My playthrough of Games Workshop's Return of the King Journeybook series continues with this third scenario. Faramir and the remnants of the force sent to defend Osgiliath are harried by the forces of Mordor as they retreat back to Minas Tirith. Gandalf and Imrahil ride out to help them, but will they be in time to protect the less-favored child of Denethor?
(Click on any image to see an enlargement.)
Like most of the Return of the King scenarios, the forces are mostly points values with some recommendations as to specific leaders. So I've had to come up with my own order of battle.
The Evil forces are divided into a Mordor contingent (two sprues of orcs and most of a box of Morannon orcs, led by two Orc Captains and a Ringwraith on a Fell Beast), and a Harad contingent (a box of Haradrim warriors and six Haradrim raiders, led by a Haradrim Chieftain). Some Warg Riders, which are technically Mordor troops, are shown with the Haradrim just to balance out the pictures a bit.
There are likewise two contingents of Good troops. Faramir on horse leads a Captain of Gondor, two sprues of Minas Tirith warriors, and four Rangers of Gondor; these are the refugees, of which Faramir and eleven more models need to exit the board towards Minas Tirith for the Good player to win. Coming to rescue this heavily outnumbered force are Gandalf the White and Imrahil leading a dozen horsemen.
This is a pretty big battle so I've taken a more pictures than usual on the setup. The field of battle is literally just that -- a field, so there's no terrain of interest. The line of scrub noticeable to the left of the Ringwraith marks the western edge of the board.
Faramir and his refugees are coming from the north and must exit the south edge (nearest you) to win. The Evil forces set up on either side of the Good force's path.
The Good side's cavalry enters from the south edge on turn 2 + d3. Naturally I roll a '6'. Faramir's going to have to hold out on his own for a good while.
Good always starts a narrative scenario with Priority.
Faramir himself and most of his contingent bolt for the southern board edge, though Faramir doesn't run at full tilt so that he can stay within the covering protection of his men, who spread out a little to avoid trapping their leader (and themselves). The archers, however, wish to ply their trade and take only a half move so that they can shoot.
Evil rushes in although his archers likewise want to shoot. So the orc bowmen take no move and the Haradrim archers take a half move. The Ringwraith moves in for easy attacking next turn but makes sure to stay more than 6" away from the footmen to prevent a cheeky charge. He considers casting a spell (maybe Black Darting Faramir with a couple of dice?) but decides to save the Will points. With the Good cavalry not arriving until turn 5, there's no rush.
Shooting is about average. A Warg Rider, a Haradrim horse, and a Ranger fall to arrows.
Casualties: Good 1, Evil 1
Good Priority, 6-1.
Evil doesn't bother contesting the initiative with a Heroic Move.
The Fell Beast has cleverly kept out of Charge range of the Warriors of Minas Tirith. But he is within Charge range of Faramir on his horse. There are no supporting troops within range of the Ringwraith, so there's little risk in the Charge, and doing so means no Evil spells this turn. So Faramir decides to take the plunge, only to roll a '3' on his Courage roll. The Nazgûl's Harbinger of Evil rule means failure even taking into account Faramir's two Will points ... so the Good hero freezes!
The rest of the men surround Faramir in swordsman/spearman pairs, arranging themselves so that the large Fell Beast base can't fit anywhere and so can't engage Faramir in combat. A couple brave warriors decide that it's better to Charge a Warg Rider than to be Charged.
Evil continues his advance to bar the way south for the refugees, the bowmen again hanging back for potshots. The Haradrim are nearing engagement range. Frustrated at his inability to reach Faramir, the Ringwraith engages one of the blocking formations.
Good Shooting is absolutely terrible: of eight shots, only one hits and it fails to Wound. The Evil side does better with two of the low-defence Rangers going down to arrows.
Combat sees one of the sacrificial warriors falling to a Warg Rider while the other survives (though knocked prone).
The warriors fighting the Ringwraith get their '6', but so does the Fell Beast, which wins the tie on Fight value and Hurls the unfortunate swordsman, knocking Faramir off his horse and killing two models in the process (2nd picture). That was well worth losing the single Will point for engaging in Combat!
With mounted troops now engaging, I realized that turning dead models on their side is ambiguous (are they prone or dead?) so from here on out a prone model is prone, and red gems are used to mark Wounds.
Casualties: Good 7, Evil 1
Evil Priority, 6-5.
The Captain of Gondor calls a Heroic Move, hoping to shut down the Nazgûl before it can move. But the Ringwraith counters and wins the roll-off. A Warg Rider just within range of the Ringwraith Charges the Captain and negates his Heroic Move entirely.
Evil charges everywhere. Given the paucity of Good targets, even the bowmen move. The orcs nearest the southern board edge start forming a phalanx to deal with the Good cavalry, expected in two turns. Faramir makes his Courage roll this turn and Charges the Ringwraith, who is picking on some more lowly warriors for lack of better targets.
The Haradrim cavalry underperform despite their lances. Only one good model dies, and the Haradrim Chieftain takes a Wound, negated by his sole Fate point.
The Captain of Minas Tirith is Charged by a Warg Rider. Both roll a '4' and the Captain faces a tough decision on whether or not to use his last Might point to force the win. Deciding there's little danger of outright death due to his heavy armor, he saves his Might; the die then gives the win to Evil. The Warg Rider inflicts a Wound, which the Captain's Fate point fails to stop. Disappointing for Good, but the Captain and his Might point still survive another turn.
Elsewhere the Warg Rider combats are even, with one Warg Rider going down as his compatriots ride down another Gondor warrior.
Faramir and the Ringwraith both Heroic Strike, Good getting to F6 but Evil getting to F9. The combat rolls are tied at '4' (the heroes on both sides were rather unimpressive this turn). Faramir declares that he'll spend Might, so the Nazgûl does too. But Faramir knows the wraith has only one Might point left, so he spends both of his Might points to get the win. The Wound dice manage to get only a single Wound against the high-defense Ringwraith ... but that may be all that's needed since the Evil model has only one Wound. Unfortunately for Good, the Ringwraith makes his Fate roll and lives to fight on, albeit now down to 12 Will.
Casualties: Good 9, Evil 2. There are 20 refugees remaining.
Evil Priority, 2-1.
The Captain of Minas Tirith uses that last Might point saved from last turn to call a Heroic Move. The nearby Ringwraith is now out of Might and isn't in range of the other Evil heroes, so Evil lets Good have it. Faramir and a couple warriors swarm the Ringwraith, while most of the other Good models move to pin the Evil forces as much as possible.
Combat starts out well for Good, with two Warg Riders and a Haradrim Raider going down. But elsewhere Evil gets lots of sixes, including in the Ringwraith combat where Evil wins despite his two dice against five. In all, seven Warriors of Minas Tirith fall.
Casualties: Good 16, Evil 5. Now there are only 13 refugees left.
Good Priority, 5-2.
The rescuing cavalry finally arrive. But Evil can afford to be magnanimous here and calls no Heroic Moves.
Faramir again Charges the Ringwraith and again muffs his Courage test, needing both Will points to overcome his terror. The Captain likewise needs to spend his one Will point to help his leader. The Good warriors pin as many Evil models as possible and one brave warrior manages to get the Ringwraith surrounded.
With the Good cavalry unengaged, Evil has some Shooting to do, but there are few hits and no Wounds.
Good resolves the Ringwraith combat first, winning it 6-4. Faramir rolls four dice to Wound; no '6'. The Captain rolls four dice to Wound; no '6'. The warrior then steps up and gets '6', '6' (needing '6', '4') to show the big boys how it's done. The ringwraith's final Fate roll fails, and pop goes the Nazgûl!
But it doesn't matter. Elsewhere five more Warriors of Minas Tirith die, and with only eight refugees left, Good cannot win. Evil Victory!
I have very mixed feelings about this scenario. On the positive side, there was a lot of exciting action, with many important (ergo tense) die rolls. And it's certainly cinematic enough. But it didn't feel balanced at all. The greater defense of the Gondor troops just wasn't enough against the heavy numbers on the side of Evil.
But Good was unlucky in that the cavalry were delayed as long as possible. Suppose they had come in as early as possible -- Turn 3 -- instead? Would it have made a difference?
I'm inclined to think not. In this session, Evil essentially fought with one hand tied behind his back, as the Ringwraith never cast any spells, and most of the orcs (including the two Captains) had no effect at all in the game. So the extra troops could absorb a turn 4 cavalry charge, while the Haradrim continue to mop up the refugees as happened here.
But a Turn 3 relief force entry would at least make things closer. Were I to try this scenario again, I would rule the reinforcement roll is always a '1'.
Alternately, maybe the victory conditions need tweaking. From a dramatic point of view it's really only Faramir's survival that's important. It would certainly ease things for the Good player if he didn't have to care about the refugee warriors. But when a single model needs to survive, that's just incentive for the Ringwraith to Black Dart him to death. It's a hard problem.
It should also be noted that this isn't much like the movies, in which Faramir's troops have taken to their horses. It's hard to understand why the scenario specifies that Faramir is mounted but none of his men can be. Making the Good force horsed would help with the balance, although then there would be fewer of them and hence easier for Evil to prevent a dozen of them from escaping.