Wicklow Skirmish Results

A few days ago I posted all the army lists that would be competing at the Wicklow Skirmish, an 8 player, 450 point tournament held on Sunday. Having seen the lists I'm sure that you are all dying to know which armies emerged triumphant and took the podium spots and who walked away with the trophy.

3rd Place
Dave Coleman
Army of Thror

Thror (Leader)
12 Grim Hammers, Guardians of the King Upgrade
Warband 2
Young Thorin, Oakenshield
8 Warriors of Erebor, Spears and Shields.

Fresh from his victory at Gaelcon and a podium finish at the GBHL League Finale Dave Coleman has once again secured a top 3 finish, although this time without Sauron to help. Instead he had the Dwarves of Erebor led by their King Under the Mountain, Thror and his grandson, Thorin.

Thror is the key model within this army. Not only is he a rock solid Leader at D9, 3 wounds and the Arkenstone potentially providing unlimited Fate, but he also acts as a 6 inch banner thanks to the army bonus and unlocks the Guardian of the King upgrade for the 12 Grimhammers. Those Guardians form a solid S4 front line with great versatility due to pick-hammers and throwing axes. Thorin, meanwhile, is a very capable backup to Thror with 3s in all the right places on his profile, a high defence and the To Arms rule allowing you to increase the killing power of your dwarves.

2nd Place
Paddy McCormick
Ugluk's Scouts

Ugluk (Leader)
4 Scouts with Uruk Bow
4 Scouts with shield
2 Scouts no upgrade
1 scout with drum
Warband 2
Mauhur
4 Scouts with Uruk Bow
3 Scouts with shield
3 Scouts no upgrade
Warband 3
Grishnakh with shield
10 orcs with shield

In 2nd place we had one of the new Rohan at War Legendary Legions, Ugluk's Scouts, naturally led by Ugluk with Mauhur and Grishnakh as the other heroes. One of the main strengths of this army is it's mobility, the free upgrades to move 8" for all the Uruk Hai, the presence of the drum and access to Heroic March means that the Uruks in the army can race along at 14 inches a turn if needs be (no wonder the Three Hunters couldn't catch up with them). That means that when the opponent has priority they would have to consider the possibility of a next turn charge from a huge 22 inches away without chance to move in the meantime. This would really give an edge to the Uruks by allowing them to pick where and when they wanted to fight, especially when cavalry was only around in low numbers (there were only 10 cavalry models across all 8 players).

The other benefit of the Legendary Legion is to increase the killing power of your army by giving a +1 on wound rolls when engaged alongside a model of the opposite race. This makes the alright threatening Uruks even deadlier and even make the S3 orcs dangerous against all but the highest defense models.

1st Place
Gary Doyle
Ithilien Rangers

Faramir with Bow and Horse (Leader)
6 Rangers of Gondor
8 Rangers of Gondor with spear
Warband 2
Madril
5 Rangers of Gondor
7 Rangers of Gondor with spear
Warband 3
Damrod
2 Rangers of Gondor
4 Rangers of Gondor with spear

In 1st place we have another Legendary Legion, this time the Ithilien Rangers from Gondor At War. This army is packs in an insane amount of bows, 35 in total, all with a 3+ shoot value. Therefore they are able to inflict significant damage to an opposing army before they are able to get into close combat. Running the numbers, against D5 or D6 opponents, the rangers can inflict nearly 4 casualties per turn on average in an ideal world. Even accounting for movement penalties and in-the-way rolls the damage potential is still significant and at these lower points every casualty inflicted has a bigger effect on the enemy due to the smaller size of the armies.

Even when the lines eventually clash the rangers are F4 across the board, so can handle themselves in a fight and they have sufficient numbers win combats (especially after the enemy army has been thinned out with shooting) and to capture objectives. Overall, this is a very powerful army at this low points level. It should also be noted that a very similar army also won the GBHL League opener in Cardiff as well last weekend.

I found it very interesting to note that 3 very different styles of army made it into the top 3 here, heavy slow infantry, highly mobile infantry and pure shooting. Just shows that any style of play can be made to be competitive and is testament to the balance of the game.