Hobbit SBG - Mirkwood (old and new) v Harad

“Other lands are not my concern. The fortunes of the world will rise and fall but here in this kingdom we will endure."

        Thranduil King of Mirkwood:The Desolation of Smaug, The Hobbit

Sorry for the delay - this was our last battle report of the year and as it was a Louis' house the lighting wasn't great, therefore some of the photos are blurred.

This is a doubles match of 1000 points, seeing my old style wood elves along side Sam's new Mirkwood elves, 500 points of each.

Thomas and Louis were using Louis' very nice all metal Harad army, which both Sam and I knew were a tough army to fight... 

..will the Harad army dominate and destroy the elves, or will the Mirkwood combo of old and new sieze the day and hold off the Harad advance

Hope you enjoy!

Sam's new Mirkwood Elves, Led by Legolas

Sam's new Mirkwood Elves, Warband 2 led by Tauriel

My 'old school' Mirkwood Wood Elves

More wood elves led by Stormcaller

Thranduil OOP leading Mirkwood (old) wood elves

Louis' army of Harad led by both him and Thomas

I deploy my 1/2 of the army on the right flank facing Thomas (my son) who, seeing the wood elf bows on a shoot of 2+, deploys behind the ruins

Sam places his Mirkwood elves behind barriers and ruins 
and tries to avoid the crossbow fire Meanwhile, 
Louis' harad force deploy in close proximatey to the centre

Mirkwood elves view of the Harad army
including the arbelestors

Thranduil and the elves start to shot at the Harad army led by Thomas
and with their 2+ manage to start hitting and killing this troops

Thomas marches forward wanting to take the fight to the elves

Louis charges towards the Mirkwood elves

...and then Louis moves his crossbows forward

Thomas pushes through the ruins and my wood elves step up to meet them,
with 1/2 his army still in the ruins the elves have the greater numbers

The elven archers target Suledan and his warband

Louis charges through the ruins with the Mirkwood elves in his sight!

Meanwhile, the crossbows keep advancing

The fighting begins,
Thomas tries to push the elves back and gain some ground for his re-enforcements

The Stormcaller, ready to knock Thomas' army to the floor,
is attacked by the ringwraiths magic and looses all of his will :¬(

The Betrayer - having stripped the stormcaller of will moves away

Fighting starts in the ruins as the Mirkwood elves look out numbered

HOLD! Legolas fires a volley, but Harad have too many and reach the ruins

A watcher of karna wins combat and pushes over the wall

The Golden King and a host of Harad surround Tauriel,
but she is holding on and fighting hard

Mirkwood fall back, there are too many!

The Crossbows reach the wall 

Louis' crossbows outnumber the Mirkwood elves

Suledan takes on Thranduil and manages to save vs his natures wrath spell by rolling a 6!
(Why does this always happen)
Meanwhile the Harad army pour over the elves

But with the higher fight value and the spear support,
it is quickly evident that the elves are more than a match for Harad

Harad fall back to the attacks from the elves

Harad need to win some fights to take the ground from the elves

My elves start to target anything which is in line of fire

The Crossbows are pushing into the Mirkwood elves

Mirkwood are struggling to keep the Harad army at bay, and only Tauriel is holding on

Now the Golden King joins the fight, desperate to kill the she-elf

CHARGE! The Mirkwood elves are falling quickly

Harad task master leads the attack on the Mirkwood flank, the is no escape

Mirkwood continue to hold the wall, but the flank is under attack and they are about to be surrounded

Thomas' Harad re-attack the elves and this time head for the bows

Harad new push forces the elves back, all is in the balance now...

Sam and Louis roll for combat

Now the  Betrayer rides into combat, can Legolas stop him

In the thick of the fight is my stormcaller, with no will! but plenty of spear support

Thranduil rushes in and attacks Suledan

Time to move the archers, with no targets to fire at they are wasted

Harad and Wood Elves fight it out

Wood elf archers charge to support Thranduil

Suledan, is trapped, now to win the fight!

Thomas kills the stormcaller and gains some points for Harad

The Fleet Master charges forward throwing smoke bombs,
but fails to hit and gets caught up in the fight.

Suledan wins! having used might he pushes the elves back

The Fleet Master also wins, and forces more elves back

Despite her brave effort, Tauriel is slain, the Mirkwood flank falls,
Louis sets his sights on my elves!

But there is still a way to travel, and my elves still have bows!

The Betrayer, smashes the last few remaining Mirkwood elves and kills Legolas

Time for the elves to pull this back, but Suledan is too tough

The Betrayer calls the charge and all the remaining Harad march across the board

The Golden King follows at the rear

My elves finally kill all of the Harad army led by Thomas,
and set to work to target the Harad advance

One of the last remaining Mirkwood elves is surrounded

As is the the other elf!

We call time and add up the scores
Mirkwood 59 v 48 Harad 

Final Thoughts:
This battle was a close battle and eventually saw a win for good. With the old elven bow upgrade the wood elves were able to hurt the Harad army and force them into combat, followed with their spear support they really held their own in combat.  

The new Mirkwood elves didn't fair so well, the 3+ shooting wasn't as consistent as the old wood elf 2+ and they didn't seem to be able to stop the tide of Harad. The old elves on the other hand, just seemed to be able to do this, they were strong and won more battles and managed to kill more of the enemy.  Whether this was because Thomas was fighting against me and was very new to the game, while Louis (an accomplished player) was fighting against Sam (another accomplished player) I don't know, but it certainly had a big impact.

I really like the old wood elves, and despite people not liking the figures, painted well, they can look really nice, just cant wait to see Sam's new Mirkwood elves fully painted!

Man of the Match:
I think all four of us would agree with the man*cough*female*cough*she-elf*cough* of the match simply had to go to Tauriel - she held out against huge odds and managed to win fight after fight, it took Louis a while to get more 'hero' power in to the fight to eventually get rid of her. 

This was long enough to stop him from winning that battle and then advancing on my elves before I could kill of Thomas' troops.

All in all a good and enjoyable battle.

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.