A Tale of Three Middle Earth Wargamers: Game 1- Rohan vs Mordor

 

Rohan Vs Mordor

700 pts Army Lists

Rohan (Mayor):

Warband 1:

Theoden w/ Horse (Leader)

8x Riders of Rohan w/ 1 Banner

4x Rohan Royal Guard w/ Horses and Throwing Spears

Warband 2:

Aragorn w/ Horse and Elven Cloak

Legolas w/ Horse and Elven Cloak

Gimli w/ Elven Cloak

Mordor (Old Toby):

Warband 1:

Witch King w/ 3 Might, 17 Will, 3 Fate, Morgul Crown and Horse

3x Morgul Knights

4x Black Numenoreans

4x Morannon Orcs w/ Spears and shields

Warband 2:

Shagrat w/ Heavy Armour and Shield of Cirith Ungol

2x Morgul Knight

4x Black Numenoreans

4x Morannon Orcs w/ Spears and shields

Warband 3:

Kardush the Firecaller

9x Morannon Orcs w/ Shield and Spear

1x Morannon Orc w/ Banner

2x Mordor Orcs

Game Type

Retrieval: Each player is attempting to take the objective from their opponents side of the board, and move it to their own. Both Armies will be trying to defend their objective, whilst pushing to take the enemies.

The Game will end on a dice roll of a 1 or a 2 once one of the armies is broken.

Board and Deployment

Retrieval uses a diagonal deployment zone. OT's Mordor forces deploy as close to the centre as they are allowed: The Witch King and Kardush on the left, and Shagrat on the Right. A small group of Morannon are placed up onto the high ground.

Mayor's Rohan are far more cautious, pulling back from the centre except for a single proving Royal Guard. As the Mordor forces have no bows, Mayor's heroes deploy at the front, on the opposite side to the Witch King and Kardush.

Turn 1 & 2

The first two turns of the Game start cautiously, with both sides edging closer together. Kardush casts a Channelled Fury in preparation. Legolas attempts a shot at the Witch King, but misses, and the rest of the Rohan shooting is just as ineffective.The only combat sees a Morgul Knight charge the Rohan Royal Guard at the front in Turn 2, but the Knight fails to kill the Royal Guard. 

First Contact

Turn 3

Mordor wins an important priority, but Aragorn uses his free point of might to call a Heroic Move. With a dangerous charge incoming, Shagrat calls a Heroic Move of his own to try and prevent the Rohan from getting a huge charge off.

Good wins the Move-Off, and now Aragorn can lead a devastating charge.

The Rohan Heroes crash into the Morgul Knights on the right flank, whilst the Mordor infantry pivoted to defend the wall now in-between them and the Rohan. 

In the Witch King's move, the Nazgul swings around the hill, and successfully casts a Black Dart at Theoden. Theoden has to expend 2 Will and 1 Might to avoid taking the hit.

In the Fight Phase, Legolas and Aragorn both call a Heroic combat. All three Good Heroes cut down the Morgul Knights with ease, and Aragorn and Legolas charge into the exposed flank of the Mordor infantry. Thanks to some shielding, the forces of Evil manage to win both combats- halting the Heroes in their tracks.

Swings of the Dice- though the Morgul Knights were cut down with ease, Aragorn and Legolas can't win their fights against the infantry!

Turn 4

Mordor wins priority once again, once again forcing the Rohan to call a Heroic Move to stop them being swamped. Aragorn uses his free Might point, but has charged too far to affect the Riders- forcing Theoden to use a Might point for another Heroic Move. Shagrat and the Witch King both call their own Heroic Moves to try and keep the initiative. Once again, the forces of Good win the Move-Off, allowing Aragorn and Legolas to get their charges off.

The Witch King goes next- and uses Instil Fear to tactically force many of the Riders to flee away from Theoden before his Heroic Move, and then charges into the remaining Riders.

In the Fight phase, Good once again triumphs over Evil- with the Witch King failing to kill any Riders. Meanwhile, Theoden calls a Heroic Combat, and both Aragorn and Shagrat call a Heroic Strike against each other. 

Theoden successfully kills the Black Numenorean he faces, and quickly charges to aid Aragorn, who was surrounded by Orcs. Both he and Aragorn win the next Fights, and kill the surrounding Black Numenoreans and Orcs. Though Shagrat survives, he's left with no Might, and surrounded by Aragorn, Gimli and Theoden.

Before and after- Aragorn and Theoden are cutting a deadly path through the Mordor forces

Turn 5

With Mordor winning another Priority, the now dismounted Gimli calls a Heroic Move to ensure Aragorn and Theoden's charge. Though Shagrat can no longer counter, the Witch King does call a Heroic Move to ensure the Heroes can't charge back up the board. 

Having yet to kill a single model, OT made the decision that his forces needed to start killing some of the warriors to try and break the Rohan forces as quickly as possible. The Witch King casts Black Dart, and a Royal Guard becomes the first Good model to be removed from the table. Kardush, finally managing to get close enough to the Rohan forces with his warband, attempts to cast Flame Burst- but fails to cast the spell.

In the Fight phase, Aragorn uses his free Might to call a Heroic Combat, allowing him and Theoden to slay their Black Numenorean combatant, and charge into the Witch King- trapping the Nazgul. Though they beat the Witch King in the ensuing fight, his high defence prevents them from wounding him. In Legolas' fight, the Orcs won, and Legolas was forced to use all of his Fate to prevent a wound.

Turn 6

This Turn sees both forces finally close in on the objectives. Having broken through the Mordor flank, a Rider and Royal Guard break away to target the single Morannon Orc left to defend the Mordor objective.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, Kardush's warband manages to steal the Objective away. Though a Rider rides in hot pursuit, there are still enough Orcs in Kardush's warband to force the Rider away, and in turn protect the Orc running with the objective.

The Orc on the right has the objective!

Back in the melee, Aragorn calls a Heroic Move to charge the Witch King once again. With no Might left on the table, the Mordor forces are unable to counter. Kardush once again attempts to Flameburst, but whilst he succeeds in casting this time, he fails to wound the Rider.

In combat, the Rohan cut down the remaining forces on the left flank- with just the Witch King and Shagrat left. With Aragorn winning the fight against the Witch King again, this time he kills the horse from under the rider, but the Witch King lands on his feet.

With that, the Mordor forces are just 1 model away from breaking!

Turn 7 and 8

Mordor win priority once again (Ed- in fact, you may have noticed that this was the only thing Mordor was winning! OT rolled dreadfully all game, except for once a turn when deciding priority!)

Once again, Aragorn uses his free might point to call a Heroic Move, and the forces of Rohan charge into the Witch King and Shagrat. With the Rohan forces freed from the right flank, Legolas leads many of the riders into the warband of Kardush, seeking to break through to the Orc with the Rohan objective. By the end of Turn 7, Shagrat and the Witch King survive, but are both knocked prone. Mordor is now broken.

Rohan finally win priority in Turn 8, and the end now seems certain for Mordor. Charging the heroes, Aragorn, Theoden, Legolas and Gimli remove the Mordor forces ability to use standfast, and the Orcs flee in their droves. Only two Orcs survive the courage tests- though importantly one is the Orc with the Rohan objective!

The Rider charges into the Orc on the Mordor objective in Turn 8, but fails to kill it

In the combat phase, Legolas rides down Kardush with ease, whilst the Riders finish off one of the Orcs who survived the courage test.

Aragorn succeeds in killing the prone Witch King, but Shagrat manages to survive his combat once again.

Aragorn adds the Witch King to his impressive tally this game

 

Turn 9

At the beginning of the turn, only Shagrat, and the two Orcs on the objectives remain. Mayor was weighing up whether charging the Orcs to try and kill them, or allow them to take a courage test was more likely to result in removing the Orcs from the table, but he didn't have to make the decision. Mordor wins priority, and they both flee. Only Shagrat remains, charging into combat. With Shagrat now the only Evil model on the table, he must survive to prevent the Mordor forces from being tabled, but his luck finally runs out. Surrounded by Theoden and Gimli, knocked prone by the cavalry, he's finally cut down.

The Rohan forces are left unopposed. 

Final Score: 12-0 Victory to Rohan

The main takeaway watching this game was that OT was extremely unlucky. He just couldn't win a fight or kill a model (that Royal Guard killed by the Witch King was the only casualty that Rohan took). Chatting afterwards, the only thing we could think of was that the Witch King should have been more aggressive with his magic- picking off the warriors so that the Mordor forces could take advantage of their numbers. The Mordor forces were actually playing the objective well until the final turns, but Orc courage ultimately let OT down- and the relentless cavalry charges and high Might won the day for the Rohan.