Hobbit SBG - Hunter Orcs v Khazad (3)

“He was 'twitching' because he's got my axe EMBEDDED IN HIS NERVOUS SYSTEM! "

        Gimli after the battle for Helms Deep, The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings

Round 3 - With a win I stay on with my Khazad Guard and Gimli army, and this time face Sam's 350 point Hunter orc army. 

The photo below start after deployment in Domination:

With the Hunter Orcs and Drake deploying on the centre line,
the Dwarf King deploys his warband, just outside of charge distance

Gimli follows suit! but he spreads out anticipating the arrival of the Drake

Battle lines are drawn and the armies are ready

After a little bit of dwarven 'tactical with drawl' (not retreat) the armies finally engage,
the orcs win the majority of the fights, but struggle to kill the Khazads in their dwarf armour

And even the Khazad axes are braking at the ferocity of the orc attack

But, the Khazad win piority, Gimli kills Fimbul (with a little help)
while the Khazads start to charge the Cave Drake...  

On the flank it's more of the same,
the King kills the warg rider and the orcs take heavy losses,
but the Drake does kill a Khazad Guard

Sam's orcs look worried, they need the Drake to step up

Dwarf priority...

"Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu!" Gimli charges in
and takes lots of Khazad with him

The King and his warband set to work on the orcs

Oops! The Cave Drake won, perhaps Gimli should have watched, as I can see a REND coming here!
And he did, but fortune was with me and Gimli survived

The Dwarves are looking strong - don't corner the Drake!

All in again, surely this time we can kill it

NO!, And again Sam Rends and this time kills Gimli -
that's my General and auto passing courage tests gone with him!

But as before I charged in and this time surrounded the Drake, double strikes and he's dead.

Another win to me and my dwarves
Final score: Khazad 12 v 6 Hunter Orcs

Khazad Guard on objective

Khazad Guard on objective

Sams hiding hunter orc on his objective!

  Final thoughts: I loved this short and quick fights, we often play 1000 points, which look nice but go on for 2-3 hours.  I think we will be doing more of these.

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

Hobbit SBG - Galadhrim v Khazad (2)

“Huh?! I'll have no pointy-ear outscoring me!"

        Gimli at Helms Deep, The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings

Round 2: Tom's 350 Galadhrim army, having won it's last battle stayed on and so I took my Khazad army (didn't want to have my Galadhrim mounted take on his Galadhrim foot in an all elf battle, just didn't seem right) - the photo below shows the the start of the battle having rolled for hold ground and deployment:

Gimli deploys at the side of the ruin, the king inside - the objective is right in the centre of the battle field

Khazad deployment

Gimli with his body guard

Winning priority, Gimli leads the advance

And the king follows suit

The Galadhrim advance, half distance - ready to shoot the dwarves,
but they are out of range

Safety in numbers... I huddle my force to keep them together - do not fear the elf bows!

Tom moves forward towards the objective, but at half move again

The dwarves can smell the elves!

BAM! Take that - the Elves 2 Khazad and Ginli uses a fate
Sam: "OOOH, Use your might, heroic move before your wiped out"
- lucky shots me thinks

More shuffling forward, but cover the ground to get the objective, and a few in the ways

The Galadhrim pull back, and fire again... I can see where this is going!

Spotting an elf on his own I move forward full distance to prepare to engage,
but fortunately the elf bows don't cause more kills

"Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu!" Gimli calls as my Khazad rush in to the fight
(having killed the single elf on the side)

With lava tot he rear the elf is gonna die!

Tom moves his elven bows to pick off Dwarves at the rear
(typical elves)

Things are not looking good, out numbered and with more elves coming, this could be game over...

WOW! a little bit of might goes a long way,
and with the high fight value of the Dwarf King I suddenly had turned the table,
it could go either way

My way to be precise, another good round saw the Gimli and King combo decimate the Elves and legolas,
as well as ensure that I ended up near the centre

Kill the elves, with another round to complete -
I charged all but three Khazads at the elves

The game ended and the Dwarves won:
Khazad 9 v 1 Galadhrim

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

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!