To the Death! Dwarves and Eagles vs Haradrim

Welcome to another lord of the rings strategy battle game battle report!

Today my brother chose the points total (600 points) and then we put together our forces. Lastly we rolled for a random scenario. We got "To the death!" Pretty self explanatory really.

Good news for me! I had a very small force, but a fun one! Two warbands of dwarves and one of giant eagles. Finally a chance to get my three painted eagles into battle! Just to keep the minimalist theme going I also took Etako and four Khazad bodyguards and Brynmor with three Vault Warden teams. 

Can't remember the exact forces my brother took, but he had almost twice the number of troops!

We divided the map diagonally instead of horizontally so that the water didn't disadvantage anyone.

Again, the new warband system made for a great deployment phase, with both of us trying to get in close nice and early!

Lets run through the participants... here's The Betrayer with some Watchers of Karna.

And facing the Nazgul is Brynmor with three Vault Warden teams. The watchers may have two attacks each, but so do my teams and they have the added bonus of defence 9!

The Harad Chieftain here had a small bodyguard, including a serpent guard with a poisoned weapon. 

The three eagles deployed to take advantage of the woods, outside of cavalry charge range, but within their own flight range... nice =)

Etako took position in the central ruins with a screen of bodyguards.

The evil Hasharin deployed to the side of the ruins, nastily near Etako's flank.

And Suladan came charging on with some raiders, including a very important banner. If I don't kill the banner, he'll net free victory points as I don't have one at all!

The first turn begins in earnest, the dwarves win priority (my special skill apparently) so The Betrayer uses a precious might point to call a heroic move and then transfixes Brynmor who is immediately surrounded by black-clad Watchers!


Although he is knocked down and beaten by the many flashing blades, none of them pierce his strong dwarven mail and he suffers no wounds! The nearby vault wardens press up to attack the watchers, but the spinning robes are impossible to hit with their spears, in return, however, the swords of the evil men cannot penetrate the huge shields.

One of the great eagles soars over the battlefield to engage the Nazgul, the great beak flashes and The Betrayer's sword swings upwards, but neither combatant can do any real damage to the other.

Another of the giant eagles dives down low, tail feathers actually scraping the ground as the mighty claws flash down and rip the throats from a horse and rider.

Barukshathur himself flies eagerly into battle with two raiders. Suladan puts spurs to his horse, which balks at riding towards the flying leader of the eagles. Using his iron will, Suladan manages to urge his horse forward!

Through the maze of spears and swords, the eagle flies, although they manage to beat it back, their weapons cannot draw any blood.

Etako charges forward to engage the Serpent Chieftain and uses a mighty uppercut with his Ironfist Gauntlet. Fate intervenes on the behalf of the purple-cloaked man and he narrowly avoids losing all of his teeth. Two of Etako's bodyguards swing their mighty axes at a spearman and cleave him apart, red blood soaked by his red clothing.

At the end of the turn the battle is already well and truly met by all combatants.

Turn 2 sees priority going to the dwarves again.


The Betrayer uses four might to try and transfix Brynmor again... and fails?!?! This was one of the first of VERY MANY horrible die rolls from my brother. The black-clad Nazgul then trots around the ruins to distance himself from the eagles.


Feeling very confident, Brynmor throws his hammer, Lemya and a Watcher falls dead to the ground, hammer embedded in his skull. Charging swiftly on, Gjel-grava, the mighty mithril shovel, bisects another Watcher - payback for the previous turn and the dents the men caused in the dwarf's armour.

The banner-bearer, dodging and weaving through the scenery is confronted by a giant eagle, who swoops down, tearing a hole in the banner, but not causing any lasting damage.

Another great eagle attack sees yet another eviscerated raider.

Barukshathur and Suladan clash again, the eagle tears shreds of flesh from the human and horse, causing one wound as fate intervenes and the flashing beak clangs off a precious stone instead of causing yet more damage.

In the ruins, the Hasharin and Chieftain both spring into action, spear support behind them. Even the well built, solid armour of the Khazad guard cannot save them from the onslaught and two of them fall beneath poisonous blades.

Etako flings himself forward, gauntlet sending brains and teeth splattering against the wall as a Khazad bodyguard stands behind him, deflecting an incoming spear and returning the attack with a mighty swing of his axe, slaying the human.

At the end of turn 2 it looks like outside the ruins the dwarven team is winning, but inside the ruins the Haradrim are killing dwarves all too quickly!

Turn 3 - yet another priority win for the dwarves.


The banner bearer falls and the great eagle's bloody claws swing skyward, ready to strike again now that its mission is completed. Phew, that banner bearer could have been free victory points for my brother, so I really needed to take him out. Fortunately my priority winning prowess (ie. luck) didn't let him get away.

Brynmor slays the final of his original three assailants, while the deadlock between the vault wardens and watchers of karna is broken in the dwarves favour as two black-clad men fall with spears in their chests.

Etako fails to kill a spearman, much to his disgust, while behind him another of his guard falls to the Hasharin's flashing daggers.

Barukshathur goes to attack The Betrayer, but even his courageous heart cannot bear the evil miasma of the Nazgul and so Suladan charges into the giant eagle. Suladan's luck has passed him by this time as Barukshathur dispatches the human king, embarrassed about his failing courage and taking out his rage on the Serpent King.


The swooping eagle is faced by two raiders, and this time their horsemanship saves them from the flashing claws and beak.

At the end of the turn the dwarves look to well and truly control the outside, while there are almost no dwarves left inside the ruins!

In turn 4, the priority goes to the dwarves AGAIN!


Brynmor charges towards the ruins, a Vault Warden team backing him up as the last watcher of Karna falls to the ground, face smashed in by a massive shovel.

Etako, almost surrounded by Haradrim, escapes through a side door, while his last remaining trusty, loyal bodyguard hurls himself into battle, falling beneath a myriad of swords and spears. A vault warden team blocks the door behind Etako. With victory points given for wounding/killing your team's leader (The Betrayer and Etako) it was important to not let the dwarf be surrounded, especially with the Hasharin's nasty special rules!

With only three raiders left, the giant eagle swoops down to kill two in a flurry of claws and wings.

Circling above the ruins, the other great eagles kill a spearman, keeping the exit to the ruins blocked with the evil humans trapped within.

Here's a shot from the outside showing Etako's narrow escape.

Here you can see the last raider heading towards the dwarven king, hoping to keep some of the dwarves engaged outside the ruins.

At the end of the turn, four turns of priority going the dwarves way has led to an imbalance. Still there are no victory points yet!

Turn 5 - priority to Harad (for once! and even then it was on a tie!)


With eagles in play, an aerial view was on order =)

The Betrayer spurs his horse onward and transfixes the giant eagle at the top of the ruins. Finally the Harad force has a chance! The Hasharin turns towards the great eagle, but his courage fails him and he cannot seem to move his feet! The Chieftain next to him laughs, raises his weapon, looks at the massive beak and bloodied claws and also fails to charge, too frightened by the huge winged eagle. In the end only a few spearmen charge the transfixed eagle and fail to wound it. I think my brother needs new dice.

Meanwhile, the raider has charged Etako in a death or glory mission. Unfortunately for him it results in death rather than glory, the Ironfist gauntlet sends the man flying through the air, where he is caught by the claws of a giant eagle and torn asunder.

The Harad force is broken, but the game is not over yet! You know how our games often end in a huge turn-around!

Not so much of a turn-around this time, turn 6 sees the dwarves winning priority again.


The three eagles all pass their courage tests and assault the Nazgul! They win on a tie and cause three wounds... the evil servant of Sauron is not that easily dispelled and fate is on his side... twice... Barukshathur dives - claws outstretched to rip through the wraith... only to find himself holding dirty rags as an evil cackle is heard rippling outward from the battle. 

3 victory points to the dwarven side for defeating the enemy leader!

Brynmor and Barukshathur had both called heroic combats. Brynmor threw Lemya again and killed a spearman before charging into another. With spear support on the dwarven side for a change he shoveled another spearman six feet under and due to the heroic combat charged further into the ruins to face the Serpent Chieftain!


The human, beset upon by a dwarven hero on one side and a vault warden team on the other could not save himself and hell with a spear in the back as he desperately parried Gjel-grava.

Etako, meanwhile, had to be restrained by his own troops as he tried to join the fight.

The Hasharin now faced an angry giant eagle and a vault warden team. Using all of his skills and luck he dodged all but one attack... Barukshathur claws down and thinks he's killed the evil assassin, but moments later realises that he's just holding the empty robes - much like The Betrayer! The Hasharin has disappeared in the melee!?

Although the battle goes well and truly to the dwarves, they are left wondering what happened to the Hasharin and why The Betrayer cackled so viciously as he departed the field. 

The victors! Unbroken, unfazed and unbeaten! Great first battle for the three great eagles!

Well, I may have won, but honestly it was more about the dice than strategy this game! Still, the best thing about playing against my brother is that we both enjoy ourselves, even when the dice are clearly against us. We were still laughing and having fun even when there were double 1s left, right and center.


So there you go, the three eagles are victorious in their first battle. Thank goodness it was a fight to the death and not a hold the objectives type of battle!


I still need to get my hands on some Ents and a Radagast to get my eagles having a rocking good time to face my evil creature army, but I can't see that happening any time soon!


Hope you enjoyed the battle - we sure did!

100,000 is a big number!

Well, a bit of a self-congratulatory celebration post today, so bear with me =) the blog has had over 100,000 views!

I started this blog about four years ago. I had been quite ill for a number of years and one of the things that kept me going was painting miniatures and playing games with my very patient brother (thanks to my very patient wife).

The blog was to help motivate me and so that I could keep a record of my photos, particularly of my realm of battle battleboard gameboard. Then we played a game on it and took photos as we went. Since then I've written up a LOT of battle reports and have tried to make them interesting with lots of pictures.

Some interesting stats:

The site gets between 100 and 300 hits a day.

The battle reports get way more hits than the WIP blogs.

The goblins vs haradrim battle here (http://simbattleboard.blogspot.com.au/2010/11/lotr-sbg-battle-report-goblins-vs.html) has been viewed over 4,300 times.

Why? The Mumak!

"Battle Report", "Mumak" and "Balrog" are responsible for most of the hits from searches.

Most readers are in the US and UK with Australia, Canada, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Poland, Spain and Russia following in descending order.

Hello!

To all who take the time to look at the site from other countries (I'm in Australia) - hello and thanks for reading! Assuming you can read that. Well, if you can't hopefully you'll pick up the hello vibe anyway!

Thank you to all of the people who have read the blog! Hopefully you've enjoyed the reports and not laughed too hard at our occasional bumbles and poor paintjobs! Hopefully you can see the improvement in our painting skills over the years. Don't forget my brother's blog here: http://paulslotrminis.blogspot.com.au/

Just for fun today I put out most of my miniatures in two big battle lines. There are a horde of goblins, a balrog, cave trolls, spiders, bats, wargs etc. on one side. On the other side are an army of dwarves, one hobbit (see if you can spot him) and some great eagles or giant eagles, can't remember what they are technically called right this minute.



I know that some people play with almost no scenery. I think my brain would explode, but it sure makes for easier deployment =)

Here's looking from the other end...



And an aerial view...



I know I don't have as big an army as many of you, but it's plenty big enough for us!

Working down the evil side we have some captains and drummers near some lava. I still can't believe they used to be skull pits.






Durburz and the Balrog take most of the center of the army (as well as my original plastic troll who is painted more gobliny than the other three).






The eagle wings sort of get in the way of the spiders and wargs.






And here are the trolls.






And here's Druzhag hiding behind his bats with an entourage of giant spiders.






And the good side has lots of dwarves! Look at that gorgeous shield wall backed up with Khazad Guard, Iron Guard and a whole heap of rangers.






The shield wall continues to a Shieldbearer (Boggle) and Etako Ironfist, also known as Etako One-eye. You can read more about them in other posts if you haven't already.






Facing the mighty Balrog are my intrepid Vault Wardens, with a banner behind them they are pretty fun to play with!






Finally, there's Brynmor, more shields, a dwarven king and plenty of warriors.






Allied to the dwarves are the three giant eagles. Just as a teaser, you'll get to see them in action in the next battle report.






Some different angles to show off the Balrog and Durburz.






I don't use this troll anymore, but still quite like the painting I did as it was my first ever large model. Pre-washes I tried blending and other "advanced" techniques that I'd never ever used before (and rarely do now - slacker!)






I'm still enjoying the look of my three trolls with the two collared wargs.






And here's a better look at some of the shield designs and dwarven kings who don't get used often.






I'm not really sure what this picture was for. Maybe just because I like my dwarves.






Brynmor is one of my favorite and least favorite conversions. I love most of him except for the blue gem type thing on his helmet. I love the shovel. I love that he's standing on a beer barrel, I think I did a pretty good job on the armour and cloak. I green stuff built the hammer and shovel and I don't really do much of that sort of thing, so am quite proud of myself for giving it a go.






And another shot of the dwarves... plus one...






Anyway, thanks for putting up with the self-indulgence =)

I'm sure there are some (actually, I've had emails so I KNOW there are some) who can't stand the way we play our games so leniently and for entertainment and fun instead of other, deeper reasons.

Oh well =)

We did play a battle today too, but I left the notes at my brother's place so you'll have to wait a few days for it sorry!

Thanks all for reading and contributing to making this a happy hobby for me! I especially appreciate the positivity!