Orcs vs. Gondor II

Somewhere else in Gondor : Around Lunchtime

Another game was played today. We are using the standard One Ring ruleset with forces approximately the size of a Battle Company. Again, my son set up the table how he wanted it and we played the same forces as those on the table on Thursday.

A reminder, the forces were as follows (but captains' names changed for this scenario)...

Orcs:

Grashnik - orc captain (Battle Companies stats)

3x orc archers

3x orcs with hand weapon and shield

3x orcs with spear

Gondor:

Foromir - Gondor captain (Battle Companies stats)

2x archers

3x warriors with hand weapon and shield

2x warriors with spear and shield

Grashnik had heard of the demise of the other part of the warband (see what happened in the last bat rep). However, he knew he was smarter than Griknash, and he was also a bit more cautious. There was another abandoned farmstead in the next valley over - he would destroy the second Gondorian patrol that had been spotted a few days before, and then meet up with the remaining orcs from the other half of the warband to destroy the remaining hated man things. He set up his warriors in a more compact formation and awaited the arrival of the second mannish patrol.

The two warbands spotted each other at either end of the road that passed through the farmstead. Foromir immediately ordered his men into an attack formation and advanced rapidly upon the orcs. The orcs, under their more cautious leader, peeled off to either side in order to gain advantageous spots from which to wear down the men with their arrows.

This tactic worked, as after a couple of volleys, Foromir, who was rapidly advancing towards the reluctant orc warriors, took an arrow to the throat and fell. The Gondorian men-at-arms saw their leader fall, but resolutely advanced on their foes. They managed to make contact with a small knot of orcs and took down one of their number in revenge.

However, the orcs were buoyed significantly by the death of the enemy leader that they charged into close combat causing another stout Gondorian to fall. Encouraged by this easy defeat of so many enemies in quick succession, the orcs threw caution to the wind and attacked the dwindling Gondorians with greater ferocity. However, they didn't factor in that men were made of sterner stuff than orcs and they over-reached and were pushed back leaving Grashnik surrounded and alone. He was quickly cut down by the Gondorian troops, but as they had in turn now left their flank unsecured another brave human warrior fell. 

 

At long last, the Gondorain archers began to find their mark, and another orc fell to the dust. The orcs began to panic and started to shoot into combats to try anything to take down the hated men. An orc warrior was felled by a black shaft from his own comrade and this caused the rest of the warband to take notice of just how many of their fellows had fallen.

 

The remaining orcs took one last swing at their enemies and turned tail, but not before another was felled as he retreated.

The remaining Gondor men-at-arms gathered together once the last orc had disappeared from sight and drew breath. They discussed what to do with the bodies of their comrades and the orcs. They decided to strip the orc bodies of valuables and put their weapons into the freshly dug graves of each of their brothers. The orc corpses they left for the wolves.

This battle went the full ten rounds we had set aside for this game. Again, the sides were evenly matched but tactics played an important role again. The orcs played a more conservative game and this helped them. The Gondorians were more reckless and their early losses showed this. This battle saw more combats where troops ganged up on their enemies. This seems to be a decent tactic to reduce enemy warbands steadily one soldier at a time.

Again, I decided not to take too many pictures of the battle as it would have slowed everything down, but jotted down what happened in each round so that I could knock up this missive.

 

For the next battle we may go for other factions or maybe swap sides - it depends on what my son wnats to do. I was thinking of putting the survivors from both Gondorian patrols together, and have them hunt down the remaining orcs plus a few reinforcements.

Orcs:

Balgor - orc captain (Battle Companies stats)

5x orc archers

2x orcs with hand weapon and shield

2x orcs with spear

Needs some reinforcements (maybe half a patrol, but a few extra weapon types? - 1 archer, 2 heavy weapon, 2 spear). We will check available figures for this warband and adjust the order of battle accordingly.

Gondor:

Baramir - Gondor captain (Battle Companies stats)

3x archers

4x warriors with hand weapon and shield

3x warriors with spear and shield

 

After this battle, I may set these two warbands up as proper Battle Companies and proceed to tell their ongoing stories whilst introducing the additional rules.