The Scouring of the Shire, Part 14: Attack on Tuckborough

Good morning gamers,

Happy Halloween - and my deepest apologies for not getting the words typed up for this before going on vacation (I've done this before and I know I will do it again). Today we have the Attack on Tuckburough scenario which is the first scenario to feel like a Matched Play scenario with a twist. This scenario has been modified in three ways because of the scenario bonuses from the linked campaign, so this may not be reflected in your games if you just play this scenario!

Attack on Tuckborough

Both forces are trying to control the five objectives on the center line and can deploy up to 12" forward (which we did). Centaur has added Will Whitfoot to his army for this scenario, thanks to winning the Mayor's Arrest scenario. Centaur also gets free priority win from Bounders Strike Back scenario. Finally, Paladin has no Might for losing the Lockholes scenario, which seems a bit harsh.

Turn 1: Priority Good

Both armies moved up - my Ruffians pushed up their maximum distance while still being useful (3" for the archers, 6" for everyone else), while Centaur's forces did the same (4" for the melee guys, 2" for the archers). In the Shoot Phase, nobody died.

Turn 2: Priority Evil

Both sides moved up as you can see - my Ruffians have moved close enough to contest several objectives and even flipped a few traps (which killed a whip guy on the right side). The Hobbits advanced as well, but stayed outside of 6" of my troops so that if I move first next round, I don't get to charge them.

In the Shoot Phase, I lost 2 bowmen to Hobbit arrows - drat!

Turn 3: Priority Good 

Centaur advanced towards the objectives (which surprised me a bit) and I charged in, killing a Hobbit Militia with a whip. I also got a whip guy back, which was awesome - he walked on from the left, basically where he died.

In the Shoot Phase, I lost another archer - oof!

The fights went pretty solidly in my favor with 1 Ruffian dying and 6 Hobbits dying - it really pays to be F3 against Hobbits. Will activated his banner rule, but winning tied dueling rolls was huge.

Turn 4: Priority Evil

There's fighting everywhere now - and you can see the newest reinforcement coming on from the left.

In the Fight Phase, Sid called a Heroic Combat and killed Paladin (you can see the wounding roll there on the right). He jumped into a fight with Will (who he didn't kill last time) below while his whip buddy went up to help on the next objective.

The remaining fights didn't result in that many deaths on either side - just a guy here and there . . . but one of them was Will Whitfoot.

Turn 5: Priority Good 

More fights broke out, but the Hobbits were the only people to get reinforcements (both coming in on the right). The Shire has the advantage on the right, but the Ruffians have nearly cleared the center.

After another round of very few casualties, the Ruffians have a solid hold of the three center objectives.

Turns 6-9: Priority mixed

I don't usually jump large numbers of turns like this, but as you'll see in the images below . . . a lot of stuff doesn't happen. There's a lot of scrimmaging going on with the two outer objectives, but nothing going on in the middle. So here's the visual summary without commentary from me:

Turn 10: Priority Evil

I continue to hold Centaur up on the flanks and Centaur drifted a new archer to his flank at the top of the picture to the side to get a shot in on my only guy guarding an objective . . .

. . . and the guy died . . . while my current positioning is pretty good, losing anyone in the center requires pulling people from the flanks, so another loss or two of this kind would be bad.

The rest of the round was pretty uneventful.

Turn 11: Priority Evil

Centaur tried a similar sniping attempt on the opposite flank this turn, but the arrow didn't kill my Ruffian.

With only a few fights to resolve, not much changed here!

Turn 12: Priority Good 

The fights are still localized to the outer objectives, but the Hobbits are gaining momentum.

Both sides traded losses evenly and at the end of the round, the game FINALLY ended. Centaur had managed to wrestle control of one of the objectives from me, but the Ruffians held on tightly to four objectives to secure the win!

Another victory for the Ruffians! In the Battle of Bywater scenario, Pippin won't have any a Might points, which seems a bit steep to me, but whatever.

Conclusion

Centaur Scenario Rating: 4/5 stars. So to start off, what I should have done tactically in this scenario is group all my guys near the middle objectives, crushed Sid and whoever else was in that area with overwhelming firepower, and then pushed outward, as I could rely on casualties (which I would definitely suffer) to come in from the flanks to help me out. By not prioritizing the center enough, I effectively couldn't reach the center objectives again once I'd lost them, and that was what did us in (well, along with rolling a ton of 1s with F1 hobbits, but that's just dice for you). On the whole, though, the knowledge that lost models could come in on the sides really did add a cool tactical element to the scenario that made for very interesting tactical play, and I loved that.

Tiberius Scenario Rating: 4.5/5 stars. Full disclosure: Centaur and I had to play this scenario twice because the first time we played, we realized he didn't get Wil Whitfoot or the auto-win priority boost from winning previous scenarios. The first time, we were like, "Gee, it sure would be good if the lower-FV Hobbits had a banner and a way to get priority more often." The boosts certainly help.

Even with these boosts, I feel like the Hobbits need a little more - specifically, those archers should all be Tookish Hunters. The Hobbits need some F3 models and if they're gonna have Tookish Hunters in any scenario besides the Bounders Strike Back, it should be here. 

They might also benefit from slightly more models - or perhaps from shooting a little more before engaging - but both Centaur and I have lost games of Command and Control or Hold Ground because we shot too much, the game suddenly ended, and we didn't have anyone on the objectives. It's a hard scenario - but we both enjoyed the format of it.

We're playing the penultimate scene next time - a quick one but a good one! Thanks for joining us on this journey - and we hope to see you next time! Until then, happy hobbying!