the 4th age, rise of man: part 1

Since the finish of the Fantasy War in wattonford campaign (http://warformiddleearth.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/war%20in%20wattonford) my local store has started a long awaited lord of the rings strategy battle game. Us two at tale of two gamers entered it with my force of rohirrim and my fellow gamer's Mordor force (we really must get round to doing a special on it). The first game was 1 warband each and the tale of two gamers made a team against the other players in the campaign. Today's game was a kind of capture the flag objective.
So my rohirrim and the forces of mordor took on the servants of sauron with the folowing lists.

Tale of two gamers
Eomer Marshal of the riddermark
12 riders of rohan with throwing spears
Spider Queen
6 black numenoreans
6 orc warriors with spears
Great beast of gorgoroth

Servants of Sauron
Mordor troll chieftain
Urukhai captain
Easterling captain
4 urukhai with shields
4 urukhai with pikes
2 bezerkers
1 urukhai ballista
5 orcs with spears
2 orcs with bows
3 orcs with two handed weapons
2 orcs with shields
2 easterling black dragon kataphracts
6 easterlings with pikes and spears
4 easterlinsg with bows
I kicked off the battle with my classic opening Rohirrim move! The charge of the Rohirrim, where my commander spearheads the block of riders straight for the enemy shield wall!
We burst forwards from the right side of our objective with the minions of the spider queen advancing in a shield wall to the left.

Shooting took its toll on us as we advanced at full pelt towards the foe, the urukhai ballista piercing a man in half and going straight through two other men's horses, sending them walking. The Easterlings also opened up on the black numenorean shield wall, taking out two of the corrupted men and leaving their orc supporters exposed.
The Rohirrim charge then hugged the enemy objective, out of sight of the urukhai ballista. The riders then split up with Eomer riding to take on the troll while four others charged the urukhai phalanx, hurling their throwing spears and taking out two of the urukhai shield men, falling upon the orc supporters.

However only two of the four who charged survived, defeating their orcish opponents as their fellows, who failed to dispatch their uruks with their throwing spears, were hacked apart by the uruks and their captain. Over on the right Eomer was defeated by the troll chieftain but he survived its blows without injury. Two orcs were also taken out by fellow orcish shooting from the great beast.

Things soon got bloody as the lines broke under the weight of combat and the charge of the great beast! The rohirrim were now trapped inbetween the Bezerkers and the phalanx, having slain but one orc spearman to the loss of four riders. The great beast in the centre had been halted by the Easterling captain and his pikemen and neither were making much of an impression on the other.
And on the left the Kataphracts and orc warriors were in a bitetr grind with the terror causing black numenoreans and their orc spearmen, which had so far claimed two orc spearmen and all the oposing orc warriors.

With but two rohirrim left standing against the phalax now was the time for great deeds! And these two warriors did not disapoint with one hurling his spear at the captain as he ran for him, the spear pierced his side and wounded the urukhai leader. However the enraged uruk struck down the brave warrior and after slaying an orc the other rider also fell to the urukhai phalanx. The casualty count after the charge was but two urukhai shield bearers and two orc spearmen dead plus the urukhai captain wounded to the deaths of ten rohirrim.

Eomer bravely battle on under the banner of Rohan! Surrounded by two bezerkers and assailed by the troll chieftain Eomer brought his axe down into the troll and taking it to two wounds, however the combined efforts of the two uruks and the troll brought the marshal of the riddermark to his knees in the end. And the last man of rohan, holding the banner alloft only just beat back the Bezerkers, riding hard for the objective to plant the flag there and await a stand!

With the arrival of Rohan's standard the spider queen left her lair in the ruin and attacked the urukhai captain! Within one round of combat she had consumed him armour and all!

The force of the black numenorans was starting to show and they and their orc lackeys easily overpowered the last easterling rider whilst the great beast (supported by a spider swarm and a black numenorean and orc lackey) on just three wounds fought on against the easterling and urukhai pikemen oposing is.

With the easterling shock cavalry out of the way and the urukhi captain slain the black numenorens and the spider queen fell upon the foe with the aim of freeing up the great beast from combat. Unfortunatly the great beast's (which had been on two wounds) crewmen hit it with their bow fire at the easterling captain, wounding both him and it.

With all but one of the urukhai and orcs slain the Numenoreans and their orc spearmen  started for the enemy objective. Hoping to, with the help of the spider queen, over power the troll chieftain and the bezerkers before capturing the ruin for themselves (or at least contesting it).

The easterlings were straggling now, with the one wound great beast, three black numenoreans and three orc spearmen surrounding and skirmishing with but three easterlings and their captain.

The game ended with the spider queen at the door of the ruin. Next turn she would have been brawling with the troll, but as the shop was closing up we had to bring the game to a close.

The objectives were both still in their owner's hands so we went down to see which side had the most broken warbands. For ourselves the rohirrim were broken and the great beast was on just one wound while the orcs and urukhai on the otherside were also broken. So it was drawn there as well.

However in the end we were declared the victors by the manager as we had come most close to capturing the objective and had actually focused on it as well.

So 3 campaign pts to each of us from tale of two gamers whilst the rest went home with but one each.

A good start... but as Milton keynes campaign and goodness knows how many church events seme to clash with the rest I probably won't be able to join in again till the last week.