Battle Report 6.8.2022 - Easterlings & Khand VS Thranduils Halls & Khazad-Dum

Intro

This forenoon I played a game in my local Tabletop Simulator League against M. We usesd 773 points and played on a Belfalas map. M won the army dice throw chose his good army, so I played evil. Here my list, which was lead by Rutabi and also included a king of Khand and Khamul:

M played Thranduils Halls in an alliance with Khazad-Dum --> Legolas leading Mirkwood elve warriors with gleves and some with bows + one M-cavalry. Durin leading a bunch of hearthguards and a champion of the king, leading a group of vault warden teams.

The dice decided that we play pool 3 of the matched play guide, so I had the choice between #1 "Size the price", 2# "Retrival" or 3# "Destroy the supplies". I never played #1 and also never heard anything good about it^^ So under the given conditions, I decided to play #3 since I was pretty sure that my markers would be save and there was a chance for me to catch some of Ms. 

When throwing the dice for the side, I won and chose the one where one marker was hidden inside a wood - quite a bad setup if I would have to try and take it over. Also this meant my opponent had the side where all markers where out in the open. 

I placed Rutabis infantry block into the centre, Khand to the left and Khamul to the right. On the other side, Durin took the center, Legolas deployed behind him in order to form a combined battle line. And as last, the champion took the right to defend the last marker. 

Battle

I won the first initiative and decided to let the chariots take the offensive. This meant moving them towards the center and keeping Rutabi a little bit behind. Two of my acolytes went off towards Khamul, who went foward while taking cover behind buildings. 

My chariots had all bows equipped, which meant I actually brought quite a lot of shooting with me. And indeed in the first round, my Khandish king managed to wound Legolas and force him to use one fate. 

M used his movement to scatter his force and form a combined battle line.

He had the next initiative and moved cautiously forward. I gloated already over to have my turn, use the kataphract drum and surprisingly move 13" forward with my chariots and hitting him. However since it was my first time with a war drum, I quickly had to find out that this would not work since it only counts for models with the Easterling keyword.

Never mind, the enemy bow fire failed and my chariots were not harmed. Even Legolas seemingly did not want to shoot out my chariots as he normally does. 

Next round I won initiative and was able to move all of them into the dwarven line. The sad result however was only two dead enemies. Unsurprisingly the my opponent encircled all my chariots and killed them.

On the other side of the field, Khamul managed to outflang the vault warden teams and was able to overturn all of them but only killed one elve. 

The next initiative went to M and Rutabi had to do a heroic move in order to hold the line after my chariots had vanished. They secured the sides of my Khandish king, who in the meantime managed to do multiple kills. The Easterlings managed to win most fights and killed nearly nothing.

Khamul on the other side, had no chance to take his turn and was attacked by the Champion and V-W teams. He survived till the end but at best managed only to draw away some troops. In the last round the Akolyths finally reached him but only managed to use their throwing weapons once. 

In the center, thanks to the king and Rutabi, I managed to hold myself even though I had a numeric disadvantage.

Sadly a woodelf Sentinel managed to move my banner around and get it killed. This would prove to be fatal.

Before a decision could be made in the center, the time limit of 2 hours 15 minutes ended. No markers were destroyed, no one  was broken and no leader received wounds. So my lost banner brought the decision and I lost 0:2 against M.

Conclusion

It was a really nice game and even though I lost,  I had the feeling to having played well enough. With more time, it would have been interesting to see how the center battle could end. Durin and Legolas versus Rutabi and my Khandish king. But also a lot more Khazad-Guards then Easterlings. 

My error was that I sent Khamul alone against the Kings Champion and his troops and that two Acolythes basically did nothing.

Except for the Khandish king, my chariots again failed me miserably and not nearly brought in their points. Due to their size, I also had to hold back Rutabi in order to allow them getting to the front.

Regarding the markers - I think I really could not have done anything better. M pretty much covered them really good and Khamul would have been catched while trying to destroy them. 

So baseline:

Next time use Khamul better, use Acolythes better. Less chariots. Instead maybe use Borgrir with more infantery and/or kataphracts. Oh and make use of the war drum^^"

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