AAR: War of The Rings 600 pt Tournament

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

AAR: Tower Games Feb. 7th, 2009 Tournament

After Action Report

Tower Games, Feb. 7^th, 2009

Over the past weekend I drove down to Atlanta for a big Flames of War tournament hosted by Kevin and the folks of Tower Games. This worked out really well for me personally cause I got see my brother Brian and his girlfriend Lindsey who live in Atlanta.

However, back to the action which your looking for. I brought along my trusted American Infantry Company. I changed the list up from my regular routine by not bringing any TDs or HMG attachments. Instead I spiced things up with some Priority Air Support and upgraded for some 155s. Here’s the list.

HQ w/ 2 bazookas

Full Strength Rifle Platoon

Full Strength Rifle Platoon

Half Strength Rifle Platoon

2 Section Mortar Platoon

Full ATG Platoon w/ 2 bazookas

Full A&P Platoon w/ 2 bazookas and supply truck

1 Section of Intelligence and Recon Platoon

5 Stuarts

Full 105 Battery

Full 155 Battery

L4 AOP

Priority Air Support

The plan was to bombard the junk out of anything that moved, otherwise it was the work of the infantry to do the dirty work. On we went, and with some last minute assembling we arrived in time for the tournament.

Game 1: Fighting Withdrawal vs. Radcliffe’s German Panzer Company

So great, I get to face off against some tanks, and there are all Panzers! Radcliffe was a great guy and he had an awesome looking army. He ran 8 Panzer IVs and 3 Stugs, along with some Hummels, a PanzerGrenadier platoon, and some mobile AA. Great… a lot of veteran German tanks to deal with. At least I’m defending!

The board was a pretty sweet deal, as seen here. The town in the middle provided some cover from long range fire and also split the road nicely. Using my pioneer’s and their truck to my fullest advantage I went ahead and planted a minefield on the only open stretch on my left flank, effectively plugging that gap. With the edges lining the right, I figured Radcliffe’s best route was for the center, which was also my objective. And that’s where the pioneer’s went, with the CO nearby (trading off with another rifle platoon). The other full rifle platoon went on the right obj, while the half rifle platoon and stuarts covered the right, protected the 155s. My ATGs were wisely in ambush, as my side had 3 wood sections nicely spaced out.

Radcliffe went almost all in the middle/left, but left 3 stugs to play with the stuarts on the right. Looks to be an interesting match! For me, it’ll be a matter of how many tanks I can bust before the inevitable charge comes in.

The first few turns were pretty slow for the most part. Radcliffe wisely went after my 105 battery with some artillery and guns while his tanks and troops slowly advanced, trying to thin the lines a bit before coming in. I made my saves but unfortunately was unable to knock out too many tanks with the artillery. My one early victory was that I nabbed his CO first turn! He took a 155 round right in the gut and failed the warrior roll to jump ship. That makes things a lot easier, particularly with a couple other tanks down, looking to maybe work the company morale?

My mortars smoke proved useful in controlling how his artillery worked, along with denying him full ROF a lot of the time. My stuarts on the other hand almost pulled off a great victory! They ran up the flank of the Stugs and he failed like 4 saves on side armor! Of course, I fail all the important FP checks and he’s left with a bunch of bailed out, but not dead tanks. The remounting next makes for an unpleasant situation, and the stuarts’ fate is sealed, though their destruction proved well in the end in stalling the Stugs to allow for the air support to do it’s job.

In the end, it came down to a brutal assault on the main obj by his 2iC one of his tank platoons. The other one was running behind but came in second. The pioneers performed quite well, destroying and bailing a tank, removing the platoon completely as he failed morale and fell back, His other platoon came in though and forced the pioneers away, they were badly battered but passed their morale check to stick around and still managed to contest the objective.

It was the bottom of turn 5 and having removed enough platoons and with this threat (plus his grens looking at the other obj.) It looked like I needed swift action. I had saved my ambush until the last possible second, and it paid off in the end! My ATGs knocked out the other panzer platoon, while my TOTs killed all but one of the pioneers. He passed that morale check and came back with a vengeance, assaulting my infantry who had moved up to support while he brought the AA guns to try to help out at long last.

In this 6^th turn I sealed the victory, with my planes pulling through and knocking out a second stug while my assault bailed the remaining half-track and forcing the 2iC to fall back, capturing and killing that platoon. He failed his morale check for the stugs, and it was game over. 5-2 Victory for me!

So the game went well for me, aside from my artillery not performing as well as I would have liked early on. I had several chances to land multiple tanks at once ( the terrain plus a couple of failed stormtrooper roles gave me a couple of chances, but overall I liked the big artillery and the planes, they did they’re job, all be it slowly.

Game 2: Encounter versus Larry’s German Grenadiers

So the first round went well, and it was nice to be on the winners end of the brackets. Encounter was a change of pace, but I was happy to see some German infantry, even if he was totting some Stugs and Jagpanthers.

Larry was running 2 full Grenadier platoons, a pioneer platoon, 3 Pak40s, 4 Stugs, and 2 JagPanthers. A small list, particularly as CV, but I guess the Jags were pretty expensive. Either way, I figured if I didn’t claim things early all that armor would give me problems.

The board was nice, lots of concealment bonuses but pretty far ranging lanes. Larry put out a grenadier platoon on his left objective in the woods, his pioneer platoon on the other right objective (I spread them out to make it harder to defend for his small force). His Pak40s were his other platoon, and they went with the Grenadiers, though on one side of the wood. I got a lucky 5 platoons to place, and due to the objectives deployment on my side I got my pioneers spread out to cover both objectives. Both batteries started on opposite sides, and I loaded the left flank with the stuarts on the far side and a full infantry platoon covering the middle. The goal was for the stuarts to advance quickly, using the woods to avoid the Pak40s and give the infantry a good sound beating while the infantry moved up to secure the objective.

And away we went! The Germans got the first turn and promptly dug everyone in, I guess he had no plans of attacking right away. I double timed my stuarts up and hide them nicely while the infantry double timed it into the village center, using the buildings as cover. My pioneers dug in and my artillery successfully ranged in on the left infantry/guns, knocking out an infantry stand and pinning them.

The next two turns is where things got interesting. He fired his 2 HQ mortars at my infantry and pinned them, but otherwise went GTG. In my turn I ran up my stuarts within assault distance, on the opposite side of the wood from the Paks. My artillery All Guns Repeated and repined the infantry again and while my infantry moved along the road once more to better position, the stuarts dared the assault. The stuarts only lost one tank in the counter assault (they are known for rolling 6s against those fausts) but my ability to happen to roll 3 1s in the bog phase to bog 3 other tanks. Thankfully though his grenadiers failed their morale role (with just the command stand left) and fell back, failing his morale and being destroyed.

Things were looking up! I had my stuarts still operational, and the Pak40s had only LOS to 1 bogged stuart, and only one could see it. If I unbogged one or two in the next turn, I could flank and overrun the 40s and secure the objective! Twas not to be, as of course he lands a hit and then a kill on my lovely bogged down start. This puts me at 2 tanks down, 1 tank up (the other 2 don’t count) so a morale check, which of course I promptly fail! So much for that 6-1 victory!

My second attempt comes quickly though. Neither one of us are getting reserves in right away, but my infantry are ready to rock and roll on just those Pak 40s. I’m in position to charge and Larry had his stugs come in, both on the other side of the table! They were no position to get there in time, but I knew I had to move quick otherwise his reserves would be plowing into my poor unsupported infantry. I overrun his Pak40s and force them to flee, but my artillery can’t finish off his stugs (range in ToT but fail to hit any of them) so there’s no morale check, but I’m on the obj. and ready to rock. His final reserves come in, the last grenadier platoon and the Jags and after a bloody assault down to the last teams on each side, our groups break off, with me failing morale and him passing. Now, with two attempts foiled, I’m stuck not in a real position to reassault, so now it’s up to bringing him to company morale.

The game continues into 10+ turns, basically consisting of me continuing to put the pressure on with my other large infantry platoon while shelling him into oblivion. I manage to knock out that beaten infantry platoon and slowly work my 155 and airplane magic on the Jags. Unfortunately the plane dice had run low and I was stuck dropping the 155s, which Larry made the exact rolls he needed to save his Jags for a few turns. In the end however my artillery nailed the coffins, plus a combined sudden effort from my ATGs on his stugs dropped both of those platoons, and he failed his second company morale check.

4-3 Victory for me, though it was a tough fight with the dice. Larry had a good list to deal with armor, but my amount of infantry combined with artillery gave him a tough time. Since I was on him from the beginning it was tough for him to try and knock out any of my guns without any air or artillery. A great battle and I’d play against Larry again anytime! Thanks for the great game!

Now I find out I’m the second top allied player going into the third round (yikes!) behind Charlie. I was about to experience all of the goodness that is Sturmgrenadiers.

Game 3: Fighting Withdrawal against Erin’s German Sturmgrenadiers

So Erin is an awesome guy and he a great looking army. I didn’t mind playing Fighting Withdrawal again, but I soon discovered how difficult it was going to be with this map. The woods and fields were area terrain which caused loads of problems with getting my artillery to bear. Not to mention the fact that he had all of those trench sections which allowed him to remain GTG and still move throughout the trench was gonna bring a tough day for me.

Erin had 2 big grenadier platoons with tons o’ attachments of HMGs and Pak 40s, a Pak 40 platoon, 3 Stugs with assault riders, a battery of 105s, and some mortars. He attached a single HMG into an 8^th platoon and set up in a nice big along the trenches, which covered the entire board (88’’ of trenches!)

Due to me attacking I had to plan for a double attack, though I had a wide front and what actually looked like a triple attack. I had the pioneers, small infantry platoon, and stuarts on my right flank and my 2 big infantry platoons on the middle/left to left flank. I had hoped to push through with the stuarts early on while the infantry advanced as quick as they could through the woods (a problem I was already seeing). To claim the right objective. When he shifted over to contest and control it, my other arms would strike out, but I needed to pin him to make it happen.

This was not going to be an easy battle by far. Part of my biggest problem was the fact that I always needed 6s to range in, and with the terrain I couldn’t get all of my batteries to bear at one location. To make things worse, whenever I did manage to range in, Erin was able to relocate everyone out of the template zone while still maintaining GTG due to the trenches. It was a tough fight to be certain.

I managed to break through on the right flank at last, though I did the assault order wrong and sent in the stuarts first. Erin was a dice rolling master in defensive fire and nailed 3 stuarts before I even to get in on it! However it paved the way for my infantry platoon to climb through and take out that platoon. At least this point I saw it in a not too good situation, because I couldn’t get any sort of pin on the infantry platoons in the middle, and I had claimed that objective with too many casualties to deal with.

Erin sprung his ambush and contested the objective, and even though I forced him off of it, I eventually lost the platoon trying to take on the artillery with the tanks too close. I tried again and again to throw my men at him and even tried to knock out his Pak 40s in the end to try to claim another point, but without pinning them down and not doing enough damage early on I was stuck taking a 5-2 loss.

It was a tough battle overall, and I think in that situation I needed to focus my attention on what the mission could do for me. He had several small platoons that were hanging out in the back. Had I focused my artillery on them first (like the 2 team HMG platoon or the 3 team mortars) and knocked those out. If I had done that, it hopefully would have forced him to pull off some more important platoons from the main line, and not simply call off the unimportant platoons. Other then that and the platoon assault order on the right flank, the dice odds were against me and Erin was rolling too good for defensive fire to give me a chance.

Either way, I had three great games and overall I finished 9^th out of 24^th, which isn’t shabby considering! I need to work on my history/painting a little bit more, I’m thinking about rebasing my models so I can earn a few more of those points.

Thanks again to Radcliffe, Larry, and Erin for three great games and giving me a great experience at Tower Games! Also to Kevin for running that smooth ship! Apparently I qualified for Nationals to boot!

1k Battle Brets vs. Empire, 1/24/09

Alright, here's the technical breakdown of the battle. If you'd like the fuffy-filled version, check out the Silver Dragon Square forums or the Traitor Legion forums (both Miami based gaming groups). Just google their names and the sites will pop up in the top 5 or so.

This was my first game with my Bretonnians and so I was pretty pumped. Even though I hadn't painted them all yet (only a few for that matter) I still wanted to get some gaming in to re motivate me to start painting (or making time to paint, for that matter). Ben was my opponent and we both agreed to fielding no mages (I don't own any and Ben doesn't like magic too much). However as you'll see, magic items were still around to some degree.


The Bretonnians:

1 Paladin w/ steed & barding, shield, morning star, and virtue of knightly temper.

1 Paladin w/ steed & barding, shield, BSB and virtue of duty.

8 Knights of the Realm w/ Full Command and Warbanner

8 Knights Errant w/ Full Command and Errantry Banner

12 Peasant Bowmen

14 Peasant Bowmen, skirmishing

5 Mounted Yeomen w/ shields

1 Trebuchet


My models were fielded mainly off of what I had so far, but as a base section of what some of my larger games were going to be. I took lots of archers because there ability to hit and wound in few numbers is so small (and they are so cheap!) that I felt the need to field a good portion of them to make it count.

The Empire looked like this:

1 Captain w/ plate, shield, and rod of command (yikes!)

1 Captain w/ plate, BSB

23 Swordsmen w/ full command
2 detachments of 5 crossbowmen

15 Greatswords
2 detachments of 5 handgunners

5 Knights w/ Champion and Musician

5 Knights w/ Champion and Musician

1 Great Cannon


The terrain looked as such:



Not exactly a dense board, but at least this time I had both flanks to work with (as Ben is prone to completely blocking one flank). Ben chose to deploy on the close side, which left me on the far side. Ben chose to deploy first (he won that roll off too) and began setting up his castle formation around the hill. I responded by loading my hill with my archers and treb, placing the skirmishers on the right of the hill to consider moving them up. His greatswords went on the left and his swordsmasters on the right (both in front of the hill) and each had a unit of knights with them. My knights errant w/ general went on the far left flank (out of range as I assumed I would not go first) and my knights of the realm w/ BSB went on the right flank.




















And the battle begins! I prayed so Ben surged his troops forward (minus the knights) and took some pot shots at me. His cannon misfired (aiming for the treb) but was a-ok and his crossbows were out of range for turn 1. My turn commenced by full speed ahead with the KOTR (left flank) using the hill as cover. The mounted yeomen moved into position to fire at a unit of handgunners and march block the greatswords. I thought I was in a position where if I fled from a charge I would be out of the impassable terrain, but apparently not (as you will see). The errants moved up to face the handgunners and force Ben to reposition his greatswords, buying my shooters more time.

My shooting phase was not as productive as I would have liked. I overshot my treb by an inch but landed an on target and knocked out 3 greatswords. My archers (whom I should have shot at the greatswords) did a light casualties to the swordsmen. My yeomen shot up his handgunners and forced them to flee, saving the knights for a round.

The next turns were manuerving and things weren't looking good for me. He charged my mounted yeomen, and as they fled into the impassable terrain (doh!). His cannon missed my knights but my treb, even though I was directly in the middle of his unit, promptly rolled a misfire and then a 1! So with my artillery and fast cav out, things didn't look positive for the remainder of the battle, which was sure to be bloody.

However, two things suddenly happened which helped turn the battle in my favor! By concentrating my fire on the small greatsword unit, I just managed to squeak through 3 kills, which was enough to cause a panic check! He failed and ran away from the bowmen and straight into my knights! This was a good turn of events, but more importantly was me out manuevering his charge block with his crossbowmen. I managed to get by them and charge one his knights units. The result was an overrun into his cannon crew!

However, while this was all good and things felt positive, I knew I was going to be trouble. My knights errant charged the last handgunner unit and wiped it out. However, he had his other knight unit in position to flank charge them afterwards, and I didn't roll high enough to get off the table, leaving me in position for a rear charge! To compound matters, the only place for my KOTR to move after returning to the table to not be in the way of the KE's overrun was right in front of his swordsmen.

The charges ensued, but the power of the lady prevailed! Thanks to the blessing I only lost by one from the rear charge (outnumbering and standard discounted the rear charge bonus and he only killed 1 knight!) and passed my ld. On the other front the combo of ranks, banners, and virtue of the ideal combined with a 2+ armor save kept my knights from dropping like flies.

We ended up stalemating in the middle for several turns. I forgot to move my hero to the back to fight his knights but with them only being str 3 after the first turn it stalemated between a 2+ and 1+ armor saves, with outnumber and banner canceling the rear bonus. For the swordmen unit my massive CR bonus helped me keep me first in the combat and winning. He used his rod of command in 2nd round, when he would have needed for ld 5 rerollable.

We called the game after turn 6 as a minor victory for me. It might have been more, but I didn't care and I had a good time!