Muzgur stalked through the darkened forest, while all around him was the chittering and skittering of spiders. He loathed these creatures, called by his master’s Goblin allies, but he knew it would be their deadly poisons that would turn the tide against the Elves of Lothlorien.
Suddenly, screeches erupted from the trees around Muzgur as Goblins called out in distress. Through the gloom Muzgur could make out Goblins and Spiders moving in all directions, but could not yet see any glimpse of an enemy. All he could feel was an icy chill slowly descending on the forest, and a sense of grim fear emanating from the darkness around him.
Shoving past a terrified Goblin and into a clearing, Muzgur finally made out his foes. Gleaming with ghostly energy, a host of spectral beings were flowing over the forest floor towards the Goblin host. For a moment, Muzgur was frozen by fear at the sight of the undead host. Were these the spirits of those he had tortured and slain, come back to claim him for their own?
Mastering his terror with a snarl, Muzgur drew his ritual dagger and began to chant. No ghost would stand between him and his mission. The forest would burn.
One New Year’s hobby aspiration of mine was to get back into the habit of posting battle reports. I really enjoy reading longer-form reports, so this is me being the change I want to see in the world.
For this game I was playing both sides, which I've found to be one of the best ways to practice for tournaments. On the Good side is Dunharrow, with the horde list I enjoyed a lot last year, while on the Evil side is something a bit more exciting. Assault on Lothlorien is obviously the new hotness, but I think the Giant Spiders are slipping a little under the radar. With free Venomback upgrades they become sneakily efficient, and this list basically asks ‘what if I just maxed out on Venomback Spiders plus the Shamans?’ It’s a matchup of brute efficiency into squirelly tricks, so read on to see how they go…
Good Army: Dunharrow
Warband 1
King of the Dead
10 Warriors of the Dead with 5 spears, 7 shields, 1 banner
Warband 2
9 Warriors of the Dead with 4 spears, 7 shields
Rider of the Dead
Warband 3
9 Warriors of the Dead with 4 spears, 7 shields
Rider of the Dead
31 models, 1 Might, 2 fast models
This list is brutally simple: it’s a large number of D8 models with Terror and Blades of the Dead, ready to outlast and grind down almost any army. It has its weaknesses (one Might being the most obvious one!) but it’s just a crazy number of super-heavy infantry.
Evil Army: Assault on Lothlorien Legendary Legion
That's a lot of Spiders!
Warband 1Ashrak (Army Leader)
8 Venomback Spiders
3 Goblins with orc bows
Warband 2
Druzhag
8 Venomback Spiders
3 Goblins with orc bows
Bat Swarm
Warband 3
Muzgur
26 models, 5 Might, 17 fast models, 6 bows
This Legion is the new hotness, and honestly the ‘standard’ list (a horde with crazy shooting and some tricks) is likely the strongest way of running it. But I think Giant Spiders are cool, and Venomback Spiders are even cooler. In most contexts they’re effectively Morgul Knights who always count as charging, making them a scary and reliable heavy hitter with some crazy mobility. Druzhag and Ashrak can power up Spiders on demand to take out enemy heroes, while Muzgur makes himself a nuisance and the Goblins give cheap numbers and shooting superiority. Yes, those 6 Goblins can outshoot the Rangers of Ithilien at 18”. No, this Legion is not balanced.
Matchup and Scenario Selection
This is an interesting matchup. Good has the advantage in terms of durability and (weirdly enough) numbers, so is looking to grind down the Spiders in a war of attrition. Evil has a huge mobility edge, but is also tethered to their Shamans in order to reliably charge the Good models. F4 on the Spiders will be great, but their S5 is at a weird break point of not doing much. Still, full rerolls to wound and two Attacks are good ways to deal with the D8 Dunharrow.
Three scenarios were randomly rolled for, with Good getting to veto first from Hold Ground, Retrieval and Domination. Retrieval was immediately ruled out, as Evil has far too much mobility for Dunharrow to be interested in playing capture the flag. Evil had a harder choice. On the one hand they are noticeably outnumbered, so Hold Ground’s central objective favours Good. On the other hand, Maelstrom of Battle deployment is potentially a great way to split up the Dunharrow battleline and tear apart small groups of ghosts. In the end the fact that Good only has one Might was decisive, and Evil vetoed Domination to play Hold Ground.
Turns 1-2: Maelstrom of Battle
Things started out great for Good, with Evil winning Priority. Ashrak then rolled a 2 to come in, opting not to spend Might and being dumped near the south-west corner. Muzgur managed to come in quite close by, then Druzhag also rolled a 2 and opted to Might it down and stay off the board for another turn.
In return, Good brought in one warband on the east board edge, before the second warband rolled a 1. Finally, the King of the Dead rolled a 2 and Good was left in a dilemma. If his warband came on then they would likely get pounced on by one warband of Spiders next turn, with the second possibly showing up right beside him. On the other hand, if the King of the Dead Mighted down the roll then he’d be totally at the mercy of the dice next turn. In the end Good decided not to risk it and the King of the Dead spent his one Might point to stay off the board.
Evil ‘won’ Priority again next turn, with Druzhag rolling a 4 and coming in nice and close to Ashrak’s warband. The Spiders spread out, ready to threaten enemy warbands across a wide area, while the two Goblin leaders both cast Fury.
The first Dunharrow warband continued to march towards the centre, but the second rolled another 1 to hang out off the board again. Finally, the King of the Dead rolled another 2 and was dumped in the south-west corner, well within reach of Ashrak’s Spiders. The ghosts formed up next to the board edge, trying to keep a tight formation and minimise the number of Spiders they’d be facing on the next turn.
Turns 3-4: The Dead Hold
Evil won Priority for the third time running, although again they’d likely have preferred to lose it. Still, they made the best of it by slamming 6 Venomback Spiders into the King’s warband, while the rest of their force swarmed towards the isolated group. Good retaliated by charging the King into an engaged Spider, continuing to march the first warband towards the centre, and bringing in their final warband on the other side of the Evil force.
Good hoping to pin in the Spider horde
Combat went well for Good, with only a single ghost being taken out in exchange for a Spider being wounded and a second slain by the King of the Dead. The Dunharrow banner came in particularly clutch, winning several fights for Good and blunting the Spiders’ scary damage output.
On the next turn Evil won Priority again, and they took advantage by swarming the King’s warband. 8 Spiders made it into combat this turn, with the one fighting the King being Enraged by Druzhag. Muzgur had a second attempt at Transfixing the King and again failed to cast, even with a reroll. Oh well.
Elsewhere, Evil pulled all their models just outside charge range of the western Dunharrow warband, trying to do maximum damage to the King’s warband before the rest of the spirits arrived.
Other Dunharrow warbands still not quite into the fight
Combat again went in Good’s favour, with 2 Warriors of the Dead being slain but the Enraged Spider botching against the King and being slain for its troubles. These ghosts were proving hard to crack!
Turns 5-6: Bestial Fury
Good managed to win Priority on Turn 5, which allowed them to launch a number of assaults. These began with the Rider of the Dead from the first warband hurtling into a Spider, supported by the whole western warband. A lone ghost from the King’s warband charged Ashrak and the Bat Swarm, while the remainder of his warband did their best to tie down the nearby Spiders and mitigate the incoming damage.
In return, Druzhag Enraged a Spider fighting the King, while the other Spiders swarmed into whichever Warriors of the Dead they could reach. After several turns of struggling to win fights and secure kills, this turn saw the Spiders go absolutely crazy. The Enraged Spider won its fight against the King and reduced him to a single wound with no Fate (Evil bitterly bemoaning the decision not to Channel the spell!), and several more ghosts on this flank were banished.
King gets absolutely hammered by a very angry Venomback
The lone Warrior of the Dead fighting Ashrak and the Bat Swarm was taken out, as was his counterpart nearby facing two Spiders. And on the northern front, disaster struck for Dunharrow. A lone Spider killed both the Warrior and Rider of the Dead it was facing, and two more Warriors were torn apart by Venombacks.
It was an absolutely devastating turn, and by the end of it Good had lost 10 models in exchange for only 3 Spiders slain.
This created an interesting tactical position: the momentum of combat had heavily shifted in favour of Evil, but Good’s first warband had finally reached the centre and put them well ahead on points. Good now needed to be Broken while pinning in the Evil models and stopping them swamping the objective, while Evil needed to balancing finishing the job against the Dunharrow models with getting into the centre.
Winning Priority, Evil began to shift their forces towards the middle. The tattered remnants of the King’s warband were attacked by 5 Spiders, and Druzhag Enraged the one facing the King one more time.
6 Spiders and the Bats also piled into the shattered northern warband, while the last Rider was trapped by two Spiders and a Goblin (standing carefully 0.1” away so as to get the trap without needing a Terror check).
In exchange, all Good could do was move half of their central warband towards the fray, keeping the other half back to hold the centre.
With the Dunharrow lines breaking apart, this turn was predictably bloody. The King was torn apart by the Enraged Spider, and the rest of his warband was reduced to a single model.
3 more Warriors of the Dead fell in the north-west, and the final Rider was trapped and taken out.
Good was reduced to 13 models and thoroughly Broken, putting Evil on the clock to make it into the middle.
Turns 7-8: Scramble for the Centre
Evil won Priority yet again this turn, which they seemed to be doing most reliably (whether they wanted to or not). With Good Broken, it was clear that the top priority was getting models into the centre. The Bat Swarm could just make it within 6”, while another Spider nearby was also able to toe in while charging a Warrior of the Dead. Ashrak cast Shroud of Shadows on another Spider to let it move through the closest block of ghosts and also make it into the circle, and the rest of the Evil force largely just poured forwards towards the objective.
A handful of Spiders were broken off to keep whittling down the remnants of the other Dunharrow warbands, but by and large it was all stations go to the centre.
After the one unengaged Warrior of the Dead charged into a Spider, it was into combat. Again, the raw power of the Venombacks proved decisive, with four Warriors of the Dead falling in the central combats for no Evil losses. The rest of the fights were largely indecisive, but the slaughter in the centre meant that Evil had tied up the points for that objective.
The game didn’t end that turn, but it was largely cleanup from there. Good won Priority and did their best to tie up the Evil models, but just got swamped by the tide of Spiders.
By the end of the turn there was only a single Warrior of the Dead remaining, earning Evil a decisive 12:0 victory!
Guttural calls sounded across the battlefield as the last of the undead spectres dissipated into the night air. Muzgur stalked to the centre of the clearing and surveyed the killing grounds with satisfaction. The enemy were wiped out, the path deeper into the wood was open, and the Goblins and Spiders emerging from the gloom showed that his force still had the striking power for its mission.
The chittering and screeching of the host rose to a crescendo as Muzgur raised his staff high into the air. They would march onwards to Lothlorien!
Post-Game Analysis
Well, that was brutal. This Dunharrow list is about as grindy as it comes, so to table it with only 3 casualties is pretty scary. Dice swung both ways, but in the end the sheer killing power of Venomback Spiders was enough to turn it into a massacre.
Ultimately, the most significant decision in this game was likely made at the scenario selection stage. Evil’s choice to play Hold Ground over Domination ended up really paying off, as it meant they got to rip apart Good’s warbands piecemeal. In fact, it’s pretty arguable that Good should have vetoed Hold Ground, even if that meant playing Retrieval against a massively faster enemy.
As far as in-game decisions, I think the most impactful mistake was actually on Evil’s side, with the decision not to Channel Enrage Beast either time a Spider went into the King. One extra Attack may have been critical, and going from S7 to S8 would have almost guaranteed that the King died in one turn instead of two. Otherwise, Good’s most critical mistake was likely where they brought in their final warband of Warriors of the Dead. They were theoretically in a good location to pin Evil into a corner and away from the centre, but the sheer mobility of the Spiders meant they were always likely to find a gap through once they started going for the middle. Instead, it would have been better to come in near the King of the Dead, where the ghosts would have been harder to keep out of the fray and could support the King’s warband.
Finally, an interesting strategic question is whether Evil should have abandoned the King of the Dead’s warband and sped towards the centre with the full Spider force. Being able to defend with their backs to the board edge made that warband much more resilient, and potentially the central warband would have been easier to take out at speed. Alternatively, it may have forced the King’s warband to give up their excellent defensive position, allowing the Spiders to double back and take them out.
I hope you enjoyed this long-form battle report. I really enjoyed playing and writing up this game, so expect more of the same in the months to come.
Until then, may you always win the Priority rolls you need to!
Finally got around to reading this - excellent batrep and keep them coming! Hindsight being what it is, I wonder if the King of the Dead should have just come on the board Turn 1 (since coming on Turn 2 didn't end up helping him at all). Having a Might point to boost a roll (perhaps for a dueling roll or to call a Heroic Move) may have helped save his bacon? All speculation of course and this is part of the excitement of maelstrom missions - you just don't know what you need your Might for!
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed!
DeleteIn hindsight, you're almost certainly right (although that Might point did still save the King's warband one turn of being torn up by Spiders, which is definitely worth something). A Heroic Move later in the game could have been critical, especially to allow his warband to consolidate after getting mauled a bit. But as you say, hindsight is a lot better than foresight here: Dunharrow was definitely hoping for that 4+ on the next turn to be able to come in somewhere safe. It's an interesting question whether that was the right call or not from the available information, but it almost certainly didn't turn out to be in hindsight!