Saruman Takes Command

Taking on board comments from my last game of Dragon Rampant (DR) / Lord of the Rings (LotR), I trimmed down the wasted points on some of the Isengard troop types and freed up enough points to add an Elite Foot Spellcaster; Saruman (accompanied by Wormtongue).

Would Saruman's presence balance the sides and enable him to overcome the forces of Rohan and Gondor?  To help me find out, Phil kindly volunteered to come over and play the 'bad guys'.

The two sides were same as last time with the exception of adding Saruman and tweaking the bonus attributes on some units to balance the sides at 61 points each - a big game for Dragon Rampant which usually fields 24 points a side.

The Goodies (Rohan & Gondor): Me

• 1 x Elite Riders - Prince Theodred
• 2 x Heavy Rider - Riders of Rohan
• 1 x Heavy Foot - Rohan Warriors
• 2 x Elite Foot - Rangers of Ithilien
• 1 x Greater Warbeasts - Giant Eagles 
• 1 x Lesser Warbeasts - Eagles

The Baddies (Isengard): Phil

• 1 x Elite Foot / Spellcaster - Saruman
• 2 x Bellicose Foot - Uruk Hai
• 4 x Light Foot - Orcs / Goblins
• 1 x Scouts - Orc / Goblin Scouts
• 1 x Light Riders - Warg Riders
• 1 x Lesser Warbeasts - Wargs
• 1 x Greater Warbeast - Cave Troll 

We opted to keep things simple and used Scenario A, 'Gory Bloodbath on the Plains of Doom' a line 'em up and fight to the death.  We rolled dice to determine who was the 'attacker' and who the 'defender' - I lost so deployed first.

On my left, I put a unit of Ithilien Rangers in the wood and the Giant Eagles way out on my left flank ready to fly in as required.

In the centre the I lined up the Rohirrim.

And on my right, the other ranger unit and the (non-giant) Eagles providing a similar flank threat to their larger cousins on the other flank.

Phil forces deployed with a fairly continuous line of Orc units, with the Troll and one Uruk band to the right (his right) of the wood in the centre of his deployment area (the Orc Scouts in that wood are just out of shot).

And the other Uruk band out on his left flank with the Wargs.

As the attacker Phil took the first move but apart from advancing the Orc Scouts in the wood, passed on any further moves to see what I would do.

I advanced both Ranger units, eager to get the forward edge of their respective woods from where they could start shooting.  The Rohan infantry moved up to keep level with the rangers and the mounted troops kept station just back from the foot.  In his next turn Phil also pressed forward with most of his troops.  This brought them into range and my left-flank Rangers opened the ball with a volley of arrows against the Troll removing 1 strength point (SP) as indicated by the red marker. 

Undeterred, Phil pushed forward.  In my turn the Rangers on the right reached the edge of the wood to see quite a lot of bad guys coming their way.

Now the armies are a bit closer to each other, overview photos became more practical, and the photo below should make all the above a bit easier to follow.

And for more detail, some closer photos of my left wing ...

... my centre ...

... and my right wing.

My Eagles, who passed their Wild Charge test, now activated to swoop down on the Uruk band in the first combat of the game, and drove them back (unbattered).

Nearby, some excellent shooting by the Rohan infantry and the Rangers, and poor Courage dice rolls by the Wargs and an Orc band saw both targets battered (yellow marker)!

On the other flank the Giant Eagles, not be outdone fell upon the Troll and sent it packing (retreating, but not battered).  

This was beginning to look too easy.  In the next turn the Uruks charged the Giant Eagles and defeated them, inflicting a loss of 2SPs, and when they threw their Courage test dice ... they got Snake-Eyes and promptly routed off-table.

That, and Saruman healing (restoring an SP) the Troll, wiped the smile off my face, but in my turn the Eagles, making up for their larger brethren, fell upon the Wargs and reduced them to a single figure, albeit the Warg leader's Courage held.

I also felt the time was now right to release the Rohirrim and finish off the Troll - Forth Éolingas!

This sent the Troll packing, but only managed to take off the SP Saruman had just restored.  Trolls are tough.

Another overview shows the situation at this stage (I'm sure I've missed out quite a bit of the action up to this point but no notes were taken during this game).

And a couple more shots, one of my left wing ...

... and one from the other end of the table.

In Phil's turn the Uruk band near the Troll failed their Wild Charge and attacked the Rohirrim unit that had driven it off.

Hold on there a minute Muskie!  I can try to counter-charge!  That's better.

Or at least so I thought.  The Uruks rolled some devastating dice, and I made a devastating cock-up.  I got confused with my Elite Rohirrim unit and thought each figure was 2SPs, so instead of the unit dropping to half-strength they lost one figure and took a red marker.  And then when working out the winner I went by number of figures lost!  Screw-up piled on top of cock-up!  So, Phill's Uruks retreated instead of my men - Oh the shame of it!

Saruman, no doubt annoyed by what looked to him like a most egregious case of cheating unleashed a Power Bolt.

This should've all but annihilated the unit, but with red markers in play the confusion over the Rohirrim SPs continued and they only lost one more figure.  In reality they should've been cut down to one figure at this point!!!

Then, when Lady Luck should've kicked me into the gutter, a little bit of shooting against the Uruks on the other side of the table saw them Snake-Eye their Courage test and flee the field.

With the Uruks gone the other Rohirrim unit seized the opportunity to ride down the last Warg. 

Leaving the table looking like this.

Now, as if to completely disprove the adage that 'cheats never prosper', Phil had a run of dreadful luck with his rallying of battered units and activations that, combined with a fairly bloody Rohirrim charge on one of his Orc bands, saw his army drastically reduced.  With his army down to Saruman, one Orc band and the Orc Scouts, Phil conceded the field - which looked like this.

As can be seen above, my regular Rohirrim unit had 1SP left, the Elite Rohirrim 4SPs and the two Ranger units with 4 and 5 SPs respectively.  BTW the reduced Elite Rohirrim at the bottom left was the result of another Power Bolt from Saruman (he cast several during the game but several had turned out to be damp squibs).  

Post Mortem

Half-way through it was looking like another easy win for the good guys, but the baddies staged a bit of comeback that had me worried.  But were the sides better balanced?  Maybe, but as a traditional wargamer I'm used to tables with less terrain than the typical DR game and I think this is making missile troops more effective, and I had a definite advantage in shooting.  That is until Saruman started unleashing Power Bolts.

BUT, the ghastly error over the mounted Rohan units certainly kept them in the game longer than they should have, and their earlier demise could easily have tipped the battle to the Dark-Side.  

So, yes, I do think the sides are now better balanced if I can only stop cocking up the rules!

Holding the Gap of Rohan

The continuing tale of a couple of days gaming with three friends.

Game 2-of-3

Wanting a quick game that we could finish and still get to pub not too late, we opted for a game of Dragon Rampant using my Lord of the Rings figures I'd recently had painted up by Fernando Enterprises in Sri Lanka (see earlier post for details).

The terrain from our previous game (previous post) was quickly rearranged, removing the 15mm settlements and opening up the battlefield a bit.  The two armies consisted of:

The Goodies (Rohan & Gondor): Martin and Me

• 1 x Elite Riders - Prince Theodred
• 2 x Heavy Rider - Riders of Rohan
• 1 x Heavy Foot - Rohan Warriors
• 2 x Elite Foot - Rangers of Ithilien
• 1 x Greater Warbeasts - Giant Eagles 
• 1 x Lesser Warbeasts - Eagles

The Baddies (Isengard): Steve and Keith

• 2 x Bellicose Foot - Uruk Hai
• 4 x Light Foot - Orcs / Goblins
• 1 x Scouts - Orc / Goblin Scouts
• 1 x Light Riders - Warg Riders
• 1 x Lesser Warbeasts - Wargs
• 1 x Greater Warbeast - Cave Troll 

With various special abilities added to these troops the total points value of each side was 61 points.  With our scenario calling for the forces of Isengard to pass through the Gap of Rohan (exit off the opposing table-edge) we should have perhaps given them an edge as they needed to make all the running.

I didn't take a photo of the table set up, but I deployed on the left opposite Steve with, on my left, the Eagles and a unit of Rangers.

And, towards the centre, my other unit of Rangers backed up by the Giant Eagles.

As can just be made out in the above photos, Steve had a band of Uruks, two bands of Orcs, the Orc Scouts and a pack of Wargs.

Martin, commanding the forces of Rohan, formed our right wing.

While opposite him Keith had a band of Uruks, two bands of Orcs, the Warg Riders and the Cave Troll.

While I held back defending a couple of gaps between the impassable rocky outcrops, Martin led forth the Rohirrim; Forth Éolingas!

But some failed activations for Martin, and some unstoppable wild charges by my forces, saw the action begin in earnest on my flank.  The Giant Eagles quickly tore their way through the opposition taking heavy losses but resolutely passing all their Courage tests.

With my Rangers keeping the rest of Steve's troops at arm's length with their archery, Keith's Uruks charged the Rohirrim, who despite counter-charging took heavy losses but returned to the fray the following turn.

This time they were more successful, but the Uruks passed their courage test and the riders fell back.

The next few turns saw several more charges (but no photos!), that saw the Rohirrim drive off the Uruks and Orcs and turn to fall on the last hope of Isengard, the Cave Troll.

At first the Troll held his own but, as the riders fell back from combat and started to pelt him with arrows, the end was clearly in sight for the forces of darkness.  Then, to delight of all, the baddies conceded the field and the players all trotted off to the pub.

LotR Fernando Touch Up Complete

Just a quick post to celebrate completing touching up my Lord of the Rings figures that I got painted by Fernando Enterprises.

First is Faramir and his Ithilien Rangers; Faramir needed more work than his men, which was slightly annoying as I paid for Super Showcase standard for him.

Then some more good-guys in the shape of some Rohirrim foot warriors.

And finally, some more opposition in the shape of Uruk Hai.  These didn't seem to be up to the standard of others so quite a bit of extra shading was applied.  Also, to make then a bit more visually interesting I added shields (3D printed from eBay) as only two of the original figures had them.

So, these guys should hopefully be taking the table soon for a game of Dragon Rampant.

***************ADDENDUM***************

As commented by someone on TMP it was a bit silly to show the retouched figures without photos of them as received from the painters.  As I didn't take any before retouching, the following photos are some of those provided by Fernando Enterprises for approval before sending them back; they are not high resolution but they didn't provide anything bigger (I did ask).

First some of the goblins - these were IMO the best painted of the different figures and I did nothing to them apart from the bases.

Likewise, the Warg riders (mounted on Ral Partha wolves) which also, IMO, needed no retouching.

By comparison the Uruk Hai were a bit disappointing (I added shields to these) ...

... especially the faces on the archers where not covered by helmets (some of these got small shields added).

The Ithilien rangers as finally received were pretty good and only had minimal retouching e.g. sword hilts which were painted brass all over and to the faces that where seen were pretty crude.

On the subject of faces, the initial sample photos (see next photo) had the eyes painted white with dots, which I requested them to change (as well as brightening up the green used for cloaks etc.).

And pretty much the same again for the Rohirrim on foot.

The mounted Rohirrim were quite heavily reworked by Fernando after I requested more work but and as re-worked were pretty good (almost nothing done to these apart from repair to a figure that lost an arm - the only damage in transit).

So, onto the Super Showcase personalities, and Faramir - with white eyes. 

I requested some rework which produced this.

I still didn't like his face so that was heavily retouched - faces seems to be a major weakness and I retouched them on all but the goblins but luckily most were obscured by helmets so didn't require much.  

And finally, Eomer in the first photo sent for approval.

This photo almost had me give up, but I requested a complete repaint of the horse and some more colourful equipment for Eomer who looked pretty dull for the heir apparent to the throne.  And the next photo received was a dramatic improvement. 

So, the lesson I have drawn from all this is that Fernando can be a bit hit and miss with their painting but are very willing to make changes or rework figures if you are not satisfied, so if not satisfied say why and ask for changes.  Obviously, it can be quite onerous explaining exactly what you want changed, but in my experience it is well worth the effort as they do their best to please.  

One final point, the figures look better in the hand than they do in the photos - I was pleasantly surprised when they arrived how much better they looked.  Of course, some of this is down to viewing them with the naked eye and not through a powerful camera lens.