Thx for the nice comments.
Anyway, it's time for the next little report. Today I was at Bjoern's place for some gaming and we more or less spontaneoulsy decided to play another battle for the Ithilien saga. This is not the Ashandar plot line but a look at what else is going on in the country...
We remember that Gondor suffered a major defeat in the last encounter with Mordor's troops. As Gondorian troops fall back towards the River Anduin to guard the crossings orcs of all description are rushing after them, trying to crush any opposition and destroy what little manpower is left at the moment.
So we played one of the many encounters in which superior orc forces clash with dispirited Gondorians.
Here we see the battlefield, the abandoned ruins of some former settlement is situated near what could be a dried out creek. In the scenario a small group of soldiers is trying to defend the ruins in order to let some fleeing troops catch up and move further west.
The Gondorians are rushing towards their comrades. All in all there were 22 troopers with a captain on the table, 10 soldiers rushing towards the centre, 12 holding the position to await and support them.
However, orcish snipers have taken up position along the flight route, peppering the soldiers with arrows. Actually molesting would be most fitting as the arrows never managed to penetrate the superior armor of Gondor's finest.
And more and more orcs arrive on the scene prepared to deal with any resistance quickly and brutally.
As the orcs quickly outnumbered the Gondorian soldiers Captain Cuinor decided to rush from his position to gang up on one of the orc bands approaching thereby hoping to gain temorary numerical superiority on that flank in the hope of evening out the odds.
First blood goes to Gondor but overall the tired Gondorian trrops failed to make an impact of any significance. As can be seen the second orc group was very close. I tried my best to use whatever means to keep them at bay but my inablity to really smash the orcs meant that I quickly had to fight in two directions against a foe with superior manpower. Oh, and I screwed up with the rules thus giving the orcs actually a chance twice as good as they actually had to kill my soldiers. That's what you get for not knowing the rules. I tried to explain it away by claiming the Gondorian armor must have been in tatters after the recent battle and subsequent flight.
Things didn't look too good but quickly became desperate when a group of 16 warg riders appeared on the battlefield. Bjoern and me just pooled our models and just wanted to see them all in action. Totally unbalanced scenario but we had fun. And the ide was that Gondor actually is really reeling back from the sledgehammer blows of Mordor's troops. So no quarter!
Luckily a group of Rangers had heard the sound of battle and appeared right behind the orcish archers (who even after 6 turns had to claim their first kill).
So here's a quick overview over the battlefield.
The rangers quickly charged into the orc archers in order to kill them off and start sniping at the wargs. However, despite greater numbers and vastly better fighting capabilities Bjoern managed to roll an imprssive number of 6s and "gave as good as he got". For every archer the rangers hewed down one of their numbers was also killed - an absolutely unacceptable situation. Now of course this story plays 100 years prior to the War of the Rings but I swear I could hear Denethor's voice in my ear: "That's what my son has made of the elite of Gondor..."
Meanwhile the wargs were charging in. If nothing spectacular happened there would be a terrible outcome to this engagement.
Well, what do you expect? It was me throwing the dice for Gondor. And a better ally Mordor never had. Didi I tell you I once managed to throw 42 dice to kill off a termagant horde of 10, needing only 4s to wound and managing to roll not a single 4,5 or 6 on 42 dice? It wasn't quite as bad but there was just no beating Bjoern's limitless number of 6s. So even if I managed to drop the single orc here and there it was never enough and always too late.
After one last round of glory in which three brave Gondorian archers tried to alt least hold off the wargs for another few moments Mordor's cavalry just steamrolled over my men locked in a swirling melee with the orcs.
In the end morale broke and the rangers turned and fled from the field.
Last man standing was captain Cuinor. The game ended before he fell so there is a small chance that he survived... somehow.
Thus ends another installment of the invasion of Ithilien. Mordor is still winning and Gondor has yet come up with a way to counter the push towards the river. And Bjoern had so much fun today that he really wants to play another battle soon. Hopefully I can come up with a scenario that is a little more challenging for Mordor...
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April 27, 2024, 09:07:56 AM
July 31, 2012, 12:33:19 PM
