Mordor vs Angmar

Tim and I played a game of LOTR on Sunday. This was another prep game for our upcoming Indy LOTR GT that we are hosting in July. Tim took his ringer Mordor army and I took version 4 of my Angmar force. The scenario was Contest of Champions. The goal was for your champion to get more kills than your opponents champion.

Tim's force consisted of an Orc captain, standard, Mordor Troll, a few Warg riders and a mess of orcs. Model count was in the 60 range.

My force consisted of Buhrdur, 2 cave trolls, 2 barrow wights and a bunch of orcs. Model count was about 40.

The battlefield, as you can see above, had a river, some trees and a few hills. The river was only difficult ground. Tim chose the side without the river. I had trouble deciding the best way to deploy with the river running right through my zone.

Being heavily out numbered I decided to place the bulk of my force behind the river with a small group, including one troll on the other side of the river. My plan was to use the river to slow down the hoard and then pick out the nice fights. Plans are pointless.

Tim deployed in a straight line and covered most of the 4' board. He had his warg riders on his left and the troll in the center. He had his champion in the rear of his line and this to prove a big problem later in the game.

The first couple of turns were spent moving into contact. Tim tried some massed archery tricks but they failed to score any wounds. The wargs made contact very quickly but were occupied the entire game clearing away the orcs on my right.

By the mid point of the game I have finally taken position behind the river. Tim paused for a turn in front of the river to see if I would cross. Instead I threw stones with Buhrdur and the cave troll, scoring a wound on the Mordor troll.

Tim moved forward and the Mordor troll was quickly paralysed by one of the barrow wights. He spent most of the remainder of the game unable to move. I, however, was unable to capitalize on this advantage.

After several turns of fighting the forces of Angmar were dying a very quick death. I desperately tried to get Barhdur into close combat so that I could get some kills. Tim's orc scouts had been harassing the troll chief all game and had managed to get 2 wounds on him.

Buhrdur broke through the Mordor line and got into contact with the enemy. Finally, I was going to get to unleash some slaughter! Tim's champion was so far out of the fight by this time it was unlikely he would get any kills. All I needed was one or two and victory would be mine!

Tim fired desperately into the combat between Buhrdur and a Mordor Urak. The last archer scored a wound on the giant troll and Buhrdur fell. The battle was over.

We called the game at that point. We were very nearly to the 2.5 hour mark and Tim was too far away with his captain to get any kills. It ended as a draw. This was a really fun but stressful game. My dice rolling was very poor all game and this made it impossible to make any headway. Being out numbered by 20 models also meant I was unlikely to be able to go toe to toe. I feel very lucky to have gotten a draw. Tim should have been able to get a major victory without too much trouble but leaving his leader in the rear meant he was never in combat.