Boys Weekend - Game 2 of 3

A Mini Helm's Deep?

This game was designed to fill an afternoon / early evening and leave time to set up the table for large Napoleonic game on the following day.

Scenario

Rather than one of the scenarios from the rule book I opted to put a unit of Rohan Levy (heavy foot) in a fortified position on a hill between two woods (both occupied by a scout unit).

Against them, Isengard would send forth an army, composed of: 3x units of Uruk Hai (heavy foot), 1x unit of Dunlendings (bellicose foot); 4x units of Orcs/Goblins (light foot); 1x unit of Warg-riders (light riders); and, 1x unit of Wargs (lesser warbeasts).

This army, split into two commands, that poured forth through the gap between the mountains and the forest, was so vast it could not all pass at once (hence only six units on the edge of the table in the photo below).

The other units would have to come on by activating to enter the table when the first wave have moved forward and made room.  

You will no doubt have spotted that this game is being played on hexagonal tiles[1] which are used for movement.  This increases move distance and ranges as those can only be differentiated in increments of 4".  This also means that unit separation means units cannot end their move in a hex adjacent to a friendly unit[2], although we do allow them to pass through such a hex if they have enough movement to get clear the other side.

Also, in this game many of the units were 'over-strength' having more than their usual compliment of figures, but no more strength points.  The first losses are always these 'surplus' figures and thus a unit's courage test is unaffected until they have lost all the 'surplus' figures and start losing those related to their strength points.

The Rohan foot and scouts, facing this tidal wave of evil were, unfortunately for them (and me, their commander), not over-strength.

And so the onslaught was unleashed.

The five 'evil' units nearest the camera, are all part of Steve's command, Martin, commanding the three furthest units had brought along his bad luck rolling PIP dice in the last game to infect his activation dice, and only managed to get one unit to move.

As might've been glimpsed in the above, the Rohan Scouts on their left flank, seeing the Warg pack dashing off on a right flanker moved into the 'hillfort' to help hold the levy hold on.

And as the pack closed in, the Scouts unleashed a volley of arrows, all of which missed!

But elsewhere, thongs were not going so well for the force of Isengard, as Martin failed to activate anything, his command staying largely stuck on the start line.

This wasn't all good for me, as Keith, the relieving force of mounted Rohirrim, was not allowed to activate to enter the table until every Isengard unit had been activated (they had to try and activate units if possible).  Consequently, my small force was still on its own, and unsupported, as they received the first attack from the forces of evil - the Warg pack.

Despite being uphill and behind defences, my Scouts, who aren't really up for mixing it hand-to-hand lost two nil.  Their courage isn't great either so it was with some trepidation I rolled the dice[3] - I needn't have worried.

The Wargs regrouped, and after losing a pack member to the Scouts archery, came back for another bite of man-flesh.

This time the Scouts managed a one-all draw, but then both sides failed their courage tests and retreated 'Battered' (denoted by a yellow token, or tiddlywink).

While the Wargs were now out of the way for a turn or two, the Uruks, and the faster Orcs, were getting pretty close and levy were unsupported.  On top of all this, Martin had still failed to activate some of his units and thus the Rohan cavalry was going to be hard pressed to arrive before it was too late.

The Scouts then showed that failing courage tests was more their 'thing' as they failed to rally, lost another figure, and retreated again, just short of the table edge.  The Levy, determined to prove themselves more stalwart than their erstwhile companions loosed a salvo of arrows at the nearest Orc unit, killing two.

In the background of the above, the other Scout unit can be seen to have moved over to wood to the right, of the picture, to block (slow?) any attempt to turn that flank.

The Orcs then charged in, but were rebuffed by the Levy, but another Orc unit had now reached an undefended part of the fort's defences.

It looked like the end for the Rohan Levy, but then as the garrison was staring death in the face ...

Great horns of the north wildly blowing.  Rohan had come at last!

The arrival of the Éoreds (1x elite riders & 2x heavy riders) was triggered by the last of the Isengard units being activated for the first time.  Keith, in command of the mounted Rohirrim, had no problems activating all three of his units so although rather late, they were had all arrived together.

But would they be in time?  It started well as the ravening hordes paused their mad career to indulge in missile fire against the Rohan Levy.  But their courage held (they rolled ten), no doubt boosted by the arrival of the cavalry.

The shower of missiles was followed up by a mass of Orcs swarming over the unmanned defences to take the Levy in the rear.

 Unable to resist the levy retreated across the defences ...

Out of the Frying-pan and into the Fire!

As if the plight of the Levy wasn't bad enough, the Warg pack, rallied after its earlier retreat had sniffed out the last Scout unit in the woods.

The Éoreds, galloping to the rescue were now on the brink of intervening.

But sadly, they were just too late, as first the Levy were overrun and broken ...

... and then the last Scout unit fled the field having been savaged by the Wargs.

The only bright spot in all this misery being the Wargs' courage also failing as a result of their loss fighting the Scouts, and they retreated back into the woods.

Their rescue efforts having come to naught, all the Rohirrim could do was to wreak a terrible revenge.  And as revenge goes, theirs was pretty terrible. The first Riddermark Éored slammed into a unit of Uruks, who promptly scored 11 hits out of their 12 combat dice killing three riders, while only losing one Uruk in return.  But while the riders' courage was undaunted the Uruks fled, battered.

The fleeing Uruks were then charged by Theodred and his Royal Éored ...

... and finally thumped by the second Riddermark Éored.

Despite this, the Uruks remained unbroken, albeit bloodied.  But if they thought that they might weather the storm they were soon dismayed by cries of ...

The Eagles are Coming!

Giant Eagles (greater warbeasts) actually, coming down from the mountains[4].

I will draw the story to a close at this point as it becomes a tale of repeated charges by the Rohirrim ...

... and their allies, the Giant Eagles, and the later arriving Eagles (lesser warbeasts) ...

... followed by a couple of Trolls emerging from the mountains.

In essence, it dragged on into a fight to the last man or dog / Warg - the last member of the pack finally slinking off table, albeit with belly full of man-flesh.

 

There were some interesting bits like the Orcs seeking safety in the hillfort ...

... but really my scenario design had failed in not providing a better end-game and victory conditions.  A shame really, as it was great fun up to the point where Rohan's cavalry started to vent their anger on the enemy to cover up for their failure to arrive in time.

I must do better next time.

Then it was time to clear away and set up the final game for the following day.

Notes:

[1] Hexon terrain, by Kallistra, as are the hills and mountains.

[2] Having a whole hex separation between units means units don't have to fit entirely within a hex, if they spillover a bit, it doesn't matter so long as it's clear which hex the unit is in.  This should show up in some of the photos where figures can be seen spilling over outside their hex, but still well separated from nearby units.

[3] I rolled the Black Dice, being used by the servants of Saruman, by mistake, but rebuffed all calls for a re-roll with the White Dice.

[4] Other non-Rohan reinforcements could be called for a turn after all the Rohan cavalry had activated, but fully absorbed by the demise of my Rohan foot I had missed the first opportunity to do so.