The Hunt Begins! - LOTR/Hobbit AAR

Ah ha! My cunning plan has worked..., a plan so cunning you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel ;-) ... after many years of enjoying the visual feast of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, and now also the first two Hobbit movies, my son, at age 10, has become engrossed in reading the Lord of the Rings novel. Starting with, of course, the first book of the Fellowship of the Ring.

At his age, back way back when, I was still reading the Hobbit... I didn't get into the The Lord of the Rings, until I was teenager...

I once heard somebody say, that reading The Lord of the Rings for the first time is a bit of slog and difficult to get into, but once you get past the first 100 pages or so, it grabs you and there's no putting it down... I told Chris this, and so he steadfastly worked his way into the book, though of course, knowing the movies off by heart has made his introduction to the story, far easier than it was for me all those years ago...

The fun part for him has been to see how the book differs from the movie, and as that old saying invariably goes, the book is better than the movie... though I rather think in this case, they compliment each other very well...

And as I predicted, with starting to read the book, Chris now wants to play through the Journey Book scenarios, starting at the beginning, with "The Hunt Begins" from the Fellowship of the Ring Journey book.

So here we begin out LOTR adventure, in another direction, lets see if we can stay on course this time!

The following pictures are clickable so you can have a read - it saves me typing it all out for you...

A simple set up, and a simple plan...

The Dunedain guard the boundaries of the Shire, and the Wraiths are trying to sneak past or break through... Their Master has learned of two words; 'Baggins' and 'Shire', and has sent his most fell servants to secure his greatest desire, The One Ring.

However at this great distance from his influence, their powers are weak...

For the Forces of evil to win, they must get 2 out of their 3 wraiths, off the opposite board edge. They lose if they fail to achieve this.

The Dunedain occupy a wooded hill top, giving them a great view over the surrounding lands. The Wraiths hope to sneak past, and avoid direct conflict, in their weakened and out numbered state...

But the Dunedain see shadows moving in the gloom, and sense an evil presence... and advance to investigate...

The Wraiths, try to deter the Dunedain, with attempts to drain their courage, making it more likely they would fail their terror test, to charge the wraiths; the harbingers of an ancient evil.

However, these Dunedain are stouthearted folk, and shrug off their evil influences... and press on regardless...

The Dunedain, first try to deal with the threat at range and unleash a volley of arrows, but the shafts pass harmlessly through the wraith ethereal forms...

With nothing for it, bolstering their courage against the darkness, they meet their dire foes head on...

The wraiths find themselves overwhelmed by this brave assault, with one falling, to their initial charge...

The counters keep track of who is who , as all the Dunedain have Might, Will and Fate.

The Witch King tries to press on, and force his way past... his Masters burning will driving him on, even though, at this distance, his influence is tenuous...

...but he too succumbs to blades and might of the exultant Dunedain, their brave ancestry shining through...

... his ethereal form disappearing with an anguished, hissing wail, on the breeze...


And that was that! A tough game for the wraiths to win, their powers are weak, they are outnumbered 3 to 1, and these Dunedain are serious foes, each with a point of Might, Will and Fate.

I had thought to try and send one wraith by itself, to the northern flank, whilst the two tried the southern approach. However Chris simply overwhelmed my group of two , whilst just trailing the third with a lone Dunedain.

He rolled well for his courage checks to charge, and the outnumbered the wraiths were relatively easily dispatched. Str 4 Dunedain needing a 6 to kill against Def 8, but each with a Might point, making their chance to kill on a 5. The Wraiths have no Fate in this mission, and only 1 Wound anyway...

One thing I forgot to use was 'Cry of the Nazgul' - this could have 'frozen' the Dunedain for a turn, letting me possibly slip past and get ahead in the race for the table edge...

OK, we'll see how the wraiths fare in the next mission, when their numbers begin to grow... it will be 9 vs 9! Mwa ha ha...