Tuesday 9 November 2021 – Sharkey is slowly building up his forces in Hobbiton, sending more and more of his Ruffians to empower Lotho and his plans. Most such men travel up the Greenway, but a few, travelling from Bree, cut across Buckland and across Farmer Maggot’s land on their journey. It is a rainy and windswept night, and Maggot is seeing to things elsewhere on his farm, having left Grip, Fang and Wolf to watch for intruders. When dark shapes explode out of the night and, in panic, attack his dogs, Maggot is less than inclined to let them pass, whether they claim to have business in Hobbiton or not. This scenario is found in the Scouring of the Shire (2004) supplement, scenario number 1. It is the start of a 6-part campaign covering the events of the Scouring of the Shire.

Participants

Good (4 models)Evil (5 models)
Farmer Maggot with Grip, Fang and Wolf1 Ruffian with bow
4 Ruffians with whip
List of participants.

Objectives

For the Evil side to win, at least three Ruffians must escape by exiting the board from the Hobbiton board edge (the edge where Farmer Maggot will appear). The Good side wins if Farmer Maggot prevents this.

This scenario is played on a pretty small board (4′ x 2′).

Special rules

On the Prowl – At the start of the game, the Good player does not have control of Grip, Fang and Wolf – the player with Priority may move them a number of inches equal to his Priority roll. If at any point a Ruffian is within 6″ of one of the dogs – or if one of the dogs is shot at and not wounded, Grip, Fang and Wolf immediately revert to the control of the Good player for the rest of the game. The dogs do not move at all in the first turn – the Evil player effectively moves first.

A Stormy Night – Shooting attacks will only hit on the roll of a 6 in this scenario. Grip, Fang and Wolf cause terror in this scenario.

Farmer Maggot – The Good player rolls a D6 at the start of his Move phase in every turn after the one in which the Ruffians have been spotted. On the roll of a 5 or more, Maggot has arrived and may move onto the board from any point along the Hobbiton board edge.

The game

The game is played on a 4′ x 2′ (120×60 cm) board. One half of the board (the Bree edge) is covered with a great many trees, though does not count as difficult terrain. The remainder of the board is a portion of Farmer Maggot’s farm. There is a scarecrow 12″ in from the Hobbiton board edge.

The Good player deploys Grip, Fang and Wolf anywhere within 6″ of the scarecrow. The Ruffians move onto the board from the Bree table edge during the Evil player’s Move phase in the first turn.

The dogs are positioned as close to the Bree edge as possible, because the Ruffians will try to move them towards the Hobbiton edge as far as possible.

The dogs are patrolling Farmer Maggot’s borders.

In the first turn, the Ruffians arrive.

In the second turn, Evil gets Priority and moves the dogs 3 inches toward Hobbiton.

Evil retains Priority and moves the dogs 6 inches toward Hobbiton, while carrying on with the Ruffians.

The Ruffians arrive.

Good then gets Priority and moves the dogs 4 inches toward the Ruffians.

The Ruffians are nearing Farmer Maggot’s crops and Evil gets Priority, moving the dogs 4 inches back.

The Ruffians have nearly entered Farmer Maggot’s territory.

Good wins Priority and can move the dogs 5 inches. That is enough to spot the Ruffians, so the dogs are now under the Good player’s control. The three Ruffians in the centre of the board try to cross the crop field, avoiding the dogs.

The Ruffians try to sneak away from the dogs.

Evil gets Priority and the two Ruffians on the outer edges move unhindered toward the Hobbiton edge. In the middle section, the Ruffians traverse the crop field, but the dogs swarm up on the first Ruffian leaving the field. Farmer Maggot is not roused yet. The Ruffian attacked by dogs gets killed 5 times over.

The dogs don’t take kindly to trespassers.

Evil has Priority again in the next turn. The Ruffians on the edges move up and are now one turn away from Hobbiton. In the middle things aren’t looking as good for them, they flee to one side because they have no other option. No Farmer Maggot yet. The dogs split up and charge both Ruffians. One of the Ruffians gets killed, drastically reducing Evil’s chances of winning.

Not much chance for the Ruffians, but maybe they can fend off the dogs?

Good Priority, no sign of Farmer Maggot and two Ruffians escape the board. However, the final Ruffian gets surrounded and is killed in the fight. Good victory!

The final Ruffian bites the dust.

Aftermath

The Good side wins the scenario, which means the Good player may use Farmer Maggot and his dogs in any one subsequent scenario (excluding Bywater) chosen by the Good player.

Post-game thoughts

This was a pretty fun and very fast scenario. It can probably be played in 10 minutes excluding set-up and tear down time and without taking notes and pictures. There’s not a lot of choices that need to be made and they are generally quite straightforward.

Obviously this scenario won’t be a must play or really win any awards, but it’s a fun start of a short campaign. I think the replayability is not great and it seems hard for Evil to actually win, but with some lucky dice if the Ruffians can manage to take out a dog or more and Farmer Maggot doesn’t show up, Sharkey’s rogues could be victorious. I liked the theme and would rate the scenario an enjoyable 3.5/5 stars.

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