After Action Report: 600 Pt WoTR Tournament May 31st, 2009
This was my first tournament for War of the Ring and it was also going to be my 3rd, 4th, and 5th games. However I had done a fair bit of my homework and had designed what I hoped to be a solid, elite list. Here it is below:
Prince Imrail
Foot Knights of Dol Amroth with 3 Companies and Captain (FKoDA)
Knights of Dol Amroth with 3 Companies and Banner (KoDA)
Rangers of Gondor with 3 Companies
Avenger Bolt Thrower
The basic concept was to anchor with the FKoDA and use the KoDA, accompanied by Imrail, to hammer anything into the ground. The Rangers and Bolt Thrower provided softening support, covering the other flank, and killing any big nasties that came to play. Simple, right?
Game 1: Altar of Evil against Dave’s Easterlings
Altar of Evil was a custom mission made by our TO. It basically was a modified High Ground mission where we had to occupy the Altar for 3 consecutive turns in order to achieve victory.
This was my first tournament for War of the Ring and it was also going to be my 3rd, 4th, and 5th games. However I had done a fair bit of my homework and had designed what I hoped to be a solid, elite list. Here it is below:
Prince Imrail
Foot Knights of Dol Amroth with 3 Companies and Captain (FKoDA)
Knights of Dol Amroth with 3 Companies and Banner (KoDA)
Rangers of Gondor with 3 Companies
Avenger Bolt Thrower
The basic concept was to anchor with the FKoDA and use the KoDA, accompanied by Imrail, to hammer anything into the ground. The Rangers and Bolt Thrower provided softening support, covering the other flank, and killing any big nasties that came to play. Simple, right?
Game 1: Altar of Evil against Dave’s Easterlings
Altar of Evil was a custom mission made by our TO. It basically was a modified High Ground mission where we had to occupy the Altar for 3 consecutive turns in order to achieve victory.
Dave’s force had the Lord of Blades (rut-ro!), 3 Companies of Easterling Warriors w/ shields and Captain, 2 Companies of Easterling Archers, and 3 Companies of Morgul Knights w/ Captain.
The board was relatively space with some hills filling the middle and creating two alleys on either side of the altar. I lost the roll and deployed my bolt thrower on the left side, giving it a clear view of the altar as well as the gap to the left. The rangers went on the right gap while the FKoDA were poised to go right up the middle. The KoDA went behind the FKoDA, giving me the option to go left or right, depending on how Dave deployed. Dave paired up his archers with mine and had his warriors ready to rush the objective as well. His Morgul knights were deployed on my left flank.
Clearly the mission was geared towards getting in the building first, as it provided a hefty +3 defense. For either me or Dave this would mean that our infantry would be getting a massive 10 defense, making them pretty much unstoppable to move. Thankfully I had my plan of blasting him every turn with the bolt thrower, getting the +2 to hit, if I didn’t get in first.
Dave won the priority but failed his “At the Double” roll to get into the altar first, so the FKoDA stood in, passing their roll. My KoDA moved into position to allow the bolt thrower a shot at his Morgul Knights before I charged them. Our archers exchanged shots and while his initial volley was quite devastating, my extra company would eventually provide me with enough numbers to overpower his.
The battle wasn’t too exciting. I won the roll to have my KoDA do a Heroic Charge and we ran in, doing some damage but falling short of wiping out the unit (they had lost 1 model to bolt thrower fire before). Unfortunately Dave couldn’t do much to dislodge me as my 10D plus might from the Captain kept me firmly inside the bunker (I used Might to bump up a dice one time to give me 1 more hit then him) and eventually my tougher knights (with Imrail) broke his Morgul Knights and charged the flank of his warriors for the kill. Victory for me by the top of Turn 4.
The mission, while good in concept, had some problems with the deployment. This was seen across all the games but it really came down to which person got into the altar first. I’d recommend either changing the deployment (perhaps to Maelstrom?) or removing the defense bonus to the building.
Game 2: Seize the Prize against Bill’s Gondor + Dwarves
Bill had the Dead King’s Court at 4 Companies (Yikes!), 3 companies of Rangers, 3 companies of Knights of Minas Tirith, a company of vault wardens, and a dwarven ballasta.
Game 2: Seize the Prize against Bill’s Gondor + Dwarves
Bill had the Dead King’s Court at 4 Companies (Yikes!), 3 companies of Rangers, 3 companies of Knights of Minas Tirith, a company of vault wardens, and a dwarven ballasta.
The mission was seize the prize, and so we placed our counters on the field. I knew that the brunt of Bill’s army was focused on the Dead King’s cronies, so I needed to keep Imrail near everybody to have that Courage 6 giving him trouble. Three of the counters were placed in the middle of the board while the other two were located on either far end. Aside from a small wood on the mid-right flank the majority of the terrain was at the edges, making for a pretty open board.
Once again I failed to choose who deploys first and had to go for a gamble. I put the bolt thrower mid-right and positioned it so it could view the middle of the table (where the counters were) or the right side. My Knights once again went behind my FKoDA, whom were positioned in the middle, ready to probably take a beating. My Rangers went on the far left to claim that token. Bill matched his dead guys across from my FKoDA and his knights across from my rangers. His bolt thrower went on my far left into his fortified woods and his rangers started on the far right.
I went first and moved up to claim the middle token on my side while maneuvering to get a combined charge on his undead army. The whole game I did my best to avoid giving my Knights or foot knights as targets for that bolt thrower, and kept the game focused on the middle. What of course I forgot about what the whole “spirit walk goes through everybody!” thing.
Turn 2 is where everything went crazy. Bill moved his court of the dead king behind my FKoDA (using his 24” move) and his rangers into the wooded area while knights were advancing and probably within charge range of my poor rangers. I doubled back my KoDA into a flank charge on the dead king folks and sent my FKoDA on to battle the rangers in the woods. This left my rangers still in range to be charged by his dead folks, but I managed to beat him in the roll off and got my Heroic Charge off with my KoDA.
Turn 2 is where everything went crazy. Bill moved his court of the dead king behind my FKoDA (using his 24” move) and his rangers into the wooded area while knights were advancing and probably within charge range of my poor rangers. I doubled back my KoDA into a flank charge on the dead king folks and sent my FKoDA on to battle the rangers in the woods. This left my rangers still in range to be charged by his dead folks, but I managed to beat him in the roll off and got my Heroic Charge off with my KoDA.
Knowing how critical this formation was, I burned all of my might points on Imrail and called a Heroic Duel as well as an Epic Strike. The poor dead king faced off against my F11 and I managed to do some serious damage before my knights came in, blows swinging. When it was all said and done He had 5 models left, and the king was dead, while my KoDA had claimed the 2 counters they had under their control. My FKoDA pushed the rangers out of the woods (with a little help from the captain’s might) and claimed it.
The rest of the battle went pretty well, though the whole army performed quite well. My rangers managed to survive almost the entire game between the bolt thrower raking into them and the cavalry charging into them, they even took two knights with them! My bolt thrower performed admirably and was the main reason that so many rangers died. Victory for me!
Two battles down and things were looking pretty good. I was pleased with how well the army was handling, even though it was an “elite” list.
Game 3: Field of Swords vs. Ed’s Harradrim
Ed was the bow army. He had 2 formations of harradrim infantry with captains and 2 formations of harradrim cavalry with captains. One of his infantry formations caused terror, but that didn’t seem to bother me much. What was scary about this list was that EVERYONE had a bow. I looked forward to this challenge as it would tell me how well my defense 7 warriors would handle such a situation.
Two battles down and things were looking pretty good. I was pleased with how well the army was handling, even though it was an “elite” list.
Game 3: Field of Swords vs. Ed’s Harradrim
Ed was the bow army. He had 2 formations of harradrim infantry with captains and 2 formations of harradrim cavalry with captains. One of his infantry formations caused terror, but that didn’t seem to bother me much. What was scary about this list was that EVERYONE had a bow. I looked forward to this challenge as it would tell me how well my defense 7 warriors would handle such a situation.
The mission was kill each other so my plan was simple. Advance on the flanks with my rangers and KoDA (his def. was only a 4 so the rangers were ready to rock!) and then either push up the middle or hold back, forcing him to advance in order to win the fight. His plan was clearly for me to come to him and get away from my bolt thrower.
Unfortunately, the dice didn’t like my plans too much. While my shooting with the rangers was going quite well and for the first 2 or 3 turns his main infantry didn’t have much to fire at (out of range or arc), my cavalry just couldn’t get a charge off, even with my rerolls. I eventually got his cavalry units, but my own KoDA were down to just 1 company. I surged the FKoDA forward, either cause I got tired and frustrated with my Knights not getting the job done a lot faster then I thought, or probably to collect Imrail and try to just overpower their lines, and pulled the knights back. Ed rolled quite well (the rerolling 1s helped a little too) and managed to knock down my FKoDA pretty well.
Through 1 solid round of combat (with a heroic fight to boot) I managed to wipe out one of his infantry formations, leaving only 1 left (with his general). Unfortunately I was down to 1 company of FKoDA, and 1 company of KoDA. If the FKoDA fell, my 6 VP lead would dwindle very quickly. I moved into position and he reformed to get some more shots in and killed 3 guys! (He was rolling very well for his shooting) Now he needed to get 1 more and then whole company went. I charged in, hoping to do some damage and not really having any other options, and he didn’t land a hit. Instead, I got 3 or 4 kills on him and he became disordered.
This was the end for Ed. He failed 2 courage tests in a row (he was courage 3, I will admit) and it meant that he couldn’t do anything with his troops. I wasn’t going to charge in, and the 8th turn went by, sealing my victory. Victory for me x3!
The tournament was tons of fun and I enjoyed playing against of my opponents! Special Thanks to Joel for hosting and Jerry for running the event and putting up with our antics! I was glad to see that even with the 8 of us there the community was chill, competitive, but not demeaning in any sort of way. I can’t wait for the next one!
