Last week I managed to finish the Watchers of Karna. I would call it progress, but seeing what still needs to be done I might get a bit disheartened still. I am quite satisfied with the result though and hope that I can keep this level up throughout the rest of the army and still manage to finish the lot before Strategy.
And yesterday I played my first game of the Hobbit with some friends at the club. It was also the first test of the army list I have made. It was a bit disappointing to say the least. Not only is the list flawed, but my tactical calls are also lacking in geniallity. Just rest assured I have no prominent position in a standing army. It might look heroic what you are odered to do, but it will guarantee a quick death…
We played a standard mission to begin with. Just battle it out between the two armies and get a feel for the game mechanics. Rob and Matthijs brought a combined army of Minas Tirith and Dwarfs. A lot of heavily armoured smelly dudes with some high defence values. They proved to be too much for my desert dwellers with low strength and defence.
I had thought it to be a good idea to seperate the archers from the regular fighters and get them in a position where they could easily harass the enemy with arrows while Suladân and the rest of the close combat fighters would advance forwards. Not a bad idea as such, but on the right flank they needed to cover a lot of distance before they could start thinking of doing some damage. And while the Dwarf rangers started peppering my advancing combat units the other Dwarfs (including Balin and Gimli) were getting into position to use their deadly axes on Suladân and the Abrakhân Merchant Guard.
On the left flank my three mounted archers started trading arrows with the Minas Tirith Rangers led by Beregond. The one thing that went to plan was that these three Haradrim effectively kept these 3+ Shooting Rangers out of the main fight. The rest of the Haradrim Raiders galloped forwards to interecept the horses from Minas Tirith.
The close combat with the dwarfs was brutal. Due to their high defence values and the lower strenght of the Haradrim my warriors needed to roll sixes to wound most of the time. This meant that eventhough I managed to win several duel rolls I still had a hard time of actually wounding these beardy devils. In the end this resulted in a major defeat for the Haradrim since our casualties kept mounting fast while the enemy just would not die quick enough. Soon enough the point was reached that my forces were broken. Suladân’s extended range for the Stand Fast! rule came in handy, but the game was lost nevertheless.
The Watchers of Karnâ proved to be the best warriors to hit something on the table with their 2 attacks. But their Strength 3 made it hard to get Wounds on the Dwarfs. They did manage to kill a Minas Tirith warrior on horseback.
Afterwards Rob provided me with some usefull tips on deploying the warbands and overall tactics which should give me a better fighting chance, but it seems my army also lacks a bit of ‘oomph’ to beat the more sturdy characters and monsters. I think I reluctantly need to get back to the drawing board.
