The WRATH of Rohan

No, not the Wrath of Khan for all you trekkie or Shatters fans out there, but rather the very nice scenario in the Two Towers Journeybook for LoTR/Hobbit SBG. As my family and I are now firmly settled in a nice rental property here in NZ we finally have some free time, so in the interests of keeping my gaming skills up to scratch I’ve hooked up with Scott at the Kapiti Coast Wargamers a couple of times. Anyway as there’s a nice groundswell of support for LoTR/Hobbit SBG here in the Wellington area I’ve been able to focus my gaming and as such Scott and I agreed to play the above scenario, for two reasons mainly:

1. It makes me paint up my Uruk Hai a bit faster
2. It’s hilariously good fun and makes for a different game.

Anyway to cut a long story short we set up the table as below and got cracking. As Scott wanted to try out his Rohan Royal Guard we adjusted the forces to include 6 of these dashing handsome chappies, the result being that I ended up with a few less Orcs but some of the rather hard Uruk Hai Swordsmen in heavy armour and shield (affectionately referred to as “tanks”).
The game starts with the Uruks and Orcs in a 24” bubble in the middle of a 4x4 board, the hobbits being loose near the centre of this bubble. I win if I reduce the good force to 25% whilst also controlling the Hobbits (once they’re further than 6” from the centre the evil force realises they’re trying to escape goes and beats them up in combat and therefore controls them (until they’re beaten up themselves)).Good wins if it slays all the Uruks and the Hobbits escape into Fangorn forest the wooded board edge.

So what tactic am I going to use?Well having been a Rohan player for a while as well as having played against Scotts Rohan before I decided that I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of lots of bowfire while he continually danced away from combat with his greater move distance. Therefore I thought I’d force the issue and shove a whole bunch of Uruks down his throat as fast as possible!
Let battle commence!
As Scott had to deploy on two opposing board edges his force was split equally. Therefore as I dutifully stuck to my plan we were in combat by turn two, the Uruks and Orcs ably holding their own. I noticed that Scott had angled his attack therefore there was a little redeploying to be done which was actually beneficial as I then had a second wave to throw in.
By turn two we were both calling heroic moves to try and gain the upper hand (Scott kept winning the priority roll and therefore getting his cavalry bonus in almost every fight).
Ugluk and the Rohan Captain face off! Ugluk has a high Defence and 3 might points so can be a pretty effective fighter. He narrowly missed slaughtering the Captain and was a thorn in Scotts side for a number of turns.
Meanwhile Grishnak on the other flank found himself isolated against 3 enemies, one of which was the B##tard of the Riddermark himself, and in a spectacularly average display of fighting fell to their blows (Scott and I both made a suitably “Grishnaky” croak as he died).
Then suddenly the two Hobbits were off, as fast as their hirsute little feet could carry them. I launched their two Orc minders after them, who were obviously a little distracted by pretty butterflies or the nice daisies, which resulted in the brave little Pippin slaying one of them whilst Merry gave the other a good Brandybuck thrashing and fought him off.
“Balls” thinks I. Trying to rescue my now tarnished evil reputation in the next turn I order my Uruk scouts with bows to fire into a combat, as being evil I’m allowed to do that. Although this fight involved 2 Riders against one of my Tanks (Uruk Swordsman) I still managed to kill said tank leaving the Riders a little bemused as to what just happened (obviously the Scouts couldn’t shoot straight due to doubling up with laughter after what just happened with the Orcs and the Hobbits).
It’s not looking good for me, the casualties are mounting up and suddenly Scott and I realise that I now have to make a break test in the next turn. Cue some pretty poor dice rolls and off go the Uruks and Orcs, leaving the game to Scott. We played it out to the end, Scott achieving the victory conditions of clearing the field of evil whilst the Hobbits go on to their encounter with a giant talking tree!

A great game with some highs and lows, lots of laughter and a good story. We totted up Scotts losses and I was only 3 riders short of making his force take break tests, so it could have easily gone the other way. I’d probably play it the same way again and see how it went.