Battle for the Khazad Plain

Hello, last days i could not paint so much, just another batch of common orcs, arriving late to orctoberfest, but however it was enough, as I was able to make another Play test of War of The Ring, fighting with my friend Gabi:

"Mists have dissapeared after a cold night... The orc warbands woke up and started to move groaning under the wips of their taskmasters... The Dark Commander, one f the Ringwraiths sent by Sauron, had  given orders: time to advance on the enemy 

-Thatz good,boyz, we will crazh those little beardy barrels ho ho ho"

The horde started to move to the entrance of the Khazad Valley  in order to approach the Dangerous pass which leads to Khazad Fortress´Main Gate,  but suddenly some explosions sounded, close to the first ranks, not causing harm, just blowing up a few expendable goblins ..

Then the orcs realized: The dwarves were already there, out of the Valley, not hiding in their fortress but formed in open field, with their King Durin at front,  to show those green scum what some fine mithril Axes and pure blackpowder from the deepest mines could do on their heads...

it was time to start for ....

THE BATTLE OF THE KHAZAD PLAIN

Sounds quite epic eh? well, it was indeed, but let me tell you the truth :)

We had arranged a gaming evening for saturday, but were not very sure what to play.. All figures were around for Song of Ice and Fire, War of Ten ring but also Zombicide and some other Boardgames..but nothing really planned

It took us a long while to decide; Gabi wanted to play again War of Tne Ring as he had won lst time commanding the uruk Hai of Isnegard against my Rohirrim. I said " ok, but both armies are still in Progress for a bigger battle .. Lets try sometjhing new in the meanwhile! 

so we decided for something spectacular as  DWARVES AGAINST ORCS!!!, wanting to use and test the small dwarf force I  had begun 2 years ago, and also the already decent orc army created last year

We could imagine a pre- Ring of the War secondary scenario, when the growing dark armies of Sauron and his allies start to threath in the borders, as for example the scarce remaining  dwarf Holds... No terrain options, just a plain to fight a pitch battle...

This is the Dwarf  Army of fortress Khazad:, under my command/

From left to right: in picture/

-Dwarf warriors with shields  (2 companies)with captain, aka "Blue regiment"

-Dwarf hero (single warrior!) lets nominate him Brorr Ironskin

-Dwarf crossbows (1 company) with captain

-Dwarf cannon (one gun with three crew)

-Durin's Guard (the King himself as general, one elite company)

-Dwarf warriors with shields (2 companies with captain) aka "Red regiment"

This unit is also acompanied and suported by hero Gimli himself, as relative of Durin.

Total 52 stubborn and hard dwarves which would sell their lives expensive (many dice rolls for the enemy would need 6 or 6/4 result to slain a single dwarf)

The plan was easy. Surely expecting superior numbers, just wait with a equilibrated distribution of my hard infantry. Brorr inspiring and giving strike force in the righ flank, projectiles and artillery behind an old wall in the center, ery close to the Kings Guard, and finally more dwarves under Gimli's command defending the left flank. Classic "wait and shot until enemy comes to be punched hard" tactic , not orignal but  favourite one among the slow dwarf race in any existing Fantasy Wargame :)

 I must confess I did a little cheating in the army selection..

First , these rules dont know about gunpowder... I wanted a canon here, so i took the rules for a "dwarf ballista" and used it. No big problem 

A litle worse: dwarf cossbowmen are also unknown here... But i have many of them,  love them and  could not accept giving them poor shortbows. They received crossbows but my friend will never know that...

This is the orc army raised between Mordor and the Mountain orc and goblins tribes,,,Gabi accepted from Sauron to be their commander:

-A goblin swarm, 3 companies with a leader and musician

-A strong great-orc unit, 2 companies with banner and chieftain. also an orc shaman included

-A savage orc berserkers unit (single company). The general,one of the Nine ringwraiths included here

- 2 armoured War trolls

-A lesser-orc ("snaga") small unit, 2 companies

- Another  lesser-orc small init, with bows (Grishnak trackers)

-A unit of warg riders, 4 companies and a leader (further unit, the orc right side)

That meant: variable quality infantry with 80 infantry , inlcluding miserable Snaga orcs and goblins but also great Uruk orcs and Berserkers,and support of a orc Shaman.  Mobile and fierce support from the wargs, and shick power of  Two trolls which can be a real Threat and finnally  the Nazgul which can bring terror  and dark magic on the field...

The Horde was lead by one of the Nine...

Here the initial deployment as explained.. Nice, view, isnt it? Reminding happily to some old Warhammer Fantasy reports published in  White Dwarf in the 90´s...

Have a look the ugly improvised "unit cards" under each unit.. Better using this than an Army list as a table on a sheet, where you can never find out who is who!!

The orc Center: the savage orcs with the Lord Nazgul flanked by the two trolls. Some lesser orcs behind them as well as also in their right

The orc left flank... A bigger goblin unit as screen before the Big Orc unit..





The initiative were first (and many other turns) for the Dwarves which allowed the orcs to advance following their War drums . at least close enoght to be shot by  the cannon!!
 One shot was a miss, but in the second turn the gun shot again on the same Target... The savage orcs single company including the Nazgul general....

"Be ready fot this second shot, guys.. doublre charge of powder. this time. Aim at the black Halloween ghost leagin those naked painted orcs...he must be the leader .. At my signal... FIRE!!!!



BOOOOOM..................A lucky dice roll 5 and 6  which brought 6 hits of stregnth 10 havoc on the targeted unit...The savage orcs single company, inclding the Nazgul general were reduced to ashes and become the firsrt and very decisive  casualties in the orc army !!! (Not time even to get a good picture of them on the initial advance :(

It had a decisive effect on Gabi strategy for th erest of the battle.. From this point on, I realized the hard psychological impact of gunpowder!..First of all, the army general  had been vapourised and sent back as a shadow to Mordor...and also a strong combat unit had been destroyed in a single shot! .

I saw then scared orcs going away from the maximal range of the weapon...The enemy army formation Strangely divided in two pointy horns leaving an empty middle area of the table...

In this way the warg riders ran fast very closet to the dwarven "Red Regiment" and Gimli son of Gloin.. These riders were  totally alone and unsupported.. they stopped moving and kept the position there strangely.. Not daring to attack .. The dwarves also waited .. No time for rush still...

The other orc units the right followed the wargs, but as already said,  the formation was becoming too strange! The undiciplined orcs were moving fast to the side and slowly to the front, getting too crowded, in a very deep and narrow line at the right flank



In the next turn, as orc army was indeed divided, the dwarves decided this time to use initiative and move forward,  trying not to give the enemy a chance at that moment, and trying to hit first!!! Blue regiment, Brorr and  King´s Guard advanced trying to hold a line,. Also crossvbowmen left the wall trying to get better targets, and even th ecannon moved as they were not of use in that position (no problem for my plan, it was the dwarf melee warriors who had to hit now!)

In the dwarf right, as the dwarves finnally got closer to the enemy, the orcs decided also to advance... But initiative was dwarf that turn again! The goblins almost could not react when Brorr andt the blue regiment fell on them, however it was one troll who received the charge

And what a charge! Good luck again with dice in the "hard to kill" table.. The troll was slain at first strike! Gabi was not happy..

Then time for the Kings Guard..also a succesful charge and..another 6 rolled in the Hard to Kill! table ..the other troll also was killed...
Gabi started to be really  annoyed, Dwarven gods were helping my army too much

The Blue Regiment tried to move further to the gret orcs after slaining the troll, but they couldn..instead they were suddenly surrounded by the local superiority of foes and charged in the front by orcs and in the flank by the sneaky goblins!  A dwarf  Company was destroyed, first, then an orc company but finnaly the complete Blue regiment died fighting bravely, but decimating on of the last strong enemy units...

In the center, King during and the guards were encouraged after killing the other Troll and moved further to charge a poor "snaga" orc unit.. One orc company  and the orc cheftain were slain by just one single fallen dwarf

In the far quiet left flank, the hesitating warg riders finally decided to charge the Red regiment... It was really a brave action, but would it be useful ...?    Gabi took as many dice as he could for a single frontal charge of the beasts.. Maybe last chance of doing a hard damage to some of those stubborn and too fortunate dwarves

Well, some dwarves died,  so that under the half of its original strenght, one company was broken... It was however  time for Gimli son of Gloin and his surviving warriors  to counterstrike in a dwarven style.. First an heroic duel to finish the orc leader off..

Then using hability "Epic Rampage" to keep on inflicting hits on every succes, until just misses are rolled... No warg or orc left there to tell, all fell under Gimli and friends´ axes...We both were astonished at the extreme destruction capacities of this Charachter...

In the center, Victorious King Durin chased the last unit of inferior orcs, who were confused tryimg to do something... scape? attack another not-so strong dwarf unit? ...

They could not perform anything else, since the crossbowmen made a lethal volley at short range and finished them all...


In the left, the remaning weak, scared orc arrowboyz tried to shoot frm long range... The arrows did nothing against dwarven shields

What else remained? The last Great orcs company  and the Shaman, who performed also poorly all the game..  Single brave hero Brorr charged them and finish the orcc army with this attack, avenging the Blue regiment at the same time

It was too much for poor Gabi.. He ordered the last goblins (indeed the most succesful orc unit of the game!)  and orc archers to leave the field and going back to the darkness..

it was an overwhelming Dwarf victory for his King, defending the acces to their Mountains 

Victory! Long Live King Durin!!!

The victorious, glorious survivors

CONCLUSIONS: 

First lets talk about tactics... I would say I followed my plan (not a difficult one), but also adapted to the enemy reactions and  got advantage of  my troop abilities all time, specially after the psychological effect on Gabi of the tremendous shot of the cannon in the 2nd turn.. 

The impressive initial orc army advance (not a huge army but still good numbers on it) was instantly  stopped, and then two branches open to each side, trynig in an strange way (at least for an orc!) s to avoid my missile fire  and to  attack my flanks, as if my only useful weapon were artillery or crossbows..  I did not allow that: the orcs were missing a lot of time surrounding the centre of the Battlefield, so that I advanced with all line infantry units trying to keep the formatin and strike on the enemy at once  (i also moved the missile and canon in case they could perform more shots, but it was not actually my main goal.. dwarves were there to use Axes and Hammers and Gabi had not realized) 

I did not understand the orc plan anytime (even when Gabi tried to explain me later),  a divided force with also divided main units was easy to disarticulate later

Very good dice result and initiative on my side when requiered (I could charge and destry two powerfuk trolls also quickly) made only one result possible....

To be honest, I must say that we  experienced actually many playing difficulties again during this battle, The rulebook is still hard at many points (many micro-rules to have in mind all the time), and  since last time playing with the rohirrim I suffered many disadvantages for not taking in account everything (my rival did crudely take advantage on it ), this time I was less transigent.. i try to negate every advantage he could get anytime, so I used hard the book and the power I had against him, in a really dwarven style..  We were confused again severla time when playing the four game phases, we forgot some of our abilities (the poor orc shaman was quite disregarded by his player!) And also, not least, I had a lot of luck with dice...

We also understood, this game allow a lot of warriors to die fast... It was designed to play withbigger amries... We must take account on this .. One single artillery shot destroyed the company  the nazgul was attached to.. In a bigger unit, it had not had such effect.. We played mostly 2 companies big; The book allows up to 6 or nine in most of troop types.. That means a lot more of figures and time to ply!!

we like however the system, when rule details are on your mind it goes fast...

I realize now,  I really wanted to win this time, even at some points I was maybe too inflexible...We almost argued a pair of times..Not good at all for a hobby between friends !! 

Finally we agreed we need more battle to  follow all rules more "automatically" . I admitted my good luck and we considered our "small argument" as a consequence of the ancestral Hate between of dwarves and orcs, contagied from the small figures to us their human masters :) We laughed at last, wanting to play a revanche soon.

I liked the dwarves definetely.. The behaved as they are expected to do: be steady, slow, well armoured and resistant, hitting hard when coming close to fight, having also good missile power capacity...

No doubt, Gimli had won his smoke.. Next battle soon... Need to paint much more dwarves!! (well, also goblins and such green scum too, I have time indeed till orctoberfest 2020)

War of the Ring: take the Halflings to Saruman!

Hello, i finnally could finsish two decent initial Forces to battle in Middle Earth: a raiding force of White Hand´s Uruk Hai  into Rohan lands with two special prisoners , (I gave them some support in form of Mordor goblins)  and some units of Mounted rohirrim under the command of Eomer, Marshal of teh Mark, exiled by king Theoden under inluence of Saruman´s agent, Grima Wormtongue

The uruk Hai commanded by their leader "Ugluk" need to scape back to Isengard domains with captured hobbits Merry and Pippin,  before the Rohirrim falls on them

I wnated to test this "War of the Ring" beautiful Games Workshop rulebook since some months ago.. (found it very cheap in ebay)

It is a very compact book, really thick with many details, (and gladly including complete army lists and profiles for every faction , race or realm, and many charahcters appearing in the books and movies , as well as many pre-determined game scenarios and lots of beautiful pictures of Games Wokshop nice -and expemsive- LOTR range figures)

At least the "basics" are not very difficult, although at the beggining we experimented some trouble to have in mind a lot of bonus and modifiers and opions pof the special charahcters, as explained later

Actually, at the end only a single dice roll is needed in every shot or close fight! .. What you need for sure is lots of dice as every bonus menas more dice to eh "core" attack value (usually  8 dice for infantry and 2 dice for cavalry when not charging) That meant, good agility in the fights, once you have clear the amount of dice to use 

Let me show you first a good shot of the 1/72 uruk hai forces invading Rohan. (no part of the game still, but good ambientation anyway) 

We agreed a narrative scenario proposed in the Rulebook: 

A "medium" Isengard army  including the prisoners will be starting in the middle of the table, but leaving one side (the wetsern side) totaly unoccupied.

Army list (4 initial formations, around 80 man and 1 reinfrcemtns 

- Ugluk raiders (3 companies)

-Uruk hai scouts (3 companies)

-Uruk hai scouts (3 companies)

After Isnegard deploy, all Rohan forces  (4 units having around 30 mounted men) can be deployed anyway around them , keeping a mimimun distance of 12 (we played cm instead of inches, it worked fine in our small Table) 

At the beggining of turn 3, reinforcements for Isengard arrive: further 24 warriors, can be deployed at any table edge

-Isengard objetive: Leaving the table in the furthest edge with the unit which inclued the hobbits, In case of trouble thes eprisioners can be moved to a iddferent near unit. If the uruk unit keeping Merry and Pippin is slain, the hobbits are free and must move to the Woods (no interaction with rohan riderss, they are busy with the half orcs!)  In the meanwhile however they might be re-capturted by any another nearly not-fighting uruk or goblin unit ...

-Rohan objective: eliminate 2/3 or the Isengard initial force. That means automatic victory. Eomer must however survive

This is how the battle starrted: two uruk formartions giving front line to the scape way (direction West), some goblin archers in support between them 

Third uruk formation in third line as contention force..

Two unit of Rohan riders deployed in front of them  (one of them inlcuding Eomer himself) in order to charge and cointain the scaping march of Ugluk to  the West border, while also two units could attack and harrash the enemy flank from the north

It is part of the game that each player must roll their "initiative" in every round, so you can activate before the oponent or leave him if it interetss you.. That breaks all your strategies for sure, I can swear...

First of all In the north, the Rohirim commanded by Eomer, supported by 2nd Unit in the nort were able to made a succesful double charge fornt- flank to the uruk hai sh  .. However, altought an evil company fell, the  half-orcs resisted too hard (I relaize the defense level was too high in this warriors... very difficult to kill all time. and  as I also relaized later, my men were not having all his capacities at full because of our misreading of the rules, i forgot to add many attack dice!!)

2 Turns were on in this fight and only half of the uruk unit was destroyed while the rohirrim also suffrered several casualties

Things went however much worse in the south: When the captain of the 3tr  Rohan unit ( a guy with big red beard) tried to charge, he found an unexpected "furiocious charte" of the uruks as an ability of theuir leader Uglik,, It was  adisaster for the humans, many casualties, no counter damage , so therefore and suddnely only three brave but defetaed men stood against 3 full companies of uruks

it was too much for the men of  "Red Beard", they were killed till the last man... The way was totally free for the run of Uglik with the hobbts!!!  defeat of the Rohan strategy in this very single moment!!!!

In the north, The double charge was  destroying the uruk formation very slowly, and time was running..  Even Eomer used a might point to engance his Fughting value with an Epic strike and challenged the uruk leader to a Heroic duel.. Which was horribly lost rolling "1! in 1d6!!! Bad luck!!

However some more uruks were falling 

The goblins were making many free shots and taking causalties (also my friend made some cheating using some unallowed abilaities, as I realized too late)

the last Rohan unit, a light-cavalry outrider unit was making some skirmish but not risking so much after the recent defeat of poor " captain "Red Beard" .. rest of uruk and golbins diregarded them and advanced to jpinf the main party 

In the third turn, Mahaur marauders appear in the north and  threathen the rear of 2nd Rohan unit!!







This second unit captain "Green Shield" had some luck, as altough he did not destroy the remaining uruks, they becacme disordered (signaled by the red D4) so that they were much worse at fight; and then he planned the scape before Mauhur reinforcements could hit on his rear...

Truth was that the situation was going very bad for Eomer... He made their men to turn back and hurry trying to intercept the scaping uruks whoi had not oppositon...

Those orc scum are scaping, go fot them!!!

The 2nd Rohan unit and his brave Captain "Green Shield" , were able to make their planned  retreat manouver as otherwise they would have been soon surrounded and hammered between the resisitng original uruk unit and the upcoming reinforcement .. The were even able later  to decimate still the disordered uruk unit form other attack point and killjing their leader on a succesful heroic duel this time

 Here Green Leader, to all riders We are surrounded, evasive manouver!!

Grrrr humans run!!!!!!

The outriders were most of the time not very useful,.. They shot some times, making some causalties.. they finally decided to charge at least on the back of some uruks.. As I had learnt that I had mucho more charge dice than previusly calculated, results were vident; 2 evil companies were destroyed!! However in the next round, the uruk unit spent a might pont to make an "heoric charge" and counter attack my try, so the poor rohan riders were also defeated..

At the very end, only Eomer unit was able to pursue  Ugluk and the hobbits...

Thet could make a hard charge on Ugluks unit rear!!! This time we used all the potential of dice and the comnpanies wer eperfectly arrayed.. Good amount of causaklties among the uruk, losing a full comnpany (only one company rmeiaing for Tohan to achieve the 2/3 goal!! but in the nex round priority went to my friend Gabi, uIsnegard player..

The scaping uruks made again a "double" movmenet facing again theis prosecutors.. They were already too far to be intecrepted by a charge...

That means, the uruk could scape form the table, and Eomer had to flee as Mauhur reinforcements  were arriving at his very back! The battle was over, a victory for Isnegard just when only one enemy company had to be destriyed still (7/8 achieved)

How will be the rest of the Story of The Fellowship and the War of the ring form now on..?

PS- We had a lot of fun, story was good and rythm was fast (5 rounds and everytinh was over) but we found a lot of difficulties in this very first game to have all rules on mind

I was playing as the Rohan riders , and forgot many details and advantages of my troops all the time, which could have turned the result in other way ( I could have shot every round AND charge with my men  as rohirrim ar expert natural horsmen, I also did not relaize I was adding too little extra dice because of charging until I made the final succesful charge to the proud Uruks who suffered the destruction of one company in one strike ..)  Of course I also did not relaize I could re-roll some misses with my Standard bearers..  and so on

Added to many bad dice results (a heroic duel level 10 Vs level 5 was humiliatingly lost rolling "1" in D6) and a very bad encounter when the "containing" rohirrim unit  suffered the unexpected furiocous charge of Ugluk instead of charging.... 

And also my friend, as a good Saruman follower,  cheated several times, as he made the uruk scape from the fight too fast; not apllying the 6 cm penalty , specially designed to avoid this kind of magical disengagements!!! (I guess I was too tired by then to realize that) ,; an also giving the goblins too shot power when not avoided

Well, Rohan lost but at least  unfortunate but brave Eomer has survived..  As a compensation for the continous cheating and disadvantage, lets hope he rallied some fled more men to finish the scaping orcs later !! Merry and Pippin must suffer still for a while until then... 

 More stories soon...