A buddy of mine has been running LotR games at my FLGS since things have opened up a bit from Covid. Wednesday night was always a bit of a challenge for me, do to another appointment I have in the evening that day. Well, for various reasons, the game has now moved to Tuesdays nights, so that makes things easier!
So, I showed up Tuesday and joined the game. All the terrain and figures were provide by my buddy, so easy peasy lemon squeeze. The game was set up when I arrived, so we just rolled off to see who played on what side. We had six players, so it was a three against three match up. I much prefer group games, so it was a win for me already!
The scenario was the battle of Dagorlad, which is the final battle of the last alliance against Sauron, where Sauron ws defeated and lost the one ring. So, on one side, we had a whole Buch of orcs lead by four Orc Captains. These were supported by two trolls. On turn four, the big man would appear.
For the last alliance, we had Elves and men from Numinor. This army had four characters, lead by Elrond, Earendil Isildur and Anarion. The forces were set up on each side of the table. The alliance would win by killing Sauron and Sauron would win by killing all the alliance heroes.
The orcs were not too numerous, but would recycle from the rear and sides to give that contact pressure. We assigned our troops and moved towards each other for the big fight.
As it is a skirmish game and rather face to face, I am not going to go into a turn by turn breakdown, as it was generally a scrum. The game is more about how you manage your figure to figure match ups and block off paths of movement.
We went through the first few turns to close the gap, with the two flanks closing on turn three. The orc center moved forward a little more slowly, so it was another turn before the fight started there. The fights were bloody, with both sides taking losses. As the orcs got killed and models that returned entered on the right flank to get them into the fight as quickly as possible.
Sauron entered the game and moved up to the center as fast as he could. The orcs worked to minimize the damage from the alliance heroes and draw off as much might as they could. Sauron finally entered the fray and removed the final will off Isaldur, so it was time to start going after the characters.
Unfortunately, it was closing time at the store, so we did not get to finish. At the point of ending, the alliance had lost about half their troops and all the characters were out of might and will. The orcs still had their two trolls (heavily wounded) and were bringing up more troops. It would have been up to Sauron!
- Mantueffel