To the Death ... LOTR Four player doubles fun...

Last night, four of us gathered for a game of Lord of the Rings... with Bryan, Ste and Roly joining me for some Middle-Earth fun...

We played the game as a 2 vs 2, 500pts per player, with Bryan leading his Rivendell Elves, and Ste bringing his Uruk force. I added Mordor for myself alongside Ste, and put on 500pts of Gondor for Roly to command, alongside Bryan's Elves.

Bryan had Glorfindel and Gildor leading his two warbands on foot.
Ste had Lurtz and an uruk captain leading two blocks of Uruk warriors, with a warg mounted orc captain leading some warg riders.

For Mordor, I had a full power Generic Wraith on horse, Grishnahk and a warg mounted Shaman leading the orc soldiery.
Boromir and Beregong led the Warriors of Minas Tirith on foot, with Damrod leading a small group of rangers, for Roly.

We rolled off for mission and got To the Death, so a straight up fight ensued.

Deployment as below.

We didn't have long to play with it being a weeknight evening, so all deployed forward to get into the scrap quickly...

There was enough terrain to make the game interesting, without it over impeding game play, the ruins providing an object for the warg riders to make a flanking move around, as the rest of the battle lines formed up, with the rangers holding a small wood on the opposite flank.

And thus battle was quickly joined...

The evil force won initial priority and charged headlong in to the fight, with the Warg riders commencing their flanking move. Boromir was lashed by a Sap Will from the wraith and lost 2 of his 3 Will points... Whilst Lurtz found himself targeted by an Immobilize from Gildor, but shrugged it off...

The Orc shaman channelled Fury...

Initial bow fire from the Elves and Rangers was ineffective, and melee commenced...

A steady toll started to wrack up the casualties, though with the shamans fury saved some orcs and Grishnakh.

The combats raged back and forth with holes appearing in the lines. Boromir was the typical combat beast in the centre, blasting through the evil lines...

But with the warg riders threatening to envelope the good guys left flank, the elves and men there started to pull back trying to form a battle line between the ruin and woods...

Grishnahk found himself fighting Glorfindel... not the best place to be, especially when both sides roll a 6 and Glorfindel wins on Fight Skill, but the 2 wounds he received were saved by the Shamans Fury!

Elsewhere Lurtz suffered another immobilse from Gildor, and was slain, though this only seemed to enrage the surrounding uruks who then cut down several elves...

The wraith hit Boromir with a Transfix, on a 6 , but with his last will point Boromir rolled a 6 too to resist it! Shaking his ethereal head in disbelief the wraith then charged a lone WoMT to try and get involved in the fights too...

The rangers closed in, looking to pick off supporting uruk pikemen and managed to drop a couple...

Boromir, having broken right through the evil lines, was thus then surrounded and trapped there by orcs and uruks!

Grishnahk was still looking at the glowing elf lord, and nervously looked sideways to the wraith who obliged with a 4 dice Transfix on Glorfindel, getting a 6, but who then resisted with 3 dice and used a point of might to boost a 5 to a 6 and resist the spell!

By now the warg riders were breaking round the flank and back of the retreating WoMT and Elf line starting to threaten their rear...

With time drawing to a close, the final combats were fought with Grishnakh again surviving the Elves attention to the cost of a Fate point, Fury saves keeping him alive...

Despite being surrounded Boromir triumphed again and slew more orcs for the fun of it...

The wraith charged in against the same WoMT as last turn, and killed the brave warrior.

The remaining melees were resolved and the game concluded.

Final positions...

A quick tally up of VPs, found neither side yet broken, neither commander (Boromir or Wraith) wounded or slain, and both sides each having 1 banner... resulting in a 1 - 1 Draw.

With the game being a draw, we had a fun little fight off between Boromir and the Wraith, with Boromir winning, but failing to wound the wraith...

We only had time for 3 turns. Ste, coming to chez-moi for the first time, got a little lost, with me living a bit out in the wop-wops, and upon arrival enjoyed introductions and chat too, so we didn't get started till 8pm, with a 10pm finish scheduled.

But no matter, we all enjoyed the game none the less, and some spicy snacks from wifeypoos were a nice accompaniment.

The game was left in one of those poised positions, as both sides ponder on what might have befallen next... The evil right flank looked to be doing well against the faltering good left. The Uruks on the flank were pretty much even with the elves there, but the rangers were approaching... and Boromir was still loose in the evil backfield, though now with no Will remaining and at risk of Transfix and being surrounded by the orcs and wraith. If I could get the wraith in too, the wraiths high courage would hopefully have nullified Boromirs Horn of Gondor...

But who knows, we can ponder the ifs, buts and maybes forever...

I always enjoy these sort of doubles games as they are always great light hearted fun... looking forward to another adventure in Middle-Earth.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Back in Cyberspace - and back to Middle-Earth!

Five days seemed a long time to be sans-computer, but thankfully I am now back; 'hard-wired' once again :-).
Having a very tech-savvy neighbor come and help out at short notice, who didn't 'know me from Adam', saved my bacon, and lets just say, I owe him a few beers for a job well done... Big thanks to Ben :-)

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Back to Middle-Earth and a catch up seems in order...

Last weekend saw my son Chris and I, take a road trip down to Wellington for some LOTR action as part of the Great Wellington Hobbit League.

This was my first game in the 'League' which is being run a simple mapped campaign setting. I took my Angmar force along led by Buhrdur, and played Matt who had brought a Gondor force led by Boromir on horseback and Faramir on foot.

I won't go into a full battle report, but here's a few pictures of the game with a little commentary...

The force deploy for a 'To the Death' engagement...

The two forces approach each other...

After a few turns and carnage is evident... the trolls in the centre have battered and pummeled the Gondor line, and Buhrdur pulled Faramir apart! The cavalry charge led by Boromir was not as effective as Matt hoped for. Boromir was able to take down the troll on that flank , but the rest of the orcs there contained the horsemen and steadily reduced their numbers... hacking brave men from their mounts...

Near the end, and Boromir finds himself completely surrounded, his Horn of Gondor has no effect due to the Barrow Wight easily passing courage, but with no might remaining he manages to roll high enough to survive despite only rolling 3 dice against 9!

Boromir surrounded!

Final positions, and its a rough day for Gondor, their force battered and reduced to 8 models at the end...

We didn't tot up VP's at the time, not that they were important at the the time for the campaign, but I think the game would have been scored 7-0 in Angmar's favour....

Matt was a very pleasant chap to play against, and I look forward to my next encounter with him.

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On the adjacent table, my son Chris played Eli. Chris was using another Gondor force with infantry led by Boromir on foot and an allied mounted Rohan contingent lead by Theodred. Eli was using a late Second -Age /Early Third-Age force based on the prologue to The Fellowship movie; using Gil-Galad, Isildur and Elrond, with a handful of supporting elves and Numenoreans.

Eli thus found himself somewhat outnumbered, choosing to field several high powered heroes....

They made a good account of themselves but were finally taken down by Boromir and the remnants of his alliance. Both sides had been broken and were surviving on courage tests each turn towards the end... a nerve biting finale... and the whoops of joy from Chris as Gil-Galad finally fell, surrounded, were fun to behold!

The Bowman's thus headed back north with 2 victories under their belts and smiles on their faces :-)
Thanks to our opponents for some very enjoyable gaming, to Michail at Warlords for hosting us and Andrew for organising :-)

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Back to the painting front and over the last couple of weeks I have been building up my basic orc forces including core troops and captains... Here's a 'warband' I finished recently with bows backed by spears...

It wasn't designed this way, I was just wanting to get a load more spears done as they are very useful troops now that they can support just about ANY model in the game. I also wanted to get some more archers done so I could field a full warband of orc archers, led by an orc 'hero' with a bow... Now I know orcs can't hit a barn door at point blank range , but a whole warband together might hit something! Perhaps might be able to take the sting out of a cavalry charge if can take out a few horses?

Metal orc archer models... now discontinued... the central orc will make a distinctive hero to lead them...

And some spears... the ones on the left I like to call my 'Hawaii-5-0' mob as they always remind me of the guys paddling the canoes at the beginning credits of that TV show ! ;-) Its an odd pose - they're either trying to take you out at the ankles, or perhaps skewer a prone warrior? The two on the right are again old metal models, again discontinued...

And a pair of Orc Captains to lead my orc forces. Metal figures again, which I believe are once again discontinued. I managed to pick these up from a facebook trade recently... great models - very 'orcy'...

Orc Captains

... and their backs too showing embossed Eye of Sauron on their shields...

And finally there's that now completed orc archer warband...

Orc Archers

I also found time to paint up some of the little pre-made terrain pieces... they may do to embellish the battlefield or act as objective markers...

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The search for Thrain... The Hobbit - Battle Report

It was a dark and stormy night, lightning flashed across the sky... and that was just the weather in Wellington!

Conditions were not much better in the blighted northern regions of Middle-Earth, an icy blast blew down from the north across the fells, bordering the ancient realm of Angmar of old...

Yet here it was that Thorin and a company of stout hearted dwarves from Ered Luin, found themselves, tracking a rumour that Thrain, Thorin's father, had been seen wandering the wilds, in his deranged state...

The northward march of the dwarven company had not gone unnoticed... evil hearted creatures, ever ready to serve the dark powers, had observed their passing, and a murder of crows had been seen overhead of their march...

So it was that as Thorin's company reached the ruins of an ancient settlement, evil forces were lying in wait.

Bhurdur, a great troll chieftain of the northern wastes, on learning of the approaching dwarven column, had gathered his warband around him. He would make sure Thorin would rue the day he dared march north to Angmar!

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In an effort to raise local awareness and interest in the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit skirmish game, I made contact with the good folks down at the Wellington Warlords, to see if there was much local interest for the game. A positive response was forth coming and Andrew Van Olphen, kindly offered to make the trek north from Wellington to Kapiti, on a week night, to help show the game with me at the local club, Kapiti Wargames Club...

To keep the theme topical with the current Hobbit movies hitting the cinema, Andrew decided to bring a company of dwarves, lead by Thorin, in a 'pre-Hobbit' setting... I would play an evil force, and the themed idea of the search for Thrain would work well. Knowing Thorin would be marching from Ered Luin, evil forces of the north would be logical to call into play and so I decided to take an Angmar force.

We decided to play a 600pt game. Big enough for some varied troop choices, and playable to conclusion in an evening, at a leisurely place, where we'd be chatting about the game with onlookers as we played.

Andrew brought two warbands of doughty dwarven warriors including Khazad guard, Iron guard and warriors led by Thorin and a dwarf captain. Their raven crested banner fluttering alongside them in the breeze... Another dwarf captain led a warband of dwarven rangers.

Andrew also brought some wonderful Galeforce9 gothic ruins that would look perfect as ruins of Angmar...

For my Angmar force, I wanted to try out again, the new Monster brutal power attacks of the Hobbit rules, and decided to bring a pair of cave trolls, lead by Bhurdur; a Cave troll hero. so it would be monstrous brute strength in play, rather than the assorted spooks of Angmar...

Dwarves are notoriously hard as nails, so high strength and/or two-handed weapons would be needed to crack them open! So I took a bunch of orcs with two-handed weapons backed up by plenty of spear support. The new Hobbit rules have amended supporting spears, allowing them to support any allied model.

To lead part of my orc rabble I also took an Orc Shaman, mounted on a warg, the idea being to cast Fury, to bolster my weak orc courage and negate some casualties. An orc banner bearer would encourage all forward. To give my force some mobility, I also included some warg riders led by an orc captain.

To keep things simple we decided to play a straight up scrap and chose 'To the Death' as a scenario. I won the initial roll off, chose sides and started deploying...

Deployment:

Players alternate warband deployment, and I positioned Bhurdur and his trolls and orcs centrally up front to start.

Andrew countered with a dwarf warband angled back centrally. My Shaman and his orcs then went down behind the trolls to support their progress.

Andrew placed Thorin's warband off on his right flank.

 I positioned my warg riders on my right flank, which Andrew countered with his Rangers...

To war!

I won the roll off for initial priority, and started my advance... The Warg riders saw the dwarf rangers ahead of them in the open and charged forward... hoping for an easy victory over the lesser armoured dwarves...

The trolls began their rumble forward, backed up by the Shamans warband, who cast a Channelled Fury! That would mean any orc casualties would be negated on a roll of 5+.

Andrew stoically advanced his dwarves forward, the central dwarves meeting the trolls head on. Thorin's warband advanced from the flank but were still too far away to attack. Dwarven shooting stung the hide of the hammer wielding troll on the end of the line, causing 2 wounds!

Then combat ensued... The troll at the end of the line picked up a dwarf and hurled him along the length of the dwarf engaged battleline causing mayhem, but only one casualty. However this disarray allowed the rest of the evil line to batter the prone dwarves...

The warg riders and rangers proved to be a match for each other, and they fought on over the course of the battle, the dwarf armour keeping them in the game and the warg rider cavalry charges countering somewhat the outnumbering dwarves...

Thorin's warband soon got into the fray but the line of orc axemen backed by spears held... keeping the dwarves at bay, while the trolls continued to batter the central dwarf warband... having enjoyed a game of dwarf skittles, the trolls then started seeing what would happen if you got hold of a dwarf's arms and legs and pulled... Rending dwarves became the order of the day...

Towards the end of the game, Thorin started to make his presence felt and used heroic combats to break his way round the end of the orc line, trying to get to the orc Shaman, and take him out of the game...

The warg riders and rangers had just about fought each other to stand still, with neither really getting the upper hand, over the other...

In the centre the trolls continued to bowl, rend  and pummel the dwarves... it was brutal!

As the time grew short, the battle drew to a close. Thorin had won past the end of the orc line and reached his target charging into the orc shaman... but in doing so he had used up his reserves of Might, and the Orc shaman, though losing the fight was able to survive and break away.

The last turn would probably decide it... Evil won priority and there were no Might points left to challenge this... The remaining warg riders charged the remnants of the rangers, and finally got the upper hand, felling several dwarves on the flank... In the centre, Bhurdur decided it was time to go mano-a-mano with Thorin, and the way was cleared for a charge. The flank orc line continued to hold and reduce the dwarf attackers, and the central trolls looked to deal to the remaining central dwarf warband; their banner and a lone dwarf stood there...

The trolls and orcs surrounded them and their end was grisly, though songs will be sung in dwarven halls at the valor they showed that fateful day! The raven banner sadly lost on the bleak battlefield...

Bhurdur crashed into Thorin, and more orcs piled in to Thorin's flank, and he was sorely tested. With no might left to either side, the greater number of evil warriors backed up by their banner held sway and Thorin was bested, the great troll reaching down, lifting Thorin off his feet to pull him apart, but at the last moment his grip slipped (Fate intervened!), and he fell back to the ground, though in a severely beaten state...

Thorin survived, just, with one wound remaining...

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And that ended our demonstration game...

We had both had a lot of fun, and enjoyed the 'cinematic' gameplay the new Hobbit rules allow, and despite being on the receiving end of three brutish trolls, Andrew battled on gamely throughout.

The orcs had lost a large part of their force, the Shamans Channelled Fury had failed to save any souls, but the orcs force remained unbroken at the end. Their foul banner still flew in the stiff breeze, and their monstrous leader Bhurdur remained unharmed..

The dwarves had suffered a heavy toll, their numbers at the end falling below break point, their Raven banner was lost, and their leader Thorin grievously wounded.

Songs of valor and bravery would ever recount this day in dwarven halls, and the name of Bhurdur would be added to the tomes of the dwarves, a grudge would most certainly be kept and revenge one day rightly sought!

We totted up the victory points all this meant, and a score of 8-0 was held in favour of the forces of evil.

But rest assured, the dwarves will have their revenge one day!

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I'd like to thank Andrew again who braved horrible weather for a drive out for an evenings game and for bringing a wonderfully painted army to display, and some great terrain to set the scene. Andrew also brought more of his painted armies to show off including some wonderful customised Dol Amroth troops, and some great Easterlings. I am certainly looking forward to some more games with Andrew.

Also thanks to Kapiti Wargames Club for hosting us, and making us welcome. Lets hope we might have rekindled a little interest in the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit game, in the local area. We'll certainly be happy to play there again...

reade more... Résuméabuiyad