Hobbit SBG - Durins Folk v Harad

“Let them come! There is one dwarf yet in Moria who still draws breath!!."

        Gimli, Son of Gloin, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Ring

This latest battle report saw a new member to the East Grinstead club (Richard) field 1000 points of Harad against my 1000 point Durin's Folk, the club is growing and so are the number of games we play.  Richard is not new to wargaming and boast a wealth of figures and amazing scenery for Hobbit SBG.  

..will the Harad army dominate and destroy the dwarve, or will the Durins Folk  sieze the day and hold off the Harad advance

Richards Mounted and Far Harad

More Harad - Watchers of Khana and much more!

My Dwarven Army -
Floi and Rangers, Gimli and Khazad

Kings Champion, Vault wardens and Dain & Balin with Khazad,
this is going to be one tough Dwarf army to crack

Craig set the battlefield up with plenty of scenery

Time for deployment - Khazad's in a line with Khana bows watching

With my eye on the objectives I stack my dwarves
in the centre where the thick of the fighting will be

Richard places his cavalry (all 12 of them) on his right flank at the north of the board,
Not many Khazad there and I sense he is going to try to snatch the rear objectives from me, good sneaky move - after all he can't charge head on into my vault wardens :¬D

Richards cavalry line up ready to move

My Khazad eye the Harad infantry hiding behind the building

Vault wardens brace for the wraith and half trolls...
...HOLD... HOLD!!!

The Betrayer and his warband including a taskmaster... hmmm,
black Numenoreans, as well as half trolls - one tough warband

The Harad archers take the hill on the southern flank,
just behind the objective

Harad (Richards view)

Harad (Richards view)

Harad (Richards view)

Run away... I mean, withdraw - my plan to spread his force (divide and conquer)
only works if I can get the dwarves together again

Richards cavalry march and runs around the tree line

The Haradrim Chief steadies his troops

"The dwarves are on the run... run them down!"

Meanwhile, My rangers take the ruins and the protection of them
to start to rain the odd arrow at Richards advancing army

Gimli falls in behind the ruins to protect the door,
along with a few Khazad Guard

Watchers of Khana shoot at the rangers,
but fail to hit anything but the wall

Whilst the rangers target the wraith and his motley crew

Floi waits behind the line... remember special power...

Far Harad, move in line with the wraith... and start their advance

At this point I should have advanced the whole line...
but I was still thinking "HOLD"

Take cover and get behind the wall,
the dwarves are still running (5 inches at a a time)

Richard calls a heroic move and marches his cavalry round the back...
Ouch, they're getting close (see below)

Far Harad move to engage a few Khazad I tried to sneak around
behind the building to take the objective, I think they are outnumbered

Then The Betrayer drags the King Champion out of my line - why did I hold!
He is alone and failed to save against the spell as half the warband stack against him

The charging cavalry reach the objective behind my line...
erm.., that wasn't my plan

BUT, against all the odds, the Kings Champion, chosen for his fighting prowess,
wins the fight, but fails to wound

Far Harad finally charge against my line

The cavalry wheel round leaving only one or two to protect the
objective... isn't that the rear of my dwarf line 

Time to make a move, Gimli charges the Harashin and his Khazad
go for the Watchers and the objective

With the Kings Champion swamped, the dwarves push forward,
but keep the line straight, have faith... this isn't going to be pretty

The Kings champion is unstoppable and wins fight after fight and Kills the wraith (general)

The Dwarves dig in to what they are good at, wall to wall combat

CHARGE!!!! The Harad Cavalry are now inches from my rear,
The rangers are taking a few out, but not enough to stop the Harad army
crashing into me on both sides 

The Khazad run for the objective and use the pillar as cover from the Harad bows

Gimli tries to run back to support Floi, but he is too far away, if the vault wardens are charged on both sides they are not going to do well

Floi and the vault wardens will not engage, 1/2 Gimli's Khazad take on the front force...

Where will the cavalry go and who will get the important priority?

So close, the riders are poised to charge...

The objectives... time to run those dwarves back to it

I win priority (lady  luck on dice rolls is going my way)
and spin my vault wardens round

Richard leaves the objective and fights the dwarves

Discovering my two hidden adn you can't see them Khazads inthe tress,
Richard charges his Harad cavalry into them ouch, take that

Not wanting to take the vault wardens head on, Richard moves round
and charges the north flank and the Khazad troops there

Nice move, but wheres the fight!? One of the Banner bears reaches the Kings Champion, but already the khazad have decimated the Wraiths warband

Camels with pikes! OUCH...  but they are Khazad Guard, Not wood elves Jamie :¬D

My Khazad set up camp on the objective as the archers move forward
and try to shoot them... 6's and 4's hehe!

The rangers are picking off any Harad support and making good choices,
killing 2-3 each round of shooting

The Wraiths warband is all but gone, and is heavily outnumbered

Khazad bowling comes to mind, but being hardy folk they survive the onslaught

Balin and Khazad win the fight and push the cavalry back...
...Richard looks surprised!

Now for the sneaky ones...

BUT, first my khazad smash the harad bows and maintain contact on the objetive

The Watchers didn't touch the objective and I eye the clock... 

One Khazad dead, and one rider dead, the surviving rider charges again,
but the Khazad is still in contact!

Dain, stands, dusts himself off and sets to work to smash the northern flank,
more Khazad arrive for support, but time runs out...

The centre objective is contested

Harad have one

But in the end both dwarves and harad have one each and the rest are contested, Harad is broken and the General is dead... KHAZAD!!!

Final Thoughts:
I thought this battle was going to be easy against Harad... it was a close battle half way through and had Richard got the priority and charged the vault wardens from the rear, then he result would have been different.

 Some good dice rolling and the dwarves came out on top, in the end it was a clear victory for them and they lost very few troops, but things could have been sooo different, imagine my face when the Kings Champion was pulled out of the line and surrounded... I did't see that one coming. Then imagine Richards face, when despite the Kings Champion being alone and without support, surrounded and attacked by most of the warband (which were a tough bunch) he wins and ends up killing the wraith his general!

The Harad army especially the cavalry was mobile and my aim is always to divide and conquer, I did this, he had three separate forces, cavalry at the north, infantry in the middle and archers on the south.

A hardy battle and win for good.

Man of the Match:

Man of the Match
Kings Champion

I have said it before and I will say it again, the Kings Champion was awesome and well deserved the accolade of Man of the match .

Killing more than his points in value, killing the general and despite all the odds holding up to most of the Numenorean/half troll warband.

 At 1000 points, he is a must.

All in all a good and enjoyable battle again.

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 our Tourneyment battle event as part of the Great British Hobbit League, a days fighting in the ruins of Osgiliath, Far Harad and right across Middle Earth - 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.

Hope you enjoy!