Lord of the Rings Indy GT - Results

This last weekend was the first ever Indy GT for the Lord of the Rings. It was a blast; the organizers (Tim and Dean) did a great job and provided for a great time. I'm really liking this game, I just wish there was a group that played it down here.

Edit - Here's the list I took:

• Easterling Captain (HW/Shield)
• Easterling Captain (HW/Shield)
• Easterling Captain (HW/Shield, Armored Horse)
• Easterling Warrior x14 (HW/Shield)
• Easterling Warrior x11 (Bow)
• Easterling Warrior x8 (Spear/Shield)
• Easterling Kataphrakts x10
  

The Results

I wound up placing 3rd overall, and took home 2nd place for Best General. I was really pleased with how I did. Anthony, whose Uruk-Hai I painted and whom I convinced to play this game in the first place a couple of months ago, came in second and won Best General.

1st Game

I played John Long and his Grey Company led by Aragorn. The mission was Reconnoiter, which requires you to get more models off your opponent's deployment zone than he can get off of yours. The cavalry on my right flank dealt with the detachment ahead. My right detachment dealt with what was in front of them. My middle detachment acted as free safeties who eventually slowed down Aragorn down when his body guard were shot down. I got one model off (a dismounted cavalry) and managed to break the Grey Company (at 50% of starting strength - triggered this particular scenario's end) before Aragorn could get off the board.

Result: Major Victory

Game 2

This game was Storm the Camp, which ends when you have more models than your opponent within 12" of your opponent's deployment corner. If you do this and are not broken, its a major victory. I played Mike's Uruk-Hai.

I sacrificed my infantry to go toe-to-toe with his block of Uruks. This took pressure off of my infantry who only had to deal with some crossbow uruks and a handful of swords- and pikemen. In what turned out to be the final turn of the game I managed to get one of my cavalry to charge one of his pikemen in his deployment zone. His pikemen was in his deployment zone by about 1/2 an inch. I charged in such a way that if I won the fight (regardless if I killed the model) I would push the Uruk out of the 12" zone. I won the fight and won the game. It was kind of a phyrric victory considering I killed about 6 models and he killed about 18.

Result: Major Victory

3rd Game

This last game of Saturday was against Eric Carlson's Haradrim. He had three Hasharim (crazy Assassins) and the Witch King on Fellbeast - Yikes! The mission was Meeting engagement, where you have to get your opponent to 25% of their starting size. I thought I would have this game pretty handily since I almost outnumbered him 2-1, and he has a bunch of Defense 4 dudes. What I didn't count on was his ability to roll 6's to kill my cavalry like a champ. Once I closed with him, I had 3 out of 11 cavalry left.

That evened the odds quite a bit. I broke his force first but no one ran. Next turn he broke me, and his Witchking throws out a -1 Courage aura, which forced plenty of my models to run. On our last turn enough of his models and enough of mine ran away that we were both reduced to 25% at the same time.

Result: Draw

Game 4

No pic for this one. It was over before it started. This was against Anthony and his Uruk-Hai. The mission was Treasure Hunt. There's a marker in the middle of the table. You have to get a model in base with it, and on a 4+ the model uncovers the treasure. To win you have to carry the treasure off the board.

This game was over in 22 minutes. My cavalry reached the marker in two turns, my Captain on horse picked it up right away. Although he had to dismount to dig it up, and lost his horse from then on. I then won priority the next two turns and moved all of my forces back, Anthony conceded at that point, because no matter what happened in the next two turns I would be able to get the treasure off the table, and he would be unable to break my force.

Result: Major Victory

Game 5

This game was against the "Ringer." Frank flew in from Tampa and is a major player on the LotR tournament circuit; he brought his Mordor force. The mission was Contest of Champions, where you nominate a character who has to kill more models than your opponent's character does.

It was a great game, and Frank used his placement in the terrain to draw me in to some unfavorable positions. As the battle lines finally met I felt pretty good about the standup fight that would ensue had my Captain not been killed, but alas... His Wringwraith more than earned his points transfixing my captain (basically nerfing his combat effectiveness - allowing him to be easily surrounded and cut down). My captain died without killing a single model, and as soon as Shagrat (his nominated character) killed one Easterling, that ended the game.

I asked for some advice after the game, and got some good tips about how to better use my archers (I've known that I haven't been using to their full effectiveness for quite a while), and being more patient with my cavalry captain in the scenario. All in all, I think I learned a lot from that game and am hopefully walking away a better player.

Seriously... consider giving Lord of the Rings a chance. I consider myself a pretty hardcore 40k and Fantasy gamer, and LotR is really worth getting into.

I need to get back to working on my guardsmen. I'm visiting my family in Albuquerque right now, so I've planned to get behind schedule. I brought some stuff with me to build at least. I'll post some pics of my officers who I built the other night, but still need to be painted.