Thursday 25 March 2021 – By 1903, the Shire had been established for more than 300 years, and some of the Periannath were starting to grow restless. Though life in the Shire was good, and its people prosperous, for some the chance of finding new lands was too much of a lure. Though Eriador was relatively stable, some areas, such as the hills of Evendim, were not safe for the unwary to venture into. It was into this region that Halfast and his companions strayed, heedless of the warnings given to them by the Rangers who guarded the area. For two days, nothing untoward occurred, but on the third day a mist arose, swallowing all trace of Halfast and his companions…
This scenario is found in the Scouring of the Shire (2004) supplement, scenario number 8. It is not part of a campaign, as it is a stand-alone scenario part of the appendix.
Participants
| Good (13 models) | Evil (8 models) |
| 1 Hobbit Shirrif (Halfast Bracegirdle) | 4 Barrow-wights |
| 4 Hobbit Archers | 4 White Wargs |
| 8 Hobbit Militia |
Objectives
The Good player wins by moving at least 3 Hobbits off the board from any edge. The Evil player wins if he can sacrifice, disembowel, eat or otherwise violently kill enough Hobbits to prevent the Good player from achieving his victory. If the Good player does not meet his objectives, but all four Barrow-wights are slain, the game is a draw.
Special rules
Surprise Attack – For this scenario the Evil player has Priority in the first turn.
Swirling Mists – Models may not charge, shoot at, or target other models with magical powers unless they are within 6″ of their target. As the game goes on, there is a chance the mist will rise. If the Priority roll is ever drawn on the roll of 5 or 6, the fog rises and visibility returns to normal.
The Hunt – The Wargs are always controlled by the player with Priority and may move, charge and fight according to the wishes of the player with Priority. Wargs do not take Courage tests in this scenario.
The Sacrifice – If a Barrow-wight spends a Fight phase in base contact with a Paralysed Hobbit without doing anything else, it sacrifices the Hobbit. Remove the Hobbit from play as a casualty – the Barrow-wight gains one point of Will. Barrow-wights do not take Courage tests in this scenario.
The game
The game is played on a 4′ x 4′ (120×120 cm) board.
First the Good models are deployed in the centre of the the board on the highest hill, within 6 inch from the centre. The Barrow-wights are placed up to 6 inch from each board edge and the Wargs are placed in each corner.
The Barrow-wights move in towards the hill and so do the wargs. Good now has an important choice to make: stay on the hill together or spread out in all directions to try and rush towards the board edges. By staying on the hill the hobbits would have more strength in numbers and it would give them more time, creating more turns in which they could have priority where they could let the wargs do the dirty work for them. On the other hand, by spreading out and being speedy there could be less time for the Barrow-wights to catch up, perhaps giving Good enough time to sneak 3 hobbits of the board and win the scenario.
Good decides to let the hobbits run in all directions, thinking they might regroup later after escaping from the Barrow-wights. From a real world point of view running wildly into the mist isn’t perhaps the greatest choice, but from a gameplay perspective this does seem to me a winning strategy. And perhaps it’s easier to go into the unknown than to wait for an inevitable ghostly visit.
In the second turn Good gets Priority, allowing them to redirect the Wargs towards the Barrow-wights. All wights use 2 Will to try and Paralyse a Hobbit, but they get resisted every time (all hobbits have the Resistant to Magic special rule) or in one instance the spell wasn’t successfully cast. There is one combat, with superior fighting and slaying power the wight charges two hobbits, but loses the duel roll.
In the third turn Good again gets Priority, meaning 3 of the wargs charge 3 of the Barrow-wights, allowing the hobbits to sneak by undetected. The fourth wight again uses 2 Will to cast a Paralyse but again gets resisted, those pesky hobbits! He charges a single hobbit, wins the fight, but fails to wound (needing a 4, but rolling a 3). In the wight vs warg fights rolling is poor, two wargs win, one wight wins, one warg manages to wound a Barrow-wight and then realizes eating ghostly essence isn’t very nourishing.
He probably signals the other wargs that perhaps they should hunt for some fresh meat, which happens in the next turn when Evil regains priority. For a moment there I thought this would be a very one-sided scenario, but with Evil controlling the wargs again and the slow movement of the hobbits, the odds are once again undetermined. One wight spends his last Will to try to paralyse but this fails. Another fails as well. A third wight is successful and is then able to move in to sacrifice the hobbit and regain one Will in the process. The mists hurt the wights and wargs because they can’t charge everyone they’d have wanted to charge.
Nevertheless, it is clear who are the better fighters. Three hobbits get eaten and another hobbit gets slain by a wight. That’s 5 hobbits down in turn! Another turn like this and Good will almost certainly lose the game. The next Priority roll will therefore be of the utmost importance.
Anticipation is high, both sides roll a 6! That means the mists clear and Good regains Priority. This makes a Good victory almost a certainty, as the wargs once again turn on the Barrow-wights. Irritated by this betrayal, one wight kills a warg. In the other fights there are no casualties.
Then, Evil regains priority and the battle is not yet over. One hobbit makes it safely off the board, but a lot of the other hobbits are drawn into fights. No wounds are taken, meaning the next Priority roll will be all deciding…
Good wins Priority and thus wins the game, as he is now able to move another 4 hobbits off the board.
Aftermath
Good wins the game, as 5 hobbits have made it off the board, 2 more than required. 5 hobbits did get murdered or eaten, so the adventures of Halfast were not without tribulations. Since this is a standalone scenario part of the Appendix, the outcome doesn’t affect any future scenarios.
Post-game thoughts
This was a very swingy game, almost completely determined by the Priority rolls. The Payalyse spell of the Barrow-wights was extremely underwhelming, 16 Will points were spend and only 1 Paralyse spell was successful. I don’t think it’s just due to bad rolling, I think the Resistance to Magic of the hobbits is just really strong against this. I liked how this scenario was able to completely change the expected winner turn after turn, though I do think this was all due to the roll of the Priority dice. I feel like the only meaningful decision the Good player had to make was right at the start and I think I made the right call by spreading the hobbits out.
The alternative, staying on the hill might also be viable, I think the game would just become a whole lot less interesting as you’ll probably have a lot of turns where the hobbits don’t do anything and it’s just wargs sometimes charging wights and sometimes not. From a narrative perspective this constantly switching sides doesn’t seem very satisfying to me (similar to the original Gollum profile that would also attack Frodo one turn, then help him the other turn, etc.). A change of heart is fine and interesting, but given that these were very hungry wargs, I just don’t really understand why they would one turn fight with the wights against the hobbits and then turn on the wights, then change sides, then change back again. Though I do understand why this is needed from a gameplay / balancing perspective. The scenario is short enough to not outstay its welcome and the multitude of terrain pieces did break up the line of sight and thus make it all a bit more interesting. All in all it was a very quick and fun scenario, that also works well solo, I’d rate it an enjoyable 4 out of 5 stars.