Hobbit Batrep: Galdhrim v Angmar v The Heroes of Helms Deep

"They have passed like rain on the mountain, like wind in the medow; The days have gone in the West behind the hills into shadow."

Theoden King of Rohan, The Two Towers, The Lord of The Rings

Lords of Battle Three Way Battle

This weeks battle saw us play a three way battle of 'Lords of Battle' at 750 points each.

Rick fielding his Shadow Lord on Fellbeast, Castellans of Dol Guldur with some Uruk Hai.  Lawrence took an all hero mounted army, featuring Legolas and Gimli, Theoden, Eomer, Erkenbrand and Gamling with the kings banner.   I took a Lothlorien army using both Galadhrim and Wood elf warriors with bows, upgraded with Thranduil, Galadriel and Legolas.

The battlefied was set and the armies deployed - I hope you enjoy the battle report.

The Hobbit Battle field, with a cross roads and woods

My Galadhrim army army deploy in front of the woods

Rick deploys on the centre of the opposite side of the field

Lawrence places his riders on the left flank

I win priority and immediately move Galadriel's war band back, channeling blinding light,
Thranduil also casts and my army now causes fear within proximity of Thranduil

Lawrence re-arranges his army so that they are all together 

Three riders - Eomer, Gamling and Aragorn are further forward

Rick advances towards the wall, and opens fire on Lawrence, who declares this an act of war!

My warbands shuffle in to get cover of Thranduil and Galadriel

Lawrence advances to the centre of the field

Meanwhile the elves do what elves do best... and hide in a line at the back of the board

Lawrence wastes no time and uses Aragorn's free might to heroic march

Rick pulls back

Full charge ahead the riders dash across the table

In the distance Castellan's move out to meet them

My elves shuffle forward, but are still out of bow range

The Elven guards spread out to bolster the line when it is needed

The riders reach the orc camp, but Rick has moved away

Rick's evil army move away from the riders and head across the board
to tempt the elves to fight the riders

THe Elves hold their nerve and re-arrange the line to get the best angle to fire on the evil army

The wood elves are ready to fire

Rick is keeping his army packed tightly together to make sure they are covered by the Shadow lord
and to make the Elven bow fire (hitting on 2's) hit on 6's!

The Elves start to fire, but needing 6's to hit is proving difficult

The Elves still hold

Lawrence poises for the charge... 

Whilst the elves hold the line

And pull in o n the edges to be covered by the blinding light

CHARGE! Lawrnce seizes the opportunity and charges the Uruk Hai flank

Legolas shoots at the Shadow Lord, whilst Gimli continues to grumble about being on a horse!

Eomer and Aragorn fight

and win, knocking the Uruk Hai prone and killing a warrior

Next round and Lawrence charges the Shadow Lord and engulfs the Uruk flank

The Elves need to get into the fight and shuffle 1/2 move forward

My Bows manage to hit Gamling and kill his horse

Eomer and the Shadow Lord heroic strike... while the shade moves in to range,
Theoden takes on a Castellan

Ouch! Eomer loses and is hurled into Erkenbrand, making them both lose their horses

The Heroes of Helms Deep look in trouble

Theoden up next...

But he loses as well, the Shade is ensuring the evil win

Next round, My priority and so being out of the fight I advance the Galadhrim,
 and also manage to wound the fell beast

Lawrence and Rick smash into each other again

Aragorn charges the Fell Beast and slays it, leaving the Shadow Lord to fight on foot

Next round and Eomer takes on the Shade and Aragorn re-charges the Shadow Lord

but Theoden's fate is lost and he is removed as a casualty

Aragorn fights the Wraith

Rick rolls snake eye #BOSH! and the Shadow Lord is killed

Both sides have taken casualties, but the Heroes of Helms Deep are looking out numbered

The Elves know that they need to score points and kill the others,
otherwise they will lose by hiding in the background, so I advance again

Lawrence withdraws to lick his wounds using Aragorn to call a heroic march

Thranduil and Galadriel lead the elven advance (from the rear)

Legolas charges his warband forward to tempt the Castellans to attack

And it works, Risk re-alligns his army 

and places the Castellans at the front to face the Elves

Legolas take cheap shots at the Uruk Hai to score points and kills a crossbow man

Meanwhile the Wood elves open fire and take another Uruk Hai

The Elves look strong against the Castellans 

Next round and Galadriel commands the shade and forces rick to move closer to the elven archers

Poised and ready, the Elves wait for the Castellans, but another wave of elven bow fire hitting on 2+

and the Shade is taken out

All or nothing the evil army charge in and so my Galadhrim army encircle them

Neither army has reached each other, but the tension has been raised ready for the next round

Lawrence, re-organises his troops and gathers them to advance

Thranduil calls Natures Wrath, but the Castellans use fate (quite a bit) and save the roll

Time to pounce, the Galadhrim charge in and surround the evil army

One Castellan sees an easy target and charges the wood elves

Meanwhile the Elves get set to break down the evil army

Not wanting to miss out, Lawrence heroic marches again, right next to Galadriel!

The Castellans are on their last legs

Thranduil Heroic moves and makes sure the leader is protected and out of combat,
whilst Galadriel cast immobilise on Gamling forcing him back

Aragorn, Eomer and Erkenbrand advance to the elven line

The face off! 

The last Castellan falls to the might of the elves as Gimli dismounts and joins the fight

Another immobilise from Galadriel on Eomer before the lone charges

Gimli is surrounded and trapped

The Elves trap all the Heroes and manage to keep Galadriel safe

Erkenbrand first...

Erkenbrand loses the fight and is wounded

Aragorn manages to win and kills a few elves, Eomer is wounded but now Galadriel looks vulnerable

The elves win the Heoric move and Galadriel gets to safety,
whilst the rest of the elves charge in

Gimli, who won the last fight is surrounded again

It's all too much and Aragorn is killed

As is Eomer...

Erkenbrand shields and manages to win the fight

Gimli, turns into a killing machine and lowers the numbers of elves

All is lost for Erkenbrand as I put all I can on him

Gamling is charge also, having been immobilised by Galadriel to prevent the banner from giving Erkenbrand more might

Gimli is still fighting on - so I am forced to send more elves to help, meanwhile - in the background Lawrences Legolas (who has now lost his horse thank to me using 2 might) targets Galadriel and gets a wound

Gamling is killed

and Erkenbrand... 

is also killed, leaving Lawrence with only Legolas and Gimli

My Elves now know they have won, unless Lawrence can wipe my army out with Gimli

Another round with Gimli

oh go on then!

Gimli is again surrounded

My Legolag and Thranduil, as well as the wood elves target Lawrence's Legolas
While Galadriel hides behind the rock

Gimli, will not die, he's wounded out of might, but still in the fight

Legolas is shot and finally killed and the game is called

Final score

Galadhrim: 45
Angmar:  7
Heroes of Helms Deep; 23

Final Thoughts
A fun match, my elves hid for most of the battle, but realsised that they had to get into the fight to score any points.  Luckily I didn't leave it too late and managed to wipe out the other two whilst only taking a few casualties.  Magic played a big part of this battle, rendering bow fire next to useless (until the Shadow Lord was killed).

Lawrence was getting used to his army, he likes hero armies and so is likely to take this type of army again.  Rick was testing his force - especially with the Shade to see how they would work together... I wouln't want to face his army in a one-on-one, but maybe I will another day.  All-in-all a really enjoyable game, another win for me and another battle report completed.

Man of the Match

Man of the Match
Aragorn

This was a tricky one, as nobody clearly stood out as being any better than anyone else. Galadriel used her magic well to keep Gamling out of the way and so Lawrence couldn't claim the free might, had blinding light to protect her troops and skillfully manourved the army, but we all voted and Aragorn was given the title, for he slew the Fell Beast and the Shadow Lord and fought well, right up until the end.

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