Cob Wargaming
The Scenario
Set up:
King of the Hill is a simple scenario, the only terrain that you need is enough to mark out a 7"x 8" rectangle in the middle of the board to represent the scoring zone. Place any other terrain as you see fit. Deployment zones are 10" away from the halfway line of the board and at least 12" away from the scoring zone.
Scoring:
At the end of every turn, each player gets 1 point for every model that they have whose base is entirely within the scoring zone. If only one player has models in the scoring zone then they count as unopposed and are worth 2 points each. Cavalry and other mounted models still only count as a single model for purposes of scoring. Whichever team has the most points at the end of the match wins.
Game Length:
A game of the King of the Hill 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.
VS
Match One
This really was going to be the battle of the Trolls. In the early turns the Mordor Maulers sent the Warg Riders to the objective area to grab some early points and stake some defensive positions. This would give the Mordor Troll time to arrive and take down a Cave Troll or two. However Moria Heat had clearly been training hard in the pre-season and the Goblin bowmen were proving to be surprisingly accurate, they had easily picked off three of the Warg Riders and a couple of the supporting Orcs by the turn 2. Then the Goblins swarmed! By turn 5 they had nearly completely taken over the scoring area but the Mordor Troll and the Orcs superior Fight Value (never thought i would say that!) were giving the Maulers a foothold in the scoring area.
What was left of the Warg Riders grab some early points as the Cave Trolls close in.
The Trolls wrestled with each other while the Goblins below dodged the stamping feet.
After a couple of turns of the Mordor Troll and the Cave Trolls trading blows both sides were keen to get that duel over and done with. Gothmog was also beginning to force his way into the heart of the Goblin forces. So in turn 7 Moria Heat took some action. In a seemingly desperate move they fired into the combat with a Mordor Troll and a Cave Troll, they ended up hitting the wrong Troll and taking it's last wound! In the combat phase Gothmog killed the Goblin Captain and that sealed a diasaterous turn for the Heat!
By turn 8 the entire Orc force was squeezed into the scoring zone and although The Maulers were steadily picking off the Goblins they just did not have the right numbers. In the last few turns the Goblins were being slaughtered but they were just not dying fast enough. Another 3 or 4 turns would have seen the Mordor Maulers win however they had their chance.
The final score was Mordor Maulers 37 - 95 Moria Heat. A points difference of 58 earned the Goblin force a 2-0 victory. We jointly agreed that the Man of the Match award should go to the Goblin Bowmen who clearly had the biggest influence on the game. Their surprisingly accurate bow fire prevented the Orcs from being able to effectively block access to the scoring area which ultimately won them the game. One Goblin even got to add a Cave Troll to his list of kills!
Points Breakdown
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Turn / Maulers / Heat
1 / 0 / 0
2 / 4 / 0
3 / 6 / 3
4 / 8 / 17
5 / 9 / 37
6 / 10 / 52
7 / 17 / 63
8 / 25 / 73
9 / 32 / 84
10 / 37 / 95
Grishnakh was not scared of trolls, as seen in our Champions League tournament, where he took down a Mordor Troll
Match Two
VS
Ancient allies became new enemies, the sons of Denethor took on the Lord of Rivendell over a small scrap of land! Without any cavalry on either side this became a straight forward race to the the middle. Priority for turn 3 looked to be crucial and it went to the Gondorians who created a classic defensive wall, swords and shields at the front with spears just behind and headed up by some fearsome looking heroes. The Elves squeezed as many as they could into the scoring area and set about the Men. In the first few turns of fighting the Raiders were struggling with the high Defence of Minas Tirith armour, they were only wounding on a 6 whereas the Giants were wounding on a 5+.
Boromir led the main assault with the Rangers overlooking the action
Battlelines clashed in a flurry of blades!
Gondor Giants had clearly been practising working in pairs because the Spearmen were making nearly every individual fight into a 2 vs 1. Another advantage that they had was a whole wealth of Might points, this let them take priority in nearly every phase and cut down the occasional Elf. But just when it was looking very one sided Elrond won a huge victory over Boromir and took him out! Also in the same turn the High Elf Captain very nearly took out Faramir. The Elven Archers were doing far better than their human counterparts who had barely managed a kill all game, Elven arrows taking out the few men who could not get into combat.
The Captain of Minas Tirith and Faramir teamed up and cut down the Elven Captain. Elrond sensing imminent defeat tried in vain to cast Natures Wrath but it was blocked by Faramir. This was the last nail in the coffin for the Rivendell Raiders who by now had no chance of catching the Gondor Giants points wise. By the end it was only a battered looking Elrond and a lone Elven warrior that were contesting the Scoring Zone.
The final score was Gondor Giants 115 - 49 Rivendell Raiders. Gondor earned themselves a 2-0 victory and had a huge points difference of 66 points, another couple of turns and the victory would have been even bigger. The Man of Match award was unanimously awarded to the Captain of Minas Tirith who killed 7 or 8 Elves and assisted in the death of the Elven Captain.
Prepared to fight to the bitter end, Elrond bravely faces his loss.
Points Breakdown
​
Turn / Giants / Raiders
1 / 0 / 0
2 / 0 / 0
3 / 14 / 12
4 / 29 / 24
5 / 46 / 33
6 / 68 / 40
7 / 86 / 44
8 / 102 / 47
9 / 115 / 49
Match Three
VS
A classic match up! Uruk-hai were bred specifically to kill the men of Rohan and now they would get the chance. The Riders of Rohan thundered straight into the scoring zone and by the second turn they had amassed a mighty 22 points partly thanks to the Uruk-hai crossbows failing to score any hits. Once again in this game having priority for turn 3 was going to be crucial. Both sides called heroic moves but it was the Royals that won the roll off and sacrificed their cavalry in order to seal off the entrances to the scoring zone while the foot soldiers flooded and set up defensive positions.
The Rohan Calvary grab some vital early points
Protecting the entrances was costing the Royals dear as the Isenguard Oracles made surprisingly light work of the cavalry. Lurtz and the Uruk Captain worked in tandom to drag Eomer off his horse and butcher him in a single turn. But for all the slaughter the Uruk force still had barely anyone within the scoring zone, by turn 6 the Rohan Royals were heading for a 6-0 victory, all they had to do was hold on.
With their numbers dwindling and the shield wall beginning to crumble, both Theoden and Gamling took the opportunity to get a revenge kill on the Uruk-hai Captain. It took three turns but they defeated him in the end. Unfortunately they had let a gap be created in the defensive wall which was quickly exploited and more slaughter began. But it was too late, the Oracles could not catch up despite gaining an extra two turns from the D3 roll.
A sticky end for a brave Rider
This duel started around turn 3 and was still raging till turn 9
The final score was Rohan Royals 77 - 58 Isenguard Oracles, a 1-0 victory for the Rohan Royals. The final score reflected the Oracles catching up towards the end of the game, If they could of slain Theoden and the final warrior then the double points rule would kick in and they would have claimed victory. Therefore the Man of the Match award has to go to Theoden for managing to survive against all odds, providing heroic moves at the right time and taking down the Uruk captain and some of it's troops.
The shield wall was instrumental in the outcome of this matchup
Points Breakdown
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Turn / Royals / Oracles
1 / 0 / 0
2 / 22 / 0
3 / 37 / 2
4 / 48 / 4
5 / 56 / 7
6 / 63 / 9
7 / 68 / 11
8 / 72 / 23
9 / 75 / 41
10 / 77 / 58
There we have it folks, round one complete. The Gondor Giants finished up as the real Kings of the Hill after a dominant display over the Rivendell Raiders.
All in all it was a brilliant little scenario that gave us great fun to play and provided us with something different to plan our tactics around. Here is a quick reminder of the scores and how the current league table looks.
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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? or were you as dismal as the Raiders?
Summary
