Pursuit in to the Wild - LOTR/Hobbit AAR

The next game in our Fellowship of the Ring campaign, game seven, is the Pursuit into the Wild.

This game sees four Ringwraiths, go up against Gandalf and six Dunedain rangers...

Gandalf has decided to flee the ruins of Amon Sûl, and head north, hoping to draw off the wraiths, distracting them away from Aragorn and the hobbits... Four of the wraiths give chase, but soon a group of Dunedain are encountered and join with Gandalf to ambush the wraiths... the hunters becoming the hunted!

The wraiths, realizing the diversionary tactic of the forces of good, must survive the ambush and head back south.

Victory Conditions
For the Ringwraiths to win, they must either, kill Gandalf, or get 3 wraiths past the Dunedain and off the southern board edge.
For Good to win, Gandalf must get back over the southern board edge, or they must stop the wraiths escaping south in numbers by killing at least two of them.
Gandalf also has the option to escape from the north, east or west board edges if need be. If he does this, he will not count as a casualty.

Special conditions
Gandalf is in a weakened state after his encounter at Amon Sûl, and only begins the game with 1 Might, 2 Will, and 1 Fate.

Key
Red tokens number the Ringwraiths to track their Will points
Green tokens number the the Dunedain to track their Might, Will and Fate.

Deployment:
Gandalf is placed on the northern board edge, then the Dunedain on the Southern Board edge. Finally the wraiths are placed in a box in the centre of board.

This makes for a very interesting game as it can be won in several ways, so each player has to decide before hand what their plan is going to be...

Will the wraiths turn back south, or will they get their revenge on the wizard, in his weakened state?

Gandalf and the Dunedain spring their ambush and move towards the wraiths, Gandalf using his staff to cast Terrifying Aura upon himself... but the Dunedain are still a long way off, and Gandalf suddenly feels a little exposed... this feeling is reinforced as he is assaulted by dark energies as Black Darts assail him!

Not to be deterred, Gandalf pushes on, buoyed up by his previous success against these foul creatures... the Dunedain getting closer, trying to come to his aid... but more Black Darts find their mark and the wizard weakens...

Realizing his error in trying to contest the wraiths in his weakened state, he tries to flee once more to the north... but the wraiths follow and lash him once again with their foul energies... the Grey Pilgrim slumps to the ground and is motionless...

... far away, Galadriel senses a great loss... a lament for Gandalf will sung this night...

-----o0o-----

This game was over in the blink of 'The Eye'! Three consecutive turns of being slammed by Black Darts and Gandalf crumpled in his weakened state...

We played the game three times more...

Gandalf tried to skirt the edge of the playing area, keeping away from the wraiths, but this time they Compelled him forward towards them, making him charge them so they could surround him and he was cut down.

Again Gandalf tried to sneak down the side but was blasted by Black Darts once more.

Finally the wraiths tried to see if they could escape south instead... this they achieved but it was very close, one wraith was killed as were 3 Rangers, the last wraith escaping off the board at the last possible moment, and I had remembered Cry of the Nazgûl this time!

I think for the good side to win this game, Gandalf needs to taunt the wraiths northwards for one maybe two turns making them waste Will casting spells at him, to weaken them. Then he flees the board edge, and the wraiths then have to head south past the Dunedain who will be close by this point...

-----o0o----

Oh, it was my birthday this last weekend..., at the end of our game I was presented with a humble cake baked by my good wife, with a Hobbit green door motif! How delightful!

Happy birthday to me! :-)

I had blown out the candles, but they were those sneaky ones that sometimes relight...

Scott, Chris and Becky

Till next time, and back to Weathertop!

The Grey Pilgrim and the Black Riders - LOTR/Hobbit AAR

Onward to game 6 of our Fellowship of the Ring campaign... The Grey Pilgrim and the Black Riders.

This is another of those scenarios inspired more from the book than the film, and sees Gandalf trying to catch up with the hobbits, and deal with the Ringwraiths, in part, if he can.

Gandalf finds himself surrounded and assaulted by the wraiths at the ancient ruin of Amon Sûl, upon the hill known as Weathertop , just before Aragorn leads the hobbits there. The book tells of them seeing flashes of light from that direction, on the night before they get there...

Amon Sûl, ancient tower harking back to the glory days of the northern Kingdom of Arnor...

The tower of Amon Sûl, long since destroyed in battle with forces led then by the Witch King of Angmar... Interesting then to see him return to this place once more...

The model I made some years ago, following the guide in the FotR Journey book, with a few extra embellishments of my own. The central floor area gives a 12" diameter circle playing area, as required for this scenario...

The scenario sees Gandalf facing off against all nine Nazgûl, but luckily for Gandlaf they don't all arrive at once, but enter the game slowly over the course of the game...

... if they all jumped him at once, Gandalf would be history! This scenario is set up such that Gandalf has time to deal with the threat as it develops...

Gandalf starts in the centre of the floor area, with two Ringwraiths about to enter.

Special rules for this scenario:
Gandalf starts with Terrifying Aura, and Blinding Light already in effect, and still has full stats and his staff at the ready.
Gandalf will auto-pass any any courage tests, and is immune to Sap Will.
The wraiths must pass a courage test each move they start within the playing area and flee if they fail this roll.
At the end of each evil move phase another wraith enters the game on a roll of 5+.
The ruined playing area counts as difficult ground so all movement is halved.
If the Wraiths lose a fight against Gandalf they are repelled d6"

Victory:
For Gandalf to win he must slay/banish/repel 4 wraiths.
For the wraiths to win they must kill Gandalf.

Key:
Red dots number each of the wraiths, to track their Will points.
Yellow dots indicate Transfix/Immobilize

Gandalf has prepared himself for the onslaught of the wraiths, knowing this confrontation will test him sorely... Raising himself to his full wrath, he lets forth a blazing light, the power of the Valar filling this ancient ruin...

The wraiths are not detered, and enter the ruined circle, loosing their own dark magic at the threatened wizard...

Another wraith enters the fray... but Gandalf Commands one out of this sacred place...

The other two close in...

...but Gandalf manages to cut one down...

More energies leap from the wizards staff, Immobilizing the last wraith, but Gandalf cannot yet strike this vile creature down...

It circles away from the dominant Istari, waiting for more of its kind to arrive, when greater numbers may deal with to the wizard...

The cat and mouse game continues...

... until, Gandalf Commands this wraith away as well...

... though not a moment too soon as another wraith descends into the dell...

... and another...

The two wraiths now close in on Gandalf, hoping to deal with him once and for all...

Not to be overwhelmed, Gandalf strikes down one more wraith. With four wraiths dispatched, the Witch King calls off their attack. They will regroup and catch Gandalf at another time and place when he is less prepared and more vulnerable...

The exhausted Wizard catches his breath, slumping to the ground briefly, resting to recover his strength, in time for the next confrontation...

The four stricken wraiths - the Witch King is not pleased!

 Now, where is Strider and the Hobbits?....

-----o0o-----

We played this scenario several times as it was quick to play and there were a few tactics either side could attempt...

Our initial game saw Gandalf whacked by two Black Darts in quick succession... Chris fluffed all the fate rolls and suddenly Gandalf had lost all his fate AND two wounds, with only one remaining and not a wraith yet dispatched... things looked grim... but then a chance re-read of Gandalfs stats, we noted a couple of things we had forgotten; Gandalfs Ring Narya, allows him to re-roll his fate points and Glamdring increases his Str to 5...

We decided to reset the game and start again, and that's the game above...

I didn't get as lucky again with Black Darts or getting wraiths on quickly, and Chris was rampant with Gandalf, using Commands to simply push the wraiths out of the circle, out of the playing area and thus out of the game...

We played twice more, and rather than openly attacking Gandalf from the start I tried waiting for more wraiths to appear and then be able to overwhelm Gandlaf, but it just didn't happen, wraiths were ejected from the circle or even failed courage checks and fled, or were struck down in combat once immobilized and a Might point or two was added to the wound roll.

Gandalf would not go down...

But again, that's as it should be if the game is to match the events of the story...

Its a tough game for evil to win, and a fair bit of luck would be needed to overwhelm Gandalf in this set up. Perhaps if I had thought of bringing the Witch King on sooner it may have made a difference? We'll have to try it again sometime...

-----o0o-----

So Gandalf has defeated the wraiths this time, now he must once again brave the wilds to try and find Strider and the Hobbits... and the wraiths are still out there... and this time, he's tired and wont have the protection of the scared ancient walls of Amon Sûl to protect him...

The Nine

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for mortal men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne.
In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie,
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie.

The Nine. The Nazgul. The Ringwraiths.

Led by the Witch King of Angmar. Great Kings of Men, and sorcerors, seduced to follow Sauron, the Dark Lord when he gifted to them each a ring of power, that would grant each the immortality they craved. Yet that immortalty, meant the gradual stripping of thier mortal bodies and leaving merely wraith-like shadows, under the power of the Dark Lord.

His most trusted and loyal servants, utterly faithful to his command, bound to the One Ring.

Once Sauron has learnt the whereabouts of his missing ring, having tortured the creature Gollum, and learning two words "Shire" and "Baggins", he despatches his most trusted servants North and West across Middle-Earth, to find and slay Baggins, take the Ring, and return it to their master.

Once he has the One Ring back in his possession, Middle-Earth is doomed...

As for the models, they are available as a full boxed set of nine metal figures on foot.

In know its difficult to get excited about figures that are essentially just black. So question is how to paint them black but give then subtle enough shading to make them look good, yet not to look grey.

Well, after a black base coat, I dry brushed them with Foundry 32a Slate Grey. Then picked out the edges of their robes in 32b. Once dry the whole model was washed in GW Badab Black wash. Metal areas were painted GW Tin Bitz, followed by a dry brush of Boltgun metal. Then again washed with Badab Black. Finally a light drybrush of GW graveyard grey was done to the bottom edges of their robes to give them a weathered look.

Varnished and based as normal.