I've finally gotten enough points of Isengard to give them a shot, and Andrew was happy to oblige. I was pretty excited to get Saruman on the board! I veto'd Clash by Moonlight, and Andrew nixed Command the Battlefield leaving us with Destroy the Supplies.
I decided the board would represent a what-if Isengard headed North and assaulted Rivendell; hence the use of the
Elven village and
tower.
The Isengard list was basically decided by what I had painted, with me rushing this morning to finish Grima.
We rarely put Gil-Galad on the table when we run
Rivendell, but Andrew wanted to see him in action.
Deployment. Andrew won board edge choice and denied me the cool platform for my crossbows.
Andrew's force opposite my right flank.
All of these guys' first time on the board!
Saruman personally heads up my right flank.
Grima deploys with Cirdan's warband. Andrew prepares to commit troops to trapping him in place.
On turn one everything moves forward. My crossbows setup shop, I send one warg rider wide to the left of the tower, and two blocks of warriors. Andrw's Knights are on my right, while Erestor heads up the center. On his left, several bowmen prepare to square off against my lines.
Andrew commits to keeping Grima trapped because, by our reading, he can take out objectives without giving his treachery away?
Saruman casts terrifying aura on himself and prepares for blastin'
The lines start closing. Predictably, Saruman blasts Gil Galad off his horse.
On turn 3, the lines continue closing. Crossbows and elf archers exchange fire. Andrew attempts to channel Aura of Dismay with 3 total dice and fails. Andrew elected to do this rather than channel blinding light as he did not think Cirdan would be able to cover enough of his army based upon how the fight was developing.
At the bottom of three crossbows have taken down 3 elves to only 2 losses. Gil-Galad is down a horse.
On turn 4, Lurtz's warband pulls back while Saruman's moves forward. Saruman has blasted all of the knights off their horses and suddenly the right flank seems very strong to push. Gil-Galad and Erestor in the center shift hard to my left putting pressure on my crossbows.
Lurtz moves into the center to screen for the crossbows and Andrew pounces on his warband.
On my right flank, Saruman's warband surrounds the stragglers and dismounted Riv Knights.
My Crebain leap on one of the dismounted knights holding an objective.
The center becomes quite the melee! Saruman blasts an elf into Gil Galad, affecting two combats and killing one Uruk and one elf.
Uruks and Crebain swamp the lone defender of the right most objective as more Isengard forces push in towards the center, methodically trapping and killing elves.
The Crossbows stay put, continuing to take their toll on spear supports and Andrew's extreme flank. Cirdan casts blinding light a few times which protects the troops in the center... but never manages to get any of his other spells up.
The right flank is firmly in Isengard's hands...
Andrew continues to keep Grima tied up.
Saruman sorcerous blasts Cirdan into Erestor. Cirdan is now on one wound remaining and no fate. We did forget Cirdan has resistant to magic so should've had one more die to resist (he spent his one last might), but Saruman cast on a 6 so it was unlikely to have aided- still. A note for the future. Lurtz is also knocked prone. I am jumping ahead as we actually play quite a few rapid turns here.
As the center continues devolving, Crossbow Uruks start to rush in to get involved. Andrew is able to send two elves to two of my objectives! The first is gunned down to crossbow fire from Vrasku while the second is transfixed for one turn...
And subseqeuently charged and held at bay by a crebain. Andrew's force passes the break point as elves are not having much luck. In fact, it should yet again be noted here that Andrew's dice are his usual level of garbage. Gil-Galad has killed 2 Uruks the entire time, including failing to wound a single trapped Uruk with 6 dice and +1s to wound.
Grima shows his treachery and ties up two elves as a crebain scores another objective.
To the shock of all, Grima is a traitor!
And the 3rd objective is nabbed by the Uruks.
The state of the board at the very end of the game.
With 3 objectives destroyed by Isengard, they score 6 VP. Rivendell is broken while Isengard is still well above half for another 2 VP.
Andrew has his banner remaining while Erestor throwing daggered mine, for 2 VP.
Making this initial Isengard outing an
8-2 in their favor.
Closing Thoughts:
First and foremost, Andrew's dice were pitiful. I was winning more duels than losing, even with matched dice. Cirdan was useless, but more egregious was Gil-Galad. Gil-Galad won all of the fights he was involved in, but only ever scored 2 total wounds. This included two failed heroic combats, and failing to even scratch Lurtz. Honestly, the end of the game was a slog due to Andrew's horrible dice, and I think neither one of us was loving how it unraveled. We played 9 total turns, and Andrew won priority ONCE.
That aside, I LOVE this army. Saruman is so much fun, Grima is such a fun pain, and the Uruks are just awesome. They LOOK cool, they're fun to play, and they're decent on the board. I know Isengard isn't anywhere near the top of the meta, but I am really excited to play them a bunch more.
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