Here's the penultimate scenario of the Scouring of the Shire (2019) source book for Games Workshop's Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. We're over a hundred years prior to the events of The Lord of the Rings; a harsh winter has brought much hardship to the people of The Shire ... and the Wargs in the wild, who have circled a hobbit encampment looking for food. Fortunately, Gandalf has come to aid the hobbits in fending off the Wargs.
The victory conditions are as easy as it gets here: the side with the last man (or beast, or Maiar) standing, wins.
There some important special rules:
This scenario is reworked from the earlier (2004) version of The Scouring of the Shire. I only noticed two very small changes:
(Click on any image to see an enlargement.)
Gandalf has come to the aid of the Shire folk, who muster 4 Shirriffs, 4 Archers, and 8 Militia.
The Evil force is the Wild Warg Chieftain leading 8 Wild Wargs. I'm sure you've noticed that I've needed to make subsitutions. For purposes of this game, the Warg with the yellow bead is the Chieftain.
So many of the Scouring scenarios take place on a small board, but here we're back to the standard 4'x4' layout. The hobbits and Gandalf are gathered around their bonfires in the center of the table. Each edge has a Warg in the middle (most not visible) and another 6" in; the Chieftain has joined the pair in the south.
This is supposed to take place in winter. But I don't have any winter effects, so you'll have to imagine the snow. It's not ideal, but the textured game mat would be really hard to get clean if I covered it with little white particles.
Unusually for a narrative scenario, Evil starts with Priority, by scenario-specific rule. It's hard to see why it matters, though, given the initial setup with Good entirely out of Charge range.
Or are they? The Chieftain considers a Heroic March. But Evil is already at a Might point deficit compared to Good, 2-3, and only a hobbit or two would be in danger, so it doesn't seem worth it.
Gandalf mulls over girding himself with Terrifying Aura, but with the Evil models immune to Courage Tests for the time being, that doesn't seem worthwhile. He instead decides to try to inflict some damage, and hurls a three-dice Sorcerous Blast at the Warg Chieftain, just visible within the 6" range of the bonfires. He rolls '5' highest; the Chieftain decides to try to deflect the blast with both his Will points, and dodges the blast with a '6'.
Three hobbits rush out to take on a Warg to the west, while the rest stay put and ready stones and arrows. In the ensuing Shooting phase, one Warg is killed and a Wound put on the Chieftain. Wizards: 0, Hobbits: 1
In Combat, the outnumbered Warg loses the battle, but the hobbits have terrible Wound rolls -- '2', '1', '1' -- and the Warg lives to Charge another day.
Good Priority, 2-2.
With the Chieftain's companion now gone, it doesn't seem worth a Heroic Move. So Good proceeds. Gandalf chucks another 3-dice Sorcerous Blast at the Chieftain, getting a '4' highest. Knowing the Chieftain is out of Will, Gandalf spends a Might point to make the spell succeed; not only is the Chieftain knocked back and prone (white bead), he sustains another Wound in the process! Nice shooting, wizard.
The Wargs advance as they must and now, with several Charges happening, there aren't many Shooting attacks. Still, the hobbit Archers manage to shoot down one of the Wargs coming down from the north.
Combat sees one Shirriff go down, but the hobbits win all the other Combats and two more Wargs are lost as well.
Good Priority, 5-1.
Having been blasted more than 6" away from the bonfires, the Warg Chieftain is out of Gandalf's line of sight and so is at no risk of being blasted again this turn. So he lets Good go first.
Having no better target but wanting to save resources for when the Chieftain gets back in the battle, Gandalf casually tosses off a one-die Sorcerous Blast with his staff's free Will point. And Good's luck favors them again, as the Warg in the north is slain.
Shooting has no effect.
The hobbits again win all the Combats, and two more Wargs are taken down. Good is killing the Wargs faster than they can regenerate.
Evil Priority, 5-3.
Good was a bit careless with his positioning, and so Gandalf is in danger of being Charged. So he calls a Heroic Move. The Chieftain is glad he saved his Might earlier, as he counters, wins the roll-off, and Charges Gandalf!
The hobbits try to help Gandalf, and two brave Archers counter-Charge, but two others find the Chieftain too terrifying and remain in place, quivering in their boots.
Shooting, what little there is of it, again has no effect.
There are three Wargs in Combat, and all of them die. They are having such a difficult time -- did someone remove their fangs or something?
But hey, the Wargs will come back as long as the Chieftain survives. Will he? Gandalf rolls a mediocre '3' and the hobbits manage only a '4'. So the Chieftain has a shot ... but only rolls a '3' highest himself. He uses a second Might point to boost that to a '4', getting the tie. Gandalf declines to spend his last two Might points to win. The roll-off is tense, and when the die comes a rest it is Good that has won the fight. Then, frustratingly, three Strikes fail to inflict a single Wound, and the Chieftain survives yet another turn.
Evil Priority, 6-4.
Gandalf weighs a Heroic Move -- he'd really like to Sorcerous Blast -- but Might is so important, and Gandalf's unlikely to die in just one combat. So he gulps and saves his Might. The Wargs Charge in, as they must, and the hobbits counter-Charge, although a few are too intimidated by the Chieftain to move.
The regular Combats break evenly. One hobbit and one Warg are slain; a third Combat is inconclusive.
But the important fight is Gandalf against the Warg Chieftain. It goes poorly for Good. The Chieftain beats Gandalf '6' to '4', and again Gandalf chooses not to use his last two Might points just to tie. So the warg leader rolls to Wound and chomps two Wounds off the wizard. So, he did survive as planned -- but he's in serious danger if another turn like this happens.
Good Priority, 5-1.
Gandalf finally gets to cast a spell. As fun as Sorcerous Blast can be, Transfix seems like a better bet, as Gandalf's Fight Value is then higher than an immobilized Chieftain's. And it's more easily cast as well. So he make a two dice roll, and just makes it, rolling '2', '3'. So the Chieftain gets a white bead.
The general scrum continues, as many figures as possible Charging the Chieftain. Another hobbit falls in Combat, along with another Warg.
The Chieftain is facing three hobbits and Gandalf. He sets the bar at a solid '5', but one of the hobbits gets the '6'. Surrounded, and facing eight strikes, the Chieftain goes down.
The situation looks grim for Evil, with only five Wargs left on the table, and no more reinforcements due to the death of the Chieftain.
Good Priority, 2-1.
Gandalf Sorcerous Blasts one Warg into another, but the resolution dierolls are miserable and there are no casualties.
Combat goes all Good's way, with two Wargs being slain at no cost to Good.
It's just mopping up at this point. Two Wargs are killed on Turn 8 (pictured), and the lone survivor goes down on Turn 9.
Good Victory!
Balance seems a little suspect here. Evil never came close to winning, managing to kill only three hobbits during the course of the game. I'm glad Gandalf could help out the Little Folk, but I'm not sure what else Evil could have done, given the "programmed" movements of the Wargs. Evil's only options are who to Charge, and when to spend resources; I'm not sure I'd do things much differently if/when I replay this.
Luck generally favored Good, though, with the first turn Wound on the Chieftain setting up his demise later in the game. So the skew may be less on average than this playthrough might suggest.
In addition to addressing the balance issues, I think that the situation provides some opportunities here that the scenario designer could have taken to make it even better. Those bonfires, whose size is so carefully specified, have no game effect whatsoever. Just as a first obvious step, how about saying they are impassable terrain? (I certainly played it that way here.) And how about taking some inspiration from the Weathertop scenarios and letting the hobbits grab brands to fend off the Wargs?
And while arguably the "Wargs must Charge" rule is a fair representation of how hungry Wargs would act, it might be interesting to let them circle around, looking for a weak spot in the enemy lines before attacking. And they could probably use a boost in numbers. Maybe 12 Wargs at start instead of just eight, and leave off the "two wargs come back" rule?