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Return of the Wargs of Isengard, A War Story.

Prologue…

‘They will make for the fortress of Helm’s Deep, they will have women, and children’, Grima Wormtongue informs Saruman.

‘Send out your Warg riders’, Saruman instructs the Orc Captain Sharku.

The Orcs and their vicious mounts race from Isengard through the territories of the Mark to ambush the refugees from Edoras on the road to the fortress of Helm’s Deep.

Hama and Gamling, loyal captains of Theoden King of Rohan, scout just ahead of the main column.  A Warg rider leaps from the escarpment onto the unsuspecting Riders below.  The alarm is raised, however Hama is the first casualty of the attack and is slain.  A small company of Riders accompanying Theoden, along with Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, race to intercept the vile Orcs.

Under the orders of the King, Eowyn, Theoden’s niece, and a Warriors or Rohan guide the refugees along the treacherous road to the fortress.

A vicious battle rages between Good and Evil, the fight is short but brutal.  Finally, the Warg riders are either killed or driven off.  The battle won, the forces of Rohan have triumphed over the forces from Isengard, however the price is high.  Many Riders of the Mark are slain, and Lord Aragorn is missing, believed to have been killed.  With his dying breath the Orc captain Sharku cackles to Theoden, Legolas and Gimli, ‘he’s dead, took a little tumble off the cliff’.

Theoden quickly realises that his people are not yet safe, and could be attacked again.  So he urges haste to the survivors of the battle to return to the column of refugees, to make for the Fortress of Helm’s Deep, and safety…

Set up of the game board and description of forces used in the game…

Theoden, Gamling, Legolas and Gimli peer over the edge of the precipice into the turbulent waters below, but no sign can be seen of Aragorn, however, there is no time to mourn the fallen, so mounting their steeds, they prepare to return to the column of refugees.  Eowyn and a handful of warriors maintain careful watch at the vanguard of the column, making painfully slow progress along the dangerous road.

However, unbeknown to Theoden, a remnant of the Warg riders have regrouped in the hills just to the south, and prepare to mount another attack on the beleaguered refugees.  Also, a small war band of Mordor Orcs on an errand to Isengard for their master the Dark Lord Sauron, who espied the battle from a distance, make all haste to intercept the fleeing peoples of Edoras, in an attempt to gather slaves for their masters…

Participants…

On the good side are :- Theoden, Gamling, Legolas, Gimli and 5 Riders of the Mark, (all start the game mounted, Gimli is a passenger on Legolas’ horse).  Eowyn and 9 Warriors of Rohan, 5 have throwing spears and shields, 4 have bows.

On the evil side are:- 2 Orc Captains, (riding Wargs with shields), 9 Warg riders, (3 with bow, 6 with throwing spears and shields).  The Orc war band is led by the merciless Orc Captain Gutgrub, his war band includes another Orc captain, (both captains have shields), 16 Orcs with hand weapon and shield, 4 Orcs with spears and shields, 4 Orcs with two handed swords, and 9 Orcs with bows.

A more detailed description of the full scenario can be found in the ‘House Rules and Scenarios’ Forum.

The game board used to play this game measured 6’ x 4’ and used six of my 2’ x 2’ modular Polystyrene game board tiles, (the scenario was written to be played on a 5’ x 4’ game board, so six inches at either end of the boards were not used).  Hills, trees and other pieces of scenery were added to the playing area to make for a more realistic battlefield.

The photographs of the game were taken at the Cogs 2003 show, which was held in October.  To see more pictures of the Lord of the Rings games played, and pictures of all the other games on display at Cogs see the Cogs website, http://www.c-o-g-s.org.uk.. Also see the interesting report on the Cogs 2003 show by Orkman, the article can be found in the Community Events section on The Last Alliance.

The three pictures that follow show the game board layout and miniatures ready for the game to commence. 

Pictures 1, 2 and 3 show the game table from three different positions, and the opposing forces in their respective deployment zones.

Picture 1…Looking North from the Southern hills.  The Warg Riders ready to begin their movement.

Picture 2…Eowyn and her bodyguard, and the Mordor Orc forces deployed ready.

Picture 3…Looking across the board from West to East.  Eowyn’s deployment zone to the deployment zone of the Riders of Rohan.

The game…

Turn 1…Movement.

Theoden orders the Heroes and surviving Riders of Rohan to make all haste to return to the refugee column to aid Eowyn.

The four Riders arrayed at the base of the hill make their full ten inch movement and head North West directly towards Eowyn.  Theoden and the other heroes move in the same direction as much as their reduced move rate allows, (they have lost half of their movement descending the treacherous slopes of the hill).

The warriors equipped with bows in Eowyn’s party array themselves in position within their deployment zone, ready to shoot at the first available target, either the Mordor Orcs on the hill, or the Warg Riders that are preparing to bear down on them.

The Warg Riders make best speed through the broken terrain, a few manage to make their full ten inch move, while the rest of them have to get in line behind the leaders, and are forced to forfeit some of their move in order to negotiate the clear pathways.  Although the Wargs movement is reduced by using the pathway’s, they still cover more ground than trying to move directly over the broken terrain.

The lead ranks of Mordor Orcs on the hilltop descend the large hill, having to forfeit half of their move to be able to so, their movement ending at the base of  the hill, due to the steep descent.  While the Orcs in the next rank behind move up to the edge ready to descend to the bottom of the hill on their next turn.  The Mordor Orcs led by the vile Gutgrub are in open ground around the base of the most Northerly hill, they make their full move to skirt around the base of the hill, in the direction of Eowyn and her group of warriors.

Turn 1…Shooting.

The Warriors of Rohan armed with bows take a shot at the lead Mordor Orcs who have made the descent down the hill, four are hit, the good players manage to kill two of the Orcs.

The evil side has no shooting this round as all of the troops moved their full allowance.

Turn 2…Movement.

Evil wins priority.  The lead rank of Mordor Orcs at the base of the hill make a full move towards Eowyn and her Warriors, as do the of Orcs of Gutgrub.  The second rank of Orcs on the hilltop make the descent down the slopes of the hill, finishing their move at the base of the hill, (having expended half of their move rate to do so). The third and final rank of Orcs left on the hilltop, moves to the edge of the hill ready to make their descent next round.

The Warg Riders continue to negotiate the broken ground.  Half of the riders manage to get into clear ground this round, and are able to move normally.  The remaining Wargs continue to pick their way through the narrow pathways at best speed.

The Warriors of Rohan with Eowyn stand their ground and prepare to fire.

The four lead Riders of Rohan from Theoden’s cavalry group can now see the lead Warg Riders, and so move to intercept them, but they are too far away to be able to make contact this round.  The remainder of Theoden’s party move at full speed to close the distance with the lead Riders trying to catch up ground as best they can.

The Rohirrim race to intercept the Warg riders.

Turn 2…Shooting.

Evil have no shooting this round as all the models have moved at their full allowance.

The five Warriors armed with bows in Eowyn’s group, shoot twice at the Orcs at the base of the hill, killing one of them.  The three remaining bowmen loose their arrows at the lead Warg Riders, who are now just in range of their bows, and manage to kill one of the Warg Rider bowmen.

Turn 3…Movement.

Good wins priority. The Warriors of Rohan stand fast and hold their ground.  The four Riders of Rohan now have sufficient movement to be able to charge into the enemy cavalry.  They charge headlong into combat engaging the lead Warg Riders. Two of the Riders use their throwing spears, and kill one of the enemy riders.  The two Riders still having sufficient movement to be able to reach the next Warg Rider, both move into base contact to engage the Orc rider. The two remaining Riders of Rohan from the lead group also have sufficient movement to allow them to get into base contact and combat the enemy.  The players controlling the Riders of Rohan choose not to throw their spears at this time.  Theoden, Gamling and the remaining Rider of Rohan gallop towards Eowyn.  Legolas is moved at half his movement, to allow him to shoot his bow this round.

The Mordor Orcs led by Gutgrub are moved by the Evil players as best they can, as there are thickets and some broken ground still between them and Eowyn and her guard, the terrain slowing them down slightly. The second rank of Orcs now at the base of the hill, make a full move directly towards Eowyn and the Warriors of Rohan as well, however the bowmen only move at half their rate to allow them to shoot this round.  The last remaining rank of the Orcs still on the hilltop, make the slow descent to the base of the hill, two Orc bowmen are left on the hilltop, they move to the edge of the hill to line up some shots at Theoden’s party.

The remainder of the Warg Riders now clear the last of the broken ground and move full speed towards Eowyn and her guard of Warriors.

Mordor Orcs advance into position ready to attack.

Turn 3…Shooting.

The Rohirrim bowmen again split their shots, two of them shoot at the Mordor Orcs coming in from the hill, killing two of them. The other three Warriors shooting at the Warg Riders again, they hit the Warg Rider Captain, who is now furiously bearing down on them, causing one wound, the Captain makes a fate roll, but the Evil players fail the roll, so the wound stands.  Legolas looses a volley of death with his superior bow skill, his three shots easily hit his target, the only enemy cavalry model not in close combat, which just happens to be the second Warg Rider Captain.  All three shots strike their target, two of which cause wounds, however, the Captain is saved by a successful fate roll by the Evil players.  Three Mordor Orc bowmen now have the range to shoot at the Warriors with Eowyn, all three shots hit, and one of the Rohirrim bowmen is killed. The two Orc bowmen left on the hilltop shoot at Legolas, but completely miss the mounted Elf.

Turn 3…Combats.

The four Riders of Rohan engage the three remaining splintered Warg Riders. Two Riders engage two Warg Riders, however the evil side wins the combat and kills both of the unfortunate Riders.  The two remaining Riders engaging the lone Warg Rider easily win their combat, killing the foul creature from Isengard.

The Riders of Rohan engage Warg riders in combat.

Turn 4…Movement.

Good wins priority. The bow armed Warriors with Eowyn, are moved back three inches, (half of their move), towards the Northern end of their deployment zone, to enable them to get more shots off at the Warg Riders, the fact that they have moved now puts the Warriors out of the charge range of the Warg Riders for this turn.

The two remaining Riders of Rohan charge in at the Warg Riders again, both choosing to use their throwing spears, killing the Warg Rider.  They then continue their move, and charge into base contact with the remaining Warg Rider.  Theoden, who is now also in range, charges headlong into combat with the Warg Riders, Gamling and the last Rider of Rohan follow their lord’s lead, and charge themselves, but are unable to make base contact with any enemy model, just failing to make contact with the Evil players models.  Legolas again moves at half of his movement to allow him to use his incredible bow skills to their best advantage.  The good players decide that the time is right to dismount Gimli, and the Dwarf hero charges the short distance into combat on the flank of a Warg Rider.

Both parties of Mordor Orcs continue to close the distance to Eowyn and her Warrior guard, most are now in open ground and move as fast as they are able.   A few still have to pick their way through the obstacles in the terrain however, slowing them down slightly.  All of the Orcs who were on the hill, with the exception of the two bowmen, had descended to the base of the hill last round, and are able to move at their full move allowance, and so follow in the footsteps of their vile comrades.  A ravening horde of evil Mordor Orcs are now rapidly closing the distance between themselves, Eowyn and her valiant defenders.

Seeing the Mordor Orcs now nearly with range of Eowyn and her faithful guards, the Evil players turn their Wargs around, ignoring for the moment the Rohirric foot troops, and charge towards Theoden’s Riders, now concentrating their efforts on the rapidly closing Rohan cavalry.  The Evil players finally realising that they cannot actually now reach Eowyn in this movement round with their cavalry, but are in danger of being charged in the rear in the next round themselves if they were to continue charging forward on their present course.  However, only two of the Warg Riders actually manage to make contact with the Good sides models, one of them being the already wounded Captain who charges at Gimli, the other Warg Rider makes base contact with two Rohirrim.  The remaining four Evil cavalry are unable to contact any more of the Good models, just falling short.

The Wargs riders bear down on the Warriors of Rohan and Eowyn.

Turn 4…Shooting.

The bow armed Warriors with Eowyn loose their arrows again, this time the Good players use two bowmen to target the Mordor Orcs nearest to them killing both of the unfortunate creatures.  The other two fire on the Warg Riders again, they manage to hit and successfully wound the Orc Captain they wounded last round, finally managing to kill him.  Legolas shoots his bow at the two Orc bowmen on the hill, killing them both.

The remaining Orc bowmen target Legolas, three striking home, one of which causes a wound to the Elf, which is saved by a successful fate roll.

Turn 4…Combats.

The Rohirrim win their combat and slay the Warg Rider.  Theoden and the last Rider accompanying him win their combats, also successfully slaying their opponents.  Gimli and the Orc Captain battle it out, one on one, Gimli wins the combat easily, but completely fails to wound the Orc Captain, perhaps Gimli’s Battle Axe is in need sharpening.

Turn 5…Movement.

Good wins priority.   Two Riders of Rohan thunder into combat with the oncoming Warg Riders.  Gimli charges the Warg mounted Orc Captain, ready to finish him off this round. Theoden, Gamling and the remaining Riders charge headlong into the remaining Warg Riders.  Legolas again only moves half of his movement enabling him to shoot his bow again.  The Warrior guarding Eowyn now move towards the Southern border of their deployment zone, away from the closing Mordor Orc horde in order to put as much distance between them as they can. This now means that the Mordor Orcs are now unable to reach Eowyn the Warriors of Rohan this round.

The Wargs have no movement, as they were all engaged in combat by the Good players models.  The leading rank of Mordor Orcs just fall short of Eowyn’s deployment zone, the remainder of the Orcs, including the Captain Gutgrub and his Orc band move up to support the front rank.

Turn 5…Shooting.

All four Warrior bowmen with Eowyn shoot and hit their targets, which are the increasingly close Mordor Orcs led by Gutgrub, they kill three of them.  Legolas targets the Mordor Orcs with his bow, he hits all three targets, and kills two of them, an Orc spearman and bowman.

Turn 5…Combats.

The two Riders of Rohan win their combat killing the Orc rider. Theoden and Gamling also win their combat killing with ease their opponent, which is the last of the Warg Rider bowmen.  Gimli kills the Orc Captain mounted on the ferocious Warg beast in single combat, successfully sinking his axe in the Orc Captains head.  The remaining Rohirrim also wins his combat killing his opponent, which is the last of the Warg Rider spearmen, indeed the last of the Warg Riders from Isengard.

The Evil force has now been reduced to under 50% of their starting strength, having lost 24 out of 46 models, and so must make courage rolls in the next turn. This is very good news to the Good players, as not only have they wiped out all of the Warg Riders, they now only need to kill 6 more Evil models to meet their major victory conditions.

Battle rages between the good and evil forces.

Turn 6…Movement.

Evil wins priority.  Gutgrub and his Mordor Orcs make a final push to reach Eowyn and the loyal defenders of the Mark.   The howling mass of Mordor filth rushing headlong at the brave Warriors of Rohan in an attempt to slay all that now stand in their path.  However, the Evil players now have to roll for courage, the six leading Orcs who are in charge range attempt to move into close combat with the Rohirrim, three of them successfully pass their courage rolls, and charge into combat with the Sword armed Warriors closest to them.  The other three Orcs having failed their courage tests start to flee in their cowardly fashion.  Gutgrub and another Mordor Orc Captain lead fourteen foul Orcs to harass Eowyn and her Warriors, they move as best they can to engage the good side.  Four more Orcs having failed their courage test try to move directly away from the Good sides models, but are unable to do so as the Orcs who passed their courage tests now block their escape route.

The three surviving Riders of the Mark, Theoden and Gamling charge directly into the mass of tangled Orcs who are falling over themselves in an attempt to flee the ravages of the battlefield.  Gimli runs to get into combat, pumping his stumpy legs for all of his might, but he is too far away to reach any evil model this round.

Legolas now moves his horse at full gallop to get to Eowyn and her beleaguered forces in order lend aid there if needed.  The four bow armed Warriors with Eowyn again move back three inches, right up to the Southern border of their deployment zone, thus preventing any Evil models from charging them next round.

Turn 6…Shooting.

Only three of the five remaining Mordor Orc bowmen are now able to shoot their bows, the other two having failed their courage tests.  The Evil players decide to target the Warriors of Rohan who in combat with their own fellows, all other targets being blocked by the amount of Orc bodies in the way.  Two shots hit, however one of the two arrows hits one of the Orcs in the combat killing the vile creature, the other shot successfully striking the Warrior of Rohan killing him as well.

The four Warriors of Rohan with bows shoot at any visible targets in the tangled Orc mass, they can see clearly see the Orc Captain Gutgrub and several other Orc warriors.  The Good players deciding to target all shots at the foul Orc leader, all four shots strike the vile creature, three of the arrows causing wounds, which kills the Orc Captain.

Turn 6…Combats.

Two Riers of Rohan are in combat with four Orc Warriors, the Evil side winning the combat, killing both of the luckless Riders of Rohan.  The remaining Rohan cavalryman wins his combat against two Orcs, and manages to kill them both as he charged into the combat. Theoden and Gamling win the combats they are involved in, however, all of the Orcs in this combat are trapped as the models behind them cannot move out of the way for the terrain.  Four more Orcs are slain as a result of this combat.

The Final decisive charge of Theoden and the forces of good.

Result.

The Good side have achieved the major victory conditions set out in the scenario, by killing 30 or more of the Evil sides models.  Eowyn and the majority of the Warriors of Rohan guarding the refugees having survived the battle.

Conclusions.

This was an interesting game, although it was somewhat one sided from round two onwards, as the Evil players lost virtually all of the priority rolls, and this most likely cost them the game.  Also the Evil players decision to turn the Warg Riders to confront the Riders of Rohan rather than assault Eowyn and her guard, probably cost them dearly as well.  To add insult to injury the Evil side had a lot of bad luck with all of their dice roll’s during this game.  However all the players said that they enjoyed the game, and no one had any real complaints with the final result. 

Appendix and Notes…

We managed to play this game four times at Cogs 2003, this War Story was taken from the third game played on the day. I managed to get some pictures of this one, I did not really have the time to get pictures of some of the other games, which was a shame, as I would have liked to have taken more photograph’s of all four games played.  One thing it did show however, was how busy we were all kept running the LOTR games all day long!

For those of you who are interested in such things, here are the results of all four of The Return of the Wargs of Isengard scenario games played on the day.

Game 1….

Major Victory to the Evil side.   The players controlling the Good side made a huge tactical error in turn one and paid for it dearly.  They never managed to recover from this mistake due to the layout of the terrain.  This was a failure to read the scenario fully and to study the map and the board’s layout by the Good side players.

Game 2…

Minor Victory to the Good side.  This one went pretty much according to how I had originally imagined the scenario to play like.  However it was a very close game, and was evenly balanced all the way through.  The Good side only managed to get a minor victory as Eowyn was killed in the penultimate round.  It was a really good game, and all of the players left the table satisfied with the result.

Game 3…

Major Victory to the Good side.  This played in a similar fashion to game two, however, the evil players lost virtually every Priority roll from round two onwards, and there were some dire dice rolls for wounding as well by the Evil side, which probably cost the Evil players the game.  The Evil side lost 75% of their forces, many having failed their courage tests, and who were fleeing the battlefield anyway.  The Good side only lost four Riders and two Warriors of Rohan,.  A little bit one sided this one, but all due to the aforementioned dice rolls of the evil players.

Game 4…

Major Victory to the Evil side.  The Evil side killed all of the Warriors of Rohan, but failed to kill Eowyn, however she was forced off of the table edge during a combat, thus ending the game.  The Good players made mistakes moving Eowyn, (or not moving her as the case turned out to be), she was left about one inch from the edge of the board in her deployment zone throughout the game.  If Eowyn had been moved around more in her deployment zone, and kept a little further away from the table edge, the final result would in all probability have been different.