Updating my Easterlings

[BaronDeSade]

Hello All,

After Friday night's game, I was able to perceive a few things: homogenity = bad, heterogenity = good, and having a big warband of cavalry is not all that great of a thing. So, I dropped a few things that I didn't really need, like a Kataphrakt banner, and mixed up some of my troops. My warbands still have the jobs that they had before, but I think that they are better at them, now.

1st Warband
Easterling Captain with Halberd
4 Easterlings with Shields
4 Easterlings with Pikes
4 Easterlings with Bows

As before, this is my "anvil" or "ground holding" warband, but it's better than it was before as it can now shoot a few arrows and fight in depth if need be.

2nd Warband
Captain Tai-Shan on Armored Horse with Bow
4 Khandish Warriors
4 Easterling Warriors with Shields
4 Khandish Horsemen

This unit is not as fast as it used to be, as I have dropped the Kataphrakt Drummer and put eight of the models on foot. It doesn't fight as well, either, since I dropped the Kataphrakt Banner and mixed in some Easterlings with the Khandish warriors. On the other hand, it can still move, shoot or fight as necessary, and it is significantly cheaper and easier to maneuver than the old all-cavalry warband was. I have really had a lot of success with the infantry troops holding the opponent's troops in place while the cavalry dash around each flank.

3rd Warband
Khandish Chieftain Bataar on Horse with Bow
4 Khandish Warriors
4 Easterling Warriors with Shields
4 Khandish Horsemen

Similar to the 2nd Warband, because it has a similar, offensive job. Even so, it can stand still and defend as necessary. In a shootout, Easterling Warriors will stand in front of Khandish Warriors who will stand in front of Khandish Horsemen, who will get cover from the first two ranks but be able to return fire over their heads.

With the savings from the models I downgraded, I was able to afford a mounted hero to attach to my army!

4th Warband
Mouth of Sauron on Armored Horse

The Mouth is a good fighter, a decent leader, and gives me a spellcaster, which I didn't have before. I am pleased to be able to add him to my army.

597 points, 40 models, 7 Might.

Avante!

Bds

[BaronDeSade]

So this army rode forth to do battle with Tim's Angmar army last night in the scenario "Domination." I had very good luck in the first couple of turns of the game, dropping several Specters with bowfire. Tim's army had Morgul Stalkers, backed up by Orc spearmen, as his fighting troops, but my Easterlings and Khandish warriors outnumbered the Stalkers and mostly were able to get the best of them. The Mouth of Sauron hung back, managed to Sap Will on one of Tim's Wights, and then charged into battle where he was killed by Tim's Grishnakh, who continued to rampage forward and killed my Captain Tai-Shan, (damn you, Grishnakh!) Ultimately, Tim's force, already outnumbered, was overwhelmed and the game ended with the Easterlings holding three of the objectives and contesting one.

Making my warbands flexible was very useful in this game, as it allowed my flanking forces to both fight and to wrap my opponent's flanks. Also, there was no good place he could hide from my bowfire. In Tim's defense, he forgot about the Blades of the Dead special rule of the Specters (and I didn't know they had that) so he could have been killing my heavily-armored Easterlings more easily, had he remembered that rule. I am sure that he is longing for vengeance, even now...

Cheers,

BdS

[Smeagol]

Your Easterlings fought well as always. In my opinion they are the best force in your stable. It also helps that I was not playing particulary brilliantly that night, but your choice of tactics is what got you the victory. You're undefeated in Domination using your Easterlings against me so far. I'll have to put an end to that streak.

The forces of Angmar have been reevaluated. The Stalkers were in the list to provide a combat threat to high defense forces, but the spectral blades already provide that against everyone except elves. Though a Courage 5 elf will still be easier to wound than striking at their defense of 6. I also lacked a really good combat hero. Grishnak was good for his Might, but not for his ability to take or inflict damage. So I will be retooling and using an Angmar pure force next time. Buhrdûr gives me a better fighting hero, the same Might score, higher courage and he's harder to kill. If he gets into a paralyzed hero it's going to hurt.

Warband 1
Buhrdûr, Troll Chieftain
6 Orc Warriors with Spear
6 Spectres

Warband 2
1 Barrow-wight
6 Orc Warriors with Orc bow & Spear
6 Spectres

Warband 3
1 Barrow-wight
6 Orc Warriors with Orc bow & Spear
6 Spectres

Points = 600
Models = 39
Might = 3

[BaronDeSade]

I'm unsure of the wisdom of using F2 Specters as fighting troops. Yes, they have a good chance to wound with their spectral blades, but the chances of them winning the combats is "dicey," even with Orc-support.

Best of luck!

BdS

[Smeagol]

No worse than goblins and I have the ability to draw my opponent to me piecemeal in many cases. Time will tell ultimately.

[BaronDeSade]

When building an army, or doing anything else in this life, it's important to draw a line between things that are "must-haves" and things that are only "nice-to-haves." Last night I played the scenario, "To The Death!" and I lacked a banner in my army, which would have potentially been worth two victory points. To me, anything that I can include in my army that will give me victory points is a "must have."

Having the Mouth of Sauron in my army was very useful. It gave me a spellcaster, another point of Might, and a mounted Captain, and also gave me a "drop" that I could place on the board instead of a warband to further cloak my deployment intentions. Definitely a "nice to have."

So, the Mouth goes out and the banner goes in. I have to say, I usually don't care for banners, as they are expensive but weak, so require a lot of babysitting, and usually, they don't do that much anyhow. However, the Eastern Kingdoms army is lucky enough to have two choices for "living banners," so I am taking one of those instead. Dumping the Mouth of Sauron gives me a few more points to play with as well, and let's me change up my force a bit:

Center Phalanx:

Amdur, Master of Blades
4 Easterling Warriors with Shields
4 Easterling Warriors with Bows
4 Easterling Warriors with Pikes

This unit has always performed well under the leadership of Easterling Captain Ilhan, so I can only imagine that it will perform even better with Amdur, the living banner, in charge of it. This unit is always dropped first, in the center, where it can move to where it is needed, and is quite versatile in its ability to fight in a wide frontage, a narrow frontage, to shoot, to attack or defend.

Right Phalanx:

Captain Tai-Shan on Armored Horse with Bow
4 Khandish Warriors
6 Easterling Warriors with Pikes
1 Kataphrakt with Drum
1 Kataphrakt

Here, I have sacrficed missile fire for mobility and flexibility. This unit can use the drum to redploy quickly to either spread out on the right flank and outmanuever the enemy, or else redeploy to the center and use the pikes to reinforce Amdur's warband. Like the center warband, it is flexible enough to fight effectively on wide or narrow frontages.

Left Phalanx

Khandish Chieftain Bataar on Horse with Bow
4 Khandish Warriors
8 Khandish Horsemen

This unit can maneuver very quickly to either exploit or refuse a flank, which it needs to do, since it only fights effectively on a wide frontage. It packs a lot of missile fire and has some infantry that can stand in front of the horsemen and catch arrows if needed (can be deployed like this:

I I I I
HHHH
HHHH

Where the infantry stand between two horsemen and the horsemen behind are in base contact with the horsemen in front who are shooting over the heads of he infantry.)

So, the major strengths of this army are its mobility and flexibility, its mixture of heavy armor and fighting skill, two handed weapons and pikes as needed, and a reasonable amount of numbers and bowfire. Dropping the Mouth changed my model count from 40 to 39, so it did not affect my break point.

Much better prepared for "To The Death" now with a banner. Admittedly, in the last game, it wouldn't have helped, as my army was destroyed down to the last archer, but it's better to go in with a plan than with no plan at all, eh?

Cheers,

BdS