Fog the Barrow Downs recreates the chapter of that name from the Fellowship of the Ring book. Peter Jackson left it out of his movie, so if it doesn't sound familiar, that's why. The gist is that the hobbits leave the safety of the house of Tom Bombadil to continue their journey to Bree, but the evil barrow wights, spirits of the old Kingdom of Angmar, try to capture them for sacrifice.
My previous run throughs of this scenario have seen Evil having a very hard time winning. That's not particularly true to the books, nor does it make for an interesting game. And although Games Workshop has published this scenario at least three times (in the Shadow and Flame supplement, The Fellowship of the Ring journey book, and Battle Games in Middle Earth magazine), none of the variations seem to address this imbalance.
In particular, the ideal Good strategy seems to be for the hobbits to rush a wight as quickly as possible, so that they can get him within spotting range and then begin calling for Tom Bombadil's help as quickly as possible. I don't think you have to be much of a Tolkien purist to find that grating, and it also makes for a silly game.
As a result, I play with the following rules modifications from the Shadow and Flame version:
Ho! Tom Bombadil! Rather than allowing Tom to be called at any point during movement, Tom can only be called at the very beginning of Good move phase, before rolling to see if paralyzed hobbits recover. (And it should be needless to say that paralyzed hobbits cannot call for Tom, but I'm saying it just in case....)
The Barrow. In addition to the S&F rules, hobbits may not voluntarily enter barrows until a hobbit has been forced to enter a barrow involuntarily (either through being dragged by a wight, or retreating from combat). While the fog rules are in effect, the hobbits' lines of sight are blocked by barrow doorways.
An Uncanny Place. The hobbits have no desire to linger in the downs. Until he sees a wight, a hobbit under Good control must end his move closer to either another hobbit or the eastern (Bree) board edge than he was at the start of that turn. Hobbits moved by the Evil player (rolling a '1' before their move) or that have seen a wight may be moved freely.
Goldberry. The turn after Tom Bombadil is summoned, Goldberry may be summoned using the same rules.
Unarmed. The hobbits are unarmed in this scenario.
The first three rules are designed to allow the wights to ambush the hobbits rather than the other way around. The Goldberry rule is based on the other scenario versions, and the Unarmed rule is a simple common sense.
Evil still has a pretty rough time here. He needs to sacrifice either Frodo or any two other hobbits to win; sacrifice happens by paralyzing a hobbit (either through combat or using a wight's spell), dragging him back to a barrow, and rolling 4+. While this is happening, the hobbits can roll to unparalyze themselves each turn (needing a 6); alternately, every turn Tom and Goldberry can each restore a hobbit within 12" back to his full at-start potential.
Good wins by exiting three hobbits off the east edge of the map.
(Click on any image to see an enlargement.)
The west edge (background) of the battlefield is the eaves of the Old Forest, where Tom Bombadil lives. The hobbits, heading for Bree (foreground edge), have left the forest and are traveling through the fog-covered downs, their vision restricted to 6" distance. Near each corner is a barrow with an Evil wight inside.
The hobbits must start 6" apart, so they set up in diamond formation so as to keep together as closely as possible. Pippin is on your left, Merry your right, Frodo in the foreground, and Sam at the back.
I have no smoke machine, so you'll just have to imagine the fog.
As usual, Good automatically gets Priority on turn 1. Until Tom Bombadil arrives, each hobbit rolls when moving, and on dr 1 he is instead moved by the Evil player. But all the hobbits pass their rolls, and move their not-so-speedy 4" towards the eastern edge. The wights, sensing the presence of the living, leave their barrows, but remain out of spotting distance (taking into account possible Good Priority next turn). Unfortunately, that keeps the wights too far away to use their spells, too.
Evil Priority. The wights behind the hobbits move up the sides of the battlefield. The wights in front of the hobbits converge to help each other keep the hobbits from passing. All continue to stay out of sight.
In the Good turn, Frodo moves first but rolls a '1'! The wights summon him forward, away from the others, while the others pass their roll and move to help Frodo.
Evil Priority again. The wights decide that it's time to pounce. One goes for Sam, using in Paralyze spell, and rolls '5'. Success! Sam decides to resist. The rules say that you decide how many Will points to use, roll that many dice, and try to equal or exceed the spell's roll. Sam's only got two Will points, so you might think he needs to conserve them (the Wights can cast their spell at least five times each). But the hobbits have the Resistance to Magic ability, which essentially gives them a free Will point to resist when they have no Will of their own. Given that, there's no reason for Sam to conserve his Will, so he uses both his Will points and does resist the spell. He's now spotted a wight.
Next, a different wight tries to paralyze Frodo. Frodo has three Will points, but using the same logic as Sam, feels he might as well use them all and resists. A third wight tries the same thing, and this time Frodo fails his resistance and is paralyzed!
The fourth wight is still too far away (>6") to cast spells.
Sam calls for Tom's help, but Tom fail to respond.
Good sees if Frodo wakes up and immediately rolls the needed 6. He rises and moves toward the others for protection. Sam and Merry move to meet him, but Pippin rolls a 1 and Evil sends him off toward the fourth wight.
Priority now shifts back to Good as the battle begins in earnest. Sam, Frodo, and Pippin are all eligible to call for Tom, but roll dismally (they need a 6, but get 2, 2, and 1). The three then move east to exit, while Merry rolls a '1' and heads backwards towards the wights behind him. At least now he's can call Tom, too.
Frodo and Pippin are too far away for the wights to engage in combat, but Sam and Merry are vulnerable. While moving in to fight them, the wights try to paralyze Merry, Frodo and Pippin for good measure, and Pippin succumbs.
Incredibly, Merry wins his combat despite being unarmed, as does Sam through the use of his Might point. The wights prove too tough to wound, though.
Good Priority. All the hobbits can call Tom (though Pippin, asleep, may not roll), and this time they succeed. However, Pippin fails to wake up. The other hobbits dash east.
The wights try to paralyze the remaining three hobbits but all the spells fail. They move to engage them in combat but the hobbits all get away without a scratch. A frustrating turn for Evil.
Good Priority again. The hobbits call Goldberry and she, too, answers the summons. Pippin remains in dreamland while the others head for the eastern edge.
Evil's luck has shifted, though. While Frodo resists the spells of the wights, Merry and Sam go down. Three of the wights begin dragging off the slumberers -- let Frodo exit by himself if he wants -- while one wight goes to distract Bombadil. Although Tom can't be hurt or even engaged, he still must move around the wight's control zone if he's going to save the hobbits.
Good Priority, for the fourth turn in row. Merry wakes up, escapes from the wight, and heads east. Frodo, too, heads for the edge. Bombadil moves within 12" of Pippin and restores him to full health.
The wights try to Paralyze Merry and Pippin again, and down Merry goes. Enraged, a wight moves to engage Pippin but the brave hobbit wins his combat despite being bare-handed! Meanwhile, paralyzed Sam is getting dragged perilously close to a barrow.
Evil Priority. Sam is pulled into a barrow (though he's shown on top for convenience, since my barrow models are solid), ready for sacrifice next turn, while another wight almost has Merry inside another. The other two wights move to interfere with Tom and Goldberry as best they can.
Frodo exits the map, and Pippin runs towards the edge to join him. Tom moves to save Sam (not quite in Tom's 12" spell range), while Goldberry goes to help Merry.
Evil Priority. With a hideous cackle, the wight tries to sacrifice Sam, and, needing a 4-6, rolls a 3. Fooey. Merry is dragged into the other barrow, while the remaining two wights posture futilely at Tom.
Evil has essentially lost at this point, as Tom and Goldberry can each protect a hobbit from here on out, and with Frodo already safe there is hence no way that the wights can sacrifice two hobbits. But let's play on and see Merry's fate, just for the fun of it.
Evil Priority. Trying to upstage the other wight, Merry's captor cackles even more hideously ... and rolls a 2. Pippin escapes east, Yelling a Nelson Muntz "HAH-ha!". Goldberry saves Merry, and Sam leaves the barrow under the aegis of Tom's spell. Evil concedes.
I'm not so sure even with changes that this is a competitive scenario. In this instance Evil may have alerted the hobbits a turn too early, and luck may have favored Good. But calling Tom seems relatively easy, and once he and Goldberry are in range, they can make two hobbits per turn practically immune from the wights. Which leaves Evil having to get both of the other two hobbits, an iffy proposition, given the dierolling for the hobbits waking up and for the sacrifice itself.
It might be worth trying this again without Goldberry, to see if that helps.
Still, I love the atmosphere of this scenario, as well as the models and the terrain. It'll certainly come out on the table again at some point.