Good morning gamers,
We're back for another scenario in our custom Helm's Deep campaign. Today, the Uruk-Hai have made it to the walls and they'll be battling through the defenders, trying to get a hold of the walls. Can Aragorn and his friends kill 35 Uruk-Hai in 12 rounds? Can we keep Aragorn alive? We'll see - here are our participants . . .
The Walls of Helm's Deep (War in Rohan, p. 26)
We're using the actual scenario participants in this scenario:
- Forces of Good: Mostly The Defenders of Helm's Deep
- Aragorn - Strider with armor
- Legolas Greenleaf with armor
- Gimli, Son of Gloin
- Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
- Aldor
- Haleth, Son of Hama
- 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields
- 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
- 4 Warriors of Rohan with bows
- 4 Galadhrim Warriors
- 4 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
- 4 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
- Forces of Evil: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep
- 4 Uruk-Hai Captains
- 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
- 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
- 12 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
The record keeping for this scenario is tricky - we tried our best to keep a faithful tally. You will see how this went shortly . . .
The board is a 24"x12" setup (though we have an extra foot of space for lining up the dead) - we are imagining a staircase for today, but one is on the way and will be seen in a later scenario:
Turn 1: Priority Good
At the start of the Move Phase, Gimli killed a Berserker with his throwing axe - what a great start to the game!
In the Shoot Phase, Legolas (who got +1 To Wound for being out-killed by Gimli) killed a Berserker by scoring two wounds against him (the first was saved) - yet another great play!
In the Fight Phase, Haleth declared a Heroic Defense (1/1M), while Gimli (1/3M), Aragorn (free), and Haldir (1/3M) all declared Heroic Combats. Gimli botched his dueling roll but the enemy Captain failed miserably to wound anyone, Aragorn crunched through a Berserker by dealing two wounds (one was saved), and Haldir killed a guy. We're doing the thing, slowly . . .
In the rest of the Fight Phase resulted in several dead guys - we're holding alright for now.
Turn 2: Priority Good
In the Move Phase, we kept everyone on the ladders and tried to keep them off our archers. The Shoot Phase was largely uneventful.
In the Fight Phase, Aragorn (free) and Gimli (2/3M) declared Heroic Combats. Aragorn lost this time, but was not wounded. Gimli made up for botching last turn - yaye! In the rest of the fights, Legolas dealt 2 wounds to the Captain he was fighting (Captain #3) - the Captain saved one of those wounds with Fate, but at the steep price of both of his Might points (1/1F, 2/2M, 1/2H). The kills are racking up!
Turn 3: Priority Evil
Aragorn declared a Heroic Move (free) and Aldor also declared a Heroic Move so I can lock down the Uruk-Hai on his flank. All but one Warrior of Rohan is on the wall now . . . reserves are running low. The Shoot Phase was again uneventful.
In the Fight Phase, Aragorn (1/3M) and the Uruk-Hai Captain all the way on my left (Captain #4, 1/2M) called Heroic Combats. Aragorn won and killed his guy, while the Captain also won (2/2M) and killed his guy.
In the other fights, both Legolas and Haldir lost their fights after abysmal rolling and they each took 1 wound (1/2H each). I didn't spend my Fate points because I wanted to keep our remaining health an unknown quantity - this is very important against Uruk-Hai, kids!
Turn 4: Priority Good
In the Move Phase, things are getting tight - see all the holes in my lines?
In the Shoot Phase, Legolas killed a Berserker with his bow. In the Fight Phase, Aragorn declared a Heroic Strength (free), but royally messed up his dueling roll, lost his fight, and got wounded (1/3H). In the other fights, the Uruk-Hai Captain on the right (Captain #1) lost and was wounded, but saved it with Fate (1/1F). Gimli won his fight, but needed to boost his roll to win (3/3M). After taking this photo, we realized that the pikeman at the top of the ladder hadn't had his fight resolved, so we did - and the pikeman won and killed the Elf he was fighting!
We also realized that the rules for ladders have gotten better this edition - defenders don't count as defending a barrier against someone at the top of the ladder (which is so good) and you will still only fall on a 1-3 if you lose - no trapping on ladders anymore! All great rules . . . except that in this scenario, anyone who falls is automatically killed, not subjected to falling damage. To prove why this is an issue . . .
Turn 5: Priority Good . . . also known as "ladders still suck"
In the Move Phase, you can see lots of people on ladders and very thin defensive lines - this should spell certain doom for the defenders . . .
In the Shoot Phase, Legolas did a "Legolas thing" and he killed a shield guy on a ladder (1/3M), killed Captain #3 (3/3M), and killed a pike on a ladder - WOOT!
In the Fight Phase, Gimli lost his fight to Captain #1 (2/2M), but no one was wounded. Aragorn also lost his fight and suffered two wounds, both of which were saved by Fate points (2/3F). Haldir killed Uruk-Hai Captain #4 (3/3M), which means my guys are mostly out of Might, but most of Centaur's heroes are gone (or out of Might). Also . . . as you can see from the photo, there were EIGHT models killed by falling off the ladders . . . and at the end of the round, we're at 29 killed models - six more to go!
Turn 6: Priority tied, Evil
In the Move Phase, I was waxing eloquently-ish to Centaur about something . . . so I forgot to declare a Heroic Move with Aragorn. Oh well - the Uruks are on the walls!
In the Fight Phase, Gimli won his fight and wounded Captain #1 . . . once (1/2H). Aragorn was swarmed by guys, but won his fight and then proceeded (while two-handing) to kill not one, not two, but three of his assailants. With Aragorn's mega work (and that of a select few others), we barely clipped the required 35-killed models and the game ended with a victory for the defenders!
Conclusion
I have to say that this is a really swingy scenario - you can rack up the kills quickly if you beat someone on the ladder, don't kill them, and then they slip off. Normally, this wouldn't result in deaths left and right, but here it did and really helped me get the kill count I needed.
Hopefully you enjoyed this battle report - we'll be back in two weeks with the next scenario and it features some bomb teams! Until then, happy hobbying!
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