Sunday 23 February 2025
As the years pass, Mirkwood has increasingly become a place of fear and evil. Some say a huge spider has taken up residence just south of the Narrows of the Forest, and that any who stray into its lair are never heard of again. Though many bands of Rangers have been sent out to find this lair and rid it of the creature that supposedly dwells within, they either return having been unable to find any sign of the Spider Queen, or simply do not return at all…
Note: From now on, games will be played using the new 2024 edition rules and profiles (where possible).
Participants
| Good (22 models) | Evil (15 models, with respawns) |
| 2 Mirkwood Ranger Captain | The Spider Queen |
| 20 Mirkwood Rangers | 6 Mirkwood Giant Spiders (previously known as Mirkwood Spiders) |
| 6 Mirkwood Hunting Spiders (previously known as Giant Spiders) | |
| 2 Bat Swarms |
Objectives
The Good player wins if they can kill the Spider Queen.
The Evil player wins if they can kill all Good models before the Spider Queen is slain.
Special rules
Spider Nests – Good models treat Spider Nests as difficult terrain. Additionally, slain Spider models are put to the side. At the start of each turn, before Priority is determined, roll a D6 for each Spider model put aside in this manner. On a 5+ they will re-enter via one of the Spider Nests. On a further D6 roll on a 3+ (without the campaign bonus this would have been a 4+) the Evil player chooses which Spider Nest, otherwise the Good player chooses.
Swarm of Spiders – Shooting attacks that target the Spider Queen suffer a -1 penalty when rolling To Hit and only Wound the Spider Queen on a natural 6.
The game
Four Spider Nests are placed, each in the centre of each quarter of the board.
The Elves start within 12″ of the centre of the board. The Evil player then deploys their force (minus 4 Spiders) within 12″ of the entrance to the Spider Queen’s lair. The other 4 Spiders are spread out over the Spider Nests, containing 1 each.
1G. I’ve positioned the Elves a bit spread out in a circle, with the majority closer towards the Spider Queen so that they can hopefully get a shot through. My reasoning for this was that I could hopefully get in combat with the Spider Queen as quickly as possible, while I still have a full force.
The Evil player placed the Spiders as close to the Elves as possible. With their superior movement and not a lot of line-of-sight blocking terrain in this part I moved a number of Elves back to get out of Charging range. Which means my deployment was mistake #1 on my part. I should have deployed further away and let the Spiders come to me, so that I would get more shots.
The Spiders advance and all Elven shooting that is able targets the Spider Queen. A few shots go through, but all fail to Wound.
2E. I consider the possibility of a Heroic Move with one of my Captains. However, the Spiders are out of my Charging range, so I figured it would not be worth it to spend a Might point, preferring to save them for a combat or another turn. Given what happens next, I probably should have spent that Might point…
The Spider Queen spawns 3 Broodlings behind enemy lines and manages to Trap one of the Ranger Captains. A Bat Swarm has joined the combat, to halve the Captain’s Fight value. With the Monstrous Charge special rule, the Spider Queen easily kills the Captain, who stood no chance. A Heroic Combat from the other Captain wouldn’t have helped, since Evil has Priority and there was another combat in the way. Elsewhere, the Spiders manage to kill 7 of the 20 Mirkwood Rangers. The Rangers kill 2 Broodlings and 2 Mirkwood Giant Spiders. Not a great turn for Good.
3E. 1 Broodlings re-enters via a Spider Nest. A Heroic Move wouldn’t have helped here, so the Spiders can again dictate the fights, which they do.
The Spider Queen hurls a Ranger into the Ranger Captain. The hurled model dies and the Ranger Captain is knocked Prone, but wins his combat so stands up again. 1 Bat Swarm and 1 Giant Spider are wounded and 1 Broodlings is slain, but so are 5 more Rangers.
4E. This time the Ranger Captain can sensibly call a Heroic Move and does so. This is countercalled by the Spider Queen, but she loses the roll off.
The Spider Queen gets charged by 4 Elves, including the remaining Captain. Unfortunately, the Spiders are so numerous that they can countercharge them all, leaving the Spider Queen with just one Ranger.
The Spider Queen Barges and charges the Captain, who was in a combat with a Bat Swarm so has her Fight halved. She kills her many times over. 1 Giant Spider dies, but so do 4 Rangers, leaving just 1 Ranger on the board.
5E. The final Elf gets eaten.
Aftermath
Victory for Evil. This means that in the next scenario, the Evil player may choose to automatically gain Priority at the start of any turn. This can only be used once per game.
Post-game thoughts
This might read like a very one-sided scenario, but it was quite fun and tense during the game. My biggest misplay was probably the deployment, I really should have put the Elves closer together and farther away from the host of the Spider Queen. The dice rolling was fairly normal, perhaps slightly favouring Evil but not as ridiculous as in previous games. Evil did get Priority every turn for which this was rolled however, which did influence the game a lot. With a bit more luck on the Priority rolls, this could have gone differently. A cool scenario that I would recommend!
In the next scenario, Gandalf searches for the reason of the darkening of the Greenwood, fearing the Dark Lord Sauron might have something to do with it. Will he succeed in uncovering the truth?
This does sound like a fun game and your terrain and miniatures really bring Mirkwood to life as well. Sometimes the relatively straightforward scenarios can be the most fun, in my experience.
Thanks a lot! Yes I agree. I do like more complex scenarios as well, but it’s nice to switch them up. 🙂