When I was younger I loved to play sieges. But in my teenage years I put aside the mini's and threw away the toycastles . So a year ago I restarted the hobby en sporadicly I play a battle with a friend who doesn't own any mini's. But I told him of the sieges and he proposed to build me a castle.

The result is really cool. So we played a siege, for the first in a long time.
He would attack, using a 1800pts mordor force and I would defend with a 1200pts gondor force.
Before the start we knew only eachothers themes but not the exact force. I guessed, knowing my friend, he would use a massive amount of mini's and not really focussing on the big hitters. So I used cheap heroes and many gondorians. 72gondorians, 10 citadelguards, a bolt threwer, some rangers and foutainguards where led by Faramir, Denethor, Cirion, Madril, Damrod, Beregond and two captains.
And the attacking force consisted out of more then 150mini's. Orcs, haradrim and some easterlings led by Khamul on fellbeast, the shadowlord, Shagrad the warleader, gorbag, grisnak, orc shaman and a bunch of different captains, 4 haradrim, 1 blackguard,...

And so it began
In the first picture the placing of the mini's:




His strategy was focusing on one flank, hitting it really hard and weakening the second flack with bowfire (around 50 archers )

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Backlog:
21/01/2015: still 319 Models to paint or 27,01%
30/12/2016: Somehow the backlog has risen up to 900+ models :/

So tense.
However I thought that the attacker should always have 3x as many points as the defender.

Anyway, looking forward to the rest of this battle report!

I love the scenery piece
The battle looks like a challenge, but I think the board is a bit small.

I hope to see more of the battle.

Some pictures of the defenders





The objectives where controling the two main towers. The player who controled them at the end of 25 turns would be the winner. If each player had one it would be a draw.

And the assault began, using a marker as ram, the orcs where running to the gate.


Ladders got up, orcs at the gate. I (the good side) had some luck shooting. Many orcs fell at the rain of arrows. I succesfully managed to injure the fellbeast. And kill a lot of his archers. Meanwhile the fellbeast got upon the tower slaughtering the two guardians in one turn. In the next to turn he cleared the second tower of resistance. Most of the gondorians retreated into the castle. And the fellbeast landed at the court. Only to be surrounded and killed. Khamul was trapped inside the castle while his friends eagerly tried to enter.





After only two turn ramming the gate it cracked. Cirion the boldest led the charge into the assaulting orcs. Meanwhile the defenders at the wall had a hard time. Shagrad and Gorbag made their way up the wall. Archers killed the shaman below and even the Black guard captain fell to dead.




His archers are having a hard time, Gorbag died and they still not managed to get through the gate. But shagrad is on a roll killing a captain, he is cleaning the wall. Another two captains and Grisnack also managed to get on the wall.

After playing from 14:00 till 20:30 we stopped. Next week we continue the fight, still 13 turns left. It will be a hard battle, many things could still happen. Hopefully I can breach his force. But even then my army is smaller then his.

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Backlog:
21/01/2015: still 319 Models to paint or 27,01%
30/12/2016: Somehow the backlog has risen up to 900+ models :/

I definitely like the castle, but the board seems very small to me as well. And I was just going to let you know the Uruk's name is Shagrat lol not Shagrad.

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Commission Painting @FB http://www.facebook.com/squyrepainting
Commission Customers include:
GBHL Youtube Channel
MiniWargaming

I know the board is a bit small but we played the game at my studio (I'me a student, I live in another city). We already used my writing desk, my table is mutch smaller . And the castle will be bigger once finished, some wallsections, them we certainly need a bigger board.

_________________
Backlog:
21/01/2015: still 319 Models to paint or 27,01%
30/12/2016: Somehow the backlog has risen up to 900+ models :/

I absolutely love these pictures

Reminds me of the sieges I used to host. There’s enough models/terrain to convey a sense of marvel BUT it’s nowhere close to the impossibly realistic scale of the Internet battles you read about that uses like 500+ models, a full sized Minas Tirith and a detailed war gaming board.

I don’t know how else to word it but just know that what I'm trying to say is complimentary

It’s refreshing seeing painted models as well. Two thumbs way up

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“There's a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs.”

Love the pictures!!

How do you destroy a gate in 2 turns?
It has 3 wounds and you can only attack it once every turn...

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MEMM I: 4th (Mordor+Harad) MEMM II: 4th (Galadhrim) MEMM III: 2nd (Thorin's Company)

maybe they shot it? I played a siege once and after 6/7 turns the door was still standing so my opponent fired a bunch of crossbow bolts at it...promptly fell down and the hoardes of evil streamed in.

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12th GBHL 2013.
13th GBHL 2014
9th GBHL 2015


Mid Sussex Wargamers

Attacked it with 2 orcs and some lucky rolling

_________________
Backlog:
21/01/2015: still 319 Models to paint or 27,01%
30/12/2016: Somehow the backlog has risen up to 900+ models :/

Nice Minas Tirith you have there!

And the battle continued.
I forgot to mention earlyer that Khamul already died within the castlewalls.

So mordor continued the siege. Gondor achers had shot the whole game very good. Only 4 out of 24 haradrim survived till turn 18. But now, with the schadowlord near them it would be much more difficult.


Cirion and the other defenders where helding the enemy off. With only the loss of one soldier for quit some turns, the orcs where getting desperate.


Meanwhile Shagrat had breached the defences on the wall. More left to him the orcs failed their attack and moved out of the way, to try their luck at the other side. Leaving many death, and two captains .



Orcs tried to conquer the wall at the other side. But madril gave them a warm welkom slaugthering an orc and haradrim captain in just a few turns. At the gate another haradrim captain charged Cirion and the defenders. Knocking them done and scoring two hits on Cirion. Only fate saved him that turn.
Faramir was also bleeding, losing all his might and fate points in battling the war leader of Cirith Ungol. Shagrat was on a roll, and it wouldn't take long for him to take the first objective.


But the end drew near. Mordor suffered heavy losses, and couragetests where taken. But the schadowlord held it's troops together. Not everything was lost.
In a moment of true Numenorian courage, Madril and two citadelguards ran down the ladders taking the fight to the schadowlord himself.


Sadly they payed the mistake with their life, surrounded by orcs the guards where stabbed many times. Madril managed to held them off, running back up the ladder in the next turn.

Turn 25; The last turn for this battle.
But mordor would not go down so easy. Shagrad charged Faramir, trying to take the life of the son of the steward.
The shadowlord and the haradrimcaptain also charged once more Cirion, trying to kill the boldest of them all. If they succeed it would be a grim victory for Gondor.



Faramir was able to held of the enemy. Without any will left the Shadowlord also vanished, but only after taking the life of Cirion. The boldest was no more.

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Backlog:
21/01/2015: still 319 Models to paint or 27,01%
30/12/2016: Somehow the backlog has risen up to 900+ models :/

It really was a fun match. The troop ratio defenders/attackers of 2/3 was nicely ballanced. The objectives (helding the two towers within 25turns) also worked out very well. My opponent played for the first time in his life a siege.
He really made some mistakes, Khamul whole alone in the fortress, focusing to much on his bowfire and not enough heavyhitters at the gate.

It was a nice battle, next time it will be a lot more difficult for me .

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Backlog:
21/01/2015: still 319 Models to paint or 27,01%
30/12/2016: Somehow the backlog has risen up to 900+ models :/