took my by surprise; he split his riders into 2 groups of 3. One group sensibly went to knock out the spy and capture him... The other charged straight at Théoden and his group of guards! They were swiftly dispatched.
His second unorthodox move was to send his whole army corps even further out on my right, rather than set up a defensive cordon around the spy. Perhaps he intended to secure a passage along my right flank or to guarantee that he would achieve the secondary objective.
Sound the charge!
Whatever his logic of thinking, I was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth, and duly sent Hygbeorn’s whole army corps to take out the troll and smash my way through to the spy, while Théoden took his men around the left side of the ruins to annihilate the same party of beserkers, dodging crossbow bolts along the way.
What happened next vexed me greatly. On the left flank, all went perfectly to plan. On the right, I successfully help off his whole army corps with a handful of men and my cavalry, with only minor losses. Having attacked the troll, I was unable to inflict anything move than a flesh wound on him, and was forced to slip a few troops past him to take control of the spy. Breaking the stalemate
My opponent decided to dodge my pincer movement by going up the steps of the ruins, in an attempt to jump down on my side and run for the edge of the battlefield. I countered by sending the King and 4 men to await them.
On the right flank, I took all of my men out of the fight with his main corps… all but one man. One valiant Royal Guard stayed and did his duty by giving his life to delay the Uruks. His comrades rushed on the troll, in a last ditch attempt to secure the spy.
Cutting losses
With time running short, I realised that it would be mathematically impossible to kill the troll, take the captive and make it across the board. I decided to cut my losses and secure the secondary objective. My enemy came to the same conclusion, but a few lucky arrow shots, along with previously inflicted damage, had whittled down his numbers too much for him to achieve it.
I needed to get 19 men off the board. The turn before last, 18 had got across, and a rider, last man near the edge, was about to cross the board… Wham! A crossbow bolt shot his horse from under him! If I rolled anything but a 6 on the last turn, then he would be unable to make it across the edge in time and the result would be a draw. I rolled the die… and got a 6!
Primary objective Rohan: not achieved. Isengard: not achieved.
Secondary objective Rohan: achieved. Isengard: not achieved.
RESULT: Minor victory for Rohan
Not a bad start, though I had hoped for better. Damn that troll!
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