If That Fell Kingdom Should Rise Again - Tournament and Army Write up
Hi Everyone
So for those of you who don't know we don't just make miniatures we also get to play toy soldiers to and our poison of choice is usually Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game.
This weekend we attended Gondor in 60 Seconds: Boyz in Mahud GBHL80 @ Middlesbrough Gamers Club, Where I took my newly painted Host of the Witch King Army.
This Army Consisted of the following
Aldrac the Warlord of Carn Dum
The Witch King of Angmar
2 Angmar Warg Riders w/ Throwing Weapons and Shields
9 Angmar Orc Warriors w/ Swords and Shields
9 Angmar Orc Warriors w/ Spears
Why I took this list
I took this army as i had just recently painted Aldrac and the Witch king so i figured i best do something with these guys and got to printing and painting within around a week my army was ready for the event. the way this list operates is quite unusual to the norm for me as i prefer to just go in and attack or stay back and shoot where as this army wants to wait for the right time to strike and plan ahead with plenty of movement tricks from the spectre's A Fell Light is in Them and the witch king using transfix and compel you can use these spells and abilities as well as others to gain the upper hand. the army is low to the ground with only 26 models but with what it brings to the table you have lots of amazing resources you have a solid battle line of 18 orc warriors and a banner to ensure you have enough numbers to play most missions as well as all your troops having terror due to the army special rules and some fast moving units like the warg riders and werewolves for speed to move around the table with solid heroes in Aldrac with his free heroic combats and the witch king who goes up to fight 7 against any Man and with his spells he can turn Aldrac into a beast with enchanted blades or he can just black dart that sneaky banner for more VPS.
Round 1
Now you know the list lets go into the first round which is against Elliot Joyce and his Survivors of Lake Town.
Elliot and I attend the club on a regular basis so to have a game with a friend you both know it gonna be a bit banter and some laughs so a great way to start. The mission was Domination;
1/2/3 Vps for holding objectives
1/2 victory points for leader wound/kill
1/3 victory points for breaking the opponents army
I knew from the start of this game the numbers was against me as Elliots list has the numbers in an objective based game
496 points | 44 models
Survivors of Lake-town
Bard the Bowman: Exchange great bow for armour and horse 150
18x Lake-town Militia: Spear 108
Percy, Lake-town Archer: 50
12x Lake-town Militia: Bow 72
Lake-town Militia Captain: 50
11x Lake-town Militia: Spear 66
We both deployed our armies and we were ready to go I won the priority roll and gave Elliot the first turn as both our armies were on the front lines we were going to clash really fast and Elliot played super well keeping the majority of his army together so they benefited from bar being the support character that he is but not engaging me this was due to the orcs having terror meaning he would need a 9+ to charge thanks to the witch kings harbinger of evil aura. before charging Elliot i had one go at getting bard off his horse we a 3 dice cast black dart from the witch king which luckily went through and with a single wound roll bard was dismounted this meant that his one hero that did pose a threat has lost his main advantage which was being able to knock my heroes prone the lines clashed i lost a couple Elliot lost a couple after a couple of turns of back and fourth Elliot had lost the numbers game thanks to Aldrac getting free combats as well as a lot of my orcs winning combats and wounding the peasants of the lake town militia with some placement to kill the last few remaining troops Elliot had to contest some objectives I held 3 of the 5 objectives at the end of the game and it was a victory for the Host of the witch king 12-3
Round 2
Round 2 I was happy with a win against my overwhelming numbers i have now been placed into something even worse more numbers totaling 52 against once again another friend at the club Luke Bilton and the mission was Reconnoitre.
4/8/15 victory points for models leaving the table
1/2 victory points for leader wound/kill
1/3 victory points for breaking the opponents army
Luke has been trying to make his Army of Gundabad Goblin Mercenaries meta and at such a low points you can imagine that the more you have the better off you are. I had one plan for this game, i have to make the game end asap before. luckily the mission has a small caveat the warbands roll to come on randomly so this has taken one trick the goblins usually have which is springing out of holes in the ground. using their ambush special rules.
498 points | 52 models
Army of Gundabad
Gundabad Orc Captain: 60
12x Goblin Mercenary 72
Goblin Mercenary Captain: 50
12x Goblin Mercenary 72
Goblin Mercenary Captain: 50
12x Goblin Mercenary 72
Goblin Mercenary Captain: 50
12x Goblin Mercenary 72
My only plan is to break Luke's army asap to start making his goblins run away for the game to end.
the game starts slow as we roll to see which warbands come on 2 for Luke arrive including his leader's warband and Aldrac arrives for me a turn goes by as we move forward and i had to spend a might of the witch king to make his way onto the board as the rest of Luke's army arrives. after a couple of turns of movement we are nearly ready to clash but i had learnt some things about the goblin merc meta that everything revolves around the leader being alive to use the army special rules. because Luke had to march each turn his Heroes were at the front meaning including his leader i had 2 goes to try pull this off and pull his leader out of his rank and file i move the spectre into position but sadly the gundabad captain passes his Intelligence test. my last attempt was to compel the captain using the witch king on a 3+ so i went all in on 3 dice rolling a 6 and the spell was not resisted due to the captain only having 1 point of will meaning Aldrac along with a werewolf and a warg rider was primed to kill the leader to get rid the one benefit the army has which is Azog banners for various buff the kill was made and Aldrac now had access to free heroic combats.
the game was very much trying to kill through goblins while Luke kept reinforcing each wave with fresh goblins to try cleave through as the game is about getting your models off the board to score vps so im struggling to get models off the board while luke is making a move on my flank with a warband of goblins some orcs were sent to try keep them distracted but sadly they were surrounded and making a break for it were 5 little goblins however in the same turn luke was broken and alot of the goblins that were road blocking now disappeared and thanks to some bad courage tests on luke's part the game ended with neither of us getting anyone off but thanks to the leader kill and breaking i managed to come out on top with 5vps for the win making the game a 5-0 win.
Round 3
My last game was against Allan Cameron and his Ugluk Scouts which with 39 models they have the numbers game and the mission is Destroy the Supplies.
3/6/9 victory points for destroying your opponents supplies
1 victory point for destroying more then your opponent
2 victory points for having a banner
2 victory points if your opponent has none
1/3 victory points for leader wound/kill
1/3 victory points for breaking the opponents army
Ugluk's scouts 500- 500 points | 39 models
Ugluk's Scouts
Ugluk, Uruk-hai Scout Captain: 75
6x Uruk-hai Scout: Shield 54
6x Uruk-hai Scout: Uruk-Hai Bow 54
1x Uruk-hai Scout: Banner 33
Uruk-Hai Scout Captain: 55
6x Uruk-hai Scout: Shield 54
6x Uruk-hai Scout: Uruk-Hai Bow 54
Grishnakh, Orc Captain: 55
11x Isengard Orc Warrior: Spear 66
We both deploy our armies and my only hope is to try and get a warg rider or at least try to burn one/two of Allan's objectives as i know he is going to get a couple of mine minimum. We both move forward and thanks to a spectre Aldrac gets the first blow. we both remain a little cautious but with some courage tests Allan began the engagements into my army meaning he was free to begin moving towards my markers to burn them luckily most of the combats went my way and only losing a couple the numbers game was slowly closing as one of my wargs broke away from the combats he was met by some uruk scouts which normally would be bad but the warg managed to fend off the combats enough to keep them engaged while i could continue clashing in the middle after a few turns Allan had burnt 2 of my objectives i had to send some of my battle line to stop the uruks advancing as best as possible as the fights continued a warg on the other flank had made it through and past Ugluk meaning Allan had a tough choice to either go after my orcs coming forward or sacrifice his main hero to kill a rogue warg that was about to destroy some supplies he went for the warg however with some favorable dice rolls and luck on my side ugluk fluffed killing the rider and he was free to burn the objective the following turn and a turn later Allan's army broke because i had engaged ugluk there was no one to stop the banner potentially running away and the time came Allan had rolled his banners courage check and failed netting me 4vps due to still having my banner alive his last 2 surviving uruks that needed to burn my last objective had also fled as his remaining characters were in the middle of the board to be able to call a stand fast the game ended a turn later finishing me off with a 11-7 win
I ended the event going 3-0 and coming in second.
I really enjoyed this list and i think I'm going to play it more at some higher points as this army scales very well the higher it goes with access to more utility pieces such as barrow wights, shades and other various ghosts and ghouls. It is a tough army to get to grips with due to it requiring a lot of smart positioning and placement as well managing the 6 might you have carefully as once it is gone it is gone. having Aldrac charge in with the witch king is a good way to get free heroic combats for him so he can save his might for more important things such as casting or heroic moves/strikes and the 2 werewolves that are important for the knockdown for Aldrac and the witch king to double their dice against prone infantry models.
I'm going to add a barrow wight for paralyzing enemy heroes another spectre for more movement tricks and some orc warriors with some honesty bows
And with that being said thank you all for reading along I will be adding some more photos for improving these future write ups specifically of the games played and if you liked the minis shown today remember to click the links at the start so you can add these awesome minis to your own collection or even create your own host of the witch king army yourself.