Battle Report - Dwarves vs Haradrim - Contest of Champions

Sorry for the few weeks off, wife had a business trip that the boy and I went along on. 


Anyway, back into it with another Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game Battle Report between my faithful dwarves and my brothers evil Haradrim.


We chose 700 points again, put together our forces, then met at his house to do battle. We rolled on the random scenario generator and got Contest of Champions! Basically the winner of the game is not the one that destroys the enemy forces, rather it is all about your leader. Being in charge of a warband requires the loyalty (dwarves) and maybe a touch of fear (Haradrim) among your troops, what better way to show who's in charge than personally dominating the battlefield! At the end of the game, whichever leader has the most number of kills wins.


My leader is Etako Ironfist, also known as One-eye, 95 points, his main advantages are his high defense and Ironfist weapon (+1 to wound and rerolls as though under the effect of a banner).


My brother's leader is Suladan the Serpent Lord, 100 points, his main advantages are an extra wound and, his trusty steed!


We don't have the new rules yet, but have been roughly making our armies based on warbands of one leader and 12 troops. My birthday in a couple weeks, so am hoping to get the new dwarf army book then.


Anyway, onto the fight itself:


Here's the Harad warband 1, not sure his chieftain has a name yet, but he's leading twelve archers.

Here's The Betrayer leading six Watchers of Karna as the second warband.

Here's a Hasharin (I think he has a name, but can't remember it right now) leading a banner bearer and fourteen spearmen (I know that's not right for the new rules, but I guess you could put them in the Betrayer's band and just move them together from Turn 1.

And lastly, the fourth warband, six raiders led by Suladan, three with bow, two with warspear, one with banner.

Here's the battlefield ready to go, it's about 5 foot by 3.5 feet, so not usual size, but that's the table we have! True line of sight rules used, but the sections between individual trees, ruins and rocks count as difficult terrain.

Here's Etako's warband of a Banner Bearer, five Khazad Guard and five Iron Guard.

Here's Brynmor leading a banner bearer and five Vault Warden teams.

Lastly, here's Boggle, my dwarf captain with throwing axes and shield leading twelve archers.

After a couple of turns you can see the lines surging forward. I was hoping for an objective based mission so my vault wardens could park somewhere and raise shields, but oh well, they'll just have to go bash stuff instead!

Suladan leads his raiders on a lightning fast strike towards the dwarven archer flank.

The archers climb the small hill to get a better view of the battlefield.

The Haradrim archers stay well back and fire volley after volley at the dwarven host. By the end of the game, they've accounted for five or six troops, and early on managed to stop me from volleying by killing three of my archers. 


On some missions it's not worth it, as those troops could be used for swarming over my outnumbered dwarves, but on this mission, keeping these lightly armoured guys away from my hero was probably a good move!

Suladan charges into battle, the banner bearer falling to combined archery from the dwarves on the hill. His horse rides roughshod over the top of a Khazad Guard, hooves and sword flashing down to batter past the defenses of the stocky dwarf and slay him. The dwarf captain manages to raise his shield and beat back the attacks of the raider. (If it hadn't been for the extra defense from the shield he'd have been dead!)

Check out that long line of Haradrim infantry! The haradrim archers kill roughly a dwarf per turn. The dwarven archers focus on killing the raiders, and eventually de-horse most of them.

Turn 5: Both Boggle and Suladan call a heroic move! On the roll-off the dwarf captain wins (phew) and stands up, attacking the raider, while his companions also move in. The Iron Guard hurls a throwing axe that flashes past Suladan's horse and thunks into the chestplate of his armour! Fortunately for him, fate is on his side and he suffers nothing worse than a split gem (though it was worth a small fortune!) In retaliation, Suladan leans forward with a mighty cleave of his sword to slice through the Iron Guard. Boggle wins his fight against the raider, but some fast hoofwork backs the human away from the flashing axe of the dwarf.

On Turn 6 the dwarves win priority again (they win priority for the first 7 turns in a row!) but Suladan calls another heroic move, ensuring that he gets the charge (vital for horses to really capitalise). In an epic battle of Suladan vs. Boggle, they both roll well, and it goes to a tie-breaker roll-off which Suladan wins and wounds the dwarven captain. One of the dwarven raiders manages to swing past and attack and kill the dwarven banner bearer! The other nearby Haradrim men are not so fortunate, they fall to the flashing axes of the dwarves.

The Hasharin swings past the dwarven battle-line to assault a spearman and kill it amidst flashing daggers. All of the other dwarves hold fast, although they lose their combats their superior defense ensures that the only death comes from an unlooked for source - The Betrayer! Evil magic in the form of black darts take out several dwarves over the course of the battle. 

The battlefield is essentially one big melee in the middle with archers peppering volleys in on exposed dwarf flesh.

The dwarven captain calls his own heroic move and Suladan is surrounded! A throwing axe kills a nearby spearman to clear the way for dwarven archers to barrel down the hill into close combat. Suladan bucks and rears his horse, but the dwarves hit him with several nasty blows and reduce him to a single wound!

Meanwhile, Brynmor is attacked by four spearmen and the Hasharin! One of the nearby Iron Guard sees this and hurls himself towards the dark assassin. Against all the odds, the dwarf manages to get some of his blows past the fearsome man, fate goes against him and he is left with no fate and just one wound at the end of the struggle.


With his back saved, Brynmor swings his mighty shovel, the sharpened mithril edge of which cleaves two evil men in twain! Most of the fights are four men vs a dwarf, or two men vs. a dwarf. The dwarves lose one Khazad Guard, but otherwise hold their own, indeed, a Watcher is slain. 


Etako races down the hillside and barrels right into a spearman, the Ironfist slams into the man, throwing him senseless through the air to crash to the ground, out of the fight for good.

 The melee is intense and bloody, and it seems as though a never-ending stream of black and dark clothed men is hurling itself against the stout dwarven lines. The mighty shields of the Vault Wardens protect them from a multitude of spears, swords and daggers.

Suladan loses the fight and dies... or does he... remembering the nearby banner (which my brother cunningly moved forward) we reroll the fight, Suladan gets a tie! The tie breaker goes to the Serpent King, who kills Boggle and an archer - increasing his tally still further and proving that he is a force to be reckoned with, though young in years compared to the dwarves!

The Betrayer calls upon evil magic and attempts to transfix Etako, who uses all of his will and (by rolling a six) resists the spell! 

Etako uses his freed up limbs to take on two Watchers and spearmen. He deflects incoming attacks with his fist, the flashes his axe out to take the life of a Watcher. The Hasharin retaliates against the lucky Iron Guard and quickly finishes him off in a whirlwind of blades. Brynmor again hurls his mighty shovel through the brainpans of another two men. Along the line the dwarves, having survived the inital assault, attack back with renewed vigour, slaying a host of evil men.

Suladan's triumph turns to fear as a wave of archers approach, ready to claim back his blood for the slaying of Boggle. He turns his horse back and under cover of his foot soldiers, beats a strategic retreat. 

Etako is again assaulted by a mass of men and is transfixed, unable to move or fight back effectively. He is beaten, but manages somehow to deflect the blows rained down on him. Fate is on his side and he only takes one wound, though now he is out of fate and will. 

Brynmor takes on the mighty Hasharin and a spearman, using his century plus of battle experience (and some might points) he slays the evil assassin!  

Etako makes another kill as his Vault Wardens help take the pressure off!

After the vicious melee of the last few turns, the Haradrim forces are now broken, but all pass their leadership tests this turn, still, the game is in it's last legs now and Suladan has killed more dwarves than Etako has killed men!


And Suladan spurs his horse around the action to pick off a lone archer - there's just no stopping that man and his horse, the movement rate is just sooooo fast compared to the dwarves - he's a killing machine!


The Haradrim banner bearer manages to beat back two Iron Guard and a Khazad Guard!

Finally, the Betrayer, sensing his time at this location was nearing completion, charged at Etako. His black miasma cloaked his attacks and those of the Watcher that darted in to stab with sharpened steel. Etako fought valiantly back, but fate was not with him and he suffered a wound. After stabbing the dwarf, the Nazgul faded away, evil laughter reverberating across the battlefield.

In the final few turns of the game, a Vault Warden team that had been distracting the archers suffered a lucky shot that skewered the shielded dwarf through the tiny eye-slit in the massive barricade. (So many sixes rolled!)

And here's a closer shot of Suladan's continuing rampage.

On the final turn Suladan charges into battle again, slaying two more dwarves! The banner bearer falls under the onslaught of no fewer than five dwarves!

The Haradrim chieftain kills a speardwarf, finally getting his blade bloody after loosing arrow after arrow throughout the battle as he guarded the massed archers.

Suladan's final tally: an impressive seven kills, including one Captain! He easily killed more than his own points worth.

The final game shot, with the Haradrim's longer legs, Etako would never be able to catch up with any! As in the last game, the dwarves won in terms of the battle, but lost in terms of the actual mission objective as Etako only managed to take down three men (four if you include the Nazgul expending itself to fight him). 

So congratulations (again!) to my brother on a victory! 


I loved playing this game. I may have lost but boy it was a blast. So much fun! There were heroic combats, epic struggles, flukey random awesome shots... Once we got into combat every single turn had at least one "whoah - cool!" moment in it. 


In hindsight, I should have marched Etako over towards the horses to get him killing more quickly. As it was I sort of had the archers in mind without thinking about how long it would take to get there! Those stubby little legs!


Anyway, totally awesomely fun game and hope you enjoy the pics =)

Battle Report of previous post!

Hi all, here's the slightly belated battle report from the previous post.


Due to a lack of time, I won't be creative, rather I'll just narrate how it all went with a whopping ton of pictures...


Here's the beginning of the battle. The basics of it is that I have to try and get off the other side while denying my brother the chance to do likewise. The board is 5 feet by 3.5 feet. The river has two crossings, a bridge and a ford. Any other crossing has to be attempted by a jump, a failed jump puts you in the water and you have to make a swim test.

Here's a couple of turns later as everybody moves forward.

Here's Suladan leading his men over the bridge.

 Here are some dwarves working their way forward, some archers standing in the ruins. We decided that any area enclosed by ruined walls or trees etc. counts as difficult terrain to walk through, though we use standard line of sight rules for shooting.

More dwarven archers in the forested area.

Volley fire from the dwarves on the next turn results in the banner bearer losing his horse and falling to the ground.

More archery drops two riders! I was worried about the horses, as they could very quickly move across and off the board, so I fanned out my dwarves to force confrontation and focused archery on them.

Here's the general board shot on that turn...

Now some dwarves fall as they are charged by the riders, warspears are nasty!

My dwarves have reached the ford ahead of the faster Haradrim as it was closer to my board edge. The whole way through this match I bemoaned my stumpy legs, I can't catch up with men when they run away from me!

The brave dwarves surge across the ford into the waiting spears. The Haradrim extra attacks win more fights, but my hardy dwarven mail stands up to the blows. I quite like the match-up here. I have less chance of winning the fights (due to no spear support) but am more likely to kill if I do win. Forgive the ghostly Haradrim spearman, my brother is a little short of men for a 700 point match due to having to save some to represent the horsemen when they are de-horsed.

Brynmor takes out a rider, while a nearby shield-dwarf falls. In the background you can see the Hasharin and his band of Watchers of Karna coming over the bridge!

At the central ford area, Suladan rides rapidly from the bridge to strike the flanks of the dwarves, killing the Khazad tasked with keeping the banner bearer safe!

Etako and the dwarf king continue charging across the ford, every turn the balance seems to change! Some of the Haradrim prepare to leap across the river!

Here's the board as a whole...

Near the bridge, the melee is fierce, made more so by the dangerous men in black!

Brynmor resists being transfixed, but still is fought almost to death by the Hasharin. The Betrayer used some will and Brynmor resisted by using all of his will, then both the Hasharin and the dwarf used their might, but the Hasharin won out and Brynmor had to use all of his fate to not be killed! Super drama, it was one of those awesome battle moments!

By calling an heroic move, which Suladan did too - a roll off occurred, lucky for me Etako won the roll-off and got some Iron Guard to accompany him in attacking Suladan to keep him off the banner bearer. Suladan escaped injury, but it was another cool epic moment in the match!

At the other side of the ford the battle remains fierce with the dwarven king taking on the Haradrim chieftain and some spear support. Some of the haradrim make it across the river by jumping!

Here's a shot of the board...

Brynmor is felled by the evil Hasharin in another round of battle! At this point Brynmor and the Hasharin have used all their might! The bridge flank is looking doomed for the dwarves!

And why did Brynmor fall so easily to the Hasharin assassin? Well, the assassin had martial prowess, but in the background, the shadowy figure of the Betrayer was casting Transfix! Great 1-2 punch from my brother there. Wonderfully evil! Great to watch with the black Betrayer always lurking in the background.

The battle at the ford continues looking grim for both sides, lots of casualties. Etako heads back across to try and catch some of the river jumpers!

The board...

Fewer dwarves than ever near the bridge, surprisingly the banner-bearer dwarf wins a couple of fights, he never gets a kill but keeps himself (and therefore his companions) alive.

Meanwhile Suladan is just rampaging around the battlefield, ignoring arrows flashing past him to take out random flanks and dwarves.

Some watchers head toward the ford banner bearer so some Iron Guard leap into action!

The dwarven king is taken down! How? The Cursed Betrayer again! He didn't have to ride far to get his spells into range! I think he would have to have been my man (or once-a-man) of the match. My brother used him really well, casting transfix and black dart at very strategic moments.

As the King falls, the other dwarves renew their furious assault on the black clad men. One man drowns in the river after failing both his jump AND swim tests!

Here's the board...

Suladan is de-horsed! Archers finally took him out. Of course, then he just ran off the board to get a victory point! Leading the way for his other troops =)

A Black Dart from the Betrayer snipes the banner bearer at the ford, where multiple Haradrim fall to the dwarven axes.

Etako and his guard take out some of the jumpers, the archers end up taking care of the few that make it past them.

More ford carnage, the waters must surely be running red with man and dwarf blood by now!

The board, note the Betrayer and the remaining horses have broken past my dwarves and are about to escape off the board!

Another turn later...

These guys tried to get past my archers (in the background) but were taken out.

The last dwarf at the bridge...

The Betrayer kept casting Black Darts as he exited the board, the Hasharin and his watchers not far behind. My dwarves and their stumpy legs couldn't catch them, even though the Hasharin was down to no fate and just his one wound point remaining by this stage.

At the ford there are precious few men left, but my dwarves are nowhere near the edge of the board, so far all the victory points are with my brother!

The second to last turn...

By now both sides are broken and my brother capitulates the ford, but all of his men on the bridge side are unopposed. I concede defeat. Though I may have won a straight out fight from this stage, the mission was to break past the enemy lines and my brother has done it! The Haradrim gain a major victory!

Of course, a rematch between the two teams will be essential to regain dwarven pride =)

LotR SBG Battle - Dwarves vs Haradrim

Well what do you know, there's a blog here!
My boy turned one last week and he's been taking up pretty much all of my time - still not a good sleeper, I'm afraid!
My awesome Mum looked after him today so that I could duck over to play a game with my brother. 


We'd both forgotten how cinematic and easy to play the SBG is. Really we didn't have to look up rules even though it's been forever since we last played. 


No time to do a full battle report right now, but I will try to do it over the next little while.

To whet your appetite here are some pictures from the game - which I lost! 


We put together 700 points worth of guys. Basically all of his Harad forces and three squads of dwarves. Click for the bigger picture if you want more details.


We rolled up a reconnoiter mission - d'oh! My slow dwarves would have difficulty with that. Fortunately there were two choke points at the river and I'd taken plenty of archers!


Here's the deployment phase:

And now for some random pics of game progress:

Here is the Betrayer doing what he does best - causing mayhem. He was truly nasty in this game. He stayed with the archers to give them their bonus poison for the initial volley fires, then charged forward to transfix my heroes - resulting in poor dwarven deaths. After that he took black dart pot-shots at my banner bearers as he rode off the map to gain victory points.

Here's one of my dwarf leaders face down on the riverbank having been well and truly ganged up on, it was a close fight and he squared off for a few rounds before eventually succumbing.

Here's Suladan the magnificent attacking some pesky dwarven archers. Suladan rode around like a whirling death-sword on four swift legs. He would dart in, kill a dwarf or two, then ride back out before striking in again hit and run style. Racked up a few kills before eventually being de-horsed by an arrow and leading the charge off the map for a victory point.

And here's another messy melee as the cavalry charge in, knocking dwarves flying and generally making me really work hard to stop them breaking through.

What a great game, so much fun and so easy to play. Tons of dice rolls, lots of really cinematic stand offs and derring do! Can't wait for another game, hopefully with less time between this and the next game!