LotR Battle Report : Gondor vs Orcs

Nick had been badgering me for a while for some new Gondor figures as he had none with spears. I finally succumbed last weekend and ran to EBay to grab him a dozen second hand miniatures that included the four spearmen he wanted (EBay is great for picking up cheap, semi-painted figures).

I then rather rashly promised him that I would play him this weekend, and today he held me to my word. We retired to the man-cave, added a couple of new bits of removable scenery that are almost finished painting (a long wooden fence and a pile of barrels were implemented to try out some advanced rules - defending barriers) and let battle commence...

The last skirmish at the Fords of Cray led to the orcs and elves both retreating to lick their wounds after a close run battle. The orcs returned with a fresh force this time under the more experienced leader Snafu. As the fords are at an important crossing point of the river Cray, the Steward of Gondor decided to send a heavily armed force, under the command of sergeant Dave (Nick's name for his leader!) to take it and hold it against future incursions from Mordor.

The orcs were spotted from the top of the aptly names Shooter's Hill by the three Gondorian archers, who shouted down to their colleagues stationed at the bottom of the hill.

Turn 1 - Gondor Priority
The warriors from Minas Tirith advanced upon their unsuspecting foes who crossed the ford as the sun dipped below the horizon.

Turn 2 - Gondor priority
The orcs crossed the river and Snafu deployed his forces to take the small hamlet. Sergeant Dave, meanwhile, ordered his men forward to defend the pre-prepared barrier of barrels to halt the invaders' advance.

Turn 3 - Orc Priority
The orcs continued their advance, splitting their forces to meet the oncoming men. Several advanced directly towards the hated man-things who had taken up refuge behind the pile of barrels, Snafu and a couple of his strongest warrior prepared to outflank their adversaries and his two archers ran towards the nearby hill that overlooked the hamlet to provide covering fire.

It was at this point that the Gondorian archers on the hill took advantage of their strategic position and laid down some covering fire to aid their comrades before they joined battle; unfortunately all of their shafts missed their targets. Hopefully they would have another clear shot at the orc leader again soon.

Turn 4 - Orc Priority
The orc archers make it to the top of the hill whilst the rest of their warband took the fight to the hated man-things. In their haste they shot into the combat at the barrel barrier but luckily their shafts passed way overhead.

The Gondorians had the worst of the fight, and gave ground almost straight away, but the one combat they did win led to the demise of one of the orcs - first blood to Gondor!

Turn 5 - Gondor Priority
The Gondorian archers on the hill saw that their comrades were being sorely pressed so moved around to try to get better shots at any orc stragglers. The orc archers had no such compulsion and just kept firing into the melee. Their shots hit, but the thick armour of the Gondorian warriors turned the points of the arrows.

The melee, however, went slightly better for the Gondorians. They managed to push back the bulk of the orc warriors attempting to cross the barrier but both sides lost a man in the process.

Turn 6 - Orc Priority
Whilst the archers moved off the hill to aid their brothers in arms, they saw that the tide of battle turned against the men again, with the orcs winning all of the combats that had separated off. Sergeant Dave managed to just avoid the slashing blades of the orcs (the Fates smiled on him this day), but one of his men was not so lucky.

Turn 7 - Gondor Priority
The Gondorian archers looked for a way to help their embattled comrades and realised that the orcs sniping from the hill on the other side of the valley would make better targets rather than running the risk of hitting their own men defending the barrier. Their first volley against the orcs resulted in one of the orc archers taking a shaft to his gizzard. He fell to his death from the steep edge of the hill.

The melee continued to swirl around with no-one taking any advantage despite the Gondorians being outnumbered by two to one.

Turn 8 - Orc Priority
The orcs continued to press their advantage in the melee, whilst the Gondorian warriors gradually gave ground. One more of the stout defenders of freedom fell to the ground pierced by an orc blade, but the Gondorian archers again found their mark leading to the last of the orc archers falling to his death from the hill.

Turn 9 - Gondor Priority
Sergeant Dave looked over his shoulder to see that his rapidly diminishing force had now been joined by the three archers from his flank after they had dispatched their opposite numbers. He ordered his men to retreat to the relative safety of the small copse to his rear in the hope of recreating his battle line with three more stout warriors.

The orcs followed, scenting a rapid victory now, but failed to notice the arrival of the three Gondorian archers from within the woods, who killed one of their number and almost had the eye out of Snafu; the Fates worked for those of good or evil disposition.

 Final Turn - Orc Priority
All of the hated Gondorians could now be reached and Snafu ordered his warband to destroy their hated enemy and hold the ford for the Great Eye.

Unfortunately for Snafu, Sergeant Dave's plan worked and the archers in the woods took down the slower axe armed orc.

Feeling that retreat was the best form of valour today, Snafu legged it with one of his warriors whilst he ordered the other two to hold off the hated men to make good his escape.

Summary - Gondor Victory
I decided to run this battle for just ten turns like last time, and again it wound up with a determining event on that turn. The orcs took the casualty that took them over the 50% loss value and therefore they had to take Courage checks. The leader and one orc fled but two made their saves (very well in fact!).

Sergeant Dave saved the day and can now look at digging in and holding the ford against future incursions from Mordor.

Mordor vs Rohan picture by Nick

Apologies for there not being much in the way of an update recently. Real life has got in the way, in a good way. I am back working on a temporary basis and that has taken up a lot of my time recently, so my scenery project has taken a bit of a back seat role. However, I have had lots of chats about future projects with Alex and Nick. These chats resulted in a picture drawn by Nick (aged 6) as to what he wants to do in our next game.

He has drawn a great battle scene where Mordor and Rohan are at war. For some reason he has chosen Normans to be on Rohan's side (probably because he has seen my painted Norman Knights from a year or two back that are displayed on a shelf in my new man cave). Anyway, here is his picture and my rough interpretation, which is undoubtedly wrong as kids' imaginations are far better than adults'...

Mordor has a small stronghold at the top of the picture towards which many warg riders are pouring. To the right of the Norman and Rohan castle in the centre are hordes of orcs backed up by a couple of catapults and a line of Mumaks to their fore.

The Rohan cavalry have charged the Mumaks but many have been swept from their steeds by the spiked tusks of the Mumaks. Meanwhile, in the largest stronghold, a large troll has managed to break in and start terrorising the Norman troops stationed there.

Nick asked me when we were going to play another game on our new board, so I will need to arrange that for the boys very soon. His interest in gaming is the keenest at the moment and he has spurred me out of my temporary apathy to pick up my brushes again. My next task this weekend is to peruse Ebay looking for some Gondor (he means Minas Tirith) warriors with spears.

Battle Report: Elves vs Orcs

Now that the Easter holidays have arrived I have been able to get the boys together for another Battle Companies skirmish in the new den. Alex chose to be Elves, and used his own painted figures, whilst Nick used some of the orcs that I got for him cheaply off Ebay.

After the Easterlings were defeated at the ford a few weeks previously, news spread amongst the forces of evil of the reduced garrison of Rohan troops in the area. A local orc chieftain took it upon himself to investigate in the hope of eating some man-flesh. Unfortunately he was rather shocked upon arrival at the ford, as the humans had moved out to be replaced by a warband of hated Elves.

Turn 1 - Elf Priority
The elves had got wind of the advance of a small party of orcs and raced to the ford to defend the important river crossing. However, with a sneaky move on behalf of the orc leader, a couple of archers had hidden themselves amongst the trees of the small copse by the barn.

This was Nick being a bit naughty. We had set up the board a few hours earlier in anticipation of playing the game later, but Nick had snuck into the games room whilst we weren't looking and moved a couple of his orcs.

The elves and orcs advanced upon the barn, neither aware of the other's presence.

Turn 2 - Elf Priority
The elf commander ordered his two archers to take the hill and lay down suppressing fire if needed whilst the rest of his warband advanced through the copse in the hope of ambushing the advancing orc warparty.

Meanwhile, the orcs had crossed the ford and were headed to their rendezvous with the advance guard archers when they heard the twang of the orc bows. The skill of the orc archers was not up to much and the two shafts alerted the elf wariors to the presence of their hated enemy.

Turn 3 - Elf Priority
The elven warriors advanced towards the orc ambushers with the intent of killing the archers as quickly as possible. The two elven bowmen made it to the top of the hill in time to see the orc archers loose two more ineffective shafts at their leader.

The orc main party advanced around and over the fallen idol, set there to spiritually guard the ford, towards their kin in order to aid them against the elven threat. The two archers shot at the elves again but still failed to find their marks; the trees were obviously protecting them.

Turn 4 - Elf Priority
The elven warriors moved rapidly towards their foe and began to flush the orcs out of cover. The elven sharpshooters on the hill saw their opportunity and were able to bring down one of the orc archers - first blood to the elves.

Swan-feather fletched shafts alerted the orc leader of the counter-attack and he sped up his advance towards his archers, who now retreated from the oncoming elven force. The last remaining archer let loose his arrow but even though it hit, it failed to penetrate the thick elven armour.

Turn 5 - Elf Priority
Sensing a swift victory, the elven warriors rushed into the clearing beyond the glade and formed up to take on the orc threat. The elven archers spotted the orc leader advancing through the woodland but their shafts were to miss him.

The sight of the hated elves spurred the orc leader to advance his wariors into combat with them - they had numbers on their side to overcome the natural fear of their foes. Spurred on by the arrival of his fellows, the lone orc archer tried to pick off an elf at the edge of the encroaching combat - although the dart flew true, the thick elven armour saved the warrior.

Turn 6 - Elf Priority
Now that the elven archers had a bearing on their enemy, they loosed more shafts into the small copse. Their aim was true, but the orc armour turned their points.

A fearsome melee erupted by the river, with each side trading blows, but the superior numbers of the orcs began to tell. One of the heavily armoured elven spearmen was cut-off from his brethren and surrounded by four orcs; he was cut down in his tracks.

Turn 7 - Elf priority
The two warband leaders faced off in the ensuing fearsome melee but neither managed to land a telling blow. Their troops fared better as an elf and an orc fell to the others' blades.

Turn 8 - Elf Priority
Elven superiorty in hand-to-hand combat began to tell, as another orc warrior was cut down in the raging fight. The orc archer, after seeing one of his nearby comrades being chopped down, decided to shoot into the melee to incapacitate one of the elf warriors and thus save his own stinking hide. Fortunately for his fellow warrior orc armour can be quite effective at stopping shafts.

Turn 9 - Elf Priority
Sensing victory, the elven commander hurled himself back into the combat and was able to land a killing blow upon the orc leader. Luckily for the orc commander the Fates smiled upon him this day and the blow that would ordinarily have felled an ox glanced from his armour causing nothing more than a few bruises.

Turn 10 - Orc Priority
The wild toing and froing of the melee meant that blades flashed in upon the two remaining elf warriors. The orc leader managed to land a killing blow upon the elf leader, but the Fates were also on his side today as the blow glanced harmlessly from his shield. The two elven archers on the hill watched in dismay as their leader rocked upon his heels under the force of the last blow, but their groans turned to cheers as their leader's spear gutted the orc leader whilst he gloated over his stumbling adversary.

As the point of the spear exited from the orc leader's back, the rest of the orc warband turned tail and fled the scene.

Summary - A Draw

The elves lost two warriors to the orcs' leader and three warriors. Neither side was broken, so a result could not be called.

This was initially going to be a battle to the bitter end. However, as the orcs were beginning to fall quite rapidly to the elves towards the end and Alex was beginning to get a little frustrated as I was helping Nick a little, I decided to cut it short at turn 10 (when we were at Turn 7). This turned out to be quite fortuitous as the results of the melee in that particular round gave a natural break-point to the game - the death of the orc leader.

Even though the elves probably won the moral victory (killed the orc leader and killed more points worth of enemy), the next turn would most likely have seen the elves swamped again and Nick's rolls could have been better - he had had atrocious runs of low numbers (especially with Priority - only winning one roll in nine) but the combats were due to end with the elves surrounded and therefore classed as Trapped. I decided to call this game a draw due to the tears on one side and the spectre of teenage grumpiness on the other.

After the game had been cleared away, both boys cheered up a little and said they wanted to play again soon, but Nick wants to be elves next time.

A Sad Day - Terry Pratchett dies - aged 66

After his bitter fight with Alzheimer's (a terrible disease that has affected my family) the genius that was Terry Pratchett died today.

Long may he live on in our memory ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31858156

Plastic Scenery: Basecoated

This post is a couple of days later than anticipated, but the bulk of the basecoating has been done on the plastic scenery I have been working on. I also managed to find a few more items (Lord of the Rings ruins, Renedra tents) lurking in an old cardboard box to add to the pile.

The wooden buildings and fencing etc. have all had a quick spray of Games Workshop's Rhinox Brown. It is a nice dark brown that I will be using as a basecoat for many of my minis (especially the orcs) as it will do the best part of some of the painting for me - all I will need to do is add a few highlights and Bob's your aunty's husband.

Here is a quick view of the basecoated and newly undercoated scenic items in my collection so far...

The second picture shows the subtle difference between the black undercoat and the brown base coat. From the top picture you can also see the tents and barrels from my small selection of Renedra generic scenic items, as well as just about make out the LotR ruins.

I will be giving the tents and latest barrels a brown base coat to bring them up to speed with the rest of the collection, but the stone tower and LotR ruins pieces will need a grey base coat. I was thinking that I may make up some small piles of barrels glued together to give larger scenery items for figures to hide behind, as well as the originals being singly deployed for more scatter. I am also thinking of plonking some green stuff into the tops of a few to represent open barrels of produce - apples etc.