CanCon Lord of the Rings

I participated in a Middle-earth tournament at CanCon last weekend. Apart from that one game a few weeks ago, I haven't played in about ten years.

There were four 500 point games, all running under 90 minutes. My Mordor list was two orc captains, a troll chieftain, and thirty-six orcs including two banners. No cavalry, ranged attacks, or magic for me! I didn't have the desire to get to grips with all the new rules.

My orcs

Heirlooms of ages past

My opponent ran Uruk-hai scouts, and with their enhanced movement he was able to run on the board, find the objective, and run away. 6-2 loss.

Orcs try to close on the scouts

Storm the camp

This was the most frustrating match. I advanced about halfway over the board before being shot to pieces by two (!) Isengard siege bows. Very unsatisfying 6-0 loss.

Distant siege bows pummel the river crossing

Domination

This was an interesting match-up between Isengard wargs and my orcs in constraining urban terrain. I circled in the centre and weathered his charges to a 5-5 draw.

Troll defends against swarming warg riders

Capture and control

I was a bit over things by this stage and threw myself at Gothmog and his Morannon orcs. Not more Isengard, thankfully! Gothmog was way too much for my guys to handle as he stormed a rickety walkway. 8-4 loss.

Gothmog takes the bridge

It was good to dust off some old figures, but I didn't have the energy to learn the new rules tweaks and I was outmatched at the list-building step. It was a long way to go to be hammered repeatedly. I didn't mind playing against all Evil forces. There were 34 players, and I came 32nd.

The terrain was pretty good, the scenarios were fine, and most of the armies were excellently painted.
Here's some pictures of terrain and armies:

Best painted army

Tournament winner- Hunter orcs

I was disappointed in the organisation- a lot of it was run through a private Facebook group which wasn't advertised (!), and it ran about an hour overtime which made me grumpy before a very long drive home.

I'd consider playing again, but am more interested in the warband-size Battle Companies rules.