Thorin and the Argonauts

OK, first bash: Legendary Greeks vs Dwarfs at 750points and three players aside.

The Greeks won despite what can politely be termed divisions within their command structure :-).

The Dwarven heavy infantry plowed forward towards the Temple as the battery of void magi and the fleece carrier bolted out the back door.

The flank forces held each other up for a while and soaked up some magic points.

In the centre, a well placed dragon died just in front of the temple and was promptly turned into a swarm of Spartoi undead swordsman which threw the dwarves back.

The heroic defence of the Temple of Hekate by the looting dwarven hero, Thorin, lasted long enough for him to barrel back out the front door pursued by 2000 skeletons. Amazing thing a dwarven hero with a magic sword (fire).

Overall as the landlady called time it was a Greek victory.

Comments:

1. The Greek command had disagreements on the proper use of the battery of three void magi. One of them, who is a poster to this list, can be highly commended for not seizing his comrade warmly by the throat and explaining the uses of void magic by banging his head repeatedly on the floor. As it was, perhaps the awesome battery of firepower available could have been marshalled more effectively, shall we say, and let's leave it at that. The point is that it will probably take several games to get used to the subtleties of magic.

2. There was a call for magic users to be made more vulnerable to physical attacks so that they could be ridden down. Dunno. With aerial units and the inability of magi to defend themselves, I'm not sure about this.

3. The officer casualties phase certainly slowed the game a little. However, how much of that was the result of several novice players I know not.

4. Chariots are nice now aren't they?

5. Heroes work well and do heroic things.

6. Undead not running away is quite a shock to someone who has just inflicted 50% casualties on one of their swordsman units and they're still standing there.

7. Void magic is quite cool if you haven't got a muppet stealing all the magic points for peripheral stuff.

Thurlac

Galdor's Folly

700 points-ish clash between King Galdor of the Grey Havens and the redoubtable dwarves of the Ered Luin.

Evil minded dwarves deployed a couple of hills in the centre of the table, asking the elven king if he'd ever heard of Waterloo. The Elven king placed a wood in the corner just for form's sake, being an elf and all.

In the centre, the dwarfs deployed their heavy infantry with other heavy infantry on the right. The elves placed their rather scary pike array with longbowmen behind. The elven knights faced the other heavy dwarven infantry. The elves had some highly inappropriate centaurs fresh off the boat from Valinor while the dwarfs had rustled up a mob of griffons.

Battle opened with a rumbling forward of both centres. The elven knights also charged onwards thinking to break the "other heavy infantry" and turn the flank. However, the knights advanced faster than the elven pike and, remembering a previous battle in which troops had advanced unsupported to be overwhelmed, the elven king desperately reined them in to a halt. Unfortunately, he never had
sufficient command points to get them moving again and they remained steady but useless for the rest of the game, leaving the pike block's flank open and tempting.

The dwarves reached the top of the hills first and stared down at the solid line of elves. The elven longbowmen to the rear opened fire immediately and did seriously unpleasant things to the dwarves skylined on the ridge: ouch. With a yell, and supported by the close presence of the Dwarf King and the Sacred Banner of Durin, the dwarves charged downhill into the elven pikemen only to be rolled straight back up it. The damage done by even one volley from the elven bow had been enough.

Teetering at the crest, the dwarfs then yelled with delight as the close harmony choir of dwarven beserkers and Lord Azakhal's Own Cave Foot hit the elven flanks, breaking the pointies. Although the centre of the pike block pushed on over the top and down towards the King's Position, it was not enough and the Grey Haven Centre crumbled.

Although there remained a large number of elven forces on the table it was decided to withdraw.

Victory to the dwarfs. Huzzah!

POINTS

Longbows in the hands of elven veterans are very good indeed. Particularly when the elven army is heavy on fire magic.
Don't leave the flanks of a pike block unprotected.
Sacred Standards and Sub Generals are worth their weight in gold in getting units to pass morale tests. Without them the entire dwarven centre would have broken at the first impact of the elves.
EHI move too slowly to be worthwhile unless you upgrade them to be mounted infantry.
Once you have a plan, keep to it. Trying to stock a knight's charge in mid flow is a BAD idea.
The only sensible tactic to use against vast hordes of elven archers is the reverse slope approach. At least you're covered in the approach towards the pointies.
The presence of virtually the entire dwarven officer corps in the centre battle was essential allowing them to keep the elves at bay until the flanks crumbled. However, almost all of the officers including the king were wounded.
Earth magic seems most useful when applied to officers.
Officer-mage combos are cheap but do tend to starve for lack of MP-CPs in the middle game. The elven faerie fire magi were a constant source of pain and woe to the dwarves who consistently lost combat "by 1". There were ALWAYS MPs available.

Figures were almost all by Alternative Armies, except the griffins which came out of a 99p kiddies fantasy rubber animal tube collection. When primered black and then painted like a normal figure, it is impossible to tell them apart from the GBP5 per figure collection. Go check the kiddies play stores, gentlemen, and imagine what those little rubber animals would look like after you've primered them black.