Saturday 8 May 2021 – Preceding the Battle of Bywater, only one conflict of any scale is recorded in the Shire, that of Greenfields. The bold and overconfident Orc chieftain Golfimbul led a large party of Warg Riders through the patrolling Rangers and into the green lands beyond. Though he lost many of his followers to the deadly skill of the Dúnedain, Golfimbul was poised to pillage and plunder much of the northern counties of the Shire. It was on the edge of the small village of Greenfields where he was to be stopped. An unusually large and strong Hobbit named Bandobras Took roused the Hobbitry and led them against the Orcs. When Bandobras and Golfimbul met in battle, the latter was roundly defeated, his head struck clean off by Bullroarer!
This scenario is found in the Scouring of the Shire (2004) supplement, scenario number 9. It is not part of a campaign, as it is a stand-alone scenario part of the appendix.
Participants
Good (20 models) | Evil (13 models) |
Bandobras Took (on Horse) | Golfimbul (on Warg) |
3 Rangers of the North | 6 Warg Riders with shield and throwing spears |
8 Hobbit Militia | 6 Warg Riders with Orc bow |
4 Hobbit Archers | |
4 Hobbit Shirrifs |

Objectives
The Good player wins when the Evil force is reduced to less than 25% of its starting numbers (3 or less).
The Evil player wins when the Good force has been reduced to less than 25% of its starting numbers (4 or less). If both sides meet their objectives in the same turn, the first side to kill the most expensive participating enemy Hero in the opposing starting force (or make him flee the battlefield) wins the game.

Special rules
Surprise Volley – After both sides have deployed, but before the game begins, each Ranger of the North may take a free shot, resolved as per the normal shooting rules.
We Shall Not Be Seen – The Rangers may never voluntarily move beyond the tree line (i.e., more than 12″ from the Eriador board edge). If they find themselves beyond this limit they must move back to the tree line as swiftly as possible.

The game
The game is played on a 4′ x 2′ (120×60 cm) board. The area from the south of the board (Eriador board edge) till the tree line (Ranger territory) is considered difficult terrain.

The Good player deploys Bandobras and the Hobbits within 12″ of the Greenfields board edge. The Evil player then deploys Golfimbul and 8 Warg Riders (of his choise) between 12″ and 24″ away from the Eriador board edge. After this has been done, he deploys his remaining Warg Riders within 3″ of the Eriador board edge. Finally, the Good player deploys the Rangers of the North within 12″ of the Eriador board edge, provided that they are not within 6″ of an Evil model.
I’ve deployed the Rangers of the North maximally towards the town of Greenfields. With their bow range they can shoot up until where the Hobbits are deployed. Their free shot before the game starts lands no casualties. The hobbits then marginally move forward to get as close to the Rangers as possible, while staying out of Warg charging range. The 4 hobbit archers stay atop the houses. Golfimbul’s wargs move half their movement to be able to throw spears and shoot arrows and allow them to charge in the subsequent turn. The wargs inside the forest move up, but only 2.5″ since the forest is considered difficult terrain and cavalry movement is then quartered.

In the first shooting phase, most shots fail, but a Ranger does manage to shoot a Warg under a Warg Rider. On the Evil side, a Warg Rider archer manages to kill a Hobbit archer.
Evil wins Priority and uses this to charge the Hobbits. A shirriff and militia hobbit get skewered by throwing spears. Meanwhile, the Wargs inside the forest travel slowly along. A ranger shoots the Warg under one of them. The combat phase is a huge slaughter. One hobbit shirriff and 5 hobbit militia are slain, versus only 1 Warg rider and 1 Warg.

Good gets Priority in the next turn. A hobbit archer kills a fallen Orc, but no other casualties are made. The combat phase is another disaster for Good, despite the Wargs not having their cavalry bonuses this turn. Two militia and one hobbit shirriff is slain. Meanwhile, Bullroarer heroically rolls two 1’s and is immediately slain by Golfimbul. Good is now down to just 1 shirriff, 3 hobbit archers and the 3 Rangers of the North. An Evil victory is imminent.

A hobbit archer kills a Warg, but an orc archer retaliates and shoots down a Hobbit archer. The single shirriff is obviously killed.

In the final turn the Hobbit archer finally manages to kill a Warg rider, but he gets shot to death by another Orc archer. The final hobbit archer is slain in combat, meaning the hobbits have entirely been wiped out. In the forest two of the Rangers manage to kill two Warg rider, but this deed doesn’t seem so heroic now that all the hobbits they tried to protect are annihilated.


Aftermath
Evil wins the game, easily. 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 disappointing and lopsided game. There was hardly any interesting decision to be made. I did screw up not having Bullroarer Heroic Move in the second turn, but given that Good had Priority in all subsequent turns and they still performed atrociously, I think it would have only delayed the inevitable.
The Rangers not being allowed to move away from the forest does make thematic sense to some extent, but would they really let the Hobbits get decimated and do nothing? They could easily improve the odds of survival if they came out of the woods and helped the Hobbits. The scenario suggests you could swap the forces and give both sides 175 points to spend on troops. The three most expensive Good models will then take the role of the Rangers. That means that the drawback of these models not leaving the forest should be balanced by giving them a free shot before the game starts (and a few Evil troops deploying on the other side of the board), since the objective of both sides are the same. I do not think that is a good trade-off. I also think the scenario would be much more interesting if the Rangers fought side by side with the Hobbits.
The Rangers only had their free single shoot and then maybe one or two turns with shooting. They also stalled the final 4 Warg Riders, but the difficult terrain did that more than the Rangers. Their role in this battle was negligible which seems a shame since it would have given the Hobbits a fighting chance if they helped out.
I do think the Good side rolled poorly and Evil rolled pretty well with their shooting and throwing spears, but even then I don’t really see how Good could win unless by being really lucky with their dice rolls. Or maybe I’m simply missing something?
This scenario has been slightly revised in the Scouring of the Shire (2019) supplement, where once a leader is slain the force counts as Broken. That would make the game more interesting since the Bullroarer vs Golfimbul battle would become much more meaningful. Although that doesn’t solve the other problems I have with this scenario.
All in all, this was probably the most disappointing MESBG scenario I’ve played to date. It didn’t capture how I imagined this battle to be at all and was just generally unsatisfying. I’d rate it a poor 1 out of 5 stars.
