First and Second LotR games

Last week I played my first LotR escalation game.  250 points of Gondor versus 250 of Dwarves.

My opponent Mike brought 8 dwarven warriors, 8 iron guard, and a dwarven captain.

I brought Faramir in heavy armor, 7 Warriors of Minas Tirith with sword & shield, 7 WoMT with spear and shield, and 7 rangers.  I got stomped.  It's really hard to kill dwarves with bows, and just as hard in melee combat.


The scenario was a Fog on the Barrowdowns rescue scenario.  The hobbits were being held by the dwarves, and I had to rescue them.  Had I brought my knights, which had been my original plan, the game would have gone a lot different!  As it was I didn't have the mobility to get around the dwarves, or the power to punch through them.

On top of all that my dice were their usual unhelpful selves.  Rolling a 1 and 2 for Faramir's fate roll to keep him from dying was pretty typical of the game.  By the time we called it he had chewed through all my WoMT + Faramir.  My rangers had managed to get to 2 of the hobbits (out of 4) and were fleeing for their lives. 

I also forgot to use the camera, so this is the only picture you get.

This week I brought everything I had before, plus 15 knights, an extra ranger, WoMT w/ spear + shield, Damrod, and a horse and lance for Faramir.

I was again playing Mike, but this time he brought his goblins.  All of them. For reference that's about 600 goblins. 

Unfortunately I forgot my camera.  This picture was provided by Will the Red Shirt.

Since we were only playing 500 points, he was limited to 50 models.  The bulk of this was made up of goblins, but since goblins are very lost cost creatures he needed to fill out his army with some high points models.  He brought the Goblin King (Jareth), 2 captains (as played by Sam and Frodo in orc armor), 2 shamans, and 8 goblin prowlers. 

This week's scenario was Escape Moria!  Basically the good side needed to get their force to the opposite side of the board, while the evil side just needed to stop the good.  We both had similar deployments, with archers in the middle flanked on either side with troops.  I split my knights into 2 groups deployed on the outer flanks.

Faramir and his knights on the left flank moved up toward the goblin group that included the king and a shaman.  The initial charge of the knights was pretty powerful, and thankfully I managed to maintain priority through most of the game.  I was more hindered on the other flank due to a lot of terrain, and the knights on that side suffered for it.

While the knights were busy my WoMT marched forward at a steady 6" per turn, while my rangers under Damrod crept forward 3" and maintaining as heavy missile fire as they could. 

The goblin king on the left came out from behind his bodyguard to attack one of the knights.  He lost, was charged by a knight on the next turn, lost again and was knocked down but remained uninjured.  Faramir, sensing a golden opportunity, called a heroic combat and charged the prone king and trampled him into the ground. 

Meanwhile the knights on the righ flank were being pulled to the ground and stomped by swarming goblins.  While the knights were doing their best to kill as many as they could it wasn't enough.  Luckily the infantry was comming to the rescue.  My WoMT were finally getting into range.  Seeing that the left flank was pretty much taken care of, they all headed to the right, plowing into the goblin archers. The rangers were just about out of shooting, and so started running to catch up with the WoMT.  Damrod however held his place for 1 more turn as he spotted a lone unengaged prowler.  His arrow, boosted with a point of might, brought that menace down. 

While half of Faramir's knights mopped up the last remaining goblins he charged across the board in order to assist the 2 remaining knights and the entire infantry contingent.  By this point the goblins were broken.  Gondor had lost a ranger and 5 knights.  At the end 2 more knights would be added to that total, and Faramir would lose his horse, but the battle was won.

They're tracking league points for these games.  I got 1 last week for playing.  This week I got 3!  One for playing, winning, and achieving the scenario victory conditions!