"The battle of the five armies. Battle report." Topic

We finally finished painting all those miniatures and could put a game or two.
I hope you like it as much as I did.
link
Cheers,
Ps. No pics here as they're PNG format, sorry.

Looks like the good guys had a bad game both times :) nice to see it being played.

Nice report. I notice that both of you (like me) pulled the Elves off the western hill and advanced to the ford— a sound strategy, I think. However, I find it's better to leave the dwarves and men on the hill, descending only if they can charge the wargs and warg riders when they do so. The defending bonus on the hill helps if the goblin cavalry units manage to charge on their turn (especially as they also don't get the "charging an opponent in the open" dice when attacking the hill). Also, the eastern hill has a bit of impassable terrain in the central rock out cropping, on which the archers of the Long Lake can form and be relatively secure from an initial charge against at least one or two of their stands. (No, that's not a declared feature in the book, but look at the thing— it's clearly not passable by the terrain rules.) Even so, charging into the goblin cavalry as soon as possible is a good idea— but keep your infantry linked up, if you can!

As for the elves, I think crossing the ford is key. There should be time to form the archers up along the river below the ford to plink shots at the goblin infantry as they advance, with the elven spears ready to defend the ford itself while also linking up with the dwarves and men.

Don't forget those hero bonuses, too! Thorin's +3 dice is a killer advantage in a fight.

It does help the Good Army considerably if you can manage to hang on for Beorn and/or the Eagles. Both tend to make very quick work of goblin hordes.

Thanks for the write up!

Yup nice report. Don't see too many BoFA after action reports. Perhaps with the increased interst in the Hobbit these days we'll see some more interest in the game.

Actually I used the movie The Hobbit as inspiration to finish all painting :)
I wonder how many times may have won the Good armies against the Evil ones.
Thanks for the kind comments!

I'm trying to recall… I think I've run about even. The longer the game, the greater the likelihood of a Good victory (those Eagles really are a deus ex machina). But if the cavalry hits hard and hits fast, Good is in serious trouble. The goblin's poor command values can make a difference. (Though I've never had much luck with Gandalf as a general, despite his high command number. All his subordinates roll great, but when it's his turn (and therefore the unit that I have judged to be *crucial* to move), I roll over 10 almost every time!)

I decided to mix things up once and did a reverse battle, swapping out the Good army for a Warmaster Dwarf army (with cannon, flame cannon and gyrocopters) and the Evil army with a Warmaster Orc army (with rock lobber, chariots, boar riders and giant), and making the orcs the defenders, with Smaug as their "eagle." It turned out to be quite fun. The dwarfs were wrecking havoc, even after Smaug showed up, but the orcs pulled it out, breaking the dwarfs with only one stand above the breaking point remaining on the orc's side. (But the dwarfs did kill both Smaug and the giant.)