Iron Hills vs Mordor in Capture and Control at 800.

Andrew and I called our previous game early as it was going pretty lopsided very quickly and decided to get in a second one. I thought it'd be fun to throw Iron Hills on the table again and whipped up a quick list while Andrew laid out a new board. We rolled for scenario and came up with Capture and Control which is one of my favorites.

My Iron Hills.We don't have enough models to get too creative with this army yet; meaning the ballista has to be in plat at 800.

Andrew's Mordor list; the same he ran vs Rivendell in the last batrep.

I do love that this misison gets you right into the fun; though that isn't ideal for a Ballista.

Ready to get stuck in!

The dwarven battle lines.

The Dark Marshall goes for a flank charge, ready to pull off a sweet hurl that will dismount Dain and my captain...

So I decide to spend a might on both of them to call heroic combats; Andrew decides to keep both of the Dark Marshall's might. Dain and the Captain kill 4 orcs between them this turn, and importantly get out of the Dark Marshall's hurl; who instead rends the dwarf he charged.

Subsequent turns see the dwarves fairly predictably chewing through orcs, though the middle objectives stay contested.

With some clever maneuver, Andrew gets a batswarm and shagrat on Dain so I do the only sensible thing. I call a "broken arrow" and shoot the ballista at the bat swarm. It... doesn't go well. Andrew scatters it to a dwarf and it knocks most of my stuff prone (including Dain off his board); though I lose no models while Andrew loses three orcs. Dain was also trasfixed this turn so it doesn't cost him much. Dain survives with only 1 fate missing... D8 is still nothing to sneeze at.

Andrew's force breaks but the game keeps going.

He sends the Dark Marshall into my rear to deal with a goat rider threatening to nab one of his objectives.

Razgush survives multiple turns of being surrounded by dwarves, though I do finally chip a wound on him.

Andrew pulls a hail Mary to get the Dark Marshall in and nab an objective and ends a turn up by 1 point... but the game continues.

When finally it comes to a close I hold three objectives while Andrew holds two. I've also broken Mordor and chipped a wound on Razgush (Andrew's leader).

Final tally is a 8-4 for Iron Hills.

Now, what the pictures don't really convey is just how bad Andrew's dice are... it got to the point where it was no longer fun or funny. I'm not sure what bad juju Andrew is carrying around, but it isn't normal to roll 3/4 fate rolls on heroes with 2 might left and score a 1. What can ya do?