The Ruins of Annis Minnor
For a long while now
I've been wanting to do some wargaming set in Middle-Earth. I looked
at various rules, probably the most obvious would have been Games
Workshop's Lord of the Rings Strategy Game. However I wanted
something a little more flexible than this. We (my brother and I)
weren't going to base the games on the films, but rather go back to
the books.
In the end I chose
Ganesha Games' Song of Blades and Heroes. It is a skirmish game,
which means we wouldn't need to paint up too many miniatures to start
it. It is also very flexible and would allow us to portray anything
we wanted from Middle-Earth. It's also a fast-paced, heroic type
game, which feels right to me.
I came up with some
scenario rules and they can be found here:
My erstwhile
opponent, Edward, took two Elves, three humans, and a dwarf, and they deployed around the watchtower. My nefarious evil
doers, remained a secret to him, instead I deployed ten numbered
counters in the woods at the north end of the table.
Two of the good
guys, headed over to the Tomb of Ennadin, a risky strategy as
although it could contain a Numenorean Blade, it was equally as
likely to be hiding Baashab, one of Shelob's cousin's, who if she was
revealed would probably kill any close by and go rampaging across the
table.
I made a cautious
advance through the woods, in hindsight this wasn't a good idea.
Although it meant I kept my troops hidden, it wasted some time, and
dawn was coming.
Edward's gamble paid
off, and entering the ancient tomb he found the elven blade, undulled
by time.
My troops revealed
themselves as they emerged from the woods. A force of Orcs on the left
flank, containing a boss and a big fella, some say half orc, along with
two archers with poisoned arrows, a normal warrior and a Warg Rider.
In the centre of the table I had a group of Wildmen, one boss and
four warriors. Everyone in my band, except the bosses, the big orc
and the warg rider, had the Rabble rule, which meant they only had to
loose a combat to be taken out of action. Add this to the fact that
the dwarf had lethal:orc and it was going to be a close fight.
However just as the
two sides closed in, the first rays of light appeared in the east.
Oops, I thought (or possibly
a different word) maybe I shouldn't have put my orcs so close to the
table edge. One by one my orcs fled into the woods, living to fight
another day, but leaving their wildmen allies in the lurch. One
solitary Orc archer didn't make it quite to the edge and, although he
returned to the fray, he soon fell to dwarven steel.
In
the centre of the table of of the wildmen returned a portion of
honour to my cowardly band, two elves charged him but he knocked them
both to the ground and put his spear through one before the other got
up and knocked him out.
My
other wildmen didn't fare very well. The band being below half
strength that vacillated between getting stuck in and legging it. In
the end the good guys swept across the table, the last wildman fell
before he could make it to the safety of the woods.
This
is the first time in a while that
I've fought a battle were every miniature has been painted, the table
has been fully flocked and the scenery has all been finished. It
makes a big difference to the feel of the game, and I'm going to make
efforts in the respect in the future.
The
battle was entertaining, having a narrative always helps, although it
was a little disappointing that half my band didn't get to fight. I
hadn't really appreciated how far low quality troops will flee when
forced to make a moral check. I plan to play plenty more games using
the Song of Blades and Heroes rules and their variants in the future
and I will bear this in mind.
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