This is a scenario from Games Workshop's War in Rohan book for their Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, covering Éomer's raid on the evil warbands returning Merry and Pippin to Isengard.
This is mostly a break-the-other-guy scenario where the first side to inflict 75% casualties on the other wins. There is an additional condition, though, where if either or both of Merry and Pippin die, the best that Good can do is draw.
(Click on any image to see an enlargement.)
The Good force is two squads of Riders of Rohan, led by Éomer and a Captain, and three Outriders. I don't actually have any Outriders, so I've substituted Royal Guard here. Merry and Pippin are present also, of course.
Evil has four(!) heroes: Uglúk, Mauhur, Grishnákh, and Snaga (front row). Backing them up are twelve Uruk-hai Scouts and twelve Orcs. It's nice when the orders of battle work out to exactly match the box sets.
Merry and Pippin set up in the center of the board near the campfire, with Grishnákh 3" away. These three models have their own little race going on. The hobbits are ignored by everyone except Grishnákh and all three must crawl at half movement. Merry and Pippin can, on a roll of '6', break their bonds and resume normal movement.
The rest of the Evil models are then deployed within 6" of the campfire. Evil deploys the Uruk-hai with Uglúk and Mauhur to the west (first picture), and Snaga and the Orcs to the east (second picture).
Good then splits his force in half, each with one of the heroes. Éomer leads the western contingent, and the Captain takes the eastern squad. They set up 6" in from their respective board edges.
Good begins with Priority, as always for narrative play.
The Evil troops are too far away to reach on turn 1, so the Rohirrim must decide how far to move. By scenario special rule, Evil's not allowed to move at all on the first turn. So there's no possibility of a counter-Charge right away. But it's always possible Evil will get Priority next turn.
So Good decides to take advantage of his 15:6 superiority in bows and does a half move, keeping out of 6" range of the Evil models.
Merry and Pippin crawl their 2" and fail to cut their bonds.
Good's tactic doesn't pay off, as the Rider score few hits and no Wounds. Evil's return fire only gets one hit ... but it's a good one, scoring a Wound on Éomer's horse. He uses two Fate points to save his steed.
Good Priority, 6-1.
Good was hoping for Evil to win Priority, but no such luck. Charging now will only get the Riders counter-Charged. So the Riders stay put and hope the increased Shooting accuracy from a non-moving platform will pay off.
Merry and Pippin continue their crawl towards Fangorn. Now Grishnákh has the scent and follows them. They are still unable to loosen their bonds.
Despite the results of last turn, in the long run Evil's going to lose an archery battle, so Evil advances, hoping to snag Priority next turn and get the jump on the pesky Rohirrim. They are careful to keep the spaces between their bases less than the width of a Rider, so as to protect their leaders.
Shooting works a bit better for Good this turn, with two Uruk-hai and an Orc falling for no losses on the Good side.
Casualties: Good 0, Evil 3
Good Priority, 6-1.
Evil can't just let the Rohirrim Charge, so Uglúk and Snaga call Heroic Moves. There's no point in both Rohan heroes countering; even if Good wins the roll-off, Evil would get to move before the second Rohan hero. So only Éomer calls a Heroic Move, and the Captain steels himself for defense.
Good wins the roll-off, and the western Riders barrel into the Uruk-hai. Snaga then gets his turn and pre-empts any similar effect on the eastern flank.
Merry and Pippin continue to crawl away from Grishnákh. Pippin succeeds in breaking his bonds, and will be able to make full moves in future turns.
In the Fight phase, Éomer is tied with Mauhur in Fight Value, so both call a Heroic Strikes; the Marshal of Rohan gets the higher roll and so will win the Combat in case of a tie. Unfortunately for Éomer, though, he botches the Duel roll with a '4' vs Mauhur's '5'. Spending his final Might point to tie will just have Mauhur spend one himself to win anyway, so Éomer concedes the Duel, gulps hard, and braces himself for the blow. Fortunately for him the Evil Wound rolls are terrible, the results being a single Wound on his horse, which he saves with his final Fate point.
Elsewhere on the western flank, four Uruk-hai are ridden down but two Riders fall as well.
In the east, Snaga loses the Duel roll '5' vs '6'. Since his Rider opponent is getting no cavalry bonuses this turn, Snaga can't die, so he decides to save his Might. His bravery pays off as his enemy fails to inflict even a single Wound.
The Rohan Captain loses his Combat '5' vs '6', too. But, attempting to save his horse, he does expend a Might point to win on Fight value. It may have been a mistake, though, as he also scores no Wounds.
In the other Combats on that flank, a single Orc and two more Riders are slain.
Casualties: Good 4, Evil 8
Evil Priority, 4-1.
The Priority roll is disastrous for Good. Éomer and the Captain each have only a single Might point remaining while Evil has at least 2 Might points on each flank. Realizing that one flank is going to lose the cavalry bonus no matter what, Éomer realizes that his squadron is at least even in numbers at this point, so he saves his Might for a Heroic Strike. The Captain needs to get some momentum going on his side, though, so he does call the Heroic Move, which is countered by Snaga, who wins the roll-off.
All the Good models are pinned in place, barring of course the hobbits. Pippin, somewhat unchivalrously, runs at full speed while Merry still must crawl, but fortunately he, too, breaks his bonds.
Éomer calls a Heroic Strike, as does Uglúk, and the man of Rohan goes to F8 against Uglúk's F6. But Good then muffs the Duel roll, losing '5' to '6'. Éomer has no Might left, so he loses the Combat. Uglúk and Mauhur between them could kill him outright, but their Wound rolls are a terrible '1', '1', '3', and '1' and the Marshal is unharmed.
Elsewhere there are many tied Duel rolls which work in favor of the Uruk-hai, and across the board five Riders are slain at the cost of only two Orcs. Despite Éomer's luck in surviving unscathed, this was not a happy turn for Good.
Casualties: Good 9, Evil 10
Evil Priority, 4-2.
There may come a day when Priority will break for Good. But it is apparently not this day. With no Might remaining, Good has to take his lumps.
Compounding Good's misery is Grishnákh catching Merry. The Duel rolls are ridiculously low, the orc managing just a '2'-highest to Merry's '3'. Grishnákh has, by scenario special rule, but a single Might point. But this seems like a perfect time to spend it, so he wins on Fight value, and then scores two Wounds, killing the hobbit! The best that Good can manage now is a Draw. Frankly, at this point it seems unlikely to matter much.
Against Éomer, Uglúk strikes up, Mauhur gets the '6', and the trapped Rohirrim hero takes five Wounds and dies!
Snaga, too, wins against the Captain but he and his co-combatants' Wound rolls aren't up to the level set by the other Evil heroes and only two Wounds are scored despite five doubled Strikes. The Captain's Fate point saves him.
Among the warriors, one Uruk-hai and three more Riders die.
Casualties: Good 13, Evil 11
Good Priority, 6-2.
At this point Good is far enough behind in numbers that Priority isn't going to help much. By why even pretend to be kind? Snaga and Mauhur call Heroic Moves and forestall any cavalry Charges. Good isn't entirely wiped out ... but they are reduced to over 75% casualties.
Evil Victory!
Um, wow.
It's tough for cavalry when they can't Charge. And given Evil's Might advantage here -- eight to five, not even counting Grishnákh -- it's really difficult for Good to out Heroic Move the Evil side.
In retrospect, I should probably have had the Rohirrim hang back and thin the Evil ranks more with arrow fire. That's not what I saw in the movie, though. "Historically", surely this was a Good victory? In which case using the tactics shown in the movie should work.
GW has put out many iterations of this situation over the years. I don't think this is the best one. We've added Mauhur and Snaga compared to previous versions, with few compensatory adjustments for Good.
Of course Good's luck was nothing to write home about, most of it coming defensively from poor Evil rolls to Wound.
My rating: ★★☆☆☆