Just before the end of the year, we were geared up for a Lord of the Rings game with evil forces attempting to burn down the village and escape off the far end of the table.  The evil forces had Warg Riders, Orcs and a Troll.  The forces of good came on the table from near the end with a force of rangers on foot, some foot troops in armor and a small unit of cavalry.  Frederick and George took up the challenge of the evil troops and Rick and I were the forces of good.  (Click photographs for larger images.)

Starting point for the forces of good, Rangers, Infantry and Cavalry

Wanting to block the evil forces, I moved the Rangers with bows in two groups through the village to get some cover and use the long-range bow fire to inflict casualties on the forces of evil.  My cavalry I chose to move around the edge of the village towards the woods were the evil forces were located.  I had hoped to pin the forces there and see if they would not want to come out in the open and face the small unit of cavalry.  Rick slowly backed up my archers with his stalwart infantry a common theme in this game.

Troll and evil cohorts must cross burn the village and escape off the far edge from where they start.

Moving up the Rangers towards a fence rail was not as effective as I had hoped as they did not at first inflict as many hits as I wished.  Dividing my archers was not a good idea it seemed later as they got somewhat isolated.  George swept around the side towards one of the village huts with his infantry following Warg Riders of Frederick.  Slowly the cavalry moved along the edge of the board, trying to be a force in being just to scare the archers of the evil forces who were supported by a massive troll.

George moving evil troops up and around to burn the village did anyone bring a match?

As some of my archers started to hit evil troops Frederick brought out his archers to kill off the Rangers.  This was forcing me back and I was not successful at staying out of range though I had better movement and range of fire.  Rangers were not tough troops.  The forces of evil under George and Frederick reached the village building and tried to set them alight. No one brought flint it seemed as it took several rolls to light a fire.

As the forces of good pulled back towards the edge of the village, the Warg Riders dashed towards the Rangers.  Down went Riders, Wargs and a few Rangers but most of the Wargs did not reach them.  Arrow fire seemed to be the Rangers biggest problem as the evil archers had come out of the tree line to trade fire with some archers.

I had hoped to use the good cavalry to pin the evil forces in place but I ended up riding around their flank and charging in from the rear.  The cavalry was able to get some favorable match ups even though they were a small force and the charge bonus helped.  Deciding to throw away the cavalry if need be I charged them into the Troll and archers.  Did not think this would work out but it did as the mighty Troll was brought down the cavalry really did a good job.  I was worried it would turn into the charge of the light brigade but they got around the rear and did a good job.

Meanwhile George and Frederick had set one hut on fire that was a requirement.  The Rangers were still falling backfiring as much as possible and scoring some hits.  Rick formed a solid line with his armored troops to block any escape off the edge of the table and then the evening ended.

Rick’s strategic reserve ready to block the evil troops from exiting the table.

It was a solid win for the forces of Good.  Bad rolls had hurt the burning down of the village for the forces of evil.  Further, the cavalry had decimated a portion of their forces including the Troll who I really did fear would take out loads of troops.  Even though George still had troops to try to press off the table.  Rick was the real winner not a scratch on any of his troops he let me take all the fire and never faced a single enemy.

Good fast game did not turn out as I expected.  I thought the Rangers would do better at the fence rail than they did and still Del felt I had too many.  They are not tough troops.  Bad rolls hurt the evil forces from burning thing up.  I believed the Troll and Warg Riders would do more damage than they ended up doing.  The Cavalry it was my belief would only be good to lock troops down and keep them from getting in close combat but they really had more of an effect in the outcome of the game than I expected.  Rick protected the rear with great skill and never had a single figure come into combat in any way; he was the true hero and victor in this game.