Side by Side with a Friend 2024 tournament report

Another joint blog entry you lucky devils! Minitrol (MT) and PhantomNuisance (PN) decided to attend Side by Side with a Friend again this year off the back of a great event in 2023 in Ōtautahi – Christchurch.

Billed as “Christchurch’s largest doubles Middle Earth SBG tournament” we were looking forward to a fun weekend of games and camaraderie. Army composition for Side by Side is two 400 point forces, with each of those forces coming from the same army list (or Legendary Legion), meaning each teams’ total force can only be comprised of maximum two factions.

MT: We really enjoyed list crafting last year coming up with a force dripping in
theme by using the Cirith Ungol Legendary Legion and resulting in me
painting two forces or fun unique models. However, this year due to a
combination of life and, well life, I had less time and we decided to work with
our existing forces and add some fun units I could paint in my one weekend
before the event I had free.

We’ve both been playing Angmar lately, so after a merry diversion in and amongst Minas Tirith, Goblin-town, and Moria (MT: and a very silly list we dubbed the “Romance of Aragorn” with Rivendell led by Arwen and Rangers with Aragorn I may return to this one day!). It was Angmar that we settled on. While the discussion on exact army composition was long and had many iterations what we finally settled on was smaller versions of lists we’d each run at events within the last six months with Minitrol’s headed up by Gulavhar and PhantomNuisance’s by the Witch King.

Big Critters, max terror, tricks, traps and lolz.

It was an uncomfortably small army with 31 models compared to last year’s 42 and we were distinctly worried about our lack of shooting given our experience of “gunline” armies the year before but not to worry the meta had once again pivoted!

Game 1: Fog of War vs. Erebor Reclaimed

Our first game saw us playing two of NZs best players, George and Denny… or it would have if Denny had actually made it to the event. Pro tip: when booking travel for events in New Zealand as we’re heading into winter, maybe think about arriving the night before.

George had managed a desperate rally around of alternate pieces from the Christchurch community which while not the list submitted was close enough – curve balls happen and it would wrong to penalise someone just because their partner could not physically make it, and with the tournament organiser standing in, we set to our first game.

We opted to play a baiting game moving two forces on the flank and they did the same trying to bait Gulavhar into a combat which was identified as our best means of tearing apart the Dwarfen warriors. We had some great success staying in place forcing them to move around terrain. We used a spectre to draw Thorin out into the open, and killed his goat with a Black Dart. Thorin fell prone on the ground, but unfortunately it wasn’t a situation we could capitalise on without serious reprisal so we held back and waited for our moment to strike.

That moment was the following turn as our battlelines clashed. We activated the Shade’s ability (-1 to duel rolls for all non-Angmar models within 6″) and promptly lost all but one duel and about a quarter of our force.

This did not go as planned – there were twice as many orcs at the start of the turn.

We managed to stall things for a couple of turns while we maneuvered the Witch King into position for a magical barrage and charge into Dain to try and deal with his fearless bubble. Needing a 3 or higher to cast Transfix PhantomNuisance managed to roll a 2 highest with two dice and a re-roll so used a Might to cast it. Dain resisted the spell but we continued with the charge, backing our Witch King’s three attacks in combination with the shade. It went as well as when our battlelines met earlier and the Witch King met his end.

Rohan banner bearer standing in for Dwarfs whose flight couldn’t land.

Meanwhile Gulavhar and a small number of Orcs on the right had been engaging in a game of cat and mouse with some Dwarf goat riders, with the orcs intent on capturing our intended terrain piece. Unfortunately the breaking of our army saw some of our orcs flee leaving our terrain piece contested by a dwarf, though we did use a spectre to ensure our opponent’s didn’t claim their terrain piece objective either. We played well, but the dice were definitely not in our favour for a couple of key turns and so we started our journey with a 0-9 loss.

Game 2: Total Conquest vs Minas Tirith

Fielding a similar army to one we considered bringing to the event the Forsey’s (a father and son team) arrayed the might of Boromir, Hurin, and an avenger bolt thrower against us.

This was the first of our scenarios with a ‘hot zone’ deployment, where one force from each side deploys in the middle of the board with the potential to be engaged in combat from the first turn.

#HotZone

PN: When Minitrol and I were discussing Minas Tirith options with Avenger Bolt Throwers (yes, that’s plural), we quickly came to the conclusion that the range coupled with hot zone deployments would limit their effectiveness (as Good armies cannot shoot into combat) and we used both combats and range to our advantage in this game.

The Witch King force was deployed in the middle and, with the help of the shade, our force held its ground in the hot zone, won combats, and killed a bunch of Minas Tirith warriors. This was the army working as intended and was the opposite of our first game (it was nice to have the concept validated after such a poor showing in the previous game). Maelstrom deployment was good to us and Minitrol used his force to good effect stalling Boromir from getting to the hot zone by threatening with Gulavhar and the cave troll.

The hot zone stayed hot right to the end of the game.

We controlled both fronts well and as the game drew close to the end we moved models to claim or contest objectives, giving us a comfortable 9-2 win.

Playing the objectives to grab a solid win.

Game 3: Take and Hold vs. Halls of Thranduil and Rivendell

The event had a high proportion of Elves and a number of Elven Lords of the West and we were happy to have avoided these until this game (PN: we played elves all three games on day one last year). Arrayed against us were Thranduil, Glorfindel, and the multi-tool that is Cirdan. We had briefly discussed these match ups and had a plan going in, but we were going to have to work for it.

PN: My part of the game plan with the Witch King focused around the concept of ‘cheeky one dice Sap Will’ with the Witch King, a plan which went surprisingly well as I managed to get the required 5 or 6 each turn with the benefit of the re-roll from the Crown of Morgul.

With the Witch King whittling down Thranduil’s will, Minitrol was kiting and threatening the Rivendell half with Gulavhar while his cave troll was throwing stones, including one which hit Cirdan and took his Fate from him.

The Battle of the Ornamental Bridge underway.

Meanwhile Gulavhar had been charged by Glorfindel but survived the elven lord’s onslaught. Minitrol called a heroic move to retreat, using Gulavhar’s fly move to avoid the scenery and get out of range of Glorfindel’s charge. From there he ate a few elves to replenish his wounds before a successful barge allowed him to get into combat with Cirdan and finish off the shipwright too.

PN: I sent my three warg riders around behind the Palace Guard, hoping to draw a few of them away and was pleased when seven of them were assigned to deal with the wargs. I was even more pleased when my warg riders killed four of them over the next few turns.

My warg riders punching way above their weight.

Despite our successes the elves were holding their own, and they managed to kill enough orcs to break us, leaving us in a precarious position as we scrambled to claim the objective (it turns out shades have courage 1). A transfix on Thranduil, and a couple of failed terror tests from our opponents meant that when the game ended we had controlled the situation enough that we outnumbered the elves for control of the objective, had managed to break them, and killed their leader giving us a 6-1 win.

The end game state which gave us our win. A very close, very deadly game.

At the end of day one things were looking pretty good for us: two wins and a loss. Apart from some poor dice in the first game things were going well. We were in sync; we were working well as a team and were successfully navigating the scenarios and armies against us.

Game 4: Clash of Champions vs. Rivendell

Another Elven Lords list, this time with Gil-Galad, Glorfindel and Cirdan; tough, but we’d managed a win against a similar list yesterday and we were confident we could do it again. We were in sync, remember?

Back on the ornamental bridge table, back facing elves; welcome to day two.

PN: Well, I don’t know what happened overnight, but we weren’t in sync anymore, and we started this game by messing up our deployment. It was going OK initially with my “cheeky one dice sap will” strategy kicking into gear and the troll dismounting Gil-Galad from his horse with a thrown stone, but by the end of turn three Minitrol and I realised we’d made that aforementioned deployment mistake.

To further emphasise how out of sync we’d become, instead of resolving our issue by some sensible regrouping, we went and made it worse and overextended ourselves. We spent the next few turns stuck in a reactive position, trying to control both Glorfindel and Gil-Galad while keeping Gulavhar safe.

Here you can see us both overextended, and overextended.

This meant that Cirdan was able to wander up to our lines with his Terror-causing area of effect and his auto-pass courage area of effect and put pressure on us.

Our two terror causing battlelines face off.

It was a bit of a long shot for us to pull it back together, and when both of our leaders died in the same turn it was the beginning of the end. James and Stu played well and capitalised on our mistakes, but in this case we were our own worst enemies and our 0-12 loss reflected that.

For professional paranormal investigations and eliminations, call Glorfindel. He’s ready to believe you!

Game 5: Destroy the Supplies vs. Ugluk’s Scouts

PN: Our final game saw us across the board from a 64 model Ugluk’s Scout list. I loved this list from a theme point of view, as it mirrored the list Minitrol and I took last year, including one person controlling all the Uruk-hai while the other controlled the Orcs. Great theme, huge mass of bodies. Love it!

Our quality vs their quantity… so, so much quantity.

With our force being almost outnumbered by double we would quickly lose a game where we tried to rush their supplies. We decided to play defence and only take an opportunity to destroy some supplies if it wouldn’t compromise our own. Gulavhar and our cavalry were our plans for this, but even then we knew it would be a long shot.

Our opponents surged forward with the majority of their forces, leaving only a small number of archers back to defend their supplies. They had also picked we weren’t going to be rushing them.

Gulavhar simultaneously baiting and being a deterrent.

Our first offensive started well with a cheeky spectre and black dart combo nearly killing one of their banner bearers (who promptly had an escort of at least three models for the rest of the game), however once our lines met things turned dramatically as our paralyse and transfixes failed to work and Gulavhar found himself taking a wound from Grishnak. We once again found ourselves out of sync and overextending, leading to Gulavhar getting locked in combat against the front of the enemy battleline for most of the game.

Monster mash! The troll’s spear served us surprisingly well across the event.

We held the line well, our terror helping to control the situation, and over the next few turns we drained most of the Might resources from their force, but their sheer weight of numbers was still keeping us contained. We managed to claw back a bit of control but by then a small number of their force had got around our flank and were threatening one of our supplies, and we didn’t have enough bodies to counter the move, resulting in them destroying one of our supplies.

Both battlelines thinned, but ours is the one feeling stretched.

We killed their Uruk-hai banner bearer but the barge and follow-up combat from our cave troll failed to kill the orc banner bearer. Gulavhar finally broke out of the main line of combat and jumped over the battleline, making a line to an enemy supply (through a bunch of enemies to regain some health), however the war of attrition had held long enough for the game to time out and our final game was a 2-4 loss.

And so another Side by Side comes to an end. It may have been a 2-3 win-loss, but it was five fun games with a good friend and if the brainstorming on the drive home is any indication, we’re both keen to return next year.

52 weeks later: So what did happen in 2023?

So, it turns out I found my hobby limit in 2023 and something needed to give, and what gave was the website and blogging.

So, with all the not writing I did in 2023 what did I get up to?

I painted. A lot (well a lot for me). Painting is my least favourite part of the hobby, so I generally use upcoming events to drive myself to paint (flash fact; I’m currently writing this blog while I procrastinate painting the final models I need for an event this weekend). In 2023 I painted a total of 120 models, including two new armies, and also rebased an additional 130 Goblin-town models. All this was a far cry from the 26 models I painted in 2022 .

I played 64 individual games across 8 games/rulesets. 53 of those games were Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game (MSEBG) which were played across a range of singles, doubles, and scenario/narrative play.

I attended seven MESBG events, including a couple of local one-day events. It’s been great to see the local community grow over the last two years to the point where we have small one-day events and I look forward to those continuing. I also ran two events for the New Zealand Middle-earth League, including my long planned magic themed event which incorporated the Wizards’ Duel mini-game.

In 2023 I set myself a target to win 50% of my MESBG games and I most certainly didn’t lose more than 50% of my games.

Singles games that is, which is what I intended to set my 50% target for but didn’t actually articulate. While I’m not dismayed at the outcome I’m not happy either, so I’m going to aim for a 50% win rate again for 2024 (MESBG singles games), so lets see how I go on round two (I’ve already lost 5 out of 6 games this year, so I’ve got some climbing to do).

I did have some awesome games throughout the year though, and while I didn’t blog as much as I have in previous years I did always take notes and pictures. As such I’d like to wrap up this blog with a few of my favourite games from 2023.

Goblin-town vs Jeremy’s Rangers of Ithilien

After deployment my Gollum was on the opposite side of the board from his Smeagol and the Hobbits. With a chuckle in his voice Jeremy said it would be pretty funny if Gollum made his way over to the hobbits to get the ring back.

As my Gollum didn’t have the One Ring (Frodo being on the board in Jeremy’s army) there really wasn’t a lot he could contribute to the main combat that a billionty goblins weren’t already, so I started Gollum on his epic quest.

Avoiding the swirling melees across the width of the board, Gollum made his way across the board to the building where Frodo, Sam, and Smeagol were. The nearby Goblin swarms distracted the rangers (killing them counts as distracting, right?) allowing Gollum to get into combat with Sam, who he bested and killed.

The following turn, in one of the most cinematic moments of my MESBG gaming history, Gollum called a heroic combat killed Smeagol and then moved into combat with Frodo, getting the killing blow and claiming the Precious! (I also won the game, but at that point that was a secondary consideration).

Goblin-town vs Paddy’s Beornings

My second game that same day was against a Beornings Legendary Legion, where my 69 goblins went up against a handful of Beorning warriors and the two skin changers (i.e. Bears).

In a game of Fog of War where I was broken relatively quickly (bears fight good) I managed to stay in the game long enough to wear down the bears, win some key combats, pass some key courage tests and pull out an unlikely win.

Here’s slideshow showing the progression of the Battle for the Hill. In the final picture you’ll note a goblin warrior just poking out above Grimbeorn’s head… that’s the goblin of the match having beaten Grimbeorn in combat, driving him back and, more importantly, not having to back off the terrain piece Paddy was attempting to claim.

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Always a pleasure to have a game with Paddy, who always has beautifully painted armies to boot.

Dune

Minitrol had been keen to get us playing Dune for a while, and one night the stars aligned. I took the role of Harkonnen, as befits my generally aggressive/horde style of gameplay. Following the game provided notes that I was at a better position in the early game than others I launched an aggressive and expansionist push quite early to try and get a quick win.

When that stalled I promptly started playing devil’s advocate and sowing some discord at the table, while currying a bit of good favour with Allonaire who was playing Atreides. When the opportunity came up for an alliance, Alllionare took it and from there it was a matter of getting ourselves into a winning position to consolidate our power.

I consider myself lucky Allonaire didn’t get the opportunity to break the alliance, as he was certainly in the better position of the two of us and could probably have backed himself to ditch me and get the solo win.

“Floorhammer”

A team from Dunedin travelled to Wellington to attend the annual Battle of Five Regions event for the NZ Middle-earth League. While the event itself was a great amount of fun, the most memorable game of the trip was on the night we arrived in Wellington. Due to some glue failure and #LifeStuff which came up during the week Minitrol had submitted a new army for the event just days prior and wanted to give it a test run. We set about raiding the motel unit for items to use as terrain and played a game of “Floorhammer”.

Minitrol won the game, but it was great for the laughs, casual vibe, and the fond memories of 2nd edition Warhammer 40,000 games on my lounge floor from our teenage years.

The Battle for New Years Eve

And it wouldn’t be a year at 52Weeks52Games without the traditional Battle of New Year’s Eve, which this year saw Minitrol, Allonaire, and I battling it out in a three player Triumph and Treachery game of Age of Sigmar.

For the first time since January I got the Slaaneshi Salesgirls out of storage and faced them against Allonaire’s Lumineth Realmlords and Minitrol’s Flesh Eater Courts. With a mix of rules ranging all the way back to first edition Age of Sigmar Realmgate rules (circa 2015) we happily rolled dice and caught up. I think gaming was the winner on the day… or friendship… or Minitrol. They’re certainly not mutually exclusive winners.

The Battle of Five Regions 2022 Day Two

PhantomNuisance (PN): Let’s not waste time recapping stuff we’ve already written; if you want the ‘Previously on’ you can read about Day One here. Day Two lies ahead, with our team goal to finish the event with triple digits of victory points (something all of the other teams managed on Day One)

Minitrol (MT): Okay say it with me. First Turn. Channel Blinding Light.

Game 4: Hold Ground

MT: Owing to the nature of the tournament up to the final round we were matched as a round Robin and only in the last round would it be matching the Teams to play for First, Second , and Third Etc.

So, in the fourth round we faced the terror of the Team with no Name. This was a fiercely competitive team. Not in a bad way each player is a lovey human but they are all very experienced tournament winners.

My first match of the day was against a Morannon horde with Gothmog, Kardush, and the ever loathed Guritz, Master of Reserves and, unfortunately, this was another Scenario my list was ill-suited for and his was ultra honed for.

From turn one I was on the back foot with the manipulation of the reserves roll meaning my warband led by Denethor didn’t get to choose where he came on and was surrounded by an entire army.

Ever feel surrounded?

My other warband likewise didn’t get to choose and this time I opted to use Gandalf as an artillery piece popping out of cover to transfix Gothmog, and the occasional Sorcerous Blast.

A Single Rider Clothed in white

In short, while I was incredibly on the back foot I vowed to make the victory hurt. So looking at the victory conditions there were points to be had for wounding and killing the enemy leader so this became my plan. Though my entire army was slaughtered Gandalf fought on till the game timed out managing to get Gothmog down to one wound and no Fate but he (rather dishonourably) lay down behind a wall so he could not be targeted!

Hatred of Men!

So my first point of the tournament!

PN: Rohan. With throwing spears. So my army but with better stats and fewer wargs. And a better leader in Helm Hammerhand with Mighty Hero rule for the Helm’s Guard legendary legion.

It was Maelstrom deployment (warbands can enter via any board edge, based on a dice roll) and my Legendary Legion gave me special rules allowing me to charge on the turn I arrive. It also allowed me to bring D6 models on to the board before the first turn of the game. I rolled a 3 and brought on 3 wargs to race to the centre and hold the objective, planning that the rest of my army would do the work of harassing and killing the enemy.

My opponent got the first turn and almost none of his army arrived at the end of his movement phase. I rolled OK, and with barely any enemies on the board I chose to save my Might rather than use it for a minimal advantage of my special rules.

Surround them, zig-zag, capture them in a pincer maneuver.

The following turn was when things got interesting. Charges were made, spears were thrown, Wargs dies (including my Captain’s warg to a friendly throwing spear).

Things weren’t going my way so my shaman threw out a cheeky transfix to gain a combat advantage but it didn’t pay off. The following turn, after taking a number of casualties, I decided to use the shaman to channel Fury to try and save my Orcs which had started to die too quickly. My mistake here was forgetting I’d already used a Will and then casting Fury with two dice, getting a success then realising that it automatically ended due to being exhausted.

Things are starting to look a bit dire

Things didn’t get much better for me from that point, though I did manage to get my opponent to break point but we both broke in the same turn. After a turn worth of fleeing warg riders the game promptly ended. With no friendly models within 6″ of the objective (because I had no models left on the board) and my leader dead the final score was a 1-10 major loss.

Only Rohan left on the board

Game 5: Divide and Conquer

MT: Not a scenario I had ever played before. Deployment is in diagonally opposite corners with three objectives. I was up this time against a fierce Uruk-hai scout force. It was a lovingly painted and expertly commanded force.

I was super taken back by the speed of this force. With extra movement and Heroic Marches it quickly massed two of the objectives.

So pretty but so deadly

At least they weren’t highly armored I thought as I rushed forward to kill them honorably in a series of duels Except they are still Fight 4 so won more combats than me overall and my Shieldwall army bonus (+1 bonus to my Defence IF base-to-base with two others who also have this rule) when it comes to the practicalities of the scenarios is really difficult to maintain.

Denethor Demands that you Serve

It wasn’t long before I was broken and the game mercifully ended shortly after with, again, maximum points to my opponent and zero to me.

Tooo sloowwww

Oomph.

PN: I was up against an Armor army for this scenario meaning I was facing high defence and Foresight saves. Even then I was feeling quietly confident as I knew I would have speed on my side.

Speed is on my side.

My throwing spears had little effect and it was combat where the game would be decided. Even with the wargs’ strength of 4 I was struggling to wound, however in return most of my wargs were remaining in the game after their riders were slain.

It was a drawn out fight I gained the upper hand in and broke my opponent. King Arvedui’s 12″ stand fast kept the Arnor forces in the game and my daring strike at the King in the back lines ultimately resulted in Sharku being trapped and killed. The game ended not long after and with the objectives under my control I claimed my first win of the event 8-3.

Wargs for the win!

Game 6: Seize the Prize

MT: In many ways I hate this scenario. I’ve seen a cavalry force sweep in pick it up and Heroic Move away for the rest of the game and also I’ve seen the first person to get there fail their roll to pick it up three turns in a row.

It is no Storm the Camp. This Scenario has always felt like a Narrative Scenario squashed into the Competitive mould.

The “Relic”

Anyway this was a great narrative game with story driven moments of glee.

I was facing the Mirror of PN army another Wolves of Isengard list – if I lost priority here there would be no chance of recovery.

Slavering Wargs

I won priority.

Gandalf and Shadowfax careened through the centre. I didn’t dismount but I had channelled Terror and he remained stoic by the Relic.

My Favourite picture of my Army

He channelled Fury negating my Terror.

Wolves moved into block while the Warg cavalry pushed up to prevent me supporting Gandalf.

Gandalf laughs at these odds. Seizing priority again and again Heroic moves were issued and countered buffering back and forth.

Ware the Right Flank!

Denethor and his bodyguard threshed wargs like wheat! The Steward showing something of his mettle from before his mind Broke.

Then my opponent set up for his play passing the Relic successfully then winning Priority the next turn he pinned my Warriors. It would be okay as long as I didn’t lose too many combats.

Unfortunately I lost the flank combats and with Warriors knocked prone they had no control zone for pinning the wargs who spread their net and the Relic bolted for safety of my board edge.

It had been an epic game in great spirits and played till time was called!

PN: In the last round I was again against a Helm’s Guard Rohan force with Helm Hammerhand and a lot of throwing spears, though thankfully with fewer mounted models than the previous one.

My opponent Heroic Marched in the first turn to get closer to the objective. In return I threw a bunch of throwing spears at Helm which caused a wound, though my opponent saved it with Fate, denying me an early victory point.

On my signal, unleash hell.

My opponent positioned himself well, using the terrain to his advantage to prevent my cavalry charges. Helm resisted the transfixes directed at him by the shaman, and my opponent dug up the objective to take the advantage.

Those Warriors of Rohan held the line well

The remainder of the game can be summed up simply with ‘no heroic roll offs went my way’. With limited might vs Helm’s Mighty Hero rule I eventually ran out of might and, unable to get a solid cavalry charge off, my force was eventually broken for little losses to my opponent, ending the game as a 0-10 crushing loss.

Conclusion

PN: We did it. We ended with triple digits of victory points. We were also also voted best themed team, so thanks to our opponents for recognising the awesomeness of hats and badges.

Anyway, what a great weekend, six games against six good opponents and playing alongside three great teammates.

The Wolves of Isengard legion was a lot of fun to play. I’m glad I took the opportunity to play it at an event, and I wasn’t the only one who took advantage of the lower points value as there was one other Wolves of Isengard list there in addition to mine.

It was the first time I’d taken an all cavalry list and while I learnt a lot there’s still more for me to master in this space. I’m looking forward to my next outing.

The dogs of war.

MT: I didn’t know what to expect. I knew being a very fluffy list of older profiles I would be up against it but some army list bonuses and profiles took me so much by surprise.

I had predicted my weakness to range, lack of might and inexperience with Gandalf the White and these played equal parts but also in each game I could have blunted the loss and sought what points I could. Some good lessons learnt.

All my opponents were gracious and accomplished players who provided advice throughout but never in a pushy I Can Play For You Manner.

It was a great experience and I would definitely do another team event.

The Battle of Five Regions 2022 Day One

The Battle of Five Regions 2022 was a six round Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game (MESBG) team event held in Wellington in April 2022. Team size was four players with each team bringing two evil and two good armies of no more than 555 points each. Teams were paired off each round with games paired within the team pairings as 1v1 good versus evil games.

The event attracted six teams, so the event was run as a round robin with the final round being paired by overall placings. In the final round individual players were paired against the army which they did not face in the round robin.

PhantomNuisance (PN): I was really happy when Minitrol was keen for the event (we hadn’t been to a SBG event together for a number of years). We teamed up with a pair from Christchurch and dubbed our team the Shirrifs of the Southfarthing (having the Southernmost representation of any team at the event) and promptly started brainstorming team costume ideas (cowboy hats and sheriff badges were surprisingly efficient).

In my continued exploration of lesser-used armies I decided to take a Wolves of Isengard legendary legion. I figured a good v evil event at 555 points was the most viable event I was going to have to try the army, and set about painting and converting the last of the warg riders I needed to round out my force.

PhantomNuisance’s Wolves of Isengard list.

Minitrol (MT): Since my last event was 2018 I knew I had work to do. I did pre-match games read through the matched play scenarios and crafted a list capable of utilizing every phase. Also I included Heroic March. I also didn’t paint the army at the last minute.

Okay. So that’s obviously not true. What many people don’t know is that I am a Frodo at work, cool, impassioned and professional. But at home I am a Pippin – irrational, governed by emotion, and constantly dropping things down wells to alert hordes of stunted orcs…

So I had played one game this year which was using a different army, different points and different spirit.

Now to be clear the unusual dictates of the event required two good and two evil per team at 555 points. One team member bagging Dwarfs and the other two Evil I had to pick a Good force. This is is not my favourite in general terms I don’t really gel with any of the Good lists except the Fellowship:

In which our protagonist predicts the future

Despite PhantomNuisance’s appeals to logic “Take Beorn and the Eagles” I knew I had no choice; a long time ago PhantomNuisance gifted me the new Denethor sculpt and I had been itching for a chance to paint him.

I already had a fully painted Warriors of Minis Tirith force, so easy. Anyway long story short I ended up repainting and rebasing the entire army in 4 days again.

MiniTrol’s 555 Points of Shiny Metal Bois

Game 1: Domination

PN: My first game was against a Return of the King legion with Aragorn and the King of the Dead, with the rest of the force made up of Warrior of the Dead and a couple of Riders of the Dead. With high defence all around, and a free point of Might each turn with Aragorn I knew that I would have to rely on my mobility and numbers in order to win this one.

Two of my warg riders got a pre-game move and I tried to take advantage of my opponent’s positioning to kill his banner bearer with my throwing spears. It was a cheeky long shot which didn’t pay off but it made my opponent keep a good eye on his banner bearer for the rest of the game. In the first turn proper I landed a number of throwing spears on King of the Dead but failed to wound.

I also took the opportunity to cast channeled Fury with my Shaman as I needed the automatic passing of courage tests to charge the dead, and I figured the ‘prevent a wound on a 6’ would come in handy as the dead would normally be converting any wins to wounds as they were rolling against my courage value rather then my defence. The auto-pass courage served me well for the game; the wound prevention didn’t, including when Sharku went down to a shank from the King of the Dead.

My warg riders face off against the Dead of Dunharrow. I may have copped flack for including the Shaman in my list but he was worth every point in this match up.

I used my mobility to flank, I used my knockdown and numbers to win fights, but my real nemesis in this game was my inability to wound. My warg-riders needed 6’s in combat to wound while the throwing spears needing 6’s followed by 4’s and kill conversions just weren’t coming fast enough. At the end of the game I had killed only killed 6 warriors but due to fully controlling two objectives and contesting one other I managed to keep the game to a minor loss 4-7

MT: The night before we had discussed over a bizarre ice cream soda inspired beer the forced which would most give us pause (we had of course listened in rapt attention to the List review show HERE). One list I felt I had no tools to deal with was the Uruk Hai Fighting Legion with Ballista and Crossbows and tonnes of captains.

Very small chance of that we laughed.

It’s fair to say I had no control from the start of the game. The ballista killed Denethor the first shot and while I gamely took the objectives the numbers and my inability to keep my Shieldwall intact were telling. I used Might poorly and I had no clue what to do with Gandalf the White who I had never used before and was much less offensive compared to my Nazgul or Cave Trolls.

Clash of Pikes and Swords!

With not one point of my own claimed my Opponent romped home with a very solid 9 – 0.

Forward! Oh they have Heroic March… dang

Game 2: To the Death!

PN: My opponent in this game was running a Minas Tirith and Fiefdoms list which also included the Fellowship version of Boromir. My first objective was going to be closing the distance between our armies without taking too many casualties (including warg casualties) from the Black Root Vale archers which were arrayed against me.

The depth of field obscures just how much shooting I was facing down; I call it Art.

My concerns were well founded as the first turn saw both Sharku’s warg shot out from under him and the Shaman suffer a wound, though my flanking warriors were safely out of range and closing the gap quickly. In the movement phase of the second turn my opponent started tactical withdrawal moves, slowly moving his force backwards to keep out of range as long as possible. All the while shooting into my force, though this turn I fared a bit better as nothing hit.

The gap finally closed and fights about to begin.

Priority, in the third turn, went to me and in an attempt to negate my charge bonuses my opponent called a heroic move with Hurin. I countered with Sharku, got priority, and proceeded to charge. Boromir’s horse died to a throwing spear as I entered combat. Combat went well for me, including killing Hurin’s horse and watching him suffer a wound as he failed his Thrown Rider test.

Hurin prone on the ground after his horse was cut out from under him.

After that turn things quickly swung against me though as I lost both captains and Sharku in the same turn. I did kill Hurin and wound Forlong, and I broke his force in the turn which I was reduced to 25% however it wasn’t enough to avoid a major loss 4 – 10

MT: I was so excited about Game Two my opponent was and remains one of my favourites to play against over the years and the game was good fun, great banter, and high drama.

Men of Gondor! Forward!

I had no idea what to expect as this Moria horde contained a secret weapon – a Watcher in the Water.

My hope was to place pressure on getting supported fights to blunt his numbers and kill as many as possible before the Watcher broke through the surface as if it came behind me I would be ruined.

The Watcher emerged screaming turn 2.

Older and fouler

This was bad but it didn’t need to be the end! I still had Gandalf I had a solid block of Spearmen and warriors flanking and I could still butch the goblins. But I could not convert wounds yet the Watcher would kill three warriors a turn.

There was a tonne I could have tried but this was his game to lose and that wasn’t going to happen. A great game that taught me a lot. 10 – 0 to my opponent.

The Forces of Men in disarray

Game 3: Assassination

PN: This game saw me facing off against a Khazad-Dum Dwarf army. While it was slightly less daunting defense-wise than the Army of the Dead from my first game it was still not going to be easy. I also had a plethora of eligible assassination targets, and three heroes of my own to be the assassin (well, it was realistically only two as I was never really going to choose the shaman). My opponent and I had a good discussion about defence, wounds and fate at the start of the game (especially in regards to the two Heralds accompanying the King’s Champion and the Siege Veteran) and I decided to attempt to assassinate the Siege Veteran with my Red Captain.

My opponent deployed his army in a defensive line across the middle of the board and his ballista on the edge of a fountain, a defensible position which would negate my cavalry charges. I rolled a 5 for my pre-game scout move and took the opportunity to throw five throwing spears at the ballista crew, none of which wounded. We then proceeded to roll drawn priority a couple of times before the game eventually got started.

My warg riders quickly getting behind the dwarven line and launching throwing spears at the ballista.

As with the previous game Sharku had his warg killed from underneath him early on, but the battlelines quickly met and I started to get the upper hand, including causing a wound on one of the Heralds and making him use a Fate. It wasn’t long before my opponent had to call a heroic move to try and blunt my charge which I of course countered. Needing to take at least some sting out of the turn my opponent called a second heroic move which I countered again. As none of our heroes were in the centre of the frontline this ensured that we would each control the positioning at one end of the line. The following turn also saw a double heroic move called as my opponent tried to take a bit more control of the situation.

Things were going in my favour and I took the opportunity to get my Red Captain around the flank and heading towards the ballista. I continued to heft throwing spears at the Herald I wounded earlier to keep my opponent’s focus there. My opponent’s defensible position served him well, and it took a couple of turns until I was able to position myself, but I did get the Assassination kill.

The mighty fight of the fountain wall – I gave up all my cavalry bonuses to assault it and eventually it came out in my favour.

Casualties were mounting up on both side and my opponent and I both reached break point on the same turn. Things escalated quickly from there as almost a quarter of my force fled, and by the end of that turn I had taken enough casualties for the game to end. My valiant assassination efforts had got me my best result of the event so far, an 8-8 Draw.

MT: Not my favourite scenario for my perfectly narrative but weak as an upturned crab army list.

My opponent had 2 characters, I had three and one was Pippin and one had a Broken Mind so all in all there were no surprises for how the match played out. It was another Fighting Uruk-Hai list this time led by the White Wizard himself and Lurtz.

PN: #TrueWhiteWizard

Preparing to face their opposites

MT: I caught my opponent off guard as you can start deployment incredibly close so my Warriors and Gandalf flanked and prevented the crossbows’ from shooting while kicking down fools. Unfortunately, I had sudden second thoughts about what to do with Gandalf and kept moving out of harm’s way which was also out of the way of being useful.

I once again forgot to channel and cast Blinding Light which would have made such a difference. I had even written it on my hand (thanks to Opponent 2 for suggesting this).

Saruman orders his Uruks through the gap

I couldn’t really get the upper hand and despite inflicting reasonable casualties he Compelled Pippin into the open riddled him with crossbow bolts and I failed to do one single wound to Lurtz.

The White Wizard thematically sets Denethor on fire

Looked close on table but on paper was another 10 – 0 loss.

At the end of Day One the Shirrifs had 1 win, 1 draw, and 10 losses to our name, and from that result our team tournament goal was set – to finish with a triple digit victory point total.

To be continued…

Three Games; Three Environments

It feels like ages since I wrote but it’s actually just over two weeks. This year is crazy and likewise my concept of time is just as crazy. My inability to grasp the concept of time not withstanding, lets talk games! Since last posting I actually played three different games, in three different environments.

The first was Ticket to Ride: United Kingdom with my wife. We’ve had our copy of this for a while but whenever it came to actually playing it there always seemed to be too many rules, too many cards, and it just overall seemed like too much to learn for a casual game night.

After having played it I think we made the correct decision in the past, and I’m glad we started early enough on the evening to allow us the time to learn the mechanics and play through two games. The twist in this version is that at the start of the game players can only claim routes of 1 or 2 space, and only routes within England. In order to build longer routes, or routes which connect to other countries, you need to purchase upgrades.

The upgrades are nice and thematic (the Mechanical Stoker allows you to claim 3 space routes), but not all upgrades are created equal (the Boiler Lagging allows you to score an extra point per route you claim). It is true that the Boiler Lagging costs 2 Locomotives but as there are no progression rules for upgrading technology it just makes sense to buy the Boiler Lagging as early as possible, knowing that you will make up any early game deficit in points with it.

Also cards. So many cards. There are so may ways this could have been done better.

The game was interesting and while the technology upgrades had the potential for interesting tactical play, the game didn’t strike me as amazing. It felt like Ticket to Ride but with barriers to play rather than (as I expect the intention was) Ticket to Ride which grows and develops and adds a layer of tactics. We played two games of this and we each won one but neither of us was excited enough to play a tie-breaker. Would it be better with more players? Would it be better adding in the Advanced Technologies? I’m unsure; maybe I’ll find out one day. Looking at the reviews from others they are very split in their reception suggesting it will struggle to find a solid home in most peoples collection.

The next game wasn’t one I played, but one I ran. Two Rooms and A Boom has been on my radar to run at an ‘event’ for a while, and a recent development day at work handed me the chance to run a 24 person game as our ice-breaker.

Two Rooms is a social deduction game. The group is split into two and everyone is dealt a card with a team colour and/or a role. At minimum the Blue Team has a President and the Red Team had a Bomber. The game proceeds through a number of timed rounds, and at the end of each round the leader of each room exchanges a predetermined number of hostages with the other room. At the end of the final round the Red Team wins if the Bomber and President are in the same room, otherwise the Blue Team claims victory.

I didn’t take any pictures of the game in progress so you get stock images from the website, sorry.

I’m mostly happy with the rules explanation I gave at the start of the game. There were a couple of people who didn’t quite grasp things, and if I had a bit more time I would have doubled back, but as we were only playing with Bomber, President, and generic team cards I was confident that enough people in each room had the general idea that I kicked things off and started the timer.

It’s always interesting to see how a game of Two Rooms plays out, and it’s even more interesting when it’s people who you work with every day and you have a general idea of how they approach situations. There were people who tried to get all the information out in the open (“Does everyone want to show their cards?”) and people who played it close to the chest. There were people who mostly listened and only interjected when it was advantageous.

Throughout the game both rooms had room leadership challenges (one successful, one unsuccessful) as groups of people came to understand the power in being the person (or team) who were choosing the hostages to exchange. The game resulted in a cheer from the Blue team when the Bomber was revealed and people had a good time (always a win for an ice-breaker). While I would have enjoyed running a second game with some additional characters, the one game we did play was a fun start to the day which people enjoyed.

If you want to check it out for yourself there are free print-n-play rules and cards available on the Two Rooms website.

The most recent game I played was a game of Age of Sigmar. My Keen Opponent was getting prepared for a tournament in Christchurch and wanted to try out his army. I got my Daughters of Khaine out and lined them up against the might of my Keen Opponent’s Ogor Mawtribes.

The game went bad right from the beginning when I misread the victory condition of the battle-plan (that’s on me), and then my opponent’s front line hit me (that was all him). As my army crumbled under the onslaught of trampling hooves and -1 to hit modifiers I was constantly leaving the room as my dishwasher beeped warning messages at me.

And none of this is to diminish or take anything away from the win that my Keen Opponent achieved. As I have said before he knows his army, and plays it well so he deserved the win. It’s just a shame that because I wasn’t on my best form he wasn’t able to test his army to the extent he might have wanted.

For the record this is why my dishwasher was beeping. This rotor motor unit is supposed to be a one-piece unit

Post lock-down games with family and friends

The last month was a mixed bag for gaming. As New Zealand has moved through progressively lower levels of our Covid-19 response I have had the opportunity to play a bunch of games and, more importantly, catch up with family and friends.

One of the first gaming ventures I embarked on was with Minitrol and Allonairre. On a casual Saturday afternoon we set up some rounds of Age of Sigmar The Glymmsforge Catacombs.

We each of us chose a hero from one of our armies and with that two Aelves and a Seraphon journeyed deep into the catacombs to seek our fate.

As it turned out we had an extremely potent combination of fighters and as the undead continued to fall before us we upped the ante by throwing in some house rules, and increasing the number of enemies. There were a couple of tense moments but the real fun came when we decided we were finishing up – at which time all bets were off and both Minitrol and I broke ranks and played super aggressively. A couple of minutes later Allonairre was the only person left and he proceeded to kite the enemies long enough to get the win before making off with all the treasure.

Three heroes walk into a catacomb – stop me if you’ve heard this one…

It was a fun afternoon and the perfect way to break the lockdown gaming fast – no grand armies clashing across a board just three heroes fighting off hordes of undead, laughing, and having a good time.

My Keen Opponent had messaged me about some Age of Sigmar as soon as it was possible and we got a game in the following weekend. We played a smaller game (1,000 points) and for this celebration I decided to get out my Cities of Sigmar Dark Aelves. I built an army with a magic focus (magic never works for me – so why not just double down on it, right?) and then promptly let that go to my head and rule my gameplan.

Form the line! Archers, ready!

I was once again comprehensively outplayed, and my Keen Opponent continued to show his mastery of his army and list. Checking back over my records it’s now been over a year since I have managed to best him so it seems I need to up my game. The good thing about being severely outplayed like I was is the post-game discourse. This is where any good opponent (like he is) is happy to discuss the game, what went well or not, and how different decisions could have affected it. Will this help me beat him next time? We’ll have to wait and see.

The last stand of the Black Guard

Queen’s Birthday weekend saw my wife and I get out of town for a bit and head into Central Otago to see my parents. We spent a nice couple of days relaxing away from the bustle of our regular lives at home. The place we were staying at had a copy of Monopoly and we spent the Saturday night around the table playing a game.

The very nice Collector’s Edition board

I haven’t played Monopoly for a long, long time. In fact I would be hard pressed to remember exactly when my last game of Monopoly was, though I do recall I played it quite a bit during my teenage years.

The game belonged to my Dad from very early on as he was the only person to complete his initial lap of the board without ending up in jail and that advantage, combined with his seemingly uncanny ability to avoid everyone else’s property throughout the game, saw him build up a small empire on the orange properties which eventually drained the rest of us until we called him the winner.

Three of us languish in jail as Dad races around the board buying up everything he can.

The following weekend was also for family visiting as we traveled North to catch up with my in-laws. After a very nice dinner we sat down to a game of Scrabble, or as my in-laws copy is called – Funworder.

Fascinating, educational, scoring feature – what more could you ask for in a game?

We played in couples and had an enjoyable game (we were twice unable to drop seven letter words due to space) and while the scores at the end were very close (curse the lack of space for those seven letter words) my wife and I claimed the win.

And that’s been my last four weeks of family, friends, and gaming. It’s been great catching up and playing games.

One month on

Wow that last month flew by so quickly I didn’t even realise it had been almost a month since my last game.

On Saturday I finally got the chance to play some more Captain Sonar. The first time I played Captain Sonar we played five games in quick succession, with none of them lasting more than 15 minutes.

The game last weekend was a tense 25 minute affair.

While the result was a loss to us (our captain realising too late that a hastily deployed, instantly detonated mine would inflict damage on us too) it was really good to see the game playing at full capacity with four players on each team. I think everyone involves enjoyed themselves however a second game wasn’t on the cards as some people had to leave, and rest of us were coming down from the tense conclusion.

I also managed to play my second game of Age of Sigmar for 2019. Minitrol has been building up his Seraphon (Lizardmen) and wanted to take his expanding army out for a spin.

Army arrayed and coffee at the ready – time to kill some Space Lizards

As one of my goals this year to to learn and master my Daughters of Khaine, I obliged by showing up with my expanded Stabby Murder Girls army. Minitrol ended up on the back foot in the second turn when some crucial rolls and combats didn’t go as well as he would have liked. He adjusted play accordingly but both he and I knew as soon as I was able to get priority from him I would be able to swing it. It took until battleround four before I was able to get first turn, at which point I capitalised and took the win.

Coffee and Space Lizards all finished.

The expanded armies each of us were using have potential and I am interested to see how we further expand and refine them. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of grudge matches to come.

Week 52, Game 53: Just enough time for one more

In an amusing turn of events it turns out Game 52 wasn’t the last one I played in 2018. My friends were all determined to get me over the 52 games finish line so one of them brought Codenames: Pictures to the New Year’s Eve event I went to.

Since she’d gone to all the effort it would be a shame to turn down her kind offer so we played five games. It was not my finest hour and I managed to rack up four losses to see out the year.

Week 35, Games 34 & 35: “And they searched for treasure”… and crabs?

Warhammer Quest was a game we played many, many times across many, many years. We started our epic adventures as teenagers and our party continued to meet well into our twenties as we worked on our tertiary education and careers. So, as part of my initial pitch for 52 Weeks 52 Games, I said “We can do a Warhammer Quest month, where we play all the different versions.”

And thus – welcome to Quest Month (cue dramatic music).

We open Quest Month with Hero Quest which, both technically and literally, is not Warhammer Quest thought it is it’s predecessor. We gathered five of us to delve into this first dungeon – 4 adventurers and Minitrol as games master –  and randomly distributed characters with myself ending up with the Elf.

Starting with the opening adventure, ‘The Trial’ (which uses EVERY MINIATURE IN THE BOX!) we quickly showed that age does not necessarily bring maturity as we split up in an attempt to search rooms for treasure before the other players could.

Everyone’s game plan seemed to be get rich quick by running off on your own.

While this may seem foolish (it was foolish) I quickly brought the players together and got them working as a team. A unit. A well oiled machine. And all it took was for me to run off on my own, open a bunch of doors, and get killed.  Yep, there’s nothing like a team member dying to make the rest of the team realise that no man, not even a Barbarian, is invincible. Though there was still a race for who could search for treasure first.

My dead elf – the selfless act which ushered in a new age of cooperation amongst the players.

Though the game became a little more serious from that point many a laugh was still had as the remaining adventurers made their way through ‘The Trial’. When we noticed that skeletons tolled the same number of attack and defence dice as the Elf we decided one of them was my character reanimated (obviously) and I took control of it for a couple of turns before the skeleton civil war I started claimed my life again.

The Gargoyle keeping toasty warm by his fireplace

After the hilarity of the first game we went straight on to the second adventure. Where we promptly split up and started searching for treasure again…

Rescue Sir Ragnar, or split up in an effort to find the most treasure? There was really only one way this was going to go

Though we did get a little isolated once one of us had a near death experience (it was me again) we started to work as a team and successfully escorted Sir Ragnar from the dungeon and completed our mission.

A room with no monsters and a treasure chest… of course it’s a trap. But on the other hand there could be anything in the chest – even a boat…

The best thing about our games of Hero Quest were the laughs we had. Despite me being dead for most of the first game we were having a good time and laughing a lot, and it was a fun afternoon. We all felt a lack of character progression and engagement with our characters: they don’t get any better, there is a limited pool of equipment cards, and gold is hard to come by (hence the excessive searching for treasure), but as the beginnings of both the Warhammer Quest legacy and Quest Month it was a good straight forward start and left me excited for the rest of the month.

The second game of the week was You’ve Got Crabs, a team-based party game with simple rules and a silly premise.

The interesting thing about playing this was noting the various play styles of people.  The eventual winner went to the team who was best keeping an eye on everything and everyone as they were making their moves, and waiting to make their own at a slow and considered pace as everyone else was finishing up.  A nice quick game, and a bit of a laugh.

To finish up the first Quest Month blog, any good blog about Hero Quest would be failing it’s audience without posting this video.  If you haven’t seen this before – enjoy, you’re welcome; if you have seen this before – enjoy again, you’re welcome.

Week 33, Game 33: War in Middle-Earth

In 2009 Games Workshop launched a mass battle version of their Lord of the Rings battle game. Called War of the Ring the rules scaled up the skirmish style conflicts of the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game so you could field hundred of miniatures, but not get bogged down in the minutiae of hitting, wounding, saving, etc for each model.

The game has a great rule set and to its credit about 80% of it works really well. The 20% that isn’t quite right would have taken one more edition to smooth out and we would have had a fantastic rule set. It was not to be however. The game never took off (the buy in for such a large number of miniatures was a barrier) and as the LOTR franchise was losing steam post The Return of the King movie release the game died a quiet death, but those who know talk of it fondly.

Andy Tucker is a local tournament organizer in Christchurch and we’ve had a pending War of the Ring (WOTR) game in the works for a few years now and last weekend it finally happened. And boy did it happen.

Andy is a great fan of narrative events. While the majority of wargaming tournaments pitch equitable forces against each other in variations of a round robin, Andy likes to have epic battles with boards full of awesome scenery and painted miniatures. So Andy organised The Battle of Pelennor Fields, the centrepiece of which was a one-and-a-half-day WOTR game which involved over 1,600 miniatures (including no fewer than 13 Trolls and 7 Mumaks on the evil side).

 

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I have been involved in some multi-day games previously but this is without a doubt the largest one.  Even with two players on each team a game turns were taking over an hour and a half each (and they were close to two hours each in the early turns before people started dying). The initial deployment is shown in the slideshow above. On turn one the main forces of Mordor and Gondor could act, from turn two the Rohan and Haradrim forces could act, and from turn three the Army of the Dead and Grey Company could act.

Alongside the main game there were a series of skirmish games being played using the Hobbit Strategy Battle Game rules and as these games finished the results and epic moments accumulated in these provided resources for the WOTR.

 

The Knights of Minas Tirith ride to reclaim Osgiliath (SBG game)

Aragorn arrives to swing the battle (SBG game)

The Army of the Dead face the hordes of Mordor (SBG game)

We played seven turns of WOTR, four on the first day and three on the second. Though the men of Minas Tirith and their allies put up a valiant fight (including managing to kill the Witch King, 2 Mumaks and 11 trolls) it was the dark lord Sauron who claimed a (minor) victory in the end having breached the gate of Minas Tirith with a troll (who was promptly cut own the following turn) and ending the line of Isildur when Aragorn died in a heroic duel with Suladan, The Serpent Lord of  Harad.

Words really fail to impress the awesome size and scope of the event, so here’s a selection of photos which I hope conveys the epic nature of the battle and the weekend.

 

The weekend coincided with the launch of the New Zealand Hobbit League website, so if you like what you see here and want to know more about one of the best gaming communities I’ve ever known check it out.

Thanks to everyone who was involved with the event, especially Andy for all of the organisation. The scenery was great, the armies looked epic and I had an absolute blast. It was well worth the trip.