Cob Wargaming
Round Two
Domination
The Scenario
Set up:
Domination is a scenario that will stretch and test your force. Mark out a Deployment Zone at either end of the table and a central objective (7) directly in the middle. The other 6 objectives must be a minimum of at least 10" apart in a hexagonal shape around the central objective and at least 2" away from the Deployment Zones. Agree with your opponent on where to place any terrain.
Scoring:
At the end of every turn, each player gets 1 point for every objective that they are in control of. To control an objective you must have at least one model in Base contact with it, multiple points are not scored by having more than one model in base contact with a single objective. If both sides have a model in base contact with an objective then it is deemed as contested and neither side gets the point from that objective. Whichever team has the most points at the end of the match wins.
Game Length:
A game of the Domination lasts for 8 full turns, after the end turn roll a D3 and that many extra turns are added to the game length. Might points cannot be used to influence this roll. If one team is wiped out before the game ends then the opposing team can still carry on till the end of the game to try and gain more points, if this is somehow still not enough points to win the game then the match counts as a draw. Neither side needs to make courage tests for having a reduced starting force.
Match One
VS
This was the smallest team against the biggest team and this was going to be a big disadvantage for the Elves. The Elves set up in a thin line hoping that their higher movement would get them to the objectives quicker. In comparison the Goblins set up in a wall of terror formation with all three of the Cave Trolls together to blow the Elves off the objectives and crucially away from the Terrifying Elrond. For the second match in a row the Goblin Bowmen lay down a gauntlet when they fired a Volley and killed the lone Wood Elf that was guarding the Raiders 'Home' objective, objective 1. This not only put the Elven side behind on the scoreboard but also forced them into taking another Elven warrior off the front lines and they needed every body they could get.
Three Cave Trolls storm towards the Elven Lines
The Elven lines look stretched as the Cave Trolls make their presence known
Turns 3 and 4 saw a race for the central objective which the Elves won and claimed some early points to put themselves into the lead, but they had a Cave Troll staring down at them. At the same time, Elrond and a small group of warriors was able to Contest objective 5 and potentially push for objective 6 near the Goblins Deployment Zone. But Moria Heat struck a blow back by killing the Elven Captain with 2 Cave Trolls which left them in near complete control of the left flank. By Turn 6 the score was a surprising Tie and Moria Heat was beginning to worry that they would not take advantage of this so-called easy win to claim another victory.
The Elven Archers had been a major thorn in the side of Goblins and were doing a brilliant job of aiding the Elven warriors who were struggling with being outnumbered. By comparison the Goblin Archers, depite a fantastic first turn, were not having the same kind of luck that they enjoyed in the previous round. By Turn 8 none of this was a worry for Moria Heat who had pretty much completely swamped the Rivendell Raiders defense. It had taken Elrond till turn 8 to completely clear Objective 5 and as he turned to celebrate he saw that his army had been demolished behind him, there were only a handful of Archers trying in vain to defend ojectives 1 and 2.
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Desperate last minute defence from the Elves
Final Scores
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Turn / Raiders / Heat
1 / 0 / 1
2 / 3 / 4
3 / 8 / 7
4 / 10 / 10
5 / 13 / 12
6 / 15 / 15
7 / 17 / 18
8 / 18 / 23
9 / 19 / 29
The final score was Rivendell Raiders 19 - 29 Moria Heat. A points difference of 10 earned the Goblin force a 1-0 victory which would keep them at least joint top. We jointly agreed that the Man of the Match award should go to the Cave Trolls who clearly had the biggest influence on the game. By working together the Trolls were able pick off Elven Warriors 1 or 2 at a time and take out the Elven Captain while Elrond was away on the other side of the table.
Match Two
VS
Both of these teams fancied themselves as the true force of evil, and it was time to tell! The Mordor Maulers deployed so that they could take the quickest route to each of the objectives, aiming to use their Warg Riders to snatch some early points. Isenguard deployed into small teams that would each have their own objective to claim. Mordor's plan worked perfectly, they swept to an early lead while the Uruk-hai were busy trying to get their crossbows up onto a high vantage point, this lack of shooting let the Warg Riders rush up the battlefield unharmed straight towards objective 6, the Uruk's home objective.
The Uruks consolidate their objectives as the Orcs look to make early ground.
The Warg Riders are lured into a trap
The threat of the Warg Riders main thrust and the two flanking riders forced the Oracles to abandon their game plan and go on the defensive. By the start of Turn 4 the Uruk's were already 4 points down and they desperately needed priority, which they got. This let them get the charge move on the over zealous Warg Riders which led to 4 of them dying to the mob. This was a real boost to Isenguard who were now 5 points behind and had a Mordor Troll to deal with. No problem to the pikes of Isenguard though! They brought down the beast in Turn 5 after only losing one of their group to the Trolls giant hammer. This was the Second major blow to Mordor in rapid succession. Meanwhile Grishnakh and Lurtz had been going toe to toe for Objective 4 and the delay went brilliantly for Mordor but they Orc was dead by Turn 7 although the Maulers were now leading by 6 points.
Despite dominating the kill count, Isenguard was losing time now and so the Uruk-hai Captain took on Gothmog who had been heroically defending captured objectives, but the Orc leader was no fool and brutally murdered the Uruk Captain in a single round of combat. The Isenguard Oracles needed a miracle, and in Turn 8 they got 2! The first came from the crossbowmen who until now had failed to kill a single model throughout the entire game despite being able to see at least 80% of the battlefield from their high vantage point. Not only did they finally get some kills, but they completely cleared Objective 3. The second miracle happened during the roll to see how many extra turns there would be, Isenguard got exactly what they needed, an extra two turns. This let them finish off the slaughter of the Orcs and rush the Objectives to sneak in a last minute victory.
The Mordor Troll is brought down by the pikes of Isenguard
Final Scores
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Turn / Oracles / Maulers
1 / 1 / 3
2 / 4 / 7
3 / 7 / 11
4 / 10 / 15
5 / 13 / 19
6 / 16 / 23
7 / 20 / 26
8 / 24 / 27
9 / 27 / 29
10 / 33 / 30
The final score was Isenguard Oracles 33 - 30 Mordor Maulers. A points difference of 3 earned the Uruk-hai force a lucky 1-0 victory which would move Isenguard to mid-table keep the Mordor Maulers joint bottom. We agreed that the Man of the Match award should go to the small group of Uruk-Hai pikemen and the Berserker who took the Mordor Troll. If the Troll had lived he could have decimated the Isenguard force and claimed several objectives on his own. The Crossbows had been comically bad but they did make another kill before the end, one of their own Berserkers, which lost them control of the only Objective they needed for a clean sweep. The forces of Mordor had only killed 14 Uruk-hai and they end they were only left with a single Orc Spearman and a slightly wounded Gothmog compared to 24 Uruk-hai and Lurtz.
Match Three
VS
This was a battle between the two armies that had the most might points but neither player wanted to squander them. Both sides deployed in their army in distinct groups that were clearly trying to claim objectives. Predictably the Riders of Rohan grabbed the closer objectives quickly to secure some early points and put the Giants onto the back foot. A pair of Riders of Rohan stuck to either flank in an attempt to distract and slow down the Gondorian advance and if possible to contest some objectives. For the Giants, Boromir led a contingent up the middle with Faramir and the Captain taking either flank and preparing for a slog. The Giants planned to use their superior shooting to aim for the horses which would negate one of the key advantages that the Rohan Royals had. This worked well, by Turn 2 the arrows had accounted for 3 horses, one of which was Eomer's.
Boromir led the charge up through the middle whilst Theoden set his defensive lines around Rohan's objectives
Eomer and Faramir duel it out but the Men of Gondor prove to be the difference
In their haste to contest the objectives, most of the Riders had left themselves open to being Charged which was pretty catastrophic against the shield and spear combination of the Gondorians. In Turn 3 Boromir claimed the middle objective and it was clear that this was going to be the main action area so Rohan had to send both Theoden and Gamling to attempt to wrestle back control of it while Eomer took on Faramir. In Turn 4 Rohan had managed to cause enough mayhem to contest objectives 4 and 5, however during the Fight Phase they were butchered by Gondor, losing 6 of their kin during a single turn and handing the objectives back to the Gondor Giants. At this point in the match the Royals only had 3 kills, all of which had came from throwing spears. Boromir finished off Theoden in turn 6 after the king had lost every fight he had been involved in, this was followed by Eomer falling to Faramir and a couple of spearmen in Turn 7.
Despite dying en-masse, in Turn 8 the Royals had outmanoeuvred their opponents and had actually managed to take full control of the middle objective. This put them 3 points in the lead with only the D3 extra turns left. Rohan prayed for a low score, Gondor prayed for a high score. It was the Gondor Giants who had their prayers answered with a colossal 3 extra turns. This proved too much for the now desperate Rohan Royals and they began to completely fold. Gamling fell to the sword of Boromir and the Giants completely swept the board, controlling all 7 objectives and wiping out the Royals by the end of the final turn.
Clever tactics from Rohan almost made up for their warriors being utterly hopeless. Almost!
The final score was Gondor Giants 40 - 28 Rohan Royals. A points difference of 12 only earned the Gondorian force a 1-0 victory which they felt could have been a lot more in the would move Isenguard to mid-table keep the Mordor Maulers joint bottom. We agreed that the Man of the Match award should go to Boromir for doing his job properly, killing heroes and dispatching multiple enemies at a time whilst also throwing in heroic moves when they were most needed. In this game the Rohan Heroes had been pretty hopeless and the only thing that held the mighty Gondor Giants in check had been a handful of very tough warriors. an example of this was the Warrior of Rohan who kept Objective 4 contested for 3 turns whilst fighting against 4 enemies at the same time.
This result moves the Rohan Royals down to the middle of the League table and keeps the strong looking Gondor team at the top.
Final Scores
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Turn / Giants / Royals
1 / 1 / 3
2 / 4 / 7
3 / 8 / 10
4 / 11 / 13
5 / 14 / 16
6 / 17 / 19
7 / 19 / 22
8 / 22 / 25
9 / 27 / 27
10 / 33 / 28
11 / 40 / 28
These two bowmen had spent the majority of the match firing arrows at each other to no avail.
The Lone Wolf would of happily taken on the entire of Minas Tirith by himself!
Gamling led his men wisely, even capturing an objective that seemed lost
Summary
There we have it folks, round two complete. The Gondor Giants and Moria Heat are looking like the teams to beat in the upcoming rounds. The Rivendell Raiders and the Mordor Maulers will be hoping for a win to prevent further embarrassment in the coming rounds.
Domination is a fun scenario that forces players to be on the offensive and the defensive at the same time while their force is spread out over the table. Below is a quick reminder of the scores and how the current league table looks.
Feel free to leave any comments in the box below, We would also love to hear from people who have tried this scenario, how did your teams get on? did you break the Giants record score of 40 points? or were you crushed like the Rohan Royals? The next round looks like it will be the key round in deciding the competition.
