To the Death! - LOTR SBG Battle report - Rohan vs Isengard

A lazy Sunday afternoon saw me have the chance to entertain two gaming chums; Paul and Brett, to a game Lord of the Rings SBG.

In this case I was happy to umpire it, taking them both through the ropes of the games rules and subtleties of tactics within the game.

Paul is primarily a Flames of War player, who had not experienced skirmish wargaming before so this was all new to him.

Brett had played a bit of Legends of the High Seas before, which is a derivative of the SBG rules, and is also a SAGA player so has a fair grounding in Skirmish games.

Brett also had some Rohan troops he had acquired and wanted to try them out, so I added some of my own to bulk out his force and then gave Paul an Isengard force to theme the battle - an Isengard probe into the Westfold.

I accordingly set up the terrain depicting a small isolated farm...

 The battle was 750pts each.  

Rohan's force was (roughly)
Theoden (the King) leading warband of Riders of Rohan, including gaming with royal banner
Theodred (King's son) leading a warband of Riders of Rohan
Hama leading a warband of Warriors of Rohan on foot.
Eowyn (King's niece) leading a warband of Warriors of Rohan on foot.  

Isengard's force was
Uruk Hai Captain leading Uruk Hai with 6 pike and 6 shields
Uruk Hai Captain leading Isengard Troll, and 8 Uruk Hai Berserkers
Orc Captain on Warg leading warband of Warg Riders
Uruk Hai Shaman leading Uruk Hai warriors with 6 pike and 6 shields

 We played 'To the Death' just for ease of learning the game and mission.

Paul won dice off for deployment and started first...

Final deployments as below...

Theodred is bottom right facing the Warg-riders, Eowyn leads the foot troops near the ruin, Theoden is in the centre, and Hama is in the farm paddock, facing the Shaman's Warband.

I am going to let the pictures do the talking for the most part...  Paul won the early priority advancing as best as he could though the Shaman's warband had a hell of a time negotiating the farms fences with 5 out 13 Uruks rolling a 1 trying to cross the fences. This caused the Rohan commander much amusement who promptly fell foul of the fences himself, though not quite as badly...

For the most part of the early game, Rohan tried to keep a distance, and shot up the approaching Isengarders This succeeded in dropping several Uruks despite needing a 6 to kill. As Brett says "Need a six? Roll a six!" ;-)

Flank Rohan cavalry withdraw, to shoot bows...

Centre Rohan cavalry, advance...

Slightly exasperated Paul kept plodding forwards... with troll and Berserkers heaing to centre of board, away the disengaged warband of Theodred.

Theodred rode forward, bows again shooting...

Early combat is joined in the centre as Theoden cavalry engage the central and left flank Uruk Hai warbands catching some up against the farm fences...

Eventually as battle became properly joined, the power of the cavalry charge was revealed but also shown to be blunted in the face of pike supported troops.

The fences again quickly came in to the equation as they frequently trapped those who could not back away from combat...

The battle for the farm also heats up...

Theoden leads the central charge against the Uruks, but has he over exposed himself...?

The Uruk captain facing off against Theodred quickly found himself surrounded, yet kept fighting gamely... the troll sees easy pickings in front of him, and focuses on the blonde haired female bravely wielding her sword...

The Uruk captain slays Theodred! Then runs away the next turn when he fails his courage check, as by this point the Isengarders are broken...

The troll was a huge problem, but Eowyn bravely led her forces against it... but even surrounded the troll could not be stopped (it rolled a 6), and turned Eowyn into a red pulpy squish mark on the ground! She might be able to deal with the WitchKing of Angmar, but a great lumbering troll? Nope!

Theoden, who could have made use of the Royal Banner of Rohan to recharge his exhausted supply of Might, never got the chance when Paul won priority and charged Theoden with a pike armed Uruk, who promptly spitted Theoden from his horse! Gamling was left trying to hold the centre together...

The forces of the White Hand eventually broke and started losing troops to failed courage rolls but the Shamans recast Fury held the end of the line.

The troll still could not be stopped! Where's a wizard with an Immobilize when you need one!?

Gamling holds the centre together...  just...

Final positions...
The troll is a serious problem on the Rohan left flank...

The centre has been carnage leaving only three Riders and two Uruks standing... whilst the paddocks and fields in the farm remain contested... though Rohan probably has the upper hand here...

But eventually the Isengarders were dropped to 25% of their starting number bringing the battle to close. All that remained was to add up Victory points:-

Both sides have inflicted huge losses on the other with both sides going past their break point - 3 points to each side.
Both sides had slain the enemy commander, another 3 points each.
Yet Gamling remained holding aloft the Royal banner scoring 2 points.

This tipped the game to a victory to Rohan, 8-6.

Sadly this must be considered a Pyrrhic victory for it was truly a frightful day for the noble house of Rohan, losing the King, his son and niece in one encounter! Saruman will be chuckling and rubbing his hands together in glee in the Tower of Orthanc at this boon, and the way is clear for a full invasion of Rohan!

A thoroughly enjoyable game that both players enjoyed and played in great spirit.

Sadly Brett had to depart half way through the game, leaving me to take over Rohan, but not before using up all the heroes Might points, the bugger! It was shortly after this the Rohan heroes started dying! That's my excuse and I am sticking to it! ;-)

What pleases me more is Brett was even motivated to buy some more Riders of Rohan the day after we played the game, so I count that a victory for the LOTR SBG game!

I have that many LOTR figures that Paul is more than welcome to use whatever force he wishes whenever he fancies a game, though I have a sneaking suspicion he may be contemplating embracing his Dwarven side!