"Come not between the Nazgul and his prey!
Or he will not slay thee in thy turn. .."
The Witch King, Return of the King, The Lord of the Rings
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| The Hobbit Strategy Battle Game Rule Book |
This latest battle saw a surprise visit to the club from Bilbo (onering). Sam was fielding a 1000 point Mordor army including the Witch King on fell beast, black guard and loads of Morannon orcs - as he was on his own Bilbo joined in and took 1/2 the force.
I took Gimli with 12 Khazad guard, the Kings champion flanked by vault wardens and teamed up with Craig who had Floi and 12 rangers as well as a dwarf king and some more Khazad guard.
We rolled for hold the hill and then went about rolling for deployment...
The Armies, both circa 1000 points would be hard to pick a winner and it turned out to be a very close battle...
...Check out the pictures below to see who wins!
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| The battlefield, with the hill on the left and two ruins in the middle |
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| Sam's Black Guard supported by Morannon Orcs |
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| The Witch King on Fell beast with more Morannon and some spiders too! |
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| My Army - Gimli and 12 Khazad Guard |
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| The Kings Champion and 5 Vault Warden teams |
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| Craig's part of the army - Flio with Dwarf Rangers |
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| Dwarf king 1 and Khazad Guard |
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| Dwarf King 2 and Khazad Guard |
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Once deployed Flio looks out of the ruins onto the hill -
I tried to persuade Craig to run them in to the fray to get into range
and start pinning down the fell beast...
but Craig wants to hold the ruins |
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| As usual with The Hobbit SBG we ended up shield wall to shield wall... |
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| The witch King leads from the rear... |
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| Sam fills the ruins with his Blackguard and Morannon |
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| Round 1 - and straight away the clash of the shield lines pushes dwarf and orc together |
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| Bilbo who has the right side orcs charges into Craigs Khazad |
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| Craig, gets ready to move the rangers... yes, come on!! |
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BUT... moves them into the ruins... erm,
he is really worried about the orcs and nasty fell beast! |
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| however he uses his Khazad to good effect to swamp the Morannon |
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| The battle from above |
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| Gimli leads the charge against two orcs and quickly surround them |
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| Craig is victorious on the right and the orcs are looking vulnerable there |
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| Meanwhile in the centre is seems to be a stale mate! |
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| Khazad! Cries Gimli as he clears the flank |
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| Winning priority the dwarves charge in... |
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| ...and start surrounding the orcs, fin the flanks... win the fight! |
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| The centre again sees the clash of steel |
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| Shagrat leaves the ruins and takes on the dwarves |
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| Meanwhile Sam pushes forward on the left to hold of Gimli |
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| Things are looking good, Gimli and the dwarves seem to be winning the left flank too! |
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The right flank falls and the dwarves now control that area,
time to move on to the hill and attack the rear of their shield wall |
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The dwares in the centre are also gaining the upper hand, having successfully s
topped an immobilise spell from the Witch king |
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Charge! The Kings Champion again tries to push forward and tries
to get rid of the Black Guard captain |
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| Morannon banner arrives to add some extra rolls to the orcs |
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| Craig's Khazad protecting my vault flank is pushed away and starts to take causalities! |
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| Gimli prepares for the next wave of orcs heads to cut of with his axe! |
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Another round and Mordor seem to keep winning priority,
this allows them to push more warriors in the side of the vault wardens
and even manage to get a spider to the rear of the kings champion! |
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What was looking like certain victory is now looking less certain
as floods of Black guard leave the ruins and head for the Vault warden flank... |
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I was so in to the battle that I forgot to take some photos...
But, Sam flew his fell beast at Gimli, cast immobilise, which i failed to save,
then charged him, I called heroic strike, but rolled a 1!
(from 1/2 through the battle my dice rolling became horrendous)
We rolled for combat, Sam rolled 6 and I rolled 2, he then put 6 hits on me and killed Gimli, my general... |
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| Next he went for the Kings Champion but with all the Khazad gaurd attacking his rear and Craig calling heroic march to get Floi and his rangers onto the hill, it was just too late and time ran out |
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| The battle ended, it had started off looking like it would be a white wash for Durin's folk, then the Witch king annialated Gimli and his entire warband of Khazad guard, but in the end it was very close and.... |
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...the final score was
Durins Folk 35 vs 32 Mordor |
Final thoughts:
I think Craig and I were lucky to escape here, there just wasn't time for another round and who would have won, i really couldn't tell. The dwarves still had the numbers, but the witch king was poised to strike again. Again, I won by keeping in mind the objective and getting Craig to heroic march just in time to get the rangers on the hill!
The Dwarves were tough, needing 6's and even 6/4 in the centre, to kill... but the Black Guard and Morannon, being fairly tough and plenty of them managed to hold out long enough for the Witch King to start to pull it back.
Again this was a game that turned in to a shield wall vs shield wall, Craig didn't shoot anything and effectively wasted the points, but saved the day just int he nick of time.
Bilbo and Sam could have won this battle, if Sam had moved the Witch King in sooner, but then there were a lot of auto courage passing Khazad to contend with.
It was a good, hard fought match. The final score was Durins Folk 35 - 32 Mordor and another close victory for me!
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| Man of the Match: The Witch King on Fell Beast |
This weeks Man of the Match has to go to The Witch King, he slaughtered Gimli and kept us using fate to save vs his magic, he was a pain... albeit an expensive one! He turned the tide for Mordor, but just took too long to get intot he battle.
The King Champion, was a close second, again he was solid and held his own.
Close win this time for the Dwarves! .
We welcome anyone interested in playing The Hobbit SBG, Lotr SBG, WotR or any warhammer/40K battle - why not let us know so that we can arrange some starter battles, like the one above, or if you/your club want to challenge us. We have all the LOTR/Hobbit SBG figures and LOTR scenery from the Mines of Moria to the siege of Helms Deep, snow fields to desert boards ready and waiting.
Why not join our watch list for updates and look out for Easters weekend battle event... two days of fighting in the ruins of Osgiliath, Helms Deep and Far Harad, you cannot afford to miss it.
Feel free to email us to come along or arrange a game.
East Grinstead War Gaming club
Sussex
At East Grinstead War Gamers we often play Hobbit/LOTR SBG - both skirmish battles and walk through the books/films each Monday night and WotR on club nights.
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