The "High" Ground - LOTR SBG BattleReport; Rohan vs Mordor.

Managed to have an impromptu game tonight, with Brett and his muster of the Rohirrim!

 We agreed to drop the points of the game to 500 points, to make for a smaller game, hopefully playable to conclusion in an evenings playing time available.

To theme the Battle, I decided to take a a Mordor force, across the Anduin, into a raid into the Eastfold...

I selected:

Mordor:
Mouth of Sauron, on Armoured steed, leading warband of 6 Morgul Knights with banner and Horn, a spectre and two orcs, shield and spear.
Kardush the Fire caller leading a warband of 12 orcs including a banner.
An Orc Captain leading a warband of 12 orcs.
(I had been toying with the idea of having a Troll Chieftain lead my force, but at 140pts he seemed too much for such a small force)

Brett took:

Rohan:
Eomer Knight of the Pelennor (model proxied by Theoden), leading a warband of Riders of Rohan. 
Erkenbrand (model proxied by a nicely coverted Mounted Boromir), leading a warband of Westfold riders.
The Kings Huntsman (model proxied by Legolas), leading a warband of Warriors of Rohan on foot.

I had set up the board again depicting an isolated Rohan farm.

We rolled off for mission and got The High Ground. Having already placed the farm centrally I didn't want to shift it all out of the way to place a hill there, so we just decided that the cornfield had mighty tall corn! So that would be the prize!

Brett won the initial roll, selected the side closest the cornfield and started deploying...

The forces deployed.

I then managed to win the roll for starting turn, and started my attack, charging in with two Morgul knights and supporting with the rest of the force. I advanced into the cornfield with the central warband, but was wary of being outflanked by Eomer heading down the road, so left a few orcs to cover my rear.

Brett pulled back as best he could, playing for time, and hoping to have his archery do some work... and probed down the road with Eomer...

Seeing the possible risk to my flank and seeing the chance to trap Eomer's warband in the confines of the fenced road, I swung the central orc warband over this way... whilst the fight hotted up on my left flank...

Brett stays out of reach on my left... still playing for time and very wary of the Morgul knights backed by a horde of orcs...

After several heroic move declarations the orc captain leads his warband across the fence into the packed horsemen... Eomer was bunched up and pinned against fences and his own men with the orc captain and his followers swarming in to get to the action... This scrap then raged over several turns with Eomer hanging on and eventually forcing the orcs back!

The evil forces continue the press on the other flank, eventually forcing Rohan to commit...

The ongoing scrap for the farm and road...

My best chance to really hurt the resolve of Rohan; Erkenbrand  attacks the end of the orc line with more riders piling in and others holding off the Morgul knights... But evil saw its chance, the spectre swung in behind Erkenbrand, and the Mouth of Sauron trotted forward and with a wave of his claw like hand, Transfixed Erkenbrand, then charged in to trap him and seal his doom!

Erkenbrand was beaten in the fight and trapped took double hits, but his high D7 saved him and he managed to only take one wound from 8 dice (needing a six to wound). He fluffed his fate roll, but had survived, and I had thrown everything into that transfix!

The battle raged on another turn but Rohan had escaped the trap, Erkenbrand fought clear, and Eomer stayed lucky and forced off the orc attackers back down the road. Kardush was lucky to survive a fight against 4 foes on the edge of the cornfield.

By this point the orcs were broken and time was telling so we called it.

Brett had managed to break me without being broken himself, he also had more troops in the cornfield at the end than I had.

So win to Rohan, 9 - 1 .

 A great fun game. I, as usual lost sight of the victory conditions, hold the field, and went after Rohans troops. I could have sat my whole force in the field and possibly held on for a win, but thats not the way I play!

Interesting points:
The Morgul knights were certainly a handful!
Kardush wasnt terribly effective, his spells achieved nothing...
The MoS, was cool to use but couldnt land the killer blow against a tough opponent.

The D7 Eomer and Erkenbrand took all that was thrown at them.
The Huntsman, sniped a couple of orcs, nothing too telling... though Rohan archery overall took a steady toll of orcs.

Again a lot of fun and looking forward to the next battle in Middle-Earth...