Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Battle Report: 7May12

Here is my latest battle report, I hope you enjoy it :) For the scenario and army breakdowns, check out this link: http://bensminis.blogspot.com/2012/05/stage-has-been-set.html . Without further ado, here we go.

Easterlings vs Mirkwood & Lothlorien
Turn 1 – Good
The first turn sees little action as the respective warbands arrive on the battlefield. Legolas arrives from the south leading his Mirkwood Archers while Haldir appears on the Eastern edge of the battlefield at the head of his spearmen. Coming from further away, Naethlang and his Galadhrim Warriors do not arrive this turn.










Amdur appears from the West at the head of his Easterlings, while Kanwarth and his force emerge from the forest on the Eastern edge, mere paces from Haldir and his warriors. Borfast and his warband appear silhouetted against the sky atop a hill near the North-western corner. (The warbands rolled _, 6, 1, 3, 3, and 2 respectively).





Turn 2 – Good
Eager to make up for their tardiness, Naethlang and his warriors from the Golden Wood arrive from the north, roughly between Borfast and Kanwarth’s warbands.

Legolas takes the first shot of the battle, aiming carefully and firing an arrow at a kataphract. Unfortunately for the woodland Prince, the arrow clangs harmlessly off his thick armor. The rest of his retinue draw back their bows and let fly with a hail of arrows, one killing a pikeman while the others either missed or caused no damage.

In response, the Easterling archers of Amdur’s warband fire back killing a wood elf bowman. A second elf is struck, but avoids more than superficial harm.

Haldir leads three of his spearmen in a charge against the nearest kataphract, denying him the opportunity to charge, or ride out of range. The rest of Kanwarth’s warband responds by counter-charging Haldir and his elves. In the ensuing melee, a wood-elf bearing a spear is ridden down by a kataphract, while a second elf is defeated, but avoids damage. Haldir defeats the kataphract that he charged, but is unable to make a dent in his armor.




















Turn 3 – Evil
Shouting “With Me!” Haldir charges back into combat against the kataphract he had defeated moments before. One spear elf ran to support Haldir himself, with two others rushing to engage the second horseman.

Leaving most of his men to deal with Haldir and his elves, Kanwarth takes a swordsman heads to the center, skirting a small copse of trees. The unengaged pair of kataphracts ride around the northern edge of the copse, taunting Naethlang and his elves as they went.  In their haste to reach the objective and perhaps angered by the Easterling insults, Naethlang leads his warriors straight toward the center of the battlefield, pursuing the pair of kataphracts and leaving Borfast and his men unmolested atop the hill.

A pair of elven spearmen charge Kanwarth’s companion, but cannot reach Kanwarth himself. Legolas and his wood elves continue their slow advance to the objective. Amdur and his warband also maintain their steady march, the archers lagging behind readying their bows.

Aiming at the backs of Naethlang’s elves, Borfast’s archers loose a flight of arrows. Two finding their marks, a pair of elves are struck down, feathered shafts in their backs.

A wood elf archer also falls twitching after sprouting an Easterling arrow from his chest.

The remaining elves fire their own arrows at the pair of kataphracts, but are unable to harm them. Legolas carefully draws back his own bow, and fires a shot at Amdur, but again his luck deserts him and the arrow clangs harmlessly off his armor. Kanwarth’s swordsman companion is driven back, but manages to avoid the hungry spears of the elves.

One of the kataphracts near Haldir is not so lucky, being pulled from his saddle and skewered mercilessly by elf spearmen. In revenge, the two elves nearest Haldir are slain by the swords and pikes of Easterling warriors. Haldir himself fights off the kataphract and two other Easterlings, but is unable to slay any of them.


Turn 4 – Evil
Haldir again shouts “With Me!” and charges back into action with his nemesis the kataphract. Three nearby wood-elf spearmen throw themselves into combat against the Easterling warriors.



Amdur and his men rush to try and head off Naethlang’s elves, who heedless of their losses continue their march to the objective.
















Some of Borfast’s infantry begin to pick their way down from their perch on the hill, slowed by the difficult terrain. The archers on the hill again loose a flight of arrows, hitting two elves but this time their armor protects them.


Amdur’s archers again shoot at their elven counterparts, firing through the gaps in a patch of woods, but cause no harm. Firing back, the wood elves slay an archer, while a second arrow strikes against the ruined wall surrounding the objective instead. Continuing their fire the elves score hits as a second Easterling archer drops with an elven arrow in his throat while a swordsman also meets his end at the hand of elven archery.



 Continuing his unbroken string of not success, Legolas again fails to kill his target. The pair of kataphracts charge a pair of wood-elf spearmen, but the elves deftly avoid their blades.


Haldir loses his battle but again escapes harm. Kanwarth doubles back and dispatches a wood-elf spearman, sinking his blade into the elven body. Near the ongoing melee between Haldir and his elves and Kanwarth’s Easterlings, a pikeman doubles over with a spear in his belly, while an elf is driven back but not killed.

Turn 5 – Evil
In a scene that has almost become a candidate for broken record status, Haldir calls forth his last reserve of might to charge the remaining nearby kataphract.
In the race to secure the objective, both Amdur and Naethlang call Heroic Moves, but the elven captain proves to be the quicker. The elves rush to occupy the ruined structure and form a cordon between the objective and the approaching Easterlings. A few split off to join their comrades fighting against Kanwarth and his warriors just to the East. Following hot on their heels Amdur and his men charge after them, bringing two of them to battle.





Borfast and his infantry continue their descent of the hill, picking their way down to level ground and setting off to the ruin.


Continuing their running exchange of fire, two elves fall to Easterling arrows, while one of the easterling bowmen is also slain by an arrow.



In what has become a recurring theme, Legolas again fails to cause any damage with his arrows. The swirling melee over on the eastern edge of the board shows no sign of abating as Haldir again defeats his opponents but causes no damage to his assailants. An Easterling swordsman stains the grass after a wood-elf rips open his chest with his spear. A Pikeman manages to defeat a wood-elf spearman, but is unable to kill him.


Kanwarth loses a fight with another spear elf, but his heavy armor protects him from harm. His swordsman companion is similarly defeated, but his heavy armor holds true. Nearby, a spear elf is slain by a charging kataphract while the other kataphract is defeated but not killed.


In the developing fight at the ruin, a Galadhrim warrior is slain by no less than five Easterlings. A second Galadhrim is driven back further into the ruin.




Turn 6 – Good
With a shout and brandishing his Falchion high, Amdur and his companions charge into the battered elves defending the ruin.
 
 
Three of the elven archers abandon their shooting and sprint forward toward the ruin, leaving two of their number behind to continue shooting. Over on the Eastern board edge, Haldir and his remaining companions continue their struggle. In the North, Borfast and his men continue their belated rush to aid their comrades.
 
 
The remaining archer from Amdur’s warband shakes his fist as he slowly topples forward with an arrow in his belly.
 
 
Borfast is targeted by another arrow, but it strikes harmlessly against the wall of the ruin. Needless to say, Legolas again fails to do damage. Kanwarth swats aside a wood-elf archer, his blade marking a spray of blood on the grass.
 
 
Haldir is again defeated, and is almost injured but fate was with him, saving him from harm.
 
 
 In the ruin, a Galadhrim warrior’s deft swordplay drives his two assailants back, but not far enough away from the objective. Another warrior from Lothlorien is slain by a kataphract just to the East.
 
 
Amdur and an elven warrior engage each other, their blades glittering in the sun. In a nearly even match, the Lord of Blades barely managed to defeat and kill his opponent (the Galadhrim warrior rolled a six and Amdur had to fall back on his banner effect to roll a six of his own). Naethlang dirties his own blade, staining it with Easterling blood as he gracefully decapitates a swordsman.






Due to time constraints we were forced to call the game at the end of turn six.



The good army was very close to broken (depending on if fractions are rounded up or down), but there were no wounds on either general (Amdur & Legolas), so the victory came down to numbers within 6” of the objective, which was also very close (nine Easterlings to eight Elves). Over all an Easterling victory, but it was quite close, and an enjoyable battle for all J I must say my Easterling’s collective bacon were saved time and time again by their heavy armor. To see all those fives being rolled and my warriors still standing tall was a nice change after the last few battles of using lighter armored troops. I was also quite surprised by Legolas total lack of performance. He had some really terrible die rolls and just couldn’t pull it off this battle. Of course that means next time he shows up he will probably be an absolute beast.  For as little as he did, I probably could have gotten at least as much, if not more mileage out of a generic captain (if I had another one) than I got out of Borfast. I would really have liked to have rolled out my Dragon Knight, but that Independent Hero status is a real stick in the eye. All in all though, it was a fun battle. Looking forward to the next one J
Casualties:
Good-                                                                                   Evil-
5x Wood-elf Warriors /w Bows                                       3x Easterling Warriors /w Shield
6x Wood-elf Warriors /w Wood Elf Spears                   2x Easterling Warriors /w Shields & Pike
5x Galadhrim Warriors /w Shields                                  4x Easterling Warriors /w Bows
                                                                                              1x Easterling Kataphracts

Monday, May 7, 2012

The Stage Has Been Set...

Somewhere near the Eastern eves of Mirkwood, lies a ruin containing an ancient artifact. Is it one of the lost Palantiri of the West? Or perhaps a lesser seeing stone unrecorded by the Wise? Or perhaps is it just a memorial to some long past hero or event? In any case, two armies are converging on the location, desperate to take control. A force of Easterlings and a contingent of Mirkwood and Lothlorien elves will soon clash to determine who controls the field by sundown. The armies have split into smaller groups in their search for the ruin and are now arriving from all directions.

Here are a pair of pics of the battlefield, first looking from North to South, the second looking from South to North. (The borders of the battlefield stylishly provided by Games Workshop).



Mirkwood & Lothlorien vs Easterlings
Scenario: Hold Ground
Points: 500

Legolas /w Armor
10x Wood-elf Warriors /w Bows
Haldir, Defender of Helms Deep
10x Wood-elf Warriors /w Wood Elf Spears
Naethlang (Galadhrim Captain) /w Shield
10x Galadhrim Warriors /w Shields
500pts, 33 Models, 8 Might

Amdur, Lord of Blades
4x Easterling Warriors /w Shields
4x Easterling Warriors /w Shields & Pikes
4x Easterling Warriors /w Bows
Kanwarth (Easterling Captain) /w Shield
2x Easterling Warriors /w Shields
2x Easterling Warriors /w Shields & Pikes
4x Easterling Kataphracts
Borfast (Easterling War Priest)
4x Easterling Warriors /w Shields
4x Easterling Warriors /w Shields & Pikes
4x Easterling Warriors /w Bows
500pts, 35 Models, 6 Might

Battle this afternoon, looking forward to it :) Easterlings have not yet put in an appearence, so I'm anxious to try them out. I will be facing elves again, with quite a few bow shots to worry about. Maybe I'll get lucky and Legolas' warband won't arrive for a few turns. Or not and my warriors will start doing impressions of pin cushions. It's kind of a pity I dragged my feet painting the kataphracts, as almost my entire Easterlign army except for two shield and two pike warriors are painted. This is the first battle we have tried using the new Warband scenarios, so it should be an interesting time :) Should have the completed battle report up sometime tomorrow, I am hoping.

Kataphracts Finished

Here we are at long last, the Kataphracts are finally done. Not the best pictures, but hope you enjoy :)