Totengräber's Workpläce

Over the long weekend, I met up with some old friends to play some War of the Ring and show John whatthe game is all about. Tim had come down from Chi-town and JR had some time off from his chef job. We had agreed ahead of time to play 1,000 points; Elves versus their combined forces of Easterlings and Goblins. Since we were trying to show John the rules, we went with a ‘pitched battle’ scenario rather than confusing things with the scenarios from the book. Here is what I recall of their lists:

JR:

• 2x Goblins w/Bows
• 4x Goblins w/Shields, Drummer, and Durburz (the Goblin King?)
• Cave Troll
• 3x Wargs

Tim:

• 3x Easterling Kataphracts
• 2x Easterlings w/Bows
• 4x Easterlings w/Shields
• Khamul, the Easterling

Me:

• 3x High Elf Regiment
• 2x High Elf Archer Regiment
• 3x High Elf Cohort
• 3x Gildor’s Household
• Ent
• Elladan
• Elrohir
• Legolas

I believe I won priority and I had them deploy first, which allowed them to also go first. They deployed with the Easterling Kataphracts on the far right followed by the Easterling Archers and then the Easterling Infantry (with Khamul). JR deployed his goblins starting to the left of the Easterlings with his big block of Goblins (with Durburz) followed by the Cave Troll, the Goblin Archers and the Wargs. I deployed Gildor’s Household opposite the Easterling Kataphracts, the Cohort (with Elladan) across from the Easterling block infantry, the Ent across from the Easterling Archers, the HE Regiment (with Elrohir) across from the Goblins with Shields and the HE Archers (with Legolas) on the far right side.

As usual, I don’t remember exact turn sequence and what happened, so I’ll summarize. JR moved his Goblin Archers into the woods for the extra defense. I moved Gildor’s Household into some woods for the same. Gildor gave his unit +1 Shoot via magic and then cast the spell to push back the Easterling cavalry back a few inches. The Wargs attempted to get close enough to the HE Archers to charge, but all died in the Shooting phase thanks to Legolas and all the shooting. Elladan was killed via Black Dart and Elrohir via a Heroic Duel with Durburz. Over the course of the game, the Elves failed about four Terror tests either through close combat or through charges. One critical failure was when the Easterling soldiers charged from the front and the Cave Troll from the flank. I rolled poorly for the Terror test with the Troll and thus, my Fight became 0. This caused me to loose way too many spearmen. The Eastrling Cavalry tried charging Gildor’s Household in the woods and managed to keep killing one or two Elves, forcing them out of the forest only to reenter it next turn and receive another charge. My rolls on magic never seemed to work out very well, so those actions were wasted for the most part.

In the end, Durburz and his formation were killed off by Legolas and the HE Archers and the HE Cohort were destroyed in the combat with the Easterlings. Gildor’s Household held out in the forest and the HE Regiment lasted until the end with a company or two left. Legolas and the HE Archers survived as well with very few casualties. I lost the Ent as well; at least he made it into combat, though. The Easterlings lost a company from their Shield unit and they lost a few from the Archer unit as well, but Tim never lost a single cavalry model.

I am really liking this game a lot. The more I play, the more I enjoy it. We found a rule or two we’d messed up in that game, so next time will be even more “correct” and probably more fun. It was nice playing WotR with folks who don’t argue about every nuance of every rule. I’m even thinking about getting a Mordor army so I can have two armies for “demos”.