Flight to the Ford - LOTR/Hobbit Battle Report

Our Fellowship campaign continues!

Onwards to scenario 9; Flight to the Ford...

A quick recap of our prior game... saw Aragorn go AWOL at a vital time at Weathertop, involving an alleged incident with bacon and sausages! ... And poor Frodo slumps to the ground from the Ringwraiths varied attentions!

But, post game, Aragorn makes an appearance, scatters the wraiths, grabs Frodo from under their outstretched arms, and flees into the dark wilderness, with Sam, Pippin and Merry following as best they may, all very dashing and Errol Flynn-like, but sadly at that time, somewhat 'off screen'... He must reach Rivendell to have any hope of healing Frodo!

Briefly evading the pursuing wraiths, he has a moment to administer some first aid, to Frodo's wound, finding Athelas, a weed, also known as Kingsfoil, that has healing properties, unknown to the common man.

Frodo's condition is temporarily stabilised... and then right on queue Arwen arrives! She's been out looking for the party, and has seen the wraiths out searching for Aragorn and the hobbits...

A rapid discussion, and it is agreed she is the best chance for Frodo, to gallop with her on Asfaloth, (on temporary loan from Glorfindel!) to Rivendell and safety!

So our mission commences and it is a bit of a mish-mass of events from the book and events from the movie...

Deployment
Arwen starts the game with Frodo, mounted up on Asfaloth, positioned 12" into the board.
A Minimum of 5 Wraiths on horseback are positioned up to 6" into the board behind her.
Aragorn and the hobbits chase onto the board in the first turn, coming on behind the wraiths...
The remaining wraiths enter the game as reinforcements, rolling to come on, and arriving from either side of the board, but must enter play this side of the river, they are attempting to cut off Arwen, and prevent her from escaping across the River Bruinen...

Deployment

Victory conditions
The Ringwraiths must kill Frodo to win.
The forces of Good must kill all the Ringwraiths! What the...!!!!

Special conditions
All the wraiths are knackered after the scrap at Weathertop, as are their horses, from galloping flat out everywhere for days and days of the ongoing chase... Each wraith has only 3 Will Points, the WitchKing has 5. All horses roll a die each turn and move thus D6+4" per turn... if  6 is rolled, the horse moves that distance then expires on the spot, throwing the wraith!
Arwen can call the river Bruinen into flood, once she has entered the ford, on a 4+ on each successive turn and then action it at will.
Aragorn and Frodo are also exhausted - Frodo has no Might or Fate. Aragron has no Might, though can still use his free point per turn.

Game on, and Arwen urges Asfaloth onward; Noro Lim!

Aragorn and the hobbits run on behind the wraiths, and Aragorn and Merry manage to catch up with one, preventing it from galloping forth after Arwen...

Unaware of the drama unfolding behind her, Arwen gallops on, the sound of pursing hoof-beats close behind...

Aragorn and Merry continue their fight with the wraith as Sam and Pippin push on...

Galloping at 12" per turn, Arwen quickly out distances the pursuing wraiths and is already at the ford...

... as Aragorn and Merry strike down the wraith they are fighting... the rest of the wraiths are still chasing after Arwen as quickly as they can urge their exhausted mounts on...

Arwen splashes through the ford and turns to face her pursuers... on home turf now, she has the river at her beck and call...

Logic has one wondering if she wouldn't be better off just galloping on to Rivendell, but Rivendell is not also known as 'The Hidden Valley', for nothing... Sauron's forces do not know its location, otherwise he may have marshalled his forces and attacked it in strength before now... and if Arwen flees there with the wraiths following, she risks revealing its location... So she must turn at bay and face the threat head on...

The wraiths ride on as fast as they can manage...

... and upon reaching the ford, two horses collapse to the ground, throwing their ethereal riders to the ground... and finally, on from the flank, another rider emerges, arriving far too late to head off Arwen... meanwhile Aragorn and the hobbits continue their foot slogging march, trying to catch up...

The  first of the wraiths to reach the ford, pause at the riverbank, unsure of the waters ahead...

"Give us the Halfling She-Elf!"

"If you want him, come and claim him"

Somewhat cunningly, I stopped the wraiths at the edge of the ford. It was 6" across, I could clear it in a single move, without being stuck in it for a turn to get washed away... a bit of a dirty trick, but no point throwing my wraiths away...

The flank wraith gallops on towards the ford...

 And so, Arwen trots forward and unleashes her own natures wrath, throwing the two wraiths on foot to the ground, and the mounted wraith off its horse, the horse fleeing away..., that will slow them down, allowing Aragorn a chance to catch up! Clever...

...And then she canters away again to safety...

The wraiths get back to their feet and once again wait to cross the ford... but then Arwen unleashes the waters of the Bruinen, knowing shes not going to catch them unawares... so as the heavy waters rush past, the ford is then left as difficult ground, so half pace to cross... further delaying the wraiths...

Aragorn and the hobbits get closer, only to be charged by the wraith coming on from the flank! The wraiths at the ford press on toward their quarry...

Aragorn sidesteps the on charging wraith, and strikes it from its horse, the horse bolting away, at last free of its terrifying master...

Arwen flees the scene as Aragorn and the wraiths, attempting to cross the swollen ford, clash. Two, including the WitchKing, make it across the ford, as the mounted wraith and one other turn to face Aragorn... They battle on in turbulent waters, neither gaining the upper hand...

Two more Wraiths have arrived from the other flank, and gallop on to the ford. Aragorn remains locked in combat with the wraiths at the riverbank, as the hobbits catch up. The WitchKing and his follower, press on, and Arwen who cannot bear to leave Aragorn to his fate, decides to gallop back and use the might of a cavalry charge to deal to the wraiths following her...

The battle at the ford is still inconclusive, but Arwen's rash charge is cunningly dealt with by the wraith and Asfaloth is stuck down, throwing Arwen, who lands gracefully on her feet, but poor Frodo, not feeling the best by any means, lands with the grace of a sack of potatoes... that's P-O-T-A-T-O-E-S
(boil em', mash em', stick em' in a stew!) Ahem sorry, couldn't resist - that's for a much later scenario! ;-)

Crucially, the loss of Asfaloth, robs Arwen of her 12" move per turn and cavalry charge! Not good! By the way, I didn't have an Arwen on foot model (its in the post), so the model of Galadriel in her 'war form' seemed appropriate - she's certainly a bit peeved now!

Aragorn tries to charge the wraiths but rolls snake eyes! Freezing him to the spot momentarily, is his resolve beginning to fail, he's been though so much! Arwen gathers up Frodo, and they flee the scene!

Snake Eyes! Not a good time to fluff your courage check Aragorn!

The mounted wraith see its chance to break free of the melee in the water and gallops off after Arwen, leaving one wraith on foot in the ford holding up Aragorn as the two flanking wraiths close in...

They now catch Merry, who has ran in front of Aragorn, as the wraiths on the other side of the river catch up with Arwen and Frodo...

Arwen and Frodo manage to fight off the wraiths, attacking them, but poor Merry falls to the mounted charge of the two wraiths..., whilst the wraith fighting Sam and Pippin dissipates into the air....

The end game approaches, its now or never for either side! Aragorn and the hobbits seek revenge for poor Merry and charge the two mounted wraiths at the ford....

...As the WitchKing and two more wraiths charge Arwen and crucially Frodo, who finds himself surrounded now and trapped!

The final wraith arrives from the flank, but too late to affect the matter...

Aragorn and the hobbits fight off the mounted wraiths but cannot slay them...

Arwen withstands the mounted charge of the wraith, and it dissipates into the air, but she cannot stop the WitchKing striking down Frodo! With no fate to save him, he succumbs to his wounds once more...

Frodo succumbs!

...and with that, is the fate of Middle-Earth sealed?

But wait, off camera, do I hear hoof beats rapidly approaching from Rivendell, once more, in the nick of time???

-----o0o----- 

Another cracking game, that came down to the wire!

Having to kill all the wraiths to win, is a tough ask, but they only have 3 Will each and each round of fighting reduces their will store until they dissipate away...

Having to strike down Frodo forces the wraiths to fight, they don't have enough will to be lashing off spells either, so its tough for both sides.

Interestingly, Aragorn's free might per turn got him into the fight a little quicker than would have been with earlier versions of the game, as the new Hobbit rules include the heroic action; Heroic Advance, giving foot troops a bonus 3" move per turn. On some turns Aragorn and the hobbits were moving faster than the mounted wraiths!

Chris perhaps got a little rash charging back in with Arwen but saw an opportunity, and he was concerned at eventually being trapped against the edge of the board with no where to run to...

Striking down Asfaloth was a gamble and shrewd move that paid off, it robbed Arwen of her mobility and charge bonus...

...and Glorfindel is going to be seriously pissed off, as he'd only taken out "3rd-party, fire and theft" ! ;-) Oh to be a fly on the wall as Arwen tries to explain this one away... ;-)

So, to keep the story moving along, Elrond has sensed evil approach the borders of his realm and gallops out with his Rivendell knights 'off camera', arriving to the rescue in the nick of time...

So our heroes arrive in Rivendell, battered and bruised but with a chance to heal and recuperate. And the Rivendell knights no doubt scatter the remaining wraiths to the four winds, leaving them to trail back to their dark master, shattered and broken and failed in their mission! Oh dear, more explaining to do!

-----o0o-----

And now the newly painted combatants get to parade for your viewing pleasure!

The Nine Ringwraiths...

Led by The WitchKing of Angmar!

And not forgetting Arwen and Frodo...

...mounted on Asfaloth!

And now on to Rivendell, for rest, recuperation, and a sociable sherbet or two! ;-) I for one, won't want to leave!

'Desert' Isle finished!

The weekend saw me finish work on my Desert Isle... OK, its not exactly 'desert' like, it's got a fair bit of grass cover for starters! But you get the idea I am sure, right? ;-)

Anyhoo, I went round the edge of the cliffs and beaches with some Woodland scenics Realistic Water, to add a 'wet look'. Once dry I then mixed some white paint and Water Effects together and went round again adding in wavelets on the beaches, and water splashes against the rocks.

I also painted the top of one of my games tables sea turquoisey blue (It's a Dulux paint, local shade known as 'Otaki Forks')

So there you go, basic Isle, suitable for many settings and scenarios... but you know I couldn't resist dressing it up a bit, so dug out my jungle vegetation and some rocks and let my pirates have a brief explore!

"Arr, there be treasure here mate!"

"So, where's that darned 'X' ?"  !!!

Hope to see it in action, sometime soon! Though I will need to finish off my little jollyboat, so my pirates can at least get from ship to shore! ;-)

'Realisations' ... and 'Rationalisations'...

Here follows a long ramble, grab a cuppa, and take a seat...

Well that was the summer that was, and coincides here in NZ, with Winter in the Northern hemisphere, for Curt's Analogue Hobbies Winter painting challenge...

I entered, just to be involved, but knew I was kidding myself that I was going to amass any points...

If it hadn't been for the timing of my few meagre entries with the bonus themed rounds I would have scored bugger all!

I started off well, or at least prepared well, and had a whole load prep'd and primed ready for the go, including stuff for Flames of War, Empire of the Dead and other bits and bobs, including The Hobbit dwarfs which were supposed to be completed for last years event!

But the wheels kinda came off early... I had a pretty naff game of FOW early December last year, which had me questioning myself as to whether I was going to bother to play the game anymore at all...

So when the Challenge kicked off, my enthusiasm to paint FOW stuff, was pretty much rock bottom... but I forced myself onwards, simply out of a sake of completeness...

I managed to complete a set of five Plastic Soldier 15mm Panzer IV F2s... for the Vehicle round.

Panzers

A Begliet Tank escort platoon got half done, as did a sFH18 Howitzer battery... they are still annoyingly taking up space on my table... staring me down, taunting me; "finish us!"...

I also managed to get a few bits and bobs done for Empire of the Dead, and entries being timed for the themed bonus rounds.., the Villains:

A vampire in humanoid bat form, the sculpt inspired, I presume, from a scene from the Gary Oldman Dracula movie.

And also...

...the hound of the Baskervilles... who's a nice doggy?

And finally...

Alluring, sensual?

... a conversion! My mate Brett bought me the figure, a Hasslefree pole dancer, for a fun birthday present (better than a bottle of wine!) a year ago or so, but I never got round to doing anything with it. Mostly because I had no idea what to do with it! Then I found the Empire of the Dead game, and the idea of converting her into a naked Vampiric Consort was too much to resist, so I cut the base off the pole and added a blade to make an ancient spear, and painted her as pale as I could manage.

Ahem, yes , well... eye popping no doubt!?

I think she makes for a rather alluring character! Perhaps her nakedness is a little OTT for the Victorian setting, but she is meant to be an Anti-Hero after all, and if the old Hammer Horror films were anything to go by, it seemed there was always just about any excuse to get their kit off! ;-) Which of course is why I watched them, as a teenager ;-)

Nice bum too!  ;-)

Next up... the Non-Combatants;

'Nanny'

...Mrs Hudson, or as I like how Robert Downey Jr.'s Sherlock Holmes character refers to her as; 'Nanny'. 

"Tea Mr Shifter?" - so who remembers the PG Tips Chimps?

But if anyone who has followed my blog recently may have guessed, things took a different tack about half way into the Challenge; the recent Hobbit movies have had my whole family excited to be enjoying Middle-Earth again, and a re-visit to Hobbiton (the now fully developed movie set in Matamata) seemed to crystalise this.

On top this, my young son was motivated to start reading the novel, The Lord of Rings, and in so doing, then wanted to play through the scenarios in order, through the GW LOTR 'Journey books'.

This for me has been almost a complete, yet much looked for, turn around, and has switched my gaming focus, to play games with him. He turned 10 middle of last year, and seems to have hit that 'golden age' where gaming with Dad is cool and his physical and mental faculties now mean, he can reach the gaming table, he can be trusted to handle the models carefully, respectfully without busting them, and is mentally well up on the play (though still learning the tactics of the game, much like me!), including creating his own army lists for other LOTR scenario games he's coming up with...

I have long loved LOTR but had few local opponents and so, have often collected other rule-sets and figures in the hopes of playing games with local adult folks... but in some way I feel I have been chasing my own tail a bit in this respect ...

And thus I feel I have had one of those epiphany-like moments, and jumped up and down in the shower crying Eureka!, whilst being mindful not to slip on the soap...

So having found I have come full circle, in my hobby, I have decided to focus back on my main love; Lord of the Rings, though now called, The Hobbit, SBG. With my son being 10, I figure I have six years ahead of me where we can enjoy gaming together, until either girls become more interesting or exam studies become more important, or both; life gets hectic at 16!

Consequently, I have enjoyed a major clear out of the Lead / Plastic mountain, seeing SYW,  ACW , Naps, Ancient Celts, Saxons, and rule-books and supplements, and other bits and bobs sold off through Trademe (NZ's ebay), and thus winging their way off all round the country.

It has been like a breath of fresh air blowing through my games room... and relieved me of pangs of guilt and stress; wondering if I'd ever be able to paint all the figures I have amassed... More to follow as I get really ruthless, and start looking through all those boxes, shelves and cupboards...

With these newly liquidated funds realised, it has allowed me to source and order up on gaps in my LOTR collection, sourcing models via trademe, ebay and facebook groups, that have gone out of production, or likely to do so shortly... Or direct from GW where the items have become mail order only...

I had always hoped to field vast armies of my own to play Black Powder and Hail Caesar, but, whilst I genuinely like those rule-sets, I think the reality of me ever getting such armies painted seems to get more remote, the older I get, as time passes by, and the Lead mountain continues to grow... I hit 44 earlier in the month, and have already noticed a slight yet gradual decline in my insight, which kinda terrified me as to how many good painting years I have left in me...???

This again put me in mind of a wonderful quote from Gandalf; "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."

So Gandalf, how much time do I have left....?

Is this the 'Wargamers Mid Life Crisis' ??? Maybe I need to get out and ride my Harley more instead of worrying about it all!? ;-)

But, not to give up on the BP and HC rule-sets, I am going  to use my LOTR troops for mass battles using these rules. I set up the Yahoo Group 'Hail Caesar-Fantasy' (originally named 'Hail Sauron'; far more catchy, but changed in case of copyright issues - I now wonder whether "Fair Use" would have allowed me to leave it Hail Sauron?) originally for this purpose, but have then done little with it. About time I changed that...

I have also decided to stick with the 'Pirates' gaming, as I find that tremendous light-hearted fun, and with Empire of the Dead, as I like the sinister setting of the game. I have all the models I need to play either game system, so its just a matter of getting them painted too, and making some more terrain...

In truth I think my gaming is very much motivated by good movies, I obviously love the LOTR / Hobbit stuff, then there's the on going Pirates of the Caribbean saga, and also the Sherlock Holmes movies and other Gothic Horror/VSF/Steampunk stories to inspire some fun gaming...

So that was my "Eureka!" moment, and where my head is currently at...

Now,  back to the painting challenge, and the focus switched to Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit...

Chris and I initially had some fun playing through a couple of the missions in the Fall of the Necromancer supplement, as this was themed very well with the recent The Hobbit, The Desolation of Smaug movie, and I ended up painting up 4 Castellans of Dol Guldur to play some of these missions;

Castellans of Dol Guldur

Castellans of Dol Guldur - I love these figures. I have another 4 I could paint, but think 8 might be too much for a regular SBG game? I had bought this many when I was going to use them in WOTR (GWs War of the Ring Battle game), which had minimum company sizes of 8 figures for infantry... but that game has fallen by the wayside...

I also managed to get some work done on the The Hobbit dwarves and got Balin done for the themed Hero Round;

  Balin - the brains behind the Company?

Throughout this whole time, I have had various terrain interludes which have already been documented in prior blog posts.

Then it was time to crack on with terrain and models I needed to complete to continue our Fellowship of the Ring campaign...

This got the LOTR Casualty figures done;

 Frodo, after being bitten by beastly Shelob!

And Shelob, just for scale! She's truly monstrous!

Battle Report

And then also the set of Paralyzed hobbits from the Fog on the Barrow Downs set...

Again with a pair of ghostly Barrow Wights! Eek! ;-)

Battle Report

I was just about to put the following forward for the "Last Stand" bonus themed round , but cocked up the closing date for entries submissions, so missed my chance... Ah well, no worries, at least I have been painting something for my son and I to enjoy gaming together shortly...

Noro Lim Asfaloth!

So finally this weekend, too late for the challenge, I put the finishing touches to the "Last Stand" entry; Flight to the Ford, from the Fellowship of the Ring:

I loved the Ringwraith flying wedge formation scene, chasing down Arwen from the movie, I found it a moving sequence...particularly as Arwen urges Asfaloth on; 'Noro Lim' (Ride on!)

Confrontation at the Ford of Bruinen.

"Give us the Halfling, She-elf"

"Come and claim him, if you want him!"

I have had the mounted Arwen with Frodo figure for quite some time, but it had languished for some time in the lead mountain as its more a scenario or diorama piece than a gaming piece for the most part. Likewise, the mounted wraiths have been in my collection for a long time; an ebay win, but the motivation to paint up all the mounted wraiths was always fairly low priority - how often would you field 9 in a game?

But playing through the FotR scenarios in order, tied in nicely with the theme of the last bonus round for Curts challenge. So that was motivation enough! So ten figures to paint and a Ford Section to make.

I made the Ford section to match my existing river pieces, rather than the rocky film location...

Then right at the last minute I managed to source the discontinued mounted Witchking model, on rearing horse, via Facebook Wargames buy trade sell group, and it winged its way over to me from Australia...

TheWitchKing was the last piece to finish off...

So I ended up with ten mounted wraiths, but that's cool as it makes it possible to pose the two shots; "The chase", and "The last stand".

So that was my challenge for 2013/14...

And a complete, yet very welcome,  turn around in gaming and painting motivation!

Last night we also had a rather large, and ongoing, Helms Deep re-fight utilising the wall sections I made, and resin gateway set, on long time loan from mate Mike...

Helms Deep

We played all last night till 11pm, and have had another hour this morning, and hope to finish this afternoon...

So tonight, its the Battle report for Flight to the Ford... report to follow...

Thanks for reading!