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Friday, December 19, 2014

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!



17 comments:

  1. And a Merry Christmas to you and yours. cheers

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  2. Season's Greetings to you too, Scott. My wife saw the commercials for the movie and wants to see it too - she's no gamer, and the only thing she knows about the LotR is watching the last movie on TV, and apparently liked it enough to want to see the new one :)!

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  3. Merry Chrsitmas and a happy new year, Scott !

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  4. Merry christmas to you too Scott! Haven't yet managed to see the movie, but can't wait to check it out. The second one was maybe bit of a letdown but judging from what I've heard this one should be great!

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  5. And a very Happy Christmas to you too Scott. Looking forward to the film mysql and great to see the Goblin Town out again.

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  6. A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours ,Tony

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  7. I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Scott!

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  8. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
    Panagiotis

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  9. Goblin town looks great! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your family!

    Christopher

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  10. Merry Christmas Scott to you and your family. Great looking games both at the club and at home. Will the Dwarfs escape or will the story end there?

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  11. Merry Christmas to you and the family Scott.
    Best wishes for a safe, prosperous and hobby filled 2015!

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  12. I've always fancied that scenario, it looks hard!
    I'm still figuring out my Uruks however I'm not sure I would have played it differently. Either way it was fun nonetheless and that's the point :-)
    I hope your clan havea blast over the holidays and we'll arrange some thing after the new year

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    1. The only thing I think I should have done different, is , instead of calling Heroic Fight with Eomer against Uguk, I should have called Heroic Strike, thus boosting my fight skill, meaning I'd have won on the tied roll of the 6 we got! He would probably then have fallen under the 10 hits he would have taken, and that would have lost you Ugluk's 'Standfast' for that pike block...
      Damn good game though I am enjoying using the mounted Rohan force...

      Hope to catch up with you in the New Year :)

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    2. Oh we finished the Goblin Town game the other night... The company lost Gloin (thrown off the edge by the Goblin King) and Kili - slain by multiple hits trying to keep the goblins at bay... They then eventually killed the Goblin King, the Scribe and Grinnah and a horde of goblins... but couldn't exit the board in the given allotted turn limit, thus victory to the Goblins! We are going to try it again with a different Layout...

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  13. Merry Christmas Scott! I'm looking forward to returning to Middle-Earth vi the cinema next week

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  14. I hope that your adventures in the Middle-Earth are not finished !
    A merry Christmas to you and your family !

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  15. Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas to you and your family!

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