Merry Christmas from Middle-Earth!

Well the silly season is well and truly upon us, as Xmas festivities get ready to get into high gear...

December has of course brought us the final installment of the Hobbit movie saga, culminating in The Battle of the Five Armies...

BOFA

It was with great excitement that the Bowman clan went to the cinema, on Saturday (3D HFR viewing), for what could be the last visit time to Middle-Earth... "Will you follow me one last time?"...

I'm not going spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it, but suffice to say it was the typical Jackson roller-coaster romp in Middle Earth, best summed up by reminding folks its based on The Hobbit... so get yourself along and enjoy the excitement, action, humor and tear jerk moments!

Having enjoyed the movie, we were typically enthused to have a Hobbit themed game and broke out the Goblin set I made quite some time ago now...

We had a go running the Escape from Goblin Town scenario; Flight to Freedom...

This is set just after the Dwarven company has been captured by the Goblins, and are presented to the Goblin King, their weapons stripped from them... So they have to grab their weapons from the token weapon pile and fight their way off the board, assisted by the timely arrival of Gandalf...

We got about half way through the scenario, but the dwarves were finding it seriously tough, as they were fighting mostly unarmed, and trying to thus fight past goblins and the Goblin King, which seemed quite a tall order...

And all the time D6 goblins that are killed can come back on from any board edge as reinforcements each turn! Plus the Scribe can bring on ~D3 if it passes a courage check... So there are always hordes of goblins on the board!

Even Gandalf's arrival, though helpful, did not immediately force the breakout... we'll have to see if we can finish the game this weekend and see how it turns out... Maybe try a few different tactics and see what happens...

In the meantime, number-one son has started his holidays and used his pocket money to go see the movie twice more, so far!

We're all booked in to see BOFA again on Tuesday, this time at the local comfy boutique cinema, only 2D, but nice big comfy seats, large arm rest and you can buy food and drinks inc. alcoholic for the adults, at the attached cafe to take into the showing. Very civilized viewing, with a slice of cake and glass of vino or perhaps a nice dark beer ;)

Continuing the gaming theme, last night was the final gaming session of the year down at the Kapiti Wargames club. Ste kindly offered to venture north to the club to join me for a game, and we settled in to our ongoing Rohan vs Isengard 'campaign'... but not before club announcements and awards... and somewhat surprisingly I was given a little award for helping grow and encourage additional gaming systems at the club... last year I helped introduce them to FoW, and this and last year has been Hobbit/LOTR...  So that was a very nice touch I thought and the  little box of chocies was very welcome. Must say I couldn't have done it without great effort too from Andrew and Ste, both of which have made the lengthy journey each time from Wello for the gaming. Thanks guys!

On with our game, and we rolled off a To the Death, which saw two large blocks of Uruks led by Ugluk and a captain, push through the centre, whilst Lurtz led scouts and orcs against the farmstead. One orc captain and his warg riders held Ste's flank. That flank was challenged by Theodred and his Royal Guard whilst Eomer and his Eored held off the Uruk pike block in the centre and Hama held out in the farm with his warriors.

The game became a retreating/holding action by Hama and Eomer, shooting what they could of the advancing Uruks, whilst Theodred went head to head with the warg riders in an attempt to break through them and come round behind the Uruks to try and catch them in a pincer.

This largely worked, with the orc warg rider captain being slain in turn one by Theodred... but the remainder of the warg riders and a couple of Uruks held up the flanking move for longer than I wanted. Lurtz and his uruks quickly forced the issue at the farm hedge perimeter forcing Hama and his foot troops to withdraw and retreat.

Theodred and his guard eventually fought their way through as Eomer and Hama steadily retreated in the face of the Uruk advance peppering them with spears and arrows, exacting a slow but steady toll....

Eventually as time ran out Theodred broke through but was still a couple of turns from catching the uruks in the rear. Eomer went in for a final what the heck charge too with his Eored, but largely bounced off the uruks...

But Rohan had caused enough casualties over the game to get Ste's uruks to break point, without breaking themselves. They also still had a banner, resulting in final VPs of 7-0 to Rohan.

So long as Rohan has room to maneuver and isn't forced to attack or defend set battlefield points, they can mostly handle the Isengard force, largely by evasion and shooting. The problem comes when they are forced into an early head to head, as in scenarios like 'the High Ground' or 'Hold Ground'.

A very enjoyable game for us both none-the-less, and a nice way to see out the club at the end of the year. Looking forward to getting back to the club next year and maybe squeezing in some games over the festive holiday.

So that just leaves me to wish you all a very Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year, from Middle Earth!

Radaclaus, or Santagast - Merry Xmas!