Defence of Amon Sul - Battle Companies Campaign Finale

So the big finale for the year and a bit long Battle Companies finally rolled around last week with the Campaign victorious Evil side laying siege to the Arnorian Amon Sul and the Good forces trying to delay the inevitable death and destruction bent hordes from slaying all in their path.

The Scenario was simple, the Forces of Evil; Kev (Warg Riders), Andy W (Mordor Orcs), and Kenny (Easterlings), Any K couldn't make it on the day to add to the Evil hordes numbers), were to assault the outskirts of Amon Sul, defended by the forces of Good; myself (Arnor), Dave K (Rivendell Elves) and Leigh (Hobbit Horde) who were re-enforced with 150pts worth of Arnor Warriors and Rangers across the front (18 figures). With the Arnor re-enforcement's included it was a 1200 to 850 point match off plus the evil possible 150 pts of re-enforcement's (would have been 1400 or so if Andy K could have made it) giving the Evil a roughly 2 to 1 advantage in points for the assault, about right.

Having won the Campaign (by a narrow victory of one game, the Evil side gets one re-enforcement roll to come on centre stage on the their deployment line on round 3. Rolling on the table which could be anything from a Ringwraith to a passle of Orcs, the Evil side rolled up a Cave Troll and half a dozen Warriors of Angmar to add to their horde count.

The Ruins held eight objectives roughly evenly spread across the 12' x 5' table, four in the front of the town and four half way back. Each objective worth 2pts, the death of a captain worth 2pts and each other hero 1pt. The game was to be of limited length but I wasn't sure what was fair here so a nominal 9 turns with the option to extend to 12 if the 9 proved too short for the evil side to traverse the the hefty run in. Most victory points gives the winner to see if the good forces delay the enemy enough to let the 'big wigs and mighties' time to escape to fight another day.

First off, the forces of Evil cunningly surprised us by deploying completely on the centre/right flank, thus pretty much nullifying Leigh's mighty Hobbits over on our right. (Leigh then spent most of the rest of the game guarding objectives and marching across the front to come into bow range of the attackers).

First round and the defenders gained the initiative but stayed put and the evils launched their attack on my poor Arnorian's on our left with the Warg Riders surging ahead to limited the rounds of much shootiness coming at them. My first round was fairly poor given the number of shots I poured into them but still managed to take out three Wargs and riders. The Orcs and Easterlings began their march towards our line with the Easterlings being slowed by a covering wall.

The second and third rounds were pretty bloody affairs with the Wargs charging into the defences. My Captain called a heroic move after loosing the initiative a drew back Warriors in his Charge just out of range of the first charge and then managed to get the charge in the following move after a slighlty worse round of shooting but blunting the Warg charge.The two Easterling Cataphracts joining the fight towards the end.

The first Good result followed quickly with my Captain Anairion with his Warrior Sergeant Tarcil charge the Warg Captain and in flurry of blows with the Mighty Needle glowing in his hand (Kev's Captain was the only Evil company to pick up the Needle too) with three mighty blows slew the Warg Captain taking out the major threat to the good forces, the Sergeant and his follower taking out the Warg Captains companion.

Elsewhere on the flank its more of a give and take melee but the number of warriors (and better dice rolling in melee than shooting) hold the remaining Riders and Cataphracts at bay.

The slowly advancing Easterlings trade a fire fight with the Elves and a few rangers in the centre ruins and begin to get picked off one by one as the number of shots coming their way begin to tell.

The Troll and Angmar Warriors appear and start a slow trek towards the centre and approaching Troll killer Hobbits.

The Hobbits continue their long trek to get into action

Troll and warriors long walk to attack the Elves who generally keep behind cover.

The Arnor Warriors and Rangers (including the local inhabitants jump into the fight with the Warg Riders and Cataphracts and though losses are heavy manage to break the Warg Riders. 

Meanwhile the Orcs continue their steady advance on the far left while taking small but continuous losses from the Ranger Sergeant Tarondor and a couple of Rangers defending the left most ruin.

With the Orc horde closing, Captain Anairon rushes towards the beleaguered Tarondor who fires arrow after arrow at the oncoming warriors as they scale the walls taking down the Ranger defender.

The initial fight on the left draws to a close as the Wargs are broken and begin to disappear just as the Easterlings scale the other ruin on the left and put the Ranger defenders to the sword (aided by some firing from the encroaching Orc archers) and begin to close on the untouched Elves while continuing their long range shooting at the Elf Archers and Rangers on the high towers.

In a cinematic end, surrounded by multitudes Sergeant Tarondor goes down surrounded fighting to the end and rather than do the sensible thing and move back to the other Arnorians, Anairon jumps into the fray depending on his mighty blade and cuts down a couple of Orc Warriors but is surrounded too, below the arches of the ruin and despite mighty blows and fate rolls the sheer number of hits (each enemy getting his hits doubled and Andy saved his hero's for surrounding Anairon and got good rolls :-) ) Anairon went down in a flurry of mighty hits from the Orc weapons.

The Easterling's began to assault round the high towers and about to clase with the Elves and the Hobbits reached firing range and began a few pot shots at the Troll and Angmar Warriors.

This was the end of round nine. My Arnorian's were two away from their extended break point but had lost four of their hero's and there were another six or so Arnorian defenders down, The Elves and Hobbits were pretty much untouched, The Warg Riders were broken and a spent force and the Easterling's and the Orcs were both nearing their break points so the Evil side called it, thinking that with the hard Elves and the many Hobbits still to tackle it was an unlikely prospect to get the victory. So the defenders managed a victory delaying the evil hordes sufficiently blunting their initial attack to let the Seer of Amon Sul escape the destruction.

Looking back on the scenario, the Evil side felt that the long run in was just too much to over come despite their two to one superiority in points, and looking back I would probably shorten the run in distance to three normal moves, maybe four at most. With no mechanism for figures to 'rush' within the LotR SBG rules, long moves turn into a trudge which can be fatal while under fire even though shooting tends to get a kill in about 1 in four if your lucky.

But with the Warg riders moving in quickly but unsupported, nullified their advantage of the flank move, pitting one Company against a slightly bolstered other, who managed to get the numbers into the combats that counted counteracting the disadvantage in the points values, though they were sufficiently battered to probably break shortly after now that the Orcs and Easterling's were in amongst them. With a Troll and fresh warriors coming in things were still not completely decided for the Evil forces, but perhaps unlikely to get a result in three moves right enough probably being only able to pick up another three objectives at most in that time.

So a slightly fizzled-out ending to the campaign as I would have liked to get a good tit-for-tat bash-up taking it close to the edge finale but I find it quite hard to get a good balance with LotR SBG scenario's, as I don't play then often enough to get a good feel for the balance, but a good game all in and a completed campaign which is always a result.

Battle Companies Campaign - Threading the Needle

Being the penultimate installment (and final scenario) in the Battle Companies Campaign, where the Companies have crossed into Rhudaur on the trail of the fabled 'Needle' and tracked it down to the ruins of Caer Emwyn but this is also the lair of the brutal Troll.

We randomly applied opponents with places being determined by a throw of the dice. Kenny's Easterlings were pitted against Kev's Warg Riders, Andy W's Mordor Orcs were up against Dave's Rivendell Elves and I ended up facing the might of Leigh's Hobbit horde.

Our game was pretty quick and fairly brutal with myself (as the good opponent) gained the initiative and advanced as quickly as possible taking the flank to avoid the Troll with the best of my hero's and aimed for the nearest objective token and started flying at the Troll. Leighs Hobbits did likewise in a mirror image of my deployment and sent some off to deal with my rear guard, leaving a toke force at the rear to try and catch anyone that got past the Troll and the majority of his force headed straight for the Troll.

As luck would have it, and the worst result for the Hobbits, the first objective picked up was diced for and my Captain found The Needle on the first flip over on the flank. With that in hand the Captain and his accompanying guards started to make a bee line for the far table edge. I jumped in with a couple of Arnor Warriors to stop the Troll from getting in the way and exchanged fire with the advancing Hobbits on the flank.

Leighs Hobbits closed on the Troll and my rear guard where an on going kerfuffle ensued with my Ranger Hero and a Ranger eventually got the better here but not before losing the Ranger to the Hobbits and I continued to keep the Troll busy while losing a couple to the beast. The rest of my band worked their way around the Troll to avoid the Captain and his race for the far table edge. 

In short, once the horde of Hobbits managed to close with the Troll (and a little help from my lone Warrior, once again brought down the mighty Troll by sheer weight of numbers and Leigh kept his honorific as 'Troll Slayer' once again.

My Captain and his entourage swept aside the screening few Hobbits at the rear and swept to a victory claiming the mighty sword the Needle as the prize.

Elsewhere, Kevs Warg Riders defeated Kenny's Easterling but lost a couple of his number (and his victory counted to the good tally much to his chagrin. Andy W's Orcs and Dave K's Elves fought each other to a draw so the Good side gained a much needed two victories to their tally giving a final score of 24 to 25 victories going in to the big battle. This means the Evil side will only have one re-enforcement roll in the Defence of Amon Sul. (Though they might not need it as the Evil BC ratings are well in advance of the Good Side and with four players to three remaining the Evil horde will outmatch the defenders, much as it should be really).

Battle Companies - Campaign Update

Initial deployments getting set-up

Last week we managed to have a general get together with all the surviving players of the Battle Companies Campaign and staged the last random scenario and Campaign Scenario III play-offs.

Still in the game are Andy W's Mordor Orcs, Andy K's Easterling's, Kenny's Easterling's, Leigh's Hobbits, Kev's Warg Riders, Dave K's Rivendell Elves, and my Arnor Company. We also had Alan standing in with some more Easterling's so the pair-offs were equal and everyone could get the games played.

The initial match ups were games paired up with similar (or as close as possible) Battle Company ratings with the Orcs vs the Warg Riders, Hobbits vs Easterling's, Arnor vs Easterling's and Elves vs Easterling's.

Three different random scenario's were played along with the Campaign Scenario III 'Bridge across the Mitheithel' Scenario being played by myself and Andy K's Easterling's.

This play through of the Campaign Scenario was pretty one sided as I was (only just) the lower warband rating so was the defender and in the first round as Andy's Easterlings approached the bridge my shooting was for the first time excellent and effective and took out one cataphract and putting the other on his feet and taking out a Easterling Warrior thus reducing the warband by almost 30%. Shortly followed by his only (hero type) archer.

Andy managed to reach the bridge and lining up with his surviving hero's and pike types behind pushed onto the bridge and with all in combat stopped the hail of arrows momentarily. Alas Andy's dice were appalling and after a short stalemate in combat another couple of his warriors dropped including his Captain and his warband broke leaving Arnor Victorious.

Elsewhere, the Elves routed Alan's Easterlings, the Hobbits got a bit of a trouncing from Kenny's Easterlings and the Wargs (counting as the 'good' force) beat up the Mordor Orcs.

The second round involved everyone moving one place left and playing the Campaign Scenario III against there new opponent with myself and Alan playing a random scenario.

So Andy's Mordor Orc's were now facing the might of the Hobbit's (but Andy had to rescue his leader having been lost in the previous encounter and Leigh also having to do the same), Andy K's reduced Easterling's (Andy having lost his Captain to death) were up against Kenny's Easterlings in a bit of a Civil War encounter and Kev's Warg horde facing the Dave's Elves defending the bridge crossing.

Hobbits close to the kill on the surviving Orcs

My game against Alans Easterling's, a 'Show of Strength' scenario was fairly short as my shooting seemed to be reasonable successful again and managing to take out all but three of the Easterlings to the loss of only one Ranger so pretty successful night all told for Arnor for a change.

The Warg's (having the best chance of any of the band's of successfully crossing the river) charged pell mell for the river and after a viscous fight on the banks managed to gain the crossing and getting a victory but only just by avoiding break point by one. (all after spotting a minor flaw in the scenario due to game length, which rule was promptly dropped in the best spirit of making things up to suit at the time, all in the greatest tradition, of course).

Andy's Easterling's managed to make the crossing against Kenny's company again in a hard fought melee.

And with the Orc's trying to gain the bridge and regain their Hero from the far side (and the Hobbits managing to regain theirs from the opposite side) sheer numbers (the only thing in the Hobbit Companies favour really) they managed to cut the Mordor Orc horde down to size and hold the crossing and getting the Campaign victory.

Another great round and most enjoyable. The results provided a 5/3 result to the side of 'Good' and a much needed boost to the good to the overall results now standing at 22/25 in Evils favour, so looking like Evil will have the advantage for the final assault on Arnor with only the penultimate game Scenario IV 'The Eye of the Needle' to go before the big punch up.

Battle Companies Campaign Update

Elves advance on the Hobbits

Another round of catch-up games for the Battle Companies Campaign earlier this week with myself, Dave K, and Leigh taking part (with apologies from Andy K, who fell asleep on the couch after a long shift, but will catch up later this month) with us all getting two games in (mine not counting to campaign progress) with first up Dave K's Rivendell Elves against Leigh's Hobbitses in the 'Show of Strength' scenario with the Hobbits at a severe disadvantage.

The Hobbits tried to get as many shooting attacks in as possible before the Elves closed in to melee but this was only marginally effective before the crunch and a short fracas produced the expected result and the Hobbits broke when reaching 75% casualties.

After game results were productive with the Hobbits losses one of their number but gaining a couple re-enforcements and the Elves likewise gained another Rivendell Knight.

Hobbits and Arnorians converge on the Troll

Next up was the hero's of Arnor against the now multitudinous Hobbits in a round of 'Tame the Beast' where the two companies competed to slay a 'troll' who was wandering about.

This game was pretty brief with the Hobbits ganging up on the trolol first with volley firing taking a wound off the Troll and then mobbing it with all they had and successfully taking two wounds in the second round of combat to no casualties. The Hobbits lost a couple of casualties from shooting from the Arnor forces but in slaying the Troll won the game.

The Hobbits mob the Troll

Next up was a round of the Arnorian's versus the Rivendell Elves. This time the Scenario was 'Hold the Line' with the Arnorian's being the attackers.

The two Companies having pretty similar ratings with the Elves just getting the advantage it was going to be hard to get 33% of the Arnorian company off the opposite table edge intact with the numbers being very similar and four of my number hobbits which move at 4".

Anyway, the Arnorians advanced and exchanged fire generally having the advantage in the shooting but the Elven armour minimizing the effectiveness of this and the Elves closed to combat on the lreft flank and had the advantage in combat due to their higher fight values and again all armoured where half my number were rangers.

All in all the scenario went as expected and though 20% off the table edge was reasonable, eleven of the company were taken down so meaning it was impossible to get the 33% but the Arnorians did cause reasonable casualties in return but he victory went the Dave's Elves.

The campaign scores on the doors this time were 2 Good wins and one Evil win putting the campaign running total with the Evil side still ahead at 17/22.

More games over the coming month with a couple of catch up games and the third campaign scenerio 'Bridge over the Mitheithal' hopefully before the month end.

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'.

Battle Companies Campaign Update

Managed to get another small get together for the Club Battle Companies campaign last week. A fairly small gathering with Alan, Dave K, Andy W, Kev and myself getting another couple of games under the belt.

Myself and Andy W played the next campaign specific scenario 'Catching the Thread', with Andy's Mordor Orcs attacking my Arnor band who were in possession of the ruined village searching for the relic 'The Thread'.

The outcome of the scenario was a definite military victory to the Orcs as the strength of my band is definitely in the shooting department but this strength sadly eluded me as any of my guys couldn't hit a barn door if it was lying on top of them on the day. The Orcs lost a few guys in the end but my band went down almost to a man. It didn't help that one of my Rangers was so well camouflaged that I forgot to use him for most of the game. (You might spot him in the bottom left of the first photo above).

A good hard fought game and most enjoyable. The game result proved to be a draw in the end as I managed to prevent the Orcs getting a hold of the relic (the objective) right up to the last turn though losing it myself right at the end as my last man standing fled the field.

On the other games there was a prethala of other mayhem with Warg Riders, Elves, and the men of Gondor battling it out but several draws and one evil win were the results there.

With other previous games results in and a large increase in the number of no score draws adding up, the side of Evil is now slowly creeping ahead in the campaign tally with a score 11/14 good to evil wins.

Battle Companies Campaign update

Another game under the belt for my Arnor Battle Company in our ongoing campaign in the wilds of Rhudaur.

Only a short update with a couple of players taking part this time to get some games in to catch up with the other players with Dave K's B team Elf squad, Alan L's Gondor, Kenny's Easterlings and my Arnor company taking part.

Alan and Kenny and myself having one game apiece and Dave's elves two.

My game with Alan's Gondor BC was a pretty hard fought affair with Gondor playing hide and seek while the Arnor force advanced cautiously. The one active Gondor Archer in hiding over the coarse of the game picking off three of the Arnor force while the tree he hid behind must had about forty arrows sticking in it. I soon abandoned this coarse as the Gondor Knight and associated hero's advanced into charge range.

Gondor plays hide n seek with Arnor while Elves and
 Easterlings battle in the background

Things went a bit pear shaped for Alan now as my archer heavy squad took affect and his numbers dropped quickly. Alan managed to get his knight and a hero into combat but his dice were lowsey and the Arnor force managed to take down his entire force bar one who broke in the face of the Arnor charge.

Dave's B team Elves managed to get two victories both hard fought and the second turned defeat into victory. You can check out his batrep here.

Campaign is certainly getting interesting as the companies beef up so looking forward to the next big get together at the end of the month for more games and the next Campaign story scenario.

Battle Companies Campaign - Part the Second

The last week or so has seen various BC Campaign activities with Monday being the next major get together round robin bout and various separate PvP games previously.

The participants this time round were;

                                 Dave K                Rivendell

                                 Andy W               Mordor Orcs

                                 Ian                       Gondor

                                 Kevin                   Warg Riders

                                 Andy K                 Easterlings

                                 Myself                  Arnor

                                 Leigh                   Hobbits

                                 Alan A                  Dwarves

Already with most of the Companies having five games under their belt, several of them are beginning to look pretty chunky, particularly Andy W's Orcs and Dave K's Rivendell Elves being the current ones to watch out for.

On the flip side of this is Iain's Gondor BC which has been particularly unlucky with post game results and has been forced to restart from scratch once after losing captain and down to three bods, and his second BC has not faired well after losing a second captain from the restarted group.

This time round, games were pitched about Company ratings with games paired off with opponents with similar rating matched against each other and then next closest.

My own games for Arnor against Dave K's Elves and Kev's Warg Riders were both victories for the enemies of Arnor with the Elves being much luckier on the dice rolls and Arnor only winning two duel rolls all game but still taking a time to defeat and then a much quicker defeat as the Warg Riders swarmed the hill that Arnor was holding and breaking at 75% casualties, going down in very quick order for a fraction of casualties in return. The post game results were pretty kind though and the Arnor BC is much the stronger finishing up.

We only managed two random generated scenario's each this time as the game length's are creeping up as the companies strength's grow which is nice. It will be next time round before we get to the next Campaign Scenario 'Catching the Thread'.

Following this weeks games the scores have now moved to 10/10 victories apiece for Good /Evil with the Evil side picking up a couple of decent victories this time round. 

Battle Companies Campaign - Looking for the Needle

This week we kicked off the club Battle Companies campaign.

With ten players involved and a reasonable spread of different Battle Companies the campaign promises to be eventful and lots of fun.

The Players;

         Dave K            Rivendell

         Andy W            Mordor Orcs

         Ian                   Gondor

         Kevin               Warg Riders

         Andy K             Easterlings

         Alan                 Gondor

         Scott                Gondor

         Rory                 Arnor

         Kenny              Earterlings

         Leigh               (Still to declare)

The narrative campaign is set roughly around 1408 TA at the beginning of the Second Northern War and the Companies are battling around the border of Arthedain, Angmar and Rhudaur with the Companies looking to gain advantage for their side in the coming conflict and furthering their own agenda's and gaining glory and prestige in the process.

The Campaign itinerary looks like this;

          2 Games (any Scenario)
          Campaign Scenario I - Crossing Emyn Sul
          2-4 Games (any Scenario)
          Campaign Scenario II - Catching the Thread
          2-4 Games (any Scenario)
          Campaign Scenario III - Bridge over the Mitheithel
          2-4 Games (any Scenario)
          Campaign Scenario IV - The Eye of the Needle
          2 Games (any Scenario)
          Campaign Scenario V - The Defence of Amon Sul

With the Campaign kicking off this week, we managed to gather 8 of the intrepid bands who let slip the dogs of War and had battle and managing to get the first two introductory games in and the first Campaign Scenario 'Crossing Emyn Sul' too (apart from Alan and Kenny who didn't manage the campaign scenario.

The games are pretty quick to play through due to the small starting number in each company initially but as the campaign progresses look to take a bit longer each time. With all the players gamed up together we swapped round the tables as each game unfolded and everybody had a different opponent for each of their games making things much more interesting.

My first game was a Hold the Ground Scenario against Andy K's Easterlings and my Arnor band had a pretty easy show of it largely due to my better shooting abilities and Andy's rubbish dice and gained a Hobbit Archer as reinforcement.

My next up was my Arnor forces against a slightly depleted Warg Riders Company of Kev in a 'Chance Encounter' Scenario and again my growing shooting abilities proving a match for the Warg Rider fast movement though I did lose one of my Warriors of Arnor in this match but gained another Hobbit Archer.

Third game up and this being the first Campaign Scenario and I was up against Dave K's Rivendell Elves who are proving to be the early Company to watch.

The Scenario is basically a Seize Ground Scenario where each of the Companies try to control the greater number of objective (a watch tower and four surrounding ruins) while having the added complication of Haunted Ground and a Barrow Wight somewhere unknown to contend with.

Initially my luck was in and I took out the only Elven Archer with my first shot but Dave kept his troops in cover while slowly closing ground on the Arnor Troops with the odd lucky potshot being stopped by the Elvish Armour. On closing on the second objective the Arnor troops disturbed the Barrow Wight but managed to rid the world of this evil spirit with ease much to my pleasant surprise, though this did split up my advance.

Quickly Dave closed the gap and made his move and easily weathered the one round of shooting in the open (five ones to hit was just rubbish but the luck was obviously siding with the Elves on the night) and jumped into melee.

After that everyone including the Hobbits piled in as there was no shooting into melee and numbers tell.

Surprisingly my troops held the line for three or four round with each side trading blows but failing to land a killing blow and then of course things turned and four of the Arnor troops went down for the loss of only one Elf. Eventually only a lone warrior stood and managed to fend off four Elf warriors for two rounds before going down refusing to flee to the end. Great game hard fought game but the victory going to Dave's Elves.

With eleven games down, the scores on the doors look like this;

          Arnor - 2 Victories, 1 Defeat
          Mordor Orcs - 1 Victory, 1 Draw, 1 Defeat
          Gondor (Ian) - 1 Draw, 2 Losses
          Warg Riders - 1 Victory, 2 Losses
          Easterlings (Kenny) - 1 Victory, 1 Loss
          Gondor (Alan) - 2 Victories
          Easterlings (Andy) - 3 Losses
          Rivendell - 3 Victories 

So Good 6, Evil 4 so far (Total Victories counting towards the grand finale) and just for interest.

A couple of games to be had by the other players and then onto the next phase and another round-robin round of games for the second phase.

Looking forward to it.