Games Workshop has published two scenarios of this name, one in the now-ancient The Two Towers rulebook, and one in The Two Towers journeybook. Re-publication usually involves just minor modifications (sometimes inadvertent, I think) but not in this case. The former features a mounted squadron trying to rescue their countrymen from a burning farmhouse surrounded by Uruk-hai, while the latter has Dunlendings attempting to burn down a small Rohan village defended mostly by foot troops. Similar theme, but wildly different in terms of actual play.
Having just finally finished painting my Rohan civilians, this report covers a solo replay of the old TTT scenario. The civilian figures themselves are courtesy of the Wargames Foundry, since GW strangely enough doesn't make any. That probably explains one reason for their reworking the scenario.
So, the situation: six civilians are trapped in a burning house. They are too scared to move on their own and must be rescued by the horsemen and delivered to the starting edge. Rescuing three is a draw, more is a victory for Good and less a victory for Evil.
The forces are twelve Rohirrim versus twenty Uruk hai, ten pikeman and ten swordsmen. By incredible coincidence, these are exactly the troops that come with The Two Towers box set. Imagine that. Because there aren't any heroes, there's no Might either, so play should be very straightforward.
Putting some pressure on the Good side is the asphixiation rule, wherein each villager in the farmhouse has a 1/6 chance of dying each turn after turn 3. Since there are six figures to begin with, probability dictates one dying on turn 4. The horsemen definitely need to get moving.
(Click on any image to see an enlargement.)
The Evil force is split in two, with ten Uruks that must be deployed on the north edge and the other ten keeping the Rohirrim away from the farmhouse. Since pikemen can support swordsmen in combat, it makes sense to put five of each in both groups. The pikemen backups near the farmhouse are a bit hard to see in the picture, but they are there.
The horse lords deploy on the southern edge. The center has the axe- and swordsmen, surrounded by throwing spears, with bowmen on the outside flanks.
I worked too hard on the building to actually light it on fire, so use your imagination.
As always, Good automatically gets Priority on turn 1. The Uruks are well out of charge range. The bowmen on the flanks move half so as to be able to fire their missiles, while the others advance so as to be able to charge next turn while remaining out of the Uruks own charge range.
Evil brings up the relief force and slightly repositions the farmhouse troops so as to prevent the Rohirrim from getting through to the farmhouse next turn.
The Missile Fire phase sees two Uruks hit, but the arrows bounce off their tough armor.
Evil Priority on a 1-1 tie. The reinforcements continue to march to the house, while the defenders hunker down and prepare for a charge.
With a chance to strike with the charge bonus and a better than 50% chance of getting Priority next turn and so being able to repeat the feat, Good charges. The horses are just close enough to get around the edges of the Evil line and engage the supporting pikemen on the flanks. With that support gone, the now-unsupported flank swordsmen are also charged, as is the swordsman in the center due to there being just enough room for two horsemen to attack him.
The bowmen continue to move half speed so that they can fire, and despite the odds both bowmen on the right hit and kill their targets!
Combat is not so lucky for Rohan. Of the five defending Uruks, one is killed, one is knocked down, and three win their combats despite the charge bonus. The Uruks decide to aim for the horses rather than the men, both because they are easier to hit (4+ vs 5+) and because only horsemen can save the civilians. One horse is killed, and the horsemen is thrown -- he's the figure lying down on the left side of the second picture.
Casualties: Good 0, Evil 3
Evil Priority again, 5-3. That was an important roll, as this allows the Uruks to engage the Rohirrim without benefit of their charge bonus. They do so, with all but the bowmen (far out on the flanks) tied up in combat.
Good isn't allowed to fire into combat, so the bowmen move half and take potshots at the reinforcing Uruks, with no effect.
Combat sees the Uruks surprisingly losing one man, but still managing to kill one rider and two horses.
Casualties: Good 1, Evil 4
The smoke begins affecting the civilians this turn, but Good catches a break and no civilians die.
Good's luck continues as a 4-4 tie sends Priority back to the Rohirrim. By careful engagement of all the Uruk defenders, a horseman slips through the lines and picks up a civilian.
The combat rolls see the luck tide turning. Despite the charge bonus, three riders are lost and the Uruks take no casualties at all!
Casualties: Good 4, Evil 4
Old Pete dies of smoke inhalation. You can sort of see him in the back of the first image.
Then Evil gets Priority, 5-1. No finesse is required here; the Uruks just charge the nearest Rohan warrior.
Although the rider carrying the child survives, three other riders and a horse fall to the Evil onslaught, and again no Uruks at all are lost.
With only three horsemen left and four civilians to save for a Good win, it's pretty much game over at this point. But I decided to play on and see what happened.
Casualties: Good 7, Evil 4
Two more villagers die. With only three remaining, a Good win is now physically impossible. Disgusted, Good concedes.
What a slaughter! That didn't feel balanced at all.
Rohirrim in general have a pretty tough time against Uruk hai. The Uruks have a higher fight value and so will win tied combat rolls. Numbers and charge bonuses mean nothing when a Uruk rolls a '6' and automatically wins the battle. Although I didn't track the luck factor specifically, my impression is that that seemed to happen a disproportionate amount of the time during play.
And even if the Rohirrim win, they need a '6' to kill an Uruk swordsmen, who in return needs a 5+ to kill a Rohan warrior or a 4+ to kill his horse. For purposes of this scenario, the latter is still a mission kill.
And in this particular scenario Rohan is outnumbered 20-12.
Now I will admit that I overlooked one possibly important factor in Rohan's favor. Namely, all of the riders have bows, not just the models actually brandishing them. But even if the whole 12-figure squadron fires, aiming for the lesser-armored pikemen, they can only expect to kill 1.5 figures a turn -- far too few to allow four civilians to be saved before they succumb to the fire.
As a check on my assessment, I added up the points values of the forces. The attackers have 164 points, the defenders 200. Hmm. Either the points are off, of the attackers should have an uphill battle even ignoring the scenario-imposed victory conditions.
So what's the solution? I've got a couple of ideas: