In celebration of completing painting my Gondor army, and that two of my friends turned 50 late October, I hosted a game last weekend. My friends aren't regular players, so it was up to me to organize the game, design the scenario, determine the armies, and play referee. I'm on a quest with these guys to get them comfortable with the main rules, and start introducing some basic magic, so it was mostly martial forces, and one generic wraith with a mission.

The scenario was based on Lords of Battle, but with twists. Some of the twists are whimsical, just to add some humour to the game. I'll outline the scenario twists in this post, and follow up with a report and pics in another.

Here are the scenario treatments for each side. Each side kept their treatments and special objectives secret from the other team:

Gondor:
It is well known among the troops, but rarely mentioned, that the Lord Denethor wrestles with the Great Enemy from atop his lonely tower, and the strain has caused him to become unstable. Gaining wind of a nearby orcish incursion, Denethor has decided to lead troops to crush it. It is a rare move for him to take to the field, and special care must be taken to preserve him, as he is prone to acting rashly.

Mordor:
The Great Lord Sauron, whose flaming Eye sees all, knows that the Steward of Gondor is on the verge of madness. He has offered a great reward to anyone who facilitates this madness. As an extension of his very Will, you arrange an incursion into Gondor to goad the Steward to react. Word soon reaches you that the Steward is coming in person, and he brings his sons. Sauron the Great will surely be pleased when you gift the realm of Gondor with a Steward not fit to dress himself in the morning.

Special Rules for Gondor:
If Denethor is within 12” of your banner, he is Resistant to Magic.

Denethor loves his sons. If Faramir is killed first he can handle it. If Boromir is killed first, he loses a point of Courage permanently. If Faramir is killed after Boromir, Denethor loses a second point of Courage permanently.

Special Objectives for Gondor:

1) Control the tower: 15 points. Have three more models, or twice as many models, whichever is less, inside the tower than the enemy. (Note: it was worth this much because it was in enemy territory.)
2) Each turn in combat with the Ringwraith: 2 points, in addition to any Wounds caused. A wraith loses 1 point of Will for each turn in combat.
3) For Gondor! Each Wound suffered or Fate point spent by the enemy within range of Gondor's banner counts double.
4) Spike the head: 5 points. The head of an enemy model that is killed within range of Gondor's banner maybe passed to the banner bearer at the end of the turn. For the next turn only, the banner bearer and every Gondor warrior in its range causes Terror.
5) Dispel the Ringwraith by taking its last Will in combat: 5 points.

Special Objectives for Mordor:

1) Fail to hold the tower: -5 points. You may deploy on the first floor of the tower, and may move or climb normally from there. To hold the tower, have at least three more models, or twice as many models, whichever is less, inside the tower than the enemy.
2) Kill Boromir and Faramir: 5 points each, or 15 total for the right order. These points are in addition to their Wounds and Fate. It is known that Denethor loves his sons. It may be that their deaths, and the order of them, will push him over the brink.
3) The Mad Steward: if Denethor goes mad for a turn and you can make him kill his own troops, you gain double points for each Wound caused or Fate point spent.
4) Toss one body down the well to poison it: 5 points. You must declare a potential body when it is killed, and no more than 2 bodies may be “in play” at a time. You may use a model to drag a body at ½ movement if the model is not in a fight. Two models can carry a body at full move.
5) On the turn the game ends, the Ringwraith is still alive, and Denethor is under your control: 10 points.

Here's a preview of the initial deployment for Gondor. The rangers were some of the first models I ever painted, so they aren't great, but Faramir and the rest are new:

Here are the army lists. They were designed for fun rather than optimization, but they're pretty well matched. Each side has exactly 1126 points (I like odd numbers ). I wanted to get as much Gondor onto the 6x4 board as possible.

Gondor: 73 models
Warband 1: Denethor (army leader
12 Fountain Guard (shield)

Warband 2: Faramir (bow)
12 Ranger of Gondor (spear)

Warband 3: Boromir (horse, shield, lance)
6 KoMT (shield)

Warband 4: Damrod
6 WoMT (bow)
6 WoMT (shield, spear)

Warband 5: Captain
5 WoMT (shield)
1 WoMT (shield, horn)
6 WoMT (shield, spear)

Warband 6: Knight WT
6 WoMT (shield)
5 WoMT (shield, spear)
1 WoMT (banner)

Warband 7: Stranger from the North

Mordor/Isengard: 67 models
Warband 1: Ringwraith (8 Will)

Warband 2: Grishnack
3 Orcs (shield)
8 Orcs (spear)
1 Orcs (banner)

Warband 3: Cave Drake (using a Dragon model)

Warband 4: Vrasku (xbow)
4 Uruk hai (xbow)
8 Uruk Scout (bow)

Warband 5: Uruk Captain (shield)
5 Uruk hai (shield)
6 Uruk hai (pike)
1 Uruk hai (banner)

Warband 6: Ugluk
8 Uruk scout (shield)
3 Berzerker (2H)
1 Feral (two weapons)

Warband 7: Warg Chief
12 Wargs

This looks awesome. Can't wait to see how it turns out!

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Respectfully,
Jonathan

Do what is right, love mercy, and walk humbly

Battle Companies

This battle seems really cool! I have some friends who I am getting into SBG so I will be watching your thread closely for tips. I look forward to the battle report.

Here's a top view of the board, evil deployed on the left half, good on the right. The tower was intended to start in evil's easy control. This pic is a couple turns into the game, but gives an idea of the terrain:



First turn, Gondor deployed in solid line, with Mordor clustering around the tower...I guess they really didn't want to lose it.



Mordor put all their crossbows at the top of the tower, which turned out to be an excellent position. You can see the edges of the warg's bases on the far left of the top picture...Mordor put their wargs much closer to the rangers in the first turn.

First turn of shooting went ridiculously well for Gondor: out of 13 shots from Faramir and friends, 11 hit, and 6 went on to be casualties. The wargs were cut almost in half, and the warg chief took it on the nose. This stinging rebuke made Evil retreat behind terrain, where they basically stayed for the rest of the game. That's why they're out of the shot in the above pic. This single turn had a huge impact on the psychology of the Evil generals, as one of their most potent warrior-chewers was neutralized.

Turn 2 and 3 saw Evil bring a cluster of Uruk legion and the Drake down into a boxed in area. One of my friends only feels safe when all his models are as tightly packed together as possible, but he ends up cramping his own movement.



The Gondor generals decided to neutralize this, and risked all their Knights + Boromir to block the Drake from escaping the terrain. This turned out to be extremely important later.



Crossbows in the tower (the tower is the Dreadstone Blight, with as much of the stupid skulls and warhammer symbols carved off as possible...and I still missed some. It needs some weathering on the stones, and rust on the chains, but it serves for now):

Unfortunately I didn't keep an exact sequence of events. By turn 4 and 5 the Drake was dead. Boromir charged in, the Wraith Transfixed Boromir but Boromir resisted, the Knights made their Courage rolls (it really helps to have a horn on the board!). Between lances and whatnot, the Drake took 3 Wounds the first turn, and 4 the second.

Another reserve troop of Orcs was brought in to delay Damrod's group of WoMT:





Meanwhile, after the Drake was dead, the Uruk legions, along with the Berzerkers and scouts, made mincemeat of Gondor, killing Knights and WoMT with impunity:





Finally, the wargs were brought back into the game on turn 6, racing across the field to help their Orc friends chew up Damrod's warband:



The Rangers also advanced, but a flurry of crossbow shots from the tower nailed Faramir to the ground:



In any case it was too late for Mordor, the fateful event had happened: a solitary KoMT, making his Courage rolls despite the loss of the horn earlier, charged the Ringwraith two turns in a row and killed him.

The game was pretty much over by then, as the unopposed Fountain Guard marched up to take the tower:





And Denethor, Mad Steward of Gondor, did not once lose his cool

Here are a few more shots, just because I'm pleased with the look or the paint jobs:

And finally some of the heroes:

I really liked how denethor and his guard just waltzed up the board while ferocious fighting was happening on each flank, it looked very cool and cinematic like he was marching to his destiny or some such.

Nice pictures and all!

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Fight! Fight to the last man!

If this was to be our end then I would have them make SUCH AN END as to be worthy of remembrance

Nice report and nice pics. Thanks

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You would of had me crawling on all fours like a BEAST!

That was a really fun report. I loved all of the pictures.

Seems like a nice battle, anyone convinced to get into the hobby?
In my latest game Denethor was under evil control about half of the game and managed to kill more WoMT than Goblins. I'll give him a second chance though.

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Operation future in full swing.

very cool. Love how you've done the fountain guard. nice pics and a very good battle rep.

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12th GBHL 2013.
13th GBHL 2014
9th GBHL 2015


Mid Sussex Wargamers

A very nice report. Thanks for sharing.

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My WIP page: Click Here! -->So It Begins

Current Project: Ringwraiths - Haradrim - Mumakil

Oh, they're all into the hobby, just different aspects of it. My only interest is LotR, one friend is primarily WW2, another likes American Civil War, another likes DBA. So we each host the game we like and have to suffer through the other's interests

That said, they really did like the scenario, and they like the rules a lot, so that's hopeful.



Thanks, the shields are from the Last Alliance Numenorians, which I now wish I had pinned, but so far so good.

I have to say on a related note, I really like the new GW paints. All my older paint jobs (orcs, uruks) are dark because I was afraid to brighten it up and bring more contrast. Somehow the way the new paints work has given me a bit more confidence.