Cob Wargaming: Battle Report Amon Hen

Amon Hen

"Find the Halflings! Yaggh! Find the Halflings!"

Part one of The Fellowship’s story is almost over! Having navigated the mines of Moria and visiting Galadriel in Lothlorien it’s time for the Fellowship to venture onwards on their journey and straight into the Uruk-Hai ambush at Amon Hen!

So far our Fellowship scenarios have followed the story almost to the letter! If this trend continues you better keep your fingers crossed for Boromir…

This won’t be no walk in the park! We’ve put all the goblins back in their box and brought out some tougher adversaries! Let’s find out how our Fellowship will get on against some REAL enemies!

Amon Hen is where the Fellowship is broken and the events are set in motion for The Two Towers! Let's give the Fellowship of the Ring a proper send off with this compelling scenario!

The Scenario

In this game the objective for the Good player is (as with all the Fellowship scenarios) to escape the board with the entire Fellowship. If one member dies or is captured they cannot win.

For the Evil player their task is to capture at least two Fellowship members by reducing them down to 0 wounds and carrying them off their board edge. They can only capture them by reducing them to 0 wounds in combat (which becomes the equivalent of knocking them out) however they can still kill Fellowship members through shooting attacks. However, dead Fellowship members do not count as captured.

If the Evil side cannot capture two Fellowship members, but prevents the Fellowship from getting all their members off the board then the game will be a draw.

Good

The Good side have the Fellowship of the Ring, apart from Gandalf who is off getting his hair dyed white.

Evil

The Evil side have 35 Uruk-hai with swords and shields, 5 Uruk-Hai with bows and Lurtz.

The forces

Board Set up.

Set up for this board is rather intricate with a large smattering of ruins, trees and hills. The board is huge, and really the only two points of note are the two hills that dominate the board. These Hills must be at least 24" apart.

This Scenario features a large river down one side, there is a jetty with two boats at the bottom corner of the board. Each boat may Ferry two Fellowship members each to their escape. Once they are on the river they are unreachable to the Evil player (unless the Uruks risk jumping into the river) but they can still be shot at.

Map Key:

A = Aragorn

B = Boromir

L = Legolas

G = Gimli

F = Frodo

S= Sam

M = Merry

P = Pippin

Lu = Lurtz

A

B

L

G

S

F

P

M

Lu

Good escapes from here

Evil must capture heroes from anywhere along this edge ------>

Deployment.

The last Scenario ups the difficulty for the Fellowship. They are scattered across a large 72” by 48” board. There are two hills roughly 24” apart where two members (Frodo on the smaller one and Good Players choice for the other) need to be placed. After that the remaining Fellowship members may be placed anywhere on the board, so long as they are at least 6” apart. The Good player opts to place Aragorn on one hill and Frodo on the other. Merry and Pippin are placed near Aragorn at the top of the board for a quick exit. Legolas is set up near the cover of some trees in the centre of the board, with Gimli near-by for back up. Boromir and Sam deploy at the foot of the hill where Frodo is.

The Uruk-Hai must deploy on directly on their board edge, but may deploy anywhere along it.

Lurtz and the bowmen deploy together with a large glob of 20 Uruk-Hai at the hill behind Frodo (we’ll call this group A). Another Large glob of 15 Uruk-Hai deploy in the centre of the board (we’ll call this group B) and 10 Uruk-Hai deploy at the hill where Aragorn is. (You guessed it, group C)

Turn 1 is merely about manoeuvring the forces! The forces of Good get to go automatically first as per the stupidest rule ever conceived (but we’re not bitter about it). They use their first turn to begin to clump together. Merry and Pippin move towards one another. Aragorn jumps down from his hill straight away to intercept the small band of Uruks that have the two little Hobbits in their sights. Gimli immediately retreats back to Legolas, having the sudden realisation that taking on 15 Uruks with only 2 attacks is not the best idea. Boromir heads towards Frodo and Sam begins the long lonely walk towards the boats. Frodo however with his move cannot even get off the hill he has been placed on, and is already looking slow in front of the encroaching Uruk mass!

The Uruks begin their advance, Lurtz and the bowmen advance fully with no viable targets to shoot at yet as half of Group A filter around the left hand side of the hill and the other around the right.

Group B move swiftly towards Legolas and Gimli, Legolas with his lowly defence of 4 is a very viable target.

Group C gather and prepare to swamp Aragorn as best as they can.

The good player rattles off some shots with Legolas at Group B. But cause no wounds.

Good wins priority and begins spectacularly with Frodo failing his climb test! With Might looking like it will be a vital commodity in this game, Good opts to allow the little heroic Hobbit to tumble down the hillside! He takes two hits for his fall but takes no wounds. This leaves Frodo lying on his face at the bottom of the hill with an angry mob baring down on him at speed! Boromir makes a beeline straight for him, and walks straight into the line of fire!

Merry and Pippin begin their slow crawl to the finish line, with Aragorn covering their escape. Gimli makes a slight side step towards Boromir whilst still staying in touching distance of Legolas who edges closer to Aragorn.

Evil simply moves its groups further into the board. Group C is within charge range of Aragorn next turn. Lurtz moves full speed to join Group A in advancing towards Frodo and his bowmen move half speed and notch some arrows to fire at Boromir.

In Shooting, Legolas scores only one hit at Group B and again causes no wounds.

Evil retaliates with five shots and Boromir. The Uruk’s ballistic skill is a welcome improvement to the Goblin’s of Scenario’s past! They manage three hits and score 1 wound! It’s a tough blow for the Good player to have Boromir down to two wounds in only the second turn!

Evil gets priority and begins its arduous task of ‘subduing’ the Fellowship! Group C swamps Aragorn and lets a small splinter group of Uruks peel off around the back of the hill to begin chasing down Merry and Pippin. Gimli gets caught whilst he’s deciding between which two heroes to help and is engaged by the first approaching Uruks.

Frodo walks into the path of fire as he begins his run in towards the boat. Boromir is heroic (in a fashion) and dives into combat which will double up as both protecting Frodo’s escape and getting some cover from the bowmen!

Merry and Pippin head for the hills! Hoping to slow down the Uruk’s realising that Aragorn won’t be able to stop them gunning for them.

Evil starts with the 5 bowmen and Lurtz firing off 6 shots at Frodo, luckily his Mithril coat stops him being wounded by the three arrows that hit him.

Legolas returns fire at the Bowmen, but, once again, fails to wound with the shots that he lands!

In combat, Gimli uses his two handed axe, hoping to notch up some quick kills! He rolls a 1 and a 2 for his attacks and the Uruks easily overpower him! However, defence 8 is hard to break down and he survives the three hits that land on him.

Aragorn starts strong by killing an Uruk and getting the Fellowship going. Boromir wins his combat with the help of his horn but cannot cause any wounds.

Good wins Priority and Aragorn starts by flying into the fray with Group C. The splinter group will be well out of his reach, and so Good is relying solely on Merry and Pippin being able to outrun their potential captors.

Gimli (not in his finest moment) beats a hasty retreat closer towards Boromir and Frodo having being sufficiently rattled by his loss in combat! Frodo is still a good 6” behind Sam but Sam is almost at the Jetty now. The two Hobbits head off further towards the river as Boromir engages a couple more Uruk stragglers that have started to stray too close.

The Uruks continue to try and swarm the board. Aragorn gets surrounded completely. Group A is looking more than capable of taking on Boromir and Frodo and Sam. Group B heads towards Legolas now spreading the Uruks out to send some to tie up Gimli who has left his elf (not quite friend at this point in the story) to fend for himself!

Legolas intends to prove he is not entirely defenceless and once again fires off some shots towards Group B bearing down on him. However, for the fourth turn in a row he fails to wound! That’s no kill in twelve shots! The Fellowship is looking rattled.

Gimli has been exposed and although he has a high defence the Uruk bowmen fire at him regardless. But it is obviously futile and Gimli merely laughs off the arrows that ping off of him.

In combats, the Uruks win no fights, Aragorn slays an Uruk, and once again Boromir can only beat the tide of angry Uruk back an inch.

Turn 1

Turn 2

Turn 3

Turn 4

Turn 5

Evil wins priority. But Group A are really close to the jetty now, and so Frodo calls a Heroic move to try and get himself and Sam out of charge range and allow Boromir and Gimli to launch a counter attack in their defence…very heroic Frodo.

Gimli charges the head of half the Group and Boromir the other. Frodo and Sam continue their run but it isn’t enough! Two Uruks manage to charge Frodo even though it is through a barrier and Sam looks as if he may well get intercepted before he reaches the Jetty. Gimli and Boromir get swamped by the Groups they have halted and are starting to look badly outnumbered and a long way from the finishing line!

Merry and Pippin on the other hand are making a good break for it! And although the splinter group now worms itself away from Aragorn to pursue them they merely need to get over a hill to escape. It’s not a great start when Merry fails his climb test! But Pippin at least makes a move towards freedom and not getting taken to Saruman for some tasty torturing!

Aragorn is once again consumed by the mass of Uruks, and with Gimli having abandoned him and the Uruk’s getting danger close, he makes his full move into the woods! He may not be able to shoot them but he sure can outrun them!

The Uruk bowmen make a run towards the river, they will be able to fire some shots at any Hobbits that manage to nip into any boats!

In combats it starts to get dicey for the Fellowship!

Boromir loses his combat but somehow manages to evade injury despite being bombarded by five hits!

Frodo loses his combat, but the barrier he was defending takes both the hits for him leaving him uninjured.

Gimli goes from zero to hero by rolling a double 6 in his combat! But swifty returns to zero by rolling a double three to wound!

Aragorn fares better, but needs to make use of his free point of Might to tip the combat into his favour, and he dispatches another Uruk, whose numbers are being whittled down very, very slowly.

Good wins a vital priority roll with Group A having Frodo, Sam, Boromir and Gimli very surrounded! However, Lurtz calls a Heroic Move, seeing the Ring-bearer is in such a vulnerable position. Frodo calls another Heroic Move to counter-act this, but he loses the vital roll off and Lurtz’ Heroic Move goes through first.

Lurtz heads the charge against Frodo, and gets another two Uruks in combat with him pinning him against the wall and keeping him in combat with the other two Uruks on the other side of the barrier, Boromir and Gimli are powerless to help as they are once again swarmed by Uruks. Lurtz’ Heroic Move just reaches a couple of Uruks who nip forward and charge Sam who had just managed to make great progress along the jetty!

With all the heroes engaged, Frodo’s Heroic Move is null and void.

Good starts it’s move when Legolas nips 3” into the woods. Aragorn charges the mass that has kept him occupied for 4 turns now but is slowly positioning himself to get closer to the action and trying to avoid being surrounded.

Merry manages to scale the hill this time and with only one more ledge to climb things are looking good for the little Hobbits! But four Uruks reach the foot of the hill behind them and it is going to be a close, close call!

With the Hobbits engaged and looking surrounded the Uruk Bowmen halt their advance and turn their attention towards Legolas.

In Shooting, Legolas finally manages to notch his first kill after six turns!! He takes out one of the bowmen.

They are not happy with this loss however and retaliate in style inflicting one wound on the elf with their own shooting! Legolas passes his Fate roll however.

The Combat phase is a hefty one!

Aragorn shows himself to be the true hero he is and once again shows us why he won our famous Champions League Tournament of 2016! He wins his combat and wounds with every one of his attacks taking out three Uruks in one fell swoop!

Gimli wins his combat and takes out an Uruk.

Boromir uses his horn and wins without lifting his blade. When he does get round to swinging it he takes out an Uruk.

The Uruks however take no prisoners (even though it is technically their Objective for this scenario) and batter the Hobbits!

Sam loses his Combat in spectacular fashion! He suffers a Wound and fails his Fate roll! A bad combination! However at least he is pushed back further onto the jetty.

Frodo puts up a great fight! He manages to beat the two Uruks fighting him across the barrier but cannot inflict a wound and he forces Lurtz to use up a point of Might to best him when he outclasses the Uruk Captain and his three helpers!

He gets double hits for being trapped and suffers three wounds! Somehow he manages to save all three with his three Fate rolls. But it leaves him in a precarious position…

Evil wins priority. But it is painfully obvious that Good will call a Heroic Move with them being so out gunned in the bottom corner! Naturally, Frodo uses his last point of Might as he is in the thick of the fighting. It is a long and arduous decision for the Evil side whether or not to try and counter-act this with Lurtz’s last point of Might. With it being the Evil side’s only Might point remaining, they decide to keep a hold of it and Frodo’s Heroic Move goes through.

Frodo immediately slips on the Ring! And with his new found invisibility he ducks out of the way and heads straight for the boats on the jetty. Gimli is the one who leads the charge in Frodo’s absence and engages Lurtz and his comrades who were so mercilessly beating on the little Hobbit in order to stop them from cutting off Sam and Frodo’s escape entirely.

Boromir heads towards the jetty and begins to try and thin out the Uruk numbers there. But there is no chance of an easy get away for Sam, who cannot reach the boats and cannot escape the imminent charge of the Uruks that have just wounded him.

Evil continues there move by now swarming Gimli and Boromir, ensuring none will be able to help Sam, should he defy the odds and stay on his feet after he is once again charged by the two Uruks behind him.

At the other end of the table things are getting intense! The Uruks are close to the Hobbits now and are soon on the same ledge as them!

Merry and Pippin are one climb test and a 2” move away from escape! If they can roll a 6 for this final climb test they will escape! Pippin manages a 4 and hops up with the end in sight! Merry is not so lucky! He rolls another 1 and remains at the foot of the last ledge! Disaster!

In the shooting phase the Uruk bowmen notch their arrows to take down Legolas but they are stopped in their tracks by the one thing that all Evil players dread…the Eleven Cloak. Not only does this stop them firing this turn, but it allows us to realise our folly in allowing the bowmen to shoot at Legolas last turn, even though they cannot see him when he is in cover due to his cloak! With a glorious redo Legolas gains his Fate point back.

Legolas however returns the favour to the Evil side, by failing to wound with three hits on the bowmen!! Legolas has now had a grand total of 21 shots in the game and has killed 1/41 Uruks!! Very poor show.

The Combat phase is where it is all at and are quickly becoming the highlight of the scenario, things are getting close and edgy! As the Uruk numbers are still pretty strong and a lot of the Heroes are looking isolated and worn down.

Sam kicks off the Good side’s misery by losing another combat, another wound, another Fate point and even a Might point in the process. Sam sits on 1 Wound, and not much else!

Boromir wins and slays two Uruks.

Gimli wins and does not manage to inflict a wound on any of his opponents.

Aragorn is starting to tire, and has to use his free point of Might and an additional Might point to win his combat and save himself a barrage of Strength 4 hits. This winning of the combat over exerts himself however and he cannot cause any wounds on the Orc mass that has been harassing him since turn 3!

The Good side wins a cagey and intense Priority roll! The Evil side getting excited as it’s starting to believe it can secure its first victory in 5 scenarios!

The beleaguered Sam is rescued by a triumphant Boromir who surges into the thick of the fighting and ties up the two Uruks that have been bludgeoning the plucky Hobbit! Needing no more invitation Sam hops into one of the boats, and waits for the invisible Frodo (who manages to resist the Ring’s charms this turn) as he nips through Boromir’s combat and ends just shy of one of the boats.

Gimli tries to navigate the thick covering of Uruks to get closer to Boromir and maybe hop on a boat with him too, but he is well surrounded by Uruks, and will have to fight his way out.

The epic tale of Merry vs Mountain continues, and this time Merry manages to climb JUST with a lowly roll of a 2! This leaves Pippin with a tough choice to make. He can either escape now, denying the Evil side an easy capture, and leave Merry to fend for himself…or he can wait and assist his friend should the worst happen and the Uruks catch them. Pippin opts to stay in character and stay with his best friend….awwwh.

Legolas makes his way out of the back of the woods, and eyes up the Uruks crawling up the hill after Merry and Pippin. This turns out to be a critical error. Aragorn cannot tie up all the Uruk-Hai that he is surrounded by, and a couple of them peel off to engage Legolas in combat!

The Evil side can only swamp the Heroes they can, Gimli bearing the brunt of this as he is encircled by 6 Uruk-Hai! Lurtz charges up the jetty and traps Boromir. A couple of Uruks make it up the ledge and are less than 2” away from Merry and Pippin…whoever gets priority next turn will maybe decide the outcome of this game!

In Combats, Aragorn uses a free point of Might to win his combat and slay an Uruk.

Legolas wins his combat but cannot kill anything, his kill count still sitting at 1 Uruk for the whole game!

Gimli cannot manage to win his crucial combat and with the total of twelve hits against him only two manage to go through his thick armour. He manages to pass both of his Fate rolls, but still being surrounded by six Uruks, things aren’t looking good for the hardy Dwarf.

Boromir wins his combat even after Lurtz’s courage nullifies his Horn of Gondor. Boromir has to resort to using two points of Might to kill the two Uruks on the jetty. Although he could have probably dispatched Lurtz with these hits, Good has now basically secured the battered Sam, as no Uruk can get to him without going through Boromir.

It’s a big priority roll! If Good win, they can get Merry and Pippin off of the board. If Evil win they can charge the Hobbits and with luck, capture them.

It turns out that Evil wins the roll! And they charge the Hobbits with two Uruks, one for each Hobbit.

Legolas gets completely surrounded, cutting off his escape into the woods. Aragorn has become a secondary target after soaking up round after round of combat without taking a hit, the Evil side leave one Uruk just to tie him up as they swarm over Legolas.

Gimli is once again surrounded. Lurtz makes a tactical retreat to go and help subdue Gimli, and a couple of Uruks line up on the jetty to block Boromir’s advance to his aid.

Frodo loses his roll off with the Ring and is taken control of by the evil player.

However, a frankly rather clumsy and nonsensical rule in this early edition actually prevents the Evil player from taking off the Ring as the decision whether or not to take off the Ring must be made by the Good player before the roll is made to see which player controls him. Meaning all the Evil player can do when they control Frodo is move him. It is frustrating as by taking off the ring the Evil player could swamp Frodo and bring him down but rules are rules! The Evil player moves Frodo towards the edge of the Jetty.

Boromir charges the first Uruk on the jetty in a vain attempt to help the swamped Gimli!

It is a tough combat round to take for both sides! For the Evil player especially!

Merry loses his fight but his Uruk opponent fails to wound him.

Pippin loses his fight also and although he is wounded he saves the wound with his Fate roll. Meaning once again should Good win priority the two Hobbits will flee the board.

Boromir kills his Uruk adversary easily, as does Aragorn.

Gimli has to use a point of Might to win his fight and if he can cause a couple of wounds he may be able to punch a hole in the mob surrounding him and offer himself a glimmer of hope to escape! However, the Good side is running out of luck, and Gimli cannot wound anyone!

In a dicey combat, Legolas has to resort to using all three of his Might Points to win his combat! Had he not he would have inevitably been beaten to a pulp. He manages to slay an Uruk and opts to kill the one closest to the woods as he eyes up an option to escape.

Evil wins priority again! Much to the Good side’s dismay!

Aragorn calls a Heroic Move with his Free Might. He quickly intercepts the group threatening to overwhelm Legolas. Legolas heroically ducks into the woods to protect himself, leaving Aragorn surrounded by angry Uruks!

Merry gets charged by two Uruks, and Pippin by one.

Gimli is once again surrounded and looking ragged as Lurtz steps into the fray to add more attacks! Boromir is charged by an Uruk who desperately tries to keep him tied up on the jetty, the Uruk bowmen who have done little in the last few turns eye up an opportunity to pepper a few shots into a tied up Boromir!

In the shooting phase Legolas cannot shoot as he ran his full distance into the woods making sure he will be little to no contribution to this scenario at all!

The Uruk bowmen try to prove their worth and manage to score three hits! Unfortunately all three hit their Uruk comrade and he is slain under the volley!

In the combat phase it starts to look as if Evil will not secure a victory as Merry defies the odds and somehow bests two Uruk-Hai in hand to hand combat! He doesn’t wound the Uruks. Pippin loses his fight, but even with double blows his Uruk opponent cannot put him on the ground. Very disappointing!

Aragorn continues his winning ways and slays another Uruk.

After being surrounded for five turns now, Gimli finally succumbs to the Uruks efforts to grind him down. He loses his combat and with ten Uruk attacks he suffers another wound. It comes down to Lurtz to finish off the Dwarf and he just about manages it but has to burn his last point of Might to do so! Gimli is reduced to 0 Wounds and is rendered unconscious! A bad end to the turn for the forces of Good.

Good finally wins Priority and with no ceremony or delay Merry and Pippin make themselves the first members of the Fellowship to escape the board leaving four Uruk-Hai scratching their heads and looking embarrassed!

With Gimli down the entire Fellowship makes a move to his aid. Legolas gets into a good shooting position inside the woods and Aragorn ditches the Uruk Group that has been attacking him for a solid seven turns and heads at full speed to try and cut off the Uruk escape with the plucky Dwarf. Boromir charges some of the Uruks surrounding Gimli but cannot engage them all and a few Uruks are left unengaged to carry the Dwarf away.

Sam and Frodo finally set off in their boat, the heat of the fighting now being taken away from them they set off into the river. With no way of catching the Hobbits, the Evil side concedes that they will escape unopposed and so Frodo and Sam are removed from the board and escape!

In the Evil turn Gimli is picked up by two Uruks and moved a swift 6” straight for their board edge, making sure to get into cover as much as possible! The Uruk bowmen ditch their attempt at shooting down the boat as it escapes and run with the Uruk’s to help escort Gimli away. Lurtz stays close to the back of the group, ready to sacrifice himself to tie up Boromir, the only hero who really has any chance of rescuing the snoozing Dwarf!

The group that was fighting Aragorn instead decides to pursue Legolas, they begin to move through the woods to force Legolas to move and surrender his covered position.

Legolas is suddenly spurred into urgency, annoyingly just when the Good side need him too! He has no clear shot at the Uruks that are escaping but he manages to kill two Uruk bowmen with his shooting and begin to thin the numbers.

Boromir uses all of his remaining Might to kill the two Uruks he is fighting, realising he has to keep up the momentum in order to catch Gimli.

Evil wins priority!

With Boromir having no Might left Lurtz chances his arm and nobly (and probably) condemns himself to death by taking on Boromir 1 on 1!

Aragorn continues his run, and Legolas edges out of charge range of the Uruks who continue their crawl through the woods behind him!

The Uruks make a beeline for the hill, if they can get around the right hand side of it, Legolas will be unable to shoot and no one will be able to reach them, meaning at least a draw will be guaranteed. Uruk numbers are starting to wain and so a draw seems like a good result for the forces of Evil.

The Uruk Bowmen that remain move close to the two Uruks ‘escorting’ Gimli to Isengard to block Legolas shooting, there is a big no man’s land between them and the safety of the hill now and they just need bodies to block his line of sight.

Legolas lets fly and lands three hits on a bowman directly in front of the Uruks carring Gimli, however, Legolas has apparently peaked at five kills and cannot cause anymore wounds.

Lurtz loses his combat and also loses a wound, his fate is passed but he is pushed back away from the Uruks carrying Gimli giving Boromir a head start on him.

The game now is becoming solely about whether or not the Evil side can escape with Gimli in tow. Good wins this pretty crucial priority which allows Boromir to slip away from Lurtz’s charge range and make a beeline for the Uruks. Aragorn moves a full six inches again, but it is starting to look clear that he won’t reach the Uruk’s if they keep moving at full speed. Either Legolas or Boromir needs to knock an Uruk off of Gimli and reduce their movement (only one Uruk carrying Gimli would reduce their movement to 3”) only then will Aragorn have a chance of catching up to them.

Boromir goes full pelt and really only two Uruk archers and one Uruk are remaining to oppose him. Lurtz doesn’t want to play catch up and so instead opts to try and gun down Boromir! (Well our scenario’s have gone with the film so far this may be Evil’s chance to cause another coincidence!)

Legolas lets fly with another three arrows at the Uruk archers and this time he kills one!

Lurtz notches an arrow and hits Boromir square in the back causing a wound!! Boromir is down to one wound and the excitement is building!

Turn 6

Turn 7

Turn 9

Turn 8

Turn 10

Turn 11

Turn 15

Turn 14

Turn 13

Turn 12

Evil wins priority this turn.

Of course this means had Lurtz moved last turn he would have charged Boromir, but it’s too little too late, and instead he stands his ground with his bow in his hand, all he needs is a little luck and he will take down Boromir and secure an incredibly hard fought draw!

The Uruks trundling through the woods realise they will never catch Legolas, who will merely nip back into the woods to evade them. They change target and mob Aragorn one last time hoping to block his path sufficiently enough to halt his advance.

The Uurks with Gimli finally round the hill and do so just enough to deny Legolas a clear shot, he will have to make an ‘in the way’ shot for the cover they receive. Meaning it is a very important shooting phase indeed!

Evil starts us off with Lurtz and his last remaining bowmen shooting at Boromir! It is a heart in mouth moment for both sides when both shots land! A roll of a 6 will cause the last wound and slay the mighty Boromir who has been a thorn in Evil’s side since Balin’s Tomb!

The dice Gods however, are not kind. A double 5, is as close as the Uruk’s can get.

Legolas takes what may well be his last shots at the Uruk’s carrying Gimli. Of three hits, he lands two. One shot only makes it as far as the hill, lodging itself into the grass with a dull thud, the second however manages to find an Uruk Captor but that all important 5 roll to wound comes up with a lowly 1, and the book is pretty much closed on everyone’s favourite Dwarf’s chances of escaping!

Aragorn once again, for perhaps the fifth or sixth time, uses his free point of Might to win his fight and slay one Uruk.

Turn 15 rolls around, and Evil wins priority.

They begin immediately by carrying Gimli around the back of the hill and the game is looking wrapped up. The Uruks will make it to the board edge next turn as they are 5” away and Boromir is looking 10 or 11 inches away from them, so as long as nothing happens to one of the Uruks, it will be a draw.

The only character looking like he may have eyes on the Dwarf is Aragorn but Evil does not give them any chance of even sniffing hope, and mob him before he can draw his bow.

Legolas makes a desperate move to nab a last ditch line of sight on Gimli but it is too late, Legolas would need at least another two moves to be able to get a clear shot. There is nothing anyone can do for the Son of Gloin now! Legolas instead continues his move to get a clear shot at Lurtz next turn.

Boromir’s heroic charge is the only consolation now, and he makes a beeline for the Uruk archer in front of him that has side stepped to block his path.

The bowman and Lurtz land both of their shots against Boromir again! But the vital 6 evades them yet again, and Boromir, although looking like a pin cushion, is still on his feet.

Aragorn wins his fight with, (yes you guessed it loyal Cob fans!) his Free Point of Might which is really starting to grate on the forces of Evil now! In another fitting episode of Déjà vu, he slays one Uruk with his resulting rolls to wound.

Turn 16

Evil wins priority for what will be the last turn.

The Uruks move off the board with Gimli and secure the Draw. With only 6 Uruks and Lurtz left on the field, there is little the Evil side can do to capture another hero and so both players agree to let this turn run its course and call the game a tie.

But does turn 16 have one last twist in store?

Aragorn is mobbed for the last time, the Evil player will just be happy to actually beat him in combat having managed to win 0/13 combats with him, the plucky hero using his (incredibly annoying) Free Point of Might to win at least 6 of those. (I would go back and count but it’s just too depressing.)

Legolas does a little shuffle and has a nice clear shot at Lurtz, the forces of Good eyeing him up as suitable target to kill in retaliation for Gimli’s capture.

The Uruk bowman in front of Boromir edges back 3” and its just enough to get him out of charge range meaning he can fire a shot next turn.

Boromir continues his run just as the arrows are let fly towards him…

The Uruk bowman in front of him is clearly rattled and misses his shot. Lurtz however is baying for blood and lands a hit with his arrow!

It comes down to the last dice roll, a 1/6 chance that Boromir will die, both sides watch as the dice tumbles…and a great cheer erupts from someone…

The arrow slams home into Boromir’s back and the mighty Hero slips to his knees finally succumbing to his injuries! The vital 6 is rolled and Boromir is slain! It is a great moment in the game, as Boromir dies at Lurtz’s hand to an arrow, just like the story! We do love it when our Battle Reports follow the narrative!

Legolas unleashes his volley in retaliation. And although he lands all three hits, he wounds with none of them, meaning Lurtz actually survives the encounter at Amon Hen!

Aragorn wins his combat and this time puts his free Might Point to use in killing Uruks instead of just besting them in combat, he slays two in his last fight even though it is hollow consolation.

With Gimli on his way to the torture chambers of Isengard, and Boromir looking like a dead hedgehog the game ends in a draw.

Post Game and Scenario Analysis

"Be at peace, son of Gondor."

In our game, for Good, some small victories are won, all the Hobbits escape together and can keep each other company on the way to Mordor.

And for Evil, although the Uruks do not manage to capture any valuable halflings we’re sure they’ll try their best to squeeze some information out of the hardy Gimli. And in a moral victory, Boromir’s Horn of Gondor has been smashed into tiny little pieces; making troops with a courage of 3 take a leadership test to fight isn’t really fighting fair after all!

And in a little cherry on the cake, Lurtz lives to tell the tale of his almost victory at Amon Hen, perhaps he’ll change the course of his story and lead the charge at Helm’s Deep! We like to think so anyway…perhaps we’ll be in discussions about this tweak to the story in the Two Towers!

Analysis

This is definitely one of the more interesting Scenarios in the original book. This scenario is certainly one of the *fairer* scenario’s as the Evil side is helped out by the separation of the heroes, as well as the large board span, as well as being given some hardier and stronger troops.

For Good it becomes more about the placement of your heroes. The Scenario leaves the choice to you as to where you wish to place them, in fact it gives you no restrictions as to how close you can place them to the board edge (it only specifies that they must be at least 6” apart) This means you could line up 3 heroes within striking distance of the board edge where they need to escape (Sam Merry and Pippin would be your best bet) and have them exit almost straight away. This would get rid of the easier targets for the Evil side, however, it means the Evil side will have fewer Heroes to concentrate on straight away and will focus their efforts more. Although this would not be in the spirit of the game.

Frodo wearing the Ring almost straight away is a no brainer. If you use the rules in the first edition like we did, Frodo can never be forced to take the Ring off unless the Good player chooses. Therefore he can just meander towards the board edge at his leisure without being harassed by Uruks making for another easy escape, the flaw with this plan would be if the Evil player managed to control Frodo and also if he leaves the board wearing the Ring then he counts as a casualty, which would be an easy kill.

Then it is about clumping together, keep Boromir away from archers with his 0 Fate profile and keep Legolas near any wooded or difficult ground where he can hide with his cloak and out manoeuvre the Uruks. Aragorn is your most capable hero and can take on large groups fairly confidently and safely with his (grumbles) Free Point of Might, he’s a hero you can place a large distance away from the group and take a decent gamble that he can make it alone.

For Evil you have to get to the Hobbits, and indeed, a crucial point in this battle was Merry and Pippin surviving two rounds of combat with the Uruks before nipping away. Had they lost it would have been a very interesting battle and most likely different outcome for the forces of Evil.

The special rule with the boats and the jetty offers an easy escape for some Heroes so, Evil must make sure to block that exit off and make them trek the long 72” walk to the top of the table.

Your positioning of Lurtz is also vital, getting him into a position where his Might can be of use is crucial as you are up against over 20 Might points on the Good side, that’s a lot of Heroic Moves that can be called to outpace and out manoeuvre you.

The bowmen on the Evil side are some of the only useful Evil archers in this whole edition! So make sure you use them, they’re good for weakening Heroes in preparation for an easy take down, or should the worst come to the worst you can deny the Good side victory by slaying a Hero.

Out of all the Scenarios we definitely recommend that you give this one a try!

Thanks for reading!