This is a scenario of Games Workshop's Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, the first in the Return of the King sourcebook. Lots of folks seem to start Fellowship of the Ring campaigns, but they always seem to peter out. So I figured I try a campaign starting at with Return of the King, and then even if I peter out I'll still get to some of the more-rarely-seen scenarios.
(Click on any image to see an enlargement.)
This is a tiny scenario even by SBG standards. Gollum and Shelob face off against Sam and Frodo.
Frodo starts in the center of the board with Shelob to the south and Sam to the west. Gollum is set up anywhere at least 12" from Frodo, so Evil places him where he will be blocking Frodo's exit to the east, since that's one of the Fellowship's victory conditions. The other way the Fellowship wins is to eliminate Shelob. An outright kill is unlikely due to Shelob's six wounds, but whenever she takes a wound she has to take a Courage Test and she's removed if she fails it. So the most likely path to Good victory is to drive Shelob off through wounding, a route aided by Sting's ability to automatically wound Shelob if the wielder wins the fight.
Evil's victory conditions are simple: slay both the hobbits.
Good Priority.
As always for scenario play, Good starts with Priority. Frodo and Sam run east, and move Gollumn (always controlled by the player with Priority) to get in Shelob's way. Shelob gets as close as she can, but will need another couple of moves to reach Frodo.
Evil Priority, 3-2.
Gollum is Evil-controlled this turn, and Frodo is within his movement range, so Frodo calls a Heroic Move to escape Gollum and, incidentally, get closer to the board edge and victory. Gollum pursues as best he can and Shelob gets very near indeed, while Sam is still far from the action.
Evil Priority, 5-1.
Frodo uses his last Might point for another Heroic move to at least escape Gollum. Shelob charges in, wins the combat 6-1 (so Frodo's Might wouldn't have helped anyway) and inflicts a Wound on Frodo.
Evil then keeps Priority for Turn 4 (pictured) 6-1. Gollum finally catches Frodo and Shelob re-engaages, while Sam is still trying to catch up. Amazingly, Frodo wins the combat handily, his 6 beating the 4-highest on the Evil side. Sting auto-wounds Shelob, and Evil faces a tense Courage Test but Shelob rolls well and the game continues.
(Because Shelob is a Monstrous Mount, Frodo should have been knocked down in Turn 3 and hence ineligible to strike in Turn 4. But it turned out not to matter to the game results anyway.)
Evil Priority yet again, 5-3.
Evil charges Frodo again, and he takes another Wound in combat. He uses up all three Fate points to survive, barely. His next Wound will kill him.
Good at long last wins Priority for Turn 6 (pictured), 2-2. This is crucial as it means Gollum is now controlled by Good. Frodo and Sam both continue to move east, but Gollum checks Courage and, passing, charges Shelob! And he wins! And he wounds! Fortunately for Evil, Shelob again passes her Courage Test and the game continues. Still, way to go, Sméagol!
Evil Priority, 4-4.
With Sam still just out of range, back-to-Evil Gollum and Shelob tackle Frodo. Evil wins the combat and Gollum manages to slay Frodo. Gollum takes The Ring and is removed from the game!
Now it's just Sam against Shelob. Over the next few turns Shelob manages to inflict a Wound on Sam, but Sam is able to retrieve Sting from Frodo's corpse and returns the favor. A few more rounds of combat see Sam Wounded again and only saved by his Fate, but eventually he manages to Wound Shelob and have the latter fail a Courage Test and so: victory for Good!
While technically a Good win, it's hard to imagine how the story would have a happy ending with Gollum in charge of The Ring instead of Sam!
Games Workshop has published several versions of this scenario. Sometimes Gollum is included, as here, and sometimes not. I think the versions without Gollum probably are more true to the books and movies; the whole point of Shelob from Gollum's point of view was that he could use her to kill the hobbits indirectly and thus not technically break his oath to not hurt them. So having Gollum attack Frodo directly, as happened here, seems untrue to the character.
But this version with Gollum is more fun. His special rules make every Priority Roll important.
There are so few models here that there isn't a lot of scope for tactics. But the scenario makes for a good, tense, story.