Thursday 20 February 2020 – Having escaped the city of Osgiliath through the sewers, Frodo and Sam are tricked into entering Shelob’s Lair. Gollum’s master plan comes to fruition as a certain hungry spider enters the scene. This scenario is found in BGiME magazine #63 and is played exactly as described, except I’m using the new 2018 profiles.
This scenario is played on a 2 ft by 2 ft board (60 x 60 cm) that represents Shelob’s Lair. Shelob enters on one side, Sam enters on the opposite side. Frodo and Gollum are located in the centre of the board. The following special scenario rules are in place:
- It’s very dark in the Spider’s Lair, so Sam and Frodo have to throw a D6 and roll 4+ if they want to Shoot or Charge. Shelob and Gollum are accustomed to the darkness and don’t suffer from this special rule.
- This is the moment where Sam truly shines as Samwise the Brave and he therefore automatically passes all his required Courage tests.
- Frodo is equipped with the Light of Eärendil, which makes the caster cast Terror. In addition, the phial counts as if the Magical power ‘Blinding Light’ is cast (meaning the area of 12″ around the carrier is illuminated, negating the darkness). Sam can pick up the phial from Frodo if Frodo is paralysed, in which case Sam will carry it for the rest of the game.
- Frodo is prohibited from using the One Ring, because he is too close to the Eye of Sauron.
- If Shelob flees as a result of her Survival Instinct, she can re-enter the board at the start of any following turn, if she passes a Courage test.
- While not a scenario specific rule, I also use Gollum’s special rule ‘Split Personality’, as found in earlier editions of this game. This is the moment where Gollum strikes out against his former master, so while I’ve not used this rule in the campaign before (because it’s no longer on his 2018 profile), I think it’s very appropriate here because this is Gollum’s turning point. This rule means that whoever has Priority controls Gollum. This can result in the Evil player using Gollum to attack either of the Hobbits, while the Hobbits may not make strikes against Gollum (though they can of course defend themselves).
Good wins if Frodo moves off the board edge that Shelob deployed on. Evil wins if Shelob can drag either Sam or Frodo off the board edge that Sam deployed on. If Gollum kills Frodo, the game is a draw.
Good has Priority the first turn and uses this to send Gollum out ahead and let Frodo and Sam move forward as much as possible. Shelob is lurking in the shadows however…
With 10″ movement and being unhindered by terrain, Shelob passes her Courage test and charges Frodo.
Despite the Monstrous Charge, Frodo wins the fight, though he doesn’t have enough Might points to land a wound.
Evil gets Priority the second turn and Gollum joins Shelob’s charge to attack his former master. Meanwhile, Sam moves up but his Hobbit feet aren’t quick enough to be able to assist his friend.
Frodo loses the fight and is knocked prone. Gollum scores a wound on Frodo, so he only has 1 Wound left. He will save his Fate points for now. Shelob paralyses Frodo, though he survives the Strength 7 hit. He is now ready to be dragged to Shelob’s feeding place. Unless…?
Miraculously, Frodo recovers from his Paralysis at the end of the turn (rolling the required 6). Good subsequently gains Priority, letting Sméagol charge Shelob while Frodo runs off towards the exit. I guess he felt remorse after hurting his master and decided to take revenge on Shelob.
Shelob rolls a 1, but so does Sméagol with his 2 attacks. So Shelob wins on Fight value. Since Gollum can be quite the asset for Evil, Shelob decides not to paralyse Sméagol. Instead she wounds him, meaning he has 1 Wound and 1 Fate left. The next Priority roll will be important and it goes to Good. With no Might Shelob can do nothing to prevent this. Frodo has now almost made it off the board, while Sméagol once again charges Shelob.
Shelob once again wins the Fight, though this time Sméagol isn’t harmed. In the following turn, Priority once again goes to Good, meaning Frodo is clear to leave this wretched place, winning the game.
Initially I didn’t realize the game had been won, thinking both Sam and Frodo had to leave via the same board edge. So I played the scenario for a bit longer, which saw Shelob attacking and paralysing Sam, who was then almost dragged off to Shelob’s feeding place.
Right before being dragged off the board, Sam wakes up, though he gets paralysed again and is dragged of the board for real this time. Of course this does not count for the campaign, as the scenario was already finished.
Aftermath
Good wins the scenario, meaning the next scenario is ‘Assault on the River’. This means the scenario ‘Treachery at Cirith Ungol’ is skipped. It also means we won’t see Frodo, Sam and Gollum again until the final scenario, ‘The End of All Things’. No one died in this scenario and there are no victory points this time around.
Post-game thoughts
This was a very short scenario, even with taking photos I think it took less than 20 minutes. Fast-paced and every roll counts. Priority in particular is very important here because it determines what Gollum will do. I liked it quite a bit. I was never a fan of Gollum’s split personality rule in other scenarios because it didn’t make sense to me (would Frodo and Sam really have put up with Gollum as their guide if he attacked them half of the time?). But here it makes sense and really adds to the scenario. I also liked the narrative twist where Sméagol felt remorse for betraying Frodo and charged Shelob. Had the scenario taken longer and more changes of heart taken place, it would’ve been a bit harder to make sense of his decisions narrative wise.
I highly recommend this scenario as it’s fun, tense, very quick, doesn’t require many models and doesn’t even really need a lot terrain. You could just play it on a flat grey / rocky surface with perhaps some rocks scattered about. Though I did like my own change in making it a bit more tunnel-like. If you want a truly beautiful and unique board you could make a custom gaming board with spider webs and all kinds of tunnels. But that is a lot of effort for such a small scenario, too much for me. I am more of a gamer than a terrain maker, after all.
Anyway, I’m really satisfied with how this went. Good was lucky in their Priority rolls (same as last scenario), otherwise it would have been harder for Good to win. It would’ve been fun to see Sam in action against Shelob, though my playthrough after Frodo had escaped didn’t look too promising so perhaps it’s good it didn’t come to that.
In the next scenario of the Return of the King campaign, Mordor strikes in the city of Osgiliath, as part of a river assault. But a few brave people stand to defend the city’s ruins…
Pingback:DeAgostini The Return of the King statistics & discussion - Aiwendil