NASHCON Tournament and Roadtrip Part 3 of 3

Alright, readers, we're in the home stretch now! With three games down (documented in part one and part two of this series), it was time for day 2 and the tournament's conclusion. I was heading into day two on 9 Tournament points: one major win, one minor win, and one draw.

GAME FOUR: HEIRLOOMS OF AGES PAST vs CLARENCE'S ANGMAR

Clarence had a pretty strong Angmar list- I forget the exact structure, but he had the Witch King on horse, Gulavhar, an orc captain on warg with some warg riders, and a Barrow wight (maybe two?) with lots of orcses.

I was very nervous about the Maelstram of battle heading into this. I knew I could wind up quickly surrounded and thus needed to stick together.

Maelstram was.. interesting. I knew from deployment I was going to have an uphill battle getting to wherever the heirloom wound up. The 5th heirloom is not visible but is behind the black tower ruin in the upper left. Clarence "won" initiative and deployed all of his warbands- the Witch King's warband rolled a 1 and was left off table. The picture above depicts the top of turn two, where Glorfindel and two knights were able to charge Gulavhar.

Elves and men engage one of Clarence's warbands and set to moving up the center of the board.

Orcs were dying in droves but the Gulavhar vs Glorfindel fight was stalling...

Gulavhar won the elven blade roll-off, killing Glorfindel's horse! Note- I have in my notes here that we both struck to 10, but Gulavhar can't strike... I don't think we actually did strikes as I do recall Clarence calling a heroic defence at some point... but not sure why I didn't strike with Glorfindel if that's the case. Memory... fading... Was I that confident in the elven blade to just roll a 2? Woe is me!

While not depicted, the Witch King's warband arrived on the exact opposite of the table and, naturally, rolled the 6 on one of the heirlooms. So, Clarence had the objective on the far side of the board... You can just barely see big pappa Elendil in the top right who helped Glorfindel finish off Gullie.

Now, I had a new problem. I was killing orcs too fast and Clarence was close to broken while I was nowhere near the objective! So, I start shielding where I can and use some heroic combats on Elendil to charge through and get into the backfield. This is Clarence's to lose at this point.

The Witch King is able to successfully black dart Elendil's horse. In the backfield all Clarence has is the Witch King, an orc warrior with the artifact, and a banner.

I am just shielding for turn after turn where I can, and stretch my lines closer- trying to buy myself time... but finally Clarence breaks. 

In the last turn of the game, Elendil spends his last might to win a move off and charge the Witch King so Clarence is denied his Stand Fast! The other orc holding the objective flees... but the banner passes his courage check. Elendil calls the heroic combat on the Witch King, but D8 with 3 fate is just too much and he cannot secure the kill. 

With the banner surviving and holding the objective, this one is a major win to Clarence. He scores 6 VPs for holding the relic, and 1 VP for having a banner. I score 2 VPs for breaking him without being broken, and 1 VP for holding a banner for a final score of 7-3. I definitely had an uphill climb in this mission, and Clarence's dice absolutely went his way when he needed them to! Uncovering the relic, and passing courage like that on a crucial model (the point swing if that banner had fled!) but... WAY SHE GOES.

And finally, it comes down to this. Andrew (my roadtrip partner and regular opponent) are matched up for the final game of the tournament. Double edged sword- on the one hand we play together almost every Sunday (so, we are keeping up that tradition here!) so it'd be nice to play someone else... but on the other hand it's a nice way to wind down a tournament with what I know will be a very friendly game.

GAME FIVE: TO THE DEATH vs ANDREW'S MORDOR

Andrew's models should look very familiar to readers of this blog! Andrew had the Witch King on Fell Beast, Shagrat, Kardush, and the Dark Marshal. Plus a horde of orcs- mostly morannons.

This is a hard mission/opponent matchup for Andrew. I was easily able to win the shooting war of attrition. Andrew DID have a drum which let him close fairly quickly... but he suffered some orc losses on the way.

A nice big 4x4 board... but I am gonna make Andrew fight me in the tiniest corner. Sorry buddy :(

Overall orcs are dying in droves. Andrew has a ton of smart plays with the Witch King and Shagrat, but still the fights are just whittling down the orcs too much. Elendil gets into Andrew's backfield and kills Kardush- losing fury is probably the final blow.

Unfortunately for Andrew, this one ends pretty roughly for him. I am just shy of being broken, and Elendil is unharmed. With that in mind for a straight up mission, this one ends in a 10-0 for the Last Alliance. Honestly, I think Andrew gave this his all. His dice weren't horrible and he played very smart. Again, however, I think this scenario and matchup is just heavily in my favor and it would have taken some tremendously swingy dice for this to end any other way.

So, with that, I had gone 2 Major Victories, 1 Minor Victory, 1 Draw, and 1 Major Loss. In the end that put me in 5th place. I don't recall all of the other positions, but I do know that I faced all 3 of the podium standers!

1st Place: Adam with his Moria/Angmar list.

2nd Place: Clarence with his Angmar list.

3rd Place: Ian with his Arnor list.

4th Place: John with the Host of the Dragon Emperor

5th Place: lil' ol me.

Despite the horrendous last game for Andrew, we were miraculously able to stay friends:

This kicked off two days of hanging out in Nashville. Broadway was cool- awesome to see so much live music. But, truth be told, it was the food that always got me. 

My girl loves a rooftop bar

We had a spectacular meal at Hattie B's Nashville Hot Chicken. There's just nothing like it in Virginia! And, we were so blown away, we had a second meal at the 404 Kitchen before making the long trek home.

I'm not gonna go to Nashville and not buy cowboy boots.

Thanks for reading, hope you've enjoyed reading as much as I've enjoyed writing this!