The Return of the King Journey Book playthrough continues here with The Pyre of Denethor. I'm slightly cheating here as "The Return of the King" scenario is next in chronological sequence. But it's another big scenario that I would have to do a lot of painting for, and time's been in short supply lately. So I thought I'd skip ahead. Besides, this way I get to use the new Denethor, Gandalf, and Pippin minis that recently came out.
Here Beregond, with the eventual aid of Gandalf and Pippin, must prevent Denethor from burning himself and Faramir by "slaying" the mad steward and his guards.
(Click on any image to see an enlargement.)
This is one of the smaller scenarios in the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. Denethor and 3 Citadel Guard are trying to burn Faramir (not shown, but assume his body is on the pyre) while Beregond, Gandalf, and Peregrin are trying to prevent this. The pyre is lit automatically if Denethor is atop it and an unengaged Citadel Guard is in contact with the it in the Move Phase; if Denethor has no help then he needs to roll a '6' to set it alight.
By scenario special rule, Denethor's Madness is not in play (so he's always controlled by the Evil player) and Gandalf, having faced off the Witch King at the Gates of Minas Tirith, has no Might or Fate, only one Will point, and (most importantly) doesn't have his Will-providing Staff of Power!
Denethor starts touching the pyre, while Beregond stands in the room's "doorway" (which is invisible so you can follow the action.)
The Citadel Guards enter one per turn, while Gandalf and Pippin show up on turn 5.
Although Denethor is not mad in this scenario, he's still not allowed to do anything until turn 5, either.
Good always starts with Priority. Beregond runs at Denethor. A Citadel Guard enters and Charges Beregond. Beregond wins the Fight but cannot land a Wound.
(I forgot that entering models can't Charge, but the resulting push makes the point not matter anyway.)
Good Priority, 6-2.
Beregond stays near Denethor but doesn't Charge him because he knows the Citadel Guard will attack him again (he's right) and he'd rather face one die than three.
A second Citadel Guard enters but is too far away to enter combat.
This time the Citadel Guard wins, but he's not any better at landing a Wound.
Evil Priority, 3-3.
Beregond's only got one Might point; it's hard to imagine that calling a Heroic Move here is the best way to use it. So the two Citadel Guards pin Beregond against the pyre while the third and last moves up to support.
Evil wins the Combat as expected, but despite six Wound rolls cannot get a hit!
Evil Priority, 6-4.
Beregond is swarmed again. The combat rolls on all sides are dire: Beregond's '2' can't beat the three guards rolls of '2', '1', and '1'. The Fight values are equal so the Combat could go either way but this seems like a good time for Beregond to use that Might point to win the Combat. He's rewarded for his effort with a '6' on his Wound roll and down goes a guard!
Evil Priority, 5-4.
Denethor wakes up and climbs the pyre. A Citadel Guard moves adjacent to support him.
By the letter of the rules, Evil has won, because "In the Move phase, Denethor can light the pyre automatically if he is stood atop it and there is at least one unengaged Citadel Guard in base contact with it." But that makes for a pretty lackluster game. So let's say the pyre can be lit at the end of the Move Phase. Then at least Good has some chance to win if Evil gets Priority.
Gandalf enters, dropping off Pippin. He uses his single Will point to Command away the Citadel Guard while Beregond engages the other. Beregond loses his Combat but his tough armor protects him from any Wounds.
Good Priority, 6-3.
Gandalf Charges a Citadel Guard and, despite the bonus die for a mounted Charge, he loses the combat and Shadowfax is slain!
Meanwhile, Peregrin climbs the pyre to engage Denethor, and even with an unfavorable attack differential (one die vs two) he wins, but can't land a Wound.
Beregond re-engages his opponent from last turn, but it's another standoff.
Good Priority, 6-2.
With Denethor pushed off the pyre, Gandalf moves to engage him while Pippin ties up the Citadel Guard and Beregond continues to hack and slash with his opponent. Beregond's persistence pays off as the Citadel Guard finally goes down, while the other two Combats are inconclusive.
Evil Priority, 5-5.
Here again by the letter of the rules Denethor could climb the pyre, the Citadel Guard could move adjacent, and Evil would auto-win. Unsatisfactory, so we're ignoring the letter of the rules.
Sensing an opportunity to trap the last Citadel Guard, Pippin calls a Heroic Move and he and Gandalf move to engage while Beregond faces his lord. Combat goes disastrously for Good, though, as Evil wins both combats and Pippin and Beregond each take a Wound. Fate saves Beregond, but the brave hobbit falls!
Good Priority, 2-1.
We're down to 1:1 combats, and both are inconclusive this turn.
Evil Priority, 6-2.
Another "Evil technically won here" moment, ignored for the sake of a more interesting game.
Gandalf kills the last Citadel Guard while Denethor and Beregond engage one another without effect.
The game continued four more turns after this but the tactical situation didn't change enough to make a turn-by-turn breakout worthwhile. At the end, Beregond finally overcame Denethor without himself losing his last Wound. And he had to do it himself, as Gandalf never himself managed to land a Wound.
So ... Good victory, but only because of rule amendment.
The rules definitely need work here, as otherwise it's pretty much an Evil walkover.
Good actually got very lucky here in the first few turns. Beregond's a fairly weak hero and it's not hard to imagine him going down on Turns 3-4 when he's facing 2-3 Citadel Guards. Here he instead got lucky and not only managed to survive but actually took out one of his attackers. And if Beregond goes down, Good's going to have a hard time keeping Denethor and his bodyguards occupied with just Gandalf and Pippin.
Even with my modified victory conditions, had Gandalf's Command spell failed, Evil would have won outright on Turn 5. And remember he only has one Will point for the whole game.
I realized as I wrote this up that I never used Denethor's Might points, which would have made the results even more lopsided.
I enjoy these little scenarios, but this felt like it should have had another round of editing before being released into the wild. I look forward to trying the Gondor at War version for comparison.