Cob Wargaming: LOTR City Fight Battle Report

City Fight

A LOTR Battle Report

High elves started on the nearest large rectangle with the Uruk-Hai on the opposite square. Red objective is down the dead end on the right with the Blue objective just out of shot on the left.

Intro and rules

We had the idea of a battle in a city using some tiles from Warhammer Quest to represent the alley ways and open spaces of a cramped city. We thought this would be a great way to add another dimension to our games in that it would severely restrict movement and force us to think differently in the way we came up with our tactics.

There would be 5 objectives : one in each of the starting zones, one in the middle and one down each of the dead ends. whoever held the most objectives after 20 turns would be the winner.

We each started with 500 points of one faction as a starting force with 300 points of a different faction in reserve. The reserve forces would be eligible to start reinforcing after the tenth turn and they could enter from any captured marker.

Objectives would be deemed captured when one side had a model in base contact if both sides had a model in contact then it belonged to no one. After priority each side would roll a D6 and that would be the amount of wounds worth of Reinforcements they could bring on that turn.

Forces

Good side

The High Elves were led by Elrond and a captain, the rest of the force was made up of a banner bearer, a handful of bowmen and the rest were all armed with elven blades.

Evil side

The Uruks were led by Lurtz, who was appointed the army general. He was backed up by two captains, as well as twenty Uruk hai 10 with pikes and ten with swords and shields, four berserkers, five crossbowmen, three scouts with swords and shields, three scouts with bows, and with 5 points left over a Wildman of Dunland joined the fray!

Plans

Good plan

The High Elves split into two groups, the captain was to lead a group to the nearest objective and secure it with help from the banner bearer whereas Elrond was going to take a slightly larger group and try to hold back the Uruk-Hai and contest the middle objective until Boromir could help him push back the evil tide.

Evil plan

The Uruk hai also split into two groups. One captain took the Crossbowmen, Berserkers and a handful of Uruk's to form a hard hitting force to tackle the smaller group of Elves. Lurtz took the remaining Uruk's backed up by all the Pikemen in order to form ranks of multiple attacks in order to help choke the streets and hopefully defeat Elrond!

Turns 1 - 10

Good Point of View

For the first few turns the elves pushed on with the plan. Things looked to be going well and they even won a crucial priority but the Uruk-Hai captain used a heroic move to block the gap to the red objective and make things far more awkward than they needed to be. The Elves managed to get some archers into a decent place up on the closer ledge and start to pick off some of the enemy crossbows. Elrond started to take out the berserkers while his group of elves struggled to get near the white objective in the middle. The elven captain and his team could not break through to the red objective with the Uruk- Hai defence proving to be too much for them to penetrate.

Evil point of view

Utilzing the Captain's might to steal the intitive with the a heroic move proved a great tactic and allowed the scouts to nip in towards the blue objective and set up defences to hold it, as well as allow the Uruk's at the Red objective to dart in and defend the barrier there. The Uruk warriors outnumbered the High Elves and I thought this would help swing things in my favour, but the High Elves annoyingly high Fight Value meant that the Uruk's were struggling to win combats and were getting picked off! I was hoping to sweep through the Elves and defend the barriers and street entrances in time for the reinforcements to arrive but the Elves held the Uruk's back annoyingly well! I was starting to regret not taking an expensive hero as even my Captain was slain by an Elf warrior!

I had invested heavily in bowmen and crossbowmen and they were ultimately useless. They didn't manage to get in position fast enough to gun down any warriors not in combat. And once they had picked off the High Elf bowmen huddled in cover, which in itself took five turns, they spent most of their time waiting for a clear target as the Uruk numbers meant that most of the time the Elves were outnumbered in combats so shooting into them was pointless.

Berserkers who were also quite expensive didn't have the punch I wanted them too. Even with two attacks they were losing out to the Elves Fight Value and with one wound they were getting slain even by just normal warriors. They didn't even survive to the fifth turn once Elrond showed up to try and relieve the beleaguered Elf Captain who was still holding his own. By the time the reinforcements showed up I had Lurtz, one Captain and less than half the Uruk's left.

Reinforcements

Good Reinforcements

The Elves were backed up by 300 points of men of Minas Tirith/Numenor which were led by Boromir. For the first batch of reinforcements the elves rolled a 3 but because they had no control of any objective markers decided to bring on just a few spearmen and try to capture the red marker so that Boromir could jump straight into the action and start to wade through the enemy.

Evil reinforcements

The Uruk's were backed up by Goblins. As we only had 300 points I wanted to pick a force that would give me the cheapest warriors, and I managed to get an impressive twenty six goblins, ten with spears, ten with shields and six with bows and two cave trolls! As Elrond was getting close to the Red Objective which I just held thanks to a Captain holding the barrier I started to bring my reinforcements on there. I rolled 3 first and brought on three goblin bowmen to try and help shoot Elrond down before he could hold the Red objective.

Turns 10-14

Good point of view

With the red marker becoming so important Elrond was needed to try and capture it. Just as he got himself into a reasonable position the Elven captain died and the Uruks managed to bring a Cave Troll through the red entrance and almost directly into combat with the Elven lord. Confident that Elrond would be able to kill the Troll the rest of the Elves left him to it and focused on killing the other warriors around them and pushing for the white objective in the courtyard, which was quickly being overran. This proved costly because after 4 turns of intense duelling Elrond was cut down.

Evil point of view

The Blue Objective was safe, and Lurtz and his last remaining Uruk's were comfortable in holding it. The Elves didn't seem to fussed about pressing for it and so i concentrated on bringing my reinforcements on at the Red Objective where Elrond was getting scarily close to taking it! The goblin bowmen were useless with their 5+ Shoot Value and bringing them on there was a terrible mistake! Elrond made very short work of them and so I resorted to bringing a Cave Troll in to try and deal with the Elf Lord! There was intense fighting, and luckily I had kept an Uruk in base contact with the objective marker to hold it and I kept bringing on goblins to assist the Troll. It was close fought and the Troll was reduced to 1 Wound but he finally managed to squish Elrond! By turn 15 there was only one Elf left on the board and as the Good reinforcements had ran out quickly whilst the goblins kept coming and flooding into the streets!

Turns 14-18

Good point of view

Seeing that the Red objective was going to be contested for some time Boromir entered the battle through the starting location and rushed as fast as he could into the battle. Expecting Elrond to be able to take control of the red objective Boromir stormed through the middle and through armies of Uruk-Hai and Goblins with the Horn of Gondor proving to be incredibly useful. As the game ended with Boromir contesting the White objective he looked up to see a swarm of Goblins pouring out from the room where his allies were supposed to be.

Evil point of view

In true Lurtz style, he and the scout bowmen stood back and shot Boromir from afar, slightly for tactics but mainly because the temptation to imitate the film and have Lurtz shoot Boromir to death was too good to pass up! Boromir was turning the tide of the battle in the main courtyard for the white objective and he and his men were sweeping into the streets, albeit belatedly as they had a long way to travel from their starting point as they held no objectives. The goblins and remaining Uruk's were just being fed to Boromir, and the pesky Horn of Gondor (meaning if Boromir is outnumbered his foes must pass a courage test or he automatically wins) meant that more often than not my warriors didn't even get to try to win the fight. But with the the death of Elrond and the Red marker completely uncontested now, I could bring the full force of my Goblins from the Blue marker, and they poured into the courtyard. They swamped around the white objective marker and Boromir could not get close to it.

The cave troll joined the fray and I expected a full on massacre! A Cave Troll had taken down Elrond even with his three Fate points so I expected Boromir would bean easy target considering he had none! But the Troll didn't last one round with Boromir who used up a fair bit of his Might store but caused three wounds and killed my troll outright!

Boromir was threatening to take the white objective single handedly but with his men trailing behind and being over ran by the sheer volume of Goblins the good side was soon realising they did not have the men nor the time to win the battle. The goblin horde ran out of reinforcements on turn 17 a full two turns after the last man of Gondor entered the battle and although the goblins hadn't really caused many casualties to the men and not a single wound on Boromir they were just too many in number and they choked the courtyard as I hoped they would. Although the game was supposed to last until turn 20, the Good side conceded on the end of turn 18 as they had no hope in holding any other objective than their starting location.

Major Victory for Evil.

The game ended with a major victory for Evil who were fully in control of 3 objectives and their own starting point, with Good only having their starting location this meant Evil held 4 out of 5 objectives! A major victory for the forces of darkness. Although in a few more turns Boromir and his men would have beaten back the Goblin tide in the city streets but the game was already lost!

Post Game

Good post game

In hindsight the Elves should not have taken any bowmen or the banner bearer and should have instead brought more troops just to block access and be more effective at getting in the way. Also Boromir should have been brought on with the first batch of reinforcements, I waited until near the end of my reinforcements to bring him on, as I was hoping I could get him into a better position faster had Elrond taken the Red Objective. But it took Boromir almost two turns to make it to the courtyard and by then there was too much work to do. Although he was very capable of defeating a Cave Troll and probably twenty goblins by himself he needed much more time than the game allowed.

Evil post game

The tactic of employing many warriors and fewer heroes worked really well for this objective game. The sheer number of warriors was good for choking the narrow streets and swamping the courtyard slowing the advance of the Good side and stopping them claiming objectives. Plus with many warriors guarding the objectives they were hard to dislodge and the Good side needed more time to whittle the numbers down.

I was very lucky that the Troll managed to kill Elrond. Had it been the other way around, the combined power of Boromir and Elrond would have made short work of the weak Goblins that were overwhelming the objectives. I maybe should have taken more powerful heroes that could have helped the warriors deal with the mass of high Fight Valued Elves and the powerful Boromir.

Shooting was a waste of time, and the points I spent on fourteen archers could have been more properly utilized in the purchase of a powerful hero! Shooting can be easily nullified with a scattering of cover and a close quarters combat game.

Although I like to think it was a great tactical display really the Evil side was lucky in places, and although it was a major victory it came at a major cost! All the Uruk's were killed bar Lurtz and the Uruk scout bowmen, and half the goblins were dead by the time the Good side conceded defeat! In a few more turns Boromir would have cut down the goblins and Lurtz would not have the power to take Boromir down alone! But luckily this was an objective game and the streets of the city were well and truly lost to the Good side! And although Boromir lived to fight another day, the mighty Elrond was not so lucky...

We hope you enjoyed this battle report, thanks for reading!