The search for Thrain... The Hobbit - Battle Report

It was a dark and stormy night, lightning flashed across the sky... and that was just the weather in Wellington!

Conditions were not much better in the blighted northern regions of Middle-Earth, an icy blast blew down from the north across the fells, bordering the ancient realm of Angmar of old...

Yet here it was that Thorin and a company of stout hearted dwarves from Ered Luin, found themselves, tracking a rumour that Thrain, Thorin's father, had been seen wandering the wilds, in his deranged state...

The northward march of the dwarven company had not gone unnoticed... evil hearted creatures, ever ready to serve the dark powers, had observed their passing, and a murder of crows had been seen overhead of their march...

So it was that as Thorin's company reached the ruins of an ancient settlement, evil forces were lying in wait.

Bhurdur, a great troll chieftain of the northern wastes, on learning of the approaching dwarven column, had gathered his warband around him. He would make sure Thorin would rue the day he dared march north to Angmar!

-----o0o-----

In an effort to raise local awareness and interest in the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit skirmish game, I made contact with the good folks down at the Wellington Warlords, to see if there was much local interest for the game. A positive response was forth coming and Andrew Van Olphen, kindly offered to make the trek north from Wellington to Kapiti, on a week night, to help show the game with me at the local club, Kapiti Wargames Club...

To keep the theme topical with the current Hobbit movies hitting the cinema, Andrew decided to bring a company of dwarves, lead by Thorin, in a 'pre-Hobbit' setting... I would play an evil force, and the themed idea of the search for Thrain would work well. Knowing Thorin would be marching from Ered Luin, evil forces of the north would be logical to call into play and so I decided to take an Angmar force.

We decided to play a 600pt game. Big enough for some varied troop choices, and playable to conclusion in an evening, at a leisurely place, where we'd be chatting about the game with onlookers as we played.

Andrew brought two warbands of doughty dwarven warriors including Khazad guard, Iron guard and warriors led by Thorin and a dwarf captain. Their raven crested banner fluttering alongside them in the breeze... Another dwarf captain led a warband of dwarven rangers.

Andrew also brought some wonderful Galeforce9 gothic ruins that would look perfect as ruins of Angmar...

For my Angmar force, I wanted to try out again, the new Monster brutal power attacks of the Hobbit rules, and decided to bring a pair of cave trolls, lead by Bhurdur; a Cave troll hero. so it would be monstrous brute strength in play, rather than the assorted spooks of Angmar...

Dwarves are notoriously hard as nails, so high strength and/or two-handed weapons would be needed to crack them open! So I took a bunch of orcs with two-handed weapons backed up by plenty of spear support. The new Hobbit rules have amended supporting spears, allowing them to support any allied model.

To lead part of my orc rabble I also took an Orc Shaman, mounted on a warg, the idea being to cast Fury, to bolster my weak orc courage and negate some casualties. An orc banner bearer would encourage all forward. To give my force some mobility, I also included some warg riders led by an orc captain.

To keep things simple we decided to play a straight up scrap and chose 'To the Death' as a scenario. I won the initial roll off, chose sides and started deploying...

Deployment:

Players alternate warband deployment, and I positioned Bhurdur and his trolls and orcs centrally up front to start.

Andrew countered with a dwarf warband angled back centrally. My Shaman and his orcs then went down behind the trolls to support their progress.

Andrew placed Thorin's warband off on his right flank.

 I positioned my warg riders on my right flank, which Andrew countered with his Rangers...

To war!

I won the roll off for initial priority, and started my advance... The Warg riders saw the dwarf rangers ahead of them in the open and charged forward... hoping for an easy victory over the lesser armoured dwarves...

The trolls began their rumble forward, backed up by the Shamans warband, who cast a Channelled Fury! That would mean any orc casualties would be negated on a roll of 5+.

Andrew stoically advanced his dwarves forward, the central dwarves meeting the trolls head on. Thorin's warband advanced from the flank but were still too far away to attack. Dwarven shooting stung the hide of the hammer wielding troll on the end of the line, causing 2 wounds!

Then combat ensued... The troll at the end of the line picked up a dwarf and hurled him along the length of the dwarf engaged battleline causing mayhem, but only one casualty. However this disarray allowed the rest of the evil line to batter the prone dwarves...

The warg riders and rangers proved to be a match for each other, and they fought on over the course of the battle, the dwarf armour keeping them in the game and the warg rider cavalry charges countering somewhat the outnumbering dwarves...

Thorin's warband soon got into the fray but the line of orc axemen backed by spears held... keeping the dwarves at bay, while the trolls continued to batter the central dwarf warband... having enjoyed a game of dwarf skittles, the trolls then started seeing what would happen if you got hold of a dwarf's arms and legs and pulled... Rending dwarves became the order of the day...

Towards the end of the game, Thorin started to make his presence felt and used heroic combats to break his way round the end of the orc line, trying to get to the orc Shaman, and take him out of the game...

The warg riders and rangers had just about fought each other to stand still, with neither really getting the upper hand, over the other...

In the centre the trolls continued to bowl, rend  and pummel the dwarves... it was brutal!

As the time grew short, the battle drew to a close. Thorin had won past the end of the orc line and reached his target charging into the orc shaman... but in doing so he had used up his reserves of Might, and the Orc shaman, though losing the fight was able to survive and break away.

The last turn would probably decide it... Evil won priority and there were no Might points left to challenge this... The remaining warg riders charged the remnants of the rangers, and finally got the upper hand, felling several dwarves on the flank... In the centre, Bhurdur decided it was time to go mano-a-mano with Thorin, and the way was cleared for a charge. The flank orc line continued to hold and reduce the dwarf attackers, and the central trolls looked to deal to the remaining central dwarf warband; their banner and a lone dwarf stood there...

The trolls and orcs surrounded them and their end was grisly, though songs will be sung in dwarven halls at the valor they showed that fateful day! The raven banner sadly lost on the bleak battlefield...

Bhurdur crashed into Thorin, and more orcs piled in to Thorin's flank, and he was sorely tested. With no might left to either side, the greater number of evil warriors backed up by their banner held sway and Thorin was bested, the great troll reaching down, lifting Thorin off his feet to pull him apart, but at the last moment his grip slipped (Fate intervened!), and he fell back to the ground, though in a severely beaten state...

Thorin survived, just, with one wound remaining...

-----o0o---- 

And that ended our demonstration game...

We had both had a lot of fun, and enjoyed the 'cinematic' gameplay the new Hobbit rules allow, and despite being on the receiving end of three brutish trolls, Andrew battled on gamely throughout.

The orcs had lost a large part of their force, the Shamans Channelled Fury had failed to save any souls, but the orcs force remained unbroken at the end. Their foul banner still flew in the stiff breeze, and their monstrous leader Bhurdur remained unharmed..

The dwarves had suffered a heavy toll, their numbers at the end falling below break point, their Raven banner was lost, and their leader Thorin grievously wounded.

Songs of valor and bravery would ever recount this day in dwarven halls, and the name of Bhurdur would be added to the tomes of the dwarves, a grudge would most certainly be kept and revenge one day rightly sought!

We totted up the victory points all this meant, and a score of 8-0 was held in favour of the forces of evil.

But rest assured, the dwarves will have their revenge one day!

-----o0o-----

I'd like to thank Andrew again who braved horrible weather for a drive out for an evenings game and for bringing a wonderfully painted army to display, and some great terrain to set the scene. Andrew also brought more of his painted armies to show off including some wonderful customised Dol Amroth troops, and some great Easterlings. I am certainly looking forward to some more games with Andrew.

Also thanks to Kapiti Wargames Club for hosting us, and making us welcome. Lets hope we might have rekindled a little interest in the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit game, in the local area. We'll certainly be happy to play there again...

Reconnoitre - LOTR SBG Battle Report - Gondor vs Angmar

Another great game down at the club last night...

Sol brought his Gondor force, this time lead by a newly painted Aragorn (as Strider), whilst I brought the grim forces of Angmar out from the northern wastes, led by a Ringwraith - the Dwimmerlaik.

750pts again.

Sol took;
Strider leading a warband of WoMT and banner
Gondor Captain leading a warband of WoMT
King of the Dead leading a warband of The Dead

I took:
Dwimmerlaik leading a warband of Warg-Riders
Shade leading a warband of orcs with banner and a spectre
Angmar Orc Shaman leading a warband of orcs and a spectre
Barrow Wight leading a warband of orcs
Angmar Orc Captain leading a warband of orc trackers

I set the terrain up to look like the Northern wastes depicting the borders of Northern Eriador and Angmar, a blasted countryside with the ruins of past dwellings of happier times, remnants of field boundaries, woods, rocks and marshes and bogs, and of course the memories of the glories of the proud kings of long ago; a couple of barrow mounds...

We rolled up for mission, and after rolling Hold Ground, and The High Ground which we had played in last two games, finally got Reconnoitre.

Reconnoitre is a slightly odd mission in that it portrays the idea of both sides trying to scout out the enemy dispositions by trying to break through their lines. This is achieved in the game by getting your troops off the opposite table edge. Each model moved off this way earns you a victory point.

The only problem we had with this is that normally, troops that leave the table for any reason, count as casualties, and since this wasn't countermanded in the mission description, we were a little wary of running across the board and off the table...

Still, since I had 50 models in my force and Sol had 30-odd,... if we ran past each other and off the table, I'd win by 10+ VPs... but this would just seem a boring, dull and dare I say 'daft' game... so I just decided to have a fun game, and go for the kill!

Sol brought down a mate who he was introducing to the game, so that was good to see more interest in this game system and we had several onlookers come and go. I think Sol's mate must have thought I fancied myself as some kind of 'David Bailey', with the number of pics I snapped away during the game... but the problem is these shots are often quickly done so as not to interfere too much with the game (and we are always pressed for time), and often its not till viewing them afterwards you find half of them are blurred and unusable...  anyway I managed to get several decent shots for following report....

Reconnoitre, is again one of those missions where your troops march onto the board, rolling off for each warband in turn to see if they arrive...

Sol went first , but only manged to get Aragorn's warband on the board.... who advanced from the centre.

In my phase, I got the Shamans warband, the Barrow Wights warband and the Dwimmerlaiks warband on the board. The orcs I sent up the centre and the wraith towards the left flank...

The wraith is mounted on an armoured warhorse, and protected by a warg-rider escorting warband.   Since Sol had not taken Gandalf, the wraiths mission was simple - neutralise Aragorn. This I planned to achieve by first sapping his will, then chipping away at his courage. It would take several turns but would reduce Aragorn to a quivering wreck - at least that was the plan! So the mounted option allowed me maneuverability to get to Aragorn to ensorcerel him, and stay out of his infantry charge range.

The first orc warbands arrive... Shaman casts Fury on 2nd attempt.

The full evil force arrayed and advancing...

Aragorn leads the charge up the centre, the banner of Gondor blowing in the Northerly breeze...

The Gondor captains leads his warband up their right flank...

The King of the Dead (the figure with broken sword, - doing his best Elendil impression) leads his warband up their left flank.

The wraith advances and hits Aragorn with a Sap Will. Aragorn resists it but it burns a Will point anyway and a Might point.

The orc warbands have merged and now advance en-masse...

Aragorns warband moves off to the side to try and escape the wraiths attentions, but the faster wraiths cavalry shifts laterally also, and hits Aragorn again with another Sap Will. This time Aragorn fails the resist and loses all his Will. He is now open to all the spells the wraith chooses to target him with...

The orc trackers advancing to get into firing position.  I decided to try some orc trackers as they have a bit of a better shoot skill than regular orcs, and I thought they might be useful in unhorsing the odd knight, denuding Sol's cavalry... but Sol didn't bring any cavalry to the game so the orcs would just have to try and sneak an arrow through the armour of the Gondor soldiers...

Sol's flank infantry start to advance towards the centre... much of the early part of this game was maneuvering...

Aragrons warband and the Dead continue the advance to the centre...

The evil forces array their battle line and await the good forces charge... The wraith is busy hitting Aragorn with drain courage, knocking off a point each turn...

The forces of Good get closer...

... and the battle lines finally clash... with the Dead hitting my right flank, and Gondor warriors following up in my left flank on the next turn... I was quite happy about this... Sol, seemed to feel his Dead would be unstoppable, but I knew I outnumbered him, I had the Shade there (-1 to all Sols fight rolls) , the Shaman had Fury going so I am immune to courage checks and might get the odd orc back even if it dies, and I've got a banner for re-rolls. The only trick is actually killing the Dead as they are D7, meaning I need 6's to kill them, or 5's with my 2HW's...

The combat raged but the orcs held as I expected, and the Dead started to fall... Sol advanced his Dead King to the end of the orc line possibly hoping to get round it, but this just left him open to being surrounded by the orcs. The spectres made their presence known, ejecting the odd Dead warrior from the line or a spear supporting Gondorian...

In a flurry of orc weapons the Dead King was struck down and dispelled to nothingness, blowing all his Fate points... More dead started to fall, as did a couple of orcs though one was saved thanks to Fury.

My right flank was holding well, and in a little more time I would be able to swing this flank and start rolling the line...

At the other end of the line, things were not as good, though far from bad... the only problem I had was Aragorn was getting close, and the Gondor banner was there.

I thought about what to do with the wraith...I could Black Dart Aragron (a tough spell to cast needing a 5+) but even if it hit, it wouldn't kill Aragron outright... Likewise I could kill the banner bearer with the Black Dart but there was still that 5 needed to roll. Then I struck on the idea of simply Compelling the banner bearer away... An easier spell to cast only needing a 4+, and I could then simply walk the banner away from the fight. Easy. Just to make sure I chucked two dice using extra Will to get that 4,... and rolled two 3's ! Plus the Dwimmerlaik has no Might so I couldn't increase it. Damn!

Oh well, not a crucial failure, but a little annoying...

The fight continued, Sol had got his flank approaching Gondorians into the action too now and they were now mixing it up with the warg-riders and the Orc archers... Everything was in the mix now!

And then a crucial phase... Sol finally won a priority roll, as I had kept rolling for several in a row, and seeing his chance, jumped at it, charging Aragorn against the wraith who I had maneuvered too close in its attempt to get off that spell last phase...

Sol was rather quick off the mark with his movement, and I didn't even get the chance to Call a Heroic Move... but I let it go and played on... Ha, I thought, with Aragorns reduced courage from his spell battering and the Harbinger of Evil effect of the wraith there was a fair chance he'd fluff the roll to charge my terror causing wraith! He rolled a straight 10! Bugger! Not only that, he got in an assisting Gondorian who also passed his courage check. Double Bugger!!

Oh well, I moved the rest of my forces as best as I could but couldn't get anything in to help out the wraith. And once its engaged in combat, it can't cast any spells. Triple Bugger!!!

The fight phase rolled on, and the majority of the action continued to go evils way, the combination of Shade, Shaman Fury, and banner was excellent. Even elsewhere my greater orc numbers were still prevailing.

But the crucial fight came and Aragorn won the fight roll with a 5. The wraith took two wounds, but had 2 Fate points! Two dice bounced across the cloth and one passed and one failed. But one failure was enough, the wraith only has one wound and its ethereal form was dispelled!

[I will NOT at this point blame my young son, who had just joined us and asked if he could roll Daddy's dice for him...;-) ]

Damn, I lose my commander and give 3 VPs to Sol.

But otherwise things are not too bad... I am still in a decent position to continue the game, but... as ever we need to finish early due to Sols time constraints. We could have started another turn, but it would have been unlikely to change over much in just one turn. So we ended it, with Sol sneaking a 3-0 victory.

I must apologise for lack of pics of through the actual combats, but once the action hots up I try and concentrate on what I am doing and then usually forget the camera...

The end positions:

A great game which I felt in control of, ... right till the end... ;-)

What did I learn... well I could have easily won on VPs by just running my wargs off the board, instantly scoring 8VPs, but that wasn't how I wanted to play the game. I suppose if this had been a proper tournament, I would have had to pay greater attention to the victory points of the mission... but I just like a damn good scrap!

The Shade was excellent.

The wraith wasn't too bad, though in hindsight I forgot to invoke the Dwimmerlaiks special ability - I could have cost Aragorn more Might and Will points earlier in the game...Also I may consider using a Fellbeast mount next time, just to give the wraith more maneuverability, and more importantly height for Line of sight for spell casting, especially when trying to peek over clashing battle lines... And if a chance comes to charge, I'll get monstrous mount abilities too...

The spectres again proved useful, and I feel are worth their points.

The Barrow Wight I was disappointed in... It didn't get into any fights usefully... it was lined up against the Dead, and its two attempts to paralyze, it rolled a 1 both times needing a 4... For the points of the Wight I could have had an orc captain and a couple of orcs...

I am quite happy with how my orc battle line holds up against the Gondorians, and look forward to trying them out again.

However, my time at the club will be curtailed somewhat, as my wife has started a Pilates class which clashes with my club games-night, and I have a young daughter who needs babysitting! Ah well, the greatest plans of Middle-Earth domination by Sauron and his wraiths will be utterly foiled by the attentions of a six year old girl! Somehow, there is something inherently Tolkien-esque about that ! ;-)

Till next time, happy gaming folks...

The Court of Fallen Kings

I found and managed to complete three more barrow wights I had acquired, which brought me up to the eight models I needed to form the Court of Fallen Kings for my Angmar War of the Ring army.

They are a lovely, spooky formation quite apt to the forces of Angmar.

The bodies of the past Fallen Kings of Arnor, buried in Barrows in the old fashion way, very similar to Saxon barrows in evidence in the UK, but i digress...

And so it was that when the Witch King came to Angmar to raise an army to destroy Arnor, he sent forth foul spirits to inhabit and animate the corpses of the Kings of old, and bring them forth from their barrows to terrify and kill their foes.

I must admit one of these figures is different to the rest, it's a much older 'Barrow Wight' model from GW/Citadel, but as such it makes a distinctive 'leader' of the company, with a suitably imposing sword!

I hope to see this formation in action soon.

My only slight misgiving, in the depiction of the models, is the colour the 'eavy Metal team chose to paint them up in; a blue tinge. My last re-reading of Lord of the Rings, where the hobbits are captured on the Barrow Downs by the Barrow Wight, mentions a 'pale greenish light', when Frodo is trapped in the Barrow. However the wights are also associated with cold and freezing, and these words tend to make us think of blue as a colour, so I guess they could have been done in either colour, after all.

Evils of the North

A great many evil creatures run in the wilds of Eriador, that now dwell in the lands that was once the Kingdom of Arnor.



Buhrdur, a great cave troll captain, leads trolls and orcs in battles with the Rangers of the North, and the Elves of Rivendell.



Packs of wargs also bring terror to the remaining peoples of the north, the howl of the wolf is ever heard in the wilds of Eriador. Here a great chieftain of wargs has slain a ranger and feasts on his body.



Spectres also emerge from the dank marshes and pools, that have swallowed the graves of the fallen in battle. Dread spirits sent by the Witch King of Angmar, animate and maintain these spectral rotting corpes, to lure the unwary to their doom, or waylay travelers in the wild lands.



A spectre of an elven warrior



A spectre of the armies of men under Elendil from time of the battle of the Last Alliance.



A spectre of an orc soldier.

Angmar- Realm of the WitchKing

Angmar - ancient realm of the Witch-King of old.

At the time of the weakened state of Arnor, after it had sent it's troops south to the Battle of the Last Alliance, the Witch-King came to Angmar to raise an army to bring death and destruction to Arnor.

For some time, Arnor, bereft of true kingship, dissolved into three smaller kingdoms; Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhudaur. These three fought each other, for the right to claim the throne. Ever do the forces of evil, grin to see friend fight friend, and in their further weakened state, Angmar struck, destroying each kingdom in turn and laying waste to the northern realm of Arnor.

Drawing on orcs, barbarians, trolls and all manner of evil creatures and spirits, the WitchKing forged his forces to wreak havoc on the world of men.

The backbone of any evil forces are the multitudinous orcs, lead by brutal captains and taskmasters, and following their banners to war to the beat of the drum.


Banners still bearing the red eye of Sauron.

Shamen also come forth in the orc battalions, to bolster their courage and lay waste to their enemies.

All manner of fell creatures come to the call of the WitchKing; including monstrous bats, giant spiders, and evil wild wargs...



Other fell demons come forth to join the fray. Ghulavar the Terror of Arnor, is one such dread demon, with a lust for blood, and fangs and claws to rend and tear flesh from the living. A nightmare of another world.

Monstrous trolls will also head the call of the Witch-King bringing brute strength to the fight.


Fell spirits also obey the summons, chilling the soul, and paralyzing with fear, the brave souls man enough to oppose the forces of Angmar.



Here a evil Shade, a twisting swirl of ghostly forms, lends its terror to Angmar.

And Wights; spirits that have inhabited to kingly bodies of men in the tombs under their barrows, come forth to chill the soul.

I have more I wish to add to this force, including spectres and ghostly legion, which I hope to complete for a subsequent blog post update.