Saturday 07 & Sunday 08 August 2021 – It is time for the great battle of our time. A 2400+ per side point battle of SBG to be precise. Sauron has sent his forces to besiege Minas Tirith. Gandalf the White rallies the men of Minas Tirith to stand their ground.
This scenario is found in BGiME magazine #70 and is played as described, except I’m using the new 2018 profiles and the Rohirrim reinforcements are replaced by Isengard reinforcements, since Rohan didn’t manage to destroy Isengard in the Two Towers part of the campaign. Furthermore, Good has received an extra 250 points because it won the last scenario in the campaign.
Special rules
This scenario is played on a 6 ft by 6 ft board (180 x 180 cm) that represents the front gate of Minas Tirith. The forces of Mordor enter within 2 ft from the southern board edge. Minas Tirith is placed 4 ft from the southern board edge. The forces of Good are scattered across the walls of Minas Tirith and behind it. The special rules are:
- Forces can’t be Broken, it is a battle till the bitter end.
- Evil has one battering ram and two siege towers. The siege towers are Defense 10 with 5 Wounds (in the magazines they have 4, in War of Rohan they have 3, but I ruled 5 to be more accurate and balanced for the game in this case).
- In turn 8, the Isengard forces enter via the eastern board edge, in front of the gates of Minas Tirith.
- In turn 10, the Three Hunters arrive with the Army of the Dead from the southwestern board edge. They may charge the turn they arrive.
Either side wins if the other side is reduced to 25% of their starting total number of participants, which is 16 for both sides. If both sides are at this point in the same turn, the game is a draw.
Participants
| Good (2650 points; 99 models) | Evil (2400 points; 103 models) |
| Gondor (1450 points; 62 models) | Mordor (1600 points; 64 models) |
| Gandalf the White with Shadowfax | Witch-King with 3/20/3 M/W/F on Armoured Fell Beast with Crown of Morgul and two-handed Flail |
| Pippin, Guard of the Citadel with Elven Cloak | Ringwraith with 2/14/2 M/W/F on Fell Beast |
| Faramir with Heavy Armour and Shield | Gothmog with Shield |
| 2 Gondor Battlecry Trebuchets with Engineering Captain | 1 Mordor Troll with War Drum |
| Beregond | 1 Mordor Troll |
| 2 Captain of Minas Tirith with Shield | 8 Morannon Orcs |
| 12 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Bow | 19 Morannon Orcs with Spear and Shield |
| 14 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shield | 9 Morannon Orcs with Shield |
| 13 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Spear and Shield | 9 Morannon Orcs with Spear |
| 3 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Banner | 2 Mordor War Catapult |
| 1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with War Horn | 1 Haradrim Chieftain |
| 2 Avenger Bolt Thrower | 6 Harad Warriors with Bow |
| Irolas, Captain of the Guard | 6 Harad Warriors with Spear |
| 5 Rangers of Gondor | |
| 3 Rangers of Gondor with Spear | |
| Army of the Dead (1200 points; 37 models) | Isengard (800 points; 39 models) |
| Aragorn with Andúril and Elven Cloak | Uglúk |
| Legolas with Bow of the Galadhrim, Armour and Elven Cloak | 2 Uruk-hai Captain with Shield |
| Gimli with Durin’s Axe and Elven Cloak | 9 Uruk-hai Berserkers |
| King of the Dead | 1 Isengard Troll |
| 2 Heralds of the Dead with Shield | 1 Isengard Troll with Spear |
| 1 Warrior of the Dead with Banner | 12 Uruk-hai with Pike |
| 19 Warriors of the Dead with Shield | 13 Uruk-hai with Shield |
| 10 Warriors of the Dead with Spear | |
| 1 Warrior of the Dead with Spear and Shield |
The game
Turn one: The board is set, the pieces are moving. The forces of Evil move up. The forces of Good stand their ground.
A small battalion of Minas Tirith stays put behind the gate, for if the door gets breached.
Can the White City withstand the siege?
In the first turn Gandalf casts Terrifying Aura on himself with his free Will and succeeds. The Avenger Bolt Thrower on the left lands two wounds on the left Siege Tower. Both Trebuchets also score a wound on the two different Siege Towers. The left Siege Tower now has lost 3 Wounds (in the new edition, the siege tower would already be destroyed! – I found 3 Wounds for such a large tower covered in metal plating a bit low, especially considering the small Avenger Bolt Thrower and slightly larger but still relatively small Trebuchet also have Defense 10 and 3 Wounds and the relatively simple unprotected wooden Mordor Catapult even has 4 Wounds). Both Catapults hit the left Trebuchet, causing 2 Wounds (3 would destroy it).
Good retains Priority in the second turn. Feeling the siege towers tremble as the siege engines bombarded them last turn, the Trolls decide to take the short cut and dock the siege engines at the nearest piece of wall.
One Haradrim is killed by Ranger fire. The siege tower on the left gets another wound (because of the Bolt Thrower) while the one on the right also gets a second Wound by the trebuchet on the left. That trebuchet is then destroyed by the catapults.
In the third turn, Evil gets Priority and it is quite the eventful turn. The Ringwraiths jump up from under the walls to hit the siege engines that pose a threat to the siege towers.
The Siege Tower on the left gets demolished by the Trebuchet on the right. The Nazgûl just couldn’t make it in time. 9 Morannon Orcs fall to their death!
The Witch-King can charge the crew of the left Avenger Bolt Thrower, which so far has been a very useful tool for Good. The single model that would fall out of charge range gets Black Darted to death so that the Witch-King can easily move on after the fight.
The Avenger Bolt Thrower crew is decimated. Meanwhile on the wing directly left of the gate, Pippin gets charged by two Morannon orcs. Since he doesn’t want to die, he uses his single Might point to call a Heroic Defense. That turned out to not be need, as he wins the fight! Though fails to wound. Elsewhere, one warrior of Minas Tirith dies at the hand of Haradrim and two more die at the hands of Morannon Orcs.
In turn four, Good regains Priorty. Gandalf casts Banishment against the Ringwraith using 3 Will (including 1 free one). He succeeds, but the Ringwraith resists, using 4 Will (but regains 2 because he rolled 2 natural sixes).
The Ringwraith tries to Black Dart Shadowfax, knowing the horse is a huge asset for Gandalf. He therefore spends 4 Will, but Shadowfax resists with his 2 Will (and regains 1 because of a natural 6).
The Trebuchet hits the final Siege Tower after the Engineering Captain spends 2 Might, but is later destroyed by the Catapults. On the other side, the Witch-King hurls the crew of the remaining Trebuchet crew on the left. The hurled warrior is slain, but the other two are only Knocked Prone.
Gothmog uses his single use ‘The Age of Men is Over’ special rule, allowing himself and nearby Orcs to re-roll failed To Wound rolls. Even though this is only for two combats, he wants to push forward because the forces of Sauron need momentum. It is a success, Gothmog slays two warriors of Minas Tirith and the Morannon Orcs slays Beregond in one strike!
On the other wing, Good has a little more luck and manages to kill two Haradrim.
But, there’s trouble on the right as well: the Ringwraith slays 2 Avenger crew members, including the Siege Veteran.
It is turn 5 and Evil regains Priority. The Ringwraith tries to Black Dart Shadowfax once again (by using 3 Will), but Shadowfax resists with his final Will point. Gandalf wants to get rid of the Ringwraith once and for all and casts Banishment using 3 Will (including one free one). The Ringwraith fails to resists and is now down to 2 Will. He does save the Wound with a Fate point though.
On the other side of the gate, the Witch-King casts Sap Will on Faramir, using 3 Will points. Faramir successfully resists with 2 Will points and regains 1 because of the natural 6.
Noticing shooting from the top, the catapults fire at the towers. One catapult kills 3 Rangers atop the towers, the other catapult kills 2 Minas Tirith archers.
The Witch-King charges Faramir and automatically also charges several warriors of Minas Tirith. Both Heroes Heroic Strike since they normally both have a Fight value of 5. The Witch-King goes to Fight 9 while Faramir only gets up to Fight 7, so the Witch-King wins the fight. It is devastating, he kills the 3 warriors of Minas Tirith he is in combat with, but Faramir remains unscathed.
Back to the Gandalf vs Ringwraith. Gandalf the White has Fight 5, same as the Nazgûl. With 3 Might left, it seems a no-brainer to call a Heroic Strike and finish the wraith off. And so it happens.
Unfortunately, there is some bad news for Good as well. Pippin dies at the hands of Gothmog. The two remaining warriors of Minas Tirith do too, so the left wing no longer contains any Good models. On the other wing, 2 Haradrim and 1 warrior of Minas Tirith die.
Earlier in the turn, the siege ram made it to the gate and delivered it the first blow (the door has 3 Wounds, so only 2 left).
It is now turn 6 and Evil again gets Priority. To prevent the Witch-King (who is now Mightless) from gaining cavalry bonuses, Faramir calls a Heroic Move, passes his courage test and charges the Witch-King. He is not alone, two more warriors of Minas Tirith dare to charge the Witch-King and thus trap him. Meanwhile, Gothmog his hot on Faramir’s heels.
In the shoot phase, one catapult kills two rangers, but the shot of the other catapult scatters and kills 3 Haradrim and 1 Morannon Orc. The ranger bowfire finally does something again: 1 Harad dies.
Gothmog spends his only Might point (he started with 1 because that’s what was restored after the previous scenario) to call a Heroic Combat. He kills the warrior of Minas Tirith, then charges Faramir. Faramir wins the combat and spends his final Might point to wound Gothmog (knowing full well this may be his last good opportunity to spend his Might). The Witch-King kills the two remaining warriors of Minas Tirith.
On the other side, a Captain of Minas Tirith calls a Heroic Combat, hoping to make a dent in the endless horde of enemies. He doesn’t win the Fight. The battering ram doesn’t manage to wound the door (only needed a 4+), not even after the free re-roll.
Turn 7, Good regains Priority. Faramir leaps on the chance to show his quality and heroically charges the Witch-King, to keep him occupied so he won’t cause carnage elsewhere. This will likely be his death, since Gothmog then charges him. 1 Morannon orc dies by ranger fire. 1 Ranger dies by catapult fire. The siege ram again fails to hit (again, despite only needing a 4+ and having the ability to re-roll). Against all expectations, Faramir wins the fight against the Witch-King on his Fell beast and Gothmog, but fails to wound.
Elsewhere, the Minas Tirith banner bearer wins against 4 Morannon orcs. The Harad Chieftain kills a warrior of Minas Tirith and wounds the Captain (using 1 Might). Irolas kills 1 Harad.
It is turn 8, Evil gets Priority and Isengard arrives.
The forces of Isengard move up, marching to the gate, assuming the gate will be torn down when they arrive. But the siege ram fails for the third time in a row, a 1.6% chance to occur if my calculations are correct.
The Witch-King slays Faramir and one warrior of Minas Tirith and the Harad Chieftain are slain.
Turn 9, Evil has Priority. The Witch-King flies over the left tower to signal the catapult to fire there, as a number of archers are stationed there who cannot get out because of the orcs down below on the stairs. He then moves up to the battalion behind the gate, but gets Sorcerous Blasted by Gandalf the White, who only used his free Will for this. The Witch-King is knocked flying, falls prone to the ground, loses his steed and only has 3 Will remaining. Way to go, Gandalf!
Four archers of Minas Tirith die atop the tower where they are trapped like fish in a barrel.
Gothmog kills the final Good model on the left part of the wall, meaning that part has now fallen too and allowing Gothmog and his orcs to move down freely behind the walls.
Turn 10 and a glimmer of hope arrives for Good. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli and a whole army of the Dead appear on the bottom left part of the board.
Evil has the Priority though, so Gandalf calls a Heroic Move so that he can charge the prone Witch-King. He casts another Sorcerous Blast, but fails. One Minas Tirith warrior joins the fight.
In the shoot phase, the catapult fails to hit and the recently re-manned Avenger Bolt Thrower on the right does a final hit (after this turn, everything will be out of its range) and kills 1 Uruk-hai.
In the shoot phase, the catapult fails to hit and the recently re-manned Avenger Bolt Thrower on the right does a final hit (after this turn, everything will be out of its range) and kills 1 Uruk-hai.
In the fight phase, the Captain of Minas Tirith on the right wing dies and the siege ram finally causes another wound on the door (on the re-roll).
Legolas kills an orc catapult crew member and Aragorn slays the Troll (after Heroic Striking, but rolling a 1, but then winning the roll-off).
The Witch-King wins the fight against Gandalf and the warrior of Minas Tirith and stands up, but now only has 2 Will remaining.
Evil has Priority again in turn 11. The Witch-King charges Gandalf, hoping to deal some final damage before dissipating. With no back-up on the way, he spends his second to last Will point to hopefully Black Dart Shadowfax, but fails. 2 Warriors of the Dead die by the catapult on the right side of the board. But a lot more damage could have been done, the Army of the Dead’s high defense was the saviour here.
It seems Sauron has sent his best catapult sharpshooter crew, but the worst siege ram, since the ram again doesn’t land a wound.
Behind the gate, the Witch-King wins the fight, but fails to wound Shadowfax. He then dissipates into thin air, having just spend his final Will.
In turn 12 Evil again retains Priority and has a change of plan. The siege ram is abandoned, it is first time to deal with the newly arrived Good reinforcements.
The remaining catapult targets Aragorn and hits, but the rock is thankfully scattered and it only knocks prone one warrior of the Dead.
Two of the 3 remaining warriors of Minas Tirith die on the right wing.
Down below, a host of Morannon orcs that used to trap the archers on top of the tower have now made it their way down, where they are greeted by the battalion that was left in reserve.
2 Orc die in combat and Shadowfax is slain. Elsewhere on the battlefield, another orc is slain.
Turn 13 Evil Priority. The forces of Isengard regroup and move back, using the catapult as a reason for the Army of the Dead to come to them.
Behind the wall, the couple of surviving Good archers that haven’t done much the entire scenario so far also make it down the stairs, trapping the orcs that previously trapped them. 4 Morannon orcs die, although it does cost Good two Might points, including Gandalf’s last.
Another warrior of the Dead is crushed by the catapult. The right wing falls, the orc crew member from earlier that killed a warrior of the Dead against all odds wins the fight for the third time in a row and kills another warrior of the Dead.
Turn 14, again Evil Priority. Another warrior of the Dead dies by catapult fire. Another 4 orcs are mowed down by fighting in the streets, effective back battalion!
Turn 15, Good finally regains Priority. Since almost all the orcs have been slain behind the gates, Gothmog and his band of three orcs move behind a tower, to hopefully spread out and slow down the back battalion, causing them to either not be able to join the fight on the Pelennor Fields, or to stay alive and thus help in staying above the 16 models.
On the field, Legolas and Aragorn clash with the forces of Isengard.
Aragorn calls a Heroic Combat, uses 1 Might and kills 3 Uruk-hai. Legolas wins the fight, but fails to wound. In the back, an orc is slain.
Good Priority in turn 16. Uglúk calls a Heroic Move, Aragorn countercalls. Uglúk wins the roll-off.
Both Aragorn and Uglúk then call a Heroic Strike. Both get to Fight 10, so another roll-off follows that Uglúk wins. Uglúk spends his last point of Might for 3 Wounds on Aragorn. He takes two, saving one with a Fate point. This means that Aragorn is now down to 1 Might, 1 Fate and 1 Wound.
Gimli uses 1 Might to kill 1 Uruk. Elsewhere, 3 warriors of the Dead and 1 Uruk die. Behind the walls, Irolas and a small task force have made their way to Gothmog. Irolas wins the fight and lands a wound on Gothmog, though he does need to spend a Might point to do so.
Evil gets Priority in turn 17. The forces of Good have opened the gate, so that they can join the battle on the Pelennor Fields.
2 Good archers die, but Irolas kills Gothmog. Aragorn spends his final Might point, but kills Uglúk. Gimli spends his final 2 Might points, but kills an Uruk-hai Berserker. Legolas wins the fight despite again being surrounded by Uruk-hai and also kills a Berserker. Elsewhere on the board 5 warriors of the Dead, 4 Uruk-hai berserkers, 1 Uruk-hai warrior, 2 Morannon orcs and the Troll drummer die.
Good has Priority in turn 18. Behind the walls, 2 warriors of Minas Tirith and 2 orcs die. Aragorn kills 3 Uruk-hai, Gimli kills 1 and Legolas also kills 1. The King of the Dead slays an Isengard troll, courtesy of his special rule to immediately kill a model after wounding it if it’s not prevented by Fate.
Elsewhere, a Herald of the Dead is slain by an Uruk-hai Captain. 2 Warriors of the Dead, 7 Uruk-hai and 1 Orc die.
Evil Priority, turn 19. Not a great turn for Good, 3 warriors of Minas Tirith, the final Ranger and 2 Warriors of the Dead die. On the other side 2 Uruk-hai warriors, 1 Berserker, 2 Orcs and the final Harad warrior dies.
Good Priority turn 20. Things were looking in favour for Good, but combat is a complete disaster. 3 Warriors of the Dead, 3 warriors of Minas Tirith die, vs 1 Orc warrior and 1 Uruk-hai captain.
Evil Priority turn 21. There are now 32 Evil models left, vs 30 Good models. Whichever side goes to 16 first loses the scenario. The final Captain of Minas Tirith, 2 warriors of the Dead, 3 Uruk-hai and 3 Orcs die. A troll scores 3 Wounds on Gandalf, though Gandalf prevents 1 with a Fate point.
Good Priority turn 22. 2 Uruk-hai die, as do 1 Orc and 1 Warrior of the Dead.
Evil Priority turn 23. Evil now has 23 models left, Good has 21. Aragorn loses his final Fate point to a single orc catapult crew member and the King of the Dead is slain by Berserkers.
Good Priority turn 24. So close to victory or defeat, the Minas Tirith battalion decides to flee back behind the gate, realizing they won’t have as much of a chance against the Trolls. They close the door behind them. Aragorn also flees from the catapult, fearing the Troll will be too much for him right now.
Evil Priority turn 25, Legolas shoots an orc.
Good Priority turn 26, the siege ram finally destroys the front gate, allowing the forces of Evil to chase Gandalf & co.
Evil Priority turn 27. The catapult on the left that has been causing rampage all game performs their final trick. Since Aragorn & the army of the Dead failed to deal with them, they can still fire and so it happens that Aragorn gets crushed by the catapult. This crew deserves some medals.
Evil Priority turn 28. The remaining forces of Evil are nearing the holed up Minas Tirith battalion, but Legolas, Gimli and the remaining fraction of the Army of the Dead attack them in the back. It is now nearly a 50/50 who will win the scenario, with both Evil and Good having 18 having 18 models left. Whoever can kill 2 or more models will win the scenario. A warrior of the Dead dies, Gimli loses the fight against a Troll and goes down to 1 Wound and 0 Fate. Legolas wins the fight against 3 Morannon orcs and kills 2! That means the scenario is over, Evil has 16 models left where Good has just 17. That would mean the smallest possible Good victory, though looking at all the damage and casualties it really is not what I’d consider a victory. I’d say a Draw is the much more deserved outcome.
Aftermath
The scenario is a Draw. Thematically and campaign wise it wouldn’t be right to call this a Good victory. This means Good will not receive an extra 250 points in the next scenario, but it also means not every Hero will have to roll on the ‘Death of a Hero’ table. The next scenario will be the final one in the campaign, ‘The End of All Things’.
There were many casualties. The named ones on the Good side are Shadowfax, Beregond, Pippin, Faramir and Aragorn. On the Evil side they are the Witch-King, Gothmog and Ugluk.
Rolling on the ‘Death of a Hero’ table, Shadowfax makes a full recovery, Beregond lives, Pippin lives, Faramir makes a full recovery, but Aragorn has unfortunately been permanently killed (boo!). On the Evil side the Witch-King will make a full recovery (he wasn’t really ‘slain’, just ran out of Will), Gothmog dies because this is the place where he historically died and Ugluk should already have been dead so also truly died on the fields of Pelennor.
Post-game thoughts
The board for me with all the participants on it still felt fairly small scale, considering it is representing the largest battle of the Third Age in Middle-earth. However, it took me about 8 to 10 hours to play excluding set-up and tear down time. So I am happy it wasn’t more massive than this, because by the end I did want it to be over (you can see I took less photos and notes). I’ve played it over two days and that was a good thing, because I had my energy renewed the second day. Considering both sides performed well and were quite evenly matched, I think the Draw outcome is deserved. I do think it’s a pretty great scenario. For sure it’s exhausting, but there are so many things that make it interesting. Lots of little decisions and strategies could swing wildly from turn to turn based on what just happened previously (for example the gate was left deserted after failing to get through, but then the battalion behind the gate wanted out. Gothmog wanting to back up the Witch-King only to find his fellow orcs mowed down and deciding to hide. The Uruk-hai moving back to the catapult. Etc. So despite the scenario taking really long to play, it was interesting and tense throughout.
There were some warriors and heroes that performed incredibly well. The Witch-King was really useful and so was Gandalf. Aragorn performed quite well until Uglúk severely weakened him. Gothmog did a lot for Evil. But the real star of this scenario was the right catapult and its crew. They have done so much damage to Good and now even managed to permanently kill Aragorn! The Troll even survived the scenario. On the Good side Irolas was really solid, slaying Gothmog and winning pretty much all his fights. Legolas also won all his fights and this is what made the difference in the end, otherwise Evil would likely have won the scenario. So it’s hard to list just one MVP, but overall it would have been the catapult and crew on the right. It was fun seeing and using so many heroes.
The siege towers I thought were also pretty cool, although I still stand by my decision to give them 5 Wounds instead of 3 or 4. Maybe without the Avenger Bolt Throwers 3 or 4 would have been enough. But had the Siege Tower fallen a turn earlier, then the other Siege Tower would have fallen as well, killing so many Evil soldiers in it that the game would likely be a quite boring affair where Evil wouldn’t pose as much as a threat.
The under-performer was mostly the siege ram, odds wise it was pretty ridiculous that it has taken so many turns to ram down the 3 Wound door. But it was fun seeing how this affected the scenario and the adapted strategies and tactics both sides deployed.
All in all a very fun and solid scenario, that I would not immediately replay (obviously) but I do think would be fun to replay in the future (though preferably not solo but against an actual opponent). It is feasible to do solo though, just spread it out over at least two days. I think having 3 or 4 players here would also be fun for this scenario, as they did in the magazine. I’d rate it a solid 4 out of 5 stars.
As for writing this report, there are a bit more photos than usual. Most of the good ones are shot by my girlfriend, who has a much better cinematic eye for photography than I have. But she doesn’t really know how the game works, so I did include some worse photos of my own to allow for hopefully following along with the game a little bit easier.
The walls, gate and towers of Minas Tirith are all scratch build from hobby and building materials. The same is true for the siege towers. I am quite proud of how they turned out. I’ve used Zorpazorp’s excellent tutorials over at YouTube, though had to think up the gate section, towers and siege towers on my own because no tutorial exists for that (yet?). Thanks a lot for reading this battle report, which is likely the longest one I’ll publish, maybe ever. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and feel free to say ‘Hi’ in the comments!
In the final scenario of the Return of the King campaign, Frodo has the chance to throw the One Ring into the fires of Mount Doom. The forces of Good launch a desperate attack at the Black Gate, giving Frodo more time to fulfil his quest. But will he succeed?
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