The Board Is Set: How to Play Clash by Moonlight

Good morning gamers,

This is it, everyone - it's our last scenario for singles in the Matched Play guide (right before we get a new edition, I know)! The oddity of the scenario we have today, Clash by Moonlight, was integrated into every scenario that has the Assault on Lothlorien Legendary Legion as a participant. It's dark in this scenario - and that changes everything (and makes it a perfect time for killing heroes).

For the last time, let's look at what the main idea of Pool 6 is as a context for the Clash by Moonlight scenario (and if you've already read it, you can click here to skip ahead).

Pool 6: Killing Enemy Heroes

We've seen four scenario pools that ultimately come down to being able to get somewhere (whether that's with maelstrom deployments in Pool 1, holding multiple objective markers in Pool 2, getting to different objects in Pool 3, or starting from a corner/walking onto a board in Pool 5). We've also seen one pool that's all about killing more of the enemy than you lose in Pool 4 (which could be limited to kills by your army leader or just mass killing with your army).

Pool 6 is more like Pool 4 in that it's about killing things - but how many enemy models total you kill is usually not weighted as strongly as being able to kill enemy heroes (either one specific hero or all enemy heroes). Since heroes are generally speaking better than warriors, killing enemy heroes in Pool 6 requires some planning in the list building stage in order to avoid a "no win" scenario.

The Scouring of the Shire, Part 13: The Lockholes

Good morning gamers,

Today Centaur and I will be playing a scenario that I have been looking forward to playing - the Lockholes! This scenario has an optional rule that I mentioned back when I reviewed the lists you can make with the Scouring of the Shire scenario participants and it's required a little extra record keeping as we've been playing.

The Lockholes has four Hobbit Militia and Lobelia and Fatty "locked up", but if other heroes were carried off in a previous mission (Will Whitfoot and Folco Boffin) or were killed in a previous mission (Farmer Maggot and Gaffer Gamgee), you can replace the Militia with the heroes and rescue them instead. Centaur happened to win most of these scenarios, so only Folco Boffin has been added to the captives list. If he escapes, I'll get +3 Ruffians in the Battle of Bywater scenario.

The Lockholes

Centaur deployed with most of his guys on the road, with archers on one flank and a few Militia on the other. My Ruffians are pretty spread out to cast a big net for them.

The Board Is Set: How to Play Assassination

Good morning gamers,

This is our second post in our review of scenarios from Pool 6 (and our penultimate post in this series - at least for singles Matched Play scenarios). Last time, we looked at a really cool scenario where both players are bluffing and trying to mask their plans from their opponent (usually). Today, we're looking at a scenario that could be seen as having more or less bluffing going on, depending on who you are and what you're running: Assassination.

As we've done with all the posts in this series, we'll start off with a brief overview of the pool (but if you read this before in a different article, you can click here to skip it).

Pool 6: Killing Enemy Heroes

We've seen four scenario pools that ultimately come down to being able to get somewhere (whether that's with maelstrom deployments in Pool 1, holding multiple objective markers in Pool 2, getting to different objects in Pool 3, or starting from a corner/walking onto a board in Pool 5). We've also seen one pool that's all about killing more of the enemy than you lose in Pool 4 (which could be limited to kills by your army leader or just mass killing with your army).

Pool 6 is more like Pool 4 in that it's about killing things - but how many enemy models total you kill is usually not weighted as strongly as being able to kill enemy heroes (either one specific hero or all enemy heroes). Since heroes are generally speaking better than warriors, killing enemy heroes in Pool 6 requires some planning in the list building stage in order to avoid a "no win" scenario.

The Board Is Set: How to Play Fog of War

Good morning gamers,

We're starting our last pool of scenarios for Matched Play (singles Matched Play, that is) and it's definitely one of my favorite pools. If I had to guess, it's a favorite pool for a lot of players, with lots of guessing and surprises that can make the games memorable. Of the three scenarios in this set, the scenario we're covering today was my favorite of the scenarios released in the MESBG revamp back in 2018 and it's always a joy to play: Fog of War.

Before we delve into the specifics, let's talk about the distinctives of this pool - especially in the context of the preceding five pools. If you've already read this part in a different post, you can skip it by clicking here.

Pool 6: Killing Enemy Heroes

We've seen four scenario pools that ultimately come down to being able to get somewhere (whether that's with maelstrom deployments in Pool 1, holding multiple objective markers in Pool 2, getting to different objects in Pool 3, or starting from a corner/walking onto a board in Pool 5). We've also seen one pool that's all about killing more of the enemy than you lose in Pool 4 (which could be limited to kills by your army leader or just mass killing with your army).

Pool 6 is more like Pool 4 in that it's about killing things - but how many enemy models total you kill is usually not weighted as strongly as being able to kill enemy heroes (either one specific hero or all enemy heroes). Since heroes are generally speaking better than warriors, killing enemy heroes in Pool 6 requires some planning in the list building stage in order to avoid a "no win" scenario.

Two of the three scenarios in Pool 6 involve secretly picking an enemy hero that you want to kill - and unless your opponent has exactly one hero in their force, you'll need to pick a hero who isn't the army leader. In the third scenario, you get VPs for having at least one hero alive but additional VPs if you have at least one hero alive and you killed more enemy heroes than your opponent killed (or all enemy heroes). Lists that are good at killing enemy heroes have an advantage in these scenarios.

The Scouring of the Shire, Part 12: Brockenborings

Good morning gamers,

We're doing the Brockenborings scenario today, which is very similar to three other scenarios we've played to date - like The Mayor's Arrest, The Death of Lotho, and The Arrest of Folco Boffin, the Ruffians will be trying to capture two Hobbit heroes - and they'll just have Hobbit Militia to protect them. Like the Death of Lotho, I'll be spread out trying to guess where the Hobbits are going, but unlike that scenario, my hero (Bill Ferny) starts on the board. Like all three scenarios, the heroes given to the Shire player aren't great combatants, but unlike those three scenarios, I don't have a great hero (Bill Ferny is just sad). Let's look at the board - and cover a few caveats about the scenario before we get into it!

Brockenborings

As you can see, we have a smial in the center of the board in which Fatty, Lobelia, and eight Hobbit Militia begin in base contact. Fatty and Lobelia are trying to get off any board edge and I'm trying to capture them (using the At 'Em Lads or Put 'Em In Chains rules to Paralyze them) and get them off any board edge. If either of them are killed (or if one escapes and the other is captured), the game is a draw. Like the Folco scenario, this means that both of us want them to get close to the edge of the board - we just want to be the one moving them off. My units had to deploy at least 15" away from any Good model, so I've made a ring to hem them in as best I can, with Bill playing flex in the middle of the southern board edge.

Warning: before reading any further, you should know that your play experience in this scenario might be VERY different if you play it on your own from what you're about to read. For starters, because of the way my Shire panels are built, any smial tile we used would have allowed Centaur to travel ~12" to the north of the board to get off the board and since all of my models had to start 15" away from any Hobbit model, Centaur was like, "so I could deploy touching the northern side of the Hobbit smial, you'd have to start 15" away from me, and I could get both of my models off by moving 11" north before you could do anything . . . let's make a game of it and not do that." I appreciated that very much.

Second, thanks to Lotho not dying in the Death of Lotho scenario, Centaur adds 1 Might point to Lobelia's profile, which means Centaur goes from having 0 Might across his army to having 1 Might in his army - that's gonna be handy wherever Lobelia is. If you're playing the game normally, having 1 Might point on Bill isn't a big swing, but it does mean that the Evil player will be guaranteed to go first. Additionally, if Evil wins the Death of Lotho scenario, then Lobelia can't use her Fate point in this scenario (or any other scenario she's in for the rest of the campaign), which . . . would be huge in this scenario. The Death of Lotho scenario has big rewards for both sides if you're playing the linked campaign.

Third, because Centaur won the Bounders Strike Back scenario, he got to put 8 traps (two of each type) on the board . . . I love traps, but golly it comes with a healthy respect as well. My biggest fear is, oddly enough, that I'm going to get slowed down by them and not that I'll take damage from them. Yes, damage would be bad, but getting tied down by those Hobbit Militia will be bad (and it'll be even worse if the Hobbit Militia can write someone off as stuck in a pit instead of having to actually charge my guys).

So with all that prologue, let's see if I can bind up some Hobbits!