Warhammer: Dwarves vs High Elves 8/5/2013

Last Wednesday for the first time I played a game of Warhammer 8th edition. It was one of the opening games in the escalation campaign that is running in Games Workshop Dudley at the moment, and even though the organisation of it was not great, Mike did his best to record results and arrange with the manager how it's all supposed to work when he gets back off his holidays...

It was a 500 point game between me with a group of Dwarves against another guy called Matt with High Elves. This was the first time I'd ever taken on High Elves (when I worked for Workshop, the Chaos armies were the most popular ones,) and certainly the first time I'd used Dwarves (I previously used Empire) so it was always going to be interesting. We played the Meeting Engagement scenario, which meant we're deploying on board corners rather than sides.

Now, when I start a new army, which is about once every 10 minutes, there's always a concept for it; a story behind the reason these warriors are fighting. I find if I do that, then I'm more engaged with the games that I play and with building up the army. This particular Dwarf army I'm building up tells the story of Grambur Firebeard, (a name I've pinched off a retired DnD character,) a young dwarf who has made it his mission to resolve every grudge in the Book of Grudges. He doesn't sit in his halls waiting for trouble to come to him; he actively seeks it out, taking the heads of people who have wronged him or his kin in the past. This has influenced my choice of war gear and army selection, more on this later. However, the battle will be told from the perspective of Grambur, to add what I hope will be a narrative element:

"After weeks of pursuit on our part, the hated Elves had finally decided to take the battle to us. Cagnar and his Quarrellers had taken position on the hill in the village, and I lead Rurluf and his Warriors in a direct march on the Elves and their craven wizard, whose family played a huge and substantial role in what they call 'The War of the Beard.' With the Grudge Rune on my family's axe forged to slay him and his family, we showed no mercy as we launched the attack.

We marched West along the road heading out of the village when we heard it - the tapping of a light drum and the approaching hoofbeats. It seemed the Elves feared our military might, and called upon some reinforcements from the South in the form of their Silver Helms! It mattered not; our target was the mage, and none but the strongest of all adversaries would stop us.

We did, however, concede a few yards to re-organise the unit after the lads, not used to seeing conjuring tricks being waved around, lost some of their nerve as five of our number fell to their fireworks. This gave the cowardly horsemen the chance they needed to take us in the flank. However, I was not to be outdone by the whey-faced horse whisperers, and stepped out of rank, raising my axe in a challenge to their leader to a duel to the death. Clearly feeling his lance would win him the day, he accepted, and regrettably he did hit me with a strength that not even my armour could withstand. However, my axe found its mark, and the Elven cur fell to the ground with a wound to his chest from which he would never recover. The rest of the lads did not fare well, but we stood our ground, and remembering that our prize was the Elven mage, we did not turn to face the cavalry.

The Elven Phoenix Guard did not appear willing to engage us in honourable close combat, preferring instead to presume to singe our whiskers with light shows. This left us free to address the Silver Helms; another fell to my axe and without the momentum of their charge they could do little to answer for it. The malingering mongrels rode off with their tails up their rear ends.

Finally in range, I lead a mighty charge against the Phoenix Guard. Their numbers had been steadily whittled down as a result of the supporting fire from Cagnar's Crossbows, evening out the odds of our victory, and even though they were recreant ragamuffins, they were not unworthy opponents. It is a shame that the same could not be said for the cowardly mage to whom we had journeyed so hard to find our revenge, for when I issued a challenge to face me in single combat, he slunk to the back of his unit like a white-livered rabbit, instead leaving me to the capabilities of their unit champion. I dispatched him, and many more in quick succession. The Elves learned that their flimsy halberds and pointy-eared poncing around was no match for Dwarvish Iron, and broke. However, they were spent from the fight, and we caught up with them easily, scattering the remaining Phoenix Guard.

Alas, the Elven mage was nowhere to be seen. No doubt hiding, or run from the battlefield to meet his superiors and answer for the Elven lives his foolishness has cost. It matters not. I will learn of his whereabouts, pursue him to the end of the world if need be, and take his head for the slight his ancestors imposed on members of the Elder Race! I later learned that, seeing we had the matter in hand, Cagnar retreated from the battlefield when the remnant of the Silver Helms turned their attention towards him. I do not condone him for his actions, but it happens and we would be fools to pretend otherwise...'

So, I won the game, though not altogether comfortably. The Quarrellers had run off the board despite being steadfast, (it happens,) and by the time I'd caught the Phoenix guard, I had about 7 Dwarves left in the entire army. Still, a win is a win!

By luck or judgement? Well I like to think the latter, to be honest. The army selection helped as the Quarrellers meant that I had more points to spend on my Thane, who took the most lives in combat. The flank charge from the Silver Helms was an inconvenience, but I did the right thing in not re-organising the unit to address them; my Thane was on the right side of the unit to deal with it himself and it left the rest of the unit facing forwards to stare down the Phoenix Guard; if I'd turned them around I'd have taken another flank charge! That, along with my not wanting to chase them down when they fled, was probably my best tactical decision.

Strategically, I did everything right given the army selection - choose a game plan, (kill the Wizard,) and stick to it. This is especially important for Dwarves who don't move all that fast; you really do need to be thinking a few turns ahead in Warhammer. I'd taken Quarrellers as opposed to Thunderers because of the fact that the army can spend anything up to a couple of years out on the road, where rain would make a mockery of blackpowder and they wouldn't necessarily have the opportunity to replace it when it ran out. The fact that I'd taken Quarrellers rather than Thunderers helped in a strategic sense as well; the extra 6 inches in range made all the difference, especially as I managed to put them on a hill so they could see all the units no matter who was in front of them. There were times when I missed the extra ballistic skill and the punch of handguns, but overall they did their job well enough.

My Dwarf Warriors weren't so good though. They were OK, but as their main strength is their durability (toughness 4, leadership 9 and heavy armour before you've even taken any upgrades) they were good at that but little else. Granted, I shouldn't expect much against Elves of any kind, but the plain fact is it was an immense struggle for any of them to land a blow on the Phoenix Guard, much less kill them once they had. Perhaps I'm expecting a little too much of the rank and file. Why don't I make then Longbeards? Well, it's again a part of the story of the army - spending years away from home, looking for trouble rather than waiting for it to come to you, taking a pro-active approach to resolving grudges - this is not a cause that would attract old, set-in-their ways, grumbling Longbeards. They'd probably view Grambur as an upstart young dwarf (or at least, young by Dwarf standards. He actually looks quite old but, to quote Terry Pratchett "If you're a Dwarf you start looking old when you're 5, and you're still looking old 200 years later.") So, no Longbeards, and there probably won't be any Iron Breakers in the army either for the same reason.

Which brings me on to the Dwarf Thane Himself, Grambur, and let's be honest he won that battle for me. If it's a war of attrition, you're always going to be hard-pressed to defeat Dwarves, and if one of those Dwarves has a great-axe and 3 attacks per turn, taking them head on is a very risky business indeed. He took the most Elves down, and the Master Rune of Grombrindal made him almost immortal as well, though there were one or two close calls. While I wouldn't say no to seeing him perform like that again, that's a lot of reliance on one model; at some point I'm going to roll 2 1s for his armour save and he'll die. If that happens, I've lost the only thing in the army that can get the job done. Not a nice position to be in.

There were also some bits and pieces I'd bought to fill out the points, some of which worked, some didn't. I already mentioned the Master Rune of Grombrindal which was a life-saver. Less useful was the Rune of Determination that I'd put on the Standard Bearer in the Dwarf Warriors. What that does is allows you to roll your first break test in combat on 1D6 rather than 2, which I guess would have been useful except that the unit was never actually called upon to take the test. Or it did and I forgot to use it. Either way it wouldn't have made a difference. Also the Grudge Rune was useful but not quite in the way I was expecting. While Matt guessed correctly that I'd nominated the Mage as the target, it didn't help to take him out since the two characters never had the fortune to meet. However it probably was conducive to him refusing every challenge I issued, which meant he couldn't participate in any of the combats which was an advantage.

So what's next for the army? I've got a Grudge Thrower I'm painting up, but what I'd really like next is a unit that can get it done in close combat. Given the nature and theme of the army, I'm looking at maybe Slayers or Rangers. Either would be useful, but probably Slayers as they can use their weapons either 2 1 handed or 1 2 handed; I might need that flexibility if I come across something like Skaven.

Until next time...

Scales of War part 5: The Castellan and the Cook

After barely surviving their encounter with the Magma Claws, the heroes decided to keep on the path suggested by Adronsius and make their way east, where they rounded a corner and headed up some stairs. Remembering that this was the place that Adronsius has said has a sticky floor, they were not entirely surprised to encounter some Ettercaps in the chamber beyond. Lucian in particular was not pleased to see them accompanied by the Gnome who had fled from them moments ago, and allowed himself a smile of grim satisfaction when the force of Sayer’s arrow splattered the creature against the far wall. The webs from the Ettercaps limited the heroes’ mobility, but with Grambur quite able to deal with the one who was directly attacking them, and Oro and the others pounding the other with ranged attacks, they did not put up much of a fight. When the Webspinner tried to flee, Grambur was having none of it; he charged the Ettercap and cut it down with one fell swoop.

Sadly, the group found a body in the corner of the room, wrapped in web and with its face contorted in fear and pain. From the description, Sayer and Oro guessed that it was Kartenix, the captain of the guard, who had apparently been trying to escape. He had in a bag next to him a pair of boots, the Boots of Spider Climbing which would help the wearer scale tall surfaces more quickly, and reasoning that the fallen captain would have no further use for them, Sayer took them.

The group decided to head back to the Von Urstadt crypt and investigate the room off the side. There they found a pair of jail cells, one of which contained Sertanian, Castellan of the Hall of Great Valour. Lucian picked the lock and released the old man. He explained that Kartenix had been the prisoner in the next cell, and he had devised a daring plan to escape with his son, Tharuun, who was somewhere in the dungeon, and get help from Brindol. Sertanian was saddened, but not surprised, to hear that Kartenix had died. He said that the captain of the guard was a brave man, if not a very clever one, and that he ought to have known he’d never have stood a chance against the sheer numbers of villains that infested the castle. He also was able to tell them that the cook, Mirtala, was being held in a room south of the Rivenroar Family Crypt. Remembering the way, the group set off towards the crypt, and Sertanian followed them.

On arriving in the Fresco chamber off the crypt, the heroes found the place infested with dire rats, and the poor cook tied to an altar at the far end of the room. There were also statues of Displacer Beasts running up the aisle, and Sayer lost no time in teleporting to the top of one of them and taking pot shots at the rats. Lucian entered the fray but was bitten by one of the rats and contracted Filth Fever. Grambur marched straight into the fray and began cutting limbs off each of the rats and Oro pelted them with magic. Even Sertanian had a go with a hand crossbow given to him by the heroes; he was confident in his ability being a veteran of the previous war, though his accuracy suggested to the heroes that he would be more dangerous as an ally than a foe. A couple of Gnomes made the mistake of appearing out of nowhere to try and disrupt the heroes’ efforts, but Sayer and Lucian were not for a moment fooled by their trickery and dispatched them very quickly.

After the fight, the group went over to the altar, which they noticed was dedicated to the Raven Queen, to help Mirtala. She also had filth fever, and was catatonic with terror. She seemed as much afraid of the heroes as her captors, though the presence of Sertanian prevented her from lashing out in fear. As she was clearly ill, the heroes decided that the best course of action would be to take her, Sertanian and Zerriska to the room currently occupied by Adronsius, which had a clean supply of water if nothing else. Lucian and Sayer tried to convince the cook that they were not a threat and wanted to help, and when that failed, Grambur employed the far more straightforward tactic of picking her up, putting her over his shoulder, and carrying her to the cistern. After some convincing, Zerriska came up to the room as well, and with three other people from the town in the room, Mirtala started to calm down. She knew nothing about the locations of the other prisoners that the heroes had not already discovered, but she was able to employ her skills as a cook to make a mostly edible meal from the roots and herbs that Zerriska had been collecting; no bad thing since the prisoners had not eaten properly for a while and were running short of food. The heroes decided to use this relatively secure area of the dungeon as a base, and took a rest here. Zerriska tended to the illness, and both Lucian and Mirtala made a full recovery. After sharing some of their trail rations, the heroes moved on…

Having explored the lower floor of the dungeon, the heroes returned to the room with the Ettercaps and ascended the stairs to another crypt, this time belonging to the family of Von Adrez-Kauthin. It looked like the Hobgoblins were using it as a guard post, with a Spitting Drake there to supplement their power. A Goblin Hexhurler was waiting on standby in the next room, but unfortunately for him he arrived far too late to aid the Hobgoblins, many of which had fallen straight away to Oro’s magic and Grambur’s ruthless efficiency. He tried to flee, but after being party to so much unrest and destruction in the town, the heroes were not letting him go anywhere…

Exploring the crypt and making some rather out-of-proportion efforts to open the sarcophagi set into the floor, the heroes found two healing potions and 170 gold pieces. Quite why healing potions had been buried with a member of a prominent trading family the heroes couldn’t quite fathom, but they were thankful that they might still be alive to spend all this gold they were acquiring when they got out of this Godsforsaken place. However, there were two more prisoners still unaccounted for, and nobody was leaving the dungeon until they were found…

Experience: 483 each

Treasure:

• 170 gp
• 2 Healing Potions
• Boots of Spider Climbing (lvl. 5)

Scales of War part 2: Descent into Rivenroar 24/10/2012

Session Log 24/10/2012

The heroes met at the Northern Bridge. The battle was long since over, but the heroes guessed there was more to the attack than met the eye and were determined to investigate. At a loss for somewhere to go, they ended up in the Moondust Temple, a small place on the South West corner of Brindol devoted to Sehanine. There they met with a Priestess called Lia, who suggested that they talk to the Town Councillor Eoffram Troyas. Realising there was nothing they could do for the town that night, the heroes found lodgings in the Avandrian Hostel and settled down for the night, at a discounted rate since the battle with the Ogre that afternoon…

A new day dawned and had nearly reached its peak when the heroes met with Councillor Troyas. Troyas explained that 7 of the town’s citizens had gone missing and were suspected to be abducted by the Hobgoblins; he was looking for help to find them. He did not offer the commission lightly, but after Grambur impressed him with his physical prowess and Lucian made some insightful remarks about proving themselves to the town council, Troyas was forced to reconsider. The deal was sealed when Oro told the councillor that the heroes had no intention of letting history repeat itself and was determined to stop the Red Hand. Troyas was satisfied that these were the people he was looking for, explained who was missing and also that some treasure had gone missing as well; certain items of little material value but of huge social value to the township.

After a visit to the Hall of Great Valour to inspect the treasure that had gone missing, the heroes learned of a hobgoblin taken prisoner. They went to investigate, and after some less-than-gentle persuasion found out some useful information: The leader of the Hobgoblins was called Sinruth, a determined young Hobgoblin looking to raise an army and start his own Fiefdom in the Elsir Vale. For now, he was calling the abandoned Castle Rivenroar home, and had most likely taken the prisoners back there to feed to the ‘Undead Horrors’ that shared the catacombs with the goblins…

The heroes headed north, and though the going was hard for the Elves, they made it to the castle surprisingly without incident. All that changed when they marched into the catacombs beneath the castle. They appeared to be in the entrance to a crypt, and two Goblinoids were standing guard. One of them triggered a curious trick; the braziers either side of the room moved along the walls and shot fire at each other; it singed Grambur’s beard. The goblins were quickly and easily dispatched, whereupon the heroes had 3 choices: Do they head for the crypt of Von Urstadt, Von Jallach, or go through the doors that apparently lead to the crypt of the Rivenroar family?

Electing to head for the Rivenroar crypt, the heroes proceeded with a lot more caution. They headed down a long set of stairs, and the only sound was their feet echoing off the flagstones. Just when they were wondering if the stairs would ever end, they came upon a door. Lucian pricked up his Elven ears and heard that… something… was asleep in the next room…

Stealth seemed the best course of action and the heroes slunk through into a room filled with Mushrooms. It came as no surprise to Veteran Treasure Hunter Grambur that the mushrooms could potentially be dangerous if they were tampered with, and Oro knew enough about them to be able to say what they were: A combination of Brown Cloudspore, White Shriekers, Grey Doomspores and Red Slumberspores. The snoring that Lucian heard came from a Rage Drake asleep guarding the only visible way out of the room, and given the Dwarf’s rarely-welcome penchant for noise, the heroes decided matters would be a lot simpler if they took advantage of it’s sleepiness and killed it. Grambur rushed the creature and between them the heroes did a lot of damage before the drake had a chance to react. However, Grambur’s relentless attack pushed the drake into a cluster of mushrooms and he set off a Slumberspore, it had little effect on the Drake but did knock Grambur out cold. Not even a mauling from the Drake could wake him up. Lucian and Oro tried to help their fallen companion by firing shot after shot at the Drake and it seemed to work as with a bloodthirsty roar it charged for the Elves. Little did it realise the path would take him across more mushrooms; whereupon he set off a Shrieker and another Slumberspore. This time, it knocked him straight out, and Lucian finished it off with a knife to the heart.

With shafts leading to the floor above, and a door leading off into another room, the adventure has only just started…

Experience: 575 each.

Scales of War part 1: Batle at the Bar 17/10/2012

Our tale begins in one of Brindol’s Taverns; Ilya’s Cardhouse. Sat around a table near to the hearth, four figures sat, drinking jovially and playing cards. Their motivations for being in a cardhouse in Brindol were kept to themselves, but their instincts allowed for the company of strangers.

Towards the middle of the afternoon, Lucian and Orodrethanthilis, the two elves, happened to look across the room to a table at the back of the card house where three men were sat around, playing cards. Of particular interest to the elves were the thirty golden pieces set on the table, and sensing the opportunity for a profit, challenged the braggarts to a game. Lucian played extremely well and Oro managed to claim some coin. Even Grambur the Dwarf Warrior managed to win a few hands, and they looked very close to cleaning the players out. Just as accusations of cheating were beginning to fly, the door burst open and some Goblinoids entered the room…

The Hobgoblins seemed intent on causing as much havoc as possible, but the elves were quicker to react and cut several of them down quite quickly. Goblin Blackblades, making use of their diminutive size, ran around the tavern setting the place on fire, including the bar and the table on which the card game was brought to such a juddering halt. For his own entertainment as much as anything else, Grambur strode straight into the fray, taking several blows but refusing to go down. Lucian and Sayer, the Eladrin Ranger, took a height advantage of the tables and sniped at the hobgoblins, and those who had the presence of mind to pay attention to Oro would have found it curiously amusing that he was doing far more damage with his quarterstaff and throwing knife than he was with his spells. The battle was over when a goblin, having backed Sayer up against a wall, failed to see Grambur coming up behind him and was subsequently chopped into two pieces, neither side very pretty.

After leaving the Tavern to a bucket line, and berating the town guards for not being much help, the heroes learned that attacks like this were happening all over the town. Sayer and Oro pricked up their elven ears at the sounds of just such another attack, and used the opportunity to tell the others to get into position. Sayer took up a vantage point on top of a Barber’s Shop, to see an Ogre pulling a wagon, carring a lit barrel of pitch and threatening to throw it at any second. Grambur took in the situation at once, attacking the Ogre head on so that he could neither proceed further or run away. Lucien, in a concealed position, took a careful aim and hit the pitch that the Ogre was carrying, causing it to explode. The fire quickly spread, injuring the Hobgoblins and the Ogre. Oro, Sayer and Grambur wore the huge beast down with their relentless attacks, but in the end it was the fire that consumed it. Grambur strode forward to finish off the Hobgoblins, killing one. The other tried to escape, but another careful shot from Lucian put paid to any hope of escape.

Exhausted from their endeavour to stay alive, the heroes learned that the town guard had driven back the Hobgoblin incursion. However, it was not lost on the heroes that many of the fallen Hobgoblins bore the mark of the Red Hand, the army that attacked Brindol 10 years ago. Somehow, they felt they hadn’t seen the last of these Hobgoblins…

Experience: 279 each

Treasure:

• 30 arrows
• 30 Gold Pieces from playing cards.

Lord of the Rings, 10/9/2012

This was another match in Simon's campaign, this time playing Simon himself. The latter fact alone kind of makes this whole post a bit redundant; you always lose against Simon, right?

Actually, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be...

OK for those of you who are interested, a bit of background - I've known Simon for a while, since I've worked at Games Workshop and I saw him around afterwards as well. He's one of these power gamers that I don't have a lot of patience with, so I rarely play him by choice. Other than that he's a really nice kid, and we get on well. He's put a lot of effort into organising this campaign, and while I still think he's got a lot to learn in terms of what does and doesn't work in a shop environment, I felt obliged to play him as a reward, with me using my Harad, and Simon using his Dwarves.

By nature of being Dwarves Simon's army had high levels of defence, and Simon had used the rules imposed on the campaign to make them even harder to hurt. They'd take a while to get to me, but they more than made up for it by having a Balista there as well. With Gimli and Durin as his special characters, I was in for a rough ride, especially since I had to kill 75% of his models in order to win and that would have to have included at least one of the characters...

It was never going to end well for me, was it?

Daunting task though that was, I was as surprised as anyone when my archers, in an uncharacteristic display of professionalism, managed to take out four dwarves in the first couple of turns. Simon chose that point to move the dwarves behind the ruins, forcing me to take the fight to them. Unfortunately it wasn't going to happen, as I had Gimli and Durin to deal with...

Far more typically of me I failed to wound either of them. I did try Sap Will on Durin, which I couldn't even get off, and then I tried to Black Dart him, which was a waste of time because I'd forgotten that he was defence 10 and therefore needed a lot higher than the usual 3+ to score the wound. Having shot half of my army to pieces with his Balista, and munched most of the rest with the Dwarves, Simon called the game to a halt at the point my army broke. Strictly speaking it should have gone on longer, but it was over by then and we both knew it.

Simon's asked me for a rematch and I don't know if I want to oblige; the fact is my army's not powerful enough to deal with him and I don't think it'll be much fun if I get involved with another game that I obviously haven't got a hope of winning.

Still, I'm going back to Workshop on Monday Night so we'll find out what happens then...

Lord of the Rings, 13/8/2012

It had been a long time since I'd played a proper game of Lord of the Rings, and as Simon is running a campaign in the shop now is probably a really good time to try to get some games in. As much as I would like to have made this post a little more colourful, unfortunately I forgot my camera so I couldn't get any shots of the battle. Also I'm going to avoid mentioning the name of my opponent, who was quite young and inexperienced, and needed a bit of help with the rules to the game.

Because of the way the battles are organised, what we had was 300 points my army of Harad taking on a similar sized army of Goblins of Moria. Our objectives were different; my Harad had to kill more than 75% of the goblin army, whereas the Goblins had to kill the commander of my army, The Betrayer. My army consisted of several bows, quite a few spearmen, a captain, a banner and a couple of Serpent Guard. Under the advice of Simon, the goblins were all Blackshields, they had with them a shaman, a troll and a warg marauder. Terrain consisted of a Realm of Battle Hill on my side of the board, and a group of trees somewhere in the middle; this was to have some serious consequences on the outcome of the battle.

The Betrayer - Not my model; the GW promo pics.

The army list was, in and of itself, worrying - with the majority of the models in the Goblin army being defence 6 and my highest strength not much higher than 3, this was going to be a tough nut to crack. What worried me more was their objective: Ringwraiths have to use their Will points to be fully effective, but if they run out - remember, they lose one Will point every time they get into a fight - they are banished and effectively destroyed. With the destruction of my commander being the Goblin's objective, putting the responsibility for staying alive on a Ringwraith is a very risky business indeed.

For that reason I decided to make the best use I could find of the defensive position on the hill; spearmen in front to take the inevitable charge, bowmen on the hilltop where they had a good vantage point, Betrayer behind them to make the best use of the Master of Poisons rule. Here came my first mistake of the game - I decided to drop the spearmen down the hill to the slope running down. My idea was to meet the Goblin army head on. Quite apart from the fact that I failed a jump roll and sent one of the spearmen tumbling to his death, it didn't make much tactical sense either since I could now no longer make use of the defensive position afforded by the hill. Still, it freed up some some room for the later battle.

My opponent surprised me by marching his army towards me. Given that my objective was to kill 75% of his models, and the Harad rules for bows (they're allowed to take half their army with bows rather than the usual third) making an advance close to suicide, he'd have been better of skirting around the edge of the trees, which would have forced me to take the battle to him. As it turned out it didn't affect matters too much because my shooting was absolutely atrocious, and on the few occasions when I did manage to hit something, I almost always failed my wound rolls.

This all changed when for some reason my opponent stuck his Warg Marauder out in front. Despite the fact that the lower defence actually shouldn't have made a difference (strength 2 bows need a 6 to wound against defence 5 or 6) I managed to dispatch it pretty quickly. The goblins were proving problematic, as my opponent had also cast Fury on them giving them a '6+ save' against taking a wound, which he was extraordinarily lucky with. The practical upshot of all of this was when the battle lines finally met, we hadn't been able to do much to each other's armies. This was going to be a long battle...

The battle itself wasn't all that interesting. The goblin's low skill gave me the upper hand in combat, but my warrior's low strength made them horribly ineffective. There were times when I was very glad of my banner - Harad are all but useless without it - but they very rarely rolled high enough on the Strike roll to kill many goblins. It truly was a battle of attrition.

Things got bit more interesting when the Cave Troll of all things snuck around the battle lines and made a break for the Betrayer. Despite his entourage of bowmen actually doing more damage to each other than they did to the troll, the Ringwraith managed to Black Dart the troll enough times to kill it. At that point, the battle was over; all it was going to be after that was a long hard slog with each other's infantry. If it had gone on, I think I would probably have won it simply by having my commander at the back rather than the front. However, as my opponent had run out of time, we had to call it a draw at that point.

The result is that I now have an extra 25 points to add to my army. How will I change the list? Read on...

After every battle, it pays to reflect for a few moments on what you could and should have done differently. I've already mentioned my mistake in abandoning my defensive position. Also, and I keep forgetting to do this with Harad, there is absolutely no point in deploying my spearmen ahead of the bowmen. The whole point of spears it to use them as supporting weapons. Bowmen are all but useless as archers once the battle lines meet, but all Haradrim Warriors have hand weapons by default. So by deploying my spearmen behind them, I've effectively doubled the amount of attacks I can bring to a combat, which might just give me a better edge than a one-on-one slugfest that I got involved with in that last battle. They have no better defence to bring to the battle so I may as well.

That being the case, I'm going to use my extra points to compliment this, and try to design an army that has at least as many bows as close combat orientated troops. The effectiveness of the bows depends on luck as much as anything else, but I can find other uses for them...

In the campaign, I've got a long way to go to catch up with the people who are already ahead, but that's not going to stop me trying. If I come across Simon or Jaques, it's going to be a painful battle as they are absolutely brutal players, but I will at least try to make a game of it as they're nice kids, Simon in particular has gone to a lot of trouble to organise this so I think I owe him a game.

See you next Monday, hopefully!