NT "Wargaming, An Introduction" Skirmish Rules - RAW

OK, so the hour is late and the time has come to finally get these rules on the table.  As usual, I ran with playing the RAW [Rules As Written] for a first time up.  The big twist that was thrust upon me by circumstances was that I played with three non-miniatures-gamers, all guys from my Christian discipling group, as I was hosting some fellowship time at my house.  I wanted to give them something to do that they'd never done before, and of course introduce them to the hobby so they could see what I meant by "gaming".

With time running short, I threw together the forces as best as I could, knowing that it didn't really matter how smooth it all went as long as everyone had a good time [something that some gamers forget when hosting games...] and got to really play with their characters.

The first thing I did was throw down a likely terrain board:

Front is a little village of humans who've settled on the edge of the wild, with some hedged fields and hills. Above are some ruins of Ancient Arnor, woods and hill between.  The road is a paved section of the Great East Road that goes from the West Havens through former Arnor, to Moria, and there's a crossroad that takes one down to the Gap or Rohan and Gondor - a likely place to settle along.  

Victory: The Fellowship must move down the road and exit with Frodo on the East side, continuing their voyage towards Mordor.  Goblins win by preventing this or killing Frodo.

Below is a closeup of the village, with some well-known characters in it:

Below, the ruins and woods, the wilds, with some wild critters in it!  They will be deploying and entering the battle from behind the hill at top and the woods below.

The forces were the Fellowship of the Ring against 40 goblins with a chief, a king, a cave troll, four wolves, and a goblin drum in support.  The chief and king are just improved goblins.  The troll is a hero as good as any in the fellowship.  The wolves are just fast goblins with no armor.

Below is the Fellowship.  Merry and Pippin are Levy with melee weapon and light armor [represents fearful dodging, basically].  Sam is the same but ranked up to Soldier.  Frodo is also a Soldier, but he has heavy armor [mithril coat] and Sting [+1 melee dice same as a spear], Boromir is a hero with sword and  heavy armor, Gimli is the same but adds throwing axes [pistol], Legolas is a hero with medium armor and elf bow [repeater], Aragorn is a hero with medium armor and ranger bow [rifle], and Gandalf is a veteran with medium armor, sword and staff [counts as jingall - a heavy Indian musket].  

If Boromir looks like the famous knight William Marshal, it's because well, it's a feudal knight casting by Essex that is painted as...William Marshal.  I totally forgot that I have never finished painting my Boromir!  And actually the Gandalf is some unknown Gandalf knock-off, but looks about right.  The Aragorn is from the Weathertop set.  I've two more ranger Aragorns to paint, and one Aragorn, the High King [mounted and dismounted].  Lots to do...

Below is the Goblin Horde in all its glory.  Having served under the Necromancer who destroyed Arnor from Angbad, the Goblin king is certain of victory against a few humans and friends.  Before him is a chieftan and behind is the goblin drum - while it is beating, all the Goblins who fail morale get to re-roll it.  The cave troll is, well, the cave troll, a hero with heavy armor [thick hide] hammer and chain [pistol].  The wolves are just fast goblins, and there are pictured 8 goblins each of sword/shield, spear and bow.  All count as levy with only one hit instead of two.  The sword/shield gobbos have light armor.  The two leaders have medium armor.  There's 16 more goblins behind them. I should add I've about another 24 to paint up!  Can you have enough goblins???  Never!

So basically it is a lot of squishy levy goblins with a couple of upgraded goblins, and one heroic troll.

Below, the Fellowship has advanced into the hedged fields and it's about turn three - I forgot to take pics for a couple of turns while I ran the game.

Legolas and Aragorn, with Gandalf, have engaged in a long-range dual with the 8 Goblin archers who were hiding behind the hill and advanced to the edge.  Legolas is presently in the top field, Aragorn in the bottom field, with Gandalf in the center on the road.  

Gimli and Boromir are leading the way down the road and beating up Goblins, followed by the Hobbits and Gandalf.  Behind the Fellowship is the second, smaller Goblin horde of about 16.  A lucky shot by a Goblin gave Gimli a couple of wounds, and some misses by the heroes delayed their advance, but all is going well.  One very optimistic Goblin is chasing Aragorn through the field...

Below, a closeup of Boromir and Gimli killing the final few Goblins in front of them.  The chasing goblins are encouraging the hobbits to run close behind the tip of the Fellowship spear.  The lack of goblins in the front was due to them going over 50%, resulting in a morale check.  As Legolas had shot the drummers, there weren't any re-rolls, so 2/3 of the Goblins took to their dirty heels.

View from the hill full of Goblin archers...well, previously filled with Goblin archers.  The red blast marker shows where Gandalf let loose with his fiery staff.  

Below, the view from the chasing goblin horde.  Legolas left, Aragorn right ["chased" by lone goblin], rest of Fellowship down the middle.

The horde catches up, as there's now a troll to the front!  Funneled into the narrow lane between the hedges, the goblins can't bring their superior numbers to bear - yet.  Boromir and Gimli hold them off.  Gandalf just let fly and killed a few in the front, their singed carcasses not dissuading their comrades at all - in fact, some may stop for a quick snack...ugh!

Below, Aragorn and Legolas leading the hobbits down the road.  Troll has appeared and they are shooting at him, without a lot of luck so far...Legolas has taken two wounds.

Boromir and Gimli drive the chasing Goblins over 50%, and a morale check results in several fleeing [top of pic] while a few brave - or stupid - goblins stay and fight to the death...their deaths, of course.  Still, our heroes have taken 2 and 3 wounds respectively, serious since they've only 4 total.  But given the lack of opposition, they are bloodied but victorious!

As the troll closes in, Legolas and Aragorn fire away, Aragorn shouting "take him down, take him down!!!" with some drama and good results. Three more wounds are quickly inflicted by good dice from Gandalf and Legolas, and the monster goes down with a roar that trails off into a...whine.  In front of him is the Goblin King, who is somewhat dismayed to see his forces destroyed or routed.

Final pic of the lead Fellowship team - Gandalf's final shot helped seal the troll's fate.  With little opposition before them, the Fellowship can easily get off the board and move Frodo that much closer to MORDOR and the all-seeing EYE of the Dark Lord Sauron!

Overall, I thought the game played pretty smooth.  I had some questions about wounding that I went back and forth on, but figured it out in the end.  I had reduced all the Goblins to 1 wound instead of 2 so I wouldn't have to keep track of them.  I probably should've given them some more goblins, if I had them.

I need to re-read the rules and do another RAW playtest or two.  While the Fellowship v. Goblin Horde isn't in the army lists of from the "Introduction to Wargaming" book, the attributes were used and adapted to a more melee-oriented force.  Clearly there needs to be some more differentiation of melee weapons and such, but overall this went fine.  I think the rules would play better for the colonial British wars as written, but there was little trouble here despite the hero-heavy force of Good.

Certainly got the creative juices flowing, and the guys had a great time re-enacting skills from the movies.  It has gotten me interested in painting up some more of the LotR models, many of which are absolutely first-rate sculpts that closely resemble the actor - amazing! Altho I've just sold off about half what I own, I like to think of it as refining and focusing on what I do have that is unpainted, recognizing that with bartertown and eBay there's always plenty more figs to get, including OOP ones.

Skirmish gaming can be a lot of fun.  It is usually more characterful and certain it is with well-known IP like LotR.  Sometimes it lacks tactical interest, but I hope to put some of that back in with this game.  I already have a few small changes and ideas, but I think it plays pretty well already.  One thing I did ignore was the "Ambush" action, which is basically an opportunity fire / move rule.  Unnecessary in the medieval period, but will have to think more about it.  I hate it when you have to interrupt a figure as it moves along, etc.

Next post - the Rules As Written I wrote up and formatted.