Fantasy Fellowships: The Erebor Reunion, Part 2a

Good morning gamers,

We're back with the next set of scenarios in Quest of the Ringbearer, beginning with Wolves in the Night and going through the (notorious) Bridge of Khazad-Dum. The missions begin with a Rest Point in Rivendell and we will have the full Fellowship for these four missions. Because these scenarios are much longer, we're only going to cover the first two today (Wargs in the Night and Balin's Tomb), while the other two will have to wait two weeks. Let's see how we did!

Mission #1: Wargs in the Night

So in this scenario, I started with my six Dwarves on the exterior, my dogs and Gandalf near the center, and Bilbo/Maggot ready to support Bifur and Bofur. For the first two turns, I forgot to take pictures, but it's fine, since the Wargs stayed away from us as we drifted towards the eastern board edge. Gandalf cast Strengthen Will on himself on Turn 1, getting a 7th Will point, and cast Sorcerous Blast on the Wild Warg Chieftain on Turn 2 (2/3 Might, 5/6 Will), but the Chieftain resisted on a 6. On Turn 3, things looked like this:

Yes, I have nine Ringwraiths standing in for some Wargs . . . it's a thing . . .

The wargs had priority and while I could have called a free Heroic Move, I needed to respond to his charges, so I let the wargs charge. The only models in danger were Wolf (fighting two wargs) and Bofur (who was facing down both the Wild Warg Chieftain and a warg), so Bilbo put on the Ring and pulled one of the wargs off Wolf and Gandalf cast Sorcerous Blast (3/6 Will left) on the warg who charged Bofur and threw it into another warg (unengaged), and most importantly, knocked Bofur and the Wild Warg Chieftain over: the target warg died, while the other warg was knocked prone:

In a stunning turn of events, Bofur wasn't wounded and the Wild Warg Chieftain was, failing a Fate point and losing his first wound. Gandalf then joined Bofur's fight:

After everything, here's what the board looked like:

In the Fight Phase, Dwalin and Gloin called Heroic Combats . . . they both won and slew their wargs (perhaps unsurprisingly) - Dwalin joined Gandalf and Bofur while Gloin jumped in to save Grip:

During the rest of the Fight Phase, the fights went pretty well: Dori, Bilbo, Wolf, and Fang lost their fights, but didn't get wounded. Maggot lost his fight and took 1 Wound (which is fine for now). Gloin, Grip, Nori, and Bifur won their fights and killed their guys. Most importantly, Dwalin won the fight for his friends and easily dispatched the prone Warg Chieftain:

As Turn 4 kicked off, we got priority and started charging. Gandalf tried to cast Strengthen Will on himself, but it didn't work:

In the Fight Phase, lots of wargs died - Gloin got all 2s To Wound (as you can see), Gandalf got a 3 instead of a 4+, and Bilbo lost his fight again (but wasn't wounded). Everyone else did their job and killed their guys:

On Turn 5, I didn't have control of Bilbo, who decided to look for mushrooms near a tree, oblivious to the hungry pack of wolves right near him. I charged the few Wargs that were left and reformed my forward line while the wargs formed up with their new reinforcements:

In the Fight Phase, Maggot and Fang won their fight, but both messed up the wounding rolls. Wolf and Grip decided to make the boss proud and killed their guy. Nori and Bofur, unsurprisingly, dispatched their guy:

On Turn 6, I let the Wargs charge and responded by charging all three dogs into Maggot's fight. In what was a very risky, but satisfying move, I spent Maggot's only might point to call a Heroic Combat - he and his dogs tied the Warg's dueling roll and with a roll-off of a 5, Maggot and his dogs dispatched the warg and raced off to join the rest of the army:

We squished a lot of Wargs in the rest of the Fight Phase (only Gandalf didn't kill his guy):

On Turn 7, I got to make some charges and Gandalf restored 1 Will with Strengthen Will (4/6 Will left). Bilbo retreated into the "pocket" we are forming, with Bofur pulling back to guard the top of the pocket:

Lots of death followed - Maggot botched his wounding rolls and Gandalf (again) messed up his wounding roll. Nori burned 1 Might to kill all three of his wargs - that guy is a champ among champs:

On Turn 8, I lost control of Bilbo ("Mr. Bilbo, come back!") and I called a Heroic Move, which limited my movement options and the wargs raced around some of our guys:

Gandalf had to burn a Might point (1/3 Might left) to win his duel, and both Bilbo and Fang lost their fights (but neither were wounded). The others did what they do best:

Turn 9 was rushed and I didn't get a picture, but I had to leave so we had to call it there. Considering my army over nine rounds had lost 1 Wound and no Fate and most of my heroes had spent only 1 Might (Bilbo and Bifur hadn't spent any, Gandalf spent 2) and I could call free Heroic Moves with Bifur, we were pretty sure we knew how this was gonna go. For kicks we rolled for priority over and over again to see how long it would have gone . . . we stopped rolling after Turn 20. :-)

There was one thing I didn't realize until I was writing this up: I forgot to put Bill the Pony on the board. :-) Turns out I might have had a banner for Maggot/Bilbo and a means of regaining Might/Will on Gandalf - which would be awesome. Bill is a rockstar and I have no one to blame but myself for forgetting him.

Ultimately, I gave Bravest Companion to Gandalf for his elegant dispatching of the Wild Warg Chieftain (he got a 6 and got all his Will back) and gave the Fool of a Took to Bilbo for running headlong into danger (though he didn't spend any stats). The others all had 1 stat to regrow except Maggot, who got a 3 on his D3 roll and regained both his Wound and his Might point. Despite not having Bill, we're going into Moria with full stats.

Mission #2: Balin's Tomb 

As I prepared for Balin's Tomb, I thought about all the different ways I'd played this scenario. I learned to play the game with the Mines of Moria starter set back in 2010 and the intro book had four scenarios culminating in Balin's Tomb. There was also a variant in the One Rulebook, one that I printed from the GW website (back when they had scenarios available for download for free), the one from the journeybook, and now this one from Quest of the Ringbearer. I don't know how many times I've played some version of this scenario, but I'm going to guess it rivals the number of times I've seen the scene in the Fellowship of the Ring film (so, a lot).

Depending on the variant you play, evil either has to come through the door or they can emerge from 1-2 trap doors or possibly a well. This version of Balin's Tomb seems to be the hardest yet, with three alternate entry points (two trap doors and a well) that allow up to 4 models to arrive. I do have to point out that, because my Balin's Tomb terrain was based on a previous scenario book, we're actually playing on an 18"x18" board instead of a 24"x24" board . . . which may have made things easier for the Goblins (but kinda also helps the Fellowship . . . a little). 

Both Centaur's Fellowship and Gorgoroth's Fellowship lost models in this mission and both were eager to get to the last turn with Frodo and some friends still on the board. Let's see if we can do any better! Also, just for fun, I thought I'd compare Gloin's kill count with Dwalin's kill count during various rounds - you know, since they're my Legolas and Gimli characters . . .

Some of my oldest terrain pieces on my first board - nostalgia is everywhere!

We deployed close together, but with room for the dogs to jump onto the traps on the first turn - they won't stay there, but hopefully they'll buy me a little time. The Goblins horded out at the entrance. On the first turn, we charged the ranks of Goblins while Gandalf cast Blinding Light (not channelled) to keep himself, Bilbo, and Fang safe(r) from archery.

The Goblins reacted, spreading out and trying to get good angles for their archers:

In the Shoot Phase, one Goblin archer managed to get a shot past Blinding Light on Fang and got the required 5 to wound! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

In the Fight Phase, I called FIVE Heroic Combats (Dwalin, Gloin, Dori, Nori, and Bifur), which allowed us to get a bunch of Goblins off the board and enabled us to press further into their ranks to clog up the doorway. In the Deep-Dive post for this scenario, Sharbie pointed out in the comments that killing things early on gives them deployment flexibility - and he's right. Keep that in mind as this scenario continues:

Seven dead Goblins after the first wave of Heroics . . . and we're low on Might . . .

In the ensuing Fight Phase, things went pretty well, with lots of dead Goblins. Gloin, as you can see, got three 2s on his wounding roll (literally the only number he didn't want to see, since he wounds on a 3+ and rerolls 1s):

As we moved into Turn 2, the Goblins got priority, so Bifur called a free Heroic Move and got a few fighters into position:

Dwalin combats through two more Goblins, breaking into the rearmost Goblins on the board . . . this guy is a beast!

The Goblins responded as best they could and we couldn't react because everyone had been in range of Bifur. The board looked like this - Maggot received the charge from the Goblins that climbed out of the well:

In the Fight Phase, we killed some stuff and as you can see, Gloin slightly increased his wounding roll, killing a single guy:

With priority returning to us on Turn 3, we got the best charges we could and Bilbo slipped on the Ring. 

I would like to point out the fabulous job Grip and Wolf are doing here, blocking up the trap doors . . .

With a trap on Nori, the Captain called a Heroic Combat and Nori managed to get a 6 but didn't do any wounds back to the Captain:

The rest of the fights went pretty well, Goblin guys died and all:

Gloin has now killed 2 models - Dwalin has killed 8 by contrast . . . just saying . . . 

Turn 4 saw us with priority and the arrival of the Cave Troll: he slammed into Dwalin and got some help from a few Goblins:

Chuckles the Troll arrives!

Dwalin called Heroic Strike (guaranteed higher Fight Value), used Piercing Strike from his two hand axes, and got a 6 to automatically best the Cave Troll - and then promptly dealt three wounds to the Troll AND killed the Goblin he was originally fighting - what a beast!

Poor Chuckles - he didn't see that coming . . . #10kills #ThatStillOnlyCountsAsOne

The other fights were pretty good, except where the dogs were involved - usually these guys are great, but today they just couldn't roll well:

Did you see Gloin's dueling roll? Triple 1s . . . Dori also struggled this round . . .

Turn 5 saw us trying to consolidate some killing power towards our backfield, beating a hasty retreat with Gandalf to support Maggot and Bofur:

In the Shoot Phase, the Goblins tried to pick some wounds off Bifur, hit their own guy, and killed him - yaye I guess?

The fights went okay for everyone except Gandalf who lost all three Fate points to two measley Goblins:

Kill tally: Gloin 4, Dwalin 12 

I have no pictures of Turn 6 or the deployment on Turn 7, but as you can see, Bilbo and Dori redeployed to be near the rear because we were really starting to feel the crunch. The big news from Turn 6 is that Dwalin decided he didn't want to roll better than a 3 for his dueling roll and died under the press of Goblin bodies (failing both Fate points). Gloin lost his fight on Turn 7 because he, well, decided he needed to also botch dueling rolls:

Turn 8 saw Bifur calling a Heroic Move and Bilbo and Gandalf able to gang up on one guy while Nori, Dori, and Maggot tried to hold the rest of the well-spawners at bay:

In the Fight Phase, I decided to use one of Gandalf's two remaining Might points to call a Heroic Combat and he and Bilbo managed to redeploy and help their friends out:

The Fight Phase went pretty well, with some breathing room being bought near the well and Bofur and Gloin killing guys coming from the door:

On Turn 9 (we're almost done!), I concentrated my models in the middle, trying to keep my vulnerable units from being swarmed and keeping Bilbo in safe match-ups. If you look at the board, things were looking pretty good:

And then this happened - yes, Gloin botched and died, Maggot botched and died, and Bofur botched and died. In a single turn, I went from one Fellowship member dead to FOUR Fellowship members dead:

We got priority on Turn 10 and Gandalf let loose a Sorcerous Blast into a three-model triangle, knocking them all prone. He and Bilbo charged them, while my surviving guys made a barrier around them: 

The Goblins responded - we could be in some trouble:

In the Fight Phase, Bifur won his fight (YAYE), Dori won his fight (YAYE), and Nori lost his fight - he suffered one wound during the first wave of wounds (failed his Fate save), and then the Goblins rolled the second wave and got one 6 . . . followed by a . . . 3! Nori lived and since Gandalf and Bilbo were fighting prone opponents, I couldn't lose. Gandalf and Bilbo both killed guys and the game was ours . . . barely:

In the aftermath, my Fellowship was pretty beat up - everyone made a full recovery, but we are pretty low on stats. Dwalin soloed the Cave Troll, so he got Bravest Companion, and I had three equally Fools-of-Tooks in the dogs (but especially Fang). Hopefully we can avoid spending resources on the stairs - we're going to need it to stand against the Balrog!

Take Aways From Part 2a

So, it turns out that having lots of F4/2A heroes makes a huge difference. I mean, it makes a HUGE difference. In the Wargs in the Night scenario, I won almost all my fights and where I won, I killed my foes in almost every fight without Might. It was crazy - but it was because almost everyone in my Fellowship had a well-above 50% chance of winning their fights (due to having 2-3 dice and the higher Fight Value). Centaur had a few 1A heroes (Frodo, Beregond) as did Gorgoroth (Old Bilbo, Damrod, Merry) and these models give you a vulnerability if you don't have a banner nearby (which both of them had banner rerolls in their army, but those banners struggled sometimes to be with their weaker characters).

In Balin's Tomb, it was also nice to not have roll-offs against the Captains with pretty much anyone - and with Strike on both Dwalin and Gloin (and a Ringbearer nearby), I wasn't that worried about the Troll ramming into them (turns out I was right about that). Those Champs, when they win, sure do clear out the foes, which was important for most of the game to keep the match-ups pretty favorable (though the end was REALLY rough - they sure are divas, aren't they?).

It also pays to be D8 - my Dwarves didn't need to boost a lot of dueling rolls because frankly, I wasn't that worried about taking wounds if I lost (against the no-spear-supports Wargs, it worked - against the Goblins . . . not so much). In the first mission, the only D8 Champ to lose a fight was Dori and he was fine. In the second mission, D8 kept our big guys alive longer than they otherwise would have (that extra 4+ after rolling a 6 saved our bacon all over the place - but particularly in the last round with Nori). While I was really feeling the lack of a banner, the Defense buff was pretty sweet. 

It's also good to have +1 To Wound - chopping through Wargs and Goblins on 4s or 3s (or 2s with Dwalin) was pretty crazy and super reliable. Thorin's free Heroic Combats would have been awesome in both missions (and I could have afforded him if I had swapped him for Dori and dropped the starting gear on Bilbo - but alas, theme!), but we made due by just not having to rescue anyone very often (though it was painful at the end of the Balin's Tomb scenario).

And lastly, I will say that Bifur getting free Heroic Moves is probably the highlight of this Fantasy Fellowship - Bifur is cheap and can claim one of your "bad" slots instead of taking one of the prized "big three" slots and since anyone can take him, that's a huge benefit. I think of all the Thorin's Company Dwarves, he's got to be at the top for most utility to have in one of the Merry/Pippin slots (theoretically getting heroic stats in-game with Ori would be good, Kili/Fili are F5/3+ with shooting weapons/Strike, Oin is a healer who can give you a clutch reroll, and Bombur is a tank/could help your wizard get Will back - but I don't think it's close).

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this - we'll be back in a fortnight with the next batch of scenarios. My boys will be walking down the stairs of the Dwarrowdelf next time and then trying to slay a Balrog (oh, and break a bridge). Until then, happy hobbying!