Original Air Date: March 23, 2011
For those of you who have seen one of the last battle reports, you know that currently the Dwarves have a record of 1-0 against the Wood Elves. Here, we see a second battle in the tale of Dwarves v. Wood Elves. Gaius is with me again today and will again be controlling the Wood Elves, reveling in the fact that the armies are larger and give him an advantage. Without further ado, here are our participants:
Army of Erebor: 506 points
Dain Ironfoot, King Under the Mountain - 125 points
Balin, son of Fundin with Durin's Axe - 95 points
Gimli, son of Gloin - 90 points
8 Dwarf Warriors with shields - 72 points
6 Dwarf Warriors with Dwarf bows - 54 points
4 Dwarf Warriors with two-handed weapons - 32 points
1 Dwarf Warrior with banner - 38 points
22 units, 6 bows, 3 heroes
The Might of Mirkwood: 507 points
Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood with armor - 95 points
Gandalf the Grey - 170 points
Meriadoc Brandybuck - 10 points
8 Wood Elf Warriors with Elven blades - 80 points
8 Wood Elf Warriors with Wood Elf spears - 80 points
8 Wood Elf Warriors with Elf bows - 72 points
27 units, 8 bows + Legolas, 3 heroes
The Dwarves sport 3 strong melee heroes: Dain and Balin both gain a +1 bonus to their wound dice, which means that they will be wounding the Wood Elf warriors on a 3+ and Legolas and Gandalf of a 4+...that's going to be painful. Both of these heroes also have 3 Will points to use to resist Gandalf's magical attacks (which they both know will be coming). Gimli is the balance between the two units, with either 2 or 3 attacks, depending on his needs (gaining a +1 bonus to wounding rolls if he chooses 2 attacks instead of 3). Legolas will need to not only be killing the high defense Dwarf troops, but also assist his men in wounding the really high defense heroes (Defense 8 or 9). The Elves do have the advantage of numbers and by adding Merry to their line-up, their breaking point has risen to 14 (which would require the deaths of most of their close-combat fighters).
If you are curious about my "Dain" unit, you can read about his conversion here. If I ever played in a tournament game, this would just be a highly-detailed khazad guard (which would still be good and would open up 114 points for other units, like Wood Elf spearmen and bowmen and Legolas if I dropped Balin too).Other conversions are in the works, but none are taking shape as of now.
The Dwarf units have also received a coat of gray paint for their bases, since I like that better than the plain black. I've also added some of my hobby cement to them and sprinkled some shards from a work bench to make small rock mounds for detail (nothing that will give them in-the-way automatically though). Though it's not all I hoped it would be, it suffices and makes me happy (and until it's glossed, there's always time to change it).
A particularly astute observer will notice that Balin has had some touch-ups done since he was last used in one of my scenarios. An even more astute observer will notice that Dain underwent some touch-ups between the close-up pictures on the conversion article and the final group pictures, including the color of his pants. Huh, you say...yes, you didn't notice it. :)
Pre-game set-up:
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We are again playing in a forest format (trying to give the Elves their maximum effectiveness, given that they will be competing against heavily armored Dwarves). They also have 1 more point worth of units, though that's not a huge margin of gain. Furthermore, the game is a Domination game, so there will be three objectives. These objectives are: 1) the rock formation (south objective), 2) the trees with platforms (north objective), and 3) the bridge over the river (central objective). This game, as opposed to other objective games, will end when one force has reached 25% of its starting force (giving both sides the opportunity for a come-back victory instead of the game possibly ending early in an odd spot.
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Both sides roll for placement/first priority, and the roll goes to the Dwarves, who choose first priority instead of placement. The Elves choose the woods and leave my Dwarves with the rocks. I figured I'd get my starting position because Gaius loves the platform trees not only because his units move quickly through the difficult terrain, but also because they give him an unmatched vantage point for Legolas. I personally like the high ground, since it gives my men increased line of sight (perfect for taking out supporting spearmen) and allows them to move down the slopes easily.
Turn 1: The Sounds of War (Priority - Dwarves)
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Both sides move towards each other and the archery phase begins. Gandalf wisely casts blinding light, protecting his men from most archery (free Will point). No one was killed by any archers and the Dwarf banner-bearer successfully avoided being killed by 7 arrows (whew!). Please note that there are six Dwarves coming through the rocks towards the river on the bottom-left side of the map...
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Turn 2: The Rush of the River (P - Elves)
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Gandalf casts terrifying aura (free Will point) and prepares for the battle on the bridge. Two Dwarves drown as they attempt to cross the river with Dain (one is the banner!), which is very sad. You will notice, as I asked you to note earlier, that there are now only 4 Dwarves near the river on the bottom-left side. Please remember that there are 4...
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Two Elf Warriors with bows and Legolas succeed in killing the other three two-handed weapon Dwarves on the shore, making Dain effectively fight alone. You remember how there used to be 4 Dwarves at the bottom-left? Now, it's only Dain...bummer.
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Balin wounds Gandalf once in a fight, but Gandalf saves the wound with a Fate point. The two fights with Elves beside Gandalf are won by the Elves who slay their Dwarf opponents. Not good...7 dead Dwarves, 0 dead Elves (and for the purposes of this game, by "Elves" I include hobbits and men).
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Turn 3: Rally to the Kings! (P - Dwarves)
Though my Dwarves have so far been doing rather pathetically, Balin kills an Elf with a throwing axe (6 to hit, 6 to wound) and proceeds to charge the spearman behind him. Absolutely nothing happened in the archery phase, so we'll skip to the Fight phase.
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Balin calls a heroic combat, as does Dain. Dain ties an Elf on the roll of a 6, but wins the roll-off. He also needs 3+ rolls to kill and pays 1 Might point more to kill all 3 of his opponents. He swims to the shore and springs out of it, reaching the woodland of the Elves. I would like to add that in less than 1 round, the Elves have gone from having no casualties to having 5 (makes up for the first round).
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After paying both of his Might points to win the fight, Balin successfully kills the Elf he was fighting (on the roll of a 3, which happened to just barely kill him). He proceeds to engage against Merry, who is hiding behind Gandalf. This fight is won easily by Balin, who also kills Merry easily, sparing the need to roll a fate point, because he wounded him twice. Gandalf wins his fight and pays a Might point to kill the Dwarf he is fighting. The other Dwarf loses but is not wounded.
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So the one real bummer about water is that you can't shoot while you're swimming, which means that once the Dwarves are on the shoreline, the Elves need to fight them off or get around them without using their throwing weapons. Gimli wins his fight, and pays a Might point to kill his foe (on a 3+ to wound, he rolled two 2s...). I don't know what the likelihood of that happening is, but that's just wrong. An Elf warrior kills the Dwarf near Gimli, using his Elven blade as a two-handed weapon, while the other Elf merely lost his fight. Death count is now as follows: 9 Dwarves, 7 Elves.
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Turn 4: Felling the Ranks Like Trees (P - Dwarves again)
As I have now won priority again, I am determined to keep Gandalf and his men from killing all my Dwarves. As such, I take a chance and engage Gandalf with one of my Dwarf Warriors and have Balin take on the Elf with spear. In the Shoot phase, 3 of the Dwarf archers hit their targets (on a 6), but only 1 managed to wound (on a 4+).
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This picture shows the bridge after combat resolution (sorry for the spoiler). Legolas managed to hit Balin (while in combat, paying 1 Might point) and Balin failed to save the wound with his Fate point. With one wound remaining, Balin wins his fight and kills his opponent (Elven spearman), bringing the Elf casualties to 9. The Dwarf who charged Gandalf beat both Gandalf and the Elf warrior with Elven blade who was helping, but failed to wound the Elf.
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The Dwarf archer here killed his opponent in an unimpressive display (won on a 3 vs. 2, killed on a 4).
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Please excuse the blurriness here. Dain kills the Elf he is fighting and eyes the opportunity to ascend into the woodland fortress on his next turn. Current death count: 11 Elves, 9 Dwarves. This means that the Dwarves are two units away from breaking, while the Elves are three units away from breaking.
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Turn 5: Evening out the Odds (P - Elves)
I hope you will pardon me this much, but Gaius and I were so excited about this round and planning so much, that I forgot to take pictures...we remembered as we were beginning Turn 6, which was too late to move everything back to where it was for picture shots.
The Elves try to engage models strategically, but are spread thin in their attack forces. One Elf even fails to climb out of the river, making it impossible to engage all of the enemy models. Gandalf tries to immobilize Balin, but the spell is resisted by all of Balin's Will points (needed to stop an Immobilize on the roll of a 6). They look for ways to gang up on strategic units and protect their own, since the game ends once one side is reduced to 25% of its size.
Legolas kills a Dwarf on the bridge with a keen arrow, which not only brings the Dwarves close to their breaking point, but also keeps an Elf from potentially dying.
In combat, the Elves failed to kill any other units, but Dain killed his man, Gimli killed his man, and Balin won his fight and wounded Gandalf (saved though by a second Fate point). The Elves have lost 13 units (1 unit away from breaking and 6 units from reaching 25%). The Dwarves have lost 10 units (1 away from breaking, and are 6 units away from reaching 25%).
Turn 6: The End is Near (P - tied, Dwarves)
Seeing as Gandalf is stopping all my archery, I engaged as many archers as I could into combat. Balin is surrounded, which could end very badly.
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In the shoot phase, Legolas shot at Dain and failed miserably. The other Elves fail to wound the only Dwarf that is both visible and not in combat. Dain would not only lose the Fight he is in, but he will also be wounded by the archer he is fighting (rolled 2 6s to wound) and would spend both Fate points trying to save that wound...yikes.
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Two Dwarves near Balin win their fight, but fail to wound the Elf they face. Balin wins his fight and kills one of the Elves he was facing. WHEW!
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Two Dwarf archers near Gimli kill an Elf spearman and Gimli and his friend kill their opponent. No other casualties near them. At this point, the Elves have lost 16 units and the Elves are 3 units away from losing the game (and have lost their advantages on all 3 objectives). The Dwarves, however, remain 6 units away from losing the game.
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Turn 7: Woe to the Woodland Warriors (P - Dwarves, yet again)
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Ok, I'm really happy right now, because as you can see from this map, most of the units remaining have gray bases. The Elves have the following forces: two Elves in each set of trees, two Elves and Gandalf on the bridge, and two Elves in the water. One Elf from the bridge and one from the woods flee the battle and Dain takes on Legolas (finally having an opponent worthy of a king). The Shoot phase was unproductive because only two units were able to participate. Neither did anything, so we're skipping them...
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This one's blurry too, I know. Gimli has now come to the bridge and wins his fight against Gandalf and wounds him (burning his last Fate point). Two Dwarves beat their Elf opponent again and this time, they kill him. Balin loses his fight, but is not wounded.
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Two Dwarves kill their opponent in the river (Elf on left), while the other Elf beats the Dwarf archer back (not killing him).
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Legolas beats Dain, but neither he nor his Elf companion can beat Dain's high defense (the archer was touching but just before taking the picture, I bumped the woods and didn't want to take another picture). They are forces to back away from their opponent. The Elves have been driven below their 25% mark and the Dwarves have won a minor victory by securing 2 of the 3 objectives (since they have complete dominance over the south objective and outnumber the Elves 5-to-2 at the center objective (and outnumber the Elves in total points-worth of units at all 3 objectives). On a side note, I like this picture because you can see the shining mithril armor of Dain really really well!
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Conclusion:
Tiberius's assessment: My. Dwarves. Rock! I'm really happy that even though they were outnumbered and lost a lot of troops in the second round that the heroes really came through and killed lots of their opponents. Thankfully, I got priority most of the time, which brought the Elves into a bad position. The river also prevented most of the Elves from using throwing weapons, and thankfully their archers were not nearly as effective as when they fought against the Uruk-Hai in one of our other battles.
Gaius's assessment: The Elves had a hard day. We were close to breaking the little hairy blokes, but we would have needed to break the Dwarves and gain priority during the next turn, or it would have been difficult keeping the Dwarf heroes from rallying their troops. With three high-defense heroes, it takes a really effort to crack them. Tiberius is already talking about another game between Elves and Dwarves, and in that game, I'll be gunning for the heroes with my early archery instead of the warriors (since it doesn't seem to matter who I shoot). It was a little entertaining seeing a few of the Dwarves drown, particularly since my units couldn't (except Legolas, who wasn't going near water).
Star unit for the Dwarves: shield warriors. These guys held the line. The warriors near Balin didn't last long, but the shield-bearing fighters in Gimli's company did well to keep the Elves away from the Dwarf objective. This was really helpful, since their success allowed the Dwarves to overwhelm the bridge. Unfortunately, the Dwarf archers were unable to perform because of Gandalf's Cast Blinding Light, though they won 3 out of 5 close-combat fights (and killed 2 Elves in those fights). The Dwarves with two-handed axes were all killed by Elven bodkins (though one drowned) before they were able to take four steps into the water, so that was a bit...depressing. It therefore is a no contest as to which unit was the most helpful (though each of the heroes did an amazing job).
Star unit for the Elves: archers. Supporting Legolas was a good company of archers, who not only killed two Dwarves in the second round of archery, but one archer also wounded Dain in close combat (which is impressive). The swordsmen were helpful on the bridge, but less helpful elsewhere (having 1 kill only). The spearmen were more-or-less unhelpful, with one spearman depleting the Might points of Balin and another surviving two attacks from multiple Dwarves near the river. But with these as the competition, it is clearly the archers who carried the day for the Elves.
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