Isengard Unleashed!

[BaronDeSade]

Hello All,

My "crappy" "rabble" of Orcs has given a good account of itself, so now is the time to let the lumpy morons rest for a bit and drag forth one of my other armies that I haven't yet played with the new warband rules, so, behold the fury of Isengard!

I had a dream of making this a four-warband army, but the Uruks are just too darn expensive for me to do that and still have a banner in the army. Since the banner is a victory point in To the Death, and since it is useful for the fairly-elite Uruks, I couldn't let go of the banner. And so, I have a three warband force, which eschews cavalry in favor of brutal hitting power and elite heavy infantry.

My first warband drop is not my most powerful. It needs to be solid, though, and will form either the right or the left flank of my army.

Uruk-Hai Captain with shield and heavy armor

5 Uruk-Hai warriors with shields

4 Uruk-Hai warriors with pikes

3 Uruk-Hai Berserkers

Bam! This force will either form the anvil that the enemy army breaks against or it will swiftly pursue the enemy in order to bring them to battle. The berserkers stay in the rear until battle is joined, then either swing out to the flanks or bash any foolish Good hero that tries to break through the Uruk's lines. I originally had Orcs with two-handed weapons in this place, but as I could not afford the fourth warband, I upgraded them to berserkers. These are not my favorite models, but they are in a good place to avoid being shot and then to utilize their strengths.

The center warband contains the general and the banner, important models in most scenarios, and this is my second drop.

Uruk-Hai Captain with shield and heavy armor

5 Uruk-Hai warriors with shields

4 Uruk-Hai warriors with pikes

1 Uruk-Hai warrior with banner

2 Uruk-Hai Berserkers

Bam! Again! Plenty of fighting power here that does not singificantly degrade as it suffers losses. Kill an Uruk-Warrior and you find another behind him, sans shield. Kill that Warrior and you find a Berserker behind him.

The third warband contains my Shaman and the crossbows. Because the crossbows cannot move and shoot, they need to be the last ones dropped. The shaman is useful for keeping the more lightly-armored crossbowmen alive and for making the army as a whole more resilient, which is again useful for an elite-level army. I don't expect to be able to win shoot-outs in the same way that my Orcs could, but the crossbows CAN deal a lot of damage quickly to a troublesome enemy unit, such as cavalry, as they will wound standard horses on a 4+ and kill armored knights on a 5+.

Uruk-Hai Shaman with armor

9 Uruk-Hai with crossbows

2 Uruk-Hai with pikes

1 Berserker

39 Models, 598 points.

Glory to the White Hand, that gives us man's-flesh to eat!

[Smeagol]

Isengarders are tough, but there are many more scenarios than Lords of Battle and To the Death. Shall I expect you to be prepared to be humiliated on Friday?

Though to be honest I'm not sure what I'll be bringing yet. I've got plenty of painted options finally and two of them are actually forces for Good. I think the next lot I drop into my paint and play queue will be my Minas Tirith force led by Denethor and his youngest son.

[BaronDeSade]

More than two scenarios in the books? I am shocked...shocked, I tell you! How did I overlook that? I guess that my braggadiccio was insufficient. No matter; easily corrected.

1. To the Death: In-yer-face bashing is what Uruks do best.

2. Domination: The first two warbands sweep the enemy from the center, while the crossbowmen lay down fire on the other objectives. The trick, as always, is to not crush the enemy so thoroughly that one cannot occupy all of the objectives before the game ends.

3. Hold Ground: Who can say what will happen? The Uruks may or may not reach the center objective first, but they will be adept at pushing the enemy off of it when they do.

4. Lords of Battle: This army does not give up any wounds easily, and it has no cavalry to score easy wounds off of. Good luck!

5. Reconnoitre: Tim and I played this one with two cav forces against each other, and the truth of the matter is that cav units cannot easily break through the opposing army and run off the board. Should some cav model break through, I will rely on my crossbows to shoot 'em down. I have no particular advantage in this scenario, but then, my opponent will be doing his best to break through a wall of iron.

6. The High Ground: Again, in-yer-face and holding ground. Let the winds blow as they like; I'm not relying on my missile fire to win any games, especially ones that likely begin in contact.

I'd love to bash some Gondorians. I especially enjoy seeing Denethor on the other end of the table! Faramir, not so much, but whatever.

Prepare for humiliation? Pshaw. Leading the fighting Uruk-Hai means never having to say you're sorry...

Cheers,

BdS

[Smeagol]

All things considered your Isengard force is better than my Minas Tirith force. Your two fighting captains are each slightly better than Faramir and more than a match for Denethor. I have four heroes to you three, but one of them is Beregrond so not too much of an advantage there. I also don't have a spell caster, but a shaman isn't much of one either.

Troopwise your force has six junior heroes and your fighting line outclasses mine with a higher strength and defense. Our fight values are equal, but I have a lot more spears than you do and a defense of five so your strength isn't so great an advantage. Orcs could wound my troops just as easily as your expensive warriors. I also have slight numerical advantage at forty-eight models. Coupled with having four drops I should be able to counter any deployment tricks and maybe enjoy numerical superiority in some sections of the battlefield.

My archers are more numerous than yours and they can wound your secondaries and missile line as easily as your crossbows can wound my lines. Like your missile line mine can fight just as well as the rest of my fighting models.

It would be a very tough fight very much like the Numenoreans were against the orcs. Still I think they stand a fighting chance in most scenarios.

I never expect to hear you say "sorry", but I do love hearing you beg for mercy.

[BaronDeSade]

Well it's hard to comment much on your Gondorian force since I don't see the army list up, but since you have four warbands, I can guess that it's going to be similar in comp to the Numenorians, which means that you don't have a banner. I'm guessing that if you are doing D5 then you are doing Citadel Guard, which is a pretty good choice since Uruks with a banner would rip through normal Gondorians like it was metal-recycling day at the landfill.

Now, I'm not going to say that numbers don't count, because the definitely do, as we saw in our game where the Numenorians outlasted the Orcs by the exact same number of models that they began the game with. That's going to be a big deal for Reconnoitre and you may be able to parlay your bow advantage into something significant, especially as I cannot move and shoot. You'll get an advantage if you can succesfully wrap my flanks, but in a shieldwall battle, I expect that the Uruks, who wound your troops at twice the rate that you wound mine, and have a banner to tip the odds in their favor, will quickly gain the upper hand.

Yes, the Shaman is not much of a spellcaster, but I don't like relying on the whims of magic anyhow.

I've seen recently that one of your favored tactics is to have a good hero launch a suicidal heroic combat that leads him deep into the enemy ranks where he gets clobbered, , but I suspect that you might not want to try and take out the Uruk banner if you are going to be mobbed by berserkers!

As always, the battlefield will be the ultimate judge.

Plead for mercy? More like erupt in gales of laughter as Denethor backstabs his own troops!

BdS

[Smeagol]

It's basically the same force you played last time.

Denethor
6 Citadel Guard
6 Fountain Court Guard - two with shields

Faramir with heavy armour and shield
10 Citadel Guards with spear

Cirion
10 Citadel Guards with spear

Beregrond
12 Citadel Guards with longbow

Points = 600
Models = 48
Deployment drops = 4

I don't expect the bodyguard rule to benefit me much since my body guarded hero (Denethor) is a soft target, but the crazy old coot surprised me in our last game with these guys.

[BaronDeSade]

LOLCOMBO! You make me want to put Ugluk in this army in place of one of the Uruk captains.

Situation: Evil has been broken. Good gains priority. Denethor fails his courage test and becomes an evil model. On the evil player's turn, I move Denethor into base contact with Ugluk, who chops his head off and shows it to the rest of the Isengard force for a Stand Fast! bonus.

Not likely, but would be hilarious!

Cheers,

BdS

[Smeagol]

You are a sick man.

Of course Ugluks ability to survive is legendarily bad when you use him.

[BaronDeSade]

Lol, thanks. Like I said, it wouldn't be too likely of an occurance, but it would be funny as heck!