Middle Earth Battle Report! ~ Easterlings Vs Isengard 

You can see it on the models, just hard blending.

Are these easterlings supposed to know that this thing is going ro explode like that? 😋 I think it would fit nicely actually, might've tried to stop it but wouldn't have made a real difference.. Like in Helm's Deep, one shot, not Legolas', but wasn't enough to stop it 🤔

@@RosebushHere I can't think of any historical account of the enemy being allowed to slowly walk up and plant something infront of their line regardless of of they knew what it was or not. Also helms deep the bombs had already been slowly walked into place. Lego was just shooting the mad torch man.

That's just "I go you go" rule systems for you. It's no weirder than cavalry letting itself get charged in the open by slow dwarves or missile troops taking turns shooting each other.

Jim's army is really interesting. He is the only person I have ever seen bring a full warband of archers in an Easterling force but it obviously works really well. He won a tournament with this army a few weeks after we recorded this battle report. Easterling's are very far from mediocre. I didn't think they were amazing and have rated them lowly myself in the past but they are one of the top preforming armies in Victoria this year getting two 1st places at tournaments. We haven't had as many tournaments as normal because we are locked down again but they have a lot of strengths. Their killing power comes from always having more attacks than their opponents with so many pikes and only having one back row of black dragons giving their fight 4 to the rest of the line makes the very points efficient.

@@ConquestCreations My experience with Easterling are a 3rd place and a 1st place (Khand allied), which was quite a surprise for all parties involved, ours being a meta that reduced Easterling to a memetic status. Easterlings do a lot of things, but aside from the phalanx they don't really excel at many of them. The cavalry is one of the 3 in the game that has neither S4 (or access to it) nor access to 1+ to wound, mostly used as an anti-cavalry whenever the chariots can't reach their targets. The heroes lack access to S5 or +1 to wound with the exception of the Captain on foot. Khamul is a Nazgul on fell beast, but a mediocre caster. Amdur and the Dragon Knights have lots of special rules but get killed if the opponent manages to fart in their general direction. Easterlings really need a boost in the upcoming war in the north supplement. Personally, I've been waiting for the Dragon Emperor for years, since games workshop first released the Lore for Amdur and I can't wait for His Imperial Majesty to grace the tables...but at the same time, Easterlings and Khand look like a faction people really don't care for. I mean, we had Rosie Cotton before a Third Khandish Hero.

I am very surprised that you think Easterlings are weak given that their very impressive tournament record. They outclass most factions based on their competitive play record. Here are a few of the reasons that I think they are so good. Easterling Cavalry doesn't have great hitting power but they have the best defence out of any cav in the game making them perfect for taking objectives. Easterlings have the best war drum as well. The war drum impacts all of their units whereas drums like the Isengard on only impact Uruk Hai, or Mordor only has a universal impact if its on a troll. On top of this its the cheapest drum as well. Their Phalanx is great.... If you use it as a phalanx. Very often people don't keep their troops 3 warriors deep. If you are striking at an enemy with 3 attacks you have great killing power but if you spread out and you have 1 on 1's your not getting value out of your pikes. Khamul is a great Wraith check out this video to see him used really well (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-v-HtAfz3JyQ.html) He is worse at casting but can afford to throw more dice at each spell because he can regenerate them. Dragon knights I don't think are fantastic but they aren't a huge amount of points either. Dragon knights with D6, Glittering Horde Horse, the ability to shield, and not get knocked down are a lot more durable that you might think. For 65 points they are a similar cost to a lot of factions regular captains but out class them by a mile. On top of all this they also got the Acolyte warriors which are a great profile for 11 points. A lot of people didn't like them but I rate them pretty highly. You have a throwing weapon and 2 attacks meaning you can put out some serious damage and the +2 to climb test means that your army is even faster with these guys. If you compare them to units like Watchers of Karna or Corsair Reavers they are solid. Overall Easterlings are super powerful and pretty well loved. I am very keen to see what they get in the new supplement. I would love the Dragon Emperor and I reckon a supped up war priest that gets will points for killing enemies would be awesome!

@@ConquestCreations tbh lings have a good core, kataprakts are very sturdy with their rule that gives the knight D7 and the horse D6, the footmen are good aswell. I think their biggest problem is the dragon knight and amdur being very squishy at D6 and 0 and 1 fate respectively. They are also overcosted when compared to heroes of the same league like suladan and eomer in amdur's case (he is just 15 points cheaper than kitted imrahil with his lance and a 12'' banner) or theoden/hurin in dragon knight's case. They also have some problems with the fight value, the blackdragon upgrade being 2 points means that we have 11 point lings which fall short to their equivalents in other factions like fountain court guard, thror's +1 strenght grimhammers or rohan's royal guards. I think they do well at arround 600-700 points when we can sneak khamul and his fell beast for the hitting power alongside amdur while having high numbers tho. Jordy is the living proof of that ahah

@@ConquestCreations “easterling cavalry doesn’t have great hitting power but they have the best defense out of any fav in the game making them perfect for taking objectives” Reminds me of a game that I played against my brother’s Moria, seize the prize is the name I believe. I sent my cav war band out moving 15 a turn, arrived at the objective, dismounted a kataphract, dug up the artifact, jumped on to the drummers horse as a passenger and rode off at 15 inches a turn until I crossed the bord edge while the rest of my cavalry held up the goblins by charging them. I was able to win the game just by out running the goblins and luckily not getting shot off my horse, armor always helps.

Thanks! I am a big fan of this one

His army is incredible. I'll have to get his Defenders of Helms Deep army on as well its also stunning

I think the king would have just run him over with the chariot.

Thanks for the comment I don't set Grima up with the enemy becuase you can just surround him with a few models and he ends up trapped in the back of the board all game so its safer to keep him with me. Also the Chariot is able to run him over which wouldn't have been to hard for jim to set up

@@ConquestCreations was not aware the chariot could do this. Great play then!

sorry not the tournament

Thanks for the comment. If you hit two models simultaneously then they are both hit by the sorcerous blast. That was the case with the Cataphracts

My main paint that I used was Syrabite green from Games Workshop and I painted them in a classic basecoat wash highlight. I would love to see more green armies!

@@ConquestCreations Thanks that really helps. I was stuck thinking there had to be some metallic paint there and that you did some glazing magic over there haha, like I did with the Gold on my elves. I painted them with silver, then used the sand golem speed paint, and highlighted them with ice yellow from vallejo. Really love thath gold recipe

Saruman is cheap for what he does IMO.

@@judgejudyandexecutioner.5223 He is a big chunk of your Army and If his first 3 spells do nothing and he rides off table shortly after then the enemy WILL start to overwhelm you or slip through your thin lines. Ive also played him and he did great things for me and never failed a cast but as i can see, that wont always be the case

They do get better line of sight but the game is a bit wonky so as far as I know being up high actually gives you less range because shooting is measured from the base of the shooter to the target in a strait line including depth. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The FAQ on sharku is about striking Gulavhar or the watcher in the water. We got the rule correct here. This is how sharku works. Each attack is referred to as a strike and when you trap someone you double your strikes. Each time you resolve a strike against sharku that fails to wound he may make a strength 4 hit. This makes sharku a super powerful mid tier hero. In the film he did defeat Aragorn with this power!

@@ConquestCreations perfect thank You! Waiting for League report 🤙

Jim drummer was on a kataphract who was on the far side with amdur so his troops were out of the 12" range of the drum

Hahah Its not great

We did count this we just didn't make a point of saying it. This is why it was so critical that Amdur got a might point for killing Grima

That's not correct, a Staff of Power states you may Expend 1 Will point without taking from your Will store.

The fuck? Since when? Could’ve sworn it read ‘until your will store is depleted’. Maybe I’m thinking of an old version.

@@Daylightgamers11 yeah must be since the new edition

True, I like keeping mine seperate so in normal deployment I have a bit more control and can get a better idea of where my enemy is deployed before committing all of my army

When a model is trapped you double your strikes against them so one strike would double to two strikes so we did that correctly. I had to double check it before the game to make sure I knew how to play it. It makes it a really good rule especially against low strength high attack heroes like dernhelm

A bigger question, why is the whole army green?

@@ConquestCreations nah see, thats braesguard that makes sense if its bronze, fine, cool, BUT THE STAFF IS MADE OF WOOD WHY HAS IT OXCIDIZED!

@@colourschemer9885 Hahahah well just pretend that this Sauruman has a copper staff

@@ConquestCreations thats i cant do, thats the point where my dissonance kicks in. xD its a contraction. not an addtion :P