The Citadel of the Stars, Part V: Ambush

Good morning gamers,

We're past the half-way mark in our custom Osgiliath campaign and we're in the second scenario from the Battle of Osgiliath starter set. We've adjusted the scenario participants quite a bit here - instead of all-Rangers vs. a mix of Morannons, we've got a half-Rangers/half-tin-cans Ithilien list against yet-another-Legions-of-Mordor list!

Ambush (Battle of Osgiliath, p. 4)

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

• Forces of Good: Garrison of Ithilien
• Faramir, Captain of Ithilien 
• Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien
• 3 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 3 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
• 8 6 Rangers of Gondor
• 4 1 Ranger of Gondor with spear
• Forces of Evil: The Legions of Mordor
• 2 Morannon Orc Captains with shields
• 4 6 Morannon Orcs with shields
• 4 8 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears

In the actual scenario, there are 12 Rangers of Gondor and Damrod against 16 Morannon Orcs (which is actually pretty cost-comparable, Good is favored slightly). We've basically taken the original Orc participants and upgraded two of them to Captains and equipped everyone with shields - nothing too drastic there (except the addition of heroic resources and F5 vs. men on two of the models). Good has changed a lot, adding in Faramir and an extra dude and swapping out 6 Rangers for 6 Warriors of Minas Tirith. This will be different, but understand that the promotion to D6 doesn't make the death-by-archery any better for the Morannons in this fight (it just makes them harder to kill in melee).

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 better in this scenario than the last one: quarter the enemy (4 Orcs left or 3 men left). This scenario is more like To The Death, but again is without any victory points up for grabs besides killing the enemy . . . intro scenario again, I guess? Anyway, let's see if Faramir can shoot all the Orcs today!

Turn 1: Priority Good

I decided that my position was good (I mean, I got to deploy AFTER the Orcs did, so it'd better be good, right?) and I stayed put. The Orcs regrouped into cover with their closest guys and then advanced the other squad as far as they could. I will note here that I assigned dice of different colors to each of my guys - veteran players already know this, but in case you're new to the game, the single-red/two-white dice on the right belong to Damrod and his skirmish triangle of archers. These guys can all see the same targets, so if I roll Damrod's die as a separate color, I can roll all three at once, saving a lot of time for my opponent. 

I similarly have one-blue/two-white dice near Damrod's set - those belong to Faramir and his skirmish triangle. The final set of three red dice on the left all belong to Rangers - because there's not Might in that pool, they can all be the same color. If you're going to run a shooting army, make sure you save as much time as possible so that your opponent doesn't get frustrated by both the time it takes for you to kill his guys AND the number of guys you're killing, but also so you have enough time to play to the objectives (which may or may not be gained by sitting back and shooting - though in this scenario, I don't have a lot of reason to charge into my foe).

I let loose with nine arrows and nothing stuck. Shoulda taken some Warriors of Minas Tirith, with bows from the last game, eh? :)

Turn 2: Priority Evil

Evil regrouped and came out of the ruins a bit. My lads . . . stood firm.

Hey look, in the Shoot Phase, I killed a guy with a bow! Again, I shoulda taken those Warriors of Minas Tirith from the last game . . . :P

Turn 3: Priority Evil

The Orcs advanced towards me and since they would be in charge range and I was a bit spread out, I decided to charge into the center of the formation and dump Faramir into one of the Captains (F6 beats F5 - huzzah!). I have two skirmish triangles working the sides - I'm hoping to pick up a spearman or two this round, but also want to force the Orc lines to spread out to tie down my guys (or open themselves up to flank charges/trapping).

In the Shoot Phase, Damrod and his buddies shot at the Morannon Orc Captain near them and Damrod got the required 6/4+ to wound him! With a Might Point spent, the Morannon Orc Captain saved it with his Fate point (1/2M, 1/1F).

I did something dumb here: I declared a Heroic Combat with Faramir (1/3M), hoping that I'd kill off the Captain on the first round . . . but I forgot to charge the spearman behind him, so he wasn't trapped. As a result, Faramir won his fight (2/3M - ouch!), wounded the Captain only once, and the Fate save was failed (1/1F, 1/2H). All in all, the Captain is ready to die . . . maybe . . . but I'm also almost out of Might! I won all three of the other fights, but only translated one of those into a kill. Still, a kill is a kill!

Turn 4: Priority tied, Good

I raced in with everyone I could, trying to get Faramir into a good position to springboard into other fights. I'm hoping to get the spears out of as many fights as possible during this round and the next - hopefully it'll be enough to give me an edge over a foe that most of my guys wound on 6s (golly, I wish I had OsVets right now!).

Everyone declared Heroic Combats this turn - Damrod went first (1/1M) and lost. The Captain near Damrod went next (2/2M) and killed his man, charging a spearman. Faramir went third (3/3M) and killed his guy to sling-shot into more guys, and the Captain near him went last and killed his guy to charge other people (1/2M). This last Captain is now the only person with Might on the board.

The fighting went decently for me - I killed two guys and only lost one. Between this and the Heroic Combats, we both lost three models, which means I have a one-model advantage . . . which isn't great, considering my guys are likely to be wounded on 4s or 5s and I wound all of THEM on 6s (5s with my heroes). We'll see how this goes . . .

Turn 5: Priority Good

I tied people down and tried to get overwhelming matchups where possible. Faramir is fighting the Captain, which should keep him from Heroic Combatting into other things, but does mean that my most reliable killing piece won't be chewing through 1-2 Orcs this turn (though the Captain only has 1 Wound left, so maybe I'll get lucky and beat him and score a natural 6!).

The fights were mostly pillow-fights with only one model dying on each side. Faramir didn't kill the Captain, which is not good for me. The game is still very much in the balance and the lines are a complete mess!

Turn 6: Priority tied, Evil

With no Might for me, the Orcs got to get the fights they wanted. Faramir is fighting just-another-dude and the Orcs are trying to get advantageous matchups where they can.

In the Fight Phase, the Captain declared a Heroic Combat with his last Might point (2/2M) and it worked, killing two Rangers (OUCH!).

While the last few Fight Phases had been pretty tame, this one wasn't - three Orcs died and 4 men died! By the end of the Fight Phase, my army would have been broken, so like we did in the first scenario, we triggered Faramir's broken rule (rerolling failed To Wound rolls).

Turn 7: Priority Evil

With very few models remaining, the fights paired off with the Orcs mostly outgunning my guys. There are seven Orcs left and I need to kill three of them . . . and Faramir is fighting a Captain again. The Captain has a single wound left and I reroll all failed To Wound rolls, but that's still looking for 6s. By contrast, there are five men left and if any two die, we're hosed . . . and two of my Warriors of Minas Tirith are fighting a Captain or two Morannons and a Ranger is fighting a single Morannon. This doesn't look good . . .

In the Fight Phase, Damrod was wounded but not killed (1/2H) and Faramir failed to kill the Captain. My last remaining Ranger killed an Orc, but both of my Warriors of Minas Tirith were killed, so we were quartered and the Orcs claim the victory!

Postgame

I think the game was decided by me calling the Heroic Combat with Faramir and not trapping the Captain by charging the spearman - that Captain went on to kill three models and kept Faramir from killing anyone for two turns (including the "failed" Heroic Combat). Learn the lesson guys - if you're going to rely on infantry heroes to grind through the enemy, be sure to make sure they get their traps! The Orcs did a better job of snowballing me with their heroes than I did (my heroes were fine, but aren't as well equipped to kill off the Morannon Orc Captains as they are at killing my warriors or heroes). All in all, the game was fine and I (re)learned a valuable lesson.

If you're enjoying this series so far, let us know in the comments below! We're back in the Battle of Osgiliath starter scenarios in two weeks - until then, happy hobbying!