Defence of the North – Appendix – The High Pass

Monday 2 September 2024

In the northern areas of the Vales of Anduin, Beorn, his son Grimbeorn, and their people, the Beornings, have made it their task to keep the various paths that run from the Misty Mountains in the west to Mirkwood in the east free from unsavoury beings that seek to harm those they come across, though they charge a hefty toll for their work.

This scenario from the Defence of the North supplement depicts such a moment. Beorn, Grimbeorn and 12 Beornings will have to defend the path to the east from 3 Orc Captains and 36 Orc warriors. If we would total up point values this would be a very disadvantageous match-up for Evil, however their objective is to have 12 or more Evil models reach the eastern board edge to win the game. Good needs to prevent this from happening. Beorn starts at the north, Grimbeorn at the south. The orcs start at the west and the Beornings at the east. There is a Thick Fog in effect, meaning no shooting more than 12″ away and you can only charge models that are more than 6″ away on a 4+.

I’ve played this scenario solo. My tactics for Evil were to spread out in 3 clustered groups. For Good I wanted the bears as fast as possible (to cover more ground) and spread the Beornings evenly among the 3 blocks of orcs, with the archers in the middle.

1. In the first turn, Beorn and Grimbeorn both roll a 1 and thus aren’t able to transform in their bear form. Both sides move up.

2. Good Priority, Beorn and Grimbeorn both transform into fearsome bears, but are too far out of reach to charge any orcs just yet. The Beorning bowmen can fire, but fail to wound.

3. Good Priority. Evil considers calling Heroic Moves, but then thinks it’s probably not worth the Might point because their options would still be limited. The bears charge the outer two Orc captains, because they are the biggest threat. The Beorning shooting takes out two Orc warriors. In the combat phase, Grimbeorn deals 3 wounds to the Orc captain, killing him. Beorn deals 2 wounds to the other Orc captain, who rolls a 1 using his Fate point and thus also dies.

4. Good Priority. The remaining Orc captain calls a Heroic Move, so that the orcs have the advantage in swarming the Beornings. The orcs on the outskirts try to run off to the eastern board edge. Both bears call a Heroic Combat, hoping to help the Beornings and chase the orcs that try to get away. Grimbeorn kills the 3 orcs he was engaged with using 1 Might point, but loses his second combat. Beorn kills the two orcs he was engaged with and then kills another two. With two attacks and Burly, the Beornings hold their ground and manage to kill 8 orcs. On the receiving end they take no wounds and cost the last Orc captain his remaining Might point. It’s not looking so good for the Evil side.

5. Evil priority. Another 7 orcs go down in the Fight phase, whereas one Beorning takes 1 Wound. There are just 14 Orc models left on the board.

6. Evil priority. Another 5 orcs go down in the Fight phase, leaving Evil with just 9 models left (and no Beorning casualties). A large victory for Good!

Post-game thoughts

The bears and Beornings just tore through the orcs, who stood absolutely no chance. Having not experienced playing them before, I thought the orcs numbers and the captains Might points could suffice in slowing the battles, leaving room and time for enough orcs to slip away. Clearly that didn’t happen. Maybe the best strategy would be for the orcs to spread out completely, every orc for himself. But even then I would think that the Bears with their Brutal Power Attacks, bigger bases and higher movement would just pick them off one by one, while the Beornings would just finish off the rest.

All in all a fun, but pretty unbalanced scenario. If you want to play bears and Beornings and have a fun time, this is likely the scenario for you! If you want to have an equal chance of winning, this is probably not the scenario for you.