4/24/2024 - The Battle for Bridgetown
Hey Everyone!
Last weekend I made my way up to Beaverton, Oregon, for their North-West Hobbit League 100 Point event, spanning 5 rounds at 700 points. A ticket to the North-West Hobbit League Masters event was also on the table for the winner of this event, taking place the weekend of Clash on the Coast, Canada's biggest GT, taking placing in October in Vancouver.
My list:
As you can see, it was pretty similar to my Adepticon list, with the only notable change being that Frida's warband was subbed out for Vrasku and two crossbows. I had to make cuts to get down to 700, and being that this was a non-Veto event, I wanted to be prepared with some ranged and march, so Vrasku fit in perfectly in that role. Since my numbers did drop, I swapped out the second banner from the other list in order to get another Crebain, which was very important as I will explain later. But with that, let's go over my matches! Noting ahead that I was extremely bad with getting pictures of my tables, with the first two games having the excuse of armies arriving via board edge, and the last two me being too in the zone.
Game 1: Pool 1: Hold Ground vs Riders of Theoden (Boone).
I had been complaining about not playing Rohan at Adepticon, and while it was mostly an attempt and reverse-psychology tricking the dice gods, so that I continued to not play Rohan, this time they saw through my ruse. Unfortunately for them, in a lot of ways, it was a reverse-reverse-psychology, as my army can do particularly well against all mounted Riders of Theoden due to hatred, might, and Saruman. My opponent ended up winning the first priority, and through some luck and a bit of might, ended up in a ball of riders for a good position to cut to the middle with, though with a straggler of Grima hiding admidst the riders, sapping Theoden. Saruman spent two might right off the bat searching for a sorcerous blast disruption, and found his mark, blasting a Rider of Rohan into Dernhelm, and through pure random luck, after killing the Rider with the blast, and not wounding Eowyn or Merry, they took a wound each from being knocked flying, failing all their fate, Merry passing onto the next life immedietly, and Eowyn on death's door. Turn two saw Saruman blasting a Grima impacted Theoden into two Riders, dismounting him as well, and killing another Rider, while Vrasku traded two might, having spent one to arrive in a good elevated spot along the edge, to finish off Dernhelm. Once Theoden was dismounted, and might was waning, Isengard pushed in and killed off all the Riders, with a lone dismounted Royal Guard surviving after the game ended the second turn of Rohan breaking, for a 12-0 victory to me.
Opponent's list:
Game 2: Pool 5: Reconnoitre vs Minas Tirith (Phil S)
Off my high of taking back the lands Rohan stole, I ended up rolling into Elessar, Hurin and two bolt throwers, a very difficult combination for my army to face, with a big hero with an elven blade that I do not want to strike off with, and some serious firepower and can mow down my lines with ease. My one advantage was the scenario being heavily in my favor. To start, I put Grima with Hurin, and although he trapped him in at first, it cost four, then three models a few turns to keep him pinned, me escaping once with help from Saruman, and then ultimately dismount running off the board to escape a second time. Saruman, his warband, and the two Crebain ran up one flank, contesting one of the Bolt Throwers, along with Hurin's warband, Hurin having ran to join Elessar and his warband, who had been marching up the other flank. Through a lucky heroic move tie win, I was able to get the Crebain off the edge, for an early 3-0 model lead, and with the 9 might I left on the other side, and a number of bodies, was able to hold Elessar's forces from running any models off in time before I was quartered, ending with a lone Saruman on the field of battle, suffering a wound the last turn, to secure an 8-2 win, as we were both broken.
Opponent's list:
Game 3: Pool 4: Lords of Battle vs The Beornings (Sarah M)
This was a terrifying matchup for me to see for round 3. Not only is it a rough scenario for my army, since it is so spammy with low troop quality and a lot of wounds to be taken, with up to 66 on the table, but the Beornings are a particularly good army for extracting that from me. As seen, there was a very tight deployment, with this center avenue being where the whole battle took place. Grima deployed with Beorn, looking for a hiding spot that he could sit all game without being hurled in to, and almost did not move from that spot the whole time. I was hoping for a first turn priority, in order to prevent a bear transformation with magic, but was not quite so lucky. After that, however, the dice just decided my opponent had to lose. While I did roll a fair number of sixes, I do not feel I rolled particularly hot, though certainly better than average, however unfortunately, my opponents dice decided to play by golf rules, and look for low results. Even something as easy as wounding a Wild Man who pierced on 2s with a 2 handing burly Beorning resulted in snake eyes. Either one or zero bear saves worked, and Saruman was successful in casting almost every time, while Grima sapped two might from Heroic Moves from both bears. I won almost every priority and roll off, and when I did not win priority, I had might to spare to call moves, always having board control. Gorulf and a swarm took down an unfortunately trapped Grimbeorn, then on the final turn, took down Beorn who was alone and surrounded, for a 10-0 table, as I doubled but could not triple the Beornings. This was definitely not the typical outcome for this matchup, and left me pretty anxious in general, both from now being 3-0, and also the adrenaline/fear from the match-up itself, as it definitely threatened to end going all the way in the tourney for me.
Opponent's list:
Game 4: Pool 2: Breakthrough vs Angmar (Markus H - The Durin Show)
I knew I was going to be facing one of the Hammonds, having only avoided a matchup in one of the tourneys were one or more were present, and this time it was Markus, playing Angmar, a tough match-up for Isengard in general, compounded by a pretty rough mistake I made on the first turn. Fun fact, a couple months after I started playing, Markus was my first match up in my first tournament, at the Dallas Open in 2022, a couple weeks after he won Adepticon 2022, though I think that that match was one of the, if not the most, fun matchups I have had in MESBG. Turn one was rough for me. I deployed very aggressively along the center-line, Markus taking a defensive position near his back objective, my goal was to rush in, and either murder everything, or die trying and attempt to win off the middle and my objective by quartering myself. Unfortunately, I took first priority, really not wanting it, and Saruman rolled a 3 high to command Gully towards the corner of the map, Gully resisting with his free die. My big mistake here was firstly not dismounted Saruman, as I could have taken advantage of a house to hide behind, and not quite keeping a Crebain hidden from a Spectre, who then sent it in to the open where Gully heroic combated off to kill a visible Saruman. From that point, the game was practically over for me, so while my plan of getting myself killed to end it was still the plan, it was to mitigate the loss and hope for a minor loss. This did not work, as Markus caught on after a few meaningless pierces, and slowed the game down with shielding. Gully did end up in a rough spot after Saruman, winning a heroic move off to go after Grima, who managed to out-duel the Terror of Angmar, and actually strike a wound on him, though in the long run, the Oathmaker and his warband, who went to trap in Gully, did not manage to take him down, and things fell apart rather quickly resulting in a 0-11 loss.
Opponent's list:
Game 5: Pool 3: Destroy the Supplies vs Last Alliance (Jake D)
Well it finally happened. Jake and I flew 900 miles in order to face each other in the final match, and in the scenario we had our practice game in no less. The stakes were high for this match, as we were fighting for third place, and since two of the four players at the two tables above us already had a ticket, the Masters ticket was on the table as well. I was tempted to keep Grima on my side during this game, and realistically, I should have, Grima getting trapped in all game, with no opportunities to escape and cause shenanigans. Jake's list did not have many bows, so I felt confident using Vrasku to block march a large portion of my army straight up the middle the first turn, cementing myself in the center to try and hold out. Jake's mobile forces went for a flank around terrain for my supplies, and I had my Crebain sit back to defend, with no opportunity for them to jump over and go for his supplies, and we stood off in the corner till the end, as lines clashed in the middle. Ultimately, from winning just a ton of priorities, and just barely being able to outlast Jake, my army quartered, for the game to end. Isildur had Heroic Combated in to kill the Oathmaker, but unfortunetly, this left him open to Gorulf, who after winning a Heroic Move tie roll, ran in to a might-less Isildur, and killed him with a Heroic Strike, Isildur not having had a chance to put the ring on, earning my leader VPs. Saruman, with some help from a few wildmen to tag models, was able to grab both of his banners with Sorcerous Blast casts, earning me 2 VPs for my banner remaining, who hid in the back the whole time, not even impacting a single fight. Vrasku did do something this game, being little more than a might battery in earlier matches, and took out a Wildman who Erestor and a bunch of dudes was fighting, to prevent a Heroic Combat that would've swept through a lot of my forces. I did break fairly quickly, and was unable to break Jake, which resulted in a final score of 4-2.
Opponent's list:
With that victory, I managed to finish at 4-1, with 15 TPs, 34 total VPs gained, 5 lost, and a third place finish. As luck would have it, the other matches resulted in first being Markus and second with Richard (Into the West), both of whom already had earned a Master's ticket, which meant I got the ticket!
A very competitive tournament, with lots of fine players in attendance. I am happy I went, only deciding just outside a month before to go, since I managed to find a cheap enough flight. I am pretty happy with my performance, though I won't lie, running that many models and composition is a very unexpectedly straining time. There is a lot to think about with every action, even when it seems like it is just run in and hit stuff. While I do like how it has been playing out at 700-750, I likely am moving away from the style for a bit, mostly to get a break, but also to test out new lists for the Masters tournament, having 6 months to prepare for it. I definitely am happy that I have been able to bring Isengard into the top tables twice so far this year, something that it typically does not do, especially not in a Legendary Legion.
You can check out the full standings and results of matches here:
https://middle-earth.longshanks.org/event/14585/
Thank you all for reading!
-Scott
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