Monday 20 December 2021 – Under orders from Paladin, a bold group of Hobbits sneaks out in cover of darkness to raid the Old Store House, a building with sides that groan with food and supplies stolen by the Ruffians. No Took is willing to kill for something as simple as good food, so the brave Hobbit raiders hatch a daring plan to steal back their food without the shedding of unnecessary blood.
This scenario is found in the Scouring of the Shire (2004) supplement, scenario number 4. It is the fourth of a 6-part campaign covering the events of the Scouring of the Shire.
Participants
| Good (12 models) | Evil (8 models) |
| 4 Hobbit Shirrifs | 8 Ruffians with whip |
| 8 Hobbit Militia |
Objectives
If the Hobbits can carry four bags of supplies off the table within 6″ of the southwest board edge, the Good player wins. Should they fail, the Evil player wins. The Game ends if 50% of the Hobbits are unconscious at the end of any turn.
Special rules
Traps – The Good player may deploy three Snare, three Pit, three Tripwire and 9 Blank Trap counters within 12″ of the southwest and northeast board corners.
Snare – The Good player rolls a D6. On a 2+ the model triggering the trap is Knocked Prone and may not move further this turn. If the Snare is close to a tree, the model is ensnared and needs to roll equal to or below its Strength value to free himself.
Pit – The Good player rolls a D6. On a 2+ the model triggering the trap has fallen into the trap and may not move further this turn. It loses its control zone and can climb out of the pit as a normal obstacle in subsequent turns. A pit stays on the board as an obstacle.
Tripwire – The Good player rolls a D6. On a 2+ the model triggering the trap is Knocked Prone and may not move further this turn. The model also suffers a S1 hit.
Blank – These traps don’t do anything.
Knocked unconscious – Each time a model is wounded in combat or with a thrown stone or whip, it is not considered killed but unconscious. An unconscious model is knocked to the ground and may do nothing until it recovers. At the end of the Fight phase, the controlling player rolls a D6 for each unconscious model. On a 6, the model recovers and immediately stands up. Friendly models that spend the Fight phase in contact without doing anything else can attempt to revive them. They roll a D6 and need to roll a 6 to do so.
Sentries – Each Sentry rolls a D6 during the Priority phase. On a 1, the model may not move this turn. On a 2-5, the player with Priority may immediately move the sentry the distance rolled in inches in a direction of their choice. The Sentry may not move further this turn. On a 6, the Evil player may move the Sentry during his Move phase as normal.
Raising the alarm – Unless alerted, a Sentry may only charge at or shoot an enemy model that is within 4″ at the beginning of its own Move or Shoot phase. Sentries become alerted if a Sentry is:
- hit, but not knocked unconscious by enemy shooting
- conscious at the end of the turn and there is an enemy model within 4″
- conscious at the end of the turn and there is an unconscious friendly model within 4″
- regains consciousness after having been wounded previously
If any of the above conditions are met, the Sentries count as being alerted from the beginning of the next turn onwards. They can move, shoot and fight normally.
Summoning reinforcements – At the end of the Evil players Move phase (once Sentries are alerted), the Evil player must roll a dice for each Ruffian not on the table. On the roll of a 4+, a model becomes available and may enter play as if it had moved out through the door of a hut (max. 3 per hut). Newly arrived models may act normally, but may not charge on the turn they arrive.
Supplies – A Hobbit may claim a single supply counter by moving into base contact with the storehouse – place a counter in base contact with the Hobbit. A Hobbit can also seize an unclaimed counter by moving into base contact with it during the Move phase. Once a Hobbit has claimed a supply counter it can complete its move normally, dragging the counter alongside. A Hobbit dragging a supply counter will automatically release it if engaged in combat – place the counter within 1″ of the carrying model.
The game
The game is played on a 4′ x 4′ (120×120 cm) board. The Good player divides his models into two equal groups and deploys one group within 12″ of the south west board corner and the other within 12″ of the north east board corner. In the layout picture, the Hobbits are deployed within 6″ instead of 12″, which seems to make more sense.
The Evil player then deploys two Ruffians 3″ of the Old Store House, these represent the sentries left to watch over the storehouse. The remainder of the Evil force are considered to be sleeping in the ruffian huts, three within each.
The hobbits move up and the sentries are distracted by the Good priority rolls. Nothing too eventful happens in the first four turns, though at some point the Hobbits get in the situation where they could be spotted if the sentries would be controlled by the Evil player the next turn. Good gets Priority and the sentries are again distracted.
Good seems very lucky and most of the Hobbits from the north east corner can grab food from the Old Store House. Good again wins Priority, but one of the sentries is vigilant and spots a Hobbit, who he then whips till unconsciousness. The other sentry also charges a hobbit. Only 1 Ruffian wakes from the northern most hut.
Evil gets Priority. Again, only 1 Ruffian arrives, this time from the southern hut.
In the next turn, another Ruffian arrives.
Evil has Priority, which is important because it blocks the Hobbits from reclaiming their food. Two more Ruffians arrive on the battlefield. Despite a lot of combats, not much happens in the fight phase. One Hobbits regains his consciousness.
Good has Priority in the following turn, which allows some brave hobbits to distract the Ruffians so some others can get the food to safety. This seems like a likely win for Good, but the Ruffians win almost all the combats and manage to knock down quite a number of Hobbits. Two of them immediately stand back up though.
Good Priority again. It is now a matter of knocking down enough Hobbits, which means the Ruffians still have a chance to win. Four Hobbits are now down. So the Ruffians only need to ‘kill’ two more.
Evil Priority. Four Hobbits with supply tokens enter the north east spawn area. Then I realize that the objective for the Hobbits is to carry the bags off the table within 6″ of the south west board edge. But that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense, because then the traps in the north east area would never be used. Is this a typo? I think it might be, and rule that it is. But then I am unclear whether it is enough for the Hobbits to re-enter their deployment zone. Because in that case, the traps again don’t seem to matter very much. If I rule they have to just drop the supply at the deployment zone, the Hobbits would win. Otherwise, it would take another turn for them and the Ruffians would take out enough Hobbits to end the game this turn (and win). So this is a disappointing conclusion, since I can’t really figure out what is supposed to happen. The FAQ also doesn’t clarify anything about this scenario.
Aftermath
I rule this as a draw, because I can’t make sense of the rules. That means neither side will gain an advantage for the next scenario.
Post-game thoughts
Regardless of how the rules were intended to work, the traps didn’t come into play at all. I enjoyed the scenario quite a bit initially, it was tense with the sentry rolls and it felt fun for the Hobbits to sneak up on the Ruffians. But the end was quite disappointing. This was due to the unclear rules, but also because the Priority rolls were very important and couldn’t be influenced, making it feel a bit random.
I think the scenario has the potential to be decent and a solid 3/5 stars. But with the typos and unclear rules, that have not been corrected in the FAQ, I rate it 2/5 stars.