Attempting to break the game...

[Winter12]

This happened to me the other day in my FLGS.

A loud-mouthed gamer with a high opinion of himself (you can tell I'm not biased against him in any way...) was talking about how the WOTR game system was 'broken' and unplayable. He used as his example a company of Dwarf warriors with Two-handed weapons, Gimli, Aragorn and Elendil. That's +5 to all to hit rolls and rolling hits again due to Gimli's Epic Rampage. He then asked all-comers to design a unit to beat him.

I was first and took 3 units of Mordor orcs with two-handed weapons. Nothing else. I let him charge and failed my terror test.

He rolled many dice and destroyed my unit (for the bad at maths, he couldn't fail to hurt me as he needed a 1+ to hurt me). Just as he was laughing and removing my models I reminded him I had yet to attack. I rolled my dice (8 + 8 + 2 for two companies in base contact and one supporting) needing 5s followed by 3s. I caused 4 wounds and removed the company including all his Epic heroes (last company on half strength). The on-lookers looked stunned and then burst into laughter. 60 points beat over 600 points worth.

Now, as amusing as I find this story, there is a point. Has anyone tried to 'break' the game with you and how would you counter them? I'm looking for any dirty tricks that people might pull and ways to stop those tricks in their tracks.

[icecube]

I don´t know much about dirty tricks, but in your example the player should have taken legolas. Otherwise just what you said will happen.

What i like in my mordor army is to keep my castellans within 24" of Gothmog. This way theyll get some protection agaimst enemy magick, and with a timely heroic charge and/or epic strike they will just punish the foe. Add in wich-king to cast sunder spirit(so that the castellans will hit the enemy on 3´s):o.

[Jack_Hammer]

I really want to say the game is not broken, i can say it is simply not a tourney level game, you really have to have a group of reasonable people to play with or the game does degenerate into what many would call broken.

When we had a few WOTR tourneys in my area people with "that" personality type used the most broken lists they could think up, after these tourneys the thing most broken was the previously decent sized player base. Now with WOTR you get cricket noises.... it appears no one wants to play it anymore. :(


With this said i have no doubt that not only can you "break the game" ive seen it done and it was not pretty.

I encourage others to stay in the fun zone and avoid the pandoras box of game killing....

Just my 20 ameros.

[Cryl]

I really want to say the game is not broken, i can say it is simply not a tourney level game, you really have to have a group of reasonable people to play with or the game does degenerate into what many would call broken.

When we had a few WOTR tourneys in my area people with "that" personality type used the most broken lists they could think up, after these tourneys the thing most broken was the previously decent sized player base. Now with WOTR you get cricket noises.... it appears no one wants to play it anymore. :(


With this said i have no doubt that not only can you "break the game" ive seen it done and it was not pretty.

I encourage others to stay in the fun zone and avoid the pandoras box of game killing....

Just my 20 ameros.

Completely 100% agree with this. I've nothing to add, just that this totally sums up my feelings on the game as well.

[BilboBaggins]

I haven't played WotR (and haven't played LotR in a few years) but it seemed to be hard to break LotR with the limits it had.

Now wouldn't a bunch of Archers hurt them? I know it would need a little luck against Dwarf Armour but I wounded Trolls with Hobbits Throwing Stones so anything is possible. :D

Now why do some people always try to make the most broken lists possible.

[Winter12]

Hi Jack Hammer, thanks for your imput.

How did they "break the game" as you put it? Can you give specific examples?

I've still to see anything that doesn't have an easy counter, or at least could be attritioned away. But that's just in my local area so any details you could give would be appreciated.

Do you have any specific's you could give me as well, Cryl?

Thanks y'all.

[Xas]

I'd just have taken a dragon and flamed him to death. IIRC the dragon has about 4-6 shots s10 and can just fly over him and blast him from behind all the time.

or you take a hughe formation of anything and stuff kamul into it. you get a 5+ (or was it 4+?) save against any wound suffered and each passed one deals a wound back. might fail if there is a ossibility to kill the rignwrath before combat but I'm not that into WotR

in my book there is no problem with things that kill everything if they can be killed before.
More of a problem are things that cannot be killed

[Cryl]

I didn't mean so much that I'd actually seen people breaking the game, there's still not that many of us that play WotR (sadly) and we all tend to play quite background true lists. What I meant was that when I've talked to new people about starting the game their first instinct is to try to build lists that are like the original posters Gimli, Aragorn etc bomb (bear in mind that backed up with a few more companies that's truely scary) rather than build something that's realistic to the background.

On second thought, perhaps units like that don't really "break" the game but they're certainly not sensible. I think what I was trying to echo was the sentiment that it's easy with WotR to make units that aren't "realistic" or "sensible" Bit silly, I know in a fantasy world and also very subjective but I think we can all agree that Aragorn and Elendil don't really belong in the same list together... or maybe we can't, maybe because the list says they're ok, they're ok?

And there's the basis of my thought, just beacuse the list says it's ok is it? WotR allows you to do some really "broken" things depending on your view and I guess that's the problem I have with it; you need like minded people in your group to play it or it's not going to work as well which is a shame really as it's easily the best game GW make.

[GAR]

The way I see it really is it takes a different mindset to play WoTR. What would work in WHFB or 40k does not work in WoTR.

I don't think you can really take a broken force, but you can play broken and still lose.

Don't get me wrong, there are some very nasty combinations, but tactics and planning are required. You can surely throw Aragorn and friends into a super uber unit, but a big block of orcs or a bolt thrower or a unit of dwarves on the flank can totally negate any real offensive advantage.

We have a few of us here in Houston, most of us are trying to figure our armies out and how to make them work. A good number are still trying to use the charge forward and smash stuff approach, which really does'nt work very well. I remember one game I lost all my Knights of Dol amroth, and 2 units of Minas Tirith knights to a unit of Uruk Hai because they got the charge and I did'nt.

Anyhoo, my thoughts and 2 cents.

[Psyberwolfe]

This game has some issues. Don't get me wrong I love it, but Mordor will take 'ard Boyz in February. 13 Darkness casters will make all tremble in fear of Mordor.