This scenario for Games Workshop's Hobbit Strategy Battle Game (ex-Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game) covers the Fellowship's fending off a Goblin attack during their travel through Moria.
GW has published numerous versions of this scene from The Fellowship of the Ring movie (and book, of course). Despite that choice, I ended up rolling my own, with these rules:
Evil Army. The Evil side has 24 Goblin warriors (8 bow, 8 spear, 8 sword+shield), 2 Goblin Captains, and a Cave Troll.
Surprise! 12 Goblin Warriors of the Evil player's choice begin the game in the doorway to the chamber.
They've Got A Cave Troll. The Cave Troll enters the game at the beginning of the Evil Movement phase of the first turn when the Priority roll is tied. (Since there is no Priority roll on turn 1 because the Good side always gets priority in scenarios, the Troll can't enter until Turn 2 at the earliest.) Such is the Cave Troll's fury that he can charge on the turn he enters.
Goblin Horde. At the end of each Evil Movement Phase, the Evil player rolls a die and may place that number of Warriors and/or Captains in the doorway to the chamber. The new models cannot move, shoot, or initiate combat until the following turn. Until the Cave Troll enters, dead Warriors (but not Captains) may be re-entered, but once the Cave Troll is on the board, dead models may no longer be recycled.
No Quarter. The game continues until one side or the other is entirely eliminated (this includes the Cave Troll for the Evil side).
Who's Who? If a Goblin bowman Shoots at a hobbit model and hits it, the actual model which is hit is determined randomly among all hobbits within 2" of the target, (including the target hobbit himself). For purposes of this rule, ignore hobbits which the bowman can't see due to terrain. Also, hobbits which could only be hit after "in the way" rolls are ignored unless the designated target requires "in the way" rolls, too. Once the target is determined, resolve any "in the way" and wounds normally against the randomly-chosen hobbit.
Victory. The Evil player wins by killing at least two Fellowship models. For victory purposes, Merry and Pippin each count as half a model. The Fellowship wins if Evil doesn't win.
My rationale for these rules changes is as follows:
Following the scene in the film, the Goblins should drain Fellowship resources until the Cave Troll enters and wreaks havoc. The Goblin Horde rule should support that "wearing down" part of the game, and They've Got a Cave Troll makes it uncertain how long that phase lasts. Is the Troll coming on next turn, or ten turns from now?
The No Quarter rule seems to make sense for this scenario based on what we see in the films. But it also addresses a pet peeve of mine in that I'm generally not a fan of time-limited scenarios. The illusion of reality is ruined for me when one side survives and wins only because the lunch whistles blows and everyone decides to stop fighting. With No Quarter, you'll know the game is ending when you're nearing it, because the Cave Troll has entered and now it's just a question of when the Evil Force will get wiped out. But you can't tell on turn 1 that you've only got nine more turns to go.
The Who's Who rule is to prevent the Goblins from purposefully targetting Merry and Pippin, who are by far the most vulnerable members of the Fellowship. In "real life" the Goblins wouldn't know that. So let's take away the ability of the Evil player to game the system.
Merry and Pippin's glass jaws are also reflected in my Victory Conditions. I don't understand Evil victory conditions like "kill 5 members of the Fellowship"; that just isn't going to happen. Killing two heroes seems about right: Gimli and Legolas, Gandalf and Sam. I discount Merry and Pippin a bit because winning just by killing the two of them just isn't anywhere near the same order of magnitude of difficulty.
I have some notes and pictures about the playing area elsewhere if you are curious.
Enough prelude. On with the game!
(Click on any image to see an enlargement.)
The Fellowship begin with Gimli atop the sarcophagus, Boromir, Aragorn, and Legolas out in front, and Gandalf hanging behind to protect the hobbits (with Blinding Light if nothing else).
Evil begins with four swordsmen, four spearmen, and four bowmen bursting through the doorway.
Good Priority.
Gandalf casts his Channeled Blinding Light spell (-1 Might and his 1 free Will), and the Fellowship await the onslaught.
The goblins advance but can't quite charge. The bowmen climb the walls to improve their Line of Sight to the crunchy non-tank characters of the Fellowship. The reinforcement die is a 2, so a captain (you can tell by the gold triangles on the base) and another bowman enter.
Shooting from both sides is mostly wild and none of the few hits inflict any wounds.
Evil Priority, 1-1
Aragorn uses his free Might to call a Heroic Move. All the Good models are within 6", so everyone can get the jump on Evil. Aragorn, Gimli, and Boromir charge to prevent the Goblins getting to the hobbits. Gandalf Sorcerously Blasts a Goblin (middle picture).
Because of the tied Priority Roll, the Cave Troll enters and can just charge Boromir to help out with his little Goblin buddies. Evil again gets a '2' for reinforcements, and another Captain and bowman enter.
Legolas uses his guaranteed bow shot on the Troll, but the hit fails to wound with a disappointing dieroll of '1'. Speaking of disappointing, the Goblin bows all miss.
Aragorn's combat see him losing the initial roll 5 vs 6, so he's forced to use a Might point from his store to win and luckily he then gets the kill.
Gimli wins easily against his Goblin.
Boromir blows the Horn of Gondor and Evil's Courage dieroll is '1,1', a spectacular fail. Boromir decides to use his three strikes on the Cave Troll; needing '5's, he rolls '3,4,6'. He decides to go ahead and burn three Might points, and the Troll falls dead!
I was really hoping for a Barge or a Rend somewhere in this battle report. I guess we don't get that.
Good Priority, 4-1.
Boromir, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas charge. Gandalf attempts a Sorcerous Blast but the incantation fails. The Goblins don't have much movement -- the warriors are locked in combat and the bowmen want to fire -- but the reinforcement dieroll sees 3 swordsmen and 2 bowmen enter the room.
The bowmen all aim at the center of the Blinding Light (i.e. at Gandalf) but they all miss.
Boromir blows his horn but the extra courage of the Goblin Captain makes the difference and the horn does not intimidate the Goblins. The Combat rolls are tied, and the Captain decided to spend a Might point to force Boromir to do the same. At which point I rolled for a tiebreaker for some reason (which was wrong, as Boromir should have won due to higher Fight Value) but I got to the right place in the end. Boromir succeeding in inflicting only one Wound on the Captain, which the Captain's Fate roll was unable to negate.
Gimli won his Combat handily and slew one of his opponents.
Legolas rolled '5,5' but his lone opponent got the '6' and Legolas was forced to spend a Might point to win the combat and kill his opponent.
Aragorn won his fight against the Captain, but his Wound rolls were a tragic '4,2,1' and so he used his free Might point to boost the '4' to a '5' and inflict one Wound. This Captain is no luckier than his mate and thus his Fate roll fails, too.
Good Priority, 6-3.
As with last turn, the Good front-line heroes charge, with Aragorn and Boromir hitting the Captains while Legolas and Gimli take on the grunts. Gandalf continues to fluff his Sorcerous Blast rolls.
In response, the Goblins swarm, with even some of the bowmen joining in to surround the the Good heroes. With a bit of luck and enough dice, maybe they can pull off an upset. The reinforcement roll sees 2 swordsmen and 2 spearmen enter the room. Only 2 spearmen remain as reinforcements.
The Goblin bowmen continue to shoot a storm of arrows and one succeeds in hitting Gandalf! But no Wound is inflicted; the arrow must have gone through his hat.
Boromir's horn again fails to intimidate the Goblins, and worse still his Combat roll is an awful '3,3,2'! Unfortunately, the Goblins roll and even worse '2,1,1' and so Boromir survives his encirclement. He succeeds in taking down the Captain, though the spearman lives to see another turn.
Gimli gets a passable '5,3,3' for his Combat roll, but his opponent scores the '6' and Gimli is forced to use a Might point to win, and, as it turns out, score the kill.
Legolas wins easily as his two opponents fluff their rolls, but his daggers cannot penetrate the thick Goblin armor.
Aragorn is potentially in trouble, taking on two regular Goblins plus a Captain while being surrounded, but he scores his '6' and drives his opponents back. His strike rolls are a tragic '3,1,1' and so those guys are still a threat next turn.
Evil Priority, 4-2.
Aragorn uses his free Might for a Heroic move, which is countered by a Might point from a Goblin Captain. Good wins the roll-off, and the Good heroes charge again. Gandalf charges a Goblin to protect Aragorn from being surrounded again.
The Goblins swarm, and the last two spearmen enter the room. The hobbits then move up to keep within 6" of Gandalf.
Five bowmen take aim at the hobbits (remember my Who's Who? rule). In a change of pace, two finally hit, and random determination picks one on Merry, one on Sam. Sam shrugs off the arrow, but Merry is wounded and muffs his Fate roll. Oh no, that's one of the Fellowship down! One and half more to go for Evil.
Aragorn takes on a Captain and 2 Goblins. He rolls his '6' and manages to slay the Captain.
Gandalf takes on two bowmen and rolls a mediocre '4' but the Goblins do no better so Gandalf's higher Fight gives him the win. Alas, he fails to Wound.
Gimli's opponent rolls a '6' but so does the dwarf and he succeeds in felling his worthy foe.
Legolas takes on two Goblins and, as with Gandalf, no one can get higher than an '4'. Legolas wins on Fight value and manages to kill one Goblin.
Brave Boromir takes on 4 Goblins but the Horn of Gondor daunts them into losing the fight. Boromir is unable to capitalize, getting '1,3,2' on his Wound rolls and the Goblins survive another turn.
Your reporter failed you for Turn 6, neglecting to get any pictures. Evil won the Priority roll 4-1 and forced Aragorn to use his free Might point for a Heroic Move, in which the Good heroes backed up to prevent being surrounded and to block the path to the hobbits. The Goblins swarmed Legolas and Boromir, leaving Aragorn free for a bow shot, which hit but failed to wound. Likewise the Goblin bowmen, who concentrated on Gandalf without managing a single hit. In the ensuing combat, the Goblins beat Legolas(!), inflicting two Wounds, both negated by Fate. Boromir's horn won his combat but his Wound rolls only bagged one foe.
For turn 7, Evil again won Priority, 6-4. Aragorn decided to save his free Might point, feeling that the Fellowship was in a pretty good position. The Goblins took advantage of their Priority to negate Aragorn and Legolas' control zones and got a couple warriors through against the hobbits!
Six Goblin bowmen again cannot land a hit on Gandalf.
The two Goblins fighting Gandalf win their combat 4-2, and it doesn't seem worth burning two Might points for Gandalf to claim the win, so he takes the hits. His gamble pays off, as neither Goblin wounds.
Gimli easily wins his fight but his wounding luck deserts him and his opponent prepares for a rematch next turn.
Aragorn takes on two Goblins and, irritatingly for him, gets a '4' against the Goblins' '6'. He decides to use his free Might this turn plus one from his store to win the fight and score one kill.
Legolas also loses his fight roll 5-6, and uses a Might point to upgrade to victory and cut down his foe.
Boromir repeats last turn, winning by intimidation with his horn and then slaying one opponent.
Sam and Frodo fight their first combat of the game, losing 5-6. Frodo spends a Might to win, but neither hobbit's blow lands. Sam's not quite getting the hang of this yet, Mr. Frodo.
Good Priority, 5-5.
The Goblins are looking pretty thin on the ground at this point. The heroes move to engage the seven goblins remaining on the fighting line while Gandalf, no longer needed to plug gaps, backs up and tries a Sorcerous Blast, but fails yet again.
The Goblin bowmen finally get some hits, three shots hitting the hobbits. Random assignment has them all hit Frodo. Theoretically, this could kill him, but the Wound rolls are a tragic '1,1,2' and Frodo laughs them off. ("Tee-hee, that tickled.")
Luck then deserts the Fellowship as Legolas rolls a snake-eyes in his fight. Fortunately for him, his opponent rolls a '2' and Leggy can use a Might point (his last!) to win the battle and slay the Goblin.
Boromir's horn again wins his battle and this time he manages to take down both his foes.
Aragorn's foes get a reasonably high '5' but Aragorn gets his '6' and manages to kill both his foes, too.
Gimli, perhaps feeling competitive with Legolas, fluffs his combat by 1, too, but declines to use his Might to win. He's got plenty high defense and all his wounds and fate remaining, so he's in little real danger and sure enough the Goblins fail to follow up their success with a Wound.
Good Priority, 6-3.
It's really just a mopping up operation now. Gandalf's Sorcerous Blast finally takes out a Goblin, Legolas' bow slays another, and Aragorn and Boromir manage to kill three more. Evil is now down to just four bowmen.
Evil Priority, 6-3, but what are the going to do with it? The Goblins hold their ground, hoping for some more effective bow fire, but they, along with Gandalf's Sorcerous Blast, all miss. Legolas is luckier, taking out two bowmen
Evil Priority, 6-5, but the two remaining Goblins have nowhere to go and Gimli and Boromir take them down, though Gimli is forced to spend a Might point to win his combat.
Even with my rule changes, that didn't seem particularly close. The Cave Troll has potential but his lack of Might and Fate leave him vulnerable as well. Perhaps charging him into the tank that is Boromir was not so wise.
Evil cost the Fellowship 11 Might points (from 21 available), 3 Fate points (two from Legolas, one from Merry), and one Wound (Merry again). That seems creditable but not fantastic. Without running the numbers, my sense is that Evil in general was not particularly lucky; the bowfire in particular seems below average even if it did manage to kill poor Merry.
I'm calling this as fun and thematic, but not particularly balanced.
Based on this match and experience with other Fellowship scenarios, I have been mulling over a couple of new special rules:
Halflings. Due to their small size, when Shooting at Hobbits, the shooter must make an additional "in the way" roll (at 4+) in addition to any other "in the way" rolls due to partially blocked line of sight.
(This seems like common sense to me, given that the physical area exposed by a man behind a waist-high wall is almost exactly the area of a hobbit out in the open. This is probably too unbalanced for Tournament/Points Match games, but feels appropriate for scenarios and helps a bit with Merry and Pippin's vulnerability.)
The Long Dark of Moria. After the Evil side is completely eliminated, determine victory by rolling a die for each Might point remaining to the Fellowship (ignoring Aragorn's free Might, but including remaining Might in his store) and summing the results. Subtract 5 from the total for each Wound inflicted on a Fellowship member that was not negated by Fate. If the total is 40 or more, the Fellowship wins; if less, Evil wins.
Obviously you don't need this in a campaign, but in one-off play it should make the Good side less reckless with resources. The victory level is just eyeballed here, but if applied to the above game, Good gets 10 dice but must subtract 5 points for Merry's Wound (or, looked at another way, he needs to get 45 points on 10 dice.) That's a tough score to get on ten dice, so this is likely a minor Evil victory, which sort of feels right given Merry's death and the number of Might points expended. Obviously the exact victory score could be tweaked as experience dictates.)