Gathering in the Desert 2012

I attended the 5th annual Gathering in the Desert (GitD) this weekend.  This is one of the best gaming tournaments you'll ever attend.  It's two days of Lord of the Rings gaming on some incredible tables. The scenarios are fun and the competition is tough but friendly.  I'm lucky to have this event happening right in my backyard.  We have people come from all over the country to participate.

Well, despite having a camera phone in my pocket the entire time, I took exactly no pictures (unless you count the picture I accidentally took of my nostrils while messing with my phone).  I attribute the lack of pictures, honestly, to the fun I was having and the concentration on my games.  I never thought of photography.  Keep an eye on the blog link above, and I'm sure Tim will have pictures posted.

Overall, I came in 8th place.  That's the best I've ever done.  I played a 600 pt force of Far Harad supported by Corsairs with spears.  They are a "one trick pony" style of army.  When I can pull off the trick, they perform fantastically.  Otherwise, they don't do so well.  They can, however, get punched in the face for a while.  That's why I had so many drawn games.  I tallied up three draws, one major victory, and one minor loss.  I did solidly in sportsmanship (I didn't swear or throw any punches) and appearance (wore fresh clothes each day), which helped cement my spot in the top ten. Not having some serious out of town competition around also let some of us mid-listers float up a bit this year.

With the changes in the new books, this was probably my Far Harad army's last ride.  I'm OK with that, as I'm tired of it at this point.  I want something different.  Let's review the games that formed their farewell tour.


Game One:  This was "The Artifact" scenario played on the Osgiliath table.  I faced High Elves.  This is a modified "Seize the Prize" scenario from the Legions of Middle Earth book. I had to dig up and carry the artifact off the enemy table edge.  My army got the artifact first, and the Elves sealed off every avenue to their table edge while I did that.  A huge brawl ensued and in the end my army broke and the Mahud King died.  He dropped the artifact and the Elves picked it up.  But time was called, and it was only a draw.  Whew!

Game Two: This was a straight up game of Domination on the Balin's Tomb table.  If you followed the above link you'll see the board and think that it's wide open. Believe me when I say that's an optical illusion.  There's very little LOS on that board.  I played it last year too; so I speak from hard experience.

I faced Gimli and his Dwarf buddies.  I unwisely tried to contest three points and ended up having to concede one and try to shore up my other two holdings.  I was able to retreat because the Dwarfs move slow.  But I had to feed them troops to allow me to do so.  That was all wasted resources.  When time was called, we ended in a draw.  That was a hard game.

Game Three: This was "The Emissary" which is a modified "Storm the Camp."  We each had to escort an emissary into the enemy's camp.  I faced Dol Amroth and Prince Imirhil on the so-called generic table #2.  It was basically both our lines clashing together and doing a meat grinder.  My opponent expected to walk through me like a revolving door.  But Far Harad excels at busting up stuff in close combat.  We fought to a standstill. The Far Harad broke and so did Dol Amroth.  A random die roll ended the game at that point, and so I got my third draw.  In all honesty, if we continued I had a serious risk of losing due to low courage.

Game Four: This was played on day two of the event.  We started with "Bilbo's Treasure."  I faced an Arnor list on the generic table #1.  There are five treasure markers on the table.  You randomly determine which number marker is going to be the treasure.  Then whoever gets to the marker first flips it and sees if they have the treasure.  I got to three markers after a few turns of movement.  It ended up being in my possession and right at the table edge.  I had two guys rush it off the table for a major victory.

But we still had two hours to play.  So we just continued on with a "kill 'em all" scenario where we fought to 25% forces remaining.  Arnor and their dwarf allies put up a great fight.  But Far Harad was in good form for this "fake game" and ripped Arnor into bits.  I felt bad dealing a horrible defeat twice, but we were just killing time.  The men of Arnor would be avenged during.......

Game Five: The final game of the tournament proved to be the most suspenseful of all my games. I played on the incredibly modeled Prancing Pony table.  I faced 59 Woses (Wildmen of Druadan), all with spears and blowpipes.  These were not the shitty Harad blowpipes that are move OR shoot.  These allowed a half move to shoot.  The scenario was "Head of the Snake," which meant my Mahud King had to kill the Woses leader Ghan-buri-ghan in combat to get a major victory.  This wouldn't be so bad but for Radagast floating around the back ranks casting Aura of Dismay and also Transfixing my tough guys.

Well, the Woses lined up a firing line and I dutifully walked into 30+ blowgun darts for three turns.  He couldn't always get all 59 blowguns on me at once, but managed quite a bit.  At first I doubted S2 blowguns would be much to worry about at D5/6 on the Mahud.  But the Woses player was rolling hot and I saw 6 after 6 after 6 come up.  By the time I got to the line, 16 of my men were dead and almost all were Mahud.  I had 5 left to break point.  It was fucking brutal!  I thought the game was done.

But my opponent had miscalculated my Mahud King's wounds, thinking he had already dealt one to me.  So we ended up in a dance with Ghan-buri-ghan and the King each seeking advantage.  There was a lot of nail biting at this point, and I'm not doing the tension any justice in this write up.  In the end, Radagast was out of gas and my King got on Ghan-buri-ghan and slammed four S5 attacks on his naked ass.  He only did two wounds and GBG rolled his Fate to save one.  Then the Mahud hit the break point.

The Mahud King failed courage spectacularly and left.  While I would've thought that to be a draw, since GBG didn't kill him, it was ruled as a kill for the Woses.  I ended up with a minor loss.  It really came to that last Fate roll of GBG.  Despite the loss, it was probably the most satisfying game I played in a while, coming from almost total loss to a real chance to win.  Oh and for what it's worth, when the surviving Mahud and Corsairs hit the Woses line, they tore them to shreds.  So it didn't feel too bad!

So overall it was a great two days.  I thought I'd be tired of LotR but just like last year this event reinvigorated my enthusiasm for the game.  While the new army books have screwed some armies, others got a nice boost.  It's time for me to do something different in LotR.  I tried Elves and detested their pansy play style.  I'm thinking Orcs and lots of monsters.  I want big monsters and ugly evil for my next list.  That's where I'll be headed when my gaming group is ready to pick up LotR again.

A Gamble of Champions

Last Friday night I got to play a game of LotR, and I took my Far Harad force.  This is only my second game with an all Far Harad force, and I'm learning a lot about them.  For years they were an allied contingent for my Corsairs.  They play a lot differently in that role than they do as a stand-alone force.  One important difference I noticed is that it's really, really not OK if one of them dies.  So let's talk about my game.

I'm going to actually provide my list this time.  I didn't take notes on the exact composition of my opponent's list.  I'll take some guesses.

700 points
Mahud King, camel
Tribemaster, camel
Mahud Warriors, blow pipes x 4
Mahud Warriors, hw/shield x 8
Mahud Warriors, spears / shld x 13
Half Trolls x 4
Half Trolls, 2 hd wpn x 4
Mahud Raiders, war spear x 3

I faced Tim's Uruk Hai.  At 700 pts he had big blocks of Uruk-hai with pikes.  A bunch of crossbows were parked on the a hilltop, maybe 6-8 of them.  A shaman was running around the back ranks.  But imposing beyond belief was the Isengard Troll that stomped ahead of the force.

We rolled up a scenario, and got Contest of Champions.  In this scenario the leaders of each side try to kill more than the opposing leader, all the while attempting to destroy the enemy army.  Probably sounds like something that happened at the office today, doesn't it?  I digress.

One of the areas that I struggle to get correct in any game system I play is the deployment phase.  I don't know why I tend to treat this phase like I'm sleep-walking.  Whenever I lose, half the time I can trace it back to poor deployment.  Now having said that, I don't think I deployed badly in this scenario; but throughout the game I had a nagging feeling like I was going the wrong way.  I'll come back to this point later.  Here's how the proud Mahud looked after I finished dropping them on the table.

There's that damn woods I always find right in front of me.  After years of seeing it there, why don't I learn to plan for it?  It's only six inches from my line, but yet I set up like it's a total and utter shock that those trees should appear before me.  So priority falls to me and the Mahud move out.  At the end of that move, I realize that I will have to divide my force to avoid the trees.  Splitting a small force in the face of a numerically superior foe is not a good idea.

My only reprieve from my short-sightedness is that the Uruk-hai are to my far right.  Later I would discover I am being led by the nose into a tight position where my already small numbers will be restricted.  Since I am thoroughly fascinated with the woods in front of me, I spend all my time dealing with them.  I decide to filter through the trees and keep my line together.  Here's a shot of me plodding through the terrain while trying to keep everyone together.  You can see the Uruk-hai getting into position.

So the next several turns will be a lot of movement and positioning of both sides.  I did manage to stay away from crossbow fire for most of this movement.  I got to take a few blow pipe shots, too.  The move or shoot rule is really too bad, given they're such short range.  I suppose the shoot 3+ and the poisoned darts make up for that.  But in reality, they don't; it's still a strength 2 dart with a re-roll on a 1.  Eventually we are all in position and I realize immediately that I'm am not going to be bisected, but instead trisected.  This is why I had that nagging feeling of going the wrong way I mentioned before.

The main Uruk-hai park in the center of the wide field between two trees.  Small harassment forces are coming around the flanks, which force me to send something to deal with these.  I end up getting pulled three ways, and the traffic jam in the middle means my Mahud warriors are spear supporting.

A Mahud left to spear support his buddy is only half a man.  He's just been castrated by one attack, which you dearly paid for in his expensive points.  It's a sad day when this happens, because you are throwing three dice where you should've been throwing four.  This is the downfall of an all Mahud force, I suppose.  But it just riles me whenever I have to do this. 

Here's a shot of where the rest of the game would play out.  Check out this awesome picture of the Isengard Troll roaring at me across the expanse.

The Uruk-hai come forward and two brave (insane) orcs break away to block the approaches.  However, this allows my King to charge the orc.  So the objective is for him to kill more than the Uruk-hai captain.  So he makes the charge.  His impaler rule does not kill anything and I rejoice.  I now have a Muhud leader in combat, which activates the warrior's pride rule for a 12" radius around him.  This means all my Mahud will pass their courage checks automatically.  So I send the two raiders charging into the troll.

The combat with the troll goes unfavorably.  First, none of the impaler strikes go off.  Next, the darn troll has a shield and he decides to use it.  So he rolls six dice to my six dice, and he wins.  Too bad, because the troll was trapped!  The king also loses his combat and has to blow a point of might to win.  At least he killed the orc, and I'm now leading the death toll 1-0.

All around the fights are joined and it is a very bad day for the Mahud.  One half troll is killed after losing the fight, and five other Mahud die in that combat phase.  During the shoot phase, the crossbows sniped a raider off his camel.  Rather flustered at this bad luck, I also see my Tribemaster is uselessly milling about on his camel, adding nothing to the fight.  The Uruk-hai captain gets a kill this round, too.

The Mahud win the next priority.  I decide to take a gamble.  I move some models around to break control zones.  Then I plow my Mahud King right into the Uruk-hai captain and his two columns of pikes.  This is crazy, but at least my impaler rule kills one of the orcs.  Now it's 2-1 for kill ratios.  The Raiders charge the Isengard troll again.  The spear of one of my models touches the troll's chest.  Will this be the good omen I hope it is?

Well, it was a good omen for the raiders.  The troll decides to "troll-up" and fight.  I win this time and throw six, strength 5 dice to wound.  I roll a lot of sixes and the Isengard troll is no more!  Yeah!

It was a Pyrrhic victory.  My King throws four dice and the best he gets is a three.  So pikes and swords get jammed into his face and he dies.  The kill score is 2-2, but the game is lost.  I ask to call the game, but we decided to play through one more round.  The Uruk-hai captain easily gets his kill and we end it.  Major victory to the Uruk-hai.

It was a good game and I had several realizations as I played.  The biggest one hit me like a ton of bricks.  I realized my Raiders are not for charging rank-and-file troops.  They are for hitting multi wound models.  To do otherwise means the Impaler rule could leave them exposed to counter attacks.  But on a multi-wound model, like the Isengard troll, it would help soften up the enemy.  So any game where I can learn something is not a loss!  I look forward to taking out the Far Harad again.  I might just start learning how to play them!

Far Harad Battle Report

So I'll just be pretending that I haven't added anything to this blog in two years. Let's get right to a new post!

I'm not so big on photographing my models and posting up. I suck at photography, and therefore tend to dislike it. But my new iPhone has got me taking more pictures. These still all suck. But I plan to take more pictures of my games and document the fights on this blog. Hopefully I can improve my game by writing up an analysis and report of what happened. Let's go.

I played a game of Lord of the Rings today with Tim from Cursed Treasures. It was a 700pt game, with Tim taking Uruk-Hai and me taking Far Harad. We rolled up a scenario from Legions of Middle Earth, and came up with "Ill Met by Moonlight." This scenario calls for each players' forces to be divided in half. One half goes to the center of the board and the other half is deployed three inches from opposite table edges. The object is to fight until one or both sides is destroyed.

As for forces, I don't know the exact troops Tim took. There were about 65 models in the army, mostly Uruk-Hai warriors with normal Orc spear support. He had some crossbows, a few berserkers, and a nasty Uruk-Hai Shaman. I had 38 models in my army, mostly all warriors and eight half-trolls. I took three Mahud Raiders and put a King and Tribemaster on camels to complete the force. With 38 models total, it really hurt to dived them in half. Here's how the Mahud looked at the end of deployment.
I put all my half trolls up front along with some warriors and the Mahud Tribemaster. The King and the Raiders along with the rest of the warriors were deployed at the back. As you can see, the half of the Uruk-Hai that was deployed to the center already outnumbered me two to one. I lost priority and expected to get hacked up. If I had won priority, I wanted to pull back to bring my forces together. One thing I'm learning by playing small forces is that you shouldn't divide them without good reason. This scenario starts with you breaking that rule.

You can imagine my surprise when Tim did exactly what I was thinking. He pulled back to get all his troops together. I wondered at that move, since he had superior numbers. I should let you know this is only my second time out with an all Far Harad force. I didn't appreciate the power they bring to combat. So I think Tim was right to consolidate. Later when I saw the eight half trolls in action, I belatedly realized that front line could've readily handled the odds. Two wounds, fight five, and strength five turn them into "demi-heroes" capable of ripping up almost anything.

When I got my turn, I pulled back and here's what we looked like.
The basic flow of the game went as you might expect. The lines pulled back to reform then pushed forward to engage in close combat. I have three blowpipes in my force, which due to their move or shoot rule almost never do anything other than tote around the blowpipes all game. I never had shots. Tim, however, had six crossbowmen that took the hill that frowned on the center of the table. Having the high ground vantage point was great for him, and the only thing that limited its value was the special rule for the scenario. In this scenario, all ranged attacks were limited to 12" due to the moonlight. However, rolls to wound were at +1 due to being at a closer range.

I made a mistake with this special rule. I engaged the Uruk-Hai within 12" of the hill crest. This allowed Tim to pepper quarrels into my spear support and unengaged models. I should have stopped out of range of the hill crest to deny  the vantage point. Had I done that, Tim would have had nothing to use to prod me forward. But I guess I was feeling cooperative and parked myself so that his bows could hit me everywhere. It cost me a few men, and also cost me my Tribemaster's camel. Here's a shot of the line after a few turns. You can see the commanding position of the crossbowmen.

The rest of the battle was fun, but doesn't provide much drama in a write up. We kick the snot out of each other back and forth. The Uruk-Hai Shaman had cast Fury on himself from turn one. So he stood at the center of all key fights and gave everyone a who took a wound the ability to ignore it on a die roll of 6. Tim saved two or three warriors this way.

My heroes turned out to be the half trolls. They were incredibly good and earned every point. My King was the biggest let down. He wiffed everything, barely killing a few lousy orcs. Also sort of a mixed bag was my raiders. They are tricky to use due to their Impaler rule. If they kill whoever they charge, then they are sitting ducks for a counter charge. Tim wisely positioned his troops so I couldn't get multiple hits. So I often ended up hitting a model, killing it, and then getting swamped without the benefit of charge bonuses. I learned that with Raiders, you have to pick their charges carefully and to charge them before other friendly models move. This way, if you kill the model you charged then the other friendly models can intervene to protect the Raider.

I broke the Uruk-Hai, but due to the benefit of Fury they kept going. Everyone within 6" of the Shaman auto passes courage checks. That Shaman was the game defining model for the Uruk-Hai. Eventually, I got to break and we had to call time. It was an impressive fight, since my break was 19 models and the Uruk-Hai breakpoint was something like 33 models. So I had a good showing and could've had a shot at a win. But the Shaman kept everyone on the board. Tim saw the break point coming and each turn he moved the line tighter around the Shaman. Here's what it looked like with both forces broken.I definitely had a great time and appreciated the chance to get these guys on the table. There's a a lot of nuance to this army that I'm going to have to take the time to understand. They're brutal but very fragile. I don't want to even talk about what happened to this same force when it faced a Wood Elf army! (Evaporated in bowfire.) I'll try to take more pictures of future battles and post up. Maybe it won't be two years between posts!

Far Harad Completed

At last I have completed my Far Harad force. It's about 350 points worth of warriors, plus two half trolls and a mounted King. It's not a large force on it's own, but I intend to ally this force with my Corsairs to make a solid 600 point list.

I went with the native look for the Mahud. I think GW and the guys who made the LotR movies wimped out and made a "PC" bad guy out of them. But honestly, to me they look like brave, fierce warriors from a fantasy version of Africa. So that's how I painted them. The color scheme is a little blah. But for the most part all they're wearing is some sort of wicker armor and a robe. There's not much to fiddle with, though I'm sure more talented painters have figured out how to add pizzaz to these guys. Here are the pictures. Check out the King, as I thought he come out pretty nice.