Sunday 6 April 2025
Gandalf fears the Dark Lord Sauron may be responsible for the sickening of the Greenwood. Because of this, he ventures into Mirkwood to investigate, where he finds the fortress of Dol Guldur. Sauron is not yet strong enough to reveal himself, so decides to flee to the East. Will Gandalf learn of the Necromancer’s true identity, or will Sauron be able to keep this a secret?
Participants
| Good (1 model) | Evil (5 models) |
| Gandalf the Grey | The Necromancer of Dol Guldur |
| 4 Castellans of Dol Guldur |
Objectives
The Good player wins if the Necromancer has been revealed and Gandalf escapes the board via any board edge.
The Evil player wins if the Necromancer has not been revealed when he escapes the board via the eastern board edge.
Otherwise, the game is a Draw.
Special rules
Shadow of the Necromancer – The Necromancer is not deployed at the start of the game. Instead, six 40 mm bases are deployed touching the western board edge, each representing a place where the Necromancer could be. The Evil player notes down which is the Necromancer. They move in the same way as the Necromancer and the Evil player will win if the base representing the Necromancer escapes the board via the eastern board edge.
Revealing the Necromancer – If at the end of any Good Move phase Gandalf is within 6″ of a 40 mm base and can draw an unobscured Line of Sight to all parts of the base, then the Evil player must reveal if the base was a decoy or in fact the Necromancer himself. Additionally, if the Necromancer casts any Magical Powers then he will automatically be revealed.
The Cost of Deception – The Necromancer loses a point of Will at the end of each Move phase in which he has not yet been revealed.
The Grey Pilgrim – Gandalf has 2 Attacks in this Scenario. (he already has 2 Attacks in his base profile in the new 2024 edition).
The game
The six 40 mm bases (from now on referred to as ‘Shadows’) are deployed anywhere touching the western board edge. My opponent chose to place 3 on both sides, forcing me to choose a side to go to. The Castellans of Dol Guldur are then deployed anywhere within 12″ of the Western board edge, which my opponent deployed towards the centre. The Good Player then deploys Gandalf anywhere within 6″ of the centre of the eastern board edge, where I chose to go left. The reason is that towards my board edge the terrain is a bit more crowded there, meaning my opponent would have an advantage if that is where the Necromancer is. So I’d prefer to check out the Shadows on the right, so that I can more easily capture the Shadows on the left if needed.
1G. -> Evil begins. The Shadows and Castellans move up and so does Gandalf. Gandalf successfully casts Terrifying Aura on himself using his free point of Will.
2G. -> Evil begins. The Shadows and Castellans move up once more and so does Gandalf.
3E. -> Good begins. Gandalf uses his full Move and hides behind a rock. The Castellans hide behind a wall as well, while the Shadows are nearing Gandalf.
4G. -> Evil begins. The Shadows spread out and move away from Gandalf, while the Castellans try to get nearer, without drawing Line of Sight. Gandalf runs and casts a Sorcerous Blast on one of the Shadows using 2 Will point, rolling a 6. It isn’t clear in the rules if it is actually possible to target the Shadows with Magic, which took my opponent by surprise. However I do think it makes thematic sense. If this was not intended, I don’t think there would be a chance for Good to win this scenario because he is so outnumbered and the board is so large.
At any rate, it turned out that the Shadow was actually the Necromancer! He nearly suffers a wound (rolling 6/1 instead of 6/4+), but Gandalf prefers to save his 3 Might points. The Necromancer is automatically Knocked Prone, however.
5E. -> Evil begins. Gandalf calls a Heroic Move, the Necromancer counter-calls. Gandalf wins the roll off and jumps over the small ruin, nearing the board edge. The Necromancer casts a Compel, rolling a 6. Gandalf uses 3 Will points to successfully resist the spell.
6E. -> Evil uses his free ‘Gain Priority at the start of any turn’ rule that he received from winning the previous scenario. Gandalf and the Necromancer again both call a Heroic Move and Gandalf once again wins the roll-off. Meaning he is free to move off the board, winning the game.
Aftermath
Victory for Good. This means that in scenario 11: Capture of the Grey Wizard, the Necromancer starts with only 20 Will instead of 25.
Post-game thoughts
This was quite anti-climactic for my opponent and a nice surprise for me. When I read through the scenario on paper it seemed like a really interesting one, but then when my opponent deployed the Shadows 3 in each board edge, my heart sank and I realised that in deployment I’d already have a 50% chance of losing the game, since I likely wouldn’t be able to prevent both sides of Shadows from escaping.
I don’t think this scenario would really work as written. In all cases it will be down to plain luck and I imagine it would be quite unsatisfying if Gandalf got pinned down by the Castellans while the Shadows just escaped. But I do love the thematic flavour and setting, as well as the idea behind the scenario.
So my suggestions would be as follows:
- Play the way we did and allow Gandalf to use magic on the Shadows. I do think this is somewhat implied (because the Necromancer does seem to be able to cast magic on Gandalf while cloaked in shadows), but it is not explicitly clear and specified.
- Half the width of the board so that the dimensions become 4 foot by 2 foot. This means the Shadows have less chance of just passing Gandalf by without him being able to do anything about it. It would also concentrate the action a bit more, which will probably result in a tenser and fairer game. There would still be some luck involved, but that is inherent in this type of scenario and Gandalf would have more opportunity of revealing the Shadows, making the scenario more interesting.
With these changes I think this could be a really cool scenario. The way we played it I still enjoyed it, but that was probably in part due to my lucky catch. Which likely wouldn’t have happened if my opponent knew in advance I could target the Shadows with magic.
In the next scenario, Legolas is attacked on one of his patrols roaming Mirkwood, where he is searching for any remaining Orcs or other foul creatures after Sauron has fled to the East.