After a bit of a hiatus (a deep dive into Battletech... a topic for another day?) Andrew and I got MESBG back on the table to try out some 500 point lists. Having just completed some Knights of Minas Tirith, I was excited to get the cavalry on the table! The mission today was Command the Battlefield.
Andrew's Rivendell list.
My list. Really hoping Hurin and the knights can bring the pain while the rest of the list just holds the line.
The board after deployment. Neither one of us are terribly affected by Malestram.
My whole battle plan is to have the 3 Rangers go hold two quarters while the rest of my army races forward to box in Rivendell as best as they can.
Hurin and company
The forces of Rivendell. Small but elite.
Right off the bat I lose 3 warriors of elf bows! OUCH!
My forces group up to press the assault. Andrew stays still and shoots.
My cavalry hides for a turn while the anvil gets into position. I'd like everything to hit at once.
As we prepare for the assault, Hurin is un-horsed. I was silly to have him go in first.
Andrew wins the roll off, and Elrond charges in and gets off a nasty wrath of the Bruinen, knocking down my whole frontline. Thankfully my banner is safe.
It would be madness to describe the ensuing turns blow by blow as we play quite a few turns and it's just a grind-out fight. Ingold holds his own against Elrond... Striking up thrice. Elrond strikes up twice, but reserves his last point of might. Ingold remains unharmed.
Hurin and the cavalry do about the only work Minas Tirith sees done. In fact, I am 90% sure all of the wounds I dealt this game were from either Hurin or the Knights.
I really don't think I am exaggerating when I say Andrew rolled a 6 in at least half of his duel rolls if not more. But, it balances out, as his regular warriors rarely wound in typical elf fashion. Elrond, in fact, seems to have a rubber sword and I'm not sure he dealt ANY wounds this whole game. Erestor, on the other hand, is a monster.
I play very aggressively. My hope is to hold Andrew in place, deal enough damage to see us both broken, and hold more ground than him.
Hurin and the boys. I have three turns in a row where I both lose priority and lose the majority of my duel rolls and it takes its toll.
Despite my best efforts, the boys of Minas Tirith suffer a ton of casualties; easily at a rate of 2:1.
Being outfought, even with my heroes against Andrew's warriors is a huge detriment here.
My three Rangers hold two quarters, with a redundancy in case they start failing morale.
I *have* done a good job of containing the elves...
Elrond hounds Hurin for several turns, but only ever manages one wound on him. Hurin actually forces Elrond to spend 2 points of fate over the ensuing fights, but can't bring anything home.
Finally, I am 1 away from quartered, while Andrew is one away from broken. The final fight of the turn is Erestor vs Ingold... Erestor is out of might and needs 6s to wound my D7 Ingold. Granted, he has re-rolls but...
Double 6s to wound Ingold. With that he dies, Minas Tirith is quartered and...
the end result is a case of a bunch of "one mores". One more kill on the elves would have broken them. One more strike on Elrond. One more Minas Tirith model in the right quarter would've seen me pull it out. One more turn to make any of those situations happen! but unfortunately:
Andrew scores 1 VP for wounding Hurin. He scores 2 VPs for breaking Minas Tirith without being broken, and he scores 2 VPs for having 8 models in his quarter, while I only have 4. Madril is just within the central "dead zone" ground, preventing me from stopping Andrew from getting the double score.
Meanwhile, I only hold two quarters for 4 VPs. Making this hard fought game a 5-4 Rivendell Victory.
Closing Thoughts: Well, my plan ALMOST worked. One more elf death would've broken the elves. One more model with slightly more careful positioning could've denied Andrew additional points... but... them's the breaks. Really was quite a fun one! Well played to Andrew!
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