Good morning gamers,
I told Centaur before we played this scenario, "This one's going to be quick." I like scenarios that just require you to hit things and kill things, but this scenario requires you to wipe out your opponent. Personally, I think quartering is just fine (most games when one side is quartered would result in a round or two of "mop-up" to get to tabling, so I don't think wiping out an entire force is necessary). Still, with no Uruk-Hai respawning, I'm thinking this should be quick and easy. Let's see if my guys can comply this time and actually do that!
Ride Out
The board is . . . well, pretty bare in the set-up so we didn't complicate it. Wide open space, good starts in a corner, evil starts within 6" of the center. As you can see below, this is the perfect kind of place for a cavalry sally . . .
I didn't have my Saxon Huscarls painted up in time, so we're using Riders of Rohan instead. My mounted Aragorn model is representing Nori, while my Erkenbrand conversion is representing Dwalin. For kicks and grins, I decided I'd keep track of Dwalin and Nori's kills, just to see how they do.
Turn 1: Priority Good
I advanced forward with my cavalry and the Uruks advanced a bit to make a straighter line. I was shocked and surprised to see Centaur using my loose phalanx formation - it's really good for making sure you have a long battle line and lots of flexibility with your pikes (2-4 dice in each fight if you support or shield, thanks to having all shield guys in the front).
Turn 2: Priority Evil
I wanted Evil to get priority this turn, since that let me move after the Uruks and made sure we were within throwing weapon range but outside of charge range. The armies moved as you see below:
In the shoot phase, one throwing spear managed to kill a shield guy - we have an opening!
With the kill count started, we rolled for priority and to my satisfaction it went to . . .
Turn 3: Priority Evil
YES! The Uruks advanced and I charged, wrapping around the sides a bit. Despite charging a few pikemen with throwing spears, I didn't get any kills on the charge. Theoden rammed into a Captain and a shield guy (backed by two pikes), Nori charged a Captain and a shield guy (no supports), Dwalin charged a Captain and a shield guy (2-3 pikes), and Gamling charged two grunts (backed by 1-2 pikes). My Royal Guards tried to get the simplest match-ups possible to take advantage of the F5 on the charge (and all of my models get +1 Strength on the charge, thanks to the scenario special rule - S6 Dwalin and S5 Nori!).
In the Fight Phase, I called Heroic Combats with Dwalin (1/3M) and Nori (1/2M) and a Strike with Theoden (1/3M). Dwalin resolved his Combat first and used the Piercing Strike special strike (if he wins, he'll be S7 with +1 To Wound) and after burning a Might point (2/3M), he won and killed the Captain and the shield guy he was fighting. Instead of ramming into pikes, he raced around the flank and engaged two shield guys. Nori got a rubbish roll and lost his fight, but the guys he was fighting were shielding, so that was okay-not-great.
In the fights that followed, things went pretty well overall - Theoden won his fight and killed the shield warrior. He then dealt two wounds to the Captain, but he saved one with Fate (1/2H, 1/1F). The Royal Guards all won their fights and killed three of the four guys they were fighting. Dwalin did his thing and killed two more guys.
The only dark point in the round was that Gamling lost his horse and then suffered two wounds (both on 6s, so it was good I didn't call Heroic Defense) and had to boost his Fate roll twice in order to not die (1/2H, 1/1F, 2/3M). Yikes, that was close . . .
Turn 4: Priority Good
I've said before that calling Heroic Moves to catch cavalry is good - and counter-calling Heroic Moves is wasteful. I had foolishly committed all my cavalry in with no real reserves to react to the Uruk-Hai, so when the Uruk-Hai Captain who was on the ground called a Heroic Move (1/2M), I decided to can my previous advice and counter-call with Theoden (2/3M), getting everyone except Dwalin and one Royal Guard within range. To Centaur's happy delight, I won the roll-off and he proceeded to tell my why counter-calling Heroic Moves is a great idea. I let him and charged as you see below:
With the Uruk-Hai Heroic Move canceled, I proceeded to charge with Dwalin and the remaining Royal Guard.
The Fight Phase didn't go as well as the last one, but we're still making progress. Theoden called a Strike (3/3M), but that was it. Dwalin decided to be a PANSY and got a 3-high (why does he always do that!), lost his fight, and suffered a wound (1/2H) - recall that I don't have any Fate on him, so if he botches again, I'm hosed. Nori lost his fight too after escalating against the Captain and losing the roll-off (Nori 2/2M, Captain 2/2M) and his horse was killed - oh, and he also suffered a wound (1/2H). I do have a Fate point on him, but I figured if I failed that and he was sitting on 1 Wound/0 Fate, the Uruks might get a bit aggressive and pursue him.
Two Royal Guards died, but we did manage to kill four models, including the Uruk-Hai Captain who had 1 wound left from the previous round. With only one Uruk-Hai Captain left (and he's out of Might), I'm thinking we can pull this off in another turn or two.
Turn 5: Priority Evil
Theoden regained 1 Might point at the start of the round for being near Gamling. I could have called a Heroic Move, but I counted on the Uruks fleeing, to be honest. The Captain passed his Courage test and got almost everyone in range of his Stand Fast! The remaining Uruk or two passed their tests and now I was engaged on all kinds of fronts. The good news was that I still had F4 Royal Guards and Dwalin still had a Might point.
So naturally, Theoden called a Strike (because he was fighting the Captain, 3/3M) and Dwalin called a Combat (3/3M). Dwalin succeeded in killing his guy and pulled the pikes out of Theoden's fight.
We lost a Royal Guard (only one left), but Dwalin smashed his two foes (did a Piercing Strike so he could wound them on 2s . . . it worked . . . oddly enough), Nori finally killed someone, and Theoden beat the Captain (but didn't wound him).
For the first time in the game, we outnumber the Uruk-Hai - let's see if we can close it out!
Turn 6: Priority Tied, goes to Good
Theoden regained a point of Might at the start of the round. Blurry picture, I know, but we charged into everyone. Theoden charged two pikes, Gamling and a Royal Guard charged another pike, and Dwalin joined Nori to gronk the Captain.
Gamling called a Heroic Combat and it worked. Gamling himself just moved to be within range of the fights, while the Royal Guard charged into one of the pikes fighting Theoden.
And look at that - we won! Dwalin did his Piercing Strike thing to wound the Captain on 3s and he dealt two wounds after rolling the first two pairs of dice. One failed Fate point later and the Captain was toast. To be fair to Nori, I probably should have let him roll first (what with his Elven-made dagger that has Uruk-Haibane on it), but whatever.
Kill Count: Uruks 3/8, Rohan 23/23. Dwalin 8, Nori 1.
Conclusion
To be honest, I thought the Dwarves would have killed more people, but I was fine with how the game went in the end. Having both Dwalin and Nori goof up on a single turn (and Nori be out of it for two turns) was really rough, but in the end, it was Theoden who really saved our bacon (and the others all get credit for not dying). When rolling for recovery, I let Dwalin's record speak for itself (I chose to overlook his 3-high round - it's just what he does) and gave him Bravest Companion. While I'd certainly be well within my rights to give Fool of a Took to Nori, I didn't - he tied down a Captain for two rounds and did his job in the final two rounds. He can recover some.
Dwalin got a 5 on his recovery roll, so he's at full stats for their next mission (which is going to be a while from now - gotta get through five missions with Bilbo/Maggot and three missions with Gandalf/Bifur/Bofur). Nori got a 3 and recovered both points of Might (but didn't get his wound back). We decided we'd roll for Gloin too (despite him not being in the mission), since otherwise he wouldn't get a chance to recover before their next mission (because Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli don't get a rest point in Edoras?) and he got a 6, so he's at full as well:
The next mission should be the same thing - except we get close to 20 additional Good models and only 10 additional Evil models. We'll be F3, true, but with lots of shooting and the White Wizard to lead us, I'm feeling confident. We'll be back in a fortnight - and until then, happy hobbying!
For the record, I'm more or less with you on not just counter-calling Heroic Moves so that you can still go first, but for cavalry it makes a world of difference whether you charge or not. And in the case of Rohan cavalry near Theoden against F4 opponents (banner or no banner for the F4 guys) it's even more important.
ReplyDeleteBut yes - it's wonderful when things just work out to prove a point, ayuh? ;)
(Also great game! You did a good job managing a much smaller force of cavalry and making sure you had good combats all along the line)
The managing of cavalry is something I've been trying to work on recently . . . hence all the cavalry formation articles. :-)
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