Wednesday 16 March 2022 – Boromir has gone into the north to Imladris. Meanwhile, Gondor strives to ward off Sauron’s attacks, which increase in intensity and vigour with every day. As another assault is launched, the armies of Mordor split their forces, some continuing to hold portions of Osgiliath and preventing Denethor’s forces from recapturing the city while others march north to the crossings Cair Andros, an island in the Anduin. The only major crossing over the Great River other than Osgiliath, Cair Andros is an old fortification, built in years long past, and once consisted of two stone keeps and a strong stone ring-wall. Centuries of warfare and decay have eroded this fortress, and though the Stewards of Gondor have always taken the defence of Cair Andros seriously, the long years of Gondor’s decline have taken their troll here as they have everywhere. Now, Cair Andros’s walls have fallen, and one of the keeps has also collapsed. Only the impressive natural barriers and the remaining fortress offer the crossing point any chance of enduring beneath Sauron’s might.
This scenario is found in the Siege of Gondor (2003) supplement, scenario number 2. It is the second of a 6-part campaign covering events concerning the Siege of Gondor.
Participants
Good (23 models; point value: 340 pts) | Evil (76 models; point value: 762) |
Faramir, Captain of Gondor | 2 Orc Shamans |
Damrod, Captain of the Rangers | 2 Orc Captains |
4 Rangers of Gondor | 24 Morannon Orcs with Shield & Spear |
6 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Bow | 16 Orcs with Shield |
4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shield | 10 Orcs with Spear |
6 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Spear & Shield | 12 Orcs with Orc bow |
2 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Banner | 8 Orcs with Two-handed weapon |
2 Orcs with Banner |
Objectives
Five objective marker are placed on the board, one on the soath road, the palisade gate, the courtyard beyond the palisade, the ruins and the keep gate.
Once the Evil force has been reduced to half its original number, the game ends. Whoever controls the most objective marker wins the scenario. If the Good force is wiped out, the Evil player wins.
Special rules
The Siege of Gondor – Because Evil secured four out of five objective markers in the last scenario, Faramir and Damrod start this game with one less point of Might.
The game
The game is played on a 4′ x 4′ (120×120 cm) board. The area covered by the ruined keep counts as difficult terrain.
The Good player deploys his entire force anywhere on the board. The Evil player then deploys his entire force on the south side of the palisade and more than 6″ from the palisade wall.
Because Good has such a low model count and because Good has to deploy first, I deployed the forces evenly along the palisade walls. My opponent kind of broke this scenario by deploying all his units on one side, causing half of my force to be too far away to stop the siege.
In the first turn of shooting, two Orc archers and one Morannon Orc with shield & spear die, but so does one Ranger. Not a bad round of shooting for Good, but unfortunately the Evil forces will very soon already be upon the walls, in much greater numbers than the forces of Good can withstand.
Evil Priority in turn 2 and the ladders are almost raised. Shooting is really effective for Evil, one Ranger and one Warrior of Minas Tirith with bow get slain. Meanwhile, Good shooting is poor and doesn’t kill.
Evil Priority once again in turn 3. Most ladders are raised and the Good side is too low on numbers to contest them, there is enough space for the ladders to just barge in between the empty spaces. The low mobility on the walls make the fights go in Evil’s favour, though I realize now that the fire step on the palisades should have been 2″, while with the GW kit used here it’s only about 1″. So I should have been able to make the fights go a little bit more even if the terrain was as specified. In the combat,
In the combat Evil takes no losses while Good loses 3 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shield (including 2 with Spear).
Evil Priority again. Good is overrun.
Faramir holds his own over the following turns. He does go to 1 Might (started with just 2 due to campaign effects), but kills 3 Morannon Orcs over subsequent turns.
Behind the fort, the forces from the left palisade wall can somewhat contest the orcs on the ground, though they are outnumbered and multiple rounds of shooting do absolutely nothing.
A couple of turns later, the forces of Good are pretty much decimated, they are no match for the large numbers of strong S4 D6 Morannon Orcs, all armed with spears. With just a mightless Faramir and 5 soldiers left, I surrendered against 63 Orcs and 2 Orc Captains. Evil victory.
Aftermath
The Evil side wins the scenario and controls 5 of the 5 objective markers, which means in the next scenario Evil may deploy anywhere on the board but no closer than 6″ to the main keep. This instead of deploying within 18″ of the southern board edge, effectively giving the forces of Evil equal to or more than 12″ extra movement.
Post-game thoughts
This was not a fun game for me, at all. From turn 3 onwards I knew I was going to lose hard. Evil outnumbers Good 76 to 23 models and they have the advantage of deploying when Good is already fully deployed, which my opponent made excellent use of. And because of the campaign bonus I lost 2 of my 4 Might points. If Evil spread out more, as I’m sure the designers of this scenario intended, it might have been a bit more of an even fight, but even then I don’t really see how I could have won. With just 12″ between the Evil starting board edge and the palisade walls, there is not a whole lot of shooting, which is the only thing the Good forces here (theoretically) are superior in, though against 12 Orc archers and coupled with some really poor dice rolling, even that didn’t really work out after the first turn.
I think a bit more troops for Good or less troops for Evil would have made for a better and more balanced scenario. Maybe create a bit more distance between Evil’s starting positions and the walls to allow for more Good repositioning and shooting. Or give Evil an incentive to not drop all their troops in one spot. Maybe I am missing something, but as it stands I feel this was not a very balanced scenario and I have no interest in replaying it, so I’d rate it a 2/5 stars.
With Sauron’s forces annihilating the resistance at Cair Andros, the orcs have taken a foothold there. The forces of Gondor are forced to retreat further and Evil can continue their push into Gondor territory in the next scenario in the campaign.