A frightful bestiary...: Lion Rampant in Middle Earth

Finally had another chance to play Lion Rampant today against my regular Mordhiem opponent Matt at Warboar Wargaming in Bromley. We used standard rules even though they are Fantasy armies neither force lncluded any magic users or anything that can't be represented well by the standard rules.

I brought both armies and let Matt choose which one he wanted to use. He had the choice between Orcs and Dwarfs and chose Dwarfs.

The Orc army came out with a one point advantage, so we gave 0.5 glory to the Dwarfs to begin with.

Army lists:

Orcs

Warlord and body guard (Expert foot Sargent's) 6pts

Hill Troll (Mounted men at Arms) 6pts

Warg Riders (Mounted Two man with javelins) 3pts

2 Bands of Orc Warriors (Foot Yeoman) 6pts

Orc Archers (Archers) 4pts

Dwarfs

Dwarf King and Guard (Men at Arms with Leader) 6pts

Khazard Guard (Men at Arms) 6pts

Dwarf Warriors (Foot Sargent's) 4pts

Dwarf Archers (Expert Archers) 6pts

Dwarf Scouts (Widowers) 2pts

I luckily rolled Braveheart (only 6s count against my Leader in a duel) for my Leader while Matt got stuck with insipid (no leader courage bonus).

We rolled Blood Bath for the scenario, Matt chose "Every blade shall be drawn" (every unit must fight) as his boast and I went for "I shall slay your leader" (er...).

The game began with the Dwarfs advancing quickly across the board in a most undwarf like fashion. I failed a a lot of activations giving the initiative to the Dwarfs (in fact my troll stayed in his deployment zone up until the last couple of turns).

The Dwarf Scouts took a toll on the Orc warriors nearest the flank from the safety of the woods, while the Dwarf King advanced up the centre supported by the Archers who took a toll on the other Orc warriors slowly making there way up the board.

The Dwarfs looked to be in control as the Orcs were whittled down by bow fire, until the King and his elite guards managed to get stomped by a depleted Orc warrior unit (some lucky rolls on my part) the King was subsequently challenged to duel... and lost. The following courage tests put the stuntie retinue in a state of disarray.

The Orcs appeared to be gaining the upper hand. The remaining Dwarf Warriors formed a shield wall (schiltron) The Orc Warlord buoyed by his recent success charged said shield wall and ended up getting his face rearranged by a well made axe to the head.

With both leaders dead, the game appeared to be anyone's. Luckily for me at this point my Troll woke up!

While the remaining dwarf warriors did take out the Warg Riders after a failed evade they then got stomped on by the troll. Which was pretty much the last action of the game.

By the time the game finished Matt was left with a full unit of Khazard Guard and the scouts while I had the troll and the Archers.

I won it on points but with both forces depleted and both leaders lying dead on the field it felt like a hollow victory so we called it a draw.

I think we both enjoyed the game. It was very close run thing, at times we both had the upper hand and then lost it. Reminded me why I like this game so much. Not sure when I'll get to play it again as we have a game of Mordheim next week then I'll need to get some practice in for my next Epic tournament. But would highly recommend Lion Rampant to anyone who's thinking of it.