Some commanders to boost my Easterlings ready for War in the North perhaps. Amdur Lord of Blades leads a Dragon Knight Captain. On foot a war priest in service of the Dark Lord with a modified Captain and a Banner Bearer. I modified the Captain so he looked different to my other by moving his Glaive to the front. The figures arrived badly bent but I was able to straighten everything nicely using boiling water. The Captains weapon broke but I was intending to move it around any way and used a rod to fix the weapon head on.
All painted with contrast paints and then the metal added. Nuln oil wash applied after that and some gold highlight in parts.
I also painted a harbour landing quay. No picture until I find a use for it! One day the Corsairs will raid Gondor and need it to dock perhaps.
In this scenario Aragorn and Frodo need to escape from Lurtz and his scouts. The initial deployment is a little vague but actually quite important. Lurtz and crew start 3 inches in on the far side of the hill with Amon Hen. Aragorn and Frodo are said to be simply deployed touching Amon Hen. Probably the scenario writers had a nice big official model but I could not find anything, even a 3D print.
Given that both Aragorn and Lurtz can heroic march on turn one, when it comes to turn 2 when evil are likely to get priority as they did in our game Lurtz could, if within 6 inches simply charge, trap our heroes and effectively end the scenario early. So Frodo needs to beat least 8 inches (he can march 7 and Lurtz 9 in turn 1) away from Lurtz deployment line (or at 11 inches). This makes sense if we think of a model that starts at least at 5 inches from the edge and is at least 6 inches in length. Lurtz will have deployed to the side, intending to move around the model in pursuit.
So we set it such that when the scenario started Good were deployed at 11 inches and evil at 3 inches.
For the first few turns Good raced towards the exit. With scouts closing in from the side Aragorn held back to defend Frodo. Then Frodo had to put on the ring to escape further. Scouts failed to pass any courage tests to charge and even though he then rolled a one for the lure of the ring rule Frodo used his only 2 might points to continue his escape.
Though they did not arrive on the first turn with a six (turn 4) Gimli and Legolas soon roled a 5 and rushee to the rescue. Legolas fired deadly shots to take out two Scouts that came too close to Frodo. Aragorn fought his way through the captain in just one round and then rushed to safety whilst Gimli and Legolas blocked the way.
Despite Lurtz’s best attempts it was not possible to close the gap and the two heroes got off the map.
Pursued by Goblins the Fellowship flee down the mountain side desperate for refuge. They hear the howls of the wargs come to join the hunt!
The Silverlode is in flood and impassable. They find an old elven bridge, still in good repair that crosses over into a glade. Traders and travellers once gathered here on the edge of the Forest in better times. Now all lies in ruin.
Only the elven bridge is crossable and the Goblins and Wargs must catch the Fellowship before they can reach the safety of Lothlorien. However help unlooked for may yet arrive as Haldir and his elves patrol these borders and hate the evil creatures with a passion.
Good raced the fellowship across the board using heroic marches. Gandalf cast a channeled blinding light to make it very hard for the goblin archers to hit anything. The Balrog took a long while to emerge. Legolas had been hanging back in order to keep up a hail of arrows against the goblin archers.
Legolas fired at the Balrog as it raced towards him, just outside of the range of its fiery lash. His arrows bounced off its armour, one just narrowly failing to wound the Demon.
With Gandalf casting sorcerous blasts from the bridge Boromir and Gimli attacked the goblins who were attempting to block off access for the hobbits. Aragorn shepherded the halflings safely across the bridge through the gap.
Gimli and Boromir forced the goblin captains and their minions back but failed to kill any even with Gandalf helping by knocking some prone.
Legolas used heroic move to keep away from the pursuing Balrog and deftly dodged its fiery lash. However he was soon forced to enter combat to save Pippin which allowed the Balrog to catch him. Legolas though increased his fight to ten with a heroic strike and won the dice off thus driving back the mighty Balrog in single combat before racing off again towards the bridge.
Pippin raced ahead too and made it to the bridge thanks to Boromir and Gimli having dealt with the goblins who had thought to block his way.
All this time Aragorn had concentrated on protecting Gandalf and the halflings which explained why his archery had been so ineffective. Finally he was able to kill one of the archers harassing Gandalf from afar.
With Legolas holding the Balrog up the others rush onto the bridge and Aragorn heroically marches them towards the exit. Good had mainly won the initiative rolls so far.
Gandalf takes the chance of destroying the bridge with Legolas still on it and successfully manages to damage it without completely collapsing it as he had hoped. Next turn Legolas was able to call a heroic move allowing himself to jump off the bridge to safety and Gandalf to attempt to destroy the bridge as the Balrog bore down on him with a plus one for damaging it last turn. However the bridge held and the Balrog inflicted heavy wounds on the wizard in the ensuing melee. Gandalf managed to survive thanks to his fate and ability to re roll failures. That wound he took from a lucky goblin archer earlier bringing him close to disaster!
With all the heroes other than Gandalf now safe it all rested on the next turn. Good won priority once again so Gandalf was able to cast his spell before the Balrog could close and either kill him or drive him off the bridge. He successfully cast and then rolled with just a plus two needing a total of 6! Five ! and so the bridge collapsed taking Gandalf, the Balrog and two hapless goblins into the chasm. Well done good player.
Red armour. Highlighted Blood Red, edged with gold. Nuln Oil gloss wash to armour and weapons.
Veni Vedi Vici transfers to the banners. No suns but Mongolian culture is famous for it’s Gold Eagle Hunters and other birds of prey so I felt this was quite fitting. I can see the Variags coming from the Eastern Steppes riding their chariots into battle.
This one took longer to set up than planned. Creating a flat 4×4 battle field using just DF pieces was harder than expected. This is because it is mainly to be used for dungeon/ cavern corridors or castles. Any way with the edition of lava and pool it was completed. Maybe next time will use DF stuff just for elevated terrain areas and use a mat underneath for the main sections.
Pursued by yet more foes our tired heroes race across the crumbling chasms towards the bridge and safety.
The Fellowship use Heroic Marches to move faster and Immobilize spells on the racing Cave Troll to keep it out of reach. Legolas peppers it with arrows.
Eventualy they crash into the Goblins and their captains. The Goblin archery is not so effective due to Gandalf’s Blinding Light. Having finished off the Troll Legolas keeps taking out the archers on the walkways. Gimli and Strider carve a path but Strider is wounded and falls back allowing Boromir to take his place. Soon the Captains are trapped against a chasm and taken out. The heroes make it all over the gap and safety having killed all 24 warriors and their leaders in short order. Next will be the hall and the bridge of Khazad Dum itself- with the Balrog!
Good chose to set up with the Heroes charging the doorway, Legolas on the tomb (a defendable barrier) and Gandalf steering the hobbits to safety.
At least 8 goblin’s dead in one turn!
Strider pushes ever onwards with a heroic combat and traps the goblin captain againsat the board edge- actually charging through the door. Several goblins attack Legolas but he defends the tomb easily (a defendable barrier).
Strider is then trapped by a cave troll and the second captain and the press of goblins. Each combat the Troll rolls a six but Strider wins the dice off the first two times, reducing it to one wound left.
Meanwhile through use of channelled Blinding Light and Terror Gandalf is able to keep the Hobbits safe. Sadly a Goblin gets through the trapdoor before it can be blocked and Merry is knocked out. The Hobbits are able to maintain this safe area awhile, with Gandalf casting sorcerous blast at any groups of goblins who attempt to approach.
The Troll finally wins a dice off against Strider who has run out of might. He is trapped and gets nastily Rended. Next turn he pulls back allowing Gimli to finish off the Troll after defeating the Captain, supported by Boromir. These two suffer no scratches and deal heavy damage to the Goblins. Unfortunately two cowardly Goblin archers are able to sneak past and fire an arrow in Strider’s back taking out his last wound as he rushes towards the goblin archer on the heights ( the one who spent the whole game killing only his allies as they tried to fight Legolas)!
So with the loss of just Merry and Strider the Good player was victorious and survived until Turn 10. Fortunately Strider was able to recover as did Merry. Since Strider had single handedly held off the Troll for so long and charged heroically into the fray he was able to recover his wounds before the next scenario.
