Rohan Campaign Turn 1

 Thanks to one of our players for writing this battle report!

 

The first turn of this Campaign was the start of the invasion of Rohan by the forces of Saruman. With King Théoden completely seduced by Wormtongue, his army scattered throughout the lands, and a Fellowship that has yet to come to their aid; The Rohirrim are left with only a feeble group of warriors led by Theoden's son, Theodred, to defend the crossing of Isengard at the Ford's of Isen.

Against them, march Uruk-Hai Scouts, Dunlendings, Warg Riders, and legions of Orcs who are attempting to take the one area that provides passage for the massing fighting Uruk-Hai, whom will ensure the end of Rohan.

 

 

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This battle is fought with the Isengard Army attacking by three crossings on the river. Each one is not much more than mounds of dirt and sand that has build up over a river. While this can support a group of men, marching a legion of Orcs across can prove dangerous. Therefore for this match, The bridges all count as difficult terrain, and any formation that loses while on it, takes an extra D6 wounds. 

 

As the Orcs marched toward the crossing, the Rohirrim desperately fired all bows and throwing spears into the enemy. The countless numbers of Orcs seemed to be barely affected as they continued to march upon the Rohirrim. Theodred however, was not worried. He had already foreseen this overwhelming advance and called upon his Rohan Rider brothers to come to his aid. He knew they would come soon. He just needed to hold on for a little longer. He needed to hold these orcs at the crossing, the only place where the orc numbers counted for nothing. 

 

 As arrows were exchanged on both sides of the field, the Orcs clashed with the Rohirrim on the left and right crossings of the Ford. Theodred's company was first met with Orcs armed with crude weaponry and shields. They were easily pushed back, and more throwing spears were lodged into their necks. Seeing this, the Orc captain desperately challenged Theodred to a duel. Theodred ignored him. This foe was beneath him. He sent his captain to deal with him instead. With Reinforcements on the way, victory seemed all but assured for Rohan. 

 

As ranks of Orc continued to die however, the Dunlendings pushed forward. They were a rowdy group, but fearsome to behold. Wielding mighty two handed axes and a furious anger, they slammed into Theodred's company with an unstoppable charge! 

 

It was here that the unexpected happened! The Dunlendings ripped and tore through the Rohan forces with ease. As two full companies' vanished under the weight of great axes, the rohirrim started to panic. They broke into a disordered rabble, desperately trying to escape this fearsome foe. Seeing a hopeless situation at hand, Theodred called a full retreat for his company, and ordered his Rohan riders to crush this mighty enemy.

 

Even the opposite flank was experiencing trouble. Uruk Hai Scouts had met with the Rohan battlelines and drove them back. All seemed to be lost for the Rohirrim. However, as they fell back the sound of Horns filled the air and a new force could be seen on the horizon! The Rohirrim forces led by Elfhelm had arrived!

 

 

 As the Rohan fled, and new Cavalry entered the field, the forces of Isengard recognized this as their one last chance to push into the Fords of Isen and crush the Rohirrim. The remaining orcs flooded across the Ford. Warg Riders thundered through the dirt and rammed through the fleeting left flank. As the Sun fell from the sky and sat on the horizon toward the end of this day, Theodred knew the Orcs would soon have to retreat and regroup from fighting all day. Also, the night would only be his advantage since his people knew these lands. He just needed to hold on for a little while longer!

 

 As they day fell more to night, the Orcs managed to push back the fleeting left side to a small forest where they courageously held back the advancing warg riders.Elfhelm's Riders charged into the overwhelming numbers of Orcs to relieve Theodred's retreat. Although they managed to crush the Dunlending warbands, the Orc numbers proved to be too much even for the Rohirrim. Losing a devastating seven companies of Rohan Riders total, this victory would only be bittersweet at best. 

 

 

At the end of Turn 8, the Isengard force recognized the disadvantage of fighting so long into the day and sounded a full retreat from the field. The battle was over, but they knew Theodred was weakened, and his army was fractured. This minor victory for Rohan would only be short-lived, as the Fighting Uruk Hai were almost complete. On Turn three of this Campaign, they would be ready, and there would be nothing this pathetic group of Rohan Survivors could do. With Theoden's mind still broken, and the Fellowship having yet to arrive, only time will tell if Rohan will be able to survive this war. 

 

War of the RIng Map Campaign

So my group is finally off to doing a War of the Ring campaign. After months of recruiting interested players, teaching the rules system, and painting the models, I have a beta version of a campaign system for War of the Ring that captures the spirit of the books with the imagery of Peter Jackson's films and a few Games Workshop neat ideas, and several notable exclusions.

A map campaign for miniature wargames is something that is quite popular among historical wargamers.  As a historical wargamer (and closet fantasy/sci-fi gamer), I've always liked the idea of trying to change history; faced with the same challenges of Napoleon, Frederick the Great, and George Washington thinking I could do better.  One of the first I played was a Napoleon's Battles campaign where each nation had a team of players fighting the 100 Days Campaign of 1815.  I was Joachim Murat of the Kingdom of Naples and was crushed by an invading Austrian army.  We used one of the SPI strategic games with a map of Europe that had a hex grid called La Grande Armee.  Another was Warfare in the Age of Reason, an 18th Century Horse and Musket Game, where I was Russia fighting in a fictional continental war loosely based on the War of Austrian Succession.  The miniature rules had a companion campaign system complete with map that instead of a hex grid, used an area system where each province in the country was an area.  What I enjoyed most about the map campaign was that strategic decisions that you made on the map impacted what happened on the battlefield.  If you were not able to mass your forces into position before your opponent massed upon you, you were going to have a bad day.  It made our game sessions more meaningful instead of the usual you bring everything you have and I'll bring everything I have and lets play a game and kill each other. In a campaign, you need to decide if you want to conserve your force until reinforcements arrive or hit the enemy when he is weak.

So when War of the Ring came out, I was hoping for a campaign system. There is a chart linking the different scenarios, but it was missing the economy of force element, which to me is what makes a campaign interesting. Most player developed campaigns I have seen for other GW game systems were points based which is flawed, because players would always spend points on elite troops and never on your rank and file which is the bulk of your army.  So I took it upon myself to develop my own system, using elements from historical wargame campaign systems. I decided to do a smaller campaign as a beta test and chose Saruman's invasion of Rohan, since I had plenty of models for both sides from putting on a WOTR Helm's Deep game at a convention.

First for a map campaign, I needed a map.  I contemplated drawing a map with mapping software and adding an overlay for movement, but this required time and a cartography skill which I do not have.  I took a look at the old 1970s SPI War of the Ring game which used a hex grid system that many of us grew up with.  The problem with this map is that the Isengard and Rohan area were too small to move units about in a confined area.  I then got the Ares War of the Ring game which used an area movement system, much like the Age of Reason campaign system.  I decided to go with this map, since thinking ahead, I could also use it for future campaigns culminating in a grand campaign of the entire War of Ring with all the factions.

My next problem was movement.  I needed a way of representing War of the Ring formations on the map so that the opposing forces would meet in an area and force battle.  Ideally I could use a computer application that could scan the Ares game map and then have the forces move on the computer calculating what each formation consisted of.  I still would like to do this eventually, but for the beta I decided to do things the stubby pencil old fashion way on pen and paper (or at least Microsoft Word).

Now for movement, I chose the area map of Middle Earth and figured the maximum movement has to be limited to one area.  We play our games once a month, which was fitting, because I wanted each campaign turn to be one month long in game terms.  Movement on the campaign map would be sequential based on priority.  the Evil side would have priority for turn 1 and then even month when we met for a battle we would roll off for priority just like in WOTR.  Whoever had priority, had the option to pass it to the other side.  The actual movement of formations on the map was done by the payers on each side via email.  The side with priority has one week to email their moves to the other side, and then they have one week to announce their counter moves.  If one side moved into an area with enemy formations, those forces would be pinned and couldn't move a battle would be fought.  The non-priority player could always move forces from an adjacent area to reinforce, but when we played the battle, they would arrive as reinforcements on the turn determined by a D6.  If no forces met in an area, we would move to the next campaign turn and just alternate priority until we had to forces in the same area to fight a battle.

Epic Heroes would have to work differently in strategic movement since they are not tied to any one formation. Standard heroes and Legendary Heroes would of course be with their formations.  Epic Heroes, like in a battle, have more freedom of movement. For the campaign, Epic Heroes can move one area on the map just like formations.  But if an enemy formation moves into an area with an Epic Hero and that Hero has not move, they can perform an “Evade Move” to an adjacent friendly or unoccupied area.  This allows Epic Heroes to escape if they are alone in an area and an entire enemy army moves in.  They can run away to fight another day.  But if there is a friendly formation is in the area, the Epic Hero can still Evade Move, but loses one point of Courage for the rest of the campaign for abandoning their friends.

So now the force composition.  When I did the Napoleonic campaign, the strategic game came with counters that had historical units in brigade size formations.  You moved the counters on the hex grid and when two opposing forces were in adjacent hexes, you fought a battle on the tabletop.  Now I already decided that using points was cheesy, so I decided to come up with army lists for Rohan and Isengard, based on Tolkien's writing and the plethora of research done by Tolkien scholars on the respective army compositions.  For example, we all know that Isengard had 10,000 troops at Helm's Deep that consisted of Orcs, Uruks, Dunlendings, wolves, etc.  Based on some research, the garrison at the Hornburg was 1,000 strong and that approximately 1,000 troops arrived to reinforce the garrsion before the siege.  It is also approximated that Erkenbrand had 1,000 troops with him after the Second Battle of the Fords of Isen that game with Gandalf to the relief of the Hornburg.  Using this I looked at the army lists in the rulebook and also the models I had and my group had. I decided to "bathtub" the army lists to make it playable on a game table and realistically affordable in terms of money and time spent on collecting and painting the needed models.  What I came up with was a 1:40 model to troop ratio so Isengard's army at Helm's Deep would be 250 models and the Rohan garrison would be 50 models with an additional twelve models riding with Erkebrand to the relief (For games, I count cavalry as two models; horse and rider).  And yes, I went with both Bakshi's and Jackson's film version having cavalry coming to the rescue, unlike the book in which it was all infantry.

Tolkein wrote extensively on the first and second battles of the Fords of Isen which can be found in the Unfinished Tales.  This is excellent source material because unlike The Silmarillian, the text is not edited by Christopher Tolkein, but rather footnoted.  In the text, we learn Theodred led a company of horse accompanied by a company of archers to investigate reports of Saruman massing an army at Isengard leaving Grimbold to guard the west bank of the Isen and herders (Oathsworn Militia?) to guard the east bank.  Scholars approximate that a Rohan eored would have 120 riders (6 x horse and rider models) and a company would be 2 x eoreds (See the Annals of Arda for a breakdown of the Rohan military organization).  This means that each formation lead by a Marshal of the Riddermark would have twelve models.

Another factor when looking at a campaign is standardizing formation sizes.  The standard boxes that were released with War of the Ring were 24 infantry and six cavalry models.  But with the Hope is Lost rule, which eliminates the last company in a formation when it is depleted to half strength, you could not have formations of just one company.  But real world economics come into play, particularly since the infantry boxes are now 10-12 figures and the time needed to invest to assemble and paint an army.  A standard convention with many WOTR players is that common formations of infantry needed to be at least four companies in order to absorb hits from cavalry, monsters, and magic.  This worked economically since most common infantry units were available in plastic.  For legendary and rare formations, which are more elite troops, you could realistically afford, at least financially, to field two infantry companies.  Cavalry worked out better since there are six plastic models in a box and depending on their wargear, you could field three to six companies.  The more rare or elite cavalry are metal so you could field two to three companies.

So using these factors, I decided that your standard infantry formation (Oathsworn Militia, Orcs, Uruks, etc) would be four companies and the more elite or rare metal formations (Royal Guard) would be two companies.  For cavalry, the standard formation would be three companies for Evil and three-six for Good, since larger Good cavalry balances out Evil’s general superiority in magic and monsters in the game.  There would of course be exceptions based on limits of how many companies in can be in rare formations such as one company formations of Uruk-Hai Beserkers, but now I had a standard default.

So using all of this I decided that I needed to have a base number of points for each side.  I figured that at the three major battles, First and Second Fords of Isen and Helm's Deep, Rohan  had a total of 8,000 and Isengard had a total of 12,000 (including Dunland allies).  I added up all of the Good forces I thought Rohan had available whern Isengard invaded using the 1:40 ratio and then added a Fangorn force with Treebeard, Quickbeam, Beechbone, and five ents.
 

The final factor is once forces move into an area, how do you fight a battle or?  For two large forces you fight a standard War of the Ring game, eight turns on with pre-determined terrain for each area.  If there were only two formations on a side, instead of a War of the Ring game, a Strategy Battle Game would be played.   This way you would avoid have WOTR games of just one formation per side, which would be quite boring, but an SBG game of 16-32 figures per side, which would be quite interesting.  You have to use the “One Book” hardbound rules form 2009 as you wouldn’t be able to have warbands of twelve models and one leader.

In essence this is the premise for the beta version of this campaign; strategic movement on a map, set army lists, and the ability for a skirmish, field battle or siege. 

 

 

Warhammer's Evil Influence on War of the Ring and Middle Earth

I have never been a Games Workshop gamer.  My start in the hobby was playing Napoleonics and then branching out to the Seven Years War and dabbled in WWII.  I gamed with a group that met every Saturday night at a community room at a local police station that started about 7PM and usually ended around 2AM.  Our only exposure to any type of fantasy gaming was Gary Gygax's Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (1st Edition) which we played in our pre-teens and grew out of, preferring the more serious study of historical gaming.  The idea behind the games that I played such as Napoleon's Battles and Koenig's Krieg (Seven Years War or SYW) was to play a simulation of 18th and 19th century warfare.  Uniforms and tactics were extensively researched and Games Workshop games were sneered upon, as they were thought of as cartoonish and not real wargames.

So in 2001, I was in the local mall and noticed a painted Fellowship in the store window and asked the sales clerk if he was willing to sell the painted minis as I thought they would look nice in a glass case in my war room.  The clerk would not sell the painted figures, but twisted my arm into buying the Fellowship of the Ring box starter set, along with the Fellowship box and the starter paint set.  I'm not sure of I regret or rejoice in this decision.

I painted my Fellowship, Goblins, Elves and Warriors of Men as they were then called and even bought some of the metal orcs.  I solo played the first few scenarios of the first rulebook, and was reluctantly impressed.  It was a good skirmish game, something I never really cared for in my wargaming experience.  When I went to the local historical game days, I found that the same people who were playing Napoleonics and SYW were also playing the Strategy Battle Game (SBG).  But when I went to the local Games Workshop store, nobody was interested in playing SBG as the teen and twenty somethings were more interested in Warhammer Fantasy and 40K.  The people who I played SBG with were my age or older who remember the Glory Years of high fantasy of the 1970s and 80s when AD&D was king and films like Conan the Barbarian with Arnold Schwarzenegger graced the screen.

So when GW's War of the Ring (WOTR) came out, it was the natural progression for me to evolve into mass battles in Middle Earth.  But, there were a few things about the system that for me, were not Tolkien.  Alessio Cavatore and Rick Priestly, the original creators of SBG, were no longer with GW and did not design WOTR.  Alessio (a big AD&D player) even said in an interview that SBG would always be a skirmish system and he had no desire of developing a mass battles game.  The designers of WOTR, Matt Ward and Jeremy Vetock, were from the Warhammer department at GW and not part of the original SBG design team.  What they did was incorporate the SBG stat lines to some new ideas they were working on for Warhammer Fantasy.  WOTR was in essence a Beta for Warhammer Fantasy 8th Edition.

Now I do enjoy WOTR or else I wouldn't be playing, but I have found that most of all the things I find wrong with the system come from Warhammer Fantasy.

Here are some things that in my personal opinion should not be in WOTR:

Orc Shamans - Orcs can cast spells?  What?  Where is that in Tolkien?  They are supposed to be the cannon fodder weaker servants of the Dark Lord.  Warhammer Fantasy incorporates a lot of magic and the shaman comes directly from Fantasy.  Magic is supposed to be subtle in Middle Earth, or else Gandalf, Elrond, and Galdriel could have easily marched into Mordor, destroyed Saruman and his armies and the One Ring along with it.  The shamans give to much magic ability to the evil side, and I don't use them in my games.

Dwarf Rangers - This is the ultimate oxymoron.  A ranger is one who patrols the borders and forests and lives off the land.  Tolkein's dwarves delved deep in the mountains mining gold and precious gems.  I will never field dwarf rangers.

Isengard Trolls - GW insists on giving every evil army a monster of some sort.  Since Tolkein never mentions Saruman employing monsters, GW took it upon themselves to add trolls to the Isengard army.  I prefer every army being unique and using the strategy and tactics of their inherent units to defeat overwhelming odds.  For me, Isengard trolls are right out.

King's Champion - Again the need for monster type in an army and another mechanic from Warhammer that has no place in Middle Earth.  You mean to tell me that Durin or Thror need someone to fight their battles for them?

Vault Warden - Aside from not being mentioned in Tolkein, the cost of the models themselves make it unrealistic to have a player field one company let alone two in a formation.

Named Ringwraiths - Giving each ringwraith an additional special ability makes them too powerful for their cost and can make lower point games unplayable.  This is because Warhammer has the Gods of Chaos and the desire of each to have their own special ability.  I play that each ringwraith has the generic stat line and knows all the Spells of Dismay and Darkness with a Mastery level of 3.  The only difference for the Witch King is Might 3.  Yes, I know Tolkein mentions Khamul the Easteriling, but this doesn't mean each ringwraith has to be named and have a special ability.

Epic Heroes - Warhammer is all about Lords and Heroes and is big part of the game.  Tolkein's Middle Earth had it's share of heroes, but not entire armies made out of them.  Yes each formation should get a captain, which coming from a historical gamer background makes sense to me.  But, if a "power gamer" bring the Nine are Abroad, Sauron, trolls, and just a few orc formations, the Kingdoms of Men will never have a chance.  I have a house rule of one Epic Hero for every 1000 points.  This way you can field plenty of formations to eat up hits of the powerful epic heroes such as Sauron. 

Tolkein's Middle Earth is a very rich gaming environment and I disagree with many Warhammer players that the universe is too limited.  Much like historical gaming, it requires a little research into what Tolkein wrote to get a feel for battles in Middle Earth.  I guess this is why more historical gamers are attracted to SBG and WOTR than Warhammer players who they feel that they are limited and can not make up their own narratives without worrying about not following cannon material.

I think there is room for both types of players, and I have nothing against anyone who plays both systems.  But there is a divide between the Warhammer side of GW and the Middle Earth side and it is rare to find someone who plays both.  This is why I prefer to play WOTR at historical gaming circles and stay clear of Games Workshop stores and events.



 

1500 Points Isengard vs. Rohan

Following up on the Fords of Isen scenario, several local area gamers got together to up the points a bit and do 1500 points of Rohan and Isengard.  The main thing I wanted to do was show how Epic Heroes work in the game.  Rohan was led by Eomer and Isengard was led by Lurtz.  We decided to do The Field of Swords Scenario with the Shieldwalls setup.

 

Here was the Order of Battle:

 

Rohan

 

Leader:  Eomer

 

4 x Co Oathsworn Militia w/Captain & Standard

 

4 x Co Grimbold's Helmlingas, w/Grimbold, Standard

 

2 x Co Rohan Knights Dismounted w/Captain, Standard

 

2 x Co Oathsworn Bowmen

 

2 x Co Oathsworn Bowmen

 

1 x Co Dismounted Outriders

 

3 x Rohan Knights w/Captain

 

6 x Co Erkenbrand's Riders w/Erkenbrand, Standard

 

6 x Co Elfhelm's Riders w/Elfhelm, Standard

 

 

Isengard

 

Leader:  Lurtz

 

4 x Co Uruk-Hai Phalanx w/Captain, Standard

 

4 x Co Uruk-Hai Warband w/ Captain, Standard

 

2 x Co Uruk-Hai Scout Archers

 

2 x Co Vrashku's Talons w/Vrashku

 

4 x Co Ugluk's Raiders w/Ugluk

 

1 x Co Uruk-Hai Bezerkers

 

4 x Co Sharku's Hunters w/Sharku

 

3 x Co Warg Riders w/bows

 

The initial set up.

 



 I set up the table with minimal terrain aside from a few hills, two woods, and a wooden building that counted as defensible terrain and could hold two companies.  We had two players playing Rohan and two for Isengard.  Since I was Rohan, the other Rohan player liked my setup and had no objections.  The Isengard players decided to put the bulk of the their force on their left flank to include both formations of wargs.  They solidified the middle with Uruk-hai and had Ugluk and his Raiders out on the right flank



Rohan won priority for Turn 1 and quickly moved the Oathsworn Bowmen into the woods to take advantage of the defensible terrain.  The rest of the army moved up alongside them to keep the army in line.  Isengard then moved Vrashu's Talons and the Uruk-Hai Scout Bowmen up on the hill and pushed the wargs along the left side to exploit Rohan's right flank.  Vrashku's Hunters anchored the right flank by moving into the woods.


Beginning of Turn 2.

On Turn 2 Rohan moved the Dismounted Outriders into the building and moved up the rest of the infantry.  Isengard pushed up the Uruk-Hai in the center and moved up the wargs on the left.  The Shoot Phase began causing casulties on both sides with the Rohan Bowmen in the woods losing a company.  Since the Isengard player retained priority, they charged the Oathsworn Militia with Lurtz and his Uruk hai Warband.  Lurtz declared a Heroic Duel and easily killed the Rohan Captain.  The ensuing Fight Phase proved inconclusive with both sides taking casualties and Rohan rolling a Steadfast result on the Panic test. 

Uguk leads the Uruk-hai against the Oathsworn Militia.

On Turn 3, Ugluk's Raiders came out of the woods on their right flank to block the Rohan Royal Guard from charging the Uruk-Hai Phalanx who was already opposed by Grimbold's Helmlingas.  Ugluk's Raiders lost the fight and became disordered on the Panic test.  Lurtz and his Uruk-Hai charged the Oathsworn Militia taking out two companies who then became disordered on the Panic test. 

Ugluk's Raiders lost the fight and went disordered.

The Uruk-hai bezerkers flank Grimbold's Helmlingas.

On Turn 4, all formations passed their Courage tests recovering from disorder.  Ugluk's Raiders decided to move backwards in order to escape from Erkenbrand's Riders who were coming up on the left.  Erkenbrand then charged Uguk's Raiders, but then Erkenbrand was killed in a Heroic Duel with Ugluk.  Erkenbrand's Riders ultimately won the flight, but took heavy casualties and Ugluk's Raiders became disordered on the Panic test.  On the other flank, Eomer charged the Royal Knights into the Uruk-Hai Warband formation killing Lurtz in a Heroic Dual and causing the Uruks to disorder, but the Knights took heavy casualties.

On Turn 5, the Uruk Hai Bezerkers charged the Royal Knights suffering three casualties, but killing the other Royal Knight Company.  The Uruk-Hai Phalanx charged Grimbold's Helmlingas taking them down to one company.



On Turn 6, Eomer thought it would be best for him to move to the Oathsworn Militia formation and regroup with Grimbold and the remaining Royal Knight company.  The Oathsworn Bowmen on the Rohan left flank decided to move to reinforce the center.  The Uruk-Hai scouts charged the woods defeating the remaining Oathsworn Bwomen company.   On the far right of the Rohan army, Sharku's Hunters engaged in a series of fights with Elfhelm's Riders, with Elfhelm killing Sharku in a Heroic Duel, but Elfhelm and the rest of his riders were killed in the ensuing fight.

Om Turn 7, Ugluks Raiders took refuge on the woods, so the remnants of  Erkenbrand's Riders decided not to pursue and headed across the field to assist Eomer.  The Royal Guard charged Ugluk's Raiders in the woods, but lost the combat due to the defensive terrain bonus. 

The remnants of Erkenbrand's Rider's move to finish the Uruk-hai.

On the decisive Turn 8, Ugluk's Raiders were able to exit the woods during their move and were able to set themselves up to charge the Royal Guard in the flank.  Erkanbrand's Riders rolled a six on their charge move and defeated the remnants of the Uruk-Hai Warband.  The game came down to Eomer charging with the Oathsworn Militia at the remnants of Sharku's Hunters.  The Militia were able to defeat the wargs with Eomer using his Epic Strike special rule.  Sharku's Hunters became disordered on the Panic test.

 

Eomer charges what's left of Sharku's Hunters.

 

So in the end it was a Rohan victory with Rohan killing Lurtz, Shaurku, and two Uruk-Hai Captains and Isengard killing Erkenbrand, Elfhelm, and one captian.  Since an Epic hero is worth four points, and captains one, Erkenbrand was in his Legendary Formation and did not count as an Epic Hero, but as a captain which resulted in Rohan taking the game on points.

 

You can see the video battle report here:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drID1S4QzOU

 

For the next game we are going to up the points again, this time to 2,000 and add monsters and magic.

First Battle of the Fords of Isen Battle Report

This scenario was run at Historicon 2014 held in Fredericksburg, Virginia in the US.  We had six players, three on each side.  Isengard was led by Vrashku's Talons with one player commanding the Isengard orcs, one player controlling the Dunland allies, and one player commanding the Uruk-Hai scouts flanking force led by Sharku's Hunters.  Rohan was led by Theodred's Knights with one player Theodred and the East Bank force, one player commanding the West Bank Force led by Grimbold's Helmlingas, and one player commanding the relief force led by Elfhelm's riders.

The scenario is not balanced and Isengard has twice the points value in their forces than the Rohan players.  The victory conditions for Isengard to be in control of all three fords by the end of any turn with no enemy within three inches of the ford.  Rohan's victory conditions are to destroy two thirds of the Isengard army by the end of any turn.  If neither of these conditions are met, the game is a draw, unless Theodred is killed.

 

The Rohan side begins with initiative and they decided to move all their forces to the East Bank and take the Isengard army head on.  A bold move, but they gave up the river’s natural defenses.  Any formation touching one of the fords and loses a fight suffers an addition 1D6 casualties.  Rohan did move Theodred’s Knights into the eyot, but could have also pulled Grimbold’s Helmlingas back to the West Bank.

On Turn 2, when the Isengard flanking force arrived on Turn 2, they easily made their way into Rohan’s rear, cutting off any chance of retreat. 

 

Back on the East Bank, Isengard used At the Double moves and several Heroic moves when Rohan had initiative to move into charge distance range.  The seizing the initiative they were able to use the open terrain to their advantage and double up on the Rohan formations.  If they remained on the East Bank, they could have channeled Isengard in the fords and taken them on one on one and if Isengard lost a fight they would have suffered the additional D6 hits.

On Turn 3 when Grimbold’s riders arrived, they charge a formation of Uruk Hai Scouts.  Sharku’s Hunters saw their chance and used all three points of Sharku’s Might to add to the die roll of their charge move to reach the flank of Grimbold’s formation.  Sharku was killed in a Heroic duel and Grimbold’s riders survived and regrouped, and decided to back away and fire arrows at the Uruks from distance.

 

 

The Rohan attack on the East Bank quickly disintegrated and Isengard was able to take two of the fords.  The only objective remaining was to take the final ford, but Theodred’s Knights were prepared to make a stand at the eyot. 

 

After a failed charge, Isengard decided to pull back and pummel the eyot with arrows.  The eyot gave the Knights a total of Defense 9, so the orc archers had to roll 6’s then 5’s to cause casualties.  It came down to Turn 8, but the sheer numbers of arrows were enough to kill Theodred and his remaining knights.

And so lies Theodred, Heir to Kingdom of Rohan, killed defending the last remaining ford, and leaving the Westfold open to the treachery of the forces of Isengard.

 

 

 

 

 



 

War of the Ring Blog

This blog will record my attempt to fight the battles of the Second and Third Age of Middle Earth.  I  collect Games Workshop Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit miniatures and use the both the Strategy Battle Game and War of the Ring systems.  This blog will concentrate mostly on the War of the Ring mass battles system as Games Workshop no longer supports the system and I am attempting to keep the game alive underground.

For those who are just coming upon this blog, The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit Strategy Battle Game or SBG is a skirmish level game initially intended to re-create the journey of the Fellowship of the Ring and the attempt to destroy The One Ring.  SBG was re-branded when Games Workshop renewed the license to produce miniatures for The Hobbit movie trilogy which follows Thorin and Company in their quest to retake Erebor.  The Hobbit SBG is compatible with the profiles from Lord of the Rings (LOTR) SBG and has gained popularity for points match and tournament style play that came about with the army books released in 2012.

War of the Ring was designed to fight the large scale battles of Middle Earth.  Gamers became frustrated using a skirmish game to fight battles with large armies such as The Battle of Dagorlad or Pelennor Fields, so Games Workshop finally released a mass battles system in 2009.  War of the Ring or WoTR modified the profiles from SBG with simple mechanics for the larger amount of models.  Infantry companies were based on special movement trays with eight infantry models to a tray and two cavalry models.

But only three years after its release and the rising cost of metal, Games Workshop decided to take their product in a new direction with the introduction of finecast resin to replace metal blister packs.  The plastic models were repackaged from 24 or 20 model infantry boxes to 12 or 10 model boxes to coincide with the SBG warband rules.  Two years later, Games Workshop decided to drop support for War of the Ring and no longer carries the core rules or infantry movement trays.

For many of us, it took a few years to collect armies large enough to play War of the Ring.  Now that we have the models and are comfortable with the rules system, it is up to us to continue the game through the online community.  I will be documenting my collecting, building, painting, as well as providing battle reports.

For me, the near term for WoTR will be to fight a map campaign with several other gamers of Isengard's invasion of Rohan in the opening campaign of the War of the Ring.  Once the Rohan campaign is over, the next goal will be to continue with Mordor's invasion of Gondor.  There are future goals such as fighting the Second Age Wars of the Elves and Sauron and the early Third Age War of the Dwarves and Orcs.

For now, join me as Saruman is building an army worthy of Mordor and Theodred, son of King Theoden has heard of an evil taking hold at the ancient fortress of Isengard

- Warlord