The GREAT BATTLE of our time

First turn – The first cut is the deepest

It all began well for my dark tides of beasts.

I had the priority token, the battle began with a quick move forward of the fell beast with the Nazgûl, a swift march of the cavalry and the Mûmak, a not so swift approach of the orcs… and the leisurely stroll of the goblins.  There was a good length between my units and their prey, and I was in haste to reach close combat, because my enemy had the most powerful bows, and in large numbers.

My oponent used his movement just to go forward with his dwarves… that thoughtless sons of Durin rushed out of the defences, and were looking for trouble on open field. My cousin also moved to his left flank his Minas Tirith knights, accompanied by the wood elf captain on horse. He surely was planning to place them in an advantageous position to intercept the cavalry I had advanced.

And then the shooting phase began… and I destroyed his trebuchet. As easy as it sounds. The explanation is simple… I used my catapult to throw a 70 pounds boulder at 60 miles per hour, and it landed exactly over the trebuchet…

Well, translated to gaming terms, it happened that I obtained a 4 with one of my shots, it landed correctly over the trebuchet, and I obtained a 4 in the damage roll. I used then the 2 might points that my orc engineer captain granted me to improve the result to six… that meant the battlecry trebuchet received 4 batter points of damage… destroyed!!!!

I know that it wouldn’t have happened with the newest version of the rules, but we don’t have any new book… so we decided to play with our old ruleset, from 2005!

We removed the model for the trebuchet, we didn’t want it to bother the possible movement and fighting over the wall… such an advantage gave me good vibes!

Turns 2 to 4 – We dwarves are natural sprinters! Very dangerous over short distances…

Turns 2 and 3, we realized how big is a 3×6 feet mat. It was a slow advance of the dark army, and the real fight was battled in the shooting phase. I have to admit that having lost the trebuchet while keping the catapult myself gave me an edge. The elven and human bows, equated in characteristics with the orcs and goblins due to the needed use of volleys (everyone needed sixs to hit) was not able to inflict great loses on my army, while my catapult did. By the beginning of the fourth turn, my cousin had slain one orc, one uruk and one easterling on foot… while I had killed 8 warriors! including two gondor rangers and two guards of the found and scort.

On the left flank, the Nâzgul quickly faced strong resistance: the rest of gondor rangers, accommpanied by two dúnedain from the north, began to shoot at the delicate wings of the fell beast, and the dark creature suffered some wounds. The answer that followed was a magical attack by the ringwraith, some black darts were repeatedly used against one of the dúnadan… but even wasting six precious Will points in two turns, the black rider was unable to harm the courageous man of the west. The result was that the Castellan, the Nâzgul with his fell beast, and the whole goblin escalade was trapped  between six brave warriors and some ruins!

Meanwhile, on the right flank, Elly the Mûmak was steadily going forward. Following in her footsteps, the group of wargs moved slow, waiting behind the oliphaunt. The kataphracts and the chariot with the khandian king, instead, moved very quickly to the rightmost flank, facing the fences of the small village in front of Calembel. On the third turn, the kataphracts made an unexpected move: they jumped across the fences to try to outflank the Minas Tirith knights, followed by the slowest but dangerous barrow-wights. The knights, knowing that they had to desperately slow down the monstruous Mûmak, tried to charge her. A couple of knights lost bravery in the last moment, remaining on rearguard, while the elf captain, the gondor captain on horse and three minas tirith knights managed to attack!

The mûmak stopped suddenly, and even got hurt three times!

Luckily for those who traveled in the castle, the Mahud chieftain was able to control the monstruous animal!

At the center of the armies, that completely unhinged dwarves kept on running like crebain out of hell… the uruks and even a castellan of Dol Guldur approached from their left and center, ready to confront the Khazad-dum guards and their king, while the wargs and the chariot began to menace their right flank, where the rest of dwarf warriors and a dwarf captain were… but they didn’t seem to care at all… they simply moved forward… dwarves are natural sprinters!!!!