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Saturday, July 15, 2023

Fantasy Fellowships: The Erebor Reunion, Part 4c

Good morning gamers,

In our last battle report, I told Centaur, "I don't think this game is going to take very long." The Ride Out scenario went on for about five turns and was done in about 30 minutes. I was right. When Centaur and I looked ahead at this scenario (Eomer's Return), I said, "Yeah, this is basically the same scenario except you get +10 Uruk-Hai and I get +20 Riders . . . I don't think it's going to take very long." And I was right - as you will see. :) This scenario does have some pretty big changes from the previous one, not least of which is that I've dropped my two combat heroes (Dwalin and Nori) and swapped in my wizard (Gandalf the Grey, newly minted as Gandalf the White). I don't have Theoden (and his +1 FV buff, which would be super nice) and Gamling (for replenishing Might on Theoden or himself) and instead have Eomer (who hits harder than either of those other guys, but doesn't come with a shield or throwing spears - really, GW, really?!?!?!) and Erkenbrand (who is really underrated). Yep, there are definitely some changes.

What's interesting about these two scenarios is that they highlight the difference in play style between the Riders of Theoden and Riders of Eomer Legendary Legions - in Ride Out, your focus on heroes and Royal Guards with throwing spears makes you WANT to get that glorious charge off. Death! they do not have, but it's not that hard for four decent-to-great heroes to carve up 23 Uruk-Hai. It just isn't. The Eomer's Return scenario very much plays the way the Riders of Eomer play - you want one big charge (with lots of Combats to take advantage of those -1 penalties you're inflicting) and before that you want to soften the enemy up with archery. It helps that in this scenario, the Uruk-Hai have lost all their crossbows . . . so yeah, we're going to skirmish for a while, whittle down the numbers, then come thundering into combat with as many cavalry as we can, and have a good time. Let's get into it!

Eomer's Return

The board is a 24"x48" setup, with the Riders packed into 3" of one side of the board (the Riders barely all fit!) and the Uruks get a nice, wide, 12" zone to deploy in. As you can see, we deployed thusly:


Turn 1: Priority Good


Good began by moving up 5" with everyone and Gandalf successfully cast Strengthen Will on himself - so glad this is now cast on a 3+! (7/6W) Oh, and I do think this is Gandalf's most underrated spell - particularly for Gandalf the Grey, but definitely also for Gandalf the White. I know that I get a rest point for Gandalf after this mission, so I plan to blow through a TON of Will . . . but it doesn't hurt to have a little extra.

Turn 2: Priority Evil


The Uruks backed up a bit and stayed beyond 29", so I wouldn't be able to move and shoot this turn. I moved up half-speed - no need to rush forward and expose my army to charges. Gandalf once again tried to cast Strengthen Will on himself with his free Will point, but it didn't work.

Turn 3: Priority Good


In the Move Phase, Strengthen Will didn't work again, but we advanced a tad so we'd be in range - Evil basically didn't move.


In the Shoot Phase, my bows were on FIRE and killed 3 Uruks with shields - this is a REALLY great start! With only 24 bows that will hit on a 4+ or 5+ depending on whether we move or not and needing 6s To Wound, I only expected to kill 1-2 guys this turn. I'll take three!

Kill Count: Rohan 3/33, Isengard 0/27.

Turn 4: Priority Good


I stood still and tried casting Strengthen Will again - it didn't work (I guess all those successes with Gandalf the Grey are starting to balance out). 


In the Shoot Phase, I once again killed 3 Uruks with shields, focusing fire this time on the Uruk-Hai right-flank. I'm kinda stoked with how this is going!

Kill Count: Rohan 6/33, Isengard 0/27.

Turn 5: Priority Good


With priority going to me, I had Gandalf the Grey move forward a bit, line up a Sorcerous Blast on one of the Captains so that the line he'd move backwards split the gap between the two pikes he was touching (see this post for why this works) and let her rip (6/6W). The spell was successfully cast on a 5 and the Captain got a 2 on his resist roll (1/1W). He got knocked Prone, one of the pikes got knocked Prone, and the other pike was knocked prone and wounded. Gandalf then retreated into the ranks again. 


The Uruks did their best to reform their lines, but as you can tell, we have the advantage and can wrap around their right flank pretty easily. With the kill from Sorcerous Blast, we actually outnumber them . . . that's an interesting data point, I think . . .


In the Shoot Phase, my standing and shooting paid off and we killed 3 MORE Uruks with shields with our bows - wow, this is getting one-sided. Some of my bows focused on the already weakened right flank of the Uruks, but most poured into the left flank of the Uruks. There are only five Uruk-Hai with shields left (eight if you include the Captains) . . . I'm feeling like a charge needs to happen!

Kill Count: Rohan 10/33, Isengard 0/27. The Uruks are seven away from breaking and I can't be charged next turn . . . this looks promising . . .

Turn 6: Priority Evil


When I saw I had lost priority, I was like "YEEEEESSSSS!!!!!" Centaur knew he could try to run, but with the bows doing what they were doing, he'd just be shot to pieces if he did. So instead, the Uruks formed up in a tight-ish ball and advanced. I declared that the Sun Is Rising and began the charge. Gandalf began by casting Sorcerous Blast on a new Captain, got the cast off on a 6 (5/6W), the Captain failed his Resist roll (1/1W), and he got blown into a pikeman. Like last time, the Captain was knocked Prone and the pikeman died. The rest of the charges went as you see - I did misplay one thing, though. In my haste to get throwing spear casts on the charge, I accidentally boxed out Eomer . . . so yeah, this turn isn't going to be as good as it could have been. I moved Eomer over to my left flank and have him ready to call a Heroic Move on the next turn in case the Uruks try a counter-attack.


In the Fight Phase, there were four Heroic Combats: Gandalf went first (1/3M) but had to escalate his die roll to win (2/3M). He killed the Captain he was fighting rather handily and charged into two pikemen. The Captain I blasted on the previous turn went next (1/2M) but lost to a Rider of Rohan. He wasn't wounded. Erkenbrand went next (1/3M), killed his man with the help of another Rider, and then proceeded to charge into two pikemen (his buddy joining a nearby fight). Finally, the other remaining Captain went (1/2M) but lost his Combat as well (but wasn't wounded).


The rest of the fights went as you see above - we lost one Rider of Rohan and killed guys with our heroes. For whatever reason, my Riders of Rohan either lost to Uruk-Hai pikes (F4 will do that sometimes - especially if you roll a 2-high or 3-high on two dice!) without dying or knocked their foes over but couldn't get the 5+ required To Wound. Erkenbrand had to escalate to win his follow-on fight (2/3M), but ended up pasting his foes in the end.

Kill Count: Rohan 18/33, Isengard 1/27. Seven more models and we're done!

Turn 7: Priority Evil


With Evil getting priority, I decided to call two Heroic Moves - one with Eomer (1/3M) and one with Erkenbrand (3/3M). With only 1 Might left on each Captain, there were no counter-calls, so in went the cavalry! Gandalf had a Sorcerous Blast (4/6W) lined up on the Captain he blasted earlier in the game and sent him flying away from the action. He then charged him. One pikeman was killed with a throwing spear.


In the Fight Phase, Eomer called a Heroic Combat against two pikemen (2/3M) and in a stunning turn of events, he won and slew them. What was truly surprising was that . . . he didn't really have anywhere to go, so he just charged into one random Uruk-Hai Warrior with shield.


The rest of the fights went as you see - Eomer and his buddy killed his guy, Gandalf killed the Captain he was fighting, various Riders killed their men, and at the end, only six models (including one Captain) were standing (well, they were alive - most of them were standing).

Kill Count: Rohan 1/27, Isengard 27/33. Isengard is quartered, victory for Good!

Conclusion

Well, I was right - that wasn't that hard. :) The sheer amount of bows you have on the Rohan side (and no way for the Uruk-Hai to force an engagement) made it particularly one-sided - and even more so because I had Gandalf's Sorcerous Blast to add to the ranged damage output (and knock guys prone - that was big). I've played with the Riders of Eomer Legion a lot and I will say that the shooting-then-big-charge-with-Heroic-Combats is surprisingly effective so long as your opponent doesn't have F5 everywhere. The Riders of Rohan are very unreliable in the charges if they're up against 3+ dice and higher Fight Values (see the math I did at the bottom of a previous formations post for more on this), so they really need to fight a single model to have a chance of winning/staying alive (which we did pretty well in this fight, though the follow-through into killing models was really spotty).

With regard to the wizard slot in a Fantasy Fellowship, while your outgoing damage would be less by using a caster besides Gandalf or Saruman, if you brought someone who caused the Riders around him to cause Terror (Radagast or Cirdan) or just had a F6/2A hero on the charge (Arwen and Gildor), you're still looking at doing quite a number on the enemy so long as Eomer is still in your line-up. Yes, the Riders of Rohan are all F3 in this scenario (vs. the F4-5 Rohan Royal Guards we had in the last scenario), but our numbers begin at nearly the same level and we have long-range shooting and plenty of room to fall back . . . yeah, I'm not sure your choice of hero matters that much here.

Let us know what you thought in the comments below - our next Fantasy Fellowship post will walk through the scenarios for our Ringbearer and Companion and I'm hopeful that most of these games won't take very long to play (I mean, one way or another, I don't think Shelob's Lair is going to take very long). 

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