"Legendarium - The Book of Forgotten Battles" Tournament Report

On the 12.2.2022 I attended my second tournament. It was hosted in Groß-Enzersdorf (AT) by the Wulperteringer Spieleverein. It consisted of three games, the general point limit was set to 750 and no alliances were allowed. Here is a detailed explanation of the tournament (sorry only in German) but to make it short: Their aim was to provide a special experience and be different from plain tournaments. 

The main goal of every scenario is the same - to capture and hold target markers (differently deployed every time - I will add images for each game). But not only did they happen on beautifully prepared game tables, there was another twist: Holding a target requires not one but at least three health points AND every player chooses three secondary missions from from five different categories (taking more than one category was forbidden). These missions could be things like scoring a point for every successful magic cast, enemy models failing courage tests on your units, killing banners and many more.

The play time was limited to six rounds and 2h 15 m + points were scored per turn and not just at the end.  This approach resulted in very dynamic matches where the focus of each players goals could be very different. E.g. although an army might be not fast or killy, they still could play to fitting goals and win by score. I really enjoyed it although it basically rendered one of my armies useless^^" But more on that later.

My lists

I brought with me my Numenor army (nearly everything except for four swordsmen) and the Rise of the Necromancer LL.

Numenor

Rise of the Necromancer LL

The Games

Game 1: Numenor VS Mordor

My first game was against Witzphi and his Mordor army. It was lead by the Witch-King and a nameless Nazgul on Fellbeasts and consisted of a bunch of normal Orcs, Morannon Orcs, Orc stalkers and Warg riders. 

The battlefield featured a hill on the left with an Amon Hen ruin, several woods and a ship landing stage and sea on the right. I placed Isildurs warband in the left lower corner to early on secure its target marker. The center was taken by my Captains bowmen warband and the right corner by Elendils. Witzphi placed his warbands left to right: Nameless Nazgul, Orc captain on Warg and Witch-King. 

I choose a kill count, securing targets and withstanding magic as secondary missions.They game could start.

I early on witnessed my biggest problems: The flying Nazgul were super mobile, flew in to throw out some magic, pulled back and secured targets. Although all but one magic attack failed, the successful one managed to kill my banner. In general the Nazgul were untouchable and even tough Numenor is the pefect army to resist magic, my opponents magic failed because of his bad rails and failing to rather than me resisting them. So I did not score points for it.

Early on his bigger army secured all but two target markers. I was able to kill relatively many Orcs with my bows and when Elendil and Isildur finally crushed into the bulk of Orcs, they quickly gained the upper hand. It was too late though since six rounds are fast over. I lost by score however I was able to gain myself more than I thought I would. It loomed ahead that with more time, I would have defeated the Orcs by force but alas that was not the target of the scenario.

Summary: I lost but it felt balanced, we had fun and the point difference was not too bad.

Best moment of the game

Realizing in the last round, that I can place all my archers to the right most center target. And although I could not reach it directly, I was in the 3" radius and therefore stole it from my opponent. 

Worst moment of the game

Starting with Isildurs warband in the left corner of my side. I did it because this warband had enough swordsmen to spare and hold the objective. However doing that meant I had only the choice to squeeze myself in rows of two along the battlefield border and the hill or walk into the center. I chose the second option but both choices meant a big delay for this warband and they could participate only briefly in the fighting.

Game 2: RotN LL VS Isengard

My second game was against Eichohrkatz and her Isengard army. She had warbands led by Lurtz (Uruk warriors with sword + shield, pikes, Berserkers and a demolition team), Mauhur (Uruk scout marauders) and Vrasku (crossbows). 

Even though i knew I would have a hard time, I choose to play with my Necromancer LL. Something I would quickly regret xD A good choice of secondary missions though was too tempting for me to resist: Scoring points for every successful spell, and for every failed courage test against Terror, from enemy models. 

The battlefield featured a lot of ruins and a plaza in the center. I started in the left lower corner with my single warband and Eichohrkatz from left to right: Mauhur, Lurtz and Vrasku.

I moved forward to claim the nearest target of the central area. Aaaand quickly realized that I would have no chance of ever securing points for keeping target markers. I simply had to few models AND wounds available. Within two rounds the Uruks secured four target markers and the central plaza (also providing points). Vraskus warband never even participated in the fighting or shot a single crossbow.

I decided my only chance to earn some points, was by killing and using magic as much as possible and hoping for failed courage tests. But even that did not work out. I did kill Uruks but mostly only from the Marauders. Around half of my spells failed or were resisted - at least I was able to use two by round... And lastly even my Terror and courage malus failed me.

Choosing to have her Berserkers and heroes do most of the fighting, Eichohrkatz seldom lost a test.  The only saving grace was that I was able to kill her banner and nearly set off her demolition charge ^^

So we both were able to have fun with the game but without a surprise I completely lost with Eichohrkatz nearly scoring the maximum amount of points.

Best moment of the game

I nearly managed to detonate the demolition charge. First with casting Chill Soul on it but failing. Second when the LS attacked and damaged it. However the detonation roll failed. What a shame, it would have killed quite a lot of Uruks but the fact that this possibility opened, was already cool enough =D

Worst moment of the game

Realizing how utterly screwed I was with this army xD Not a single time did I manage to score points for the main objective. But well, even if I had tried to, I still would have lost. Having only one wound on every hero, made it even more harder than it anyway would have been with an all-hero army. The big battle field and no shooting meant I could not hold a target without wasting three very expensive units to just sit on it and still going to be sniped. Needing at least two targets to score points, I would have only two models to move around... And yes, the secondary missions for casting spells and failed courage tests were tailored made for this army. But they by far had no chance to outweigh the lost points from the main targets.

Game 3: Numenor VS Rivendell

My third game was against Idefix and his Rivendell army.  It was lead by Elrond, Lindir, Cirdan and a Rivendell Knight Captain, featuring warriors with swords + shield, spears + shields, bows and Rivendell knights.

After the crushing defeat of the second game and now facing an army which even under best possible conditions for me, would be the worst enemy of my Necromancer, it was an easy decision which army I would field^^"

I stared in the left lower corner and placed Isildur on the upper target, Elendil on the lower target and the Captain near the center, behind some small coverage. The game could start.

Idefix won the priority (as he did for all following rounds...) and quickly moved his knights into the flank of my bowmen. It was my first game against Rivendell knights and their speed and hitting power took me by surprise. 

In the following rounds, Elendil send forth half of his warband to secure the right lower target and helped in the center. At the same time Isildur contested and even took over the upper left target for some time.

It was a back and forth but over time the R-knights killed off my warriors. Elendil managed to kill one and several times engage Elrond, Lindir and even Cirdan. But every time the elves weaseled their way out or my dice luck left me.

By the end of the fourth round we realized we had only 30 minutes left to finish the game. From there it suddenly flowed faster. Even though I reduced all combats of my warriors to using shield block and trying to survive, they nearly lost all of them and died. By the end of the game I had only 6 warriors left (from 37) and only two targets. 

Fighting high elves was pretty exhausing and combat-wise, I was clearly inferior. All the bigger was my surprise when after summarizing the points, I saw I actually won the game xD My secondary missions and holding three targets for most of the time, gave me the upper hand. So quite the opposite of my first game in this regard.^^ 

Best moment of the game

In the third round most of my bowmen were tied up by R-knights, leaving only the ones near the coverage free.By that time Idefix had moved his infantry next to it on the other side. It was here were I was able to land my one and only ranged kill by shooting three arrows in the face of an elf! A small satisfaction amidst hard fights =P

In the fifth round, Elendil was tied by two elf warriors and declared his free heroic combat. He won and killed one of them. Looking for my next target I suddenly saw Cirdan standing only 4" away from. Idefix moved him closer to give the Terror bubble to the warriors but underestimated Elendil. What a joy it was charge the elf and knowing that one was around to help him. Unfortunately...

Worst moment of the game

Well there are actually two. The first was that Elendil was able to win his heroic combat and catch Cirdan without any support. Only to miserably fail in the following duel - rolling only three two's against Cirdans five... 

The second was to witness how the Rivendell Knights danced and cut through my ranks. I manged to kill two of them but only because Idefix did not play hit and run and favoured close combat.

Lessons

Better read the mission description

I wrote already that because of how the whole tournament was setup, all-hero armies were not the optimal choice - maybe even impossible to play at all.

I could have realized it, had I read more closely about the missions and what was required to score points.

On the other side I probably would have brought my Dol Guldur miniatures anyway since it was the first time to show them public and I was eager to play with them^^

Just more infantry is not good enough

With 750 points was able to bring nearly all my Numenor miniatures, resulting in 40 of them on the battlefield. But since Numenor lacks variation and I do not own mounted versions of my heroes, it was all infantry. In both games with them I suffered heavily from having less mobility than my opponents. Even a second Captain with march wouldn't have changed anything because my problem was not really reaching some place on the battlefield later than my opponent. It was more the general lack of mobility to maneuver around enemy models. The Nazgul flew in and out as they saw it fit and the Rivendell Knights were all over my warriors and always blocking them off from each other.

I guess its really about time to somehow have mounted heroes or play an army that has mobility^^

Ranking

Well as you might have guessed, my performance did not rank me among the top players of the tournament ;P In fact, I ranked on the last place, out of 15 players. I was a little bit surprised actually. Having scored not too bad on the first game and winning my third one, I thought to have at least secured my rank somewhere in the middle of the last third. On the other side it is true that I lost very hard on the second game and it was impossible to regain this loss.

But I had a lot of fun and every participant received a goody bag with great content (three miniatures, vouchers and a dice bowl)!

Location, Food, Drinks, Misc

The location was perfect - it was clean, enough light, awesome playing tables, enough space and chairs. For a free donation you could choose from several different beverages and eat from two big pretzels (filled with cheese, ham, etc). So no reason to complain =)

The only unfortunate thing was that one player could not show up and we were only 15 instead of 16 participants. This meant that each round, one player was leftover without an opponent. The solution was that this player per game was drawn from a lot and received a score as if having played a draw. This was a good solution in my opinion and of course things like that can happen and its not anyone's fault.

Conclusion

I had a lot of fun and the day went by all too fast =) I even met and talked with people I knew from my last tournament or Facebook and it was nice to just nerd-out for one day with like-minded people =D

It was perfectly organized, with innovative ideas and the goodie bag for everyone was great!

In following some more impressions from the tournament.

The Castellan keeps his watch and happy hobbying until the next time =)