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Monday 24 October 2016

Battle companies tournament - Final battle!

After five rounds of battling all five companies have taken a share of either victory or disappointment. To decide who will be become the greater of these companies they will fight in one final battle...

This battle is special in several ways, the winner of this does not become the overall winner but will be an opportunity to gain more points. Gaining points is achieved by breaking enemy companies, securing objectives, etc... and these points will be added to the table, which stands like so:


Company Battles Inf. pts EXP (H)
Gondor 4 13 21 30
Moria 4 19 20 16
Isengard 4 8 15 14
Harad 4 0 6 9
Rohan 4 0 0 13

This battle is special in two more ways. Firstly all companies will be involved and will fight to the death (essentially) for the control of several objectives.
Further to this, in order to make all companies involved to be more aggressive, rather than becoming defensive but not spoil any chances of victory in doing so I've introduced an new enemy...

Gulavhar!

He'll be placed in the centre, and can only engage models that either:
- Intrude within 12''/28cm of him.
- Engage in direct combat with him.
- Hit Gulavhar with a ranged attack.
Gulavhar will continue to engage any model that does any of these things until they are killed (at which point he returns to the centre of the board).

However, to prevent Gulavhar from killing off too many models, and generally being overpowered compared to the other heroes and warriors present, the values from his might will and fate are considered zero for the purposes of this scenario.

Fairly simply this scenario is: Kill Gulavhar!

Aside from this objective, companies may gain points through the following ways:
  • Dealing the killing blow to Gulavhar (4 points).
  • Securing objectives that are placed around the board (which is as simple as having more models than opposing companies within 3''/8cm in the end phase of the turn in which Gulavhar is killed) 1 point is given for standard objectives and 2 points for the weapons stash.
  • Breaking an enemy company (2 points).
  • Removing an enemy hero from the field (1 point).

With all that sorted, to the Fighting!!!!!!!

Kill Gulavhar!


Setup. Gulavhar centre, Rohirrim southern edge, Moria eastern edge,
Gondor western edge, Haradrim northern edge and
the Uruk-hai on the south eastern edge.
The uruks make headway towards the weapons stash, hoping to
secure some better equipment early on.
The gondorians make their way towards the Haradrim and they send
a lone archer to secure another of the objectives.
The goblins also move to attack the Haradrim, and further secure an
objective. Clearly both major contenders are seeking for easy points...
There is a brief exchange of arrows, the Rohirrim decide the weapons
stash is fighting for after all!
The goblins infiltrate and prepare to fire on the Haradrim...
The Gondorians are somewhat isolated, being the strongest of the
five companies no-one wants to fight them
First Blood! The rider of Rohan hits an uruk archer in the eye!
The Gondorian Knights are preparing to charge as a
melee breaks out near the house.
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The uruks help themselves to heavy armour, shields and throwing spears,
much to the surprise of the Rohirrim.
Yet Eogar sniggers, ordering a volley of spears himself bringing down
two uruk-hai and leaving the uruk-hai forces broken!
Meanwhile Abaan also orders a volley, that takes 
down two goblins! But this allows Radmuz to slash 
wildly at him, unable to back away he falls
bloodied to the floor.
Radmuz then sees the opportunity and calls the goblins to engage the
Haradrim, while the Gondorian knights crash into their rear!
Back at the weapons stash, Eogar and the Rohirrim have sounded the 
charge on a broken uruk-hai line...
Yet one Rider got too cocky, straying ever too close to
the winged fury of Gulavhar!
The Gondorian knights easily crush one of their foes each. The Haradrim 
raider even manages to cut down a goblin hero! Meanwhile 
Radmuz also decapitates a nearby speaman.
Naturally, Gulavhar scythes through the rider of Rohan spilling blood
and limbs everywhere. Despite the ample supply of blood and bone 
flying around Eogar stays strong and punches Gazlur into submission.
The Rohirrim now control the weapons stash, Eogar orders his men to
fight the beast while he finishes off the remaining uruk.
With both the Haradrim and Goblins reduced, Radmuz orders his
minions to stand fast and they engage grumpily.
The Rohirrim manage to push Gulavhar back! The
Royal guard thrusts his spear into one of
his wings and he shrieks in pain.
Radmuz' scampers up and dances around both knights
and slices both horses from beneath them!
With only Gulavhar to fight the men of rohan take up heavy armour,
throwing spears and two-handed axes! Eogar orders another 
charge...But only the royal guard can stomach fighting the beast!
The Gondorian infantry has arrived! only to find the Haradrim and Goblins,
who were at each others throats a moment ago double-teaming them!
Gulavhar swipes at the guard, helpless to defend himself again the fiends'
vengance! And so his crumpled body lays on the floor.
Ingold and his men are pushed back with losses, a Harad archer cuts down 
one of their knights. And another goblin spear is hoof-ed in the face.
Eogar and co. summon the courage to charge Gulavhar again!
Radmuz calls another huge stand fast! and the goblins engage both
Haradrim and Gondorian alike seeing the battle hanging in the balance...
The Gondorians blithely turn aside the enemies attacks, Ingold spears 
the raider in the stomach and he groans as he hits the floor. While 
his guard outmatches a goblin a knocks him out.
Just as the fight by the house becomes one-sided Gulavhar becomes
trapped between Rohirrim shiedl armour and shiny two-handed axes
that dig deep into his hide! Gulavhar screams, ascends 
to the heavens and far off into the night....
And with Gulavhar dead, the objectives are secured as follows:


The lone Gondorian archer secures this objective.
With one person each the goblins and Gondorians
roll off to see who claims this objective...
Now onto the scores:

Rohan = 4 pts(kill Gulavhar) + 2pts(kill 2 isengard heroes) + 2pts(securing weapons stash) + 2 pts(breaking Isengard company) = 10 pts
Isengard = 0 pts
Harad = 3pts(killing Gondor hero, 2 goblin heroes) + 2 pts(breaking Moria company) = 5 pts
Moria = 1pt(killing Harad hero) + 2pts(breaking Haradrim company) + 1pt(objective) = 4 pts
Gondor = 1pt(killing Harad hero) + 1pt(objective) = 2 pts

Well, that could have gone either way, the Gondorians became very isolated so had to trek over half the boards length to stand a chance of getting any points (or face gulavhar).

Meanwhile the Goblins and Haradrim engaged in a death match with got them 8pts in total, but the Haradrim got the better of them (5pts to 3pts) in that case, which naturally works in both of their favours. The Haradrim were not going to win, but got points to save face, meanwhile the goblins got more points than the Gondorians.

The Rohirrim had a stellar battle, chewing through the uruk-hai like they weren't even there, they even got the killing blow on Gulavhar, will these points be enough though? Both those two companies used the weapons stash like I intended it, using it to improve armour and silly weapons that they wouldn't have otherwise in a situation you wouldn't expect...

This battle leaves the table looking like this. 


Company Battles Inf. pts EXP (H)
Moria 5 19 24 24
Gondor 5 13 23 39
Isengard 5 8 15 16
Harad 5 0 11 14
Rohan 5 0 10 23

The Rohirrim gained a lot of points in that last battle, but even so it was not enough to take them above the Haradrim, who are there on points alone.

The Uruk-hai remain unmoved but gain a little more experience.

Between the Gondorians and Moria though, that last battle has allowed the goblins to leapfrog them by a single point, the worst part is that this situation could be the other way around had the roll for the last objective gone the other way...

This means the Goblins have won! It involved a lot of outnumbering and concentrating on objectives rather than kills in some battles and vice versa in others.

I hope you've enjoyed following this mini-campaign, it's taken a while to post up some of the parts due to many of my other commitments, but it has been worth it.

Until then

Fish

Monday 10 October 2016

Battle companies tournament - Round 5

And so it comes to the final round. The goblins lead the table thanks to remaining undefeated in all their rounds of fighting, closely followed by the Gondorians, then comes the Isengard raiders. Below them are the Haradrim who have had hard fortunes with their members and lastly are the Rohirrim who have yet to make a proper impact, or get any points, in this tournament.

To the fields of battle!

Haradrim Vs Isengard (Contest of Champions)



Setup
The Uruk-hai split allowing the archers to take aim, but with little avail.
The Haradrim continue their adavance and the Uruk-hai
retreat to form a single line.
More advancing from both sides and some exchanging of arrows...
Until a crossbow bolt finds it's way into the throat of a Haradrim
spearman who prompts staggers to the ground.
Abaan orders the Haradrim line to continue their advance,
yet the uruks pick their targets carefully...
Another uruk-hai bolt makes it's way into a Haradrim warrior,
meanwhile Gazlur takes a chunk out of another
A somewhat beleaguered Abaan calls all his men to charge the uruks!
This avails to little, but the Haradrim charge yet again.
Although both leaders fight frantically but cannnot make any impact, 
however the haradrim warriors retaliate to having their 
comrades killed by cutting down two uruks.
Abaan seizes the initiative and surrounds Gazlur!
But it'll take more than that to kill the uruk, to make matters worse
another Haradrim succumbs to uruk blade. This leaves the 
Haradrim broken!
In light of this one Harad warrior legs it from the field 
allowing Gazlur and company free reign...
And so the last remaining member of Abaan's guard is kicked while
bleeding on the floor.
This Just leaves Gazlur and his warriors to surround Abaan. The man
never stood a chance really and is easily cut down...
Gazlur got 2 wounds there compared to Abaan's zero, so this gives the Uruk-hai a major victory!


From this battle the Haradrim get no points but gain 2 influence while the Isengard radiers gain 6 points and 5 influence.

Harad – Three of the injured warriors die from their wounds, one will miss the next battle and one recovers. Abaan recovers but takes a leg wound. One of the Haradrim warrior is finally promoted and becomes a Haradrim Raider (+1 fate).

Given they have lost three members the Haradrim use 3 influence to roll on the reinforcement table and they receive two Haradrim warriors, one with dagger and one with spear.

Isengard – Of their casualties one warrior recovers and Uruk 1 dies from his injuries. Otherwise one uruk warrior is promoted.

Goven their relatives low numbers compared to other companies the uruk-hai use 3 influence to roll on the reinforcement table and receive and uruk-hai warrior with shield.



Rohan Vs Gondor (Meeting Engagement)



Setup
Marching from both sides...
The Gondorians take up defence of the barrier as arrow and
spear fly over heads and shields harmlessly.
The Rohirrim engage the end of the barrier.
Meanwhile elsewhere on the field, the rider of Rohan gets charged by a
knight with one of his companions close at hand should things go awry.
Ingold calls his men to prepare defensive positions, but Eogar's
men have already engaged them!
The men of Gondor shove the straw-heads aside.
yet ingold takes a nasty gash to the leg...
The Knight also takes a well-placed sword thrust from the rider of rohan,
but his armour glaces it aside and he charges in again!
One of the knight re-joins the fray as the Gondorians assail the Rohirrim!
The Gondorian archer pushes his two attacker back and punches 
one of them. Also Eogar become trapped and gets two spears in 
his gut from Ingold and co.
The odds have fallen in Gondors favour after the last melee...
The Knight gallops around the wall charges the royal guard and watches
his lance clunk the guardsman in the helmet, also the banner
bearer slices through the bowman with ease.
All this time the Knight and rider have been clashing
shield and lance endlessly...
The Rohirrim are reduced to 25% which gives the Gondorians the victory yet again!


Rohan gain no points and 2 influence. Gondor gain 6 points and 5 influence.

Rohan – Eogar, RRG and one other warrior recover, one bowman dies, RRG gains old battle wound. No promotions.

Gondor – Warrior 7 is promoted to CG2, no other promotions. Ingold gains +1 strength.


The Rohirrim had points when they could have got key kills and wounds, although they started well, the heavy armour and experience in arms of the gondorians proved to be worth more, the banner surely didn't help this matter any more. But once they had been reduced by a couple of members, these advantages made all the difference and they couldn't do much more.

In the other battle, the Haradrim had a numerical advantage but couldn't utilise it. The uruk-hai line meant that either side got 3 rounds of shots off before combat, and one of the uruk heroes only required 2+ to hit (due to the Marksmanship special rule) further he had a crossbow, that means he only needed 4+ to wound the Haradrim so was 42% likely to wound per turn (he actually got two kills from this) which is overpowered as hell. So any numbers that had to their advantage were reduced, rapidly. The Haradrim needed 5's to wound while the uruks needed 4's and had a fight value advantage, so naturally they stood very little chance... 

These results leave the table looking like so:



Company Battles Inf. pts EXP (H)
Gondor 4 13 21 30
Moria 4 19 20 16
Isengard 4 8 15 14
Harad 4 0 6 9
Rohan 4 0 0 13

The Gondorians Have a very small advantage over the goblins going into the final battle, the Uruk-hai could win overall given a shock victory, but it would require both Moria and Gondor - the two strongest companies - having very bad battles...


On a more rules related note as Rohan, Isengard and Gondorian companies have no injured members going into the final battle none of the companies receive control of the weapons stash in the final battle. However two of the three companies will be deployed nearer to the weapons stash than the other companies (thus it will be easier for them to claim during the battle)


Next up is, you guessed it, the Final battle!

Until then

Fish

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