LotR battle report: Rescue at the eaves of Fangorn

[Red Orc]

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.

...
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 

[WarGameGuru]

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!

[Commander Vyper]

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

[Hammers]

Oooh.... LotR is one of my soft spots. Great action, Lars.

[SMPress]

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

[fastolfrus]

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)

[General Roos]

Nice battle report! Thanks for sharing!!!

[Doomhippie]

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  and some phone numbers without names... The whole preparation took about 5 minutes.

[fastolfrus]

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 ?

[WarGameGuru]

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!

[Gluteus Maximus]

... 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 

[fastolfrus]

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.

[Doomhippie]

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.

[bc99]

Awesome! The terrain and figures are top notch. As a fan of LOTR this is a great battle report.

More please?

[Momotaro]

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.