Battle Report - Middle Earth Moria Vs Moria at Midweek Warhammer World, Game 1 #MESBG

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been playing MESBG again at Warhammer World! Here's my warband 

• Durbûrz
• 2 Goblin Captains
• 4 Goblin Prowlers
• 17 Goblins [of various loadouts]
• 3 Cave Trolls [2 with hammers, 1 with spear]

Ben Whitlock was my first challenge and he had Moria Goblins! But he'd opted for Warg Marauders [7 of them] to join Durbûrz, a Goblin Captain and a Shaman, which I'd been told are really useful for their Fury magic power. We were playing Capture and Control - 5 objectives, 1 in the middle and the rest 12" away at cardinal compass points. If you stand next to them for a turn they become yours. You have to roll for deployment: 1-3 a warband is in the first 12" width ways, closest to the middle. 4-6 you can put a warband anywhere in your table half. I think all mine were anywhere I wanted.  I think I won priority and managed to snag the two Wargs on the right with my Troll, screening the objective, which my archers captured. I also got the one deep in my half and the centre. Ben managed to get his home objective and the one on my left flank. 

Unfortunately my Troll failed to win the duel, I should have seen that coming - 3 Vs 6D6, so he got wounded too. I spread out more to screen the right objective, but the centre one was already under threat as the Warg came bounding in. The Shaman got off Fury, making the Goblins Fearless. Will I ever play against an army that is not immune to Terror?! And one Warg managed to sneak round my left flank and begin to take a run at my home objective.

Everything was starting to crumble, my Goblins on the right were whittled down. I'd killed a Warg, but it's riders had survived, until they fell off and two got killed. But I still had 4 in the middle of the board and about to take the objective and my resources were dwindling. I had to get my right Troll to stop the flanking Warg but they also cause Terror and Trolls aren't immune! I was lucky and made it in. I think I did a little damage but most of the riders survived. My home objective was still mine, the out of shot Goblin had climbed the wall to hide behind it which had taken 3 'in the way' shots. But time was running out. We got one more turn in to play out the most important parts. Ben captured my right objective, so he had 4 and just needed my home oen for a clean sweep. He got a Warg in but again the wall proved invaluable and attacks got in the way. So the objective remained contested, scoring no points for either of us. 

But Ben scored 8 for objectives and another point for wounding Durbûrz leaving the score 9:0 to Ben. I'm thinking yesterday's loss might not be the opposite of today's efforts. Could it be that I'm just rubbish? 😂 Regardless, it was fun as it always is. What was particularly amusing was constantly trying to pick up each others figures to move as were both goblins!

Anyway, on to lunch - a Bugman's burger. I've had a number of burgers over the past year or so, trying to find the best. So far that's been Honest Burger's California burger [double smashed Honest beef, bacon, American mustard, double American cheese, grilled onions, brown butter burger sauce, tomato, lettuce and pickles. Now the Bugman's Burger is OK, it's definitely good value, but the burger itself was very dense, which didn't give it the texture and taste that I was hoping for. It's decent but but I think I had memories of it being amazing, fries were good though.

On to game 2...

Battle Report - Middle Earth Moria Vs Rohirrim at Midweek Warhammer World, Game 0 #MESBG

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been playing MESBG again at Warhammer World! We had signed up for a midweek event, just 500pts, 3 games, done and dusted. However, we decided to go down the day before, so we were right there for the next day's tournie. This meant we could go round the exhibition [for the first time ever] and I could get a practice game in with Otty, with Ben giving me tips.

Here's my warband 

• Durbûrz
• 2 Goblin Captains
• 4 Goblin Prowlers
• 17 Goblins [of various loadouts]
• 3 Cave Trolls [2 with hammers, 1 with spear]

I've got to say my recollection of this game is scant, it's almost 'not a battle report'. I know we were playing the Lords of Battle mission - which is scoring points from wounds caused. I set up aggressive, trying to get Theodred, who is the second rank on the end in the middle. I hoped I could get the troll in and kill him quick - cutting off Otty's access to the Fearless rule for his army.

Unfortunately, despite getting priority [at some point] I was unable to capitalise. I held back a bit and then was able to get in there but couldn't convert any success in the duels. Otty was able to bring in the cavalry and one troll took 2 wounds and the spear troll took 1. 

My Goblins were being slaughtered with ease, I finally managed to get my third troll into combat - quite the journey from where he originally started. But I needed to bolster my left flank as Rohirrim were flooding in. 

But it just wasn't enough, my goblins were just overrun and with two of the trolls falling my whole force started to crumble.

Doesn't look like I had much left at the end, a Troll, 4 goblins and a Goblin Captain. Outmanoeuvred, outgunned, outrolled - it was devastating. Perhaps though, I lost big so I could win big tomorrow?

But clearly Otty was much better prepared for the coming challenge.

Battle Report - Middle Earth Moria Vs the Mighty Ents #MESBG

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been playing MESBG again. I'll admit I wasn't 100% looking forward to this. Partly because of the last game, partly because we've played some other games inbetween and also, because we're going to a MESBG tournament at Warhammer World - this is competitive now. There's a responsibility to get it right, know the rules, use your Might and special rules at the right time. Normally I don't care and I've someone else to do the heavy lifting on tactics but now it matters. Which has removed the fun aspect somewhat. Anyway, here's my warband 

• Durbûrz
• 2 Goblin Captains
• 4 Goblin Prowlers
• 17 Goblins [of various loadouts]
• 3 Cave Trolls [2 with hammers, 1 with spear]

We were playing the Relic mission - 6 objectives, when in base contact you search it, roll D6, on a 6 it's the Relic. Anything else it's discarded and the others are checked until it's found or the last one is definitely the Relic. Liam had chosen Ents, instead of one of his Orc warbands, so another Fearless army where I couldn't see the potential of my Cave Trolls.

Maelstrom deployment, Liam put his 4 Ents in the top right. Durbûrz refused to turn up. The second warband came on bottom left, 

in the marsh. 

The last warband - Liam got to choose where it came on - top right the other side of the trees. A fair bit happened between now and the next pic. I won priority and went for this objective. It was not the Relic. I then started to move these Goblins back toward my table half, were some more objectives could searched and to join up with the rest of my Army. Durbûrz came on, again I think Liam chose and he put them on the left side, not far from the Warband already there, who'd moved up the board.

Liam had then moved one of his ents to the objective in the middle, it was not the Relic. I checked a couple more and eventually we were left with the drum middle right and a Daemon's head top left. I was debating what to do. If I let Liam search and fail I could secure the drum. Or I could search the drum and fail his lone ent would be out of position of hs other 3, with no support and the bulk of my army closing in. I went for the latter. I managed to snag all three Ents, including Quickbeam, did not find the Relic [meaning it was the Daemon's head] and Heroic marched Durbûrz and his gang to intercept the lone ent, who would come into posession of the Relic. Liam failed priority on a 1, I got the 5. Then he had to roll to see if he was transfixed by the dark powers of the Relic, this is his 1 to be transfixed!

With the ent rooted I sent Durbûrz forward. Quickbeam had managed to smash one of my tolls apart. I just had one remaining troll versus 3 ents who were bigger, stronger and higher fight. My only advantage was my ability to trap him with cheap Goblin bodies.

Bodies that I was positioning as a road block between his force and the Relic. Oh and my dice were running hot. Liam had not won a priority so far

And when it came to Duel rolls this was just after I said I "hadn't seen a 6 all night"! Invariably I was needing 6's to win the duels and he just kept rolling 1,2,3

Then my Troll managed to get 2 wounds on Quickbeam

And eventually I think it was just too much and he was felled.

But two healthy Ents were still in play. I was really lucky with Terror rolls and managed to keep snagging them. At this point I'd made a great play in surrounding the Relic ent with multiple units - he'd been transfixed for a second turn. I then trapped the ent in the middle with the troll and the other ent was trapped by one goblin in combat and 2 just out. I then screwed up. Otty went for a brew and I foolishly said we should play the least important battle - latter one. Liam rolled his duel dice and I realised my mistake. If he won the duel he could barge the goblins out of the way, join the fight on the middle ent, peel the troll out of it and I know longer had the trapped advantage. I screwed up, but Liam rolled a 5 and if I got a 6 I'd win the duel stopping the Ent barging - clearly I didn't which is why it's in base contact with the troll.

And it did not end well for it.

The Relic ent woke from it's stupor to barge everyone away 

But he did not do enough damage and despite having the higher fight he ended up trapped again in another duel where I needed 6 to win

The troll various Goblins and Prowlers got in there, by this time it had just 1 wound remaining.

With so many dice in play, even the Goblins could take that last wound on 6 and a 4.

The Relic was dropped and I picked it up, sending the rest of my force to intercept the last two ents. The Relic now asserted it's dark powers on my Goblins, with them being transfixed the following turn.

Liam/Otty managed to win a couple of priorities but I kept throwing cannon fodder at the ents, stopping them making any progress toward the Relic. Eventually my Goblin Captain managed to get a couple of wounds on an ent. He got a natural 6, then 3, which I mighted to a 4 and then I mighted a 5 to a 6, and got the wound on the follow up dice. 

I think the troll came in and after the brief reversal in priorities I was on fire again and the Relic was hoofing it across the board. At this stage Liam was fighting a lost cause and we called it a night. I made plenty of mistakes but I was helped immensely by the dice and how unlucky Liam was with both priority and becoming transfixed. I still have a lot to learn though.

Lastly, this is Otty's shed 2.0 that he's building - it's going to be a monster!

NOT a Battle Report - Middle Earth Moria Vs Rohirrim #MESBG

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been playing MESBG again. This isn't really a battle report as I only have a couple of in game pics and it was a month or so ago, so I've no real recollection of what happened. But the bottom line is we're going to a one day MESBG tournament at Warhammer World and I needed some practice. I wanted to take my Moria Goblins, so we set about making a Warband that looks something like this:

• Durbûrz
• 2 Goblin Captains
• 4 Goblin Prowlers
• 17 Goblins [of various loadouts]
• 3 Cave Trolls [2 with hammers, 1 with spear]

So everything is my own, except for a couple of the Trolls, which I'm borrowing off Liam. I'm hoping that despite the lack of mobility and a banner that I've just got stuff I can have fun with. The Trolls are a bit 'power gamey' but it was just the easiest way to make up points and limit my unit choices so I have less to worry about.

Anyway, the first game we played was against Otty's Rohirrim, I think it's Theoden or Theodred, but whoever gives his army Fearless, while he's alive. This nullified my fear causing Trolls unfortunately. Something happened turn 1 which was pivotal. I think I'd been really lucky and managed to put some wounds on 'Theo' but Otty and Liam were able to squirm their way out of it thanks to some special rule. But whatever it was the fact Theo survived meant the rest of the game I got absolutely stuffed.

I'm not entirely sure if I also stuffed up the mission rules as well, or if I'm confusing that with a subsequent game of of 40k. However, it's a learning session, the event is the 10th July, so I have to get 'match fit'. Learn my rules and understand how to play my Goblins and how the missions work. 

I already felt a certain competitiveness with this. Losing badly was not fun, which ordinarily I have no issue with. I desperately hope this doesn't make me lose my enjoyment for MESBG. We'll just have to see...

Battle Report - Middle Earth Isengard Vs the Mighty Ents #MESBG

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been a bit busy recently with things so it's been about 3 weeks since I last rocked up at Otty's shed for some game time. After some suggestions that a change in venue is forthcoming it would seem like he's started, but more on that at the end. In the mean time Liam from Blue Warp Studios is continuing his unofficial one man challenge of painting every Middle Earth faction! I mean he's also muscling in on my Dark Angel territory, but they're not the only children of the forest he's been working on - he has Ents! A couple of the characters and kitbashes and then a week or two slap-chopping and flocking them and here were are. He and Ben teamed up with the trees while Otty and I went Isengard. Don't ask me what mission, I wasn't paying attention! But half your army is within a 6" strip on one side of the centre, the other half is in the 6" strip on your board edge and vice versa. This is partway through turn 1 where I'd deployed my orc scouts and crossbows thinking Liam might split his force and not get a turn 2 charge on the Ballista - my tree-killing 'ace in the hole'. It turns out he didn't split his force, or even bother with the Ballista - just went from my scouts.

The Ballista managed to hit, avoid the inbetween and actually hit Treebeard, rather than scatter onto the other character Beechbone. Ultimately I had to use the Ballista captain's Might point to get the wound off. But then the trees just started stomping on Orcs.

The other three surged up the battlefield, thanks to Quickbeam calling a March. He's 'fast' with an 8" move but he was moving 11", with the two other trees marching 9". They'd be in my lines next turn. 

And as you can see there's a lot less there now. It didn't help that Merry and Pippin actually killed an Orc throwing stones at them. Otty is his bringing his force into the mix, but the Ballista couldn't hit a barn door after it's initial promise. W got lucky and won a duel against Treebeard, who was trapped and we started to do damage, but by using all his fate and might he was still alive on 1 wound.

Our casualties started to pile up, made even worse by the amended Demolition Charge rules. It transpires you can only set it off, if you're in range of two enemy models. Otty just couldn't position them in such a way to set it off without putting the team in danger of being charged before they could. It was mightily underwhelming, almost as bad as the Ballista. 

But we pressed on and thanks to repeatedly trapping the trees some crossbow and scout orcs managed to fell Beechbone "TIMBER!" Yes, they then neatly stacked him into a woodpile. 

A turn later and Quickbeam also succumbed. Now you may get the impression we were turning the tide. and on paper perhaps we'd made a comeback. We were 1 point behind, and if we killed Treebeard, who only had 1 wound left, we'd be 2 in front. But the Orcs were broken, the Demolition Team dead and the hail Mary, of shooting the Ballista at Treebeard, which hit, but had an 'in the way' for the Demo Charge... but hoping it would set it off - wound 4+ and explode on a 6. We wounded the charge on a 6 and got a 5 to explode! No joy.

We continued on way past sensible o'clock, but it was such a great game. Our dice were shocking. Ben's rolling was obscene. Any time he needed a 6 he got one. Every duel I had with him if he rolled first he got max 5 and my roll would be max 5, meaning he would win the duel thanks to the Ents having a higher fight value. Even when Otty did win a duel we couldn't convert. The two dead Ents were anomalies rather strategic wins. But we had so much fun, I'd say it was a blast, but that brings up bad memories of the Demo Charge. I can't see that in Otty's lists in future. 

Here's a few more pics of Liam's Ents. There are a couple more to make the full list.

And lastly, Otty has been busy extending the decking around his summer house. The gaming shed is currently  up past the bush at the back and we're walking on his grass which can be a bit messy. The shed itself is having its roof removed to reuse the wood in a larger structure, with the current shed becoming Otty and his wife's workshop. It's all going to be mighty epic in the end.

Battle Report - Middle Earth #MESBG

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been playing games again but sadly, although I've taken many pictures of the games I haven't found the time to write them up and so most of them are somewhat redundant. It also meant that when I had a game of MESBG recently I didn't take as many pics and then I was compelled to actually write it up so we'll make do. Otty is still buzzing from his Double's tournament at Warhammer World where he even got to play against Adam Troke. I played against his Moria army, with a Dweller and a Balrog the other week and it was hard going, this time I got to be the goblins and he had a large force of Rohirrim, with Théoden leading them. We were playing the Relic mission, where there are 6 objectives and if you end your turn next to them on six on a D6 it is the relic and you have to hold onto it until the game ends. However, it's a cursed item of power and you can become transfixed by it. On top of that it was maelstrom deployment - each of your army's warbands arrives randomly, or not at all, from board edges via dice roll. Otty won priority, he brought one warband on from the east, one from the west, the one from the south [the top middle] and his last warband didn't turn up. His cavalry picked up the banner objective on the left to inspect it, rolled a 6 and found the relic instantly! Which made my deployment somewhat easier. I got to deploy the Balrog force to the South, in an attempt to cut off the inevitable desperate escape the horse lords would attempt now they had my cursed banner. I also brought my Dweller on from the left, to shadow his force. I'm much less mobile so my Warg Marauder was the great grey hope... Unfortunately my last warband, led by Durbûrz, rolled a 1 to arrive, so didn't. I could have used Might points to increase the roll, but 1 or 2 points would have meant Otty getting to choose, which would be totally isolated. Using all Durbûrz's 3 Might points would have got me on north or south but that's all his resources so I left them off.

Next turn and I lose priority, we both try Heroic moves and I think I won so I managed to trap some of his force but forgot Grôblog has to move first and he was effectively surrounded by goblins so I couldn't move far enough to snag the banner, which promptly scampered off. The rest of Otty's Elfhelm warband went on to surround Grôblog. His final Warband arrived and came on in the top left corner to try and take my Balrog's force, but too far away.

My Balrog moved forward but it's only got a 6" move and the goblins 5" so it was wishful thinking. The Balrog has an 8" flaming whip attack, which killed a Royal guard but that was it. Durbûrz rolled a 2 for deployment, which meant Otty could deploy him, but I spent 2 Might to make it a 4 and bring him on from the south [top of the board]. I was hoping to scuttle between his middle warband and the one in the top right [out of shot]. Unfortunately the gap between them was 12-13" so they would be charged from either side next turn. So I moved them more towards the middle so if they did get charged it would be by only one warband, and it would pull them away from the Balrog. It worked, the next turn Theoden charged me, but also got the Warg Marauder too, which gave the banner chance to move further out of reach. Eventually my Marauder from the left caught two of the body guards but couldn't kill them.

However, the dweller caught one and Balrog caught the other which allowed the Marauder to slip between them and chase down the fleeing rider with the banner, who had not succumbed to its accursed powers so far.

Meanwhile Elflhelm decimated Grôblog and his warband was down to slim pickings at this stage.

Similarly my southern force was now caught between two of his warbands and Durbûrz was surrounded. I think I had one last chance for my Marauder to killer the rider with the relic, failed and with Otty getting the next turn's priority he would tie him up with infantry and the rider would make for the borders. A loss, but such a good game.

I'm not sure I've had a bad game of MESBG and despite some frustrations, cursed dice rolls and a loss as the dust settles it felt like such a cinematic game. Discovering the banner from the very beginning and racing it across the field as flaming demons stomped from the sides and behind was epic. Now Otty did say it wasn't a banner they found but Grôblog's Mithril crown, as he failed every chance to make his fight better for the warband around him but either way that race to escpae the board was awesome. I had some last ditch chances, some Marauder archers trying to pick him off long range and catching up with him right at the end but Moria just didn't have the pace.

Anyway, I love this game and I felt compelled to share it because the fact I can't get behind 10th edition 40k shouldn't overshadow then genuine hobby joy I'm getting from other game systems. It's disappointing I'm not getting the best out of the myriad of painted 40k figures I have, but it's a small price to pay for the pleasure and fun we're having at Otty's shed.