Middle Earth Monster Mash Antwerp 2019

Middle Earth Monster Mash Antwerp 2019

For the 6th year in a row i attended Sebastiaan's tournament. Together with Larry and Dirk we went to Antwerp where we also met fellow dutchie Ronnie.

At the Outpost Antwerp we descended down to the cellar and the fun began!

This year it was a 500 point tournament with 4 battles, consisting of revamped oldskool scenario's.

Being a relatively small (pointwise) tournament this time, i went for Rohan's all cavalry Legendary legion with 22 models, 20 armed with bows, with Theoden and Eomer.

The plan was to harass and shoot my bows to finally make a descisive blow on the charge.

I've played Rohan quite some times in the past but with a different strategy and together with Treebeard. A totally different approach i have also encountered at the European Team Championships  (ETC) last year in Wales in the capable hands of Mike from the Polish team (he fielded the dual wizards Saruman and Gandalf though).

The first scenario was a Clash of piquets: break the enemies army and or kill the leader.

My opponent was Jelle, whom i never met on the other side of the table, with his Army of the Dead legendary legion.

A tough cookie to break with S2 bows versus D8 dead warriors...

Our initial set-up without the reinforcements

And after the reinforcements arrived

My opponent, Jelle

I approached the Army of the Dead cautiously trying to shoot some without any effect

Jelle's reinforcements where an easier target 

After actually killing some with shooting and having delt with the reinforcements i came closer to Jelle's main force

Theoden charged into the Dead's lines

Eomer did the same killing the much needed last models to break the enemy army

In the last turn, the last battle and even the last dice roll i managed to kill enough creepies to win Rohan a 7-2 victory!

Shooting didn't work out as planned and old fashioned charges where needed. The new army bonusses worked out great doing just that.

We had a good time and Jelle was much fun to play against.

After a short break the 2nd round had begun.

Oldskool Domination with 4 objectives being scenery pieces.

On the other side of the table i met Glenn, another new face for me (fun!), with his 2nd age high elven army led by Gil-Galad himself on horseback.

Relatively high defense again (although less scary than the D8 from the warriors of the Dead) combined with some elven archers and Cirdan with his blinding light spell.

The noble elves

Glenn

Forth Eorlingas!

My forces all went on the right flank threatening an elven contingent behind a hill. His archers where on my left with Cirdan and Gil-Galad in centre.

The nice thing about all cavalry is the fluidity of your army. For example i could change threatening flanks:

Flanking with Eomer, Gil-Galad pushed through the centre

I tried to slow him down

We both held 2 objectives, he conquered one of mine (with Gil-Galad and some elven warriors), i returned the favour shooting some elves and tried to conquer the other one on his side of the table.

That nearly happened but the last charges failed to kill enough elves so we had a 6-6 draw.

It was a fun, tactical, game and Jelle played well so a draw was a logical outcome.

During the break some of the armies contested for the Best Painted Army (BPA) award.

Some of the armies:

The eventually winning army

So, a win and a draw.

Not al that bad considering the shooty plan didn't work out exactly as hoped for.

In the 3rd round i met my travelling companion Larry with his 36 bows Legendary legion of Ithillien rangers formation. The new legendary legions where popular it seemed.

This was one of the armies i didn't wanted to face due to the fact that he could outshoot me hard.

The scenario was Ill met by moonlight, which meant shooting range was reduced to 12". A banner gave 1 Victory point (VP) and he had one...i didn't....

Wounding and/or killing the enemy leader gave VP's and breaking the opponent's army did (and having said banner).

In other words: i had to do the work and Larry had to defend his VP banner.

The deployment of Faramir and his rangers of Ithillien

My Eored

Larry

Larry's army outshot me and had a 1 VP headstart so i had to hurry and shoot his banner and/or score a wound on his leader, Faramir, who had an elevated position on a ruined building.

After one round of having a chance to shoot him and or the banner with a disadvantage of having moved and him having an in the way due to cover of previously mentioned ruined building this utterly failed.

I didn't manage to pull off a good shot and after that Faramir and the banner laid down cowering for cover ( couldn't see them anymore) and my cavalry was being shot to pieces.

Change of plan! Move around the big buiding, flanking and try to shoot said targets from a slightly better position and try to charge and break the Ithillien army in a charge after hopefully shooting some rangers

Faramir's 'heroic'stand, or was he taking a nap?

Desperate shooting and charging

Some rangers got killed due to Rohirrim shooting and other fell to the charge

Theoden and Eomer in a last attempt

It sadly wasn't enough. I couldn't shoot enough and the charge could't target enough targets to break the opponent.

Faramir and the banner where out of range of both lying down on an overcrowded ruined elevation.

Larry played it well, defending his 1 VP headstart and won accordingly 3-4.

Well then, after a win, a draw and a loss winning the tournament seemed rather optimistic.

It seemed i  would even struggle to claim a top 10 place out of 18...

A quick impression of the tournament

Sebastiaan Raats, our gracious host and organiser

In the 4th and final round of the Monster Mash Antwerp 2019 i met an imposter Theoden with his thralls from the Gondorian fiefdoms led by Bram.

With the to Kill a King scenario we had to try to kill the opposing leader and/or break the other army.

I had the shooty advantage at last!

The Rohan/Gondor deployment

Death to the imposter!

I spread my Eored to maxamise the shooting chances and a small force went on my left flank with Eomer to counter a flanking movement of Bram

Bram, the 3rd new opponent (yay!)

While being shot (not that effectively i might add) in another flanking move my riders crossed the ford to pamper the opposing forces from behind a river

Bram's flanking force closed in and Eomer was nearby

The Rohan/Gondor army gained ground and suffered no casualties still

Due to a lucky shot the imposter Theoden suffered a wound due to my bowfire!

Bowfire finally took some toll with Bram's army being shot from 3 different angles

Eomer charged into the flanking troops with his Rohirrim companions

Succesfully i might add

Bram sended a contingent across the river to meet my right flank while his main force closed in on my ever shooting Eored, who even managed to take out Forlong the fat's horse

Eomer rushed back to aid his king, half of my flanking force got attacked and the other half still kept on shooting (this time on the opponent's main force). 

And finally both armies actually clashed!

Not a daily sight: Theoden versus Theoden in desperate battle.

Would the real Theoden stand up, please?

Eomer rushed in and brought my army a much needed advantage

After Bram managed to tie the VP's after wounding my Theoden i needed to break his army to win and only managed that in the last battle..

In the end it was too close but i pulled off a 4-1 victory redeeming myself.

Bram was a good sport and we had a tense but gentlemanlike game.

After all this gaming violence it was time for the award ceremonies.

Senne won BPA with his previously shown Isengard army

Jasper won the sportsmanship award

And the top 3 was al Dutch with Larry winning the tournament and Ronny and Dirk being the first and second runner's up

In the end i ended in 7th place, not what i hoped for but hey these things tend to happpen from time to time.

I wasn't overly impressed with the shooting (S2) of my army and i must say that it also isn't my cup of tea to play so conservatively. Overall i think it was a nice experiment helping me to find my modus operandi in the new edition of our beloved game.

As always it was good fun in Antwerp and i want to thank Sebastiaan, my opponents and all contestants (alot of old friends and some new faces) for making this a great day!

Also thank you for reading my blog, next tournament i will be reporting will be Ronny's tournment in Leiden at the  start of April.

Untill then!