The Citadel of the Stars, Part I: The Defence of Osgiliath

Good morning gamers,

Centaur and I are pleased to be bringing you another campaign series this year, running on alternate Thursdays through the rest of the year! While we've done Fantasy Fellowships as well as the Scouring of the Shire, we decided this year to show off the Kingdom of Tor Ithilas terrain that I picked up last year and play through eight scenarios centered around the city of Osgiliath (home of the Citadel of the Stars). Three of these scenarios will be from the old Gondor at War supplement (including today's scenario), four will come from the Battle of Osgiliath starter box, and we'll be replaying the Osgiliath scenario from Quest of the Ringbearer as well.

Normally, we follow the scenario participants list closely, but we decided to have some fun with this and a) use the new ruleset instead of the old one, and b) use the scenario participants to provide a baseline for two game-legal army lists from the new edition. As such, the models we'll be using might change slightly from the original list - but where we could stick to what was originally given to us, we have. Let's see who we have for the Fall of Osgiliath scenario!

The Defence of Osgiliath (Gondor at War, p. 8)

We've decided to use the following models in today's game:

• Forces of Good: The Garrison of Ithilien
• Faramir, Captain of Gondor
• Madril, Captain of Ithilien
• Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien
• 6 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 6 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
• 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows
• 8 Rangers of Gondor
• 4 Rangers of Gondor with spears
• Forces of Evil: The Army of the White Hand (I know, right?)
• 3 Orc Captains
• 12 Orc Warriors with shields
• 12 Orc Warriors with spears
• 6 Orc Warriors with two-handed weapons
• 6 Orc Warriors with Orc bows

The board is a 48"x48" setup, with the Orcs within 12" of one side of the board, and the Gondorian models within 6" of the center of the board. There are three objectives that the Orcs are going to try to destroy (in base contact without fighting or shooting) before 10 turns have passed - one objective is set up in the center and the other two are space equidistant from the center objective and the left/right board edges:

Damrod is up on the second level of the building near the center (this was a mistake - I forgot he had 2 Attacks!), Faramir was right in the center, and Madril was over to the left, ready to lead some of my troops towards that objective. Centaur deployed his Orcs with the majority in the middle, but a solid hit-squad of guys ready to attack each of the side objectives (the Captains don't have the whispy bases). The Orcs can come back in this scenario on a 5+, so the model disparity is going to be seriously high by the end! With the units deployed, we started Turn 1!

Turn 1: Priority Good

I had three of my Rangers stand and shoot while the other units began to fade towards the side objectives. I don't have any cover near the center objective, but I'm counting on those bows not being very effective. Centaur pushed up the board but didn't March towards me.

I shot a lot of bows (15 in total) and killed . . . two guys. Not bad, all told, but . . .

. . . those dang Orc bows hit with like four guys (out of SIX!) and killed two of my Rangers in the middle . . . not what I wanted when starting this game! Without any fights to resolve, we moved to Turn 2!

Turn 2: Priority Evil 

The Orcs pushed up towards the objectives - and I've fought enough battles to know that while I could have poured in more shots with my Rangers, but keeping them from the objectives was probably going to be better served by throwing my troops in front of the objectives and start killing models with swords rather than trusting to bows (hitting on a 3+ and wounding on a 5+ or 6+ isn't going to result in more than a kill or two). Damrod was stuck up on the upper-level (again, this was a mistake), so I'll get one shot off this turn, but I charged in with whoever I had to see if I could buy some time for my objectives. The Orcs responded, but didn't get either of their guys back.

Both Faramir and Madril declared a Heroic Combat (1/3M each) and they worked with their friends to kill their foes and jump into more foes (Madril needed to boost his dueling roll, 2/3M). This gives me a little more breathing room on those two flanks.

After a grueling round, I killed 5 Orcs and lost 5 guys . . . not a great thing to be trading roughly equally when you're down 12 guys. Eight rounds more . . .

Turn 3: Priority Good

I got to tie down as many models as I can, relying on my shields to defend by shielding to give me equal die counts with the higher Fight Value - but I will say that this strategy won't make my position any better, as the guys that I fight while shielding will still be there next round. The Orcs responded by moving, getting a few guys back.

Two Orc Captains (the ones in the center and on the right) declared Heroic Combats (1/2M each) and they both succeeded in killing their guys and charging other people. Thanks to my control zones, I kept them both off of the objectives (though having fought this round, they couldn't remove them this round).

The fights didn't go very well, but I killed some guys and lost some guys. Faramir had to burn a Might point to win his fight (2/3M), which means I've got 1 Might on each of my heroes now - not great!

Turn 4: Priority Evil

I didn't think I had enough Might to declare a Heroic Move with any of my heroes, so I let the Orcs picks the engagements and that didn't go great. Faramir's objective is being contested, so that means his last Might point is spoken for. Damrod was charged up against the wall up top, but . . .

. . . he never had to fight, because the Orc with two-handed weapon he was fighting got shot by his buddies! Honestly, this means I have his might for a Heroic Combat next time, but it also means it'll be a while before I get Damrod into the action.

Faramir's required Heroic Combat (3/3M) went off successfully (I love it when heroes don't botch on important rolls!) and he charged the two Orcs that were touching the objective and hadn't fought this round.

The fights went . . . okay - but I'm desperately short of guys. We checked and I was 1 model away from breaking. Normally, you don't break in scenarios, but we were going to keep track of when the army would break for the sake of Faramir's reroll-failed-to-wound-rolls and free Heroic Resolve bonuses (Wizard's Pupil). I will most likely trigger that next round!

Turn 5: Priority tied, Good

The Orcs continue to press, but at least this time I got to pick the engagements (including getting a three-point-trap on the Orc Captian on the left side! More Orcs arrived (splitting between the left and the right). 

Sorry for the rotated angle here - but a few things to note: first, I broke, so Faramir is now in a better wounding position - but also, I really don't have enough guys to protect three objectives anymore. Second, the Orc Captain that I trapped got the fight to a roll-off and naturally, I lost it. I probably should have thrown a Warrior of Minas Tirith with shield into the Captain and relied on Madril to kill warriors, but alas, I got greedy! I still have all three objectives, but we'll see how long my luck holds on that front . . .

Turn 6: Priority Evil

Evil raced in where they wanted to and I got tied up where I was. A few more Orcs arrived, reinforcing the center.

Damrod declared a Heroic Combat (1/1M) and managed to win and get into some of the guys fighting Faramir. As you can see, however, there is an unengaged model touching the objective, so I'm really just trying to keep Faramir alive - the center is lost!

I killed a bunch of guys, but I also lost guys. On the whole, things are looking pretty bleak and Faramir and Damrod are my only models in the center.

Turn 7: Priority Good

I moved Faramir and Damrod towards the left flank because it's the one I think I can win. I got as far as control zones would allow me, but both are in rough spots. The rest of the fights got paired as well as I could, but I'm desperately short of guys.

The Fight Phase was incredibly disappointing - as you can see, I lost a bunch of guys and Faramir got a 3-high (blue dice), was trapped, and then got absolutely GRONKED by the Orcs! Well, I'm playing for a draw if I can keep one of the objectives alive, but with all of the Orcs that are on their way to both objectives, I doubt that's going to be a thing!

Turn 8: Priority Evil

The Orcs charged and more are coming on the left side (they probably won't arrive in time, but the psychological impact of more bodies being near the objective is huge). The Orcs in the center are starting to split towards the different objectives and Damrod continues to move towards the left, where hopefully he and Madril can hold. As you can see, I'm out of guys on the right side and the Orc Captain on that flank is claiming the objective this turn - two down, one to go!

The Fight Phase goes terribly with  Damrod losing his fight and getting killed! Also, I've got three guys left and while Madril has a Might Point left, he's been losing fights to the Orc Captain for the past few turns - wasted opportunity there!

Turn 9: Priority Evil

I don't have guys left and if I get tied down, I'll lose the objective, so I burned Madril's last Might point (3/3M) to tag a few guys and sit two of my models on the remaining objective. By standing on it with one active control zone, I can guarantee that no one will be able to contest the objective, so I can make it to Turn 10!

The Orcs responded by charging all of my guys and nearly trapping all of them!

Amazingly, I only lost one fight, but the Ranger died in that fight. With two guys left, I'm hoping for priority and a chance to hold the final objective!

Turn 10: Priority Good

The good news is that I did, indeed, get priority - but I forgot that the Captain on this side still had a Might point. So . . . Heroic Move for the Captain and I'm not only tied up, but there's an Orc touching the objective! NOOOO!!!!!

Madril survived, the Warrior of Minas Tirith died, the objective was lost, and the game was over. Victory for the Orcs!

Postgame 

I gotta say, being down 12 guys at the start (and the Orcs continuing to come and my guys not coming back) and not having any time to shoot my opponent to pieces, I didn't think I'd make it to Turn 10! This scenario is hard and made me really appreciate the Osgiliath scenario we played in Fantasy Fellowships where both players have dead models returning! The game was exciting, though - I had to really think about how to get my smaller force to tie down his guys and buy time to win the game. 

Centaur compared the scenario to Destroy the Supplies, except that one guy didn't have supplies to burn and started losing the scenario. I think this scenario is particularly good practice for learning how to win that kind of game (especially since in a Matched Play game, you aren't guaranteed to have equal force distributions on your objectives), so if you haven't played it before, give it a go! Also, I was impressed with how long you can keep an objective from being claimed (6-8 turns with a 12" distance) if you have a decent number of guys entrenched on them - I feel like there's a formations post in store for this concept, but we'll see when that makes its way through the pipeline. :)

If you enjoyed this post (and are looking forward to the series), let us know in the comments below! Next time, we'll see if adding Boromir and a Troll to the mix changes anything (plus we're upgrading the Orcs to Morannons and changing their numbers slightly) - especially because we're moving from a Destroy the Supplies scenario to more of a To The Death scenario! Keep watching this space - and until next time, happy hobbying!