Last weekend, the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game Grand Tournament 2022 took over Warhammer World, as players from across Europe descended upon its hallowed halls to do battle. After a weekend of six tactically challenging and thoroughly enjoyable games, only one could claim the title of Grand Tournament Champion – and standing victorious was Jay Clare!
Each player had to bring a Good army and an Evil army to the event – to emerge triumphant, Jay had to prove his mastery with both! Here are the armies he used to secure top spot, starting with his Good force.
Jay decided to rally the Fiefdoms as his Good force, and selected Prince Imrahil as his leader. Imrahil is an exceptional warrior when mounted – wielding a lance, and with a Fight value of 6 and 3 Attacks, he can quickly carve through the ranks of the enemy if left unchecked. Suppose the noble prince comes up against any opponents with a higher Fight value than him – such as a monstrous Mordor Troll Chieftain? In that case, he can declare a Heroic Strike to temporarily boost his Fight value by D6, which is often enough to deal with any troublesome Monsters or Heroes.
Unlike many of the Fiefdoms armies we have seen before, Jay opted not to include any Clansmen of Lamedon or Axemen of Lossarnach. Instead, he relied upon the stalwart Knights and Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth to form his shieldwall, while Blackroot Vale Archers provided a lethal ranged threat with their bows.
By drawing his force from only one army list, Jay got to take advantage of the Fiefdoms’ Army Bonus. For the White City! allows any special rules marked with an asterisk to affect all models from this army list, not just the ones listed. He could get the most out of both Forlong the Fat’s *The Lord of Lossarnach special rule, which allows nearby friendly models to re-roll To Wound rolls of 1, and Imrahil’s *Dol Amroth for Gondor! special rule, which allows nearby friendly models to treat him as a banner.
With the Knights taking the lead, the pike-wielding Men-at-arms are free to lend their supporting attacks wherever they are needed most – and with all of the Warriors in the main line having Fight value 4, combined with the banner re-roll bestowed by Prince Imrahil, the soldiers of Dol Amroth have a high likelihood of winning most of their Duels. If Fight value 4 wasn’t high enough, any Knights or Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth within 3” of Imrahil boost their Fight value by +1, giving them a higher Fight value than almost any Evil Warriors and many Evil Heroes!
Finally, Jay’s force contains a large number of models, considering the army is made up of skilful Warriors. This high model count means that the army is likely to perform well in any of the ‘Hold Objective’ Scenarios found in the Middle-earth Matched Play Guide.
In terms of weaknesses, Jay didn’t include a Magic user, or any models that could interrupt the flow of battle such as Wood Elf Sentinels. This meant he had to rely on Imrahil and Forlong to deal with any problem models his opponents might bring, and try to punch a hole through any battlelines as quickly as possible.
Save for Imrahil, Forlong, and two of the Knights mounted on armoured horses, Jay’s army lacked any real mobility. Additionally, with the absence of Heroic March to increase the speed of his foot troops, Jay needed to take great care during his initial deployment to ensure his army would be in the right place at the right time.
With a Defence 6 frontline and the vulnerable Defence 4 Blackroot Vale Archers, Strength 4 models such as Morannon Orcs, Uruk-hai Warriors, and Abrakhân Guard posed a real threat to Jay’s force. This is where Imrahil can ride to the rescue – either by taking on these threats himself, or remaining nearby to boost the combat prowess of his fighters.
Now, let’s take a look at Jay’s Evil force.
When selecting an Evil force, Jay decided that the Witch-king of Angmar had all the tools he was looking for when it came to a leader for his Mordor force. The lord of the Nazgûl presents a terrifying threat for most opponents, as his Magical Powers allow him to manipulate and control opponents before moving in for the kill. Jay elected for his Witch-king to don the Crown of Morgul, improving his mastery of Magic further by allowing him to re-roll a dice when Casting and Resting Magical Powers. The Crown of Morgul also improves the Witch-king’s Attacks to 3, making him a deadly threat in combat – something that proved to be vital across his games.
Jay also opted to include Razgûsh in his force, and took full advantage of the ability to include a Bat Swarm in the War Leader of the North’s warband. The Bat Swarm’s Blinding Swarm special rule halves the Fight value of any opponents fighting it, making enemy Heroes easy pickings for Razgûsh or the Witch-king if they can join the Bat Swarm’s assault.
Jay has made sure to include plenty of Might points (a whopping 10!) in his army. This means that he will be able to declare lots of Heroic Actions to help him control the flow of the battle, or boost important dice rolls to secure key objectives and Victory Points.
The core of Jay’s army is made up of Morannon Orcs, so he has lots of Strength 4 models available to him. With many Good armies composed of Defence 6 models, the Morannon Orcs will have a much easier time making their mark than their Strength 3 Orc Warrior counterparts. Their Defence 6 makes them tough to take down, and their Strength of 4 enables them to make quick work of dispatching the likes of Warriors of Minas Tirith, Mirkwood Elves, and even Jay’s own Knights of Dol Amroth.
Mordor armies usually outnumber their opponents, but Jay has invested a significant amount of points in both Razgûsh and the Witch-king. He had to rely on them to pull their weight for the list to succeed, and couldn’t easily fall back on the usual Mordor plan of overwhelming your opponent with superior numbers while reaping the benefits of the Mordor Army Bonus.
Being able to charge into Terror-causing enemies and remain on the battlefield after being Broken is a problem many Evil armies tend to face, and – with most of his Warriors being Courage 2 – Jay’s list is no exception. To combat this, Jay included Kardûsh, as the fire-casting Shaman has the Fury (Mordor Orc) Magical Power, allowing any Mordor Orc models within 6'' to automatically pass any Courage tests they need to take.
Most Evil armies composed of Orcs or Goblins tend to struggle when it comes to dealing damage to the foe from afar. Jay’s army was forced to press the attack when matched against an army with a significant number of ranged weapons. He did include a small number of Orc Trackers, which allowed him to threaten mounted enemy Heroes by trying to shoot down their horse or hold far-flung objectives while still contributing to the battle.
So there we have it! The only thing left to say is – congratulations on the win, Jay! Think your army could beat Jay’s at the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game? Sign up for the Warhammer World newsletter to keep up to date with all upcoming events. Or if this article has inspired you to join the heroic battles for Middle-Earth, The Lord of the Rings™ Battle of Pelennor Fields box set is the perfect way to start playing.
