Now For Wrath

We got a few more of our league games done today, with Sean and John swinging by for a few games. Sean and I played one before this; but it was so dang engrossing I took very few pics. I did, however, observe the entirety of the Dwarf/Gondor grind fest and I am prepared to share it with you now, dear reader.

 Just a quick snap of recent painting. Working on the Theodred’s Guard Legendary Legion.  Theodred looks interesting. He’s relatively inexpensive and has the potential to be quite kill-y. He is squishy though, and being forced to charge is a big drawback in a lot of cases even though you can play around it.  I’m really not a fan of two-handed weapons in MESBG (unless you’re burly or it’s master crafted of course). I’m mostly interested in Grimbold for the access to Helmingas.  A mix of Helmingas and Royal Guards seems like it could be a really fun way to play Rohan. I’m not sure losing the +1 strength bonus for charging cavalry is worth spear supports but I like the idea of a front rank of D6/F4 Royal guards backed up by S4 spear supports. Plus- throwing spears for all!

I was really excited to play in a 500 point tournament over the weekend! It was the second of four connected tournaments in the "To War!" escalation series hosted at Your Hobby Place in Fredericksburg, VA. My report from the first tournament can be found here, where my Rivendell forces took third overall!  

  In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl. A great black shape against the fires beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace of despair. In rode the Lord of the Nazgûl, under the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and all fled before his face.

Rivendell and Mordor vie for control of a once beautiful valley now reduced to ruin by constant war! Gil-Galad himself leads the elf forces and squares up against the Witch King of Angmar and some turncoat Numenoreans

This was a superb game I witnessed between Andrew and Eric! Looked like a lot of fun with a whole lot of back and forth. I'll do my best to recreate what happened below, though it will mostly be in broad strokes and summary!

My third league game is against Eric and his Azog's Hunters list. Eric is always a joy to play and is the guy that got me into MESBG! So... thanks Eric! As usual we rolled for three scenarios: Destroy the Supplies, Hold Ground, and Reconnoiter. I vetoed Hold Ground and Eric vetoed Reconnoiter. So, for the second time in the league, I was playing Destroy the Supplies!  His army was considerably more mobile than the Rivendell force. I was really eager to face these guys as they are an army that really appeals to me! The cobblestones on the mat make these pictures kinda trippy....

Game two of our League saw me playing Chris' Breaking of the Fellowship LL. Chris is the man behind the curtain for the league and an awesome opponent- even if he likes all the BS hero LLs (Black Riders, Vanquishers of the Necromancer... but I enjoy suffering it because Chris is awesome!) As usual, we randomly determined 3 scenarios: Clash by Moonlight, Hold Ground, and Breakthrough. Chris Vetoed Clash by Moonlight (my Throwing Spears are absolute monsters in that!), and I vetoed Hold Ground as it is just a big furball in the center that I was likely to lose. So, Breakthrough it was!

An old man during the War of the Ring, Gamling was still a commanding presence at the time of the Battle of the Hornburg. During the battle Gamling was the first to realize that Orcs had penetrated the Deep through its culvert, and he led the counter-attack himself.

Glorfindel was tall and straight; his hair was of shining gold, his face fair and young and fearless and full of joy; his eyes were bright and keen, and his voice like music; on his brow sat wisdom, and in his hand was strength." Glorfindel was one of the mightiest Elves of Middle-earth.

  Andrew and I got our official league game in, and it was a doozy! After our warmup , I was feeling better about my chances. On paper I thought "how can Rohan possibly beat Rivendell? Their warriors are so much better", but after actually playing them I realized that yes, Rivendell win fights, but they struggle to bring home the wounds. Conversely, on the fights Rohan wins (especially on the charge) they have a very good chance of pushing wounds through.

  If you've been keeping your eyes on various painting chats around the internet, a new dark lord has emerged. One painting technique to rule them all, with the nefarious moniker "Slap Chop." If you want to skip YouTube videos targeting the 10 minute mark to chase your advertising bucks, I can sum it up for you quickly. (Though the video is good- just poking some fun)

  Andrew and I are gearing up for a small local league being run amongst our friends. He's using Rivendell, and I decided to go with Rohan. I was pretty rusty on Rohan and Andrew was trying out Arwen Undomiel for the first time so we agreed to a scrimmage game ahead of our actually scheduled game on Sunday.