Alarums and Excursions (and other stories)

Well, thats been fun a 2026 so far. Lots of worrying things abroad in the world and nearer to home too, And it's ony the end of February.

Closer to home for me, I've been pretty stumped in getting anything at all done and any plans have been totally scuppered to date due to fairly minor (thankfully) but no less incapacitating ailments since before Christmas with the likes of a throat infection, subsequent linguring cough, closely followed by tooth ache and trigeminal nerve issues with wisdom tooth extraction and breaking the tooth next to it. 

Coupled with Dentists and Doctors that don't know their arses from Tuesday, cancelling appointments at the last minute and passing responsibilities on to other Professionals and so on. Also multiple transport issues caused by the state of the roads locally and around the country with repairs to windscreens and wheels required it's been an interesting couple of months so far. I did have a day at the end of January where seemed to be ok and before next issue arose (the fololowing day) but my wife pressganged me into some DIY which in fairness was much behind schedule along with everything else.

But, touch wood, I seem to be getting out of the morass and feeling more up to getting my nefarious plans back on track.

On that, I did have quite a few irons in the fire which I'd been planning to get into this year, including new ventures into the land of business of the model making and design variety extending to design and manufacture of furniture and storage along with general modelling and hobby activities, DIY and so on. Obviously, due to the current state of karma around me, bugger all has been done up to this week.

The first positive step has been made this week however. Now the back story... One New Years day 2025, I had a bit of a windfall, picking up the £1K Daily Win on the Postcode Lottery. Good start to last year. Hummed and hawed a bit as to where to spend this but I quickly plumped to pick up a 3D printer with associated paraphenallia. The money was suitably banked and I set about reading up on things, checking various reviews and getting my head around the differences of Resin and filament printers and capabilities.

Time passed and things carried on as usual and fairly quickly decided upon a Resin printer which would cover Hobby Printing to suitable detail but also give me options for more functional accersory outputs for my other activities for jigs and machine parts. Time passed...

Things moved on, other life changes were coming to the fore and descisions made with the relevant one here being that I'd decided to take slightly early retirement and would be looking to supplement my income come the summer of 2026. Various plans became a bit more concrete and part of this was the facility to digitally design and print models.

Now, with the end of the year looming I got my finger out and ordered my first 3D printer (along with all the paraphenalia) which would land nicely just before Christmas and would have the time to step and experiment and get to know things before I went back to work.

As you can guess, things didn't go to plan here due to picking up an infection and the subsequent trials and tribulations that followed and I didn't get to open the boxes until mid February. Now all opened, contents checked and assembled, switched on, checked again, usual test prints run and all good.

First hurdle was up beginning of the week and looked to get my first print out in anger as it were. Previously purchased STL's were duly sliced and saved to .ctb file uploaded to printer and.... nothing. Lots of investigations were carried out, change of settings, different arrangements and means of loading, compatibility issues checked, software updates etc etc and finally lockated the issue being with the resolution profile on the slicer software had to be set to an older version of the printer than the printer actually was. Go figure.

Anyhoo, re-sliced my first batch of prints and uploaded and set to print last night and in the morning my first print selection was sitting waiting for me to clean and cure.

Lastsword Miniatures Heavy Pike Command
 and Bite The Bullet Githyanki Fighter

With the first output a success, I'll plan forward for some much needed hobby time and get some modelling and painting done soon.

Looking to post up on recent hobby related activities over 2025 and plans for 2026 and will update on the Business venture further down the line once it's a bit more developed.

More anon.

Ragnarok Miniatures - New Figures to the collection

'The Stahlsons' Armoured Trolls

The Ragnarok Miniatures above and following are some of the first miniatures I've added to my collection this year. The Figures were received last month from the recent Ragnarok 9 Trollheim Kickstarter which was floated at the end of last year and were received ahead of the anticipated delivery, which was nice. All the figures are sculpted by Colin Patten and his style is immediately noticable and the figures fit with many manufacture ranges over and above the many that were sculpted by Colin of course but also other ranges.

I have a number of the Ragnarok minitures already and this package is adding to the range I have which are intended for use in a number of roles but particularly bulking out my Oathmark Army, use in my Solo Fantasy Campaign, various Fantasy Skirmish rules and in some LotR gaming to name a few.

A good deal and a fair passle of figures received, I like the Armoured Trolls particularly and will be useful in a number of roles under a variety of guises which the generic look will fit nicely.

'Uruk Warband'

Along with the Trolls, I went for the Uruk Warband which includes 32 figures in various guises.

'Uruk Command and Armoured Uruks'

Self explanitory Armoured Uruk core with 12 rank and file and a 4 figure command group. I picked up an additional Command group to flesh out previously picked up Ragnarok Armoured Goblin types. Armed with reasonably sized shields and mainly polearms and a few scimtar like swords. I'll probably ditch the scimitars in favour of something a bit heavier.

'Uruk Archers'

Again, self explanitory with the Uruk Archers being of the armoured variety. One issue I didn't like with these is that they came with the standard seperate hand with bow which also came with the Forest Goblins below. While this looked fine with the goblins, it looked a bit small for the beefy Uruks, so I substituted the bows with some spare bows from the bits box. Pretty sure they were from spare Empire Archers, which look the part size wise.

'Uruk Trackers'

The Uruk Trackers are a very usable generic goblinoid beefy type and could be used in a variety of roles again. Armed with spears and lighter shields than their armoured counterparts, the shields are fine and similar if not the same as the Goblin Shields in previous releases. Don't like the spears as pretty blunt looking and like the polearms with the armoured Uruks are very soft metal, so these will be replaced for harder wearing alternatives, probably rod and plastic spear heads.

'Forest Snaga Archers'

Bringing up the rear of this gang are the Forest Goblin Archers. I have a pack of the Forest Goblin Spearmen from previous Kickstarter which I liked a lot and make ideal skirmishy types and the archer addition was a no brainer for me. As you can see, the seperate hand/bow which are pinned and glued to the figures look nicely sized for the shorter stature Goblins but is way to small for the strapping Uruk warriors to bother with.

The previous releases from Ragnarok are available from Gripping Beast and I assume the latest Kickstarter will be available there in due time. I'm probably going to be picking up a couple of additional Goblin types from GB in the near future.

Battle for Blackside - Mordheim Season 4 Turf War Round 3

Had the third round PvP game of our fourth Mordheim Campaign back in the end of January and had the full complement of players attending, Ian with his Carnival of Chaos, Ric with his Middenhemers, Kev and his Halfling Horde, Andy and his Kislevite's, Dave with his trusty Reklanders, and Leigh with his Bretonnians all ready to do Battle for control of the Blackside area of Mordheim.

Battle commences

The game was to be fought in the cramped confines of the tangled streets of one of the many unsavoury area's of Mordheim, so most of the Warbands were forced to close with each other pretty quickly as the street scape limited the shooting oppurtunities of most of the bands.

Middenheimers move out towards the Chaos horrors

The first turn or so was fairly uneventful with al the bands jockeying to see which way each would go, only the Kislevite's boldly marched towards the centre and towards Ian's Nurgle types (and picking up a couple of Wyrdstones on the way).

The Middenheimers mover towards Ian's Chaos forces and the Halflings spread out and advanced generally into the field moving out towards the Middenheimers and Kislevites. Dave's Reiklandrs hugged the table line and moved towards the Kislevite's while Leighs Bretonnians moved out with an eye on the Wyrdstone and the other on the Nurgler's. THe Chaos Warband moved towards the Bretonians keeping to cover to minimise the incoming shooting.

The Halflings spread out seeking sniping oppurtunities
against the Kislevite's and Middenheimers

This was the general trend for the first couple of moves. Neglgable Random Happenings bar a minor wyrdstone encounter for the Kislevite's.

Kislevite's head into the centre

and seek battle with their Arch-enemy

A small amount of opportunity shooting occured now and then from around the board but with little effect to anyone though did make all the Warbands hug the ample cover.

The Reiklanders skirt the action and look to approach
the Kislevites from the rear

The Kislevite's continued their advance to the centre hugging cover so slow progress, the Reiklanders moved round to the Kislevite's rear and the Bretonians made a mounted knightly dash for some choice wyrdstone placements and back again while bracing for the oncoming Nurgle tide. The Halflings and the Middenheimers moved cautiously forward while sniping at each other and anyone that showed above the parapet.

The Bretonians dash for Wyrdstone before the nasty
Chaos types steal it away

Middenheimer cautiously approach Nurgle's
finest while attemping the odd distance shot

The Middenheimers began to close slightly with Chaos forces but the Halflings chose to stand fast and wait for oportunities for their bows. 

The Nurglings and associated nasty types closed with the Bretonnians and quickly developed a close melee with the Carnival quickly downing a knight and pinned the Bretonnians in place while circling round and leaving a couple of outlyers keeping an eye on the slowly approaching Middenheimers.

The Nurgle Chaos tropps close with the Bretonians 
and quickly gain the upperhand in melee

Things quickly get sticky for the Bretonnians

The Reiklanders gain an opening and begin to shoot at the Kislevite's but these are now mid table and have ample cover from the rear attack still some distance away.

Reiklanders open up on the rapidly disappearing Kislevites
but to little effect

The Bretonnians battle on

And then the rains came...

With the next check for Random Occurances landing with Kev, he rolled up a positive result which produced a 'Storm of Chaos' in the form of a Wyrdstone tainted downpour lasting a couple of turns which would inflict a S2 hit to anyone in the open. 

The streets strangely empty...

With the poisonous tainted rain lashing the streets all the bands dove for cover with some better placed to seek shelter than others.

Over the course of the couple of turns most of the bands took some hits but the Halfings and Reiklanders suffered particularly badly. Both Warbands took multiple casualties and at the end of the 2nd round of rain both bands left the field due to the losses.

The Bretonians also quit the field with minor losses from the rain but coupled with combat losses with the Chaos Horde, Leigh chose the better part of valour and retired to lick his wounds being several Hero types down.

The Kislevite's emerge following the deluge

Once the rains had cleared it was down to a three horse race, with the Kislevite's in the strongest position having taken almost no casualties to date but the Middenheimers and Carnival were both still strong in numbers too.

The Middenheimers make a move on the Chaos Warband

The Kislevite's advanced slowly through the twisting streets keeping their numbers together and letting Ric's Middenheimers have first chance against Ian's mighty Nurgle Warband, and the Middenheimers emerging from their cover rushed in slightly piecemeal against the grouped Nurglers but fought a valiant fight but took greater losses than they inflicted in the open street area.

Threeway fight develops as the Kislevites move
toward their hated enemy

The approaching Kislevite's forced the Chaos troops to split their forces to keep an eye on both front and flank so this limited their effectiveness but the toughness of the Chaos troops bluinting the middenheimers attack.

Middenheimers and Chaos fight it out as
the Kislevites approach cautiosly

The Kislevite's consolidate 
(and pose for the photo opportunity)

After two or three rounds of the slightlt one sided exchange the Middenheimers broke but having inflicted a couple of casualties on the Chaos band.

Kislevite's push forward but struggle to get the
numbers in to make the difference

Andy now chose his moment for a full attack but the cramped confines of the alleys limiting his number advantage on the slightly spread out Chaos types.

A strong and fierce melee ensued in the narrow alley but both sides held back from full engagement with the Chaos trusting to his dice and toughness and the Kislevite's with an eye to survival and lack of opportinity to engage.

All the big hitters of both bands joined in and much claws, teeth and sabres flashing ensued and several rounds of vicious melee was had againsdt the hated rivals.

Once again things went down to both bands being on rout checks and after a few passed checks on Ian's part (with a good chance of success due to his leaders Ld at max) Andy failed his 2nd or third check and it was all over.

Chaos numbers and Toughness prove too much
for the Kislevite's

So in the end Ian dice and ability to keep the numbers in the melee's in his favour give him a third victory in the Campaign and push him further ahead in the Turf War. Time will tell if this is an unassailable lead or not already.

The positions for the end of Turn 3 following al the Scouting and Raiding is as the Campaign Map;

Season 4 Mordheim Map - Turn 3 End

Turn 4 PvP game has been played and awaiting final turn orders and results before posting up batrep but will follow shortly with Turn 5 opening game due this month.

Mordheim Season 4 - Turf War - Round 1

Blood on the streets of Mordheim

This is a bit of a catch up post for our recent Season 4 Mordheim Campaign kick-off which was played a wee while ago at the club.

The campaign was originally planned to have it's inauguration on the March monday 2020 that the pandemic lock-down kicked in and was moth-balled for two and half years.

Following a slow and a gradual return to normality and the club opening up again, discussions crept up to resurrect the campaign. I was slow to get back to the club and gaming generally due to family constraints but managed eventually and having been chased by various bods, dug out the campaign background, map and rules (having to re-write some bits as couldn't find it all) and we re-arranged a new kick-off with a slightly revised line-up of Players. And so after a bit of a serious nudge, we got the campaign under way after a short (three and half years) hiatus.

This campaign was to be a bit different from the previous as being entirely set within the confines of Mordheim east side and is basically a gang war for territory. Winner of the campaign will be the Warband which controls the largest number of territories and amasses the greatest wealth in the process.

The culprits for the Season are; Dave K's Reiklanders setting up in the Wharf District, Ians Carnival of Chaos camped out in the Back O the Wall north of the Great Library, Andy's Kislevite's in the East behind the Temple of Sigmar and Abbeie Ward, Kev's Halflings south east of the Market Square at the Wazard Mansions, Ric's Middenheimers to the South around the Clock Tower, and Leighs Bretonnians in the west at the Adventurer's Wharf.

Things kick-off with all cagey

With the first game PvP game organised, all was ready for the off but at the last minute Kev had to call off as he had picked up Covid (not without a great deal of irony as Kev was the priincipal instigator in getting the season back under way) so it was to be a five sided barney for the first game for a fight to control the north quadrant of the Market Square.

The empty Market, but not for long

With the devistated Market area fairly open and only the remains of Merchant stalls offering much cover on most of the board, the two sides of the market which had the street fronts and buildings were attractive to the fledgling warbands to seek as much cover as possible initially.

Dave's Reiklanders kicked off proceedings and took as much cover as possible entering the fray on the open east side. Ric's Middenheimers took up shooting postions among the ruins of the guild hall to the south est and began to take pot shots at the covering Reiklanders.

The South of the square was empty of combatants and Andy's Kislevite's moved out of the streets to the south west and probed north and east into the open market area's relatively free from enemy's. Leigh's Bretonnians to the North west positioned themselves for a foray into the centre while watching for enemies moving towards them and Ian's Chaos forged to wards the centre and tentatively moved to cover facing the Bretonians. All the warbands targetting warp stone for quick and easy pickings while watching to see where the others would head.

The Middenheimers move out to engage the Reiklanders
while skirting out to hoover up some ripe Warpstone

Once all warbands could see itial directions of play, the game broke up into it's usual pairings with the odd number player (in this game it was Leigh's Bretonnians) getting sandwiched between the Chaos Bods and Kislevite's.

Ric's Middenheimers moved out towards Dave's Reiklanders while skirting wide to pick up any available Warp Stone in the open Market area. Dave reciprocating in like with an eye covering the Chaos bods emerging in the centre but not closing for now.

Middenheimers engage with Reiklanders

Meanwhile Ian's Carnival of Chaos moved cautiously out in the centre of the table keeping to the cover and moving to hover up any shards available and turning to face Leighs Bretonians to his right. Leigh also fairly cautious with Chaos to his left and moving in and Kislev to his right though more distant also kept to cover and set up in cover for taking pot shots at the approaching horde and picking up any nearby warpstone. While the getting was good Leighs mounted knight made a staraight beeline for the centre of the board to pick up the spare warpstone while the centre was clear and bods otherwise engaged.

Bretonnians position for the oncoming tide

Andy's Kislevites also generally kept to cover initially though moving wide to tempt Rics Middenheimers out and perhaps pick any unclaimed warpstone in the area and moved slowly north towards the Bretonnians.

Middenheimers slowly taking the worst vs Reiklanders 

With the game direction fixed, the warbands then downed and entered into the matter at hand. The Middenheimers and Reiklanders engaged with missile bods adding support while the Reiklanders kept a weather eye on Chaos to their rear and the Middenheimers sent a wide scouting foray towards the Kislevites.

Chaos and the Bretonnians faced up with the Bretonians laying down as much fire as possible while Chaos slowly advanced keeping to cover as much as possible before charging in. The Kislevites a bit further away advanced mainly towards the Bretonnians and approaching Chaos hordlings and a countering group to the infringing Middenheimers.

Kislevites and Middenheimers battle in the market

The Middenheimers and Kislevite skirmish was brief and costly to the Middeneheimers with the Kislivites quickly gaining the upper hand though this did seperate some of the Kislevites from the main event to the north.

The melee between the Reiklanders and Middenheimers to the east was protracted but ulimately fewll in favour of the Reiklanders with minimal losses, the spreading out of the Middenheimers ultimately proving to be spread to thin and Ric's Warband was the first to reach break point and decided to voluntarily flee the field with reasonable booty in tow.

Middenheimers moving wide and spread out towards the open market

The onslaught of the chaos hordes and a rapidly declining situation for the Bretonnians with Ians Chaos troops moving in enmasse and coming to blows and the Kislevites moving in to his flank, Leigh took the 'live to fight another day' option and voluntarily fled as soon as he was able flowing several losses to melee.

Kislevites close on the Bretonnian/Chaos melee and
join the fray

With the three way melee resolved with the Bretonnians departure, the Kislevites and Chaos forces engaged in a hard fought melee but with nearly a quarter of the Kislevite forces delayd to the south and slow to get into the fray and the Chaos troops consolidated more or less the tide of the melee though at first to and fro quickly moved in Chaos's favour.

The main struggle draws to a close with the Kislevites and
Chaos in full melee

The extended melee though hard fought went in Chaos's favour and Andy's Kislevites ultimately broke leaving the Reiklanders and Chaos Warbands both bruised though the Chaos troops having taken more loses with it's battles with both the Bretonians and Kislevites but left the two surviving forces pretty seperated either side of the open market.

Ian's Carnival troupe moved to engage with the Reiklanders but Dave played the tactical card and moved away while trying to take pot shots at the advancing Nurgle horrors and force a break test.

The Chaos troops quickly reached break point and Ian's Leadership throws were universally successful and eventually managed to make contact with the retiring Reiklanders with Dave bowing to the inevitable and charging in to try and reduce the numbers in his favour. 

The resulting running skirmishing went badly for the Reiklanders as they retired over the previously hard fought ground and this pushed the Reiklanders into break tests too and so in the final turns it was down to who failed the break test first with this ultimately being the Reiklanders, leaving the Nurgle horde masters of the field.

All the bands managed to pick up reasonable loot and losses were largely minimal though with the usual smatterring of injuries and so on. 

The campaign is set to be a fairly rich one and with territories and area's of control additional recruitment is available to all the bands so any losses will be easily replaced and long term give each of the Warbands a pot to draw replacements from though they do need to husband their bands as any territorial gains will need to be garrisoned.

Interesting first match and the first campaign turn concluded including scouting raids and trading and  the second campaign battle has already been foght and will post up the batrep for this fairly shortly.

Isolation Exercise

Setting myself a bit of of a challenge here and have set up a solo skirmish game using the Thud & Blunder rules. The challenge (exercise) part is that a good part of the table set up includes a large part of unpainted/incomplete terrain and figures and the idea is to complete all the terrain pieces and figures before I complete the game.

I deliberately chose pieces thst were either incomplete or not started in the main and have started working my way through the items on the set-up. So far most of the accessories are complete with just some barrels to do, the GW Osgiliath ruins are done and a couple of the trees are complete.

The warbands are a mixture of complete and incomplete figures (mainly incomplete) and I'll start working my way through the chosen figs next.

The warbands are all set up and 'The Merchant Adventurers', 'The Glitter Twins' and ' The Celesterale' are ready to rock in the scenario 'Bad Day at Ganish Aer'.

I'll introduce the players in more detail as they are painted.

I've a few more bits under way at the moment which I'll post seperately that I'm doing with all the extra time available with this isolation thing going on and flitting a bit from bits to bits as the mood takes me. So more anon.

Take care, stay safe and stay sane!

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.