[Tale Telling] Two Games, Two Overviews (Working Towards Battle Reports)

This week I was able to get a successful hobby day in and head down to the FLGS for a few matches of MESBG. I was more excited to play than usual because a local had finished printing all my Army of Lake-Town Warriors, although I still had to proxy my Heroes which is why I haven't done full, proper Battle Reports for these games. Hopefully by next week I'll by whole and have most models at least base-coated. I also need to get a setup for recording what happens Turn to Turn in a game, with so many little interactions I don't think I'll be able to remember just from playing. In any case I was content to test out my list, which was as follows:

Galadriel (Leader)

* Galadhrim Warrior w/ Banner, Shield, and Spear

* 4x Guard of the Galadhrim Court

* 6x Wood Elves w/ Elf Bows, Wood Elf Spears

* 7x Wood Elves w/ Wood Elf Spears

The Master of Lake-Town

* 12x Lake-Town Guard

Alfrid the Councilor

* 5x Lake-Town Guard

* 6x Lake-Town Guard w/ Bows

Braga, Captain of the Guard

* 6x Lake-Town Guard

* 6x Lake-Town Guard w/ Bows

 

The idea behind this army is to back up very expendable front-line Warriors with more valuable back-line support, allowing me to win a lot of Fights and only lose 5pt models when I do lose. I also have a heck of a lot of Bows and with Blinding Light I can win almost any Shooting war, especially if I can turn on the Elven Cloaks and make it a one-sided affair. My worries for the army are a lack of a serious fighting Hero, a lot of points sunk into Lake-Town support, and just having such a large amount of models on the table to contend with (57).

My first game was against a very experienced player, Patrick, and his mix of Azog's Hunters and Azog's Legion. He was running Bolg on a Warg, a Gundabad Orc Captain, Fimbul on Warg, 4 Hunter Orcs on Wargs, 4-6 on foot (can't recall), a load of Gundabad Orcs, some with Spears and some with Shelds, as well as a Gundabad Troll. Our Scenario was Seize the Prize with some cramped Deployment Zones due to a large House and Forest on either side.

I badly bungled this game, not being aggressive and allowing Patrick to make it to the Artifact, which he dug up right away. It was then passed to Fimbul eventually who made an end-run around me, thanks to the large house, and eventually got off the board uncontested. I didn't have any space to unpack my army, was too cautious, and made some mistakes due to being unfamiliar with Azog's stuff. I should have prioritized the Cavalry with my Bows but was really struggling to get Line of Sight because I was so boxed in. Fair play to Patrick as he mercilessly exploited my movement failings and cruised to a comfortable, deserved, win. In a more conventional Scenario I might have made a game of it but it wasn't to be this time.

My second game was against Adam and his new hotness, Assault on Lothlórien Legendary Legion. He had a pretty normal list for the army: Muzgur, a Goblin Shaman, Druzhag, a Goblin Captain, and a Wild Warg Chieftain. He also had three Wargs, three fighty Spiders, one Bat Swarm, a load of Goblins (some with Bows, some with Shields), a small amount of Orcs (some with Bows, some with Shields), two Warg Marauders, and a ton of Goblin Prowlers (maybe 8+?) Our Scenario was Domination, fairly normal so I was hoping to see more of how the list would perform in a vanilla game.

Early on I took a battering as I again Deployed questionably and wasn't able to keep Blinding Light on all my army once we closed the gap a bit. All the animals ran down my left flank but I was able to intercept them with a lot of bodies, allowing me to get Traps and crush that part of the army over several Turns, although the Warg Chieftain ate through a ton of my stuff at the same time. Elsewhere my Bows were just not working as my dice were very cold while Adam's were very good, losing me several Elves even with In The Way and needing 6's to Hit! Worst of all I also got Braga shot to death as he wasn't in Blinding Light, really stupid mistake that put me enormously on the back foot.

Seeing that I had the numbers and Fight advantage, even without Elves in most places, I just decided to run down Adam's throat. My idea was to bubble him off of three Objectives, kill or contain all the fast stuff, and let him Quarter me so I'd win (hopefully) or just win the game normally. My dice REALLY picked up once I got some Charges in, I was killing at least 50% of the time on only 1-2 dice. What was most telling was the lack of a Banner for the Evil side, I got SO many cheeky Fight wins because of them.

As the game kept grinding I crushed the left flank and eventually got the Warg under control with Galadriel, it ended up dying to losing a Fight and several Enrage Beast casts. I also pushed the front with my supply of bodies and continually winning Fights, eventually Breaking Adam's army. This was crucial as he'd snuck a few Orcs around my lines onto an Objective but both ran, as did some really bad pieces like a Hero and un-engaged Goblins on their Objective. That Turn I was able to Quarter and won 7-1 (3 Objectives to 0, Broken vs. non-Broken).

The second game went a lot better and the army was able to perform how I wanted. I still struggled to deploy effectively, that means I'll sit down at home with the list this week and practice some go-to formations that I can use. I also think the list needs a change, it was a big deal that I couldn't handle an army with two or more big Hero/Monster threats. I thought Braga had Heroic Strike but alas he doesn't after I looked when I got home, that's just too big of a weakness against very popular armies/models.

I think I'll switch to Lake-Town Survivors, which allows me to take and get use out of Bard and also fill that need for a decent fighter. I like this better for a few reasons: Bard is a great archer which means I can get value out of him all game long, I think I might be able to get away without a Banner in the army which helps with his cost, and I'm decent at preventing him from getting shot which is a major weakness for him. I can also get Warriors with Axes, instead of forcing me to Stab with Defense 4 models.

Overall I think the main point of this army is very sound and I was able to really present a unique threat by combining high Fight supports with a cheap swarm. Galadriel continues to impress, she's just very hard to Wound which is great for a Leader and she's such a cheap, free Will Wizard that you can usually make her points but just shutting down another Hero over and over. Both my opponents were a bit put off by how many models I had without ALL of them being garbage, like you'd see in pure Lake-Town, and the Army Bonuses I'm losing are who cares. I know Lothlórien is seeing more play with Magic being better and better but one dice is barely any defense except on Heroes. Next time I think I'll run this:

Galadriel (Leader)

* 2x Guard of the Galadhrim Court

* 6x Wood Elves w/ Elf Bows and Wood Elf Spears

* 10x Wood Elves w/ Wood Elf Spears

Bard the Bowman w/ Horse

* 6x Lake-Town Militia w/ Bows and Axes

* 12x Lake-Town Militia w/ Axes

Hilda-Bianca

* 4x Lake-Town Militia w/ Bows and Axes

* 8x Lake-Town Militia w/ Axes

Almost as many total models but I think this is a much more well-rounded fighting force. Bard is a dual-threat who will stay in the back except when he can get in safely, I don't like running Sigrid & Tilda because they feel very "win more" and have a serious drawback. Alfrid is decent to Might him up but again, 20pts for an otherwise useless model when I prefer numbers. I'd see about including him at some point though depending. I also really like Hilda, she provides a Spear and her +1 to Wound is actually great with a swarm list, if I'm killing models things get scary VERY fast. I love Axes compared to Swords since I can punch up to Strength 4 and rely on the Elves/Bard Banner to win, minimizing the horrible Fight value of the Militia. Lastly I would play this army into some Maelstrom of Battle Scenarios whereas the previous list.....hard pass.

Hopefully next week I'll be without proxies and have tons of painted models so I can get to some proper reporting. See you then!