Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: Doomhippie on August 19, 2010, 06:20:28 PM
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Summer break is almost over, time for yet another battle report for LotR.
The story: Orcs have been roaming freely in Rohan and Eomer seems to be the only one to do something about that. He sends a scouting force out to track the latest orc warband near the northern border of Rohan. Unfortunately the tables are turned and the scouting force is scattered in a night attack by the orcs. Early next morning the captain of this scouting force, Freogar, and his Lieutenant Haldred look for survivors and try to reassemble their patrol.
The scenario: Freogar and Haldred are both lesser heroes of Rohan. Their task is to move from one encounter site to the next. At each site a card is drawn indicating what is found. Usually a few Rohirrim, some on horse, some on foot. Some encounters also have equipment lying around. As the Rohirrim start out with one point less armor and no horses, finding equipment and riders is vital for them.
Here is the battlefield. The boxes and barrels represent encounters.
(http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s321/doomhippie_photos/Mittelerde/Rohan/DSC00970.jpg)
And here we see our two heroes walking on the table...
(http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s321/doomhippie_photos/Mittelerde/Rohan/DSC00971.jpg)
Now the orcs are of course looking for survivors to kill and loot. So each round a d6 is rolled showing how many orcs move on to the table from the hills in the background. A roll of 6 menas that 1-3 wargriders appear from one of the sides. And that happened right on the first turn.
(http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s321/doomhippie_photos/Mittelerde/Rohan/DSC00972.jpg)
Freogar and Haldred decided to split up to cover more ground quickly before too many orcs could roam the area. Both got lucky. Freogar encountered some riders who had a spare horse with them so he could now lead from horseback.Haldred found a few surviors holed up in some ruins and with them were supplies so the Rohirrim could now use their better armour stat.
(http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s321/doomhippie_photos/Mittelerde/Rohan/DSC00973.jpg)
The warg riders meanwhile tried to kill off the Rohirrim in the ruins before Freogar could come to their help. However, a heroic movement action not only prevented that but in the end utterly destroyed the wargs.
(http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s321/doomhippie_photos/Mittelerde/Rohan/DSC00975.jpg)
Meanwhile quite a number of orcs had assembled at the edge of the forrest trying to prevent the Rohirrim from finding more survivors. However, a charge lead by Freogar forced the orcs back into the woods thus freeing the encounter site (which turned out to be a lone footman, but hey, it's all for one here!).
(http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s321/doomhippie_photos/Mittelerde/Rohan/DSC00981.jpg)
Fighting in the woods was not really a clever thing to do for cavalry and after having lost one of their riders Freogar ordered a retreat from the trees. He raced to another encounter site, finding three footmen while the rest of the Rohirrim started to fall back as they had to get as many men from the southern table edge as possible.
The last rounds saw a desperate fighting withdrawl in which the cavalry gallantly charged into pursuing orcs time and again, giving the footmen time to move south. Two more riders were lost in these rearguard actions but the sacrifice paid off in the end.
(http://i508.photobucket.com/albums/s321/doomhippie_photos/Mittelerde/Rohan/DSC00986.jpg)
In the end 9 men were rescued, 5 fell during the fighting. 27 orcs and wargs were slain, which looks rather impressive. However, it should be noted that potentially 27 Rohirrim could have been in the vicinity, as the number of men found at each encounter was rolled with a dice. So actually the nightime battle and the fighting during the morning cost 18 Rohirrim their life. A high price to pay and these men would be missed ion the days to come...
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Nicely done! I always enjoy a LotR report. :)
The minis look fantastic. I'm really liking the warg riders. It seems like a fun scenario as well. More stuff for your home brewed rules?
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Actually classic GW rules - okay with a few changes to make for a good story.
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Very good painting on nice selection of figures and they fit really well with the table. Good stuff :D
cheers
James
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I like the idea of the heroes building up their equipment and allies via encounters.
May steal that idea!
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Great report.
Always nice to see new and fresh scenarios, also seems the rules and story worked perfectly.
Both heroes, Freogar and Haldred, survived?
Thanks for sharing.
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Those are some excellently painted miniatures! :-*
Great table and narration, thanks for posting! :D
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Finally some lotr! I have quit a bunch of unpainted plastics now I want to paint them. :-*
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Very inspiring. Lovely figures and terrain (as always from you) and an engrossing story. Proper lead Adventure :)
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Actually classic GW rules - okay with a few changes to make for a good story.
Change is good- especially if it makes for a better story! ;)
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Thanks for the kind replies. :)
I've always been interested in the stories of the unnamed figures in the LotR. That's why I liked the little interlude in the Two Towers movie, where Aragorn is talking to the young boy just before the battle at Helm's Deep. I wonder what happened to him. Did he survive? How did he perform during the battle? Is he one of those grandads who sit in the Tavern and tell the young ones about the old times when the future king of Gondor talked to him? In my LotR scenarios I like to tell these kind of stories.
And that's why I don't really use the named heroes of the book itself. We can read their story in the book and since we know what happened to them there is for me no point in playing the scenarios of the movie.
Oh, and yes, both Freogar and Haldred survived....
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Beautiful looking game and I agree about giving the faceless masses their due!
Nice idea with the encounter sites too! 8)
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Very nice setup, DH - and a cracking battle report!
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Very nice story, setup and excellent miniatures! :-*
I never have played LotR, but if these kind of games could be done, it is very interesting. I thought it was more like WH.
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Excellent report, nice table and very fine miniatures - danke fürs Zeigen! :)
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Absolutely gorgeous! And I really like the narrative aspect, that's always my favourite thing to do on a tabletop - I don't care about 'Army A meets Army B for no real reason and they fight' - I'd much rather use a game to tell a story.
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I never have played LotR, but if these kind of games could be done, it is very interesting. I thought it was more like WH.
Some us play WH like that too ;)
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It pains me to see this, because there was a time that LotR by GW was my #1 favorite game. I at one time owned every model released, many of which 2-3 times over. My boys and I loved the game then. I loved painting them, I loved the Strategy Battle Game itself, and I didn't think even War of the Ring was needed. To me War of the Ring was just another ploy to soak existing customers by having them build even larger armies for LotR. It was also a way to sell the overpriced movement trays.
I had left miniatures for a couple of years right after the first few expansions for RotK, and sold them all off, and to this day I'm still kicking myself for that, because I just can't force myself to even try and begin collecting them all over again. More so since now GW has jacked their prices so high, that it's just not a financially sound undertaking to even consider collecting anything from GW in this economy. It's such a great game though, the big bummer for me was not that many people were into it when I was into it around here. So my boys and I mostly played games among ourselves, and had more fun with the hobby than the game itself due to the lack of a player base locally.
Nice report and photos man. Good stuff!
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Great narrative and focus on the goings on of mortal men rather than the exploits of well know heroes.
I really must get on with all my LotR figures one day, hundreds and hundreds of them packed away waiting for paint.
Thanks again for sharing.
The Commander
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Oooh.... LotR is one of my soft spots. Great action, Lars.
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This scenario sounds great. I have painted LOTR stuff that has never seen the table because I havent gotten around to dreaming up any good scenarios for my gaming buddies!
I could obviously come up wiht my own cards to run a similar scenario, but would you mind sharing the work you have already done? I would love to steal your scenario for my group to enjoy...
Thanks!
Andy
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not that many people were into it when I was into it around here. So my boys and I mostly played games among ourselves, and had more fun with the hobby than the game itself due to the lack of a player base locally.
Where are you based ?
We usually have quite a few LoTR players at our school club (but we'll see what we get with the new term)
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Nice battle report! Thanks for sharing!!!
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This scenario sounds great. I have painted LOTR stuff that has never seen the table because I havent gotten around to dreaming up any good scenarios for my gaming buddies!
I could obviously come up wiht my own cards to run a similar scenario, but would you mind sharing the work you have already done? I would love to steal your scenario for my group to enjoy...
Thanks!
Andy
All I did was taking a regular card deck, using only 7 or 8 cards and writing down on a scrap piece of paper, what each card represented. Something along the way of: 1-4 riders with equipment or 1-6 infantry etc. You get my drift. It's not really much to share as there is also a shopping list of my wife on that paper :D and some phone numbers without names... The whole preparation took about 5 minutes.
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Encounter cards shouldn't be too difficult to make.
But on to specifics, is there 1 card per encounter marker or more cards than markers ?
How large was the table, how many encounters are there in total, how far from the table ends were the encounters ?
Did you think of what happens when the orcs get there first ?
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Where are you based ?
We usually have quite a few LoTR players at our school club (but we'll see what we get with the new term)
I'm outside of Pittsburgh, PA here in the US. So you're quite a distance away, thanks for the offer tho!
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... The whole preparation took about 5 minutes.
So simple and yet so effective. I really, really must get another LOTR game played soon. This game should be very suitable for a host of other Fantasy, SciFi and Historical periods too.
Genius!
Definitely an idea to steal ;D
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I'm outside of Pittsburgh, PA here in the US. So you're quite a distance away, thanks for the offer tho!
No worries - if you are ever this side of the pond (in term time) call in.
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Encounter cards shouldn't be too difficult to make.
But on to specifics, is there 1 card per encounter marker or more cards than markers ?
How large was the table, how many encounters are there in total, how far from the table ends were the encounters ?
Did you think of what happens when the orcs get there first ?
Hm, let's see:
There is one card for each encounter for a total of 7 cards.
Encounters were spread evenly across the table, I put them where there was some kind of terrain where people might hide in. I never bothered to measure the distance from any table edge.
I was thinking about giving the orcs the opportunity to destroy the encounter marks but have decided against it. So the orcs were unable to trigger any encounter. They could only react to moving models on the field. However, I ruled that the orcs would generally move into the direction of the encounters to represent them actually searching. This way I wanted to avoid that we have a massive build up of orc forces too strong to fight. Plus there was more movement on the field and it fit better to a scenario which I wanted to feel more of a series of short and small clashes all over the place rather than just one big fight.
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Awesome! The terrain and figures are top notch. As a fan of LOTR this is a great battle report.
More please?
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Doomhippie - fantastic battle report, and lovely figs and scenery.
WarGamesGuru - now is a good time to hit eBay for LotR figures. A lot of the oldest sculpts were released on the cover of the Battlegames in Middle-Earth magazine, and the market is saturated in them. Riders of Rohan, Moria Goblins, Warriors of Rohan and Minas Tirith - you should be able to pick up plastic sprues very cheaply.
Many of the metals from that time have the double advantage of having been on the magazine cover AND having been superseded. You can pick up the original Elrond sculpt for a dollar or two now.
Of the newer plastics, the Uruk scouts, the Easterlings, and the Galadhrim elves are all amazing figures, and worth looking at. The basic starter set is a great starting point too - full rulebook, scenery, some goblins and a troll, and the Fellowship in plastic.
And finally, you can use proxies for the more expensive metal elite figures - plenty of lovely troll figures out there, Otherworld's new ogres would fit nicely, and Ebob does spiders and an eagle. I mix in historical figs too - my Easterling Kataphracts are, uh, Byzantine Kataphraktoi and with the plastics on the go it's cheap to do a head swap.
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I agree that the LotR minis are probably among the finest GW has produced in the last years. Of course there are some exceptions but overall I'm still very much impressed by the miniatures. The Mines of Moria starter set is a real bargain. The plastics of Aragorn and Boromir are really worth a closer look, so is the troll. It's a wonderful set.
For me the key to any miniature game is size. As I am unwilling to paint mass armies adn easily get bored if I have to move more than 20 miniatures on the battlefield the original LotR skirmish game is perfect for me. However, if you are a fan of mass combat, it can easily be done as well. As I said, I prefer the smaller scaled scenarios.
Anyway, thanks again for your nice feedbacks.
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Thanks for giving us some lovely LotR goodness! I guess many of us got into this fantasy toy soldiers lark because we read LotR as kids (I know I did, loving LotR and then finding a game called D&D where I could pretend to be a Dwarf Warrior and battle goblins was the beginning of my downfall)...
... you can use proxies for the more expensive metal elite figures ... I mix in historical figs too - my Easterling Kataphracts are, uh, Byzantine Kataphraktoi and with the plastics on the go it's cheap to do a head swap.
Because the LotR mini are much closer to true 1:72 than the WH ranges, there are many many ranges out there that are comapatible. Looking in my cupboard, my Emhar 9th-10th Viking Warriors look pretty good as warriors of Rohan... but Momataro is right - there are metric kilotonnes of old LotR plastics on the market.
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I agree that the LotR minis are probably among the finest GW has produced in the last years. Of course there are some exceptions but overall I'm still very much impressed by the miniatures. The Mines of Moria starter set is a real bargain. The plastics of Aragorn and Boromir are really worth a closer look, so is the troll. It's a wonderful set.
For me the key to any miniature game is size. As I am unwilling to paint mass armies adn easily get bored if I have to move more than 20 miniatures on the battlefield the original LotR skirmish game is perfect for me. However, if you are a fan of mass combat, it can easily be done as well. As I said, I prefer the smaller scaled scenarios.
Anyway, thanks again for your nice feedbacks.
You hit the nail right on the head too. They've always been the nicest models GW puts out. Just being able to capture the likeness of the characters from the films as well as they do was the #1 reason I collected them years ago. I always felt everything was so spot on with each and every model.
It's too bad I got out before they went to more plastics tho, because when I collected and played it, the only plastics were the old starter set models, and aside from them, those same models were available in plastic separately, but that's about it. That Mines of Moria set almost had me jumping back into it.
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Moin Doomhippie!
Nice BR and very cool Mini's. LotR is unknown to me. Not the Films, indeed the Tabeltop. I hope we can play it.
LG
die Orgel