No-Shooting AoL Tournament Report: Fates Return

 

Sauron smashes his way through wave after wave of Spiders

We’re getting towards the end of the year, and I’ve been furiously attending every possible tournament before I move down to Canberra. This report covers a fun tournament that actively encouraged you to bring toned-down lists, and I decided to take a list I’d been playing around with for awhile: Spider-spam Assault on Lothlorien. Could AoL still put up results with all the bows and numbers dropped for 300 points of Venombacks? Read on and find out!

 

Tournament Format

This tournament was 600 points, with pre-randomised (but not released) pools for scenario veto. I love random pools for vetoing, so a big thumbs up here. There were also ‘secret’ objectives, giving players bonus tournament points for keeping their cheapest model alive in the first game, protecting their banner in the second, and killing the enemy leader with their leader in the third. Tournament points were determined using the ‘German’ system, where VP differential was the critical component and big wins were heavily encouraged. I have mixed feelings about this system, but it’s certainly interesting to try it out for a change.

A big win is worth 20 TPs, a narrow one is worth 11-14

Finally, players each get a free reroll to use on just about anything once per turn, which I think is a great balance between including an interesting and impactful mechanic without complicating things too much. There was a particular irony in the free reroll when I’m bringing a list that has full rerolls to cast and full wound rerolls across the army, but it’s still useful for every list.

Listbuilding

I’ve tested a somewhat-stronger variant of this list a few times in the past (including this battle report here), and it’s a total blast to use. It’s not the best version of this Legendary Legion by a long way, but getting to spam out Spiders is just a silly and exciting way to play.

Gribbly gang unite!

Warband 1

Muzgur (army leader)

2 Warg Riders with shields, one with throwing spear and one with banner

 

Warband 2

Druzhag

7 Venomback Spiders

Bat Swarm

 

Warband 3

Ashrak

8 Venomback Spiders

 

21 models, 0 bows, 5 Might, 16

This list is just good, silly fun. 15 Venombacks is an insane amount of damage output with 2 Attacks at S5 with full rerolls to wound, and if I play my cards right they can scythe straight through an enemy army. They are quite vulnerable to enemy heroes, however, which is where the Shamans come in.

Muzgur is just a simple source of Transfix who can occasionally shank an enemy warrior to get some Will back. He can theoretically cast Wither or Drain Courage, but honestly it’s never felt like the right play when he’s supporting a wall of D3 Spiders. More exciting is Druzhag, whose ability to turbo-charge a Spider (or, in a pinch, a Bat) with Enrage Beast can produce some devastating damage combos when set up right. Finally, Ashrak can make those Spiders invisible, letting them sprint straight through the enemy battlelines and into vulnerable enemy heroes. That’s especially useful when he Channels the spell, allowing them to halve enemy Fight values. An Enraged Venomback with Channelled Shroud of Shadows up can run through the lines into whatever it wants, win the fight with 4 Attacks that automatically have the higher Fight value, then hit with 4-8 S7 strikes with full wound rerolls. That’s absolutely devastating when it goes off, and variants of this combo (or an Enraged Spider plus a Bat Swarm) are the core of this list.

Of course, normal Assault on Lothlorien has these combos as well, and at this points value would probably have ~50 models and devastating shooting. But I’m not playing normal Assault on Lothlorien, so it was Spider-spam all the way. And the extra mobility would certainly be useful in some scenarios and matchups, like my first one…

 

Game 1: Barad-dur in Heirlooms of Ages Past, 2:6

Sauron and co getting ready to whallop some Spiders

Matt had a list that was as simple as it comes: Sauron backed up by 11 Morgul Knights. Sauron was going to be an absolute menace, but I felt quite confident in my ability to shred the Knights and win most scenarios that way. The pool for this mission was Hold Ground, Storm the Camp and Heirlooms, and Matt vetoed Storm the Camp because it’s kind of just a bad scenario (presumably my numbers, mobility and higher warband count also played a role in the decision). That left me with the choice of Hold Ground or Heirlooms, and in the end I opted to play the latter in order to leverage the mobility of my Spiders and Bats. If Matt wanted to dismount his Knights to dig up objectives then I’d be happy with that, and if not then I’d have great odds of digging up the prize somewhere.

Deployment was simple enough, with Sauron’s warband coming in on the north while my army was spread out across the board in various positions. I rapidly investigated several sites and discovered nothing, before unfortunately finding the relic in the objective closest to Sauron. This was a pretty frustrating bit of ‘luck’, as I’d carefully kept one objective untouched far behind my lines to hopefully pick up once the others were investigated. 

Pics taken moments before disaster

Still, it shouldn’t have been too big of a deal, but a series of lost Priority rolls meant Sauron was able to continuously Transfix the Spider holding the Relic as he smacked his way through the wall of Spiders I put in his way. Elsewhere, my Venombacks (supported by my casting of Fury with both Goblin Shamans) were absolutely mincing the Morgul Knights, and I set up a smooth assassination run on Sauron with a Channelled Shroud of Shadows and four Venombacks (one Enraged).

Sauron saved by a slightly weird TO ruling

Morgul Knights get torn to pieces by angry Venombacks

Unfortunately my plan here fell apart after the TO ruled that the Channelled part of Shroud of Shadows still doesn’t affect Sauron, which is understandable from a thematic perspective but was quite inconvenient in the moment. That was particularly true because I could have gotten a Bat Swarm in instead if I’d moved differently, but hadn’t thought I needed to in light of the Shroud of Shadows plan. Them’s the breaks though, and we were soon onto the next turn. Sauron won Priority again and Transfixed the relic-holding Spider, before Striking to fend off another Bat/triple Venomback attack after I’d been unable to get Druzhag in range to Enrage anyone.

With that lost combat and a couple dead, Spiders Sauron could at last charge the relic-carrying Spider if he got to move first. The critical Move-off went Matt’s way, and Sauron Transfixed the Bat before slamming into the prize. All I could do was swarm him with 4 Venombacks, Enrage one, and hope. Elsewhere the other Venombacks quartered Matt, so it was down to this combat to determine the outcome. Sauron was out of Might and rolled a 5-high, but sadly my 8 dice were unable to find a single 6! Sauron won the fight, killed my relic-carrying Spider and claimed it, winning Matt the game on the final combat.

A truly eagle-eyed reader might have noticed that I said my 8 dice in that combat were unable to roll a 6, but that I actually had 10 dice in the fight thanks to having Enraged a Spider. After we wrote down the scores I realised this, and just for fun rolled out the extra two dice. Naturally one of them came up a 6, leaving me quite frustrated with myself for the mistake on a critical turn. Still, it was too late at that point, and I had no one but myself to blame.

This was a somewhat frustrating game, for all that Matt was a fairly pleasant opponent. The ending obviously stings a bit when it comes down to a single unforced error on my part, but the swings throughout the game were also pretty challenging. If that Spider gets to move even once over the four turns it was pinned there then I win the game, almost certainly. If the Shroud of Shadows ruling goes differently, or if I’d anticipated it and gotten the Bats into combat instead, or if I hadn’t been millimetres out of range with Druzhag on the turn that the Bats do go in, or if the Bats had passed their (rerollable) Courage test on C3 the previous turn, or if I’d killed one more Knight on the penultimate turn or one less on the final turn, or if I won the final Move-off, or if Sauron whiffs on one more turn of combat, or if I manage to get the 6 on the 8 dice I did remember to roll… there’s a lot of ‘ifs’ in my memory of this game, and pretty much any of them would have meant the game ended with my Spider holding the objective. Frankly, even just not picking up the Relic where I did would probably have been enough to lock in a win.

Interrupting the serious analysis with an unrelated pic of a pretty army

Of course, none of this is taking anything away from Matt’s gameplay, which was solid throughout. He did what he needed to do to give himself a shot at the game, and the fact that the stars aligned for him doesn’t change the fact that he played to give himself a shot.

Thinking back over this game, I do wonder whether the initial scenario choice was my biggest mistake here. I was afraid of Sauron and didn’t want to give him a nice central spot to fight over in Hold Ground, but ultimately he’s only going to kill 1-2 Spiders a turn. My Venombacks, on the other hand, were always going to shred the Morgul Knights, and they ended up doing so at blistering speed. Perhaps I would have been better off picking Hold Ground and sprinting for the middle, knowing I’d probably end with a huge numbers edge in the centre and win that way. My plan for Heirlooms was solid, but it was perhaps higher variance than Hold Ground would have been.

These Morgul Knights certainly didn't last long against the Spiders, after all!

In any case, a loss in the first round certainly took the pressure off me as we went into game two!

 

Game 2: Iron Hills in Domination, 12:0

Cody had brought along a solid list of Iron Hills Dwarves with Dáin, a Captain on foot, a shieldwall of dudes and 5 Goat Riders. It was a scary list, but only outnumbered me by 2 models, so my win condition was clearly to stop Dáin rampaging then bring things to the endgame and clean up with Spiders.

The scenario pool favoured me, as once I vetoed Lords of Battle (Spiders just bleed wound points!) Cody had the choice of Capture and Control or Domination. Either would force him to spread out, and he opted for Domination to place a central triangle of objectives.

Battle began with me sprinting at the Dwarves, tagging Cody’s crossbowmen and goats while preventing Dáin from doing too much damage. The main shieldwall started inside the awesome central building, and were momentarily wrongfooted by my rapid assault. 

The Iron Hills about to get overwhelmed by a surprise Spider attack

The first two turns of combat saw Dáin’s warband eviscerated, although I was unable to quite line up the assassination attempt I wanted on him. A Channelled Enrage Beast did force him down to one Might with a Strike, but he was able to get the 6 he needed to see off the angry Spider. On turn 3 Dáin Heroic Combatted into a pair of Venombacks that I’d sent swopping around into the Good backfield, but he bounced and lost all his Fate to their strikes back. That was probably the game, as Dáin soon found himself isolated and facing a Bat Swarm, Enraged Venomback and a third Spider. Once he’d fallen it was mostly a process of grinding down the surviving shieldwall, while zooming Spiders off to clear lone Dwarves from objectives.

There were some bright points for Cody, like his Captain chewing through one Venomback after the next even after I started Enraging them. Ultimately, however, the fall of Dáin had meant he didn’t have the punch to keep up in tempo, and the Spiders cleaned up rapidly once we got to one-on-one fights. If there’s one thing that D7 Dwarves don’t like to face, it’s S5 Spiders with full wound rerolls!

Another pretty army, this time Erin's Spiders/Trolls alliance. The Trolls are covered in little spiders, which I find so icky!

Game 3: Gondor in Fog of War, 9:6

For my final game I was matched up against Dylan, who I’ve bumped into a lot at tournaments but never faced. He was fielding a truly awesome Minas Tirith build, with Denethor, Hurin, Beregond and Irolas leading a whopping 40 Citadel Guards between them. It was a surprisingly scary matchup for me, as while my S5 Venombacks obviously shred Citadel Guards, their sheer numbers, F4 and Bodyguard meant I would be starting on the back foot.

Oh boy that's a lot of F4/Bodyguard

For scenarios, I quickly vetoed Breakthrough on the basis that I was outnumbered by more than 2:1, while Dylan vetoed Divide and Conquer out of fear of my mobility. That left us with Fog of War, and I opted to target Beregond (the hero most vulnerable to a lone Spider) and protect Ashrak (my least important hero, and the one that actively punishes opponents for attacking him!).

Beregond hiding amidst the Citadel Guards

Deployment and the first few turns were cagey, as Dylan aimed to maximise the potential value of his 13 longbows while I made sure to remain outside their 12” visibility. Finally, I went barrelling forward on a turn I lost priority, taking a merciful 3 wounds from their shooting (about one below average) and getting into combat.

Things rapidly started to swing against me in the melee, as Dylan’s sheer weight of numbers (plus F4 to tie me and Bodyguard plus spears to leverage them!) saw me lose 5 Spiders in the first turn. A half-dozen Guards had been shredded as well, but I could afford those casualties much less easily than Dylan! Thankfully Hurin was now exposed, and an Enraged Spider went in on the next turn to shred the Gondorian hero and turn off Dylan’s Bodyguard. An invisible Spider also managed to get into Beregond and win the fight, but sadly Faramir’s greatest defender was able to pass his Fate by burning a Might point.

First turn of combat and things are already starting to look bleak

My lines were starting to rapidly crumble by this point, and by the third turn of combat I was Broken, while ~30 Citadel Guards continued to barrel down on me. At this point my plan pivoted to a defensive one, in which I worked to assassinate the last two Gondorian non-leader heroes while protecting Druzhag and Ashrak. Irolas had moved forward to take on Muzgur, but a first assassination attempt with a Bat and Muzgur came to nought. Beregond did thankfully fall to the Spider he was facing after I Enraged it, but by the end of the combat I was down to only 4 Spiders remaining. Druzhag and Ashrak went running for the hills, with Druzhag throwing one last Enraged Beast out behind him at a Venomback facing Irolas. The Venomback got the 6 it needed and minced another Gondorian hero, while Muzgur managed to hold off Denethor and a horde of Citadel Guards for two turns without suffering a wound!

The game ended on the second possible turn, with the Gondorians 3 models off Breaking. They had easily Broken me and claimed their terrain piece (my lone Bat Swarm being utterly overwhelmed after it attempted to prevent Dylan getting to the barrow he had picked) for 6 VPs, but all of their non-leader heroes lay dead. That (plus protecting Ashrak) gave me 6 VPs as well, while a rider-less Warg made it back to my terrain piece on the final turn for a razor-edge 9:6 victory!

This game was easily my favourite from the tournament for a number of reasons. First, it was tight throughout, with Dylan mercilessly grinding through my warriors but not quite able to prevent me getting the VPs I needed. Second, with both of our tools so well-matched against each other the casualties mounted insanely quickly, which is always fun. And third, Dylan was just great to play against. The game was full of laughing at silly Spider shenanigans or Denethor thinking he was mad for seeing giant Spiders running around, but kept the high level of competitive understanding that makes games so much easier to play. The game was full of the kind of small takebacks that make life easy where both players know what was meant to have happened in a given spot, and Dylan’s play was razor-tight throughout. It was actually an interesting learning experience for me in some respects: Dylan always tends to take quite thematic and aesthetically-driven lists (e.g. 40 Citadel Guards), but is also clearly a very switched-on player. It’s a good reminder not to judge a player by their army list; nor, for that matter, to judge an army list by whether the models in it are considered ‘competitive.’ Citadel Guard may be generally less efficient than Warriors of Minas Tirith backed by Rangers or Fountain Court Guards, but in this matchup they were actually the most optimal warriors Dylan could have been running!

Hurin leads the Citadel Guards in to smash down some Spiders

After a minor loss, major win and minor win, I ended up finishing mysteriously deep into the bottom half. Not sure how that works, but I wasn’t too bothered after an enjoyable tournament.

 

Tournament Review

David did a great job TO-ing, with things running smoothly throughout. The German system for tournament points was interesting, although it’s hard to really decipher what impact it had on the placings without the full data. Ordinarily I would have anticipated 2 wins and a minor loss to have put me in the top quarter or so, but I don’t think the German scoring can be the cause of the drop either: I ended on a VP differential of +11 and with 2/3 secret objectives completed, so I’m not really sure where I slipped down the ladder. I would have expected the middle spots in the final results to be around +0 net VPs, so I don’t quite understand how I ended up below the middle.

In any case, it was an enjoyable tournament as ever. The prize support was great, and I walked away with some neat double-sided objective markers. Thanks to David for TO-ing and the guys at Irresistible Force for hosting!

 

List review

This list was never intended to be a top-tier competitive build, and honestly it did pretty well given that. It has an amazing ability to reach out and kill something, and the damage output when everything goes right is off the charts. Nearly anything that loses a fight against Venombacks is getting shredded, and once you start getting to one-on-one fights it can snowball very fast.

In saying that, games two and three really did show why this version of the Legion is not the competitive approach. The big base sizes, low Defence and limited numbers meant that things could also snowball fast in the opposite direction once I started losing Spiders. More importantly, I found it really hard to break through battlelines, which I knew going in was the big risk. Trying to actually bring the full hitting power to bear against the Iron Hills kept being frustrated by their solid defensive positions, and even Venombacks struggle against 4 Iron Hills Dwarves. The Citadel Guard, on the other hand, just had the numbers and Bodyguard to absolutely swarm me, making it very hard for me to leverage my mobility to get advantageous engages.

Pictured: things not going well for the list

The list’s bucket of tricks did mean that I could still pull out wins in those games, primarily by targeting the critical heroes and ripping them apart. But with how challenging and technical the list is to play, it often felt like I was working my butt off to produce decent results, rather than my effort translating into a clear edge. The contrast with something like my Angmar builds is clear: when I play perfectly with Gûlavhar I feel solidly in control of the game, whereas here tight play didn’t seem to bring the same results. Ultimately, this list just isn’t as strong as the more standard AoL variants I’ve tested in the past.

Still, that wasn’t really the point at this tournament, and the list is a blast to play. The mobility and damage output– plus all the tricks it can muster– makes it extremely exciting to use, and I’d definitely recommend trying it out if you can be bothered pulling together enough Spiders.

 

Tournament Wrap-up

Penultimate event of the year, and thus penultimate Queensland event for me! I had a great time, and may well bring a similar version of this list in the future. My final event is a chill 700-pointer, to which I think I will probably bring a scaled-up version of my Mordor/Harad alliance I’ve been experimenting with. Are the Morannons worthwhile losing 6 models for? Check back in next time to find out.

Until then, may you always kill the critical heroes before your opponent can totally slaughter you!