In the wake of battle

[jdizzy001]

I finally got to play a game of the LOTR minis game by gamesworkshop.....i lost. but not my much. 18 freeps vs 41 moria goblins. The battle was tight as my opponent had 2 cave trolls with which to club me. I thought the three hunters, 5 gondor swordsmen, 5 gondor spearmen, and 5 mirkwood archers would be enough to quail his force. I was wrong. Though both our forces were depleted to half their starting number (a term referred to as 'broken') it didn't help me. Aragorn held off a troll onslaught + a substantial number of goblins for 3 rounds. However, the goblin king moved in to trap the ranger of the north and Aragorn felt the icy cold fingers of death grasp his throat and he fell.

Seeing Aragorn fall terrified Gimli. The dwarf promptly failed his courage test. He turned tail and ran (I mean, he recovered the body of Aragorn, then fled ) and with the dwarf went my last hope of victory. Goblins fled as their numbers dwindled, but the men of gondor were weary. They too fell to the blade of the goblin king. In the end, Legolas seeing the end was neigh, charged a cave troll. His efforts were futile as he. The elf was completely exhausted and was quickly smashed by a cave troll. All that remained were a small number of goblins (the goblin king knowing the end was near left the fight for the cave trolls to finish) and the remaining unarmored elf of mirkwood was quickly overcome.
 
Sadly, I lost. The most obvious tactical error I made was I split my main force. This did a great job dividing the team of cave trolls, but it also split Gimli and Aragorn who would have proved more useful if they fought side by side. Legolas lead the elves and though they did a great job raining arrows down onto the goblins, they would have been more useful at close combat against the 12 moria archer goblins who slowly picked them off. Rookie mistakes and a mild dose of fear (don't tell anyone) cost me victory.....this time. We will meet again Chang (who used to frequent these boards but no longer does so).

[jdizzy001]

Fought another battle today. I played Shadow this go round. Saruman's Isengard was released against a hodge podge of warriors of minas tirith, rangers of gondor, and dead men of dunharrow. This match was very even, 31 vs. 31. I began nervously as my last match wasn't as successful as I had hoped. This battle proved just as rough. I was the victim of another 2 rounds of volley fire. However, it proved far less effective than last time. I only lost 2 men to the volleys. I made an effort to move into melee range much sooner. It worked. However, the dead men proved far deadlier than I anticipated. I knew they would be a tough fight, being they have a def of 8 on a scale of 10.

The most deadly foe I faced was the leader of the dead men. The King of the Dead. His prowess isn't the greatest, but one strike from his undead weapon results in instant death, regardless of remaining HP. I knew my best way to slow him down was to take Saruman and Immobilize the ghost. And so I did. For the majority of the first half the dead king was stuck and could do nothing. Thank you Saruman!

Despite my greatest efforts, the dead men leading the attack overwhelmed my uruks. My force was broken. Nevertheless, Lurtz and Saruman kept the remaining 15 uruk fighters held together. Slowly, but surely, one by one, the deadmen and warriors of minas tirith fell to my uruk strength. As essential element I would need to overcome my opponents high defense. One thing I didn't anticipate was the Uruk's slightly higher than normal courage. (most minion's courage sits at a 3 out of 10, the Uruk is a 4). This saved my broken force time and time again. Before I could believe it, Chang's force broke and his rangers began to turn tail and run. From this point on, due to some dark orc luck, no more Uruks failed a courage check. However, I lost Saruman to the dead king. Lurtz would have to carry the army, and he did!

The falling gondor forces bled like a paper cut. One by one they fell until it was 2 uruks, lurtz, against 2 rangers and a dead man of dunharrow. 1 ranger ran, fearing the rather of lurtz , 1 uruk fell to the remaining ranger. Another round of courage passed and no one ran. My last Uruk took down the final ranger and Lurtz struggle against the ghost. 3 more rounds passed as each character on both sides fought, but in the end Lurtz's ferocity prevailed. He eliminated the final ghost with the aid of his companion, 1 lone uruk.

Running score: Chang 1
                        jdizzy 1