This is a scenario of Games Workshop's Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, the fourth in the Return of the King journey book. Here we see the forces of Mordor making their initial assault on the city of Minas Tirith.
To win, Evil has must accomplish any two of the following three goals within ten turns:
Good wins if Evil doesn't.
(Click on any image to see an enlargement.)
As with all the Return of the King journey book scenarios, no specific order of battle is given. Instead, each side gets a few specific figures and then a points value to use to bulk up their forces using some suggested troop types.
The Good side is given Gandalf the White, Peregrin Guard of the Citadel (hereafter Pippin), and Forlong the Fat, plus 300 points of Warriors of Minas Tirith and Fiefdoms troops. I have Forlong ... but I've never much liked the Axemen of Lossarnach figures because of their wooden poses. So although a Lossarnach contingent would be more faithful to the books, I've substituted in Angbor the Fearless and some Clansmen of Lamedon.
The Evil side gets a Mordor War Catapult with a Troll loader, and also gets 300 points of Orcs and Easterlings. Here each of those contingents gets a Captain (in front, with gold chevrons on the base), and the base troops are bolstered by six Morannon Orcs (in red behind the the Orc Captain).
In choosing the forces, I tried to keep to multiples of standard packaging, so two sprues of Warriors of Minas Tirith, three three-packs of Clansmen, a Mordor Orc sprue, and an Easterling sprue. Throw in a Minas Tirith banner bearer, some Morannons, and the leaders and catapult, and that's what's here.
Evil gets a boost in that d3 models come back from the dead pile each turn. They also get four ladders, which is good because how else are they going to get onto the walls of the white city?
I had hoped to play this in a more timely manner following the third RotK scenario. But in addition to needing to paint the Clansmen of Lamedon, I had to construct two feet of Minas Tirith walls. I couldn't quite match the color of the GW's resin set; mine are the whiter pieces to the sides.
The board is half normal size, being four feet wide but only two feet deep. That's good for Evil, since he's got only ten turns to get on those walls.
Evil starts 6" in from the edge. The Easterling and Orc bowmen are arrayed in the center for shooting (along with the Catapult, of course). Three squads are equipped with ladders and will hotfoot it to the walls. There's not enough troops to effectively use the fourth ladder, so it's left laying about for returning dead troops to pick up.
Good is spread out evenly along the walls to see where Evil goes. The archers are in the cupolas. Angbor is to the your left, Pippin to your right, and Gandalf and the banner bearer are in the center.
Good gets Priority on the first turn, as always.
Gandalf announces that he's casting a Channeled Blinding Light spell with his staff's free Will point. Naturally he rolls a '1' and must spend another Might point to get the spell going. Gandalf now has only 1 Might point to last him 9 more turns. But it's worthwhile (he hopes) to protect his section of the wall from Catapult shots hitting on 4+.
There's not much else for Good to do other than spread out to minimize the effects of the Catapult.
Evil's archers do a half-move so as to get into range, while the ladder teams, led by the Captains, march forward.
Shooting sees the men of Gondor taking out a Morannon Orc, while Evil shooting is totally ineffective. The Catapult lands only one shot, and needing 3+ to Wound, rolls '1', '1', and '2'.
Good Casualties: 0
Evil Priority, 2-2.
Good sees no reason to Heroic Move. The ladder crews advance, and the bowmen notch their arrows. In the ensuing Shoot phase, the Evil archers do no damage but the Catapult's single hit succeeds in taking out two defenders in the path of the ladders (2nd image). In return, the men of Gondor take out another Morannon Orc.
Good Casualties: 2
Good Priority, 5-3.
Gandalf channels Terrifying Aura -- no more Might points! -- and at this point seems unlikely to die before seven more turns elapse.
The Evil ladder squads reach the wall and the ladders go up, although the carriers don't have enough movement to reach the top.
Shooting does nothing, the Catapult rolling an insultingly poor '1', '1' to hit.
Good Casualties: 2
Evil Priority, 1-1.
Up the ladders, boys! The assault on the walls begins in earnest. The two dead Morannons come back and bring up the ladder left behind on the first turn -- you will see them in next turn's pictures.
Gandalf casts a one-die Immobilize on the Easterling Captain and succeeds. The defenders concentrate to throw back the attackers.
Shooting sees an Easterling archer taking out a Gondor archer, but the Catapult continues to botch it with hit rolls of '2', '2'.
Evil's below average luck continues into the Combat phase. The Easterling Captain on the left and the Orc Warrior on the right both gets standoffs. In the center, the Orc Captain rolls just a '3' highest against the defender's '5'. After some pondering, he decides to go ahead and spend the two Might points to win the Combat. He does so, and then his two hits strike the walls of Minas Tirith instead of the defender. Yep, another standoff here, too.
Good Casualties: 3
Evil Priority, 5-1.
The reinforcing ladder moves up to help out the struggling Easterlings. Everyone else mills about. Gandalf throws a two-dice Immobilize on the Easterling Captain again, and barely succeeds with a '1', '2'. The Easterling Captain resists just as barely with his lone Will point and a '2'.
Shooting is mostly ineffective; the Catapult finally lands a hit but the Wound rolls are terrible and only a single Clansman of Lamedon falls (the red Wound marker on the right of the second picture).
Combat is likewise disappointing for Evil. Both Captains win and their Strikes are true, avoiding the wall, but both Wound rolls are '1', '2' and the defenders survive. The Orc on the third ladder loses and dies (also marked with a Wound marker).
We're halfway through the game now and Evil isn't particularly close to any of his three goals.
Good Casualties: 4
Good Priority, 6-6.
Good has the opportunity to push down the ladder on the right that used to have an Orc at the top of it. But there are too many occupants and the ladder stays up. Good bunches up against the ladders and Evil continues his assault.
Shooting is terrible with only a single Clansman of Lamedon going down to a still-underperforming Catapult (middle picture, right).
Evil wins all three combats atop the ladders but only the Orc Captain lands a Wound. With a victory cheer he leaps over the parapet and becomes the first Evil model atop the wall (right picture). Seven more to go....
Good Casualties: 6
Evil Priority, 4-1.
Good needs to prevent Evil from swarming over the wall, so Pippin calls a Heroic Move. The Orc Captain is out of Might and can't counter, so Good moves to mob the Orc Captain and keep the other models on that ladder away.
Evil inches up (heh) behind the Orc Captain, and the fourth ladder reaches the wall. Gandalf remembers that he can cast spells and Immobilizes the Easterling Captain again.
Shooting continues to be terrible, with only the Catapult scoring a Wound (right picture, on the right).
The Orc at the top of the rightmost ladder dies -- it seems to be a dangerous position -- but despite the odds against him the Orc Captain gets his '6' and wins his combat, killing another Clansman.
On the left, the Easterling Captain fairly predictably loses, but his armor protects him.
Good Casualties: 8
Good Priority, 2-2.
The Orc Captain would like to expand his bridgehead but as he is without Might he must suffer getting charged again. Gandalf uses three dice to Immobilize the Easterling Captain again. The Easterlings are clearly going to get nowhere.
Good archery is terrible; Evil archery is more accurate, hitting often but never managing to inflict a Wound. The Catapult makes up it, though, landing a spot-on shot near the Orc Captain. The orc survives unscathed but all of the nearby Good models (including the banner bearer) go down. Pippin survives only due to Fate. The second shot is much less effective but still takes out an archer (left of the left image). This is the kind of attrition needed if Good is going to get reduced to 25%!
Combat goes Good's way, as they win against each of the ladders (or, more properly, the enemies atop them). But their Strikes fail to Wound.
Good Casualties: 13
Evil Priority, 5-5.
Now Good would like to Heroic Move so as to block the orcs, but Gandalf is too far away to get to the Orc Captain and Pippin is out of Might. So four more orcs join the Captain on the wall. Gandalf Immobilizes the hapless Easterling Captain again with three dice -- he's now out of Will and his Channeled spells expire.
Shooting is interesting this turn. The orc archers take out an enemy archer, and the Catapult hits with both shots. The first knocks out two Warriors of Minas Tirith, then the other goes astray and destroys the leftmost ladder! Two Morannon Orcs fall to their death.
Trapped Pippin rises to the occasion and wins his fight against a Morannon orc, but fails to Wound. The Orc Captain helps the second ladder team on the right kill their enemy and pave the way for more invaders.
Good Casualties: 17
Good Priority, 3-1.
Gandalf now has only his one free Will point from his staff. But even so he again Immobilizes a very frustrated Easterling Captain. Clearly nothing's happening on the left.
Good is too thinly spread on the right to prevent the Orcs from swarming over the ramparts. One brave Warrior of Minas Tirith fends off three attackers, but between archery, the catapult, and combat, four more Good warriors go down.
The end result is eight Evil models on the walls (goal #3), but barely over half the Good models dead (so no goal #2) and Gandalf untouched (no goal #1). Good victory!
I was probably too passive with the Good side but it didn't seem like they needed much help. Evil frankly did better than I expected. It's tough taking on an equal number of points when the defenders shrug off half your Strikes due to the walls. Probably only some freakish luck with the Catapult would kill Gandalf or reduce Good by enough figures to give Evil the win.
The ladders formed bottlenecks which left a lot of troops uselessly sitting around waiting to ascend. In retrospect, it would be worthwhile to exchange some troops to get an extra Captain and two extra Might points. That'd probably cost Evil a ladder -- you get one per eight models -- but that's probably a decent trade.
Alternately, it might improve the scenario to change goal #3 to "have at least eight models on or behind the walls of Minas Tirith at the end of the game." The next scenario sees the gate destroyed as Gandalf confronts the Witch-King; changing the victory conditions as above would give Evil some incentive to batter it down in this scenario to set that up. Plus it would help with the bottleneck problem and help spread out the Good troops, perhaps improving Evil's chances of reducing Good to 25%.
Not a bad scenario, but seems like it needs a bit of tweaking.