The battle of Helm's Deep is over, and Saruman's defeated troops are retreating back to Isengard. Unfortunately, the forest of Fangorn has moved into their path.
This is another scenario of Games Workshop's Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game from the War in Rohan sourcebook. Evil wins by having eight Uruk-hai exit the board within ten turns, otherwise Good wins.
(Click on any image to see an enlargement.)
Good has three Ents; left to right are Linden, Ash, and Birch. These excellent models are from Shadow and Flame's model range, apparently no longer available.
Trying to get past them are two Uruk-hai Captains with shield (one represented by Uglúk) leading ten Uruk-hai with sword and shield and ten Uruk-hai with pike. Unusually, Evil has a Might point advantage here, four points to none.
Helping the Ents are the trees. At the end of each turn, Evil models within 2" of a tree must take a Strength 4 hit.
The instructions for this scenario say the more trees the better. I did a little measuring and based on the picture in the layout instructions I think I got the density about right. There are places where the Uruk-hai can avoid the hits from the trees ... but not a lot of them.
Unfortunately, I don't have enough trees to cover the entire 4' by 4' board. So there's just a partial picture here. I'll move the trees as the Uruks advance to keep the board (or at least the pictures) looking forest-y.
The Ents set up within 6" of the western board edge, which is where the Evil models will appear on Turn 1. Since Good can't know exactly where the Uruks will pop up, and needs to minimize the chances of Evil getting behind him, he spreads out and sets up as far east as he can.
Good always starts narrative scenarios with Priority. The Ents back up to await the Uruk-hai.
There would seem to be two basic Evil strategies: a wide deployment trying to overwhelm the Ents, or a narrow penetration near an edge hoping to keep at least one Ent out of play for a while. I ended up deciding to use the latter. The Uruks stick to the southern board half (the camera has rotated 90° clockwise, so you're now looking east).
It's hard to avoid the trees, and they are effective this turn, as their roots and branches kill five Uruk-hai.
Evil Priority, 4-1.
The Uruks rush through the trees. The Birch and Ash Ents are not yet in Charge range but move to where the action is. The Linden Ent stomps into an Uruk-hai Captain and a Warrior. Both sides roll poorly, getting a '4' highest on three dice, but the Captain has Might and spends one point to win! Fortunately for the Ent, the Wound rolls are no more impressive than the Duel rolls and the tree herder is unharmed.
At turn's end the trees take out two more Evil models and put a Wound on the other Uruk-hai Captain. Total Evil casualties: 7
Good Priority, 6-6.
There doesn't seem much point in calling Heroic Move, as the Linden Ent is the only one in Charge range and the Uruks are spread out enough that he can't tag everyone. So Good takes his move.
The Linden Ent moves to re-engage his opponents from last turn. The Ash Ent is just out of range so moves to take a blocking position between the trees. The Birch Ent does as best he can to get where the action is.
Should the Evil troops help their Captain? Both the teachings of Saruman and game tactics say "every orc for himself" and the Captain's troops, courtesy of the Linden Ents negated control zone, bolt for the far board edge, no doubt wishing him luck.
The Linden Ent wins his Duel roll, getting '6' to the Captain's '4' and the Warrior's '5'. The Captain's sole remaining Might point can't help now. The Ent weighs his options. The Bludgeon Brutal Power Attack seems like a lot of fun but with only two opponents an Ent does more damage just doing regular Strikes. So no Brutal Power Attack this turn. He decides to target the Captain with his Strikes, and, needing '4's, rolls '3', '3', and '3'. Of course.
The turn end tree attacks are more successful and 4 Uruk-hai are slain. Total Evil casualties: 11
Good Priority, 4-2.
Evil needs to make progress and to get around the Ents, so each Captain calls a Heroic Move. The plan is to tie up the Ents with a single Warrior each, allowing the other models to continue to run for the board edge. And the die rolls are kind, as the Courage Tests required by the Ents' Terror are passed with flying colors.
The Birch Ent is finally in Charge range and moves to help his Ash brethren, lining up the bases for a Hurl (first picture).
Both sacrificial Uruks are easily beaten. The Birch Ent rolls low for his Hurl, but the strength difference is enough to send the Uruk flying into one of his escaping fellows anyway, and Good rolls well enough that both the missile and the target are killed (second picture).
To the south, the Linden Ent finally scores a kill.
The trees get no one this turn, but Evil has now taken 14 casualties. That leaves just eight models left, so everyone on the board has to make it off the map to win.
Evil Priority, 6-4.
The Uruks run. They can move away from the Ents but it's harder to avoid the trees. A few Uruks are vulnerable to the turn-end attacks and luck is with Good as three more Uruks go down and a Captain is wounded. An Evil win is now impossible.
Good Victory!
Despite the Ents not doing a lot of damage (just three models!) and the the Uruk-hai's Might advantage, Evil had a hard time here. Certainly the Good player's "Man of the Match" is the forest itself!
As always, I'd never claim I used optimum tactics. The Captains probably should have called Heroic Marches, as speed is vital here.
But I think the big determinant in this scenario is how dense you make the forest. Those S4 hits are going to kill Warriors on a '5'+. So Warriors are likely to be dead enduring only three attacks during the course an of entire game. My setup made that virtually impossible to avoid.
You could have fewer trees, which would certainly have made the photography easier! But the movie scene we're recreating here depicts a dense forest. So I think it'd be better to keep a large number of trees and just lower the effectiveness of the attacks. Strength 2 would require '6's against Warriors and '6'/'4' against the Captains, which feels about right.
A decent enough scenario with a nice theme-y feel.
My rating: ★★★☆☆