This was a fun, all-day, event. Joe and John with a huge force of Dwarves and Men vs. Ed and I with our hordes of Mordor, Harad, Easterlings and Kahad. And we brought two Mumakil.
As you can see there were a few unfinished models but for the most part we tried to use as much of a completed force as possible.
The Dwarves and Men had a great advantage of first deployment and taking advantage of terrain and structures. This neutralized a bit of our cavalry advantage though between the horse and Mumuks we were able to break the lines. Dwarf balista were hitting the Mumuks hard and it took some time to get the foot troops up to support. The Troll Chief was a beast in melee combat and once the front lines of the Good army was broken and they lost their control of the two sets of ruins they began to crumble to the large horde of Sauron's forces pushing down on them.
After lessons learned with my Dol Guldur army I decided to try my hand again at my Elvish force. As before, Galadriel, Thranduil, Legolas and Haldir were leading a large host of Mirkwood Sentinels, Galadrim and Wood Elves, but joined this time by Treebeard.
Then Joe started setting out his force. It probably took him three hours to put out all the Goblins (ok...maybe a little less), and then came the Cave Trolls...Spiders...Spider Queen...and some Wargs. Then he dropped the Balrog.
Played more properly, my Elves were having a lot of success against the Goblin horde...especially when Treebeard ambushed from woods and attacked a large formation from the rear. The Wargs and Spiders were a challenge as they were able to flank my units more easily and the Balrog was a force to be feared.
I had to maximize terrain, magic, Heroics and superior skills of the Elves but eventually the force fell to the Flame of Udun. Not without taking a the majority of the Moria hordes with it though. The Elves of Lothlorien and Thranduil's Halls are a tricky force to play in War of the Ring, but they are in Strategy Battle Game as well. I believe after a few more games I'll get them tuned into a competative army.
Escalation game #2.
I added my (finally complete!) Dol Guldur Troll Chief and a small company of Ghosts (hey! He's not called the Necromancer for nothing).
Although Trolls and other monsters are a challenge in the system due to the Hard To Kill / Very Hard To Kill table mechanics, I found the Ghosts to be a VERY useful addition.
Game #3.
More Ghosts...more Morannon...spiders...and Khamul has now arrived to take direct command of the army of Dol Guldur.
My Fallen Kingdoms ally (Ed) added more Easterlings and a War Mumak. Sweet!
Joe's Dwarf force has grown huge with Rangers and Warriors, ballista and some very sturdy Hero units and Rivendel has expanded his Knights and warriors.
The beginning of our War of the Ring escalation league. Each game we had to add a certain number of points to our force and we were "judged" by our peers based on appearance of the models as well as victory points in the game.
My army was from Dol Guldur. This was WAY before the Hobbit movies were even announced...we drew our inspiration from the Lord of the Rings story and appendices. It started with a small company of Morannon Orc, Mordor Uruk Hai, Castellans (using a combo of Castellan and Morgul Knight models for variety) and Warg Riders.
Other members had Dwarves, Khand, and Rivendel.
