Theodred's Guard vs Angmar 650 in Clash by Moonlight

With my recently completed Gulavhar proxy, and Grimbold and Theodred, we were excited to see some new models on the field! So Andrew and I rolled up a scenario (we decided not to do any vetoing this time), and came up with Clash by Moonlight. VERY good for throwing spears... but Gulhavar is also happy to slay the Rohan heroes.

The board

I deployed Gully on my right flank with his Wargs, and the rest of my forces on the left hoping to use those two ruins to protect the battle line's flanks.

Andrew put Theodred on my right, Elfhelm in the center, and Grimbold on my left. 

ANGMAR

Warband One: The Witchking of Angmar 

    with Morgul Crown, Armored Horse, 3 Might, 18 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

THEODRED'S GUARD

Warband One: Theodred, Heir of Rohan with Horse and Shield 

• 6 Rohan Royal Guard with Horse and Throwing Spears
• 1 Rider of Rohan with Banner
• 2 Rohan Royal Guard with Throwing Spears

Warband Two: Grimbold of Grimslade

• 6x Rohan Royal Guard with Throwing Spears
• 6x Warriors of Rohan with Shield, Throwing Spears, Helmingas upgrade

Warband Three: Elfhelm, Captain of Rohan

• 4 Riders of Rohan with Throwing Spears
• 4 Riders of Rohan

The foul creatures of Angmar prepare to feast.

The orcs advance under the cruel gaze of their spirit lords

The stout-hearted men of Rohan rally around their prince

Riders, advance!

The top of Turn two

Royal Guards prepare to ride down some Wargs

The orc battle line forms as riders move into spear range

Initial throwing spears are pretty devastating. The +1 to wound is just nasty in clash by moonlight, and Andrew kills 5 orcs off before we're anywhere close to getting into combat!

Gulavhar charges a Royal Guard... and pulls off a pretty nasty hurl on a few of his buddies.

Sworn protector keeps the dead marsh spectres from pulling in any enemies... but the Witch King's compel can't be stopped. A lone rider advances forward into the orc line as his friends yell for him to stop! His friend can't stand to see it and goes in after him. Both riders meet their end.

Gulavhar's Hurl was a heroic combat.... I messed up here though. His target that he threw actually survived despite taking half a dozen hits. Big mistake here that I didn't catch until writing this report. 

Dang, bummed we missed this. Gulavhar went on to get in a really nice position and kill another two Royal Guards that turn. Big mistake, but I write about it here so you, dear reader, do not repeat our errors. I think we just rolled so many dice for the hurl and associated thrown riders we just forgot what we were doing.

Andrew pulls back to keep up the throwing spear pressure- you can see how effective this is by how thinned out the Orc lines are. At this point probably 8 orcs are dead to throwing spears.

The Royal Guard on my right flank continue to fight valiantly against the Wargs!

Here we are. The apex of the battle.

Theodred charges Gulavhar. The Witch King attempts to immobilize him, but Theodred counters it. With little will left, the Barrow-Wight attempts to paralyze BUT, with a point of might spent and no will remaining... Theodred counters it as well.

Then, Theodred mights up! Gulavhar calls a Heroic Defence- with Theodred and a Royal Guard charging Gulavhar, it could get ugly!

When the fight finally comes... Theodred rolls a 1 on his Strike. Gulavhar wins the fight and rends Theodred, scoring 2 wounds- one of which gets fated. With that Theodred has one wound remaining and no will.

On the following turn, the Witch King Black Darts Theodred on his way to charge a royal guard, unceremoniously dropping the leader of the Rohirrim. With that, all of their fearless goes away and the game decisively shifts towards Angmar.

Gulavhar moves on to his next victim, Elfhelm. 

All remaining Rohan models move forward throwing spears at the witch king, and manage to strip away his fate and all of his might in order to survive!

But Gulavhar is too much...

With no heroes remaining, Rohan quickly fall to courage checks thanks to Harbinger of Evil and the game comes to a swift close. In the end it's a 10-3 in Angmar's favor.

Post Game Analysis: First of all, the turn where I heroic combatted Gulavhar when I shouldn't have was pretty egregious. Gulavhar swooped in and killed 2 Royal Guards AND was in charge range to Theodred. Difficult to say what sort of trajectory that set the game on but it was big.

All that being said... OMG Gulavhar is NASTY. Throwing spears were also super nasty in clash by moonlight. Helmingas and high fight foot royal guard never really came into play since the battle lines never had a proper clash. Theodred and Grimbold both died very quickly which I don't think gives us a good accounting of their skill yet. The witch king, as always, was incredible.

Heck of a game- Angmar is really gross.