Tale of Many Gamers: James G Month 2

''East rode the knights of Dol Amroth driving the enemy before them''

Finally completed my 400 point Fiefdom force for Month Two. This month I added a Mounted Captain of Dol Amroth (with dismount), a Captain of Dol Amroth on foot, three Axemen of Lossnarch, three Foot Knights of Dol Amroth and a Blackroot Vale Archer with Horn.

Forlong the Fat

Complete force

The foot knights of Dol Amroth

The Archers of the Blackroot Vale

This month also saw them take to the field of battle for the first time. They took on Michael MacDonald's Goblin Town force in a randomly selected scenario. The Goblin Town army consisted on the Goblin King, The Scribe, Grinnah, a Captain and four warbands of goblins.

The game selected was Hold Ground and annoyingly I won priority. It didn't start well with Forlong's warband consisting of the Axemen & Archers not turning up. The Captain on foot entered on the eastern edge of the board with the other foot knights with the lone mounted captain appearing on the opposite board edge.

I was able to place the Goblin King behind a ton of scenery at the furthest point away from me with the scribe choosing to appear alongside him.

The remaining two warbands of goblins appeared directly behind my foot knights!

Needless to say I promptly lost priority and was surrounded.

Despite having a banner in the centre of the formation, the combination of overwhelming numbers and being trapped led to four of my knights falling to the chittering hordes while only managing to kill a single goblin in return.
Forlong and his warband turned up adjacent to the fight to lend support while the mounted captain continued his charge across the battlefield. By the time the mounted captain arrived I had lost another three foot knights (including the banner) and two axemen. Although I was able to whittle away at the goblin numbers, the goblin scribe managed to pass every single one of his reinforcement roles with another three goblins being thrown into the mix every turn.
The presence of the cavalry made an immediate impact with ten goblins falling beneath his lance. This proved to be a little too late though to stop my army breaking. With the game ending on a 1 or 2 now, with nobody on the hill things were starting to look a bit tense.

In an attempt to score some VP's the mounted captain charged the Goblin King who had finally made it to the fight. After each heroic struck their opponent the Goblin King and seven supporting goblins were able to cut down the valiant knight.

With the death of my knight, any realistic chance I had of winning the game went up in smoke. With the Goblin King and two warbands worth of goblins swarmed onto the hill, the game ended. The goblins had won.

I had finished the game with a quarter of my starting army with only Forlong, an axeman, a knight and 2 archers remaining. None of them on the hill. The goblins had ten models seizing the objective. Neither general had been wounded but the goblin force had broken my army without being broken themselves. Goblin Town had won 13 - 0.

As with most games, deployment is key and no more so than in Hold Ground. My force had been separated early which allowed them to succumb to Goblin Towns superior numbers. My attempt to reinforce the foot knights with the archers also meant that I wasn't able to utilise their abilities as I would of liked. Six archers re-rolling to wound the Goblin King during his long trek to the battle could have been key.

Despite the loss it was a hugely enjoyable battle and I'm looking forward to learning from this game and growing my army. Next up is Prince Imrahil who will make a huge difference to the way the army plays. With him will also be another 8 Axemen and 4 Archers.

Thanks for this great article James! Until then, Happy Wargaming!