2024 MESBG 750pt Tournament

Who could it be?

Here are some more MESBG pictures from a more recent 750pt MESBG tournament I participated in. I was interested in trying out the Necromancer with my Azog's Hunters force. The hunter orcs are arguably one of the most brutal, and efficient profiles in all of MESBG (at least in my opinion), so I was curious to see what having a spellcaster with them would do (Spoiler alert: The Necromancer was fairly underwhelming). 

There was one limiting factor, which was I only had access to 24 foot hunter orcs. This meant I had to take two mounted hunter orcs to fill out my force, rather than just having 4x foot orcs. If I had no model limits, I would have prefered the 4x foot orcs, but the two mounted orcs were OK. Building and painting more foot hunter orcs is on my (long) to-do list.

Here's the list:

The Dark Powers of Dol Guldur + Azog's Hunters:

The Necromancer [LEADER]

1x Gundabad Orc Warrior w/ Shield, Spear, Banner

2x Mirkwood Spiders

2x Hunter Orcs w/ Fell Wargs, 2-Handed Picks, Orc Bows

6x Gundabad Orc Warrior w/ Shield, Spear

1x Hunter Orc w/ Orc Bow

Fimbul the Hunter w/ Fell Warg

6x Hunter Orcs w/ Orc Bows

2x Hunter Orcs w/ 2-Handed Picks

4x Hunter Orcs

Narzug w/ Fell Warg

6x Hunter Orcs w/ Orc Bows

2x Hunter Orcs w/ 2-Handed Picks

3x Hunter Orcs

38 models @ 750pts, with 9 might, and 17 bows.

Not the most optimised army, but I do love the hunter orc profile.

We played 3 rounds, with scenarios predetermined and available in the player's pack. 

Opponent 1: Rivendell + Númenor Alliance, playing Capture, and Control:

This last alliance army was Elrond, and Isildur, both with maxed warbands. The army also had 2x banners, and 3 Rivendell Knights, clocking in at 35 models. Yikes!

The view from my right side.

The view from my left side.

Setup had me right on the halfway mark, controlling my objective, the two side ones, and contesting the middle one. My opponent deployed one side to hold a gap between two buildings, and his shooting element with some space to get a few volleys off against my orcs.

Turn 1, Elrond immediately rode into my line, popped a 1-die wrath, and proceeded to kill 3 hunter orcs. Ouch! In retaliation, The Necromancer chill-souled Elrond, who failed to resist with 1 will, and lost a fate, and his horse. The right side became a grind between two buildings, with me unable to wrap around my opponent, but his nearby banner dying to a chill soul. The Necromancer hung around here most of the game, chill souling the odd model, transfixing Elrond, and/or fighting Isildur.

The left side had my orcs running up, and copping a couple rounds of fire before engaging with the elven lines. Unfortunately, even when I wrapped the elven line, I was unable to do meaningful damage. This side of my force slowly crumbled over the game to the elves, but did manage to prevent the elven force from helping their comrades, or advancing on the objectives.

It was looking good as I broke my opponent, while holding 3/5 objectives, and contesting the middle, but lady luck is a harsh mistress. The variable game length reared it's ugly head, and the game kept going... and going... Until I also broke, and started to get ground down by courage, and the superior elven, and manish troops. We ended up playing 5-6 turns after the first break, and at turn 4 I officially collapsed, and could no longer prevent my opponent from advancing on the objectives. I ended up with 1 objective to my opponent's 4, with us both broken, and neither leaders wounded. 3-9 Loss.

 

Opponent 2: Host of the Dragon Emperor LL, playing Fog of War:

This game was a reminder on the importance of bows.

Game 2 was against a Host of the Dragon Emperor LL, with the Emperor (duh), Rutabi and Brórgîr. There was also a drummer, with a few Kataphracts, and some Acolytes (in addition to the usual black dragon pike block). Crucially, my opponent chose to forgo including any bows. 

The scenario was Fog of War, so I chose to protect Narzug, who is mostly a might battery. I also chose to kill Rutabi, and get to the ruins pictured top right in the above image. My opponent was trying to kill Fimbul, and protect Rutabi.

My opponent setup his pike block central, to try and defend a gap between two ruins. He also had two small flank elements of some Acolytes, and a Drake on one side, and some Acolytes, and Kataphracts on the other. My army deployed centrally with The Necromancer in the middle, and the two orc captains on the flanks. My plan was pretty standard: crush my opponent's flanks, and then wrap and kill his pike block. This is pretty much how the game went, with my forces crushing the flanking elements (besides one unkillable drake). I then shot my opponent's pike block (bows FTW) until it was forced to leave it's anchored position, and was wrapped and trapped in the open centre of the board.

MVP this game was the Necromancer, who slowly chill souled Rutabi to death, and then proceeded to drain the souls of all The Emperor's palanquin bearers.

The game ended with my opponent wiped, while my force was unbroken. I also had an orc on my objective, but I missed out on the full 12-0 as Narzug had suffered a wound at Rutabi's hand. 10-0 Win.

Opponent 3: Minas Tirith + Fiefdoms Alliance, playing Lords of Battle:

A gorgeous army and display board. The Fiefdoms element is not shown.

My opponent had Imrahil, and Forlong, leading a couple of Knights of Dol Amroth, and a heap of Men at Arms. The Minas Tirith element was made up of Irolas, and Beregond, leading some Gondor tincans, plus some mounted, and unmounted Citadel Guard (pictured above). Also there was an Avenger Bolt Thrower just to round it out. Overall it was a scary looking list that matched me on numbers at 38.

The Bolt Thrower deployed central, on top of a ruin to try and get some good shots. The Minas Tirith element deployed on my left flank, with some archers on a building. The Dol Amroth forces took a more central deployment, but had some ruins between them and the bulk of my army. I deployed right next to the Minas Tirith force, to try and crush them quickly, while minimising the bowfire I took. 

I crushed the Minas Tirith half of my opponent's army pretty quickly (2-3 turns), but struggled to mop up the archers on the roof. I was feeling pretty good at this point as the Dol Amroth forces were barely in the fight on my right side. Imrahil was blunted by The Necromancer's magic, which took his horse early, and allowed Fimbul + some friends to knock him down to one wound. The next turn I rolled 3 dice to try to chill soul Imrahil off the face of the Middle Earth, but failed to get it off. In hindsight, I should have just thrown 5-6 will to make sure the spell went off.

While the Knights, and heroes of Dol Amroth proved to be mediocre warriors, the Men at Arms (with Imrahil's banner effect) were tearing through my hunter orcs. They had slowly been grinding me down with their superior duel dice, and I couldn't easily wrap them to peel off the pike supports. This meant we both broke at around the same time, and my model advantage, started to evaporate. In hindsight, I should have just backed up into an open area, and forced the pike block to come to me with my bows.

On penultimate turn I needed to get the kill on Imrahil, so I spent a whopping 7 will (+1 free) to guarantee the chill soul. This ended up being costly overkill, as The Necromancer died a turn later to a clutch Avenger Bolt shot through a window. After my costly chill soul, I only had 2 will remaining to spend as fate, which I failed, and poofed out of existence! This left the tally at 39-37, with us both broken, and both leaders dead. 6-3 Win.

Overall Thoughts: As always, all of my opponent's were great sports, and a pleasure to play. The MESBG crowd are all friendly, and there's some superb hobbyists amongst them (see pics below).

Much like my experience with Gandalf the White, I feel the Necromancer is quite overcosted for a 200+ spellcaster who can only cast a single spell a turn. He definitely likes a longer game, so he can make efficient use of his huge 25 will store. In a short game, he's just throwing 3-5 will spells, which are scary, but have diminishing returns. I probably should have been more aggressive with him, and tried to used shroud of shadows to assassinate some heroes, but a good opportunity never really arose. In game 2 he did drain the souls of all 6 of The Dragon Emperor's palanquin bearers, which was a funny mental image.

Narzug also felt redundant with The Necromancer. I think if I were to take this list again I'd replace him with a proper(ish) combat hero like Yazneg, or maybe even a Ringwraith out of Dol Guldur. I felt like I was lacking a hero to just punch through my opponent's lines. Maybe a Slayer of Men, or Keeper of the Dungeon could solve this issue?

I finished in the middle of the pack, which was fine with me, especially considering all my games were enjoyable.

Below are some pictures I took of the armies on display on the day:

2024 MESBG 600pt Tournament

"Look to my coming on the first light of the fifth day, at dawn look to the east." - Gandalf, The Two Towers

I just thought I'd post some pictures of a (somewhat) recent 600pt tournament I participated in. I took the Riders of Eomer Legendary Legion, and ended with a win, a draw, and a loss. It's an interesting LL, but suffers from being made up of solely overcosted models (besides maybe Erkenbrand, who I didn't take):

The Riders of Eomer:

Eomer [LEADER] w/ Horse, Shield, Throwing Spear

1x Rider of Rohan w/ Banner

1x Rider of Rohan w/ Throwing Spear

3x Riders of Rohan

Gandalf the White w/ Shadowfax

1x Rider of Rohan w/ Throwing Spear

2x Riders of Rohan

Captain of Rohan w/ Horse

1x Rider of Rohan w/ Throwing Spear

2x Riders of Rohan

14 models @ 600pts, with 8 might, and 11 bows.

Painting Gandalf the White took a long time, but it is a gorgeous model kit.

 I haven't written too much about this tournament, mostly because I forgot to write it up until well after I attended, and can't remember much. I figured everyone likes photos though, so enjoy!

Opponent 1: Moria monster mash, playing Capture, and Control:

A Terrifying list! Literally.

Not much to say on this game. my army's LL bonus hard-countered the mightless monsters, and the scenario heavily favoured my mobile list. 12-0 Win.

 

Opponent 2: Khazad-dûm + Erebor Reclaimed, playing Destroy the Supplies:

This was an interesting Durin + Thorin impossible alliance,
with a Dwarf Ballista added in for good measure.

The ballista was off the chops this game. It dismounted my captain early on, and killed 4 riders throughout the game, one of them being my banner. I was too impatient this game (this was a theme), and tried to punch through my opponent's lines. This didn't really work, especially when I could have just used my speed to go around. 2-2 Draw.

Opponent 3: Ugluk's Scouts LL, playing Lords of Battle:

No photo of this opponent's army,
but he had 40+ models. Gross! 

This game was over pretty quickly. I skirmished for 2 turns taking out most of my opponents few bows. Instead of continuing to whittle down my opponent, I called the LL ability, and went in. I had one good turn (10+ kills), and was then swamped, surrounded, and tabled. Being hasty was silly this game, it was an easy win if I'd just been more patient. Oh well. You live, and you learn. 1-12 Loss.

Overall Thoughts: The only conclusion I remember from playing this list at a second tournament, is that it's really not my style. I'm not much for skirmishing around, and plinking away at an opponent. I find it too slow, and was just getting frustrated, and then rushing in. This was pretty much the cause of my draw and loss. If I'd been more patient, I could definitely have plinked down my opponents, and then come in at the end to deliver the killing blow. Also Gandalf is very, very overcosted (but looks very, very cool).

I managed to get best painted, mostly on the back of Gandalf (He does stand out as a great centrepiece in this army). Here are some photos of the other armies that were brought to the tournament:

X-Wing is dead. Long live X-wing! (my thoughts)

Don't worry, that'll buff right out.

There was some rather sad news published on the 13/06/2024

AMG's statement on the future of X-wing

TLDR: It's sad. AMG (plus others) suck. I think there's some hope.

Here are my 2¢. Be warned, rant ahead:

As someone who has played X-wing since the grand old days of its 1.0 release, it's pretty sad to see this decision, but not surprising. Asmodee, Disney, and AMG all bear responsibility for the decline that led to this. Asmodee is obviously dogshit for forcing X-wing, and Armada on a company that clearly didn't want them. Disney is the least responsible, but it didn't help that they were in the background releasing garbage movies, and TV, further eroding the SW brand (with the exception of Andor). The forced move, and all the junk Starwars media has not helped the situation.

The biggest culprit is obviously AMG. It takes a special type of incompetence to be given one of the most unique miniature games, and then focus all your effort into making another bland, sci-fi, skirmish game. As if there aren’t a plethora of quality skirmish games competing in that space: Frost/Stargrave, Warcry, Infinity, Malifaux, Necromunda, Bushido, hell even their own game MCP. It's just a terrible decision in the context of the miniature game market. Those other games could come and go, but  I always had time for X-wing, as it was so unique compared to anything else.

Not only was the game fairly unique, it had one huge strength that further set it apart from other mini games: accessibility. X-wing was accessible to the group of time-poor, miniature-game-curious, people. That group didn’t have time to build a 2000pt army, find a table full of terrain, an opponent, and then play a 2-3 hour long mini game. How many other miniature games can you buy a model off of the shelf, and immediately play with it? How many can you play a proper game on a dining table with the box-supplied terrain? How many have simple, tight, themey, fast gameplay, with huge depth? How many can you easily play with your kids? Miniature games like that are few and far between. I personally know scores of people who were brought into the miniature game hobby by that ease of access. That’s why there was a time when X-wing was rivalling 40k as the most played miniature game in the world. It was easy to learn, but hard to master, and didn’t cost much (comparatively) in either time or money.

That’s not even touching on the failures of the 2.5 edition X-wing. To be clear, I wasn’t a hater. I went into 2.5 with an open mind, ready to give it a fair go, and I think it had some admirable goals. The problem was, those goals were almost all poorly executed. The objective missions were lazy, and didn't fit the theme of the game, the squad-building was gutted and bland, and the card-bloat was difficult even for a veteran like myself. Some teething is to be expected, and FFG was far from perfect, but it just became clear as time went on that AMG were just phoning it in. They just wanted the SW licence for other projects. I could have respected that a bit more if they didn’t string the community along with reassuring corporate-speak, where they talked a lot, but said nothing.

I think there’s a silver lining. Firstly, the X-wing community is still filled with great quality people. There have been several other games, with strong communities, that have survived (and even thrived) after the publisher stopped supporting them. The Lord of the Rings miniature game is the one that springs to my mind for me (since I play it). Could this be the future of our favourite pew-pew spaceship game? With the rise of 3D printing, I think it’s even more possible now than ever. You could even have new releases, rather than keeping the game in a kind of stasis. All the community supported games that I’m aware of had a strong centralised voice keeping events going, rules balanced, and just generally keeping the game fresh and relevant. I’m hoping this is the way that X-wing will go, rather than a slide into irrelevance.

Stay classy X-wingers. It was a pleasure to shoot imaginary space lasers with you!

2023 MESBG 450pt Tournament

I haven't been playing much X-wing of late, besides some HotAC in our local league. However, their was a local MESBG event I attended at the end of 2023. I had settled on bringing a force of Hunter Orcs to the team event, with some Mirkwood Spiders and Gundabad Orcs to back them up.

I've had a box of 24 Hunter Orcs, and the Fimbul + Narzug captain blister sitting on my hobby pile for more than a year, so I figured it was time to finally build and paint them. I chipped away at this project over a couple of weeknights, and weekends leading up to the event. Annoyingly the hunter orc box only comes with 8/24 of the models with bows, so I had to jury rig four extra bows using some brass rod, bent into a composite bow shape. I raided some other plastic kits for some spare quivers to give the 4 new bowmen some arrows to fire. One of the plastic hunter orcs got promoted to the rank of captain. He earned himself a hero rock, and a converted 2-handed pick for this promotion.

The Mirkwood spiders were models I already had built and painted for use with the Spider Queen in another army I've been running. I've been so impressed with them that I wanted to bring them as my pseudo-cavalry in this list. The models are 3rd party miniatures using the Wargames Atlantic Giant Spider Box. It's a great box that gives you the pieces to make 12 bigger spiders (which I'm using as Mirkwood Spiders), and 12 smaller spiders (which I'll eventually put in pairs on 40mm bases to used as Giant Spiders).

A great quality kit, which is decently cheap (especially compared to the GW equivalent). 

The 3 Gundabad orcs are just 3D prints. Initially I was going to use the GW models, but when I saw they were a Resin 12-box for $123 I decided that proxies would do. IMO Games Workshop resin sucks big old donkey dicks. They're probably the worst resin models I've ever worked with, which is impressive I suppose. The 3D prints were close enough to the aesthetic, and were comparatively incredibly cheap.

The armour seems a little too "nice" for orcs, but I looked at the GW versions, and they're similarly "nicely" armoured.

I had my army built and painted with a day to spare, so I also decided to quickly make a display board the night before. I've never actually attempted a display board, and it didn't quite work out how I intended. I ended up a little bland, but it served it's purpose, and I learnt quite a lot making it.

My List: Azog's Hunters + Dark Powers of Dol Guldur (Historical Alliance).

450pts of multi-attack gloriousness, with a possibility of 66 attacks!

Narzug [Army Leader] = 50pts

6x Hunter Orcs w/ Orc Bows = 54pts

2x Hunter Orcs w/ 2-Handed Picks = 18pts

4x Hunter Orcs = 32pts

Fimbul w/ Fell Warg = 60pts

6x Hunter Orcs w/ Orc Bows = 54pts

2x Hunter Orcs w/ 2-Handed Picks = 18pts

3x Hunter Orcs = 32pts

Hunter Orc Captain w/ 2-Handed Pick = 50pts

3x Mirkwood Spiders = 60pts

3x Gundabad Orc Warriors w/ Shields, Spears = 30pts

32 Models, with 14 Bows @ 450 Points.

My army (and Hunter Orcs in general) had 2 glaring weaknesses; firstly, all of my models, with the exception of the Gundabads, were low defence. Defence 4 means bows were wounding me on 5's, and Crossbows, and S4 models were wounding my guys on 4's. Rough! Secondly, my army was majority courage 2, with no access to fury, and no Warhorn. This meant Terror armies were going to be difficult to fight into, and break tests would be rough for models outside my hero's standfasts. Narzug and Fimbul are both Courage 4, and the Gundabads are 3, but even that is unreliable, and objectively bad inside harbinger range.

Luckily the hunter orcs, and especially their captains, are nice and cheap. This allowed me to bring high numbers to ensure I wasn't breaking quickly, even with defence 4. It also allowed me to bring lots of bows to outshoot opponents, and stand and fire at any terror walls I came across. It's not a perfect solution, but it was good enough in my mind.

Round 1: To the Death against Cirith Ungol Legendary Legion.

Shagrat w/ Heavy Armour, Shield of Cirith Ungol [Army Leader] = 115pts

Gorbag w/ Shield = 60pts

Orc Shaman = 50pts?

Shelob = 90pts

1x Orc w/ Banner = 30pts

5x Mordor Uruk Hai w/ Shields = 45pts

5x Mordor Uruk Hai w/ 2-Handed Maces = 45pts

3x Orcs w/ Shields = 18pts

6x Orcs w/ Spears = 36pts  

1x Orc w/ Orc Bow = 6pts 

1x Orc = 5pts

26 Models, with 1 Bow @ 450 Points?

The models were great, but the forced perspective of the display board was straight up genius! 10/10, and the (deserving) winner of best army.

The scenario choices for Round 1 were: Destroy the Supplies, To the Death, and Domination. My opponent vetoed Destroy the Supplies, and I vetoed Domination, which left us with a straight up killing scenario. I was feeling ok with this scenario, because even though my opponent had a banner, I felt my bows would carry the day.

My opponent deployed Shagrat, and Gorbag in the centre with his whole force, and Shelob on one flank. My Captain was in the centre with the bulk of my orcs, with Narzug safely behind. Fimbul was on a flank with a handful of orcs, and 2 spiders. A single spider was opposite Shelob to attempt the paralyse, and/or stall her (it did not).

Since I had bow superiority, I half-moved up, while shooting, while the Uruks full-moved towards me. My opponent was almost broken by the times our lines clashed, and even with Shelob getting around behind my lines, I was able to encircle the Uruks and quarter them whilst remaining unbroken. Shagrat escaped being wounded, and the warriors played pass-the-parcel with the banner (2VP to opponent), so I couldn't score those points, but breaking the enemy, and being unbroken scored me big points (7VP for breaking and being unbroken).

Result: 7-2 Major Win.

Round 2: A Clash By Moonlight against The Host of the Dragon Emperor Legendary Legion.

The scenario choices for Round 2 were: Capture and Control, Contest of Champions, and A Clash By Moonlight. I vetoed Contest of Champions (duh), and my opponent chose to veto Capture and Control. This left us playing A Clash By Moonlight, which felt pretty good given my high bow count.

The Dragon Emperor [Army Leader] = 170pts

6x Dragon Cult Acolytes w/ Axes = 72pts

8x Easterling Black Dragons w/ Shields, Pikes = 72pts

2x Easterling Black Dragons w/ Bows = 16pts

Dragon Knight w/ Armoured Horse = 80pts

2x Rhunish War Drakes = 40pts

20 Models, with 2 Bows @ 450 Points.

My opponent's army wasn't fully painted, so here's a placeholder. "Faster you plebs, I want to hit them with my short sword!"

On approach, there was quite a bit of jockeying for position before the first engagement, with both armies trying to leverage shooting before the lines clashed. There was a large hill/bluff in the middle of the table, which became an important platform for one of my Mirkwood Spiders to provide web support. This terrain piece funnelled our forces into tighter spaces (good for my opponent's pikes), but heavily restricted The Dragon Emperor's manoeuvrability.

The Emperor's warband, and my main force slowly ground each other down over the game. The only point of interest was Fimbul whiffing his first combat in a 1v1, and losing his warg. The following turn he redeemed himself by whiffing a second combat, and dying (good riddance).

A small sortie from each side fought on one of the flanks. The dragon knight lead the two drakes, while my hunter orc captain, some orcs, and two spiders countered them. There was a clutch 1/12 early paralyse on the dragon knight, which basically allowed me to pivot my game plan on the flank. This went from , and kill flank into actually winning it. The dragon knight and his 2 pet drakes valiantly tried to hold the flank, but eventually crumbled to the orcs, and spiders. This gave me the hero kill to contest the assassination part of the scenario.

By the end of the game, both my opponent and I had killed an enemy hero, and still had a hero on the board (1 VP each for a hero kill). I had broken my opponent without being broken myself (5 VP for breaking and being unbroken). Both leaders came out unscathed.

Result: 6-1 Major Win.

Round 3: Storm the Camp against Arnor.

My round 3 opponent had an absolutely beautifully painted, full-metal Arnor army. The scenario choices were: Storm the Camp, Breakthrough, and Lords of Battle. My opponent vetoed Breakthrough, and so I chose Storm the Camp. My thinking was Lords of Battle would be tough against Malbeth's saves, and Storm the Camp would allow me to make use of my bow superiority.

Arvedui, Last King of Arnor [Army Leader] = 80pts

Malbeth the Seer = 70pts

Captain of Arnor = 55pts

1x Warrior of Arnor w/ Banner = 33pts

2x Rangers of Arnor = 16pts 

1x Ranger of Arnor w/ Spear = 9pts

19x Warrior of Arnor = 56pts 

1x Hobbit Archer w/ Warhorn = 35pts 

27 Models, with 3 Bows @ 450 Points.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of this army on the board. The models were exceptionally painted, especially Arvedui in his blue cloak. 

This game was a particular hard matchup and scenario for my opponent. I had superior numbers, bow dominance, heroic march, and 4 fast models. My army slowly advanced down the middle of the board, with Fimbul peeling off on one flank with a spider, and some orcs and spiders headed down the other flank. My opponent had to hunker down closer to his deployment zone, use the terrain to try and hold and break my army. My orcs proved too vicious for that to work, and inflicted heavy losses with both their bows, and swords. This might have been manageable for my opponent, if Malbeth's saves were popping off (they were not).

To make matters worse, Fimbul charged a warrior on the flank, using his warg's Fell Sight. He then heroic combated to slingshot past my opponent's line, towards his camp defended by a single hobbit. A turn later the hobbit was dead, and I had control of my opponent's camp. The game ended soon after.

Result: 9-0 Major Win.

Round 4: Fog of war against Kingdom of Khazad Dum.

The scenario choices for Round 4 were: Lords of Battle, Domination, and Fog of war. I vetoed Lords of Battle, and my opponent vetoed Domination, which left us playing my favourite scenario: Fog of War. I cannot overstate how enjoyable this scenario is (probably my favourite scenario from all the minis games I've ever played). The AMG X-wing dev team should read it, and take notes (it's basically a game of bluff). 

Durin [Army Leader] = 160pts

10x Hearthguard = 130pts

2x Dwarf Rangers w/ Bows = 18pts

King's Champion = 140pts

2x Heralds = 0pts

16 Models, with 2 Bows @ 448 Points.

My opponent's army wasn't painted, so here's a placeholder. Man those dwarves look cool!

I had nothing to deal with Durin this game, other than feeding him an Orc a turn to kill, however that was fine. This is one of the few scenarios in which the leader is worth no VPs, so I had no need to do anything other than stall him. My objectives were to kill one of the two Heralds, take a piece of terrain in my opponent's backfield, and keep Fimbul alive. My early bowfire (plus some might) dealt with the herald I needed dead, and with my armies speed, I easily gained control of the terrain piece I needed. Lastly, Fimbul spent the game firing his bow near the flanks, and only going into extremely favourable fights with backup.

My opponent just didn't have the numbers for this matchup. Durin with Hearthguard is a huge points investment at 450pts, and it seriously cut into his numbers, especially after adding in the mandatory King's Champion all Khazad lists want. My 32 Hunter Orcs were opposite only 16 (elite) dwarves, with no spear supports. This meant I easily engulfed his battle line, and quickly turned it into a bunch of 2v1 skirmishes, which is hugely favourable to the Hunter Orcs.

My opponent's army quickly became just Durin vs the world, which left him without the numbers to complete his objectives.

Result: 12-0 Major Win.

Woo!

Overall Result: My overall score was 34 VPs scored, and only 3 VPs given away, which gave me my first ever MESBG 1st Place!

Post Tournament Thoughts:

I felt that the 14 orc bows, and hyper-efficient Hunter Orc profile carried me at 450pts. In three of my four games I essentially had complete shooting dominance. I could safely soften up my opponent before engulfing their battle line with arguably the best brawler model in the game. 

The only change I'd make at 450pts is to change the Captain's 2-handed pick for an orc bow. The 4 picks I had scattered throughout my line were plenty, and the extra bow (with might) would probably be more useful. Alternatively I could just add 5x extra 2-handed picks to the Hunter Orcs.