Not a Battle Report - Bolt Action

We've had mixed opportunity to game recently. Liam has been laid up with a bad back so we've been role-playing Cyberpunk on Zoom, which means finding time to get to Otty's shed can be challenging. However, a few weeks back Ben went for a game of Bolt Action and I gate-crashed for the social aspect. So not a battle report, even if I ended up being co-opted to draw the action dice from the bag and roll a few actual dice [which Ben swiftly regretted].

The thing about Bolt Action is it looks awesome, just like scenes from a film and choosing those action/order dice is a great mechanic for activating units.

It might be a random element that makes things unknown but I like it.

My dice rolling was appalling in places, but as it wasn't my army I just got to laugh as things fell apart.

That German tank just failed to do any damage to the rather feeble, but surprisingly resilient opposite number.

Otty did such a good job painting these, so effective, I'd probably go insane doing something in this scale.

Ben somehow managed to throw it all away in the end, failing to hold onto the objectives that were all practically within his deployment zone.

He'd been far too reserved, which allowed them to be snatched out from under him. They have a corkboard campaign map on the wall, so all these few and far between battles do actually contribute to a long-term campaign. It's really cool. I won't be starting it up but I do enjoy dipping into it with such good figures, boards and passionate players who are well versed in the history for context.

Not a Battle Report - Middle Earth Battle Companies

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity - I've been playing #MESBG [Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game] at Otty's again. Oh man it's becoming such a tragedy that I don't have the time to complete these battle reports so soon after the event so I have some semblance of what went on. I was playing Liam's elves in this game and once again pivotal dice rolls made the game. I'm not sure I'll be annotating the battle as it happened but just an overall commentary throughout. This was the first time Liam had faced me with the two Cave Trolls, he didn't even know I'd added a second to my warband.

He was not a happy bunny! I think he had 5 or 6 re-rolls because of the lower value of his warband compared to mine.

However, I was very much dreading that I would squander my points advantage and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory for most of the game.

It was an accurate portent though as ultimately I did lose. That was in part because I was broken and then most of my army fled the field. 

This gave me a new insight to one of the weaknesses of Moria Goblins that I hadn't really experienced up to this point - their shocking Courage value.

It was also interesting to face Liam's Elves because I was not only reminded once again of how tough some of them are, but how accurate they were with their bows. Their arrows weren't worth anything, but they could hit me all day long.

Eventually some arrows did stick though, hence why I was broken.

But Liam's dice were utterly cursed and this roll elicited a laugh/cry from my throat that I don't think has ever passed my lips before in my entire life.

What didn't help was that some of my dice were absolutely on point. 

And these three 6s did not go down well with whatever squashing, rending or throwing my Goblins and Trolls were attempting at the time.

But ultimately I think his Elves, which had taken up defence in the ruined farmhouse, proved much higher quality than my goblins and the rout followed swiftly.

It was a little frustrating to yet again fail to deliver on both the two Cave Trolls and the significant advantage in points. Liam also gained 5 or 6 bonus Influence points for the win and although I think one of his models died outright he was easily replaced with plenty of Influence left over after maxing out his warband. I foolishly pointed out the Seeing Stone item he could purchase that allows him to roll a D6 every turn and on a 6 he chooses who has priority. An awesome item which reminds me that was the mission - there were scattered relics across the board but I don't think you got anything at the end if you held them. However, it did seem appropriate that he would then have a Seeing Stone in his inventory after such an event. I expect this advice to come back to haunt me at a later date!

Battle Report - Middle Earth Battle Companies - Escape from Dwarrowdelf

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity it's Middle Earth Monday! I've been playing #MESBG [Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game] at Otty's again. He recently finished some terrain to use for the Escape from Dwarrowdelf scenario. Here the Fellowship have abandoned Balin's Tomb and are running across narrow walkways, assaulted by Moria Goblins. 

In this case Liam had to get 5 of the party off the walkways, 1 of which must be Frodo. As the Goblin player I rolled a D6 to see how many goblins come on [Cave Troll is worth 5, Sergeant is worth 3]. Then I roll a dice to see where they come on. 1, from the right, 2-5 the left and 6 they can climb on anywhere, except a section that has a member of the fellowship on. Lastly, when doubles are rolled for Priority a 1" chasm can be placed by me anywhere on the walkway, but not within 32 of another chasm or on top of a model.

I rolled a 5 right off the bat for reinforcements and decided to bring the troll on straight away while Liam rushed the Fellowship along the path.

I continued to move forward with 1 additional Goblin joining the fight. Legolas hangs back as a rearguard, just in case I roll and 6s. Gandalf casts blinding light and channels it to ensure all my future shots are at -1 to hit [hitting on 6s]

Boromir, Aragorn and Gimli [BAG] are nearly on the Troll and I bring on a Goblin Sergeant for added support. The Troll suffers a wound, I think from Legolas who's still holding the rear. 

DOUBLES! a yawning chasm opens up between the Troll and BAG, I'm hoping someone is going to fall down it as they jump across but before that Gandalf casts a spell to control the Troll moving it back. I'm happy with that as it gives more space for BAG to jump across but then I discover the Troll is unable to hit back in combat...

Which means he's easily bested in combat by the heroes.

A fair few reinforcements have joined the Goblins. Merry fell jumping over the chasm and as Pippin leaned over to see if he somehow survived 4 newly arrived archers fire all their shots at him. 

Even under Gandalf's blinding light the find their mark and he falls to his cousin's resting point.

DOUBLES! Another chasm opens up, forcing Boromir and Gimli to jump across without Aragorn. More archers join the goblins but with no success. Gandalf jumps across the chasm and Legolas races to catch up with his friends. 

DOUBLES! Yet another chasm prevents Gimli from advancing any further. 4 archers appear on the far right with Legolas catching up. Gandalf and Aragorn jump the 2nd chasm. At this stage I'm relying on chasms to kill off the Fellowship.

I won the priority but there was a bit of a mix up with a Mighty Advance move Liam going first, all sorts happened, Gimli fell jumping the final chasm and some Goblins were killed. Unfortunately the order was wrong and we had to reset, which is lucky I have photographic evidence of where we were at. The Hobbits jumped the chasm.

So Gimli survives his leap this time but Boromir does not, I think he was actually killed in combat, trapped against the chasm I had the Goblin sergeant, plus spear support shove him off. Aragorn jumped across to avenge hit sword brother.

More Goblins were waiting to come on while the archers on the left had to start running to catch up as Legolas was 2 chasm's from escape. Gandalf had fallen, but the Hobbits had made the last jump. The Fellowship could suffer no more casualties or their mission would fail.

The Hobbits escape with Aragorn and Gimli holding the doorway to prevent anymore Goblins coming on.

Legolas makes the first chasm.

And with graceful Elven dexterity makes the final leap to join what remained of the Fellowship.

So I lost [again], but like my attempt at Balin's Tomb there are far more dead than survived in the film. I mean who is going to stand against the Balrog in the next mission now Gandalf has died? This was a lot of fun with the chasms with chants of "anything but a 1" reverberating round the shed with each jump and howls of joy/frustration when someone failed their leap test. Some of the other guys have tried the mission since with hardly any chasms appearing. There was also debate about me bringing the Troll on so soon - he may well have been more useful toward the end. But, he forced Liam to burn up Might points early on to secure its demise, which meant they couldn't alter the fate leaping or in combat - six of one, half a dozen of the other...

Battle Report - Middle Earth Battle Companies - Chance Encounter

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity - I've been playing #MESBG [Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game] at Otty's again. After previous shambolic attempts to record my battles weeks after the event this time I made the effort to write the report soon after, which really helps. As he'd ousted me from my own Moria hex tile I was keen to recapture the caves and reclaim my 're-roll for climb/leap/jump'. That said two of my sergeants are injured so I was facing his Rohirrim with over 100pts less of my full warband. The points deficit between our warbands gave me 3 re-rolls and 3 extra influence points at the end of the game. We rolled Chance Encounter again - objectives is 'the leaders of both companies are looking for a quick victory, without taking too many casualties', however, the victory conditions are to reduce your opponent to 25% of it's starting models.

Luckily I got to deploy first and as I looked at my numerical disadvantage and the 6 heavy cavalry I was facing I was at a loss as to how I might overcome the odds stacked against me. I did the only thing I could and try to use the terrain to my advantage - setting up on the hill, with my faster Warg and Cave Troll on the far right flank, able to move through the trees without penalty because I hold Lothlorien. 

Otty won priority and sent his cavalry surging forward to 'the hill I was prepared to die upon'! Infantry, including a roaming spirit of the dead, a warrior and his hound went to come round the trees, while a small rearguard with the archers held back a bit. In response I drew further out of charge range on top of the hill - trying to create a choke point to face as few cavalry as possible. My Wargs headed through the trees and the Troll skirted the bottom of the hill behind the trees. 

Otty was able to snipe one of my Wargs with an archer - so much for roving ahead under the cover of the trees. I was beginning to doubt every tactical decision I was making. Having withdrawn my Goblins further along the hill I realise it was perhaps another mistake. It delayed Otty's cavalry charge for another turn, with another round of him using his throwing spears. Luckily, I think no one died in the delay but he made the charge with just 2 horse warriors. 2 remained on the hill as back up, while the last two fell back to support against the troll.

My Troll charged the ghostly Warrior of the dead, with a 12 on the Terror test. His rage managed to overcome it's incorporeal nature and he hurled it through the Warrior, hound and the cavalry. The hound and cavalry perished while the rest were knocked flat. My lone Warg had skirted the back of Otty's deployment zone, avoided a round of shooting and pounced on his rearguard archer, but cavalry was on the way and the Warg couldn't press its advantage. I snuck my Goblin Prowler past the main cavalry melee on top of the hill to tie up the secondary cavalry, somehow he survived. 2 more Rohirrim infantry broke through the trees to come up the back of the hill.

The Troll remained locked with the ghost but killed the warrior. My Prowler also kept two cavalry tied up and one of Goblin spears took down one of the horsemen, despite being attacked from behind by the two foot soldiers.

Otty managed to trap my Warg, but the dice gods were not with him! 🎲🎲🎲🎲

The combat on the hill just couldn't be broken. My Prowler continued to be a thorn in the cavalry's side. If I won the duel I failed to wound, if I lost the duel I somehow survived. This allowed my troll to finally kill the Ghost, he failed his Terror charge, but the host didn't fail its and paid the price for it's undead hubris. The Troll surged up the hill to try to break the deadlock.

One Rohirrim left the fight on the hill, his colleague  surged into the back of my lines but not far enough away to escape the Troll. I was losing Goblins and the fights were becoming more even numbered now.

Despite this I was lucky winning some duels but then my luck evaporated and I couldn't convert that opportunity into victory. 🎲🎲🎲

We were both losing the odd model here and there - Otty had the advantage on priority to cavalry charge but I just had numerical advantage to trap him, plus the Troll was unwounded and my Blackshields were as durable as Otty's Rohirrim. I used my last might point to move first, despite losing priority but prevent another cavalry charge. 

Despite the advantage I couldn't capitalise again, that last might point would have won me the duel against the green knight. Meanwhile the red knight threw all his attack on my Blackshield and suddenly those 1s became 6s. For a moment Otty thought he'd made a mistake not attacking the Troll, but he got double strikes on the Goblin, so wouldn't have had the dice to take out the Troll.

We were both approaching our 25% and Otty was struggling with his break rolls. He'd had a good round where only 1 Warrior fled out 5 or 6, but I think he lost 2 here and I may have lost 1. He may have reached 25% first but I followed shortly after but forgot to remove Mang [my little drummer boy] so it looked like I had 4 left and was in 33% and had won!

Of course I hadn't, it was a draw and I discovered hitting that Win button early on https://battle-companies-manager.com/ can be quite the inconvenience. I'm wasn't about to hit the 'back' button to try to fix the result and risk losing all the stats. I'd some how wrestled what I thought was inevitable defeat into almost victory! Luckily I could edit the extra experience and influence after the fact. I was really lucky with injuries though - Zit my leader was completely healed, including his leg wound! And, with +1 to my injury rolls, because I hold the Shire, I got two 'wounds of a hero' for an extra 8 Influence points. I ended the game with 22, enough to get me a second Troll. Nobody died, nobody missed a game and I have 6 Influence left to try to add a couple more Goblins and I got some heavy armour for my Leader.

This was an epic game, fun, tactical and although I still haven't recovered Moria I am absolutely ready to roll through everyone now, and reclaim what's mine!

NOT Battle Reports - Middle Earth Battle Companies

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity - I've been playing #MESBG [Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game] again at Otty's. It was Ben & Otty's 50th birthday's recently so we decided to have a weekend gaming. We had some games of MEBG and Liam and Ben had a game of #AdeptusTitanicus as Liam managed to finish his Titans in a week of furious painting. Anyway, it was a good few weeks ago and I have no recollection of what happened against Scott's Khand.

I think I ended up forfeiting the game quite early as I was taking too many losses and couldn't seem to make a dent in his fast moving army.

I then faced Otty, this time it was a really important game for ownership of Moria itself. If I was to lose the hex I would lose my reroll for difficult terrain tests.

And for the life of me these pictures mean nothing, I can't recall any of what took place, sorry.

But I do know I forfeited the game again which was a huge loss in the long term.

Not only would I need to fight Otty again to reclaim my lost home hex but he expanded further into my realm meaning I would need to fight him for another hex that currently is giving me bonuses I can't afford to lose.

What's even more worrying is that I think that hex also has Liam's elves in too. So it could be a 3 way battle and knowing my luck that'll probably end up with the Rohirrim and elves joining forces to take me out first.

Yeah, not looking forward to that one when it happens.

Here's the Adeptus Titanicus game Liam and Ben played. My Titans still need finishing off. They may form part of my #DreadTober pledge, should I complete my Foetid Bloat Drone get finished early. 

The game was interesting but they may well have been playing wrong. The Cerastus Lancers were 50:50 - they managed to get in combat with the Warlord titan. He was trapped for a long time and because they were inside his void shields did significant damage to him... when they hit. So, although they were MVP for the damage they caused they didn't always manage to land their blows. Anyway, Liam got me the 2nd Cerastus Lancer I shared previously. He's been primed and I will paint his base alongside the Ravenwing bikes when I get round to them.

Anyway, sorry about the not so battle report, but we did have a really good weekend. Went out for breakfast, a curry in the evening a few beers, some toy soldiers and awesome company with my gaming crew.