Please note: I lost most of the images that were in the original article, so this is now a mostly text-based report.
Monday 15 March 2021 – In the year 1601, the king of Arnor granted permission to the Periannath to dwell in the land between the Baranduin and the Tower Hills. Few detailed records remain of this time in the Shire; indeed it was only in these the earliest years of the Shire that detailed records were not maintained, and so it is not clearly known what challenges they faced in settling the land. The Dwarves make mention of a brief skirmish fought on the western bank of the Baranduin, between the newly arrived Hobbits and a small band of Goblins fleeing Dwarven reprisals. The Dwarven annals make no note of who won…
This scenario is found in the Scouring of the Shire (2004) supplement, scenario number 7. It is not part of a campaign, as it is a stand-alone scenario part of the appendix.
| Good (24 models) | Evil (14 models) |
| 4 Hobbit Shirrifs | Ghâsh (Goblin Shaman) |
| 7 Hobbit Archers | 4 Moria Goblins with Orc bow |
| 1 Hobbit Archer with War Horn | 4 Moria Goblins with Spears |
| 12 Hobbit Militia | 4 Moria Goblins with Shield |
| 1 Cave Troll with Troll chain |
Objectives
The side that is reduced to 25% or less of its starting number (6 for Good, 3 for Evil) loses the game. If this happens for both sides in the same turn, the game is a draw.
Special rules
Rogue Troll – The Cave Troll has recently seen battle and has 2 Wounds left rather than 3. In addition, a courage test needs to be made at the start of each Priority phase to see if the Troll behaves as normal (if test is passed) or Good controls the Troll (if test is failed).
The Brandywine – Regular rules for swimming apply. The Hobbits are distrustful of large bodies of water and must pass a Courage test to enter the river.
The game
The game is played on a 4′ x 4′ (120×120 cm) board.
First the Good models are deployed in the top 12 inch of the board. Then the Evil models are deployed in the bottom 12 inch of the board.
The cave troll is placed far enough so that he can’t throw stones at the goblins if Good manages to take control of him. In the first turn, Good does take control of the troll and moves him towards the goblins. The hobbits position themselves a bit better but hold their ground because of their superior firepower. Ghâsh successfully casts a channelled Fury with 2 Will. The goblins move up through the woods because they want to get into combats as quickly as possible since the rogue troll is a hazard for them.
The first few turns are then a bit uneventful as the goblins move up and the hobbits take their position. The troll keeps passing his courage tests and is thus moved towards the hobbits while maintaining some distance from the goblins. In the first turn the forces of Evil get in range of the hobbit archers, about half of the shots hit, but nothing wounds.
The second turn of shooting is more efficient: two goblins die, although one death is prevented by Ghâsh’s Channelled Fury. Another goblin dies by a volley of thrown rocks.
In the turn after, the cave troll gets surrounded (but not fully, his Terror scared most hobbits away), but wins the fight and kills three hobbits. On the other side of the skirmish some hobbits have the advantage to pick fights with the goblins. Two goblins die of hobbit bowfire and two more die in combat. So far, Evil has lost 6 models and Good lost 3.
Evil gets priority next turn and the troll passes his courage test. A goblin dies by bowfire. No wounds are made in the combat, but the troll loses his fight and takes a wound (meaning he only has 1 wound left, since he started the game wounded).
Evil again wins priority and the troll once again passes his test. He swings his troll chain and kills a hobbit archer. He then charges a single hobbit (learning from his mistake to charge too many at once in the previous turn). But the hobbits are courageous this time around and swarm the troll. It only requires a bad die roll by the troll for him to meet his end, but he rolls a 6 and slays three hobbits. In the other combats things aren’t going too well either, two hobbits die versus only one goblin.
In the following turn the hobbits run away from the troll, who doesn’t seem to be very rogue but very determined to slay the hobbits. Ghâsh makes yet another kill (despite statwise not being stronger than a regular goblin, except for staying power with 2 Wounds and 1 Fate), the troll kills a hobbit and another hobbit dies at the hands of the goblins. Meanwhile only 1 goblin dies. In the combats the hobbits seem to really be outmatched. But the objectives still favour Good, the troll is only on 1 wound and could at any point turn on the goblins. There are only 5 Evil models on the board left versus 12 hobbits. So Good only needs to kill 2 more models, while Evil still needs to kill 6.
In the next turn, one goblin dies.
In the turn after, both Ghâsh and the troll are completely surrounded. But they both survive and no wounds are inflicted (except two on Ghâsh, of which one is prevented by Fate).
In the final turn the troll kills two more hobbits, but Ghâsh is slain at the hands of his many attackers. Victory for Good!
Aftermath
Good wins the game, there are only 3 Evil models left on the board, versus 10 Good models. There is no effect on the next scenario because it’s a standalone one as part of the appendix.
Post-game thoughts
This was a fun and quick little scenario. I think it’s more fun with two players than playing solo, as I think would usually be the case but maybe especially here. It does feel a bit random because of all the die rolling and not much to influence it (only 1 Might point across both factions and that was spend in turn 1 to Channel Fury). There is a little room for tactics, but I don’t think this scenario has great replayability. It does serve as a nice appetizer for more Shire-relates scenarios.
The river didn’t see a lot of play. For Good I didn’t think there would be much point to let some hobbits start at the other side of the river since the river seems to hurt the hobbits more than the goblins because of the required courage tests. And Good needs to deploy all their troops first. Meanwhile for Evil there doesn’t seem to be much point either, since they’ll likely want to rush towards the hobbits as quickly as possible because the rogue troll could potentially be a ticking time bomb. They could let the troll start at the other side of the river but that does mean a 1 in 6 chance they’ll lose their most vital asset for this scenario.
Speaking of the troll, he really was the centrepiece of this scenario (though Ghâsh also did his part). He only failed his courage test in turn 1 and never faltered after, despite a courage value of just 3. It was cool to see the troll wreck the hobbits, especially since monsters often seemed underpowered to me in previous editions of this game. By playing with the new rules the troll really was a danger for the hobbits, I think he easily killed 8+ of them. But even then and the many loses the hobbit took towards the middle and end of the game, Evil really is in the minority here so it’s hard for me to imagine a play of this scenario where Good wouldn’t win. Since that is likely the historical result and since Good did take a lot of casualties most turns after shooting became less effective, it didn’t bother me too much and I still find it to be a relatively fun scenario where I wouldn’t really change things. I’d rate it an enjoyable 3 out of 5 stars.