The Grey Company vs Angmar in Divide and Conquer. 650 points.

I was excited to see the Grey Company on the board again! They're fun to play; if a little tedious tracking their resource expenditures. My last few games as Angmar showed me just how nasty that list is; but I was really excited to face them across the field of battle today as Andrew gave them a spin for the first time.

ANGMAR

Warband One: The Witchking of Angmar 

    with Morgul Crown, Armored Horse, 3 Might, 15 Will, and 2 Fate

• 1 Dead Marsh Spectre
• 6 Angmar Orcs with Shield
• 4 Angmar Orcs with spear
• 1 Angmar Orc with two-handed weapon
• 1 Angmar Orc with banner and shield

Warband Two: Gulavhar

• 6x Wild Wargs

Warband Three: Barrow-Wight

• 1 Dead Marsh Spectre
• 5 Angmar Orcs with Shield
• 3 Angmar Orcs with spear
• 1 Angmar Orc with two-handed weapon
• 3 Angmar Orcs with Bows

THE GREY COMPANY

Aragorn - Strider w/ Anduril, a bow, and Armour

Halbarad with the banner

7 Rangers of the North with spear

5 Rangers of the North

We rolled for mission with zero vetoes available and came up with Divide and Conquer. My plan was to try to severely whittle down his forces with shooting- or even put a serious hurt on Gulavhar.

The board after turn one movement. Rangers in the bottom right. Gulavhar and wargs on the left, the rest of the forces of Angmar forming up in the top right.

The Rangers

Gulavhar and the beasts

Rangers approaching the center

Moving into the mid game.

Bow fire from the Rangers drops 2 wargs and manages to land two wounds on Gulavhar on the approach!

Then Andrew begins to pick me apart!

A Compel from the Witch King sees Halbarad move out of range of the boys. I should have stepped back and stayed under cover of the banner here! But I didn't.

Gulavhar swoops in on one of the rangers!

Outside of the umbrella of Fearless, and with reduced morale thanks to the Harbinger of Evil, one of the Rangers flees from a Dead Marsh Spectre, and Gulavhar sees the opportunity to pounce.

After a Heroic Combat, Gulavhar swoops in on Halbarad and eats him up too! Gulavhar is back to full strength and I have lost my fearless bubble. ouch.

Halbarad falls to the terror of Arnor.

Andrew's wound rolls from Gulavhar on Halbarad. I had to document it because in our game later in the day his dice were super cold.

Despite losing Halbarad, the rangers start absolutely cutting a swathe through orcs.

The next few turns see a brutal melee in the middle. The rangers cut down many orcs, but 4 orcs per turn keep Aragorn tied up while Gulavhar shreds through the Rangers.

Eventually both companies are broken as the fighting continues.

Aragorn fights valiantly, felling many foes

Aragorn survives against the Witch King, Gulavhar, and two orcs! He wipes out the Witch King's fate, but falls just short of landing the kill. Heartbreaking!

This mission ends on a 1-2 once one company is broken, but unfortunately time has not treated the rangers well.

Finally, Aragorn falls surrounded by foes. One ranger remains, but we call the game now as the following turn is merely a formality.

Closing thoughts: Ouch! This was a rough loss! 12-1 to Angmar. Honestly, I really like the Rangers of the North, but there is a difficult functional issue playing them. Tracking who has resources and where is difficult and thus I make suboptimal decisions. I think it's too mentally taxing to try to play them more perfectly; though I do enjoy their challenge! Kudos to Andrew, he played VERY smart here and earned the victory. To be honest, the game felt a lot closer than the VPs dictate and I can honestly say it was a super fun experience even with the drab outcome!