This is a scenario of Games Workshop's Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game from the War in Rohan book.
Here we recreate the movie-only scene where Saruman unleashes his Warg Riders on the Rohirrim retreating to Helm's Deep.
The victory conditions here are simple: Evil has twelve turns to kill three Good Heroes. If they succeed, they win; otherwise Good wins.
(Click on any image to see an enlargement.)
The Good force is six heroes (left to right: Aragorn, Théoden, Hama, Gamling, Gimli and Legolas) and six Riders of Rohan. The scenario's "Participants" box lists "Gamling, Captain of Rohan with horse" but doesn't mention the banner. Howevere, the scenario's picture in the book shows the banner, and there's no mounted Gamling model without it, so I included it anyway.
Evil's troops are an Orc Captain (represented here by Golfimbul) and Sharku accompanied by eighteen Warg Riders. I didn't have the exact gear the scenario specifies, so you see here fewer shields but more throwing spears. Close enough, though.
Hama begins Prone in the center of the board, with Gamling, the Orc Captain, and two Warg Riders nearby.
The rest of the models enter individually on a dieroll of '3'+, checked each turn. Evil enters from the western board edge, Good from the eastern.
Unusually for a narrative scenario, Evil begins the game with Priority by scenario special rule. Additionally, Good can't call any Heroic Actions this turn.
Evil Charges. Hoping that the Captain can deal with Hama on his own, the two Warg Riders attack Gamling. If both Good heroes die (a slim but non-zero chance), Evil is two-thirds of the way towards winning on the first turn. Throwing spears are hurled on the way in, but they miss.
Twelve Evil models enter as reinforcements, six (including Sharku) remaining off board. That's below average luck for Evil. For Good, all but one Rider enter. None of the reinforcements do a half move, as only the figures in the center would be in bow range. So there's no Shooting this turn.
Hama sets the bar at '4' and the Captain wins with a '5'. There's no point in Hama spending his sole Might point (he gets only one for this scenario) because the Captain has a higher Fight value and so would win ties. The Captain scores two Wounds, but Hama saves himself with a Fate point.
Gamling gets a '6' against the Warg Riders and wins the Combat. The horselord kills one Orc, and his Warg fails his (her?) Courage test and runs away.
Good Priority, 4-3.
The Captain doesn't want Hama to stand up, so he calls a Heroic Move and Hama counters. Good wins the roll-off. Hama re-engages the Captain while Gamling tries to off the remaining Warg Rider.
The other Good models move up, the bows doing a half move since the Warg Riders will now be in range. The lone Rider of Rohan still off-map again fails to enter.
Evil moves up. Only two models from the six in the reinforcement pool enter; again bad luck for Evil. But at least one of them is Sharku and his Might points.
The archery of the Riders is completely ineffective, but Legolas steps up and two of his three shots kill Orcs. One of the wargs fails his Courage test, one passes (the orange bead on the right).
Hama gets his '6' in Combat against the Captain's '5'. The Captain burns a Might point to tie and then wins on Fight value. Since he himself was Charged, he doesn't get doubled Strikes this turn, but he still manages to inflict one Wound and Hama is slain! One down, two to go.
Perhaps demoralized by Hama's death, Gamling loses his Duel roll '2'-'4'. Is it worth two Might points to win? Gamling thinks for a bit and decides, given the need to stay alive to win the game, that it is. Here's to hoping he won't regret it later. He manages to kill both the Warg Rider and the warg itself.
Good Priority, 6-1.
The Orc Captain is out of Might, and Sharku is too far away, so no Heroic Moves this turn.
Having learned his lesson from last scenario, Good backs off a half move to try to thin out the Evil ranks a bit before the general engagement. The lone laggard again fails to enter.
Evil moves up as far as he can except for a couple of boworcs. Three of the four remaining reinforcements enter.
Good's tactic fails to pay off as his Shooting has no effect. But Evil gets lucky and a throwing spear takes out a Rider of Rohan!
Good Priority, 3-2.
Sharku is still too far away to use a Heroic Move effectively, so again Good gets free rein.
Good tries to engage as many models as possible, some of the Riders taking on two opponents to minimize Evil's ability to react to Good's move. Legolas drops off Gimli into the Orc Captain as he passes by. I assume that's legal? If not, it should be: rule of cool and all. The last Rider enters, though he's too far away to be effective this turn.
Evil moves up to bolster his models where he can. The last reinforcement enters.
Aragorn calls a Heroic Combat (first picture). He handily dispatches his two opponents, their wargs fail their Courage tests, and Aragorn moves to help out the often glass-jawed Legolas by peeling off a Warg Rider (second picture).
But does Legolas need the help? His Duel roll against Sharku is a '6' vs '1' blowout. Hoping both to dismount Sharku and to avoid the S4 hits on missed Strikes from Sharku's Riding Dagger special rule, Legolas aims for the warg. But his Wound rolls are a terrible '3', '1' and the Evil models live to fight on.
Gamling and Gimli easily beat the Orc Captain (who set the bar with a roll of '1', '1'). The Good models manage only two Wounds, and the Captain's Fate saves him.
Elsewhere, one Rider of Rohan and four Warg Riders go down, with one of the wargs remaining (orange bead).
Good Priority, 5-1.
Should Sharku call a Heroic Move? Looking over the stats, Evil has only two Might points against Good's current total of 13. He decides he's better off preserving those points for boosting Duel, Wound, or Fate rolls. So Good proceeds.
Good again Charges in an effort to tie up as many Evil models as possible.
Aragorn, Théoden, and Gimli each call Heroic Combats, hoping to help out their weaker compatriots.
Théoden goes first (second picture), and loses his Duel roll '5'-'6'. He spends a Might point to tie and then win on Fight value. He kills (barely) his opposing Warg Rider, and moves to help Legolas.
Next up is Aragorn against Sharku. Aragorn easily wins, '6' vs '2'. His first strike kills the Warg; Sharku takes a Thrown Rider test and gets a '1'! At least the S3 hit doesn't Wound. But Sharku's Prone now, so Aragorn gets doubled Strikes. His final two Strikes both Wound -- so no Riding Dagger counterstrikes -- and Sharku needs his Fate point to survive. Fortunately he passes. Sharku can fight on next turn and Aragorn can't move and fight again.
Now Gimli and the Rider attack the Orc Captain. The Duel roll is tied at '4'-each but Good wins due to Gimli's Fight value. The Wound rolls are terrible, nothing higher than a '3' when a '6' is needed. So the Captain, too, fights on.
The other Combats (third picture) are bad for Evil as four Warg Riders plus a dismounted Orc die at no cost to Good. At least two of the wargs remain, but that's small recompense.
Good Priority, 5-1.
Sharku is on his last legs and may as well use his Might while he can, so he calls a Heroic Move. Aragorn counters with his ever-so-irritating free Might point. But Sharku wins the roll-off. Given the initiative, Evil now can finally throw in some sacrifices against the stronger heroes while launching credible threats against Gimli and Théoden. Gimli's tough but he's on foot and maybe the Warg Riders will be able to knock him down and get those doubled Strikes.
(Incidentally, Sharku should be dismounted here. Your reporter took a break between turns and forgot to replace the model. It doesn't matter much to the results of the game.)
But will the sacrifices work? Aragorn calls a Heroic Combat (first picture), and he and Legolas handily dispatch the warg facing them. Aragorn moves to peel Sharku off Théoden, while Legolas goes to help his dwarf friend (second picture).
Aragorn and Sharku tie their Duel rolls at '5'. Sharku spends his last Might point to force Aragorn to use Might from his store as well. Aragorn then wins on Fight value. His first Strike scores a Wound and Sharku is slain.
Legolas also beats the Captain. His first Wound roll is a '5' needing a '6'; Legolas spends a Might point and the Captain finally falls.
Gamling also needs to spend a Might point to win his Combat and kills an orc; the warg stays on.
Evil wins no Combats anywhere else either. At the end of the turn, Evil is down to a lone Warg Rider and three wargs. Taking out two more heroes seems impossible and a heavily demoralized Evil concedes.
Good victory!
What a blowout! This is a mirror image of my previous battle report and for much the same reason: the disparity in Might. It's such an important resource, and the differential here is even greater than it was last time.
But luck is also a factor, too, and that greatly favored the Good side here. Review those Priority rolls; Good won every time. The Good heroes never muffed a Duel roll. The Evil reinforcements were a bit late in arriving. And the few breaks Evil did get didn't result in any important casualties, barring the "gimme" of Hama.
I also realized when writing this up that advancing the Warg Riders in a solid line was a mistake. It allowed Good to dictate the terms of the battle by engaging all of the Evil models on their terms. It would have been better to use a checkerboard-type formation to allow Evil to be able to react better to a Good Charge, perhaps moving around the flanks and getting some traps in.
The luck factor skewed things so much here that it seems hard to evaluate this scenario fairly. I suspect Evil has an uphill struggle even when the luck is more evenly balanced but given that Good won per the movies that doesn't seem unreasonable.
My rating: ★★★☆☆