First Tournament in the New Edition
After a month of having this new edition I was finally able to attend a bigger event with the new system. I got in 13 games with practice with the list I took. I will be going over every game in depth with my analysis of what my opponent made mistakes with as well as what I did.
To start before tournament day lets look at the build up. Originally I was looking at running my Mirkwood ranger force with Fili, Kili, Gloin, and the elves. I was enjoying the list as it deployed semi close took a round of shooting then went in and used its heroes to chop through the opponent. I continued to play this until I faced a Balrog in Fog of War and saw that when i didn't have a enemy hero i could shoot out that was at the balrogs level I would lose almost every time. I tried and tried but the list just couldn't compete versus that style of list in any scenario. I continued through the Hobbit book and read through the LOTR army book as well... throughout it several things caught my eye... but only one sparked an idea... and as we learned form Nolan's Inception... an idea is like a virus... it consumes... and well... the Rise of the Necromancer idea was born. I went into an old box where I had some old minis and found a bunch of Mirkwood Giant Spiders as well as a few Hunting Spiders. When I looked through the list I really dialed into a few things just on sight. I knew i wanted every single mounted hunter orc I owned in the list. I have 4 that I converted from fell wargs and hunter orcs on foot. I threw all of them in the necromancer and soon realized i really needed a core troop choice. last edition easily the gundabad orc but this edition i didn't really have an easy choice. So I made a simple choice. I wouldn't have a core troop. I took an even spread. I took 7 spiders 8 mounted/cav-ish models and 10 infantry hunter orcs. The list is as follows:
(Leader) The Necromancer 200
4 Mirkwood Spiders 80
4 Hunter orc Warg Riders (1 with bow) 61
2 Fell Wargs 16
3 Hunter orcs 24
Some hero worth 80
3 Mirkwood Spiders 60
2 Fell wargs 16
7 Hunter Orcs with Bow 63
600 points 27 models 8 bows 6 might
Practice Games: Initially I had the keeper of the dungeons as my second hero as his buffs seemed nice and I kinda liked him. After playing a Fog of War against a battle of five armies with bofur on the brute Gloin and Hilda with around 35 models a bunch of iron hills and laketown behind I finally saw just how powerful this list was. After that I immediately made the switch to the Witch King and haven't ever regretted it since. The Witch king is better then the Keeper in every situation and I was so so happy about him and he proved his worth in gold in every single game I played. I then went through and played against 12 over lists including, Minas Morgul, Lothlorien, Numenor, Fornost, Depths of Moria, Rangers of Mirkwood, Mirkwood, Battle of Five Armies, the Eagles and a few others. Through this I learned not just how to play this list to its full but also what its few limits were. I kept almost a game journal of every game noting the strengths and weaknesses of every game and by the end of these games it was at over 10 pages of detailed notes. This was to me ultimately the true success of the list as although I had already submitted my list I knew how to use that list even though I would prefer make some changes. I then spent the week before the event finding a beautiful reaper miniature model to proxy as the necromancer since i do not like the GW one and then i based and painted all my spiders and the necromancer then I was done and ready for this 18 player event.
Round 1: The scenario drawn was Destroy the Supplies. I was drawn against an army consisting of three trolls and a campfire. It had the bonus might he no traps and the extended range on the campfire and one other rule. This game was simple I threw magic out while marching at him then kept hitting him with a bunch of webs until all were out or low on fate then promptly tied them off blocked off the avenues to barge back to their objectives and took all three out in two turns of the lines meeting. I then in the next 3 or 4 turns went one at a time and killed all 3 trolls for a 20-0 board wipe to start the event. A nice scenario and win to start off the event and 2 much harder and more well fought games to finish off the tournament.
Round 2: Scenario was rolled to be Reconnoitre against a Men of the West with Aragorn on horse Legolas and a bunch of tin cans a Rohan banner and 3 or 4 Rohirrim. Turn 1 saw Legolas deploy off to one side and Aragorn not show up. I then got both warbands one and placed them both one on each board side leaving the entire 3 feet of the middle completely open taking 6 inches on each extreme side. Turn two saw the tin cans start to slowly move up and anchor on a terrain piece and Legolas half move. I then ran all my spiders full speed with the cav toward the board edge opposite me letting Legolas have some in the ways on some spiders which was very intentional as my wargs on the other side of the terrain in the open were safe with only 1 wound to start with. I then moved my hunter orcs up full speed with the Mirkwood spiders and fell wargs in the witch kings warband moving full up into some difficult terrain right in front of Aragorn begging him to come into the terrain to fetch them. That one move bought me 2 turns away from Aragorn as he then started trekking him sideways towards a group of fell wargs who used their speed to launch back into the center where they had a straight shot. In the following turns i was able to sacrifice some wargs to move 6 models off in a total of 4 turns from the beginning turn. With 4 spiders gone from the board and all of my cav except one i had lost most of my hitting power. But my opponent used Legolas to just continue shooting taking out some wargs. I just decided it was time to continue working on breaking myself and him so points would be limited to him while quartering myself. This was a difficult task as my quarter point was 6. meaning only 1 model could be on the board of mine as 5 of the 6 that had run off counted towards quarter (1 was a dismounted warg) I then used the necromancer in combination with an orc to combat and kill 3 warriors of minas Tirith while my remaining spiders held ground and got 1 kill. I then got some magic off and started chill souling some models including a cheeky compel the guy touching the banner away from the banner then with the second spell chill souling the banner removing its effect on the weakside without Aragorn thus making me able to remove EVERY enemy model on that board half. Soon i only had 3 models left and Aragorn was almost off the opposing board edge. i quartered with the "death' of the witch king. With a misunderstanding about dismounted models I allowed my opponent to get an additional turn so he could get a further victory point and remove 4 from mine but it ended up as a 9-2 major win. It was a close game and with an unlucky matchup my opponent fought well.
Round 3: At this point I am in the lead and a draw wins me the tournament. I am invited to do the roll for scenario and roll Fog of War. A perfect scenario for the witch king as my support hero. I then find i am paired with the army of carn dum. This build had a troll Aldrac and 2 captains with 7 cav 2 banners and 38 models total. Quite the list. I decided to take the smallest terrain feature on his side target his carn dum captain and obviously protect the witch king. he decided to attack the WK protect that same carn dum cap and take a tower piece. We re on a very very close quartered and confined osgiliath board which is very difficult for my many large bases to move around on. I like terrain with the list but not this much. I knew it would be difficult facing so many models that can get f4 on the charge with a good hero and a troll. I proceeded to continue chill souling the troll and after 5 turns of attempting it on 4 dice every time i finally was able to get it off the table after it took out 2 cav and wounded the witch king once. I then put some curses on both captains removing their will stores and started transfixing Aldrac once the troll disappeared. My spiders took out combined at least 5 of his warg riders. In return for the first two turns getting the charges with my cav and spiders i only won around 2 combats rolling 2 highs on my 3 attack warg riders. By turn 3 i had only 1 warg rider left and about 6 hunter orcs. I also had about 4 fell wargs and 3 spiders. This is where my dice rolling luck reversed and he got the bad luck failing over 20 courage checks to charge my terror spiders and heroes in the last 3 turns. I rant he witch king to my terrain piece and secured 8 victory points. My necromancer was then challenged by Aldrac. I accepted and after losing the first roll off used my last might points the next two turns to win the fights and after failing on 3s to wound on 3 dice the first combat with might i took Aldrac out the next turn securing another 2 victory points in the bag. At this point i have 1 hunter orc and 2 spiders along with the witch king and necromancer. we still do not roll to end and i secure the models to break my opponent after killing both captains with spiders. I fail to get the wounds to break him by 1 model and the game ends. He has retrieved his terrain, and wounded the witch king and broken without being broken by one model leaving him with 9 victory points. I have secured my terrain killed my opponent in combat, kept mine alive, killed his leader for 15 victory points. Securing myself another major with 15-9.
Thus the tournament ended and I walked home with my 4rth win in the past 6 events I have played in and keeping my streak of all podiums (except one) since i started playing the game in 2021. I walked away with a beautiful eye of Sauron trophy and a war of the rohirrim starter pack which i didn't buy and didn't have the rules in hardcopy yet so it all worked out and now I am working on a all infantry Rohan force.
For now it is all looking forward in preparation for our grand tournament in April which is looking at the numbers of upwards of 60. So if you are in the area or willing to travel we would love to see you out in the DFW in Texas for our Grand Event on April 26th-27th. Its all on Best Coast Pairings and we are super stoked. I will be running a very similar list to this one. As of now i am realizing with the terrain features and such more hunter orcs on foot are good and i was surprised that with the nerf they still live up to their value quite well and ultimately those troops may be what won me the event. They performed so well and I am adding more. In future that 600 point list will drop 2 spiders and add 5 hunter orcs. It is an 800 event so i am adding a captain for march as i love the way the list can sprint 15 inches then have 8 inch throwing weapons meaning i can have a threat range of half the board. Additionally i have a few more warg riders to add to the list that i am currently converting up as they were one of my favorite sources of hitting power and are well worth the 15 points. With the 200 points i have all of the hitting pieces i need to take out the heroes with the likes of gwaihirs, aragorns, thorins and such with ease while getting the troop hitting power to take out armies. I cant wait to start running this list and see the lists coming to counter it.
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