I attended my first tournament/5 games of Hobbit in approximately a decade yesterday, the Unexpected Desolation of the Five Armies, as run by the GBHL. Twenty four players, and I had an absolute blast.
The army I took was:-
Morannon Orc Captain w/Shield
4 Black Numenoreans
5 Morannon Orcs with Spear and Shield
Morannon Orc Captain w/Shield
3 Black Numenoreans
6 Morannon Orcs with (6)Spear and (5)Shield
Ringwraith w/ 1 might
Mordor Troll
8 Orc Trackers
Wild Warg Chieftain
8 Wild Wargs
Firstly, the terrain on every table was beautiful. I showed up expecting about two hills and a tree per table, but each one of them was heavily themed, and contained great terrain, from Weathertop, to Dol Guldur. It really made a difference, as it made every game so much more interesting and about picking strategic deployments and movements. The players were all absolute gentlemen, and frankly, it felt more like a club than a tournament. I would estimate that 90% of the players there picked their armies based more on what they felt like taking than trying to cheese it in any way, and even the slightly cheesier made concessions to theme usually.
Round 1 saw me fighting around the hill of Amon Hen against Thorin, Thrain, Dwalin, a Grim Hammer Captain, a dozen Grim Hammers, and a handful of Warriors of Erebor.
My two shieldwalls ended up clashing against the Warriors of Erebor shield-wall with Thorin/Thrain, whilst Dwalin and the Grim Hammers ended up facing a flanking Troll, wargs, trackers and Wraith.
The Trackers picked off about four Hammers before the combat really started. The Wargs got more or less annihilated, but in the time span that took, the Troll, Chieftain, and the Trackers killed 75% of them. Thrain and Thorin chopped through a lot of Numenoreans and Morannon Orcs, but had a to burn most of their might and fate in doing so, whilst the Warriors of Eerebor fell around them until it was literally just them left.
Towards the very end Dwalin made a break for the Ringwraith who was down to his second last point of Will, and engaged in combat only for the Wraith to kill him outright! The Warg Chieftain finished the Grim Hammer Captain, and Thorin and Thrain all fell in the last two turns as well. The game then ended, but whew! My troll was on his last wound, Wraith on his last will, Chieftain and one Captain down to their last wounds, and just over half of my shieldwall dead.
Second round saw me against an Arnorian force packing Elladan and Elrohir, Arathorn, Halbarad, a pair of Rangers of the North, and about 15 Warriors of Arnor and Rangers (each). Big river across the middle of the battlefield. I got absolutely decimated. I set up a shieldwall on each side of the river, and then the wargs/wraith warband next to one of them, but due to my opponent deploying one ranger of the North as a warband at a time, he got to see my entire army deployed before placing anything serious, and then cunningly refused flanked me! The lone isolated shieldwall had Elladan and Elrohir and an enemy shieldwall set up about five inches away.
He won priority, and smashed into my isolated shield wall with his elven heroes and warriors of arnor, killing half of it in one turn. He then mowed down five of my trackers with archery (he'd been able to place them out of range of my bows but within range of all of his due to the subsequent deployment). Whilst my troops tried to wade the river in turn 2, he finished off my lone shieldwall, and shot down most of the wargs. Turn 3 saw Elladan/Elrohir performing a new technique I hadn't noticed in the rulebook, called 'Heroic Strike' to boost their fight value over my trolls, and chucking in so much might they killed it in a turn. The Warg Chieftain reached the rangers and killed a handful, but then got mobbed en masse, as did the final shieldwall when it finally got there. Wipeout in six turns.
I learnt a lot though!
Game 3 pitched me against a Wood Elf force on an island with ruins in the middle. Galadriel, Legolas, Rumil, an assortment of Galadhrim with bows and sword and Mirkwood Palace Guard. We both came on from the board edge, so there was much climbing of the hill in the middle, and tentative edging around terrain to stay out of bowshot. Through some very careful movement, I got as close as I could without exposing myself to bowshot, and the few shots he did get were spoilt by terrible rolling. Then I jumped his army from both flanks en masse, wargs on one, a shieldwall on the other, whilst charging the troll and second shieldwall through the centre and exposing the trackers to take potshots/absorb shots.
There was a really fun and extensive melee resulting. I had one shieldwall (the flanking one) more or less wiped out, along with two wounds on the troll and all the wargs bar the chieftain biting the dust. But in the process,I wiped out virtually all of his troops, and Galadriel burned all her excess will in transfixing the troll. In the turn before time was called, the chieftain ate Rumil, The Troll had all but squashed Legolas, and Galadriel was under heavy assault by my second shieldwall. The victory went to me, but hard fought and well played!
My fourth match kept me on the same table. Objective was to hold the tree in the middle of the ruins at the centre of the island, and warbands entered randomly. Warband was the strangest mix of Eorl the Young on horse with Rohirrim on foot, Balin with a smattering of dwarves and khazad guard, and Elladan and Elrohir with Warriors of Arnor and Rangers.
I entered my warband on two table sides, One shieldwall and the wargs on one side, troll, the Wraith's warband and another shieldwall on the other. My opponent liked to play risky though, and immediately deployed his rohan and dwarf warbands behind my Wraith/tracker/troll/shield wall ones! If I'd had priority, they would have turned and smashed them in short order, but alas, he won priority and took my shield orcs and weak trackers from behind, and mobbed my wraith (Heroic moves were announced on both sides and won/lost twice)! The following turn saw him use Elladan's Might to affect the table entry roll (something I wasn't aware you could do, but the
TO said was legal) to then have the Elf brothers join in the fray! In the meantime, my wargs and other shieldwall, half a battlefield away surged up to the objective. With just the right piece of luck (and a spot of planning and intent), I managed to cover the objective with my second shieldwall, and feed my wargs into the melee just as my other army half perished.
The result was that when the game ended (I was reduced to 25%), I had troops all over the objective, and he didn't quite. He'd scored
VP's for killing my Wraith and breaking me, but I had enough troops on the objective to take it and score a few more, leaving the victory to me! So, a win to me technically, but more a win to him in reality.
My last game saw us playing a custom scenario against a combined Uruk and Mordor force. He had the Undying on a Fell Beast, Vrasku with a squad of crossbows, a unit of Morannon orcs, and a big squad of Feral Uruks and Beserkers with Lurtz. The scenario involved scoring victory points for wargs that generated on random sides of the board, with more spawning on the side of whoever had priority.
Probably my least enjoyable game, not because of the opponent, but because the game came down to camping and killing the wargs that entered your board edge. Which was in turn, determined by the luck of who got priority more (and spawned more on their side). Unfortunately, I had less luck in this department than my foe, leading to him being about five wargs ahead by the end. Not really any any casualties taken on either side.
So! What did I learn!?
Trolls aren't as good as I remember. Brutal power attacks are of more use when combined with mobility, but a troll only ever hits shield walls head on (making hurl) of less utility. Rend is good for killing heroes, but the new 'Heroic Strike' rule means that if the Troll is against any vaguely decent hero and a handful of troops, he will often lose due to it. You really need either a hero troll (so you can do it too), or a different more mobile monster.
My Black Numenorean/Morannon Orc shieldwall was tough as nails, and definitely the right choice. Terror doesn't affect things much, but it does make your opponent think twice about charging them sometimes due to the risk of screwing up their own formations), and the high Defence/Strength/Fight 4 combo makes them hard to kill, and quick to deal out damage. They held their own against Elves quite well, as the higher kill power equalised out the lost combats due to draws, and they could smash through high Dwarfish defence. Against weaker troops (men), they cut through them like butter. So one to use again.
The wargs were a mixed bag. They had a heavy psychological effect, because they move absurdly fast, and they usually managed to snaffle a few kills when they connected due to strength 4. But they were so fragile they tended to die quickly in actual combat, leaving the Chieftain (who was a beast) on his own. The fact they have big bases makes it harder to get them all into combat, but they were usually an excellent diversionary tactic whilst dying, allowing the shieldwalls or troll to connect on advantageous terms a turn or two later. So not brilliant, but not bad either.
The wraith was of little use. Too little Will, too vulnerable to combat and bowfire, and generally just not really doing enough for his points. I suspect it was partially due to the scenarios/situations I ended up in, but if you need perfect circumstances to function well, you're dicey as a choice.
The trackers worked out surprisingly well. Excellent distraction in most cases, cheap as chips, and surprisingly good at killing things if you get them in a good position. Might be worth increasing their numbers in the future.
In terms of rules, I learnt a lot about correct movement procedure, new rules, and generally how the game works these days! An excellent day out, so I recommend GBHL tournies in the future!
