Bilbo's Birthday Bash 2012 Coverage

Bilbo's Birthday Bash has come and gone with another great weekend in the books. The overall feeling was more like a reunion of friends than a competitive tournament, although there were some tight races and games to be had.

Some raw results until the official ones go up are

Best Overall- Kyle Toth
Best General- Terry Schaffer
Best Sportsman- Tyler Dumontelle
Best Appearance Overall- Jim Wappell
Best Good Army- Jeremy Williams
Best Evil Army- John Humphrey

With the good vs evil format and requiring 2 armies, some awards were split between good and evil factions.

Best good and best evil armies were split appearance awards after the best overall appearance.

 Some real quick game reports. Game 1 was against Jim Wappell, with my Rohan vs his Easterling charioteers.

 Pictures do not do it justice but it was a great looking game.

 The king proved his worth by taking down Erkenbrand in 1 turn of combat.

 The rest of the chariot gang did not fair so well. Result Major Victory for Rohan.

 Game 2 led the dunland raiders into the jaws of Gondor/Rohan. Not many photos, but rest assured, the vikings got their tails handed to them.

 Rohan continued to prove their worth when facing some orcs. Round 2 went against Tyler Dumontelle's Mordor in a game of Lords of Battle. The high courage let Grimbold and the royal guard slip through to punk a shadowlord and his cloaked entourage. Rohan carried the day with a minor victory. 

 Game 4 landed the underskilled vikings against some dwarves in the same situation, lords of battle. Some deployment trickery and flank relocation allowed my force to crush the center of the board while holding off the slower dwarves on the flanks. The tide was turned when the random game ending just would not end and the dwarf kill count climbed higher and higher. Surprisingly it came out to a dead tie when the nunbers were crunched.

 Game 5 started the recon rotation against John Humprey's Angmar force led by the witchking.

 I got the chance to slip some riders off the board but the tricky magic delayed my complete escape route and things got close with some orcs slipping away. End result was a minor victory again for Rohan.

 The last round was against Elrond and Gil-galad, least to say, while I got a huge amount of wargs off the board, the killing field ended up giving the elves more points for the minor loss to me. Odd scenario that allows an army to simply eliminate the opponent and not actually win in the recon escape department.

The first official tournament using the new book scenarios was an overall success. Some of the Gamesworkshop FAQ's clash with the actual objectives of some of the scenarios and the victory points make for some weird situations were you do not need to play an objective; but some slight tweaks can make for success. In the end, the games are faster and less archery crippling. 

While the legions book is gone, some concerns over theme were put to rest. Armies all clocked in between 35-45 models and there were not many egregious flaunting of themes. Some of the more powerful armies on paper were not present, for example 50% bow harad.