Gaelcon Army List Review

Recently the Irish Hobbit League hosted an SBG an 800 Point tournament at Gaelcon, a large gaming convention in Dublin. In an attempt to better understand the local competitive meta I've decided take an in depth look at the army lists of the top 3 players and analyse what enabled these armies to reach the top tables of this event. Considering that this was a Good vs Evil with each player using 2 armies plus a special secret scenario using 250 points from one of the main armies that means I have 6 lists to study, so I'd better get started. Because 250 points is an unusual points level and the scenario was only revealed on the day I have decided not to analyse those lists.

3rd - Sean Magee

Good
Return of the King legion

Army of the Dead perform very well in a Good vs Evil environment due to the generally lower courage in Evil armies. This advantage is leveraged further due to the King of the Dead's Harbinger of Evil special rule making it even easier to score wounds and harder for the enemy to charge you. The Dead's 2 primary weaknesses are typically a lack of Might and zero ranged attacks, both of which are mitigated by the addition of Aragorn and Legolas.

Evil

Azog's Legion and Azog's Hunters

I'll be the first person to admit I'm fully up to speed with the Hobbit era armies (with the exception of Thorin's Company, the most fun you can have with 13 dwarves) but I'll do my best. The Hunter orcs provide plenty of attacks, especially when backed up by Gundabad spears. Azog is capable of worrying even some of the most fearsome heroes while being backed up ably by an Ogre and the Hunter Orc heroes. The smattering of wargs through the list help with objective grabbing or other situations requiring mobility.

2nd- Gerard Bunting

Good 

All Hero

As a primarily thematic player, lists like this do cause me a slight groan. However, I can acknowledge that in a competitive event opting for the non-historical options can provide a significant boost to your title chances. In this case, there are 3 insanely powerful Elven lords and a hard as nails Dwarf all running around on mounts, potentially killing everything in their path. Tauriel feels like the odd one out as a softer target and without a mount, although she is certainly capable of handling herself in a fight. The fact that there are only 5 models here means that you have to kill 3 of them to break the army, and I wouldn't fancy having to take down any of Gil Galad, Glorfindel, Thranduil or Dain without expending significant resources to do it, meanwhile, the other models will have a free reign to target the rest of your army.

Evil

Moria

From a small elite army to a mass of goblins. This army has sufficient models to capture objectives and tie up the enemy troops with numbers. A front line of Black Shields supported by Moria spears provides a solid base and support to the heroes of the list.

There's also the small matter of the Balrog to contend with. This guy is tough enough to take care of pretty much anyone the opponent throws at him and demands the attention of a significant amount of resources to contain. The flaming whip and free heroics give him a large threat range, so simply avoiding him isn't really an option.

1st - David Coleman

Good
Riders of Theoden

In this edition of the game Rohan has been propelled to a top tier army due to a number of buffs they received including the +1 strength on the charge army bonus, the Riders of Theoden special rule buffing their fight value, Gamling's banner of infinite might and the legendary legion bonuses. This list combines all of these factors to form a powerful army capable of handling most things. Although it lacks a super star hero, like most of the other lists in this review, it uses multiple smaller heroes that maximises the benefits of the Royal Standard, allowing the player to use multiple might points per turn with little risk of running out. This means that they can call heroic moves every turn (gaining the benefits of the cavalry charge) and call several heroic combats in each fight phase (cutting through large numbers of enemy models).

Evil
Barad Dur

Really this list is all about one model. The rest of the points are simply there to support that model to allow it time to destroy their opponents hopes and dreams by single-handedly wiping out their army.

Of course I am talking about the slayer of men, scourge of the elves, destroyer of worlds, the one model army that is...

The Orc Tracker on Warg.
Sauron

Sauron is one of the toughest models in the game, able to deal huge amounts of damage both in combat and with magic as well as being able to withstand damage in return. A true one model army.

But this army isn't just one model. A large contingent of orcs provide cheap chaff to score objectives and tie up the enemy to give Sauron time to do his job, warg riders provide some additional mobility and Shelob offers an extra damage dealer to complement Sauron.

Then there's the Tracker. I mean, mine (allegedly) killed something once...

So that's it for my 1st Irish Hobbit League army list review. I'll be back soon with another one after the next IHL event, Santa's Slay in Tabletop Tavern, Kircubbin on the 7th December and organized by Michael Bradford as a fun pre-holidays get together.

Seeing Red - Part 2a

"I don't know if the Road has ever been measured in miles beyond the Forsaken Inn, a day's journey east of Bree," [said] Strider.

Firstly, apologies for the long absence of any new posts here.

In my last post I was musing about the feasibility of using a themed red alliance army in a competitive environment. Over the last couple of weeks I've been pondering on this question and have come up with a couple of 750 point armies to play test. So here is the first of them:

Siege of the Forsaken Inn

Gandalf

Arathorn
6 Dunedain

Dwarf King
4 Khazad Guard
7 Dwarf warriors with shield
1 Dwarf warrior with shield and banner

Dwarf Captain
7 Dwarf rangers with bow
1 Dwarf ranger

In the last edition one of my favourite armies was an alliance between Gandalf, the Grey Company and Durin's Folk. The inspiration for this alliance came from the Ruin of Arnor sourcebook. Thematically, the list was based on a travelling Dwarf Lord and his retinue defending the Forsaken Inn with the support of the Arathorn and his kinsmen and the wandering grey wizard. The changes to the alliance rules and the Rangers army list meant that I shelved the army indefinitely.

Game wise the dwarves provide a solid core of infantry that can grind away at their foes, while the Rangers provide a might heavy shooting platform that isn't afraid to get stuck in when the battle lines clash to tip the balance in your favour. Gandalf provides a measure of control with his magic casting.

The list lacks a stand out combat hero (Arathorn's 3 attacks and Heroic Strike being offset by low defense and Fate), but careful use of Gandalf's magic can help to mitigate that somewhat. This list packs a lot of Might in, although most of it is concentrated with the Rangers, potentially leaving the Dwarves high and dry for crucial Heroic Moves due to the Red Alliance rules.

Forsaken Inn by Andy Hep on Deviant Art

Seeing Red

"Eärnur brought an army of power, with munition and provision for a war of great kings. Or so it seemed to the people of the North, though this was but a small sending-force of the whole might of Gondor. Most of all, the horses were praised, for many of them came from the Vales of Anduin, and with them were riders tall and fair, and proud princes of Rhovanion.

Then Círdan summoned all who would come to him, from Lindon or Arnor, and when all was ready the host crossed the Lune and marched north to challenge the Witch-king of Angmar."

When the latest edition of SBG was launched many players were happy to see the introduction of the Alliance Matrix, which is intended to give an advantage to players who played thematic armies from the lore of Middle Earth, as opposed to power gaming the most powerful combos regardless of lore. It did this by army bonuses to the historical allies and penalties to the impossible allies. But what about those thematic armies that fell between the cracks and don't fit perfectly within the new alliance rules?

Middle Earth lore is filled with examples of various alliances that would fall foul of the allies matrix. Whether it's the host of Gondor under Eärnur leading a force of Elves, Northmen and Arnorians as quoted above, or the tribes of evil men fighting for Angmar on the other side of the battlefield, or Durin III leading the dwarves of Khazad Dum to support the armies of Gil Glad and Elendil in the Last Alliance. All of these so called impossible alliances are lifted directly from Tolkein's writing yet will suffer penalties for sticking to the letter of the lore.

Although it is still possible to run these type of lists, is it fair that players who are already potentially disadvantaged by choosing to use a themed army to then have additional disadvantages applied on top or even barred from entering an event? And, more importantly, is it possible to overcome these challenges and create a thematic competitive army that uses a red alliance?

Battle of Fornost by Tulikoura on DeviantArt

Happy birthday Bilbo!

"Today is my one hundred and eleventh birthday! Alas, eleventy-one years is far too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable hobbits. I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

In celebration of Bilbo's birthday today I decided to finally paint up the adventurous little Hobbit after he has sat in the painting queue since Escape from Goblin Town was released.

To Kill a King

"Arvedui was indeed the last king, as his name signifies. It is said that this name was given to him at his birth by Malbeth the Seer, who said to his father: 'Arvedui you shall call him, for he will be the last in Arthedain.'"

Last weekend, myself and a friend (who is still a relatively newbie to the game) decided to run the To Kill a King scenario from the Ruin of Arnor sourcebook. This mission saw him trying to get past the last defenders of Fornost to kill either Arvedui or Malbeth with his force of undead spirits.

A note on proxies. Unfortunately we didn't have many of the models available but didn't want to let that stop us from playing what looked like a fun scenario, so we proxied most of the models. On the Good side; Boromir represented Arvedui, Gandalf was Malbeth and the Arnorian warriors were represented by Gondorians (the guy with the sword being the captain). And on the Evil side; Army of the Dead stood in for Spectres, and a banner bearer standing on a 40mm base represented the Shade. The Barrow Wights played themselves.

The Arnorian defenders set up a loose perimeter around the ruins of the Royal Palace while the spirits of Angmar prepared to assault the side closest to Malbeth the Seer, deeming him to be an easier target than the King. Upon seeing which direction the attack would come from the Arnorians raced to form a defensive line, although a few of them were led astray by the fell light of their foes. Arvedui also suffered from the effects of the Paralyse spell in the early turns, but managed to shrug it off fairly quickly each time.

Several Arnorians were lured into traps and killed by the Spectres, while the Arnor Captain led a sortie aimed at reducing the threat of the Barrow Wights and Shade. Ultimately, he failed to bring down any of these threats, but did knock a wound off the Shade and brought down a couple of Spectres.

After trading kills for a couple of turns, eventually the Arnorian defensive perimeter started to show some holes and offer opportunity to the Angmar spirits to charge their targets. Unfortunately for Angmar it proved too little too late as the defenders killed off the last few spirits, with King Arvedui chasing down the final Barrow Wight to win the game.

Overall a good game that felt in the balance right up to the last couple of turns. Man of the Match performance by the Arnor Captain for slaying several Spectres and putting the Barrow Wights and Shade under pressure. Because I enjoyed playing the Arnorians I'm now sorely tempted to start painting an Arnor army, although it may have to wait a while until I get some other projects off the to do list (*coughKhandcough*).

The Ulstermen WIP

"The soldiers of Ulster naturally accustomed to suffering, and habituated to the frosts of that northern climate, have few wishes and few wants... Provided they have shoes and a few utensils, a woollen cloak serves for their covering — more zealously careful of their axe and bow than of their personal comfort."

Over the last while I have been working away at painting the Khandish models for my Ardacon 2020 army, so I thought I would share a quick WIP post. So far I've been working though the counties of Ulster with 6 of the 9 completed; Antrim, Derry, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone. 

Be Excellent to each other

"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer." Samwise the Brave

This post requires a bit of context. Ok maybe a lot of context. Recently I got involved in a discussion regarding an attitude within the GBHL community and the Facebook page that I feel is off putting for new players and during this debate I mentioned a conversion I started several years ago and never finished due in large part to a critical comment from a very well known GBHL TO and group admin.

This conversion was based off the fan film Born of Hope, which inspired me to start a new Grey Company army, so I had to have a model for Elgarain, the heroine of the film. A lot of effort went into this model and while I finished and painted the foot model, the horse remained unfinished in my bits box, a reminder of that criticism.

Now comes the context (and trust me when I say this isn't easy to put out in the open).

I have a history of suffering with depression. It's waxed and waned over the years since my early 20s. It has left me contemplating the value of my life at times, came very close to cancelling my wedding, I've been on anti-depressants, in counseling etc. The depression meant I struggled with confidence and was generally unwilling to put myself out there, so those few of critisim words probably hit me much harder than they should have done.

Now, however, instead of it remaining unfinished and a reminder those bad times, I decided to finish it and let it be a symbol of supportive of others and not critical. Because you never know the story on the other side of the computer screen, or what impact those few little words might have. Luckily now I have largely left those dark days behind and can look forward to the future with hope.

So here she is, finally (nearly) finished 3 1/2 years later. Unfortunately, due a hopefully impending house move my basing supplies are packed away in storage so I'll have to come back to finish the basing at a later day.

A New Beginning

"It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish." Samwise Gamgee

The dust has hardly settled from Ardacon 2019 ( which I was unfortunately unable to attend) but already thoughts are turning towards Ardacon 2020. My hope is to be able to take a brand new army for myself in the GT, and hence much painting is required over the coming year. Therefore the road to Ardacon starts here.

A while ago I wanted to start painting an army that would challenge my painting ability and I had 9 Khandish Warriors a Chieftain and a Chariot from a project that never got off the ground. Due to the opportunity for freehand on the banners that every model has I decided this would be a good challenge. This also happened to be around the time of the All Ireland Football and Hurling Championship finals and seeing the various county colours and flags gave me an idea of how to paint those Khandish models. A few minutes later and I had an army list written:

32 Khandish Warriors (for the 32 counties of Ireland)
4 Khandish Chieftains on Chariots (for the 4 provinces)
And 1 Khandish King on Chariot (to lead the force as High King of Ireland)

All told, 721 points of Khand. Just shy of the 750 level Ardacon runs at (I'll figure out those spare 29 points later). Challenge accepted.

Now just the small matter of painting it...

Welcome

Firstly, welcome to my new blog where I hope to recount my adventures through the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. 

This blog will gather my painting progress, battle and tournament reports and  my general thoughts on the game. How it will go, no one can tell. Hope you enjoy the ride.

"Remember you are over the Edge of the Wild now, and in for all sorts of fun wherever you go."