It's back! Our little friend group is doing an escalation league tournament. With just 5 of us, it's a little odd- but essentially we will each play each other person twice at differing point levels. Starting with 300, then 500, then 650, and finally 800. I was lucky enough to get both of my games in back to back- playing Andrew running Rivendell after facing Connor running Numenor. Here's a brief report on each game!
In our last league, I ran
Riders of Theoden and they were great fun! Right now, though, I am painting
Minas Tirith and what better way to stay motivated than an escalation league. After
some experimenting, I settled on the following list:
GAME ONE vs Numenor in Fog of War
Connor and I were up first. Connor was running Numenor with the following list:
We are using the veto system. Connor veto'd Breakthrough and I veto'd Divide and Conquer. The scenario wound up being Fog of War.
With just one Hero- a lot was riding on Isildur's back! He was my target and Connor's chosen hero to protect. On the other hand, for me, there was similarly no choice. Ingold was my ward and Numenor's target. Thankfully, he's pretty beefy- even vs Isildur's Strength 5 if he can stay in Shieldwall.
My chosen terrain piece is the woods in the upper center. Connor's is the house in the lower right.
Numenor advanced under bowfire, and suffered a handful of casualties to the Gondor Rangers.
Isildur really went for it! He was just able to fit in and wrap my side then call a heroic into my backline. He killed two Gondor Warriors, but had to spend a second point of might to do so. He then knocked out Hurin's horse, but failed to do any other wounds to him.
I knew the play where was to hold the line with the minimal force and pour absolutely everything into killing Isildur.
Over the ensuing turns, the Men of Gondor struggled to hold the line. Many Minas Tirith warriors fell- but both Ingold and Hurin tried to take down Isildur. They got him off his horse and ate some fate off of him before he put on the ring.
But the weight of dice were too great. Isildur fell and some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. A Numenor soldier moves into Connor's objective house- but now having both of my heroes in the fray, we start catching up on kills. It isn't long before both sides are broken.
Both sides are stretched thin, but fate turns towards the heirs of Numenor, rather than actual Numenor. Minas Tirith holds the line and manages to score:
- 3 VPs for holding their terrain piece.
- 3 VPs for killing their target.
- 3 VPs for keeping Ingold alive.
- 1 VP for breaking the enemy without being broken.
Numenor scores
- 1 VP for breaking the enemy.
Closing Thoughts: Numenor is strong! That Fight 4 Strength 4 is tasty! Honestly, I think if Connor had had some more patience with Isildur he may have pulled that off. My duel dice were atrocious to start... but being able to isolate Isildur like that hurt, even if it took longer to take him down than expected.
GAME TWO vs Andrew's Rivendell.
Ah, Andrew. My old Nemesis. He made an interesting list at 300 after not loving the Rivendell Knights list.
Andrew and I played Capture and Control after I veto'd Lords of Battle and he veto'd Hold Ground.
I totally forgot to take pictures of the opening turns, but as is normal for this scenario, we had each captured 2 objectives with the main fight focusing on the central one. In this picture Arwen just DEVASTATED my lines with Wrath of Bruinen- killing 4 soldiers and knock just about my entire army prone. Ouch.
On the following turn, Ingold got a successful heroic combat into Arwen and took her out. The rest of the front devolved into chaos. Erestor took out Hurin's horse, but in a subsequent round Hurin stripped all of Erestor's Fate.
There was a ton of back and forth and lots of chopping. For one turn the elves outnumbered the Men, but then the tides started shifting.
Both forces broke, but a Warrior of Minas Tirith snuck to a side objective and nabbed it. Minas Tirith now held 3 objectives firmly, and with Ingold was in decent control of the central one as well- though it kept shifting hands. The game then DID NOT END. We probably played 10+ turns waiting for that roll of a 1 or a 2.... At one point Andrew rolled Snake Eyes for Erestor's courage, and had to spend his two will!
In the end it came down to just Ingold and Erestor... when in the last heroic duel Erestor rolled box cards to wound Ingold who failed his Fate roll. With that- despite holding more objectives, Minas Tirith was tabled!
Minas Tirith scores
- 6 VPs for objectives
- 1 VP for breaking Rivendell
Rivendell scores
- 4 VPs for objectives
- 1 VP for breaking Minas Tirith.
But, with Mians Tirith being tabled, game is a 4-0 in Tournament Points to Rivendell. Ouch!
Closing Thoughts: Honestly, that was a CRAZY game. It swung hard back and forth. As we neared the end, I outnumbered Rivendell 7 to 3... and then I lost many men to failed courage over the course of several turns of the game just not ending. But elves have developed patience through their immortal lives and Erestor hung in there until only he remained.
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