Good morning gamers,
We're here for Part 4 of our Osgiliath campaign and we're opening up the scenario booklet from the Battle of Osgiliath starter box. This scenario originally has no heroes and helps totally new players understand the basic mechanics. There's even a printed strategy section in the book, which boils down to "use shieldwall" for Good and "wrap-and-trap" for Evil . . . duly noted
The Orcs Cross the Anduin (Battle of Osgiliath, p. 4)
We've decided to use the following models in today's game:
- Forces of Good: Minas Tirith
- 1 Captain of Minas Tirith
- 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
- 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
- 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows
- Forces of Evil: The Legions of Mordor
- 1 Morannon Orc Captain with shield
- 3 Morannon Orcs
- 3 Morannon Orcs with shields
- 3 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
- 3 Morannon Orcs with spears
We just added a Captain to each list - nothing fancy. The Minas Tirith list would be much better with Denethor in it (and maybe some Citadel Guards or Guards of the Fountain Court), but we're sticking to the participants as much as we can here.
The board is a 48"x48" setup that is similar to the setup last time - the Orcs are deploying within 12" of the board edge with the water and the Gondorians are deploying beyond 12" of any enemy model:
The victory conditions are simple: kill everyone. We've played a few Total Annihilation games in scenarios before and Centaur and I both agree that it ends in an unfun grind unless you have smashy guys to help out (which can still be unfun for somebody. This scenario is a lot like To The Death, but without any victory points up for grabs besides killing the enemy . . . I guess this is an intro scenario? Anyway, we deployed, so let's get stuck in!
Turn 1: Priority Good
The shieldwall advanced, the bows stayed put, and the Orcs advanced . . . not much to report
. . .
. . . until in the Shoot Phase, the four Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows (4+ To Hit, 6+ To Wound) managed to get 2 hits (average) and then to my delight got two 6s To Wound! A great start (and I wonder why I always leave these guys at home? Oh right, Rangers . . .).
Turns 2-4: Priority Evil, tied/Good, Good
Not much to say here except that both melee sides moved to engage and the bows did nothing . . .
. . . for two rounds, actually.
Then, the Minas Tirith shieldwall advanced to the corner and some Orcs charged them. The archers, once again did nothing.
In the Fight Phase, I won a fight by shielding and I lost a fight but suffered no casualties. all in all, not bad!
Turn 5: Priority Good
I jumped in with as many guys as I could - sorry, game designers, I abandoned the shieldwall for better positioning! Centaur responded by holding the line.
Both the Morannon Orc Captain and the Captain of Minas Tirith declared Heroic Combats (1/2M each) and both killed their guys and charged other people.
Each side then just lost one other model - trading equally is good for me right now, so hopefully we can keep doing at least that!
Turn 6: Priority Good
I charged people again, tying up the Captain with a Warrior of Minas Tirith with shield and spear to slow him down. My Captain is fighting two spearmen and hopefully will crush the rear of the enemy.
The Morannon Orc Captain declared another Heroic Combat (2/2M), but he got "snake-eyes" and lost the duel.
I managed to kill two more Orcs, but neither of them with the Captain. Still, we're keeping the model disparity high!
Turn 7-8: Priority Evil (both times)
I'm going to speed up the next two rounds because it's just a bunch of guys charging each other and trying to kill each other . . .
Look, one of my archers is dead . . .
More charges!
Equal trades, with the Morannon Orc Captain wounding an archer on 4s!
Turn 9: Priority Good
More guys have been charged - we'll see how this goes . . .
In an effort to get through the last of the enemy faster, the Captain of Minas Tirith decided to boost a To Wound roll of a 4 to a 5 to kill the Orc he's been pillow-fighting with for the last few rounds (2/2M). This means the Orcs have the only remaining Might point.
Turn 10-11: Priority Good then Evil
Speeding things up again . . .
Not a great kill ratio, but my odds are still fine.
Two guys on five . . .
. . . becomes one on three!
Turn 12: Priority Evil
This is it - tied Fight, more duce for me, let's go!
The duel was tied and went to a roll-off with Good winning, but after rolling eight wounding dice, I only got one 6 (which is about what you expect). Thankfully for me, the Morannon Orc Captain failed his Fate roll, so the Captain is sitting on 1 wound left (1/1G, 1/2H)!
Turn 13: Priority Evil
Here we go again . . .
This time, there wasn't a roll-off - Good just won. And this time, we got 2 wounds and finished off the Captain (which is about as many 6s as you expect to get on 16 dice over two rounds). Victory for Minas Tirith!
Postgame
This game would have been over a few rounds earlier if we fought to a quarter (which would have been 3 models for either of us). The game is a learning game, but I feel very strongly that tabling shouldn't be required. We hope you enjoyed this anyway - see you next time with the second scenario, and until then, happy hobbying!
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