Another fortnight, another tournament! MESBG is really taking off this year in Queensland, and I am here for it. This time around I was attending a 600-pointer at the Warhammer Mt Gravatt store, ready to claim some skulls and have a good time. Not necessarily in that order. The event was organised by the GW team at their store, and was as smoothly run as ever. I definitely recommend making it to the next tournament they host if you get a chance, they’re always a great time!
Tournament Format
Not too much to say here: 3 rounds at 600-points, with nice generous 2-hour timeframes for each game. Scenarios were selected randomly, and we were told all three scenarios in the morning before the first game. Nothing too fancy going on, but after the complicated special rules of the last tournament I appreciated the more ‘by the book’ approach here.
Listbuilding
I've decided that this list is probably only coming out for the competitive events
I decided a while back that I’d be leaving my Watcher/Spider Queen combo on the shelf for the next few tournaments. It’s an incredibly powerful list, but that actually worked against it at points by creating some extremely one-sided games. There are only so many times you can say ‘I grab your army leader and pull him into combat to be instantly killed by the Watcher’ before everyone ceases to have fun.
However, I realised that I was still hankering for some of that big-monster action that I’d enjoyed with the previous list. I decided it was finally time to break out the scariest monster of all…
Warband 1:
Witch King 3/12/2 with Crown and horse
15 Orcs (7 spears, 7 shields, 1 bow)
2 Warg Riders (1 throwing spear, 1 shield)
1 Dead Marsh Spectre
Warband 2:
Gûlavhar, Terror of Arnor
12 Orcs (6 spears, 6 shields, 1 banner)
1 Warg Rider with throwing spear
1 Wild Warg
1 Dead Marsh Spectre
600 points, 35 models, 1 bow, 6 Might
Decent modelcount and casting with one really big hitter
This list is my personal spin on a tried-and-true combination of Gûlavhar and the Witch King. There really wasn’t too much scope for personal spinning at 600 points, but I opted for the slightly slimmed-down Witch King and extra Warg Riders to increase the overall punch of the list.
Of course, the real punch comes in the form of Gûlavhar, with his 10 S8 attacks when he wins the fight. In essence, the list is basically Gûlavhar’s support team, and it generally lives or dies based on how he does. If he gets bogged down and weakened, then the list’s fragile Orcs and medium numbers will often see it crumble. On the other hand, if Gûlavhar gets a couple of good engages off then the rest of the list can rapidly find itself on cheerleader duty as he sweeps up the entire enemy army.
For those who haven’t had the (mis)fortune to play against this army, it basically works by presenting your opponent with about 15 bad choices every turn to make it exceptionally easy for them to make a mistake. Generally that mistake will involve Gûlavhar getting into a powerful hero on a turn they can’t Strike and instantly picking them up. This often involves sending Gûlavhar into two warriors, calling a Heroic Combat, and then threatening to fly into any hero within 12”. Smart enemies will screen you out and stop you reaching their heroes, but a sneaky Fell Light or Compel later and those screens tend to have holes in them. Any hero that Gûlavhar can get into will generally find themselves immediately evaporated if they can’t hit F7 somehow, and once the heroes are gone there’s nothing to stop the giant bat demon from wiping out swathes of warriors.
It’s a list with a lot of tools, but one that’s very demanding to play. Let’s see if I do it justice here!
Round 1 against Shawn’s Return of the King LL, 12:0
Shawn has been playing the game on and off forever, but I gather was relatively new to the tournament scene. He was running a classic Return of the King build with Aragorn, Legolas and the King of the Dead, backed by a modicum of ghostly friends. Concerningly, we were playing Contest of Champions, and I knew that if Shawn could get Aragorn into my lines (or my Witch King!) then he could rapidly start to run away with the game.
Thankfully, a large patch of difficult terrain in the centre meant that I could place my Witch King far enough back to make it impossible for Aragorn to get into him or my Orcs on the first turn. That allowed me to pull back and escape the danger, resetting for a better engage.
Shawn peppered me with Legolas as he maneuvered his warriors and Aragorn around the difficult ground, before flinging a couple of Riders of the Dead into my flank. I passed a surprising number of Courage tests to swamp them both, getting Gûlavhar into one and declaring a Heroic Combat.
At this point I asked Shawn if he wanted to declare anything, pointing out that Gûlavhar was in range of his heroes to charge. Shawn opted not to and I butchered the Rider of the Dead before flying into Aragorn. At this point Shawn tried to declare a Heroic Strike, which was somewhat unfortunate. I never like profiting from an opponent’s rules mistake, so I offered to take my move back and fly into something else (as I would have done if he had called a Strike in the first place), but Shawn admirably decided he wanted to own his mistake and play on. This was very impressive from Shawn, but it unfortunately meant that Gûlavhar tore Aragorn limb from limb in a one-sided duel.
From there it was all mop-up, with the Witch King getting his requisite 3 kills while Gûlavhar killed almost literally everything else. Legolas managed to get into Gully with a couple of warriors and wound him twice through Heroic Defence, but he then slipped away, healed up on warriors and went on a killing spree.
Both the King of the Dead and Legolas soon fell, leaving me with a 12:0 to start the tournament.
MVP: One of my models killed ~510 points, and the next best killed 45. Pretty easy pick here.
Round 2 against Nick’s Gondor, 1:4
Nick’s a great player, having won the last tournament I went to with Cirith Ungol, and he had no less a hitter than Aragorn Elessar today. The scenario was a mixed bag, with Fog of War forcing us both into obvious picks for who to kill and protect. In the end, it would likely come down to which of Hurin or Gûlavhar survived the game.
The early turns were fairly uneventful, as we both pressed towards each other and maneuvered for position. There was one amusing interaction when a Warrior of Gondor was Fell Light-ed forward by a Spectre. Because Nick had called a Heroic March and already moved this turn, the warrior ended up running forward an astonishing 18” in a single turn. Of course, that headlong sprint ended with Gûlavhar swooping in and tearing him to pieces, which we both found very amusing. I can only wonder what this soldier’s comrades thought when he sprinted off at superhuman speeds to be pounced on by a giant vampire creature.
As the lines clashed, Nick rapidly started to realise the multitude of angles I could threaten from. A great deal of time was spent constructing an elaborate anti-fly formation to prevent me Hurling into both Aragorn and Hurin as they hurtled into combat. Alas, no formation is Gûlavhar-proof, and I was able to call a Heroic Combat and threaten both Aragorn and Hurin.
At this point Nick had no good options, and chose to Heroic Combat with Aragorn to try and pin down Gûlavhar. It worked, to an extent. Elessar slaughtered the Orc he was facing before wheeling around and charging straight into Gûlavhar. But with only F6 he was reliant on me totally whiffing, and the dice decided not to let me down. Aragorn was again taken out by Gûlavhar in the first turn of combat, and I was feeling pretty good about my position.
From here, Nick accurately assessed that he needed to take the big risks to recover any chance of victory. So Hurin called the Heroic Move (winning the Move-off against the Witch King) and slammed into Gûlavhar alongside several other warriors. I wasn’t too worried, as I could peel off Hurin or Transfix him if need be. But clever play from Nick managed to sneak a Fountain Court Guard through to peel off my attempt at peeling him off, and he was able to burn a second Might point to get the 6 he needed to Resist my Transfix. Gûlavhar called a Defence as Nick called a Strike and got to F8, winning the combat and putting two wounds onto Gûlavhar.
From there I was finally able to get Gûlavhar away and into some warriors, but he repeatedly botched his duel rolls (even when assisted by Orcs and with a banner reroll!) and remained stuck on two wounds. Hurin hid in the centre of Nick’s lines and remained uninjured, although he had to spend his Fate to dodge a Black Dart from the Witch King. Following that attempt he booked it out of there, although I did Compel him back into reach at one point. In hindsight this was a mistake and a Black Dart would have been a better option, but I was still thinking that Gûlavhar would be able to break free at any moment from the lone Gondorians he was flubbing against.
Elsewhere, the Orcs and Gondorians had swirled around each other with mixed results, with my Orcs often choosing not to charge when Nick failed Terror checks in order to limit the casualties they took. In the end, our final turn involved Nick flinging a Knight onto his chosen terrain piece and charging the Warg Rider near mine. His Knight managed to pass his Fell Light test, forcing me to use the Witch King to Compel him off instead of trying to hunt Hurin. Finally, my Warg Rider needed to lose his fight in order to back away onto my terrain piece and claw back 3 points, but unfortunately he won the fight and didn’t get to move.
MVP: Realistically it has to go to Gûlavhar. I’m annoyed that he could roll his way out of the random Gondorians he was facing, but he did slaughter Elessar in a single turn of combat, so I guess I have to forgive him.
Round 3 against Cody’s Barad-Dur, 6:0
It was apparently a day for heavy-hitters, and Cody had brought the heaviest of all: the Dark Lord Sauron himself. There are a lot of scenarios in which Cody’s list (basically just Sauron, a Captain and then a bunch of Mordor Orcs) would have been a rough matchup for mine – Sauron absolutely tore apart a Dragon Emperor in Contest of Champions, for example. Fortunately for me, we were playing Breakthrough, which meant Cody was in a bind. He could either do his standard deathball formation with Sauron protecting the Orcs, or he could spread out and play the objectives. If he did the former then I might just win on points, and if the latter then Gûlavhar could pounce on his vulnerable Orcs.
Cody mostly opted for the former, spilling most of his Orcs together straight at Gûlavhar’s warband and ceding the right flank of the battlefield entirely to me. An early attempt to Compel Gûlavhar into a fight with Sauron failed, and I decided I wanted no part in that duel. So Gûlavhar went into the back three Orcs (having use a Spectre to set up the perfect 3-model engage), killed them all and Heroic Combatted into the Orc Captain’s warband lurking some distance behind. They were torn apart over the next few turns, while I used Spectres to pull off random Orcs for devouring by a Warg Rider and Wild Warg team over on the flank.
Sauron was doing Sauron things, but ultimately he was quite bogged down on the left against waves of my Orcs, even after sending many of them running for the hills with an Instil Fear. I managed to Transfix him once with the Witch King (darting out from behind a wall, casting then returning to cover), but some analysis of the rules for Brutal Power Attacks convinced us that Sauron could just use Unstoppable to kill all the Orcs he was fighting anyway. I think RAW this is correct, but apparently Jay Clare has actually made a statement that this doesn’t work. 3 dead Orcs weren’t really enough to turn the tide though, and Cody’s army was rapidly disintegrating.
Finally, with all the objectives in my grasp, I pulled out Cody’s banner with a double-Spectre-and-Compel combo and flew Gûlavhar into it. It wasn’t the most sensible play, as Sauron could Heroic Combat into me, but it was fun. Sauron won the roll-off to do his Combat first and smashed into Gûlavhar, but the Dark Lord botched and was wounded by my impudent vampire!
Elsewhere, my Orcs slaughtered Cody’s to reduce him to 25% a turn earlier than I’d expected and end the game. This actually turned out to be slightly unfortunate, as I hadn’t bothered to measure distances for my Warg Rider on Cody’s objective, and when we checked they were just outside 3”! This didn’t really impact the final result, but it was unfortunate to end the day by leaving 4 free points on the table.
Afterward, just for fun, we had Gûlavhar and Sauron duel. Gûlavhar unsurprisingly lost and was absolutely eviscerated in a single turn of combat. Well, I guess that's why my gameplan was to avoid this happening!
MVP: The Spectres. Turns out getting to move your opponent’s models when they fail a Courage test at C1 is pretty strong!
With 2 major wins and one minor loss, painting and sportsmanship scores put me at fourth overall!
Tournament Review
This tournament was good clean fun, with great terrain and lots of space. Having two hours to finish games was a relaxing change of pace, and certainly makes the day a lot less stressful. Only having 3 games is obviously the tradeoff for those longer time limits, but I think that’s a perfectly reasonable choice to make. Free entry is also obviously great, and I was glad to see a number of new faces there that hadn’t made it to previous tournaments. This community continues to grow all the time, and it’s absolutely great to see. And as ever, all of my opponent’s were absolutely lovely. Shawn took ‘losing to a rule’s mistake’ with impeccable good grace, my game with Cody was filled with laughs for both sides, and the game against Nick was the epitome of what I want from a game of MESBG. 10/10, would play these opponents again.
Overall, it was a great tournament and thanks again to the Warhammer Mt Gravatt team for organising and hosting it!
List Review
Gûlavhar staring into your soul. He would like to devour it
For a long time I was pretty down on Gûlavhar. He’s obviously a supreme beatstick, but did I really want to invest that many points into a D5 model that can’t Strike? And anyway, Angmar is filled with amazing tools, like Barrow Wights, Warg Chieftains and Ringwraiths. Even a humble Orc Captain on Warg is a terrifying threat to a Paralysed enemy. Gûlavhar, in my view, was pretty overrated.
I was wrong. I was absolutely, unequivocally wrong. There are definitely other ways to build Angmar – and I think those ways can be very strong as well – but Gûlavhar is just absurdly good. I don’t think he’s necessarily top-tier on his own, but in an Angmar list setup to take advantage of him he is truly monstrous.
What he does that’s fairly unique in the Angmar list is threaten to end the game in a single turn and presenting your opponent with dozens of potential threats to consider. Angmar is always great at opening up unexpected angles by moving your models or freezing them in place with magic/Terror. But with Gûlavhar, whichever threat your opponent doesn’t think about can be instantly game-ending.
As an example, when Nick went into my lines with Aragorn and Hurin he had so many potential threats to consider. I could Heroic Combat and go into Aragorn, or if Aragorn used Strike/Defence then I could go into Hurin, or if both of them used it (and passed their Resist rolls against the Witch King to even have that option) then I could go into two more warriors and let him waste his Might, or even charge a warrior I’d Spectre-d into position to Hurl into both of his heroes. Ultimately Nick couldn’t guard against all of these outcomes, and he had to pick the bad outcome of Aragorn probably being torn to pieces in order to stay in the game and not have a 6VP swing on the first combat. It’s testament to Nick’s skill that he came back from that outcome, but it’s testament to how good Gûlavhar is that his best outcome risked losing a 240-point model immediately.
This list is bonkers good, and what’s more I think makes for some extremely interesting games. Relative to the Watcher list, there’s still a giant monster eating your heroes, but at least this time the monster has to come to you to do so. Instead of the inexorable ‘anywhere you move your heroes means they die’ of the Watcher, Gûlavhar plays the game on a knife’s edge. At any point if he ends up in the wrong spot then the Angmar player’s 200-point centrepiece can go down, or at least be crippled and need to spend many turns snacking on warriors to regain his wounds. Of course, if he gets into the right spot then he can just end the game for your opponent as well, but at least he has to risk himself to do so.
I may be biased, but I absolutely love this list. I was wrong and the internet was right, all hail Gûlavhar, Terror of Arnor!
I hope you enjoyed another long tournament report, I’m aiming to keep them coming at the moment. The next tournament I’m attending will be a 750-pointer down in Burleigh, so I may experiment with scaling up this list or try something totally different. Who knows? As ever, I’d love to hear your thoughts: is Gûlavhar actually overrated after all? Is he a model that relies on your opponent not having played against them, or do his tricks work all the way to the top? And how should I scale this list up to 750? Share below or on Facebook and I’ll do my best to reply to you all.
Until next time, may your monsters always have the higher Fight value!
Excellent write-up - where did you get the Gulavhar model from? I can't bring myself to use him - having 4 Barrow-Wights and a Wild Warg Chieftain has me biased. ;-)
ReplyDeleteIt's a proxy from Forge Master Miniatures, which I quite liked. Relatively affordable, and pretty good detail and posing I thought. I definitely get the lure of more Barrow Wights instead (as you'd know from my comments on your blog over th years), although I definitely can recommend giving Gulavhar a try. He's just such an excitingly dynamic model, it totally shifts the way Angmar plays. Definitely takes a while to get the hang of, but so incredibly strong when you do
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