Well, the victory points may have been separated by only a whisker but it felt like a substantial whisker ... like from a prodigious spider's leg or some such monstrosity.
This 700 point game of MESBG was fought in an ancient ruined area within Ilithien. Gandalf led the men of Minas Tirith, many who grumbled they wished they were still 'ATOP THE WALLS', against Cirith Ungol. Both forces had orders to rescue wounded scouts and carry them back to friendly territory. The idea for players was to simultaneously cross the board to grab, then carry, objectives while protecting their own. On the surface the advantage should have been with the larger army.
(Theoretically, both armies could pass by like ships in the night, secure objectives and fuck off ... which seems like a pretty bloody stupid wargame concept to me. But I am a grognard.)
This is simply a gratuitous image of my favourite ruin scenery - made from Hirst Arts blocks. The rest of the terrain is scratch built, all except the trees that are hand tooled by Beijing's finest craftsmen.
Shelob was scuttling along behind Shagrat with evil designs of her own. I deployed my orcish line across the length of my deployment zone to mask my plans. My initial idea was to punch up on the right while holding back Shelob and some orcs to pounce on incursions toward the objectives in my deployment area. Soon, this plan would partially dissolve through my poor decisions.
Gandalf gave courage and hope to the men of the tower. Nick's army does look a treat.
Here is his second battle group. This one was Tower guard with a front line of bows backed by spear. Cirith Ungol is greatly afeared of all missiles as it is a very low defence army. Most of my 51 models had only defence 4 ... protected by a thin front row of only D5. I've previously seen Gorbag shot to bits in one round by only four of these guard bowmen.
And it was off! The Orcs lumbered forward. But ... and here's the funny (I should say 'cumbersome') thing about Cirith Ungol - their main army bonus, Animosity, is only active if its troops are mixed. These Uruks and Orcs can only be fielded in totally separate commands which then have to shuffle about intermixing in the first few turns of the battle to get any benefit from our only special rule. Even our two heroes, Shaggers and Nutbag, fight better together.
It all feels a little silly and contrived.
Atop the Walls, as with many good armies, have fairly impressive special rules that don't require much effort - ie: just stay within a certain large radius for a +1 wound bonus. In MESBG, +1 to wound is a VERY impressive bonus and much more effective than adding +1 to STR. When its +1 specifically against all the troops I'm fielding ... well ... its pretty threatening.
Now combine this with my low defence and ... my guys are dying on 3's and 4's in many parts of the battlefield. Good thing I took 51 of the useless little scumbags.
I pushed up on my left too, trying to draw out the forces of good or pull their two commands apart. I was trying to weaken the main target of my attack - their left wing. Unfortunately, and this suggests evidence my enormous lack of foresight, my heroes all moved over to my right leaving no might on my left side to intervene in play. This would have the consequence of giving Gandalf and pals free reign on this side of the table. In my defence, Shaggers and Nutbag function as a team (damn limitations of animosity rule again) and my task-master is only useful around heroes as he enhances might point spending.
Here's my attack, creeping through the ruins. I had to separate my line to get through the terrain.
Down the centre of the battlefield was much more open. I think this was a problem in my terrain set up. Such large open spaces plays into missile troops advantages. Offsetting terrain pieces to avoid open spaces, which here provided largely unimpeded 24" bow shots, would be better. I need to set up MESBG terrain the same way I used to set up FOW terrain.
Gandalf pretty quickly figured out that there was nothing in my army to hurt him ... if he just stayed out of 10" Shelob range. He rode about in a jaunty manner hurling bolts of magic with his free will point. He acted with near impunity almost the whole game. I had nothing to oppose him, his huge store of will + fate and his blazing arsenal of magic bumfuckery.
In any case, here's where things went to hell for Cirith Ungol. I pushed far forward with my left wing, that was unsupported by heroes. This gave Minas Tirith's guard easy prey as numbers were pretty equal on this side. One or one, Orcs can't match ... well ... even small rodents would give them a decent tussle.
At this point, Shelob is still staying back so my plan wasn't in complete tatters yet. Shelob limited Gandalf a little through her 10" charge range and ability to scuttle along wall sections.
My right hand push was almost there.
Then I discarded my plan and almost the game. I engaged with my left hand orcs, when they should have scuttled back to cover, and Shelob charged. She only has 3 dice (attacks) max, and if she doesn't roll 6 then things could be bad.
And things are really bad against this army as the special rules gives +1 to wound against Mordor and Irolas gives another +1 to wound ... meaning a monster that is supposed to be supernaturally tough is now wounded by even the most flaccid boy of the Tower on a 4+.
And its going to get worse for Shelob ...
Meanwhile, Shagrat and Gorbag had united their troops and smashed into the Gondorian shieldwall. It broke apart in one turn. A heroic combat which involved both orc heroes saw to that. Then, they peeled off to open the line further. At least this segment of my designs has eventuated.
Shelob now battled for her life. Gandalf called a heroic, dispatched both orcs he charged, then cut Shelob for two wounds and another two were inflicted by Guardsmen. Shelob scuttled back, passing all four of her courage tests with the help of a little willpower.
But Shelob has no might ... So in the next turn, Gandalf grabbed the initiative and slaughtered her.
It was exactly like the first time I ever used Shelob. I had not held her back and operated too close to the centre of the battlefield. If held back, as was the plan, Shelob could have held up the enemy and protected the objectives for some time. Now ... she was dead.
The forces of good were now unimpeded on my left and the centre of the table. They moved toward the objectives (wounded scouts ... you can just make then out if you squint) slowed only by the occasional orc I'd hussled back.
The battle then swung on a central axis. I fed excess troops from my right into the centre but now I was on the Gondorian side of the table. These would cover my access to all three enemy objective markers. If I could slow my enemy, I might be able to steal enough objectives to get a large amount of VPs. However, another issue slowly raised its head ... if I reached my break point, my orcs would run in large numbers. My choice of a shaman was beginning to look prophetic.
From the other side ... my orcs plugging up the centre as good eradicates the last few remnants of my left hand assault and small central reserve. It didn't take long ... consistent losses in duel rolls and my paper-like defence saw to that.
Additionally, I was using newly painted figures ... my Uruk forces ... and these never perform well in their first game. An age old wargaming maxim.
Shaggers and Nutbag cut the good left asunder. One objective secured and another close at hand in the centre. Could I even reach the further one?
All four of my heroes were now in one place. A earlier weakness may turn into a strength ... mainly because all my other orcs were dead and dying.
Taking photos was not on my mind. I struggled desperately to hold up Minas Tirith while getting away with other objectives. My shaman cast 'Fury' and now courage tests were not a concern as I passed my break point. I used my Task Master to now heroic move and his ability saved me the might points. While my earlier decisions had nearly consigned me to defeat, I was just hanging on ... but it didn't feel like it. Gandalf was rampant as were Irolas and a Knight of the Tower. Good had grabbed two backfield objectives ... BUT I now had two secured in the corners and a third on the way. The task master called march moves hastening my passage to the victory point zone.
Cirith Ungol were a whisker from being quartered and Minas Tirith showed no signs of slackening their massive kill rate. One army was specifically designed to slaughter the other and I had nothing to offset this advantage. I'd ill-used my number advantage and that was that. Any orcs outside my shaman's magic bubble were failing courage and legging it.
I would be quartered very soon ...
Below, a thin line of orcs is holding back the forces of good. In the last two turns, Shaggers would tackle Gandalf head on. But, like so many fights, I couldn't kill or wound him - only needed a 5 and a Shaggers 6 causes double wounds - technically I could have dropped him. My forces lacked the penetrative punch that exuded from all the 'Atop the Wall' models. Even their lowest defence was two points better than my best troops and, with shieldwall, equaled Shelob.
The game ended soon and by a narrow margin - 13 VPs to 12 - good won. We both dragged two objectives off table but I had control of a third. Neither general was wounded, both lost their banner, and my army was broken.
It didn't feel that narrow. Nick pointed out if I'd kept my banner a little further away, or wounded Gandalf (I had 5-6 wound rolls to do that at the end), things would have gone the other way. Then again, if the Knight of the Tower didn't slay everything in his path (he was +3 to wound and killing on 2's) then the banner would be alive too. But, I was pretty pleased the I'd manage to husband my resources, and my rapidly dwindling forces, to drag a near draw from the jaws of massacre.
To be honest, the finer side of scenario victory conditions (when there's so many) often escapes me. I'm a grognard and like a straightforward game where killing the enemy, or grabbing an objective, leads to victory.
On the night, my mistakes were clear. I even realised while I was making some of them, but I decided on fighting not kiting as it is a wargame afterall. Guess I'm not thinking like an orc or spider too well. Hanging back and lurking should come as second nature ... I didn't do this tonight.
It was a fun game ... but also long. An army of 51 models takes time to maneuver, and to defeat.
My choices had given Nick a clear advantage on the left and centre - which he pressed home ruthlessly mopping up every last orc. His bow fire was scything through my line (one reason for my poor choice to engage) and he pushed up where he had the objective cutting down countless orcs. He also realised pretty early Gandalf could do anything he wanted. And he did. I think the old turd cut down 10 Orcs on his own ... maybe more. He also radiated fear and, if I hadn't taken my shaman, I'd never had passed tests to charge him. I did get a little lucky as several sizzling surges of Gandalf's divine spunk blasts didn't kill my poor little shaman. My army could have lost bigger, sooner.
I didn't play the beginning well but I stuck in the game and stayed fixed on taking, rather than defending, the objectives. The forces arrayed against me, although outnumbered, were too powerful for the orcs to handle. Fight value, strength, defence, courage (the troops who fought Shelob were fearless) and shoot value ... all were superior. Movement was equal, and Cirith Ungol has no mounted troops - only Shelob - so lapping around is hard. In shooting, I had 4 bows who barely every hit against 8 or so who rarely miss and wound on 5's.
To maxmise their slender (single) advantage, Cirith Ungol requires considerable movement precision (particularly with Shelob who is a 'scalpel' not a hammer) made even more vital by the fact half, or more, of my army was only defence 4. Totally pissweak exacerbated by +1's to wound. My lads were dying on 3's and losing more duel rolls with inferior fight values. This was very evident as almost 40 orcs died and I couldn't get Minas Tirith to their 50% break point. Its a tricky army to play who needs to overwhelm but lacks some of the tools of the trade to bring this about. Much rests on Shagrat and how Shelob is used.
And tonight, Shelob was misued ... and Shagrat failed to kill too often.
In any case, I'll only learn through experience ... and that's what I intend. And, those freshly painted troops, won't be fresh in the next game.
(Okay ... one final point - whinge really - terror in MESBG! What a swindle! Evil has it, most good is immune to it! What's the point??? It makes evil models MORE expensive but for no advantage. In return, evil models have very little defence against it and terrible courage. Shelob's a giant spider descended from one of the most evil creatures imaginable ... and every Tom, Dick and Fatty can attack her with total impunity. Okay ... done now. Good night.)
