Anyway…we played 750 points so that we might actually complete more than just a couple of turns. We restricted our lists such that there was only the possibility for one Epic Hero and one Legendary formation for each of us.

My army:

• Haldir
• Wood Elves w/logbows x2
• High Elf Archers x2
• High Elf Regiment x3
• High Elf Cohort x2 + Captain
• Ent

Bill’s army:

• Lurtz
• Ugluk’s Raiders x3
• Uruk-Hai w/shields x3
• Uruk-Hai w/crossbows x2
• Wargs w/bows x4
• Isengard Troll

I learned my lesson from last time Bill and I played: don’t spend too many points on Epic Heroes! I chose Haldir for his Epic Shot and his 75-point cost. This allowed me to have more infantry to counter his army’s ability to seriously outnumber me. Again, we just played “Kill Em’ All!” as I think we still feel like we’re getting used to the rules.

I won priority for deployment, so I decided to go first and deploy first. I chose the side of the table where Bill had placed some forests so that I could use them as defensible terrain. I deployed pretty standard where I arrayed my units pretty evenly across the table. I’m thinking in the future, I may mix this up a bit to try and get flank charges.

He moved close enough with Ugluk’s Raiders and the Wargs where the HE Archers and Wood Elves could fire on them. The Wood Elves took out one Warg and the HE Archers took out maybe 2 Uruks. He had to move the crossbows, so they didn’t fire and the Wargs took down a Wood Elf or two (Dammit! I think I forgot their Enchanted Cloaks again!).

Next turn I won priority again and decided to go first. One thing I know would have changed the game would have been to get the Ent out there and into combat. I hid him behind the Wood Elves for a while because I was afraid of the crossbowmen. Per the usual, the HE Regiment and HE Cohort moved right up the middle to face his Uruks and his units did the same. In shooting, I managed to score 5 hits and used a Might point to make it 6 so I could get rid of 3 Wargs instead of two, allowing me to roll 2D3 for push back; a total of 4 inches. The HE Archers fired into the Raiders again, killing maybe 1 Uruk. His crossbowmen fired at the Wood Elves, killing a couple thanks to the defensible terrain. I don’t believe the Wargs did any shooting that killed anything.

As always, here’s where things get a bit fuzzy. The next turn the Wood Elves left the safety of the woods to try and get close enough for Epic Shot on the crossbowmen. His Wargs went into hiding for fear of the Wood Elves shooting. The ent remained hidden behind the Wood Elves (to the dismay of Bill, who feels like monsters should not be able to be screened by infantry; sorry, dude, them’s the rules). The HE Cohort managed to charge the Troll. Lurtz’s unit failed its Terror test, preventing it from charging the HE Regiment. Ugluk’s Raiders also failed their Terror test, but used Ugluk’s ability to pass the test, but lose 4 guys. Haldir was finally able to pull off Epic shot into the crossbowmen, and with the help of the Wood Elf shooting, drove them back a few inches after killing several. In all the hand-to-hand combats, the Elves lost and ended up Disordered. One turn one of the units actually remained Disordered for the whole turn. I then found out how much it sucks to be disordered. The Ent finally came out and charged the Troll and the two of them inflicted no damage on the other.

In the end, I lost every unit except the Ent. It seems I need to work on my tactics a bit more. From what I’ve read on places like Warseer, the Elves should be using their superior movement to get flank charges. I think one of my problems is that I just trudge my soldiers across the field head-on into the enemy. Next time I will try to work on that. I also have the Galadhrim Knights, so next time I might have the speed to pull that off a bit better. Oh, and I won’t hide the Ent either!! Turns out Bill’s army total came to 790 points, but I don’t think 40 points would have made a difference in the outcome.

The awesome thing about this particular battle is that we only had to look up very situational rules, which made the game go much quicker and was a lot more fun. We both agree, though, that Games Workshop needs to put out an FAQ for this game to clear up some ambiguities.

Bill, if you’re reading this, thanks for another great game!

Here’s my list:

• 3x High Elf Regiment
• 3x High Elf Archer Regiment
• 3x High Elf Cohort (w/Captain – can’t pass up 3 Might!)
• 3x Gildor’s Household
• Ent
• Glorfindel
• Elrohir
• Elladan
• Galadriel
• Legolas

Here’s a gross estimation of his list:

• 4x Warg Riders
• 3x Ugluk’s Raiders
• 2x Isengard Troll
• 4x Uruk-Hai w/Pikes
• 3x Uruk-Hai w/shields
• 3x Uruk-Hai Crossbowmen
• 3x Uruk-Hai w/Shields
• Lurtz
• Saruman

I realized about mid-way through the game that I only paid 200 points for the 3 companies of Gildor’s Household, which should have been 280 points. However, after discussing with Bill the cost of Legendary formations, I know he underpaid for Ugluk’s Raiders, so it all evened out in the end. So, it probably should have been a 1,700 point game.

We decided to play a “pitched battle” again as we are still unfamiliar with the rules. I rolled higher than he did for deployment, so he had priority the first turn. In movement, he mostly just moved his units forward. Fortunately for me, Saruman was out of range to use any of his spells. My units moved forward to prepare for shooting. Gildor cast the spell that gave his unit +1 Shoot. Galadriel couldn’t figure out anything to cast. In shooting, he couldn’t fire his crossbows since he moved. The HE Archers fired into the Crossbowmen, killing 3. Gildor’s Household fired into Lurtz’s Uruk-Hai unit and killed maybe two.

Next turn, he won priority and decided to move first. He moved his units forward again and this time Saruman was well within range to lay some hurt. He cast all three spells available to him fron the Ruin list and managed to kill 3 Cohort, the Ent, and cause the Cohort’s Shields to be unusable that turn. He rolled 6s for the effect on two of the spells. My units moved forward very little. Gildor’s Household moved back a bit to prevent Lurtz’s unit from getting too close. He cast the spell to push the unit back and spent a Might to bring the effect roll to a 6. The total they had to move back was 6″. I turned the HE Archers to face Lurtz’s unit. Galadriel cast some spells to reduce Courage and Strength of the Pikemen and used all her Might to make the rolls beneficial (I was rolling terribly!).  In the Shooting phase, his Crossbowmen killed 3 of my HE Archers, Gildor’s household failed to kill anyone in Lurtz’s unit and the HE Archers only did one better on their round of shooting (55 dice and only one sequence of 6 and then 4+). In the Charge Phase, the Cohort Commander called a Heroic Charge and the Uruk-Hai passed their Courage test (even with the -1). Glorfindel called a Heroic Charge and Ugluk tried to interrupt it. Bill won the roll to have Ugluk go first, but failed the Courage test to charge Glorfindel before he charged the Troll. Unfortunately the Troll passed the Courage test. The Warg Riders came in and charged the HE Regiment in the rear. In the following Fight phase, my Cohort lost lots of guys to the Pikemen. I tried to have my HE Cohort Commander duel his Captain, but they tied on the duel, even after spending Might to try exceed his total. The HE Regiment was left with 3 guys and they only killed one or two Uruk-Hai. I realized later that the 3 men left should have been pulled off the table since they were a lone company at less than 50%. Glorfindel put down the Troll he was fighting and sustained no wounds in return. At this point we called the game since it was getting late and (I think) it was clear my army was going to fall.

In hindsight, I’ll try using less Epic Heroes and more infantry as it seems I spent a great deal of points on them this go-around.

It was a pretty cool game. We learned a few more rules and with our knowlege gained from the previous game, we had less things to look up.

A few rules ambiguities that caused issues were:

1) Can a formation step backward without having to turn around?

2) Does a formation have to fight the enemy to their front if they have enemies in the rear as well?

I really like this game and I’d like it more if some rules were FAQ’d to keep weird stuff from happening. I hope to get to play it more. Bill wants to try their beginner-level game of 750 points and only one Epic Hero, so we’ll probably do that next. There’s also a group up on the north side playing on Thursdays, so I’ll probably go there next week.