Hobbit Batrep: The Evil Haradrim vs Elves and Dwarves

"Well this is unheard of! An elf will go underground, when a dwarf dare not! I'd never hear the end of it."

Gimli Son of Gloin, The Return of the King, The Lord of The Rings

Friday Night Fight Night!

So Christmas and the New year have been and passed and now it is time to get back into the Friday Night Fight Night.  This week Sam, Lawrence and I travelled to see Rick and have a doubles match 750 points per player.

Evil Army:
Lawrence and Rick played together, Rick took Mordor - a Fellbeast, Castallans and shade with a mix of troops.  Lawrence took a Harad army made up of corsair reavers with axes..., black numenorians, task master, ring wraith, the Golden King, abrakan guard, watchers of khana and more to boot!

Forces of Good:
Sam took his Durins folk army with Gimli, vault wardens, khazad guard, Kings Champion and a mix of warriors to support.  I joined him with Galadriel, Thranduil, Legolas, galadhrim warriors, wood elves and calas galadhrim guard.

The scenario was set, and the counters placed for the objective markers, all armies were deployed and so the battle begins!

Deployment of the forces on the battle field

Task Master led a war band of Black Numenorians and Harad archers

The Ring wraith on horse was deployed near the centre line...

Whilst the ring wraith on Fell beast was deployed behind Castellans and Uruk Hai

The Golden King with his Half Trolls and Abrakhan guard held the right

Corsair Reevers with Watchers of Khana were in support... I'll say no more!

Sam deployed his army in a line, snaking round to ensure that there were no week links

My Galadhrim take the left flank

The elves were ready to support the dwarves and take on the evil army

With priority, the elves quickly moved to take the cover on their side of the battle field,
they now have a clear shot at the advancing evil army

The Elven and Dwarven lines meet, the dwarves advanced

The evil army reach the object, bu the dwarves are hot on their heals!

On the right flank, the dwarves engage the Harad army

Khazad guard take on the Reavers with axes!

But in a counter move, the evil army start to move around the Khazad's

The half trolls take on Gimli

Rick moves his fell beast up

Whilst my elves, support the dwarven line

The King Champion gets stuck in to the thick of battle

Meanwhile, my not so brave elves continue to shoot at the evil army,
 but with the Shadow Lord there and the high defense of the Castellans
 it it proving difficult to get any kills.

The ring wraith rides to the elves

And the bow fire of the elves changes to target the mounted wraith 

The fell beast dominates the battlefield

Enter the shade!

The first fight is won by the fell beast, who hurls a dwarf, bowling a line to the floor

After Sam had challenged Ricks fellbeast,
a Heroic combat into Dwalin and Rick replied 'Challenge accepted'

The dice were rolled...

And the Wraith is slain, goodbye fell beast and ring wraith!

The evil army pause as the ring wraith is slain

Close up of the dead wraith.

Harad, start to get the upper hand against the Khazad guard

However the dwarven shield wall held

Gimli put a wound on the half troll

Next round and the Khazad are swamped, but not surrounded

The Golden king engaged again

And the troll pushed back into Gimli

The thick of it all

My elves charged the flank of the main evil army

But my bows continued to shoot at the numenorians

My wood elves defending the ruins

Thranduil also moved in towards the evil army to get into the fight

But half my bows struggled to find a target

The dwraves are pushed back, but survive

Now its the Corsiar Reavers turn...

...and one dead dwarf

The far flank fell as the wave of Harad smashed through the Khazad gaurd

Meanwhile Gimli shouts "ONE!" as the half troll is killed

Dwalin piled into the mass, bent on killing as much as he could

The Kings Champion also re-engaged the evil army

My Guard of the Galadhrim Court are proving invaluable with their fight 6

One dead Castellan later!

Next the crossbow captain fought

He won, but didn't kill the elves

The watchers of Khana again push the advantage,
but did not trap the Khazad guard

The Harad King looked down on the failing dwarf line confident of a win

But Gimli disagreed

The dwarf shield wall started to feel the pressure

And the archer reserves ran as fast a they could to support

The battle divided into three combat areas

Giml, of course won 

and had used a might point to heroic combat into the King

Dwalin was on fire, and smashed everything in his path

allowing a path to open to the shade

Which he took

and smashed it back 

Meanwhile the dwarves continued to prove hard to kill

Especially when Sam kept rolling 6's!

Lurtz was now open to the elves...

who has just killed the pike support, and also were clear for the shade

The Hasharin, seeing the tables turn decided to get into combat

The Harad King was dead,
the dwraves seem to have taken the initiative from the Harad army

Khazad guard and elven support, slowly munched their way through the tough evil army

Dwalin, still in the center continued to fight

It was clear the evil army was on the back foot
and tried to stay as close as the could to each other

The Kings Champion also charged in

3 watchers vs 1 Khazad, and he was holding up

The Corsair Captain, rallied his troops
and again set about the killing the dwarven shield wall

Surrounded evil army

My elven bows continued to shoot at the Numenorians
and despite not killing any, i managed to keep them out of the fight
and keep the advantage with the armies of good.

Again the watchers charged teh lonely dwarf... and didn't trap him

The dwarf support now looked like they would swing the balance fully into goods favour

the Hasharin also felt the pressure from Gimli and a vault warden team

The right flank

Meanwhile in the center fighting was intense

Dwalin, took on the Shade and Uruk Hai crossbow 

Whilst the Uruk Hai Captain and Lurtz took on the elves

There was still everything to play for as the Castellans refused to die!

The left flank, now moved into the elven archers

Could the Galadhrim hold?

A little shuffle and a Court Guard was there to support

And the elves move up to support the combat

Sam rolls for Dwalin...

who again smashed the Shade back

Lurtz won the fight against the elves

and killed a Calas Galadhrim 

the shade was exposed, but was proving hard to kill

Lurtz rallying his troops

Dwalin completely stuck int he middle

The Kings Champion trying to break the center rolled and waited to see what the Castellan got

#BOSH! 

The Castellan is forced back

But not killed

Meanwhile Gimli tried to get his third kill

The dwarf shield fall back as one went down

Now for the khazad!

it was only a matter of time against 6 attacks

My left flank lose the fight against the ring wraith 

The evil army pulled the shade back into the center and waited for the next attack

Thranduils move... NATURES WRATH!

...and the Castellan used 5 will to resist, and just managed the 6!

The right flank, having been back and forth again looks like it could go either way

the dwarves, used their strengths and formed another solid wall

The Harad army continued to push for an advantage
and to break the dwarven flank once and for all

Move elves help surround the main fight, it is looking like a last stand

Dwalin and the Kings Champion, are proving their worth
and continue to take the fight into the ranks of teh evil army

But the elves movde around the flank and secured the rear

Galadriel used magic on the wraith and moved in to assist

The evil army started to break through

Legolas, continues to hide, I mean tactically position himself so he can target the wraith from a far

Dwalin clearly feared no evil as he is completely trapped

Can he survive... 

But, being Dwalin means one dead Castellan

and still the beast continued to push into the heart of the evil army
Dwalin, again charged the Shade, as my elves took of the pike support

The evil army moved back to touch the objective, sensing the battle would soon be over

But a hefty blow was given to the elves as two are killed

One pike dead

Lurtz is holding the evil flank

The kings Champ is pushed back...

...and so is the mighty Dwalin

on the left, the elves kill the wraiths horse

on the right...

the dwarves were again pushed back

even the shield wardens are withdrawing

Gimli won the fight again against the Hasharin

But again #BASH, no wounds

The Hasharin can fight again

Finally the shade is killed and the odds stacked in favour of the army of good

Now it was just a matter of a few fights

and the dwarves could claim the right

\reinforcements for the Dwarves arrived just in time to relieve the Harad pressure

Dwalin and the Kings Champion continue to clear up 

The evil army is encircled

as Dwalin killed yet another

Thranduil, finally engaged in combat, even if ti was with a little help from his friends

Too little, too late, the Numnorians engaged my elf bows and support
but were heavily outnumbered

so back to Thranduil and the trapped Castellan... 

...erm

never in doubt, Thranduil took the kill

Te evil army started to crumble

Even Lurtz was slain

Dwalin, clears a space around him, even the elves wouldn't go near him!

Final mop up?

The left flank is easily held by the elves

And the wraith looks in trouble

But still the dwarves hold off the Harad invaders

And with the turn in events it looks like the dwarves finally have the upper hand

Harad are on their last legs

Corsair vs vault warden....

...cirsair with axe for the win!

even Gimli is forced back

but the odds are still in favour of the dwarves

Back in the center, the elven / dwarf combo
mopped up the last of the evil army on the objective

Surrounded, out classed the Castellan's hold on for dear life

Meanwhile, on my left flank my elves are easily able to manage and hold off the black numenorian's

The evil army is left in disarray

The last Black Numenorian is killed

The Ring Wraith is also surrounded 

As one by one the Castellans fall

Even if they are holding an objective!

Gimli racks up another kill and easily out matches Legolas for kill count

Final Hobbit SBG score:
Dwarves n Elves 8 v 4 Mordor and Harad

Final Thoughts
A win for the good army 8 v 4.  The evil army divided to engage the elves on one side and the dwarves on the other and were slowly whittled down and conquered.  The forces of good were able to utilise the high defence and axes of the dwarves, whilst gaining the upper hand with the high fight value for the elves in support.

It was close on the right flank between Harad and the Dwarves, but Sam managed to hold on long enough for the Harad army to break and see them start to flee.  The elves were enough of a deterrent that the Numenorians held back in fear of the upgraded wood elf bow men.

The evil army needed the shadow Lord to counter the bow fire of the elves and to support the fight when the lines met, his early departure cost the evil army dearly.

This was an enjoyable game, can't wait for the next one!



Man of the match

Man of the Match:
Dwalin

Sam was on a mission in this game with Dwalin, he took on everything in his path, cutting through the evil line and smashing through the other side.  Dwalin manag
ed to challenge (I still can't believe Rick took the bait) and kill a fell beast, killed the shade and numerous Castellans and troops;  he was quite simply a force to be reckoned with and was unstoppable! This makes me want to paint up my Thorin's Company now, or buy the younger/armed ones!

Well deserved and well fought!

Gimli also took the fight to the evil force, and racked up more kills than Legolas (we were keeping a tally).  Gimli was a not so close second, but he did manage to hold the right flank and stop the dwarves from being overwhelmed on that side.




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