My War in Rohan smallest-to-largest playthrough continues with Ride Out, a scenario from Games Workshop's Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game.
Desperate to repel Saruman's forces assaulting Helm's Deep, Théoden leads a small cavalry force out of the gatehouse, down the causeway, and into the ranks of the Uruk-hai army.
The victory conditions couldn't be simpler: the side that gets wiped out loses.
(Click on any image to see an enlargement.)
The Good forces are Théoden, Aragorn, Gamling, Legolas, and four Rohan Royal Guard, all on horseback. Gamling has the Royal Standard, so he and Théoden join Aragorn in having a theoretically infinite number of Might points. The Good forces get a nice boost in Combat via a scenario-specific rule giving cavalry +1 Strength during a turn when they Charge.
Facing the good guys are three Uruk-hai Captains, leading ten warriors with swords and shields and ten warriors with pike. I've used Uglúk as a proxy for a third Captain, and all three Captains have a shield by scenario rule even if the models don't.
The Good models set up on the ramp out of Helm's Deep. The Evil forces set up within 6" of the center of the board.
Good starts with Priority as always in narrative play.
Legolas makes a half-move so as to be able to Shoot. The rest of the Good forces advance, but are careful to stay more than 12" away from the Evil models so as to guarantee that the Uruks can't Charge them next turn.
Since Good has arrows and Evil doesn't, there's no point in drawing out the engagement, which would just give Legolas more time to pick off troops. So Evil advances, opening up the files so as to make room for retreats or for the Captains, bravely leading from the rear, to move up between the files into the front line.
Legolas takes his three shots and manages to kill an Uruk-hai (left front).
Models remaining: Good 8, Evil 22
Good Priority, 6-4.
Good would have preferred Evil getting Priority, as the cavalry could then get the first Charge in. Instead, they carefully measure 12" away from the Uruks and wheel counterclockwise, again being sure to stay out of range. The Uruks turn 90° left to match and advance. Legolas takes his potshots but the Uruk-hai armor is too strong this turn and there are no casualties.
Models remaining: Good 8, Evil 22
Evil Priority, 6-2.
Evil advances. It's time for Good make their big Charge. The first picture shows the beginning of the Combat Phase, with the red gem (center) showing the casualty caused by the Rohan Royal Guard's throwing spear. Aragorn, Théoden, and Gamling all call Heroic Combats.
Aragorn gets his '6' to guarantee the win, and slays both his opponents. He then barrels into the nearest Captain.
Théoden only manages a '5'-highest against the Evil '6', but spends a Might point to get the win due to higher Fight value. He kills the enemy swordsman and Charges into the two pikemen who were supporting him.
Gamling and Legolas get their '6', too, and win on Legolas's higher Fight value. Their opponent is easily taken out and each of them Charge one of the pike supports.
That brings us to the regular Combats, shown in the second picture. With higher Fight values (remember that Royal Guard get a boost within 12" of Théoden), increased Strength when Charging, and decent dierolling, Good deals a hammer blow to the Evil side as seven more models are ridden down.
A minor hindrance for Good is the Evil Captain, against whom Aragorn manages to inflict only two Wounds. The Captain's Fate roll is a '2', so to survive he has to use both of his Might points. It would have been nice to eliminate him, but he's clearly on his last legs. (Metaphorically, as literally he's now Prone.)
Models remaining: Good 8, Evil 10
Evil Priority, 2-1.
Legolas calls a Heroic Move. It would have been nice to use the other heroes for this, because they can get Might back, but Good wasn't careful with his placement and Legolas is the only one with all the Good models in "With Me!" range.
Evil counters with "Uglúk", and Evil wins the roll-off. Bad luck, Good.
The obvious move is to tie up the cavalry to deny them all their buffs, so the Uruks move to engage.
Aragorn, fighting only the weakened Captain, calls a Heroic Combat (first picture) with his free Might point. But he whiffs the Duel roll, getting a '3' highest against the Captain's '6'. Is it worth all three Might points from his store to win? He thinks about it while the Captain impatiently waits, and decides that ultimately yes, it is worth it. Aragorn wins on Fight value, slays the wounded Captain, and moves in to help Théoden (second picture).
Combat generally favors Good despite the less favorable odds. The Guard fighting regular warriors win but can't inflict any Wounds, as does a frustrated "Uglúk". Legolas loses his Duel roll '3' to '4' but uses his last Might point to win on Fight value and then luckily gets the '6' to kill his opponent. Gamling takes out his man.
That leaves Aragorn and Théoden against a Captain. Aragorn now gets his Charge bonus (though Théoden doesn't) but though Good wins the Duel roll, Aragorn's double strikes inflict only one Wound. Théoden uses his last Might to inflict a second Wound, which could potentially kill the Captain, but he uses one Fate and one Might point to survive.
Models remaining: Good 8, Evil 7
Evil Priority, 6-3.
Théoden, out of Might but near Gamling's banner, regains a Might point. Gamling calls a Heroic Move to try to get the Charge in; "Uglúk" counters but this time the dieroll goes to Good.
Two of the Guard are out of Gamling's "With Me!" range, so not every Evil model can be engaged. But most of them are tied up.
Aragorn, facing only one opponent, calls a Heroic Combat with his free Might point. He wins and kills, the Charges in to help out an outnumbered Guardsman (picture).
Evil finally gets his first kill as the Guard nearest the causeway goes down to a single Uruk-hai. But elsewhere the Evil models are ridden down, "Uglúk" having lost an important tied Duel roll-off.
At the end of Combat there are only two Uruk-hai warriors left on the table and though Evil could theoretically win, I did some quick Duel rolls and there was no freakish luck to save them.
Good Victory!
This seems like the rare scenario where Evil's got an uphill battle. Although the number of heroes is about equal, the Good heroes are just better, with generally higher stats, horses, and access to more Might.
Still, though it didn't happen here, we've all seen Aragorn muff things by getting nothing but '1's before. So I think an Evil victory is within the realm of possibility. There are so few Good models that if a few Uruks can get lucky during Good's initial Charge then maybe they can pull things out. Killing a couple of horses would help and winning more tiebreakers would help, too.
On the other hand, I realized after writing this up that I was so focused on Gamling's banner restoring Might points that I forgot that it actually acts as a regular ol' banner, too. So Good should have been doing even better than he did.
Thematically, it's great to see Rohan cavalry getting in a devastating Charge.
My rating: ★★★★☆. Fun and worth a couple plays.