Battle Companies Campaign Update

Another small get together this week to keep the Battle Companies Campaign alive with four attendees; myself Andy W, Kev and Kenny mustering their Arnor, Mordor Orcs, Warg Riders and Easterlings respectively, playing a round robin bout, two games each with random generated scenarios.

First up for myself was a game against Kenny's Easterlings. Kenny's band was down a fair bit from my Arnor Company so went the defender in a 'Stand your Ground' scenario. This was pretty straight forward and I won the tussle but the Easterling two bows did significantly better than my eight and managed to take down half my Company before submitting to the higher numbers once combat was joined. No losses were incurred on either side but I ended up gaining an Arnor Warrior and have two hobbit archers sitting out the next game. Kenny managed to increase his band by two warriors.

My next game as we all moved round a chair was up against Kev's Warg Riders. His Company had a significant higher rating than mine so I started with six re-rolls and the same Influence points right off the bat. With two hobbit archers sitting out the game and Kev only having one scout type sitting out the game, things seemed a bit stacked against me in rating and in numbers. The scenario rolled was 'Recovery', with five counters in the middle, one the 'relic' searched for and each band starting at opposite ends and objective to find the relic and take it off the opposite side from deployment.

Deployment for Recovery Scenario

The Companies advanced and the Arnor forces managed an early kill to archery for a change as they advanced and reaching the line of counters first too due to Kev keeping as much to cover as possible as he advanced. The first counter approached proved to be the relic so all was down to the fight to follow.

Early game was a mixed affair with casualties on both sides and an early good round from Kev where his scout took down two of the Arnor force in one round and the Orc numbers looked to begin to tell.

Mid-late game Orc numbers telling

The Arnor force now seemed to pick up a step (mainly down to Kev's inability to get the wound rolls in) and the warriors carrying the relic took a fair bit to drop but they eventually did, but the Arnor Warriors, (including the Captain who managed to get his first kills of the campaign, and getting two to boot) managed to pick up the pace and the tide turned quite spectacularly and managed to turn the numbers round with the Arnor forces outnumbering the Orcs by a good margin at the end.

Kev went for the objective though and leaving a couple to slow down the Arnor troops managed to get two orcs on the relic and managed a free move towards the base line with only his captain intervening. Last round and the Orcs got he initiative and the win but with only three orcs alive and narrowly loosing his captain too.

Great game with big loses on both sides but I was happy with the way my band stood up to uneven odds at the beginning and nearly pulling out the win but Kev's tactics at the end getting the well deserved win.

The other two games of Kev's Warg Riders versus Andy's Mordor Orcs was a hard fought game too with Kev just managing a win in a 'Show of Strength' scenario, and Kenny's Easterlings against Andy's Orcs which though quite one sided ended up with the Easterlings getting a whopping 13 Influence points and a much needed injection to the Company.

The scores on the doors of three Evil wins and 1 Good win were added to the running total and the Evil side moves further ahead to 15/21.

Next up more random scenarios for the other four players and the next Campaign Scenario; 'Bridge over the Mitheithel'.