Battle Record - Middle Earth Goblin Town Vs Easterlings, Game 3 #MESBG

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been playing MESBG again at Warhammer World! We had signed up for a midweek event again, just 500pts, 3 games. But this time we went down the day before, had a game and stayed overnight, so we were fresh the next day to do battle. But the 

Here's my 500 point warband with the 'might bank' from the captain's to buff the King with the Scribe.

• The Goblin King with 10 Goblins and Gollum
• Grinnah with 10 Goblins
• Goblin captain with 8 Goblins
• Goblin captain with 8 Goblins

Last game and I was up against Bryn Soane, he'd faced Ben in round one and lost 9:2. I assume he'd lost his second game and dropped to the bottom with me, still on table 19 [I couldn't go any lower]

• Amdur, Lord of the Blades
• 9 Easterling warriors, halberd and shield
• 6 Black dragon warriors, halberd
• Easterling Dragon Knight
• Easterling Captain
• 6 Easterling warriors, halberd and shield
• 2 Easterling warriors, bow

As you can see To The Death and we're both already on 2 VPs, because neither of us have banners. But the next victory condition makes it even worse. If you have a banner and I don't your scoring another 2 VPs at the end of the game. That means I have to take out the banner, else I allow you the score AND, there's no way I can score that because I can't take them! Luckily neither could Bryn, and I don't usually swear on the blog, but it's bull💩! 

Anyway, we faced off and I discover a couple of the Easterling Heroes have Elven blades, because of course they would. With the Goblin King once again at risk I will have to tread carefully.

We eventually managed to meet in the middle and the Lord of Blades issued an Heroic Challenge to the King, which he promptly dismissed. If they faced each other he'd be at a disadvantage but someone called the Lord of Blades with and Elf weapon was not a challenge I fancied. He did face the Captain though and managed to kill him, stuffing him into a sack as a prisoner for a VP.

Grinnah tried his best too, but wasn't able to double up on prisoners. I think it was a pretty even battle at this point. The Easterlings were hard to kill and with Halberds Bryn could often get 2 spear supports to my one. But every loss he took was a bigger deal, because I had Goblins just waiting in the wings to join combat.

As more of my Goblins died I was able to spread out and start tri-point trapping units. This gave me lots more to wound rolls, which started to turn the tide. But Grinnah was killed and Gollum put on the ring walked through everyone and tried to kill the Lord of Blades who'd got into combat with the Goblin King. Unfortunately he couldn't separate him out and would subsequently succumb to the Ring and wander off. But it didn't matter as the King wone the duel, bashed Amdur silly and took him prisoner instead of the Captain.

With more traps happening I was able to whittle down the Easterlings to quarter and the Goblin King kill the last remaining Hero, but he wasn't as fancy as the Lord of Blades and we definitely wanted to remove that Elven blade to protect our Goblins.

So the end result, with prisoners was 19:4. Unbelievable how this went. I can't quite work out if it was good dice. Maybe it was having all the Goblins together? I think if I go again I'll not take Gollum. He didn't seem to do very much. Although his chance to peel off Amdur had my heart racing for a moment.  Another 8 Goblins feel like they'd be more useful and even easier to manage - no extra rules to contend with.

With that result we ended up with Otty 32nd, me 22nd, and Ben 15th out of 38. I think that's my best ever result. It was only the massive score at the end that allowed me to jump from the bottom to the mid-league. Once again though I never felt like they didn't have a chance. OK, maybe just a bot with Otty as I knew the Wargs were more mobile to secure the objectives and cavalry charges would be my downfall. But, I did much better with them than the objectively more competitive Army of the Dead. So it just goes to show. I think with more practice I'd be stronger with Goblins, so that's what I'm going to do.

Battle Record - Middle Earth Goblin Town Vs Sharku and Wargs, Game 2 #MESBG

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been playing MESBG again at Warhammer World! We had signed up for a midweek event again, just 500pts, 3 games. But this time we went down the day before, had a game and stayed overnight, so we were fresh the next day to do battle. But the 

Here's my 500 point warband.

• The Goblin King with 10 Goblins and Gollum
• Grinnah with 10 Goblins
• Goblin captain with 8 Goblins
• Goblin captain with 8 Goblins

Second game and just look who I was drawn against! Can't get away from this guy! However, I had been curious to see how Goblin Town would fare against his army after the trouncing I had with the Army of the Dead the previous week.

• Sharku
• 5 Warg riders, shields and throwing spears
• 2 Warg riders, shields
• 2 Warg rides, bows
• 2 Wargs
• Orc captain with warg
• 4 Warg riders, shields and throwing spears
• 1 Warg rider, throwing spears
• 2 Warg riders, shields
• 2 Warg rides, bows
• 2 Wargs
• Orc shaman with warg
• 6 Wargs

Alternating warband setup and Otty had positioned to capture the drum on my left. I had half a mind to setup opposite and just bash him. Or I could set up on the right which was empty. Instead I did neither and sat on my home objective. So inevitably he took the right objective so I just threw all three remaining warbands at the right side trusting that inexplicable palisade would cause him more problems than me. 

And it did, he had to send a party back and round to come at my extreme right flank. I kept my home objective secure but had every intention of abandoning it

I think I managed to do quite well in the middle but my board control was shot to pieces. That palisade became my MVP keeping cavalry at bay.

I was totally convinced the Wargs had an 8" move, didn't move my goblins far enough away and they got charged afterall and I had to fight for my home objective. I think I may have killed Sharku with the Goblin King

So with Otty sat on most of the objectives he took the win 9:5

Battle Record - Middle Earth Goblin Town Vs Lothlorien, Game 1 #MESBG

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been playing MESBG again at Warhammer World! We had signed up for a midweek event again, just 500pts, 3 games. But this time we went down the day before, had a game and stayed overnight, so we were fresh the next day to do battle. But the 

Here's my 500 point warband.

• The Goblin King with 10 Goblins and Gollum
• Grinnah with 10 Goblins
• Goblin captain with 8 Goblins
• Goblin captain with 8 Goblins

First game and it was Wyn Price who'd brought Lothlorien:

• Celeborn
• 6 Galadhrim Warriors, shield and Lorien guard
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors, shield, spear and Lorien guard
• Wood Elf Sentinel
• Lothlorien warrior with banner
• Haldir
• 5 Lothlorien warrior with bow
• 7 Lothlorien warrior with spear

Hold Ground was the mission... 😡 once again I start the game with my opponent scoring 2VPs because I don't have a banner. Or more accurately I CAN'T take a banner even if I wanted to! 🤬 Sure if I can kill his banner I get the 2VPs too, but you opponent shouldn't be scoring them for doing nothing before the game has even started. Rant over [for now].

OK, I only took two pictures so there's no report. I was deeply annoyed that these pesky elves were going around singing their own [so-called] songs! They were disgusting warbles to me, nothing like the Goblin King's beautiful voice. Ordinarily I'd have gone straight to the objective and forced him fight me off it. But with Maelstrom [the King decided not to turn up in turn 1] and no Scribe to call Heroic March across the entire board I thought I'd let him have it. I hid my right force in that ruin.

Which I then won priority in the second turn which made me regret not going straight for the centre to get position. But in the end that force Wyn to focus on my right and [mostly] ignore my left force. Except transfixing the Goblin King. Ultimately we ended up trying to surround the objective with what we had left. Wyn had done a much better job because his warbands all came on together. He could focus on half my army with support. That meant he thought I had much more Goblins on the objective than elves.

But I had 16 to his 21. Throw in the King and Celeborn - your warlord is Dominant 3, so worth 3 points but they cancelled each other out. So Wyn won out 9:0, was the wooden spoon within my grasp?

I then went for a coffee and cake in Bugman's, while Ben and Otty disappeared so I was all Billy no mates!

Some of the best painted miniature entries.

Gwaihir went on to win the competition.

The trolls were fun.

And a  custom Balrog, that did not miss leg day!

Battle Record - Middle Earth - Army of the Dead Vs Sharku and Wargs #MESBG 03/09/26

Afternoon #Warhammer Community we've been playing MESBG again. We have a midweek MESBG event at Warhammer World again and both Ben and I had thought to take Scott's Army of the Dead, with Aragorn. But I had limited experience of it so this was a practice to try and understand how it plays against Otty's list of Sharku, a load of Warg riders and a Shamen with Wargs.

I've used the ghosts before, I know they're really fast, tough, cause terror and pretty much kill anything on a 4+. Throw in Aragorn and his free Might per turn and I'm just not used to having all those tools at my disposal.

So by the second turn I chose not to have priority, convinced Terror would stunt Otty's cavalry charge, except it didn't. Liam started to give me advice at this stage but I think I'd already caused the damage with about 4 ghosts dead for good!

I started to win a few duels, but all my wound rolls were just 1 or 2. I just couldn't seem to kill anything and it all seemed a little depressing. Or at least 'not fun'.

Because I knew the dice were disproportionately impacting the game and aside from my inexperience with them it felt like if I did know what I was doing they just wouldn't be fun for who I was up against.

With the mission to capture objectives and my army down to just a few ghosts left I sadly came to the conclusion I'd have had more fun with my Goblins. I doubt I'd have won, but I'd have enjoyed myself a lot more.

It was a shame as I wanted to take them for Scott, but I know he would have told me first and foremost have fun.

But I will not take the Scribe this time for more Goblins and see what that does to my state of play.

Battle Report - Middle Earth Scouring of the Westfold #MESBG 16/07/26

Afternoon #Warhammer Community we've been playing MESBG again. Liam is on holiday and Ben was working so it was just me and Otty, with Will adding helpful advice and the occasional dismissive comment about the state of our dice rolling! 🤣 Otty and Ben had tried playing this older version of the Scouring of the Westfold and had come to the conclusion Isengard had no chance. Given the Westfold actually got scoured they felt this wasn't particularly accurate. So, I wasn't overly keen to give it a go. It's not always fun to go into a game being told your position is impossible and Rohan are going to win. It's also not helpful if you only pay attention to part of the rules.

So at this point all I know is I have to burn down all three buildings, two gets me a draw. The Rohan infantry are protecting them in the centre, the cavalry can come on from turn two with a D6 5+, turn three 4+, four 3+, five 2+. At the beginning of the fight phase I can burn a building on 5+, but for every additional model in base contact I get plus one to the dice roll to a maximum of 2+. Otty can try to put the flames out in the same manner - 5+ but every additional model adds plus one. With time against me I decide to blow two of my four might points and Heroic March with both my left and right flanks. I needed to get to the buildings ASAP and set them alight before the cavalry arrived. Meanwhile, my archers tried to pick off a warrior, and I think they managed at least one.

Otty was stunned to see me spend the remaining Might to get both flanks into base contact. But it was worth it as both houses were set alight, with the great house on the left only just sparking with the 2+ it needed. My archers continued to fire into the Rohan infantry. I know I was more effective than Otty, he failed to kill anyone with bows for the entire game. I think by the end of turn 2 he was able to extinguish the fire on the great house but not top right, which didn't spread. The cavalry, needing a 5+ to arrive, fell short with a 4

I think this is turn four as the cavalry need a 4+ to arrive in turn three and fell short with a 3. It was only turn four needing a 3+ that they managed to arrive from the north, with the outriders in the back, out of range of my archers, which had pushed up to support the centre. I'd reignited the great house but it just wouldn't spread on a 4+. His infantry had started to come round the great house. There was a scrap in the offing but who would commit? To cap it all while the warriors waited to engage they put out the flames on the great house again!

The warriors repositioned and with the right flank in my control I managed to set fire the small hut, but failed to light up the great house again.

Otty was able to get his cavalry into my Uruks and wildmen to the north of the settlement. Their charge won the duel but they couldn't kill a single model!

But I won the next priority and was able to counter charge to avoid being knocked prone by the cavalry. I was able to chop down the leader, but the banner remained alive.

At this stage I began to realise how hard this mission was. Each building needs six flame markers. We realised that we'd missed a couple of chances in the early turns to see if the spread - you set fire at the beginning of the fight phase, they spread at the end of it. So the great house got set alight, spread that turn and spread again the next turn while the other two buildings refused to spread. It became apparent the best chance I had was just to wipe the Rohan [they can't be broken in this scenario]. The Outriders had managed to join the fray in the middle.

But I was able to take a few down so I had weight of numbers to gang up on the banner, the last outrider and then commit forces to assault the infantry from behind. Meanwhile another flame broke out on the great house and on the small hut.

Having wiped the cavalry the hut was on 3 fires, great house 4 and the long house still only 1. But the Rohirrim had been vanquished.

We continued to play on for a bit to see how long it would take to scour the Westfold. The hut finally succumbed.

And then the great house.

With the long house inevitably to follow.

The impossible mission was won! Now we debated whether my heroic marches had made any difference, or whether the 4th turn arrival of the cavalry was too late. I thought that although the early fires had been extinguished I was in a strong board position because of the march. But attempting to burn the houses was less effective than just killing everything. Perhaps if there was a way to help the flames along, similar to starting the fires it would feel more achievable to get the 18 flame markers needed. That fixed 4+ to spread seems arbitrary if it can't be influenced.

Anyway, flushed with success [for once] Otty decided to check something given this was an older scenario using legacy models and it turns out the Isengard faction has a 40+ point advantage! So, once again I have to have more points to win! A little galling, bringing me down to earth with a bump. But I did do what neither of my more competitively successful friends had failed to do with the same list! 😜 So, not all bad afterall...

Hopefully Ben is back next week but this was surprisingly fun, given I expected to fail from the beginning. Winning is actually quite nice 😎

Battle Record - Middle Earth Army of the Dead Vs Shadows of Angmar? #MESBG 09/07/26

Afternoon #Warhammer Community we've been playing MESBG again. This time Army of the Dead with Aragorn Vs maybe Shadows of Angmar. There was definitely Gulavhar, Werewolves, Spectres and a Shade

The mission had three objectives, with the centre one worth more, and even more if your general was controlling it. As usual the memories are sketchy but I'll probably recall things as I go along. I had considered taking Army of the Dead to the next Midweek MESBG in September, so this would be a fun way to see what they're about. Fast is one thing. My warband in the bottom left managed to get up to the corner ruin and then next turn just float over/through it!

Gulavhar then took their place to keep out of the way. 

Meanwhile Wargs and werewolves trapped a few ghosts, but could not kill them because they're so darn tough.

Gulavhar go in behind our defence of the centre objective. Will was very certain things would end successfully for him, his dad not so much.

I think we started to lose a few ghosts

And then we trapped Gulavhar.

But the dice were not with us! 🎲🎲🎲😱

I think we eventually got broken and so the game came to an end. Otty and Will had managed to get more round the objectives. We'd been tough but invariably neither side had been able to capitalise much when winning a duel. Just killing enough and ending the game in a better position had won the game for them.

A lot of fun. Jury is out on whether I'd prefer to take them in September, maybe some more games needed? Liam is away on holiday for the next two weeks now, so it'll be limited attendance for shed night.