War in the North - IHL Finale 2022 - Podium Review

 

A couple of weekends ago the latest season of the Irish Hobbit League came to its conclusion in the League Finale hosted by Paddy McCormick at Exploding Dice Games. This was an escalation style tournament with games being played at 450, 650, 800 and finally 1000 points. So let's take a look at what armies came out on top. 

3rd Place 

Dave Murphy 

Barad-Dur 

In 3rd place was Dave with this Barad-Dur force. Really this 'army' is all about one model. Sauron really is a one model army and the rest of the list is there to support him doing his thing. At the lower points levels there really isn't much that can stand up to Sauron, while at the higher levels he's got additional backup from the Witch-King and Shelob, neither of whom are foes to be taken lightly. In terms of the Warriors, numbers are low here but by utilising the Terror of the Black Numenreons combined with the -1 Courage aura means that enemies will struggle to dictate the flow of the combats.

2nd Place

Dave Coleman 

Army of Thror

The 2nd place army was this Army of Thror. Dwarves typically boast a high Defence and good hitting power, which here are provided by their powerful Heroes and the Guardians of the King. As well as their close combat ability all those Guardians of the King also bring some short ranged shooting ability with their throwing axes, increasing their damage output. One area that Dwarves typically struggle with, however, is mobility (Dwarves are wasted on cross-country). The inclusion of a Captain helps somewhat with his Heroic March, but here Gwaihir is also added to bring a highly mobile, flying monster to mitigate this Dwarven shortcoming. 

1st Place

Ivan Sheehan 

Ugluk's Scouts 

And in 1st place is Ivan Sheehan (again) with his Ugluk's Scouts (again). This year Ivan has used these scouts to great effect at numerous events both in Ireland and over in the UK. Whereas with the 2nd place list mobility was a potential weakness, here is the complete opposite. Thanks to Mauhur providing the Marauder upgrade to all the Uruk-hai, a Drummer and access to Heroic March these Uruk-Hai can hit speeds of 14 inches a turn, outpacing even cavalry and even flyers. The only issue is making sure that the Orcs can keep up to offer their support with the combats to get that bonus on the Wound rolls. There are no standout Heroes in this Legion, which makes it harder for an opponent to shut down a single threat, and instead relies on its quality Warriors to do more of the work during the game.

So there's the roundup of the final IHL winners. Congratulations to all of them and thanks to Paddy for hosting the event. I'll leave you with a selection of photos of the weekend.