Cob Wargaming
Flight to Lothlorien
"Stay close, young Hobbits! They say that a great sorceress lives in these woods, an Elf-witch, of terrible power."
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This is an interesting scenario because it did not appear in the theatrical film version of the Fellowship of the Ring, although it may have been hinted at in the extended edition or the deleted scenes. Also in the Fellowship rulebook there is a still image of some Wood Elves picking arrows out of slain Goblins that looks like it should be straight from the film. Nevertheless it is the next scenario in our series and as such it shall be played! Here we go..
Scenario
Once again we played this mission straight from the Fellowship book. In this Scenario the remaining members of the Fellowship start on one side of a River (the Silverlode for Middle Earth geeks like us) and a horde of Goblins start on the other. The Goblin masses simply have to hunt down the heroes before they can escape through the woods at the far end. Once they heroes get close to the tree line Haldir and his group of merry men leap down and come to the rescue.
Good Force
The Good side consists of Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and Boromir (i.e. the whole Fellowship except Gandalf, his magic would have been very useful in this scenario). The Fellowship are then reinforced by Haldir and 10 Wood Elf archers. We used High Elf models to represent Wood Elves
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Evil Force
The Evil side is made up of a massive 50 Moria Goblins! There are 2 Goblin Captains (the 2 unpainted shieldsmen), 16 Goblins with swords and shields, 16 with spears and 16 with bows.
Deployment
The Evil side set up behind the river, splitting equally between the crossing points ready to swarm up to the Fellowship. The Archers were all mixed in with the other warriors ready to pull apart some Hobbits in close combat. The Fellowship deployed the maximum 6” away from the stream. Aragorn and Gimli protected Frodo and Sam on the left side while Boromir Protected Merry and Pippin on the right side. Legolas took up a more central position with the aim of picking off the closest Goblins. Haldir and the Elves start hidden in one of the trees but this is randomly determined and will not be revealed until later on.
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Objectives
The objectives were simple, The Good side must get Frodo and at least 4 other members of the Fellowship off the far board edge. The Evil side must either kill Frodo or 4 heroes not including Haldir and the Wood Elves.
Turn 1
3..2..1.. and there off! The Hobbits sprinting along at full speed, a mighty 4 inches! The rest of the Fellowship strolling along next to them. Aragorn and Legolas moving only 3” so they could shoot at the leading Goblins. The Evil side simply swarmed over the bridges which creaked under their weight. Legolas managed to kill a single Goblin, only 49 left!
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Turn 2
Good won priority and continued on the same path, Gimli rushing up so he could trigger Haldir and the Elves next turn. Boromir continued to protect Merry and Pippin and Aragorn and Legolas continued to move 3”. The Goblins continued the rush towards the heroes. In the Shooting Phase, Legolas fails to slay any Goblins but Aragorn uses a free point of Might to kill one.
Turn 3
Evil won priority so Legolas was forced to call a Heroic move to prevent the Goblins engaging anyone in combat. The Evil side ran up as close as they could, there was not much ground separating the two forces now. In the Good sides actual turn Gimli ran up and triggered the wood elves to spring into action, luckily for the Good side they turned up quite near the middle of the board ready to launch a volley of arrows from the trees and form a defensive line. In the shooting phase the newly arrived Wood Elves dropped 3 Goblins while Aragorn, Haldir and Legolas got one each. This meant that the Goblin line seemed to shrink back and opened up some valuable space between the two opposing forces.
Turn 4
Evil won Priority again but this time it was Aragorn that was able to call the Heroic Move to get him and Legolas out of trouble and into formation with the Elven warriors. In the Evil Movement phase, the Goblins got themselves into a better positions for next time and ready to hurtle themselves into combat, forming favourable battlelines and staring down at the bowmen. The Wood Elves edged up (each moving no more than 3" ensuring they could make some valuable shots) and spread out to block any instant access to any of the Hobbits, hopefully this would buy them some time to get further up the board and out of danger. In the shooting phase the Elven warriors killed another two Goblins, Legolas got two and Aragorn bulls-eyed one. 5 more down but there was still an angry hoard to contend with.
Turn 5
The Good side won this crucial priority saving themselves some valuable Might points. It was a very organised and structured fall back helped by the Wood Elves and Legolas stepping up to form a fighting Rearguard. The Evil side managed to get into combat with some of the Wood Elves and almost within striking distance of the rest. A small band looked to out flank the line by moving around one of the fallen trees. The remaining Elves that were not in combat killed two Goblins at very short range and Haldir killed another one. In the very first combat of the game a Wood Elf Warrior was slain by a Goblin, it turned out they only had a defence of 3 which means that Goblins can kill them by just rolling 4's! In the rest of the Combat Phase the Elves did not kill any Goblins but lost another of their brave kindred to the Moria menace.
Turn 6
Evil won priority for a key turn so Aragorn was forced to use a Heroic Move to ensure him and the Hobbits were out of charge range. The Goblin line then crashed into the Elven line, doubling up and employing spearmen where ever they could to counter act the Elves superior Fight value. Boromir drops back with Merry and Pippin. Aragorn kills a Goblin in the shooting phase and so does a Wood Elf that is not in combat. The Combat Phase quickly turned into a disaster turn for the Elves. The defensive line almost instantly crumbled into dust, six out of seven defenders in combat were slaughtered as they barely acted as speed bump for the rampaging Goblins. Legolas also suffered 2 wounds but managed to pass his Fate rolls. Within a single turn the game had completely swung the other way.
Turn 7
Evil won priority again and used this advantage to surround Legolas and the remaining Elves, they even managed to drag Aragorn into the scrap. Boromir decided to charge in to try and rescue Legolas as Gimli and the four Hobbits neared the board edge and safety. Everybody was fighting for their lives so no shooting took place. The Prince of Mirkwood fared better in this round of fighting, getting the all important 6 to beat back the Goblins. Aragorn cut down both the creatures that dared to attack him. One of the Wood Elves won his combat but could not kill anything whereas the other was buried under a sea of Moria Goblins, this left only one Elven warrior left alive. Boromir took out 2 Goblins and Haldir managed to kill one more.
Turn 8
The Evil side called a heroic move to help keep up momentum, to do this one brave Goblin charged both Haldir and Boromir keeping them from assisting Legolas. For the Good side Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin all move to within a couple of inches of escaping. Gimli had a difficult choice to make, join the Hobbits and win the scenario or rush off to try and save the other members of the Fellowship, because of how the Elves had been so easily overwhelmed he chose to join the Hobbits and secure victory, besides Aragorn and Boromir could easily fend for themselves. Aragorn and the last Wood Elf charged into combat. In the fighting Boromir and Haldir destroy the crazy Goblin that charged them both and Aragorn kills one with his free Might point. The last warrior on the Good side bit the dust and so did the brave Legolas. A major step for the Goblins and a big sacrifice for the Good side.
Turn 9
Gimli called a Heroic Move that got him and the four Hobbits off the board into safety and won the scenario. But with Legolas dead the Good side felt the need for revenge and we agreed to play on. The Goblins were now able to gang up on Boromir, Haldir and Aragorn hoping to cause more damage to the startled Fellowship. In Combat, Haldir fought back the hoard and slew two Goblins, Aragorn was clearly startled and had to use a free might point to win but could not cause any wounds. Boromir blew the Horn of Gondor and the cowardly Goblins failed their Courage Tests which let Boromir strike wounds for free, he killed the spearman and the captain but the captain survived by using up his Fate and Might points.
Turn 10
Once again Evil won priority and surrounded the Heroes. Aragorn had to use 3 points of might to win his combat or face near certain death. After his awful start he followed this up by rolling triple 6! Killing a Goblin and the captain who only survived by a fate roll. Haldir kills a spearman and Boromir kills a bowman. Merciless!
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Turn 11
The Good side won priority for a change but instead of just diving into combat they tried to move closer together and towards the board edge so they could better work as a team. In the Fight phase, Aragorn killed one, Haldir could only win his fight and Boromir had to use a Might point to win electing to kill the captain so as to reduce the Courage score being used against his Horn.
Turn 12
The relentless Evil side won priority but Aragorn took a major risk by calling a Heroic Move which left him without any Might for this turn. He used this move to almost link up with Boromir and Haldir. The Evil side changed tactics, sacrificing a single Goblin to distract Boromir and using the rest to surround Haldir, knowing that the dice gods can be fickle! Aragorn fails to kill and Boromir was pushed into using a might point to kill the pesky Goblin that was occupying his attention. Haldir's streak of rolling 6's to win fights ends with him rolling a 2, the 8 Goblins that were facing him only managed a high of a 4! so Haldir used two Might points for a lucky escape, even killing a Goblin. The Fellowship were tiring and the evil side could taste another kill!
Turn 13
The heroes won priority this time giving Boromir a chance to escape but he decides to stay and help out the other two who are looking very worse for wear. The Goblins surround Haldir again hoping to punish any weakness. In combat, Boromir kills both Goblins he was fighting and Aragorn summoned up some strength to also kill two. To the dismay of the Evil force Haldir was back on form rolling another 6 to win the combat and killing another Goblin
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Turn 14
The good side claimed the initiative again and edged closer to safety. An exhausted Boromir could not manage to hurt anything and the same applied to Aragorn, he needed his free point of Might just to win the combat. Better still for the Evil side Haldir suffered a wound.
Turn 15
Evil won the priority but the selfless Aragorn used his free Might point to call a Heroic move which allowed Haldir to bail out before he became mincemeat, this also left both men exactly 5” from the board edge. The Goblins then took this opportunity to surround Elendil's heir. This proved to be a wise move as Aragorn rolled a maximum of 5 to decide the combat. He was punished by being dealt a total of 6 wounds, the double hits rule for surrounded models really helping the Goblins. Without enough Fate points to help him, the king of men perished and the goblins praised the dice gods. Witnessing his last ally die Boromir had to burn another point of might to win his combat and did no damage.
Turn 16
Boromir used a heroic move to get right next to the table edge, only an awkwardly placed Goblin stopping him from escaping. Boromir blew the Horn of Gondor (Again) and the Goblins failed a crucial courage test and allowing Boromir to slay the captain.
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Turn 17
The Good side won priority and Boromir finally escapes.
Post Game
"The dwarf breathes so loud, we could have shot him in the dark."
This Game proved to be another difficult one for the Evil side to actually win but it also provided a challenge for the Good side to escape unharmed. The scenario demands the Good player to fight the enormous horde at some point. Our game ended with a costly victory for the Good side, losing to Legolas is bad enough but the mighty Aragorn as well would drastically change the out come of the overall story. For the good side to survive a bit longer they maybe could of held up the goblins at the bridges but this would require some very luck dice rolls. The Evil side does not really have much choice in tactics, using the Goblin bowmen to shoot would most likely be fruitless as they only hit on 5+ so it is better for them to join the swarm. The two key moments of the game were the Elven shooting being able to slow the Goblins down significantly and also the Elven Warriors barely lasting a turn in Combat. Our man of the match award would probably go to Aragorn because his Free might point allowed him to keep people out of charge range several times. The douche of the day award goes to Legolas who only managed to kill 4 goblins before completely failing to hold the line!
Final wound counts
The Hobbits - 0
Aragorn - 13
Boromir - 12
Legolas - 4
Gimli - 0
Haldir- 9
Wood Elves-8