Battle Games In Middle Earth #1

Never heard of it...there's more to discover all the time!

Found out about this magazine on line, and after a bit of effort, managed to get more info.  Each mag had some figs, "history" of ME, painting guides, and a scenario.  And it is the scenario that is of most interest here.  Altho I can definitely recommend working your way through this series if you are a new table top gamer, or want to introduce it to a new gamer who is also finding their way with the hobby aspects: painting figs, making terrain, etc.

For #1, the scenario pits a simplified Aragorn [no Might, Will or Fate] against 12 Moria Goblins.  Goal is for Aragorn to kill all the Goblins or exit the board on the opposite side.  There were no guidelines for terrain, so I picked 1 / square foot.

Aragorn will start at bottom, and most exit at the top.  The Goblins deploy at center board North, West and East.

To make it interesting, I roll a d8 and use the straight value as well as the direction the triangle points to move the terrain piece.  This results in some randomizing of the terrain.

The board now looks like the below:

Below, Aragorn charges forward against the hideous goblins!

In the first few tries, I can't manage to keep Aragorn from getting whacked.  Without Might, Will and Fate, he's just a 3 attack model with Strength 4; a superior Captain Hero.

There's just too many Goblins, or I'm not playing him well.  Or I'm playing the Goblins too well!

Below, I decide to try the scenario with the straight rules - I need the practice and it is always a good idea to get better acquainted with high-level hero capabilities. The Goblins close in as Aragorn cuts left. Two Goblins take shots and miss.

While he's outrunning four, the other eight close in...one bow shot hits, passes the obstructing brush and fails to wound on a '2' [needs a '6']. Aragorn forges ahead...

Turn 3, Goblins win Priority and form a cordon to restrict Aragorn's ability to counter-move freely.

He still has enough move to go lateral, making next turn's priority crucial to him dodging them.

Turn 4, Aragorn wins Priority and dodges outlying goblins!

They race to catch up on their Move, but can only get a few models into Contact.

>>Aragorn storms forward!

Aragorn spends his free point of Might on Heroic Combat, wins the Dual roll...

...and easily kills the two goblins in Contact!

He moves into Contact with two more...

...wins again......and kills the spearman to open up some space.

Turn 5, Aragorn loses Priority but declares a Heroic Move with his free point of Might!

He dashes 6" to the board edge, and is successfully chased by only one Goblin - but can this lone little creep stop him??

Almost!  Despite rolling a '6', Aragorn ties him and win on the tie!

He then kills him twice over.

But, let's consider this - even if Aragorn had rolled triple 1's...

He could've spent 3 points of Might and killed him anyway. Cuz he's a Mighty Hero worth dozens of Moria Goblins.

Aragorn can't be stopped - he has a free point of Might and will move off board Heroically if he loses Priority, which he does, 6-3.

So, yeah, Aragorn with his full abilities is way too much for 12 Moria Goblins to handle.  I tried it a few more times with 16 goblins, which does help a bit to build up "layers" of defending goblins for Aragorn to break through.

This skirmish scenario is interesting, of the "break through the Ambush" type. At 60 points, what does the exiting side need in points to break through and get off the board?  If they have multiple models, how many need to exit to count it as a win?  

There's an interesting challenge of using the archers to try and get a few shots in as the defender moves across the board, and then a blocking force to hold them while the archers close in and encircle them.  But it's not as easy as it looks. 

The 2' square board also keeps action fast and furious.

Certainly worth a few more plays, trying alternative forces... I used some of my Moria dwarves and they provided a much more even playing field. With them, a captain had to get off the board, sort of a VIP escort scenario. That was pretty even-up, and the goblins playing with points usually had close to double the numbers, which meant a hard fight at some point.

Overall, a fun little puzzle, the shortest iteration took all of 6 minutes to play, and I can't complain about that!