The Richmond Open Tournament Report Part Two (of 2)

After getting a good night's sleep, I was primed and ready for day two! Day one was not horrible- 2 wins and a minor loss with 2 games left. Could still have a shot! Navigate back to part one if you'd like to see my list; otherwise without further ado, let's jump right in.

Game Four vs Arik's Black Gate Opens in Capture and Control.

This felt familiar. Arik and I faced off on this exact terrain board once before! Now, I will say, I loved that game with Arik and have since gotten to know him a bit more. I like the cut of his gib and look forward to any game with him! I know they will be fun and laid back, but highly technical, clean, and hugely challenging. Arik has a great grasp of the rules and really uses maneuver to his advantage.

Anyhow, the mission was Capture and Control after canning the others. I love capture and control as it can really lend itself to a highly mobile game. Arik's list was the beefy chiefy troll boi, a regular troll chieftain, and the Mouth of Sauron. He also had a troll drummer and a mix of Morannon and regular orcs. I knew if I rushed forward to try and grab objectives early, I'd get swamped and wrecked, so I kept my force together and intended to engage only parts of Arik's army at any given time.

Arik had some awesome drum and march combos as we closed. His whole army shifted quite dramatically to a flank and he snapped up all but one objective.

Finally as the lines clashed, we had smattering of little fights all over the board. I love it! It's so fun when the game devolves into fur balls all over the place. Cirdan's Aura of Dismay was ABSOLUTELY brutal here. Arik failed the vast majority of his courage tests to charge me, which allowed my elves to methodically pick apart morannons. I frequently had 4:1 in morannon fights, allowing me to two-handed feint with two of the combatants.

Speaking of which, Arik's trolls are very difficult for elves to deal with. In the end, I took down the drummer as I was able to surround it and trap it. Erestor struck up, and many elves two-handed feinted which brought the beast down. The other troll chieftain kept things tied up but was never in any major danger from the fight.

Glorfindel and the beefy chiefy himself duked it out over one of the objectives. Glorfindel was able to move in and hold the objective- and survive two combats, keeping the beefy chiefy off the objective.

Arik's courage checks continue to just collapse. He loses his Troll chieftain and his army just falls apart... but the game doesn't end which allows me to just snap up objectives with little resistance.

In the end, the game finally ends as Boromir rides for the deep objective, but the other 4 are in my possession. I score 8 VPs for objective points, and 1 VP for breaking Arik's forces. Arik scores 2 VPs for holding his rear objective and 1 VP for having two wounds on Glorfindel. Nabbing this as a Major Victory for Rivendell.

Thoughts: Seriously, Cirdan was the deciding factor here. He absolutely kept Arik from being able to swamp and surround me while I was then able to dictate every fight on my turns systematically taking orcs down. This was Cirdan's top game and truly cemented the decision to include him in the list.

With that, I was 3 Major Victories and 1 Minor Loss and so headed into the final round on table 2.

Game Five vs Scott's Survivors of Laketown and Erebor Reclaimed in Fog of War

Whoof, I was not looking forward to this! SLT is a real boogey-man. I've faced it before and it's always a huge challenge. Scott's list was terrifying, and highlights one of the major strengths of the list. He had 58 models! Nearly outnumbered 2:1 here! His list was led by Bard, with Hilda-Bianca, a Laketown Captain and Thorin on Goat leading a contingent of dwarves.

Honestly, I knew I would wind up totally tarpitted, but my hope was killing my assassination target (Hilda-Bianca) and maybe making a cheeky end run on my terrain piece. I knew there was no stopping Scott from getting his terrain, so didn't even bother.

This picture shows less than half of Scott's total force coming at me! Once the lines clashed, we got stuck in pretty good. I think in hindsight my big mistake was not getting Boromir stuck in- instead using him as a might battery for heroic moves. Once Bard and Thorin reached my lines it started getting ugly quick- though I was absolutely tearing through laketown peasants in return. A few turns really went Scott's way with my duel rolls tanking. Bard being a 6" banner for piercing-striking laketown dudes is a recipe for dead elves.

As the game ground to the final turns, I did manage to break him, though Bard's 12" standfast kept any troops from running off. Bard was able to get a sweet end run charge off on Cirdan (which, I will say- was razor-close. Rarely do I get a TO involved but the move was so tight, we had a TO verify the path Bard could take was clear. I apologize to Scott for going there but I knew in that moment it was the deciding move of the game). Bard munched through Cirdan with little issue and shortly after the game ended. Mercifully, the situation was such that Scott had to choose which terrain piece was my target; and incorrectly assumed where Glorfindel was hiding out (the ruined statue head) was it. Instead, it was the smaller statue visible in the top right which I was able to move my spearman into.

With that, the game went to time and the score was tallied! Scott was an excellent player and never even presented the slightest opportunity for me to get Hilda-Bianca so my target lived. I'm not actually sure who he chose to protect, but as I didn't kill any of his heroes obviously he scored that! I scored 3 VPs for keeping Erestor alive (he's so unassuming! I rarely lose him in games). I also scored 3 VPs for nabbing my objective. Finally, I scored 1 VP for breaking Scott's force. Scott, on the other hand, scored all of those same points plus an additional 3 for killing Cirdan, his target. A 2nd Minor Loss for Rivendell!

Thoughts: This really was a fun game, and Scott was an awesome opponent! Scott wound up nabbing 3rd place for the Minor Victory- well earned!

Final Placements:

1st place: Alisher with Survivors of Lake town

2nd place: Tyler with Minas Tirith

3rd place: Scott with Survivors of Lake town and Erebor Reclaimed

4th place: Sam Fricke with the Last Alliance (his Elendil killed like 45 models over the course of the tourney)

5th place: Stephen with Survivors (Or was it Army?) of Laketown, Lothlorien, and the Misty Mountains. See his AMAZING Gwaihir conversion below.

Overall I think I wound up 8th and am very happy going 3 and 2. Even more importantly, I had 5 great games against opponents who I would happily play any time! Overall I think my list performed well. My two losses were still close affairs, and a few dice different could've turned the tides!

Finally, again, a huge thank you to Rob Loder for his tireless energy in support of the local community. Thanks also to Chris and Josh who dedicated their weekend to helping run the event. It was awesome, and I will definitely be back next year!

There were only 6 evil armies. 3 Mordor, 2 Dunland, and 1 Moria. Not one Dragon Emperor or Assault on Lothlorien? Weird!

And now, I leave you with a few random pics that Chris took! Thanks for reading.

From the doubles the day before maybe?