Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Gondor Campaign: Turn 5


The Forces of Good won priority for Turn 5 of the Gondor Campaign.  With Osgiliath lost, Gondor had to dig in and prepare for the eventual attack on Minas Tirith.  But Denethor first needed to send word to The Fiefdoms of his situation.  He decided to send his two formations of Knights of Minas Tirith to link up with Prince Imrahil and his forces of Dol Amroth in Lossarnach.  This way, all of Gondor's heavy cavalry would be in one force to counterattack if need be.  But the Forces of Evil saw this as an opportunity.  When it came their turn to move, the forces of Barad Dur and Minas Morgul decided to delay their assault on Minas Tirith and led a combined attack on Lossarnach trapping Prince Imrahil.  Elsewhere, two formations on Rohan Outriders went forth to scout out the crossings of the Anduin at Cair Andros and came across the Dwimmerlaik and the remnants of the orc archers who had retreated from Minas Tirith.  They were joined by a formation of orc trackers and warg riders armed with bows in what would be a skirmish amongst the ruined fortifications.

At Cair Andros, the Rohan Outriders dismounted and obsconded several rafts from fearful bargemen and crossed the River Anduin.  The orcs positioned themselves behind several ruins and did their best to pick off the Outriders who were out in the open.  But the Dwimmeralik had no fear of the Outriders superior shooting attacks and charged into the dismounted riders.  Although they had better chances to hit, the ruins being in the way of the orcs meant they were much harder to hit for the Outriders.  The Outriders eventually went down to their break point, forcing them to jump back into their rafts and retreat to the other side of the river and over into Druadan Forest.

Dismounted Rohan Outriders cross into Cair Andros to scout out the ruined fortifications.
At Lossarnach, Prince Imrahil's force saw Sauron's armies crossing the River Erui.  His only hope would be to send the Knights of Minas Tirth to the crossings as a screening force and hold out long enough for his best forces, The Swan Knights of Dol Amroth and his Men-at-Arms to retreat to Pelegir.  But Imrahil backed himself into a corner.  When the knights went forth to the crossings, The Undying and The Shadow Lord swept upon them on their fell beasts and due to their Spirit Grasp, the knight's Courage 3 could not hold against a Winged Nazgul's Strength 6 since they only needed 3s to hit.  The Winged Nazgul also cast Sunder Spirit against the knights further reducing their Courage.

Knights Minas Tirith try and screen a tactical retreat.
With the Crossing of the Erui clear, Khamul led his Easterling force forward.  The Warriors of Pelegir tried to halt his advance, but were no match for Khamul's spells.  The Dark Marshal and the Undying led a flanking force, destroying the Pelegir archers that took refuge in a small village.

The Dark Marshal and The Undying lead a flanking attack on The Fiefdoms force.
The Witch King saw Imrahil trapped and flew across the field in order to slay the Fiefdom Prince.  But Imrahil was not afraid and called an Epic Challenge on The Winged Nazgul.  Not being able to do anything but charge Imrahil and his Swan Knights of Dol Amroth, The Witch King charged forward to meet the challenge.  Imrahil then called an Epic Strike raising his Fight value to 10 and won the Heroic Duel by a margin of three.  The first two rolls caused two automatic hits which meant as a Winged Nazgul, a roll on the Hard to Kill table was needed.  A roll of a four on the Hard to Kill table meant that the Witch King suffered two wound counters.  The next roll was a six which meant 2D3 automatic hits.  Four more hits were scored which meant two more rolls on the Hard to Kill table.  The first roll was a three which became a five because of the two wound counters giving The Witch King two more wound counters.  The final roll was a one which always results in no effect. Prince Imrahil had almost obtained a slain result banishing The Witch King and removing him from the campaign.  But The Winged Nazgul was driven back D3" for each wound counter and was unable to fight in the ensuing Fight phase.

But Imrahil had been flanked by The Dark Marshal.  What was worse, Khamul the Easterling called a Heroic fight and having defeated the Dol Amroth Men-at-Arms, was able to charge his Easterlings and fight again and also charged into the flank of the Swan Knights.  With each company of the Swan Knights formation fighting in the flank at -3 dice, the Swan Knights lost three companies and only causing a single casualty in the Easterling Cohort.

In the end, the Swan Knights were reduced to three companies, with
the Witch King barely escaping Prince Imrahil's Epic Challenge.
Having reached their break point, The Fiefdom forces scattered with the remaining three companies of Swan Knights fleeing to Pelegir and Prince Imrahil taking the remaining Men-at-Arms company to Minas Tirith to inform Denethor of the loss.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Gondor Campiagn: Turns 3 & 4


Turn 3

Having being defeated in South Ithilien, Faramir decided to hold the crossings of the River Anduin at Osgiliath in order to buy some more time and allow reinforcements to arrive at Minas Tirith.  With Evil having priority this turn, the army of Minas Morgul led by Gothmog could try and take Osgiliath now or wait to link up with the army of Barad Dur the following turn.  Evil decided to wait and the Army of Barad Dur moved into North Ithilien while the Witch King led another host our of Minas Morgul into South Ithilien.  Meanwhile, the Southrons heard their master's call and started to gather an army in Far Harad led by The Betrayer.  The Knight of Umbar also called upon the Corsairs to man their ships and started sailing for the Gondor coast.  All the forces of Good could do was wait and hope for reinforcements.

Turn 4

Evil once again won priority and sent a raiding party of two formations of orc archers with two companies each from Druadan Forest to Minas Tirith top scout out the fortifications.  Meanwhile, the combined armies of Barad Dur and Minas Morgul descended upon Osgiliath.  In the south, the Southrons mustered in Near Harad with Suladan The Serpent Lord and were joined by the Corsairs of Umbar in West Harondor. 

Forlong the Fat raised two companies of Axemen of Lossarnach and now joined with a formation of warriors of Pelagir and another of archers, decided to go Osgiliath and hope to prevent the Evil force from crossing.  But would he be too late?



Faramir was defending and knew the best he could do was hold out as long as he could before being overrun.  He sent his Archers of Minas Tirith to cover one crossing from a stone building and kept the Rangers of Ithilien waiting on ambush in another.  But with no one protecting the bridge, the forces of Evil were able to use At the Double moves to quickly move to the other side.  The Rangers of Ithilien were pounding by boulders being hurled by Mordor War catapults.  A few shots hit one of the Winged Nazgul forcing them to retreat to the other side of the river.  But the Rangers were overrun by a formation of Mordor Orcs.  The Archers of Minas Tirith also were able to pick off some of the enemy, but these were Morranon Orcs of a tougher breed.  The Morranon Orcs quickly swarming the building they were in killing wevery last one.



But where was Forlong?  Faramir had to do something and led a formation of Warriors of Minas Tirith against a Troll charge.  The warriors took out of few orcs and one of the trolls, but numbers were too much for them.

Forlong and his small force finally arrived but it was too late.  he sent a formation of archer up into a towers to try and get a few lucky shots, but none landed.  Finally Forlong led his Axemen in a charge against an orc formation but was soon flanked by a troll charge.  Forlong fell alone with all of his axemen.  All was lost, Faramir was able to flee Osgiliath with a formation of archers and a few warriors from Pelargir.

Meanwhile, Denethor, Steward of Gondor, was not going to let a few pesky orcs seal him off.  He sent all of his available archers outside of the fortresss to skirmish with the orcs.  The orcs were outmatched in a shootout against the superior Blackroot Vale archers and fled back across the Anduin to Cair Andros.  A small victory for Gondor in what was soon to become a much larger war.