Silmarillion battle: Denethor’s Last Stand

[James Morris]

Denethor’s Last Stand

I’ve been distracted from Tolkien recently, so it was nice to get a Zoom game in this afternoon based on the Silmarillion.  We played using my own Midgard rules on a 3x4’ table. Tom WD and I took the Orcs, with James D as the valiant elves of Ossiriand.

During the First Battle, Denethor of Ossiriand was cut off on the hill of Amon Ereb and slain by orcs before help could arrive. As the elves of Ossiriand are described as ‘light-armed and no match for the Orcs, who were shod with iron and iron-shielded’, I decided to field their entire force as bow- and spear-armed skirmishers. To make matters worse, I restricted their force to 2/3 the size of the attacking orcs.

However, they had the advantage of the hill of Amon Ereb, and the orcs had to completely destroy the Elven force within five turns to win the game (after which Thingol would turn up with the relief force and win the battle - but that game is for another day).

The game played out very much as per Tolkien’s brief description of the encounter; the light-armed elves made good use of evasion to delay battle, although their bow fire was well below par (possibly James’s dice were to blame).  However, the game went down to the wire as Denethor and his final unit survived until the last turn - but were then swallowed up by a tide of Orcs.

Good fun and a welcome return to Middle-earth!

[midismirnoff]

So much love in this post. Thank you!
What system are you using for this?

[Grumpy Gnome]

Looks great! I particularly like your basing, it really suits that table. Which make of mat is that if you do not mind me asking?

[Supercollider]

Fantastic looking game - very atmospheric scenery and figures.  Looking forward to seeing more.

[James Morris]

Looks great! I particularly like your basing, it really suits that table. Which make of mat is that if you do not mind me asking?

Thank you.  The mat is a Cigar Box one, although this particular long-pile variant is OOP.  I bought it off a friend as we both noticed that it was perfect for my figure bases!

[James Morris]

So much love in this post. Thank you!
What system are you using for this?

Cheers! It’s my own Midgard rules, a system that I’ve been working on and off for a couple of years.  It’s not Middle-earth specific, being designed to allow fast playing tactical mythological battles with the focus on the heroes, but it does well for orcs and elves.

[darthfozzywig]

Love it!

[Grumpy Gnome]

Cigar Box. Cheers. I love those colors. And your basing is excellent. It really makes me want to improve mine to that level.