So It Begins, Part 3: Plant the Charges

Good morning gamers,

We're back for our third scenario in our custom Helm's Deep campaign. Today, the Uruk-Hai are trying to blow up the culvert with some fancy explosives! Can Aragorn and his friends kill all three torch-bearing Berserkers before the wall is blown?

Plant the Charges (War in Rohan, p. 28)

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
• 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
• 8 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
• 3 Demolition Teams

This scenario requires Evil to blow up the Deeping Wall via the culvert, while Good needs to kill all three of the torch-carrying Berserkers (hereafter referred to as "torch-boyz"). I will say from the outset that Gorgoroth was watching us set up, and he told Centaur, "You know, you should just keep one of your Berserkers with a torch really far back." Centaur was like, "Yes, I should - but this is scenario play." So . . . for you meta gamers out there, enjoy the resulting fireworks display as both Centaur and I go all-out for not-a-draw!

The board is a 24"x48" setup (though we have an extra foot of space to show off the next sections of the fortress). The Uruk-Hai had to start with the bomb teams within 12" of the left side of the board and everyone else could be outside of 1" of my guys. My units are all within 8" of the culvert, which is a slightly different requirement than the original scenario (but we're also playing with half of the original board size):

Turn 1: Priority Good

Centaur declared a Heroic March with the Captain near the bomb teams (1/2M). I charged with Gimli and Aragorn into the guys on the ladders and did what I could to tie down the units that were flanking me on the walls. Besides that, a lot of people bent their bows and prepared a volley. Centaur advanced up the field, with several pikemen staggered as you see in the image to a) provide in-the-ways as the bombs advanced up, and b) to potentially help pick up the bombs should they be dropped. He put a lot of in-the-ways between his torch-boyz and my bows . . .

. . . so instead of shooting at the torch-boyz, I shot at pikes instead . . . and killed three of them: one with an Elf (red), one with Legolas (white), and one with Haldir (blue).

In the Fight Phase, the Uruk-Hai Uber-Captain declared a Heroic Combat (1/2M) and managed to win the duel and kill the Elf he was fighting. He charged into two more models, hoping to carve out a space to breathe.

It wasn't meant to be, though: the Uber-Captain had a drawn combat with the Elf and Rohan spearman after boosting his dueling roll (2/2M), lost the roll-off, suffered one wound, and then failed his Fate point (1/1F, 1/3H). There was another Captain on the ladder nearby fighting Gimli who lost his fight after both Gimli (1/3M) and the Captain (2/2M) escalated the duel. Gimli wounded him twice, but the wound was saved by Fate (1/1F). He kept his footing. Aragorn killed the Berserker he was fighting and the Uruks killed two other Elves along the walls.

Turn 2: Priority Good

The Captain near the bomb teams called a second Heroic March (2/2M), which meant that there was one Captain on the ground who still had Might - use it or lose it, I guess? Since Aragorn killed his foe on the previous round, he had the option to try to knock over the ladder, so after some brave lads charged the advancing Uruks, he got some help and they shoved the ladder over - another Berserker died and a Warrior with shield was unwounded.

Elsewhere, we had the charges you'd expect - I tied people down and prepared to shoot. The bomb teams advanced as they do, with plenty of in-the-ways for the torch-boyz . . .

. . . but what Centaur forgot was that I could target the bombs themselves . . . so I did. :) Legolas shot three shots into the bombs with no in-the-ways: all three arrows hit (ouch). The first one got a 2, so it failed. The next one got a 6, so it wounded without having to spend Might. It got a 4 on its explosion, so it dealt D6 hits to everything nearby, which vaporized some Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes and shields, but missed all the torch-boyz. It also triggered the second bomb because Centaur had them too close together.

That second bomb got a 6 on its explosion, so it dealt 2D6 hits to everyone nearby (only 4 though - 2D6 is a bit swingy). It was enough to a) vaporize all the torch-boyz, b) vaporize the Captain, and c) damage the third bomb, which also went off on a 6 and dealt an additional 2D6 hits . . . which we didn't roll for because everything was dead.

Conclusion 

So . . . yeah - don't keep your bombs next to each other, kids. ;) Centaur and I had a good laugh and didn't bother doing the Fight Phase, but Gorgoroth was definitely right: you could keep one of your Berserkers with torch on the back line of the board and that would force the defenders to jump down off the walls and make their way to shoot him (probably with Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli working to clear out the Uruks on the walls/ladders, coming down, and then slogging up the field until Legolas could drop a bead on the guy). It would have been a lot more competitive, but also a lot more grinding . . . and we don't really play that way in these scenario campaigns. :)

Hopefully you enjoyed this and hopefully you're enjoying the campaign so far! Next time, we're revisiting a scenario we had to play for Fantasy Fellowships and we're excited to have another go at it (and this time, with the normal participants)! Find out if I can keep a bunch of Fate-less heroes alive from a swarm of Uruk-Hai - and until next time, happy hobbying!