Sunday 1 November 2020 – A small group of Riders of Rohan chase the remains of a Warg Riders raiding force northwards, to Fangorn forest. The Orcs come to a halt on the outskirts of the wood and the Rohirrim, seeing their chance, spur forward to run down the foul creatures. As they draw close however, a warband of Uruk-hai emerge from the cover of the wood and the Rohirrim realise that they have been led into a trap! Carried by Gwaihir far above the gathering crowd, Radagast the Brown spies the coming battle and, landing in Fangorn, seeks out Treebeard. Upon hearing of the presence of Orcs within his forest, Treebeard requires little persuasion to join Radagast in aiding the Rohirrim in their plight.
This scenario is found in the Shadow & Flame supplement, scenario number 7. It is not part of a campaign, as it is a stand-alone scenario part of the appendix.
Participants
| Good (20 models) | Evil (33 models) |
| Radagast the Brown | 2 Uruk-hai Shaman |
| Gwaihir | 2 Uruk-hai Captain |
| Treebeard | 12 Uruk-hai with shields |
| 1 Captain of Rohan (mounted) | 4 Uruk-hai with crossbow |
| 8 Riders of Rohan | 5 Uruk-hai Berserker |
| 8 Riders of Rohan with throwing spears | 4 Warg Riders with throwing spears and shield |
| 4 Warg Riders with orc bow |
Objectives
The side that, at the end of any turn, is reduced to half its initial number of models loses the game. If both sides are brought to half strength during the same turn, the game is a draw.
Special rules
There are no special rules in this scenario.
The game
The game is played on a 6′ x 4′ (180×120 cm) board. This was clarified in the FAQ (the printed map shows the correct size, but in ‘Layout’ it wrongly stated 4’x4′).
First the Warg Riders are depolyed anywhere that is not the deployment zone of Radagast & co, the Riders of Rohan and the Uruk-hai. Radagast, Gwaihir and Treebeard are placed along the Fangorn board edge. The Riders of Rohan are deployed within 24 inch of the opposing board edge, but at least 12 inch away from it. The Uruk-hai are then deployed within 12 inch of that board edge.
I reasoned that I would place the Warg Riders as close to the Rohirrim as possible, since they are outnumbered by the Rohirrim and surrounded on the other side by big scary creatures such as Radagast, Gwaihir and Treebeard. This would give the Uruk-hai more time to catch up. The Riders of Rohan I then placed as close as possible to the Uruk-hai, thinking I would be able to charge them first with cavalry bonuses before the Warg riders nullify these extras. The Uruk-hai I then placed as far from the Rohirrim as possible, so that they couldn’t be immediately charged in the first turn where Good would have Priority due to this being a narrative scenario.
In the first turn, Radagast uses a free Will point to try and cast Terrifying Aura, requiring a 2+. He rolls a 1. No big deal but still rather typical. The two Shamans both cast a channeled Fury with two Will points. The left one succeeds and the right one fails (two 2’s, requiring a 3+).
The Riders of Rohan move forward, just enough so that they could charge the Uruks next turn, without being charged themselves. As a result they can all fire their bows. Only 1 Uruk is killed in this way. Meanwhile, the Warg Riders move up full speed and 2 horses are shot by the Uruk-hai crossbowmen.
Turn 2 and Good gets Priority again. Knowing the devastation a cavalry charge can bring, both Uruk-hai Captains call a Heroic Move. So the Rohan Captain also calls a Heroic move. Evil wins the roll-off, meaning most Rohan Riders get charged without being able to use their cavalry momentum. Only about 3 Rohan Riders are able to get their Charge bonus.
This is a horrible turn for Good, as the Uruk-hai are the much superior fighters now that the Rohan cavalry is negated and they are mostly trapped and surrounded. 9 Good models die, versus only 3 Evil ones. This means that Evil only needs to kill 1 more model to win, whereas Good still has to kill 13 Evil models.
Evil gets Priority in the third turn, which is the final nail in the coffin for Good. Even if the Rohan Captain were to get his Heroic Move off, the Riders are too spread out and the number of Uruks are too great. 5 Good models die this turn, versus no Evil models, making this a landslide victory for Evil.
Rematch
This was probably the quickest game of MESBG I’ve every played (minus set-up time) and it was awful. I decided going after the Uruks first was likely a huge mistake, so I wanted to try using different tactics and replayed the game. This time, I put the Rohan cavalry as far away from the Uruks as possible, in hopes of quickly reaching Fangorn where they could get help from Radagast and his friends.
In response, the Uruks also deployed as close to the Rohirrim as allowed.
In the first turn, Good has Priority and they decide to make full use of their superior numbers, surrounding most of the Warg Riders. Doing this felt right as narratively speaking the Warg Riders were what they were hunting. I did wonder if, as the Evil player, I should have placed the Warg Riders further up, but that would bring them closer to Radagast and co and perhaps their main use is simply to stall the Riders of Rohan as long as possible.
This charge of the Rohirrim seems to have paid off, 6 Warg Riders are killed (1 of these has a Warg remaining), versus only 1 Rider of Rohan.
In the second turn Evil gets Priority. Both Uruk-hai Captains call a Heroic March, to which the Rohan Captain responds with a Heroic Move, allowing him and his closest Riders to ride as far away as possible from the Uruk-hai.
The Heroic March extends the Uruk movement just enough to allow for a lot of charges, once again negating the Rohirrim cavalry charge bonuses. Two horses are shot down by the Uruk-hai crossbowmen. In the combat, 1 Warg, 1 Uruk and 2 Riders of Rohan are slain.
In the third turn, Good gets Priority. Both Uruk-hai Captains spend their last Might point and call a Heroic Move. There is no point for the Rohan Captain to counter, and this once again results in a swarming of the Rohirrim. [NOTE: thanks to attention paying readers, I now realize this was a rule mistake on my part – you can’t use a Heroic March to charge. I think this may well have changed the outcome of this scenario. One day I want to replay this scenario to see how things would go differently.] The Rohan Captain and Riders realize they can’t stay idle and charge the Uruk-hai crossbowmen. 2 of the Uruks are killed by throwing spears in this way, which is a nice feat.
But, once again, the lack of cavalry bonuses are massively hurting the Riders of Rohan. 6 Riders of Rohan die, versus only 1 Uruk-hai. Evil is completely out of Might, but is it too late? Only 1 more Good models needs to die for Evil to win, whereas Good still needs to kill 7 Evil models.
In turn 4 Good once again gets Priority and thankfully they can’t be countered. The Riders of Rohan retreat to Fangorn, while Gwaihir flies in and charges Uruks. Good now makes sure they can’t end up in fights that would be unfavourable to them. Radagast gets in casting range of a Warg Rider and successfully casts a ‘Panic Steed’, removing 1 Warg from play. But when it is Evil’s turn to move, the only remaining Warg Rider uses a throwing spear to kill a Rider of Rohan, meaning Evil will win at the end of the turn, unless Good can get 7 kills in, in which case it would be a draw.
Maybe the Rohirrim shouldn’t have retreated but should have ridden into battle. My thinking was that by retreating there was at least still the possibility of a Good victory. By being in many fights a Draw seemed like the best possible outcome because it’s quite likely at least 1 more Good model would have died. And since the Uruk-hai are tough, even with the cavalry charge bonuses, it might have been tough to pull off 7 kills in one turn, even with Gwaihir helping out.
So, how does the mighty Gwaihir fare? The Windlord, Lord of the Great Eagles, King of all the Birds? With three dice, he rolls a 3 highest. He has to spend all his Might just to win the fight. Which nifty brutal power attack will he choose? None, as there seems to be no really good option to choose from in this particular fight. He kills 2 Uruks and somewhere else another Uruk is slain, but that’s not nearly enough to get a Draw. Evil wins the game.
Aftermath
Evil victory, two times. Because this is part of the Appendix of the Shadow & Flame supplement, there is no effect on future scenarios.
Post-game thoughts
I was really looking forward to playing this scenario. Radagast used to be my favourite Middle-earth character (this was pre-Hobbit films) and I really love the original model for him. I love the big creatures, I love Treebeard, I love Gwaihir. Combining them to kill some murderous Uruks at the edge of Fangorn seemed like a dream scenario for me.
Well, that didn’t go as I had hoped. I wasn’t even able to use Treebeard and Radagast had hardly done a thing (aside from the Panic Steed at the end). Gwaihir was underwhelming and also arrived in the action way too late. Gwaihir rolling bad is of course a luck based factor, but I do wonder why the designers chose a 6′ by 4′ board for this scenario. Even if the Rohirrim manage to make it to Fangorn this would only result in a lot of cowering and moving about. But maybe that is the point and would actually make for some tense gameplay. Based on my plays I’d say this scenario favours the Evil side, but I played the Heroic March wrong, which was the beginning of the end for the Rohirrim. Under the correct rules, Evil wouldn’t have been able to charge most Riders of Rohan when they did. This could have allowed them to move closer to Fangorn, where the help of Radagast and Treebeard could be put to good use.
I need to replay the scenario correctly to better be able to make a fair judgment. Another solution might be to reduce the board to 4′ by 4′, so that it is more likely that you actually get to use the fun stuff. Maybe the scenario could take place inside a dense forest, so that Radagast and friends can be at a bigger advantage and you can make use of their special rules. But then it would be quite a different scenario altogether, more in the likes of Battle Games in Middle-earth #79. I’d love to play that scenario at some point, but for now, after playing this scenario twice in a row, I’ve had my SBG fill for a little while. The excitement I had when setting up the scenario is in stark contrast with the disappointment and exhaustion I feel after having played through it twice. Not a fun way to end these Shadow & Flame Appendix scenario’s, but that may very well be my own fault.
On the other hand, the second play was more interesting, so if I had played like that from the start maybe I wouldn’t have been so disappointed. My rating would be 2/5 stars based on these plays, but I can imagine it being much better had the Rohirrim made it to Fangorn and Treebeard and Radagast would have seen more action.
