500 points tournament in Barrie's Bay, Ont. Games were 1h 15m time limit. Prizes were terrain pieces + miniatures, and a coffee gift card for last position (I was aiming for that one). Traveled 4 hours for this, there are very few opponents in Montreal where I'm from. Ran a Morannon Orc army, result: 1W-3L-1D
Wasn't the worst record there out of 12 players
Here are the armies plus a short summary. Sorry for the phone cam quality.
My Morannon Orc Boyz led by Gothmog & two Captains, no wizards, no shooting, all meat and potatoes.
For the most part I blame my dice rolls for 3 out of the 5 games played, but I did make noob mistakes utilizing them. Gothmog died only once (and fled once) and my captains suffered only one death , very durable heroes.
Warg army led by a named Wraith of some sort.
Muster of Rohan with Eorl
My first game: capture an object and carry it off the table edge or hold it when time expires. I was afraid he was going to position his cav to take it, he didn't. I made a noob mistake of marching too far out and close to the enemy line that he charged behind my left flank (1st lesson learned). Bad start! Was getting hammered throughout the entire game until 2nd to last turn an unlikely orc picked up the object. Last turn that orc was swarmed by Eorl and warriors, knocked down and but survived giving me my only victory of the day!
Last Alliance with Gil-Galad
Mordor with Khamul & Mouth of Sauron. Placed 4th overall (considered 3rd because of a tie for 1st).
2nd match: Objective is to score points through killing models or having opponent expend fate. He feared my orc battle line so much that he backed away. This was an even match but he was off to a good start by straight up killing Gothmog in the first round of combat after transfixing him. He had a small army though so I was swarming him. Swarmed his Mouth of Sauron but he just wouldn't die. Managed to kill Khamul in the last turn but far too late as time expired and I couldn't continue my swarm. So he won by a 2:1 ratio.
Woodland Realm
Arnor + Elladan & Elrohir; Tied for first place, don't know which else is 1st or 2nd. Got my vote for best painted army.
3rd game: Hold ground at center and each model close to it at the end of the match scores victory points. Deployment was strange in this one, but I deployed very well where my opponent lucked out. I reached the center first and tried to hold it but my orcs just collapsed in on itself with poor dice rolls while Elladan & Elrohir managed to crush a warband through charging with heroic combat (2nd lesson learned: don't swarm a mounted hero that just charged first, leave him be). Managed to kill one of the pesky elf twins but to no avail.
Harad
More Mordor with Dark Marshal and Shelob
Gundabad led by The Necromancer
(No pic)
4th game: I got annihilated. Objective, Domination capture five zones. I thought I had this because he had a small army but I remembered, Sauron = trouble. I just didn't know how much, so unfamiliarity lost me this. I place my warbands in rank & file as usual. I though screw the objectives, charge Gothmog down the center, and each of my captains at the sides to overwhelm the smaller force. Look up Chill Soul spell, enough said of that embarrassment as I was emotionally resigned 3 turns in. Only got 2 kills. (3rd lesson learnt, stagger formations against Necromancer)
Lothlorien led by Haldir + Rumil. Won best painted army.
5th game: (4th lesson, elves are annoying as .... when you're playing as orcs F3) Objective, break the other force and victory points through banners. Now this is officially a draw, but in hindsight he killed my banner which I believe scores him a victory point. D'oh well... His Warbands were 5 archers, numerous court guards, and 2 giant eagles. Alright, eagles made my warbands take staggered formations, ignored the archer who are far off, ignore the eagles because of puny orc courage versus terror, concentrate on the guards to break his force, easy peasy right? I had his guards swarmed for three full turns and he kept "Shielding" (special rule) and rolled 6's. I had 3 on 1's, 4 on 1's, 7 on 1's!!! I had to remind myself I was in a church... Killed Haldir's brother at last but by the last turn the elves were only one away from breaking, so it was ruled a draw. We totally forgot about points for my killed banner, which reminds me (5th lesson, banners are more trouble than they're worth, especially when you forget to re-roll failed fights, and when fighting higher F value armies).
In conclusion, very fun yet also frustrating when most of the times dice rolls don't go my way. Had to keep myself from raging in a church basement when a mass was going on, on top. Worth the travel time since I don't get a chance to play very often.
Barrie's Bay, Ontario, Canada
