Sunday 27 & Tuesday 29 October 2024
An elven patrol has found news of the Necromancer’s activities and wants to give this information to their king, Thranduil. However, the Necromancer and a group of orcs try to stop this from happening.
Participants
| Good (11 models) | Evil (13 models) |
| 1 Mirkwood Ranger Captain | The Necromancer (with only 12 Will) |
| 10 Mirkwood Rangers | 12 Orc Warriors (4 Shield, 4 Spear, 2 Two-handed, 2 Bow) |
Objectives
The Evil player wins if all the elves are slain.
The Good player wins if 5 elves can cross to the opposing board edge (as part of the previous campaign bonus, otherwise 4 would be required).
Otherwise, the game is a draw.
Special rules
The elves cannot see and shoot farther than 6″. The Necromancer starts with only 12 Will.
The game
The elves start 6″ around the centre of one board edge. The Necromancer is placed on the centre of the board and the orcs are spread anywhere in the opposing board half.
1G. The elves spread out, with the captain going right. Most orcs are in the centre, so that they can determine the direction they’ll need to go.
The majority of the elves went to the right, so most orcs and the Necromancer went there as well. The Necromancer Chilled the Soul of an elf in most turns that he could reach one, which was the case most turns. Fortunately for the elves, they are the superior fighters so this chilling of souls was somewhat balanced with the killing of orcs in combat. In the first couple of turns, casualties on both sides have similar numbers.
Because of the Knife-Fighters special rule, the Mirkwood Rangers actually benefit from having multiple enemies engaged in combat. This does make it a lot easier to let them spread out. With Priority, the elf in the above picture manages to charge the two orcs, killing them both and tilting the odds towards the Good player getting at least a Draw out of the game.
Good’s luck doesn’t last forever though. Whenever orcs do win the fight, they only need 4’s to wound, killing the occasional elf. The Mirkwood Ranger Captain, after making a successful archery kill, massively disappoints. She gets slowed down by a single two-handed orc and she needs to spend a Might point to win the fight – and then another to kill the orc. A bit excessive perhaps, but she does need to push through, otherwise the elves on the right side of the board are unlikely to make it to the other side.
The Necromancer sweeps in and kills another elf with his magic, he is now down to 3 Will. On the right side, only the Mirkwood Ranger Captain is left. However, on the left the elves had more success – until they didn’t. Eventually just one elf remains there as well, though he has almost made it to the other board edge.
The game so far has been very back-and-forth and tensions are at an all-time high. The Necromancer fails his final Chill Soul, leaving him with just the 1 Will needed to survive. A final shot from orc and elf before being able to make it off the board both miss. Priority will decide if the elf can make it off the board. Evil priority, which means the elf gets charged by the orc. He manages to hold his own, but in the next turn again gets charged, this time joined by the Necromancer himself!
Fortunately for the elves, this particular elf is quite resilient. He wins the fight, killing the orc and letting the Necromancer dissipate in thin air due to his Will of Evil special rule. This means the elf is free to run off the board and hopefully make it to Thranduil.
On the other side of the board, the eternal fighting between the Mirkwood Ranger Captain and two orcs continues to lack any lethality. Just after the elf on the other side of the board has safely made it off, the Ranger Captain dies.
Aftermath
One elf has made it off the board, making the game a Draw. This means that neither side will have any advantage in the next scenario.
Post-game thoughts
This was a really fun scenario! It was exciting and tense, with a lot of important rolls without it feeling like it was down only to luck. I think it’s pretty balanced, though I think it would be quite hard for Good to win since having 4 out of 11 characters escape, means only 7 may die. The Necromancer with 12 Will can easily kill about 5 models with his Chill Soul, without the elves being able to do something about it. On the other hand, killing all the elves is also no mean feat, since it’s quite easy for at least one elf to slip away. So I think a Draw is the most likely outcome, which is fine by me.
I really enjoyed playing the Mirkwood Rangers, their Knife-Fighters special rule makes it so you can just send them into danger without fearing Trapping or being outnumbered. The nerf to elven shooting as part of the scenario special rules is important here, because it forces the elves to keep marching on. A well designed scenario that was probably more taxing and stressful for the Evil player, but tense and fun for us both.
The corruption of the Greenwood continues to increase and Thranduil intends to find out why in the next scenario.
That was a very tense ending and I’m glad the rangers managed to have some success. They seem too skilled to be completely outmaneuvered by the Necromancer! This was a really fun report to read and the terrain looked fantastic once again.
Thanks a lot for your kind words Kuribo! I am really excited by this campaign. It allows me to paint up many things I’ve always wanted to paint, but was too intimidated by (Mirkwood Rangers, Fell Wargs, Hunter Orcs, Bats, Dol Guldur).