In a shocking twist, I’m back again (relatively) soon after my last tournament report with another writeup. I’m sure my throngs of regular readers will be ecstatic at the news. Self-mockery aside, I had the good fortune to attend the Queensland League GT last weekend, and had an absolute blast. It was actually my first ever two-day event, and the added scale and competitiveness of the tournament really added to the experience. This is going to be Part 1 of 2 (and still pretty long…), so without further ado let’s dive right in!
Tournament Format
Nothing two complex here: 5
rounds at 750 points, each with 2 hours per game and random scenarios. No bells
or whistles, just 10 hours of MESBG. Good stuff.
Listbuilding
I toyed with various list ideas,
but in the end there was only one 750-point list that I felt confident about
taking into any matchup: Angmar. The combination of numbers, mobility, hitting
power and so many tricks means that I’m never totally locked out of a
game, and in a big event like this one that’s worth a lot. As such, the list
ended up being:
Warband 1
Witch King 3/12/2 on horse with Crown
of Morgul
Spectre
Wild Warg
13 Orcs (6 shields, 6 spears, 1
bow)
Warband 2
Gûlavhar
Spectre
Warg Rider (throwing spear)
12 Orcs (6 shields, 6 spears,
banner)
Warband 3
Barrow Wight
10 Orcs (5 shields, 5 spears)
Wild Warg
Warband 4
Orc Captain on Warg
Wild Warg
Warg Rider (shield)
46 models, 1 bow, 8 Might, 8 fast models
I’ve joked in the past that this
list is basically Gûlavhar’s stag party, but that is being unfairly harsh to a really
well-rounded list that can compete in a range of scenarios and matchups. It’s
hardly an original list (merely my take on a relatively standard way to build
Angmar at this points value), but it does have a couple of controversial
elements. Most glaring is the low stat pool on the Witch King, which is
frequently commented upon but almost never actually impacts my gameplay. The lack
of a Shade or second Barrow Wight is also often questioned, but either would
require me to cut my Captain (often an MVP) or drop my model-count by at least
8 models (a complete impossibility). Angmar is a faction with a surplus of
excellent options, and ultimately some of those excellent options are going to
have to stay home in any list.
Still, the army I had was one I
was comfortable with, and one that no one is really comfortable playing
against. Or, if they are, then they generally cease to be once Gûlavhar eats
their leader. It does have some bad matchups though, such as…
Game 1: Depths of Moria LL in Heirlooms of Ages
Past, 8:0
Matched up against Jakeb’s
Depths of Moria, I was immediately terrified. My army largely functions by
killing enemy centrepieces and using Courage shenanigans against the warriors,
and here was a build with an unkillable centrepiece and a 12” bubble of
Fearless. I’m actually not sure I can think of a more adverse matchup on paper.
And then scenarios were
announced, and we were playing Heirlooms of Ages Past. And my opponent ‘won’
Priority on the first turn. And the Balrog ended up in one corner with the Drum
and most Goblins all the way across the field. And all my warbands ended up in
position to hammer those Goblins, except for the Captain who showed up to steal
the one objective anywhere near the Balrog before escaping far away. Suddenly,
the matchup didn’t feel half as bad.
Honestly, this game was over by
the end of my first movement phase, and we both knew it. I shamelessly deployed
the Balrog’s greatest nemesis (the tape measure), and Mr Shadow and Flame
stomped his way across the board as my Wargs stayed exactly 14.1” away from him
and investigated every objective before he got near. I felt bad, but it was so
clearly the right call that I couldn’t justify letting the Heroic Combat chain
start. Once I’d investigated every site and found the objective in the furthest
corner from him, the game was clearly sewn up.
But Jakeb still gave me a great
game, and there were lots of little swings and interesting plays. Things were
particularly interesting over on the other flank, where his Goblins put up a
heroic defence against almost my entire army. I’d placed them in a fenced-off
area to stop them breaking out and contesting the objectives, but this also
worked against me to slow my push through his forces. In effect, we were
scrapping over the banner VPs here, as killing/keeping alive his Drummers was
about the only way either of us could influence the scoreboard any further. He
was never going to get to my leader, break me or take the relic, and I
certainly was never going to break him or wound the Balrog, but those Drummers
were worth 2VP alive.
It ended up being a quite tight
contest over there with lots of swings back and forth, including the Witch King
demonstrating his status as Sauron’s chief lieutenant by having to expend 3
Might points boosting up wound rolls with Black Darts. Great stuff. Gûlavhar
chewed through Goblins and the Orcs showed their superior martial prowess, and
eventually the second Drummer died with no one else in position to pick up the
sticks.
On the final turn, with nothing
else left to play for, I flew Gûlavhar into the Balrog to see if I could get a
sneaky wound through. The Balrog effortlessly won the duel and then whiffed
hard to only wound me twice. It didn’t matter in the slightest, but I think it
still stung.
Heirlooms is always a wonky
scenario, and one that’s very subject to the dice gods deciding the winner.
That happened here through no great skill of my own, but kudos to Jakeb for remaining
a delight to play against even as I carefully measured my 14.1” away from his
centrepiece model turn after turn.
Game 2: Rivendell Knights in Assassination, 12:1
Game 1 was a hard matchup and a
scenario Angmar sometimes struggles with coming together to make an extremely
winnable combo. Game 2, on the other hand, saw a matchup I quite like
(hero-heavy Rivendell Knights) and a scenario that normally favours me (Assassination
with Gûlavhar, lol) come together to make an absolutely hellish uphill battle.
Danny had brought along Elrond, Gil-galad and Gwaihir, with Elrond as is
leader. So while he got to target any of my squishy heroes, my targets were
either Gil-galad or Gwaihir. I don’t normally like to swear on this blog, but
the only word that remotely captures how I felt in this matchup is ‘fucked’.
Things didn’t start well either,
with some deadly Elven shooting sliding past In the Ways from buildings to
wound Gûlavhar three times. Ouch. I kept pushing forward though, and eventually
Gwaihir chose to go in. He Heroic Combatted off an Orc in my frontlines (albeit
after burning all his Might to do so!) then swept over into my Barrow Wight.
I’d entirely neglected to establish any kind of anti-fly formation for my
heroes, which is pretty embarrassing as a Gûlavhar player. Ultimately though,
it was probably the right call for me, as it lured his Gwaihir (my target) into
the centre of my lines with nowhere to go. I made the call not to Strike up
with the Witch King as he threatened the Combat, because I ended up realising
that he was almost certainly going to target one of my other heroes instead.
Gwaihir managed to Resist my
initial Transfix, but I successfully swamped him with Gûlavhar, the Witch King
and a few other models, and the With King’s Strike got to F10. With Gully only
on 1 Attack the Eagle survived the first combat, before Resisting my Channelled
Transfix (on a single die, needing an unmodified 6!) on the next turn. I was
now out of Might to Strike on the Witch King (I’d needed to burn it to win the
fight on the previous turn, even with about a dozen dice in the combat), but
thankfully Gwaihir only rolled a 5-high and Gûlavhar could take him out.
Elsewhere, Gil-galad and Elrond had gone into the choke-point that I’d filled up with Orcs, but a few botches and my huge model-count meant Danny was a long way from breaking through there. Gûlavhar picked off a couple more Elves to heal himself back up as Danny disengaged and charged in again, before the game reached its climax.
I had Gûlavhar facing a lone Knight, ready to Heroic Combat into either Elrond or two Knights (to Break the Elves), while Danny had Gil-galad in combat but in a position where he’d have to charge one of my Orcs and be peeled off if he wanted to get into Gûlavhar off the Heroic Combat. Both Elf heroes called Combats and I thought I was in a great spot.
Gûlavhar happily Heroic Combatted into Elrond,
with Danny surprising me by choosing to activate that fight next. Gûlavhar
bashed up Elrond and left the Elf Lord barely hanging on, but then Danny
revealed his cunning ploy: now that Gûlavhar was out of combat, Gil-galad could
Combat into both him and my screening Orc and fight them both, instead
of being peeled off. It was a great play by Danny that I never saw coming, but
unfortunately Gil-galad followed it up by rolling a 5-high with no Might left
to burn. Gûlavhar got the 6 and instantly eviscerated his army leader.
I Transfixed Elrond on the next
turn and picked him up with Gûlavhar while tying up the broken Elves, and Danny
offered to call it there. It was honestly one of the most enjoyable games I’ve
ever played, on quite a few fronts. The constant swings of the dice back and
forth were hilarious, and meant we were constantly having to adapt to entirely
unexpected circumstances. The level of play was extremely tight on both
sides, with Danny pulling off some amazing moves while I desperately hung in
there and slowly ground my way back to a winning position. And building on both
of those factors was Danny being an absolute delight to play against. He was a
great opponent to laugh over silly dice with, and the constant communication
made the competitive side of things so much easier to manage. I would state
that I wanted to get my Spectre within 12” of a particular Elf, and Danny would
already be measuring from the Elf to point out exactly what places I could
stand in to make that work. It’s this kind of back and forth that solves so
many problems in competitive tabletop gaming; or rather, it prevents those
problems from ever arising because you’re both on the same page the whole time.
As in all things, communication is key.
Game 3: Assault on Lothlorien LL in Fog of War, 10:6
Going into this tournament I
felt pretty confident going into anything except Assault on Lothlorien, and was
mostly just hoping that other players would knock them down the ladder so I
didn’t face them. Anyone who’s been watching the meta recently might
characterise this hope as ‘optimistic’, especially where the LL is being
piloted by someone as talented as Jay. Ah well, a man can dream. On the plus
side, it turns out Jay had also picked this matchup as his most concerning one,
so at least no one felt good about it.
The
game started with both of us rushing towards the centre, both aiming to place
pressure on our chosen terrain piece. An early Fell Light managed to draw out a
Bat Swarm into a vulnerable position, where Gûlavhar could jump in with 3 Orcs
to take it out early. Moreover, I could then Heroic Combat from there into
Jay’s Orc Captain (my target), who was somewhat aggressively placed on the
leading edge of Jay’s lines. Unfortunately my 8 dice got the classic 4-high,
forcing me to burn all Gûlavhar’s Might to win the fight and get off the
Combat. He did manage to pick up the Orc Captain though, so it was 3 Might well
spent.
After
that start I was feeling a little like the dice gods were against me. But
things immediately swung far, far in my favour, as Jay’s rolls turned as cold
as I’ve ever seen. It took 4 whole turns of shooting and combat for the AoL
forces to kill even a single Orc, and my warriors started to gain an immediate
attrition advantage. Gûlavhar continued to get bogged down and Transfixed three
turns in a row, but that didn’t really matter when the Orcs were carving
through their foes so effortlessly.
I made some distinct errors in this melee, mostly around my use of the Witch King. It took me until the final turn to remember to Sap Will Jay’s Goblin Shaman, which I should have done on the very first turn of combat. Moreover, I continued to spread out my resources across the various Shamans, and as a result failed to take out any of them across the game.
It was still a really great game though, with both Jay and I really straining our minds to work out exactly what our two tricky builds could do to each other. In the end, I think
that the matchup favouring Jay was well and truly overcome by the awful rolls
he endured in the first few turns, and as we ended up in a messy endgame I was
just able to drag things across the line. A few small swings on the final turn
could easily have seen Jay swing it back to a 9:9 draw, which would have been a
great outcome for him in light of his appalling dice rolls early on.
After this game I was sitting
pretty on 3 wins, which really narrowed down the field of potential opponents
(and excluded more Assault on Lothlorien, mercifully). At drinks afterwards
Sean the TO mentioned that I’d likely be facing either Gondor or Far Harad in
Round 4, so I spent the rest of the night pondering what to do against Camels
or Elessar.
This article is already too long, however, so you’ll just have to wait till later this week for Part 2 of this tournament report. Until then, may your opponent’s Gil-galad always roll a 5-high!
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