Good morning gamers,
I know we're in the middle of a "Christmas List" series, but hey, I can turn a Fantasy Fellowship game into a Christmas List! For many players, these aren't the models you'd want if you ran a Minas Tirith/Rohan alliance, but my love for the Men of the West Legendary Legion has given me TONS of practice with these models! Here's the almost-legit, original participants list, clocking in at a very impressive 1352 points:
- Aragorn, King Elessar [ARMY LEADER]
- 8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
- 8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
- Gandalf the White
- INDEPENDENT: Peregrin, Guard of the Citadel
- 8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows
- 1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with banner
- CONVENIENT ALLY - The Fellowship: Legolas Greenleaf
- Gimli, Son of Gloin
- Frodo Baggins
- Samwise Gamgee with Sting (this would need to be on Frodo if you did this in Matched Play, of course)
- CONVENIENT ALLY - Rohan: Eomer, Marshal of the Riddermark
- INDEPENDENT: Meriadoc, Knight of the Mark with shield
- 8 Warriors of Rohan with shields
- 8 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
- 8 Warriors of Rohan with bows
- 1 Warrior of Rohan with banner
Besides Eomer having 11 more guys than he should, this is actually a legal list for Matched Play - though where is Legolas's armor and Eomer's shield? I mean, Eomer almost NEVER has a shield in Fantasy Fellowships - what's up with that? Anyway, the participants from my Fantasy Fellowship are nearly the same, except that I paid 15 more points for Dwalin instead of Legolas, 10 fewer points for Gloin instead of Gimli, 20 more points for Bifur instead of Pippin, 15 more points for Bofur instead of Merry, and (wait for it) 135 fewer points for Nori instead of Aragorn . . . that's roughly a 100pt reduction on the original participants.
Of course, Nori now has Anduril (so it's really a 60pt reduction overall) - and thanks to having Weapon Master, he'll be wounding on 3s every turn with no penalty for fighting two-handed and D7 (no shield bonus because I'll be two-handing). With 3 Attacks and the equivalent of Lord of the West (reroll one dueling die and one wounding die), I feel that Nori will FINALLY be able to keep up with Dwalin and Gloin in the wounding department (especially after the last showing - he did NOT do well in the Docks of Harlond scenario). Okay, let's kick off the last scenario in this Fellowship's journey!
The End of All Things
This scenario takes place on two boards: a four-by-four board and a two-by-two board. The bigger board was provided by Rythbyrt and the smaller board has shown up in several battle reports in this series. The terrain is intentionally sparse on the bigger one.
Turn 1: Priority Good
Before priority, Centaur cast Exhaustion on a 4+ on Bilbo, which will force him to take a Courage test for each inch he wishes to move. In the subsequent Move Phase, Bilbo passed all four of his movement checks, as you can see below (though one just barely):
In the rest of the Move Phase, I moved towards one side of Centaur's hemmed-in line (away from the Black Gate) and Centaur engaged. I was, of course, too far away for the Troll Chieftain to engage me.
In the Shoot Phase, a throwing spear killed a Morannon Orc spearman - first blood!
In the Fight Phase, there were Heroic Combats declared by Nori (1/2M), two Captains (1/2M, 1/2M), and the Mouth of Sauron (1/2M) - one Morannon Orc Captain blunted off an archer, but everyone else succeeded in their Combats. The Mouth (represented by my Khamul Ringwraith model) pulled back so as not to be overly exposed.
In the Fight Phase, there were a lot of lost fights - Nori lost to some Morannons but wasn't wounded, the Morannon Orc Captain who won before lost, and one Warrior of Minas Tirith was killed, while another was Bashed prone but was otherwise unscathed. Not a promising start, but we'll see if we can chop through some guys on the next turn . . .
Turn 2: Priority Good
Centaur successfully cast Corruption on a 5 and then got the required 6 to reduce Bilbo to Courage 5! This could actually play out in my favor!
In the Move Phase, Gandalf cast Socerous Blast on the Mouth of Sauron (3/6W), who chose not to resist it and was Knocked Flying off his horse (but was not wounded by either the Blast or the Knocked Flying hits).
Additionally, a throwing spear killed a Morannon Orc with shield on the charge, so that was cool.
In the rest of the Move Phase, Maggot and his dogs surrounded Bilbo (with two of his dogs getting into base contact with Bilbo in case he trips on his first step). The Mouth of Sauron stood up and cast Transfix on Gloin (1/4W), who failed his resist test (1/1W). Gloin is fighting the Troll Chieftain, with Bifur's help . . . looks like I'm gonna need these guys to come in clutch for me again!
In the Fight Phase, Heroic Combats were declared by Dwalin (1/3M), Eomer (1/3M), Bofur (1/2M), and all three Morannon Orc Captains (2/2M, 2/2M, 1/2M). Heroic Strikes were called by Bifur (1/2M) and the Troll Chieftain (1/3M). Eomer had to boost his dueling roll (2/3M) and only killed one of his foes, while Dwalin pulled a Dwalin and got a 3-high. The rest of the fights went well for their respective players, with Bofur and Eomer helping to roll up Centaur's right flank and the Morannon Orc Captains pushing deeper into my ranks.
In the Fight Phase, a lot of guys died on both sides. Bofur lost his fight but only suffered one wound (1/2H) and Bifur managed to Strike up to Fight 10, tied the Troll Chieftain, won the roll-off, and wounded the Troll Chieftain twice (2/2M)! Gloin was Transfixed and wasn't able to contribute at all . . . pity that.
Turn 3: Priority Evil
Centaur cast Exhaustion again on Bilbo (cast on a 3), so Bilbo will need to check for Courage for each inch he wishes to move.
Bifur called a free Heroic Move (this is SO useful!), and since Centaur was running low on Might, he didn't counter it (I think he's used to just moving second at this point). Gandalf cast Immobilize on the Mouth of Sauron (4/6W), who failed his resist test (2/4W). This means a straight-up fight between a full-Might Gloin and a 2-Might Troll Chieftain was imminent . . .
In the rest of the Move phase, Bilbo moved 3" and then got a sum of 9 on his fourth Courage check. Instead of boosting it with Will, I allowed Bilbo to fail the Courage test and he fell Prone. The dogs then hustled him up the hill 5 more inches - and I measured and found that if they carried him eight MORE inches, he'd be at the precipice . . . perfect!
In the Fight Phase, Heroic Combats were declared by Dwalin (2/3M), Bofur (2/2M), and Eomer (3/3M), while Heroic Strikes were declared by Gloin (1/3M) and the Troll Chieftain (2/3M). The Combats went really well for me, with Bofur and Eomer throwing more guys around the Morannon Orc flank (Centaur's right flank) and Dwalin slinging guys into Centaur's left flank - I'm feeling pretty good about this . . .
And then calamity struck. Don't get me wrong, I killed a lot of guys (especially with Dwalin and Nori), but Gloin didn't get to Fight 10, the Troll Chieftain did, the Troll Chieftain got a 6-high, and then promptly Rended Gloin. The Troll only got two wounds, but Gloin got a 1 on his Fate roll, so he died. Oof. As you can see from the picture, a LOT of Morannons died, but so did a few of my guys, so while I had the advantage on the flanks, there were also the first of the Morannon reinforcements coming in from the Black Gate, so it's a good thing I have an ace up my sleeve on the other board . . .
Turn 4: Priority tied, Good
In the Move Phase, the Dogs carried Bilbo to the brink and he stood up . . . and thus began the real test of this scenario . . .
As you can see from the two models on the left side, the top dice are Centaur's and the bottom dice are mine . . . and I never got two wins in a row. *sadness* The game ended with victory to Evil and Bilbo was corrupted by the Ring.
Post game
 |
| Bilbo: "The Ring is MINE!" |
 |
| Grip, Fang, and Wolf: "Um, no - we haven't come this far for you to quit on us now!" *shove* |
Gotta love dogs. :) And so, the Ring was destroyed, but ultimately my Fantasy Fellowship failed. I had a really good time with them, but as I predicted, Old Bilbo is the most likely of the Ringbearers to lose this scenario (unless you have Gollum and your opponent just casts Corruption on him . . . and gets a lot of 4+ rolls to cast and then reduce your Courage). Still, I had a great time and the Fellowship was super themey and really fun to use (oh, and each of my big heroes decided to whiff a roll on the last scenario - just to remind me that they can). All in all, a great experience!
 |
| Well . . . that was easy - I mean, he had to boost his third roll from a 2 to a 3 to win, but still . . . pretty easy . . . |
I said in my preview post that this scenario can take a long time to play - it turns out that if you have Maggot, at least two dogs, and a bad Courage roll, it doesn't have to take more than an hour. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment