This is a scenario of Games Workshop's Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, from the War in Rohan sourcebook.
Saruman's Uruk-hai have blown a hole in the Deeping Wall of Helm's Deep, and are pouring within.
"Wait!", you say. "I don't remember you blowing up the wall." Right you are. I'm not playing these scenarios chronologically, instead going more or less in order of increasing size. This gives me some time to prep all those Dunlending figures I need for the first Fords of Isen scenario. And, yeah, it will be weird if the Deeping Wall fails to blow up when I eventually get to that scenario.
The objective here is to have the most victory points after ten turns. The Good heroes are worth one point each (for Good if alive, for Evil if slain). There's one point awarded by casualties that goes to Good if 50% of his models survive and Evil if not. Finally, two points go to the side with the most figures within the walls. So the maximum possible score is eight.
(Click on any image to see an enlargement.)
The Good troops are led by Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli, and Haldir. The rest of the defenders are the standard sprue of twelve Warriors of Rohan and twelve Wood Elves, half with elven blades and half with bows. The elven contingent is slightly different than what's called for in the scenario (which I bet is a sprue of Galadhrim) but I don't have those models and it probably makes no difference.
I really like all of the models here. I think this is my first outing with Haldir's elves, which I think are great sculpts even if the various poses are only microscopically different from one another.
Bursting through the breach are three Orc Captains; I'm using the Lurtz and Uglúk models for variety and to help me remember which is which. They lead eight Berserkers and twenty Uruk-hai Warriors, ten with sword and ten with pike.
We start behind the punctured Deeping Wall, with the blue area representing shallow water. Models within the water, or on the walls, don't count for the occupation victory points.
Haldir and the Warriors of Rohan deploy prone on the Deeping Wall.
The rest of the Evil models can enter, d6+2 at a time, at the end of the Evil Move phase. As is often the case, dead models recycle, except Captains.
Due to the titanic explosion that knocked the Good models off their feet, all of the Good heroes begin with no Fate.
Good starts with Priority in Narrative scenarios.
Good considers what to do with the heavily-outnumbered Gimli. He's brave, no doubt, and his armor is tough. But there are a lot of enemies nearby. Maybe he should consider running?
Evil realizes this and decides to call a Heroic Move in hopes of surrounding him before help can reach him. Gimli counters, but Evil wins the roll-off and Gimli is swarmed.
Aragorn moves up to help Gimli. He is supposed to begin Prone, and hence should have spent half his movement allowance standing up. But your narrator forgot that here.
The models on the wall all stand up and nock their arrows.
Evil ends the Movement phase luckily, rolling a '6' and so bringing in eight more models through the breach.
With Legolas, Haldir, six elven bows, four Rohan bows, and four Rohan throwing spears, there's quite a lot of Shooting. It's mostly going through the motions though, as only one Wound is scored, and that by a regular Elf Warrior.
Since Good has Priority, he's able to divide up the Combats and Aragorn picks off two of the enemies surrounding Gimli and uses his free Might point to call a Heroic Combat. Both sides score a mediocre '4' on their Duel roll and Aragorn then wins on Fight value. His Wounds rolling isn't much better than his Duel rolling, getting '1', '2', and then '5' to at least kill one enemy. But since he didn't kill every opponent, the Heroic Combat has no effect.
That leaves Gimli facing a Captain and two Uruk-hai Warriors. The Captain gets a '5' but Gimli tops it with an '6', unbeatable due to Fight value superiority. He tries to Wound the Captain, as dead Captains don't come back, but his Wound rolls are terrible: '1', '2', '2'.
Not an impressive turn for Our Heroes.
Victory Points: Good 8 (4VP heroes, 1VP casualties, 2VP occupation), Evil 0
Good Priority, 6-2.
Evil doesn't see much point in a Heroic Move now. If Aragorn and Gimli stick around, well and good. If they run, they can be caught. So Good starts his move.
This scenario allows Legolas once per game to surf down the stairs, which is how he managed to reach the bottom of the steps already. As part of the surfing, he takes his three shots, putting a single Wound on Lurtz, then he kicks the shield into a nearby Uruk-hai for an S4 hit, to no effect. From Good's point of view, this all worked out a little less cool than in the movies.
The Rohirrim (except the bowmen) begin to run down the stairs and the elven swordsmen move up to help out Aragorn and Gimli.
The Uruks of course engage everywhere they can, and luck out again on the reinforcement roll, allowing eight more models to enter.
Good's Shooting is better this turn. Haldir lands a Wound on Lurtz (saved by Fate), followed by another from a bowelf, and a Rohan spearman delivers the coup de grâce. There's a third of Evil's Might gone! Uglúk and an uruk-hai swordsman nearing the elven line also take Wounds.
Gimli gets his unbeatable '6' on the Duel roll but again fails to land any Wounds on the Captain.
Aragorn goes looking for trouble only rolling a '5' but Evil can do no better and, using his free Might point, he succeeds in slaying three enemies.
Legolas easily dispatches his lone uruk-hai opponent.
Victory Points: Good 8 (4VP heroes, 1VP casualties, 2VP occupation), Evil 0
Evil Priority, 6-1.
Aragorn uses his free Might point to call a Heroic Move to help dictate the terms of engagement. The Uruk-hai Captain counters, but Good wins the roll-off.
Aragorn and the Rohirrim try to swamp Uglúk. The uruk-hai are numerous, but the water slows them down enough that Aragorn at least is now in no danger of being surrounded.
Evil engages where he can. The Captain decides to leave Gimli to the Berserkers and he goes hunting elves. Only three models enter as reinforcements.
The elf archers take a half-move to get better shots and/or to help out the swordelfs. It evidently throws off their aim, though, as the only Wound scored in Shooting this turn comes from Haldir, who is able to take out a Berserker near Aragorn despite the Berserker's extra resistance to arrows.
Since Evil has Priority, he gets to decide how to divide up the Combats. Uglúk tries to be clever and concentrates on the Warrior of Rohan, leaving an abandoned-feeling warrior alone to face Aragorn. But his tactic backfires as he muffs the Duel roll with snake-eyes and the Warrior wins. The Rohirrim's sword fails to penetrate the uruk's tough armor, though.
Aragorn fares no better against his lone enemy, needing to use his free Might point to tie the Duel roll and win on Fight value. He does manage to kill the Warrior, though.
Underperformance continues as Gimli comes up short against the Berserkers, '4' to '6'. Is it worth his last two points of Might to win? The Berserkers will get four Strikes, but they need sixes to Wound. Gimli gulps and saves his Might ... but the Berserker's dice come up '4', '6', '2', and '6'. That's two Wounds on Gimli ... and remember that Good has no Fate points in this scenario. Down Gimli goes!
Then the Uruk-hai Captain tackles two elves, and he loses, too! The elves fail to land any Wounds.
Legolas also loses, to a Berserker who also fails to Wound courtesy of snake-eyes.
Every hero on both sides lost their unmodified Duel roll this turn. Crazy stuff.
Among the regular troops, honors are even as a Warrior of Rohan and an Uruk-hai Warrior go down.
Victory Points: Good 7 (3VP heroes, 1VP casualties, 2VP occupation, Evil 1 (1VP Gimli)
Good Priority, 1-1.
Evil has plenty of time (seven turns, including this one) and only two Might points left. So no Heroic Moves.
The elves retreat a bit, keeping the berserkers out of Charge range and getting closer to their bowelf brethren. It looks like they may need the help. Elsewhere, Good moves to tie up the Evil models, while Evil countercharges and begins to get some use out of their pikeuruks.
Again only three reinforcements enter. It's only been '1's or '6's on the reinforcement rolls so far. So average luck overall -- but getting sixteen models on board in the first two turns has no doubt been a nice leg up.
Shooting again fails to impress, with only Haldir landing a Wound against a pike supporting the Combat against Aragorn. (You can see a bit of Haldir's red cloak at the top right of the second picture. He probably deserves better photo coverage, as only his bow is doing much lately.)
Aragorn must have walked under a ladder while carrying a black cat over a broken mirror, because he manages only a '3' Duel roll against Evil's '6'. He saw what happened to Gimli, though. He gulps, spends his two remaining Might points and his free Might point to win. His Strikes manage to kill only the Berserker. He's now no doubt he muttering some choice words under his breath about his die-rollig representative!
Uglúk gets his mojo back and handily dispatches a Warrior of Rohan, as does the Captain against an elf.
Legolas also loses his Duel roll '4'-'5' and must spend a Might point to win. He fails to Wound, though.
If you just look at the Victory Points, it seems like Good still has this well in hand. But there are few Might points left and every casualty diminishes Good but doesn't daunt Evil at all.
Victory Points: Good 7 (3VP heroes, 1VP casualties, 2VP occupation, Evil 1 (1VP Gimli)
Evil Priority, 5-1.
Despite his initial advantage, Good is running low on Might. And it's clearly needed to overcome some poor rolls. So no Heroic Moves.
Evil Charges, and six more reinforcements enter.
Shooting takes out a couple of supporting models. Legolas is facing a Berserker backed by two pikes until an elf takes out the first pike and then the second pike is no longer in base contact and hence can't support any more. Two Evil dice removed from that Combat for the price of one!
Haldir manages to keep up his streak and kills another pike supporting the attack on Aragorn.
In the west, the Captain loses his Combat against two elves by one, but declines to spend his Might point to force the win. The elves get a bit of luck and land a single Wound.
Legolas also loses his Combat by one, but does use his Might point to win and follows it up with a Wound.
Aragorn starts off well with an unbeatable '6' for his Duel roll, only to get a poor Wound roll of '1', '2', '3'.
Elsewhere, two Warriors of Rohan and a Wood Elf fall.
It's now halfway through the game. Though still ahead on Victory Points, things are clearly going pear-shaped for Good as the casualties mount and the Might points continue to dwindle.
Victory Points: Good 7 (3VP heroes, 1VP casualties, 2VP occupation), Evil 1 (1VP Gimli)
Good Priority, 3-2.
Evil's still got plenty of time and models. Let Good do their worst. No Heroic Moves are called.
Good tries to engage advantageously but there are so many Evil models that favorable situations are hard to find. The numbers are made worse by Evil's reinforcement roll of (yet again) '6'. Barring the dead Captain, there are only five models available to take as reinforcements, leaving three potential resurrections unrealized. Good struggles to find any sympathy.
Shooting manages to kill two more models.
In Combat, Aragorn loses by two to Uglúk, and with only his free Might point remaining, he must lose. He's lucky in the sense that he only takes a below-average three Wounds from the fourteen Strikes against him. But remember: there's no Fate for Good in this scenario. So one more hero goes down!
Legolas also loses, but takes only a single Wound and lives to fight on at least one more turn, making this the rare slugfest where Legolas outlasts Gimli and Aragorn!
Things go no better for the warriors, either, as four elves are lost to no further Evil casualties. Evil is one model away from earning the victory point for casualties, and now can claim the occuptation victory points as well.
Victory Points: Good 3 (2VP heroes, 1VP casualties, Evil 4 (2VP heroes, 2VP occupation)
Evil Priority, 2-1.
The air seems to go out of the Good side. Shooting is entirely ineffective, and only a single Evil model is slain in Combat while three elves and two men go down.
With the casualty VP now flipping to Evil, the score stands at Good 2, Evil 5 with three turns to go. Good concedes.
Evil Victory!
That didn't seem particularly even.
The luck wasn't entirely one-sided, but Good sure seemed to struggle a lot of the time. Poor Duel rolls and poor Wound rolls are difficult to overcome, especially when the enemy has unlimited troops and lucky reinforcement dierolls.
Compounding Good's problem was my tactics. Leaving Haldir on the wall was surely a mistake, as his Might could have made a difference in the last few turns had he been available for Combat or Heroic Actions. And with numbers being so important, those four Rohan bowmen with him probably should have come down, too.
Having Gimli not spend two points of Might to win the Combat that killed him was certainly an error, too -- but one only obvious in hindsight. I think at the time I made the right decision there based on the odds and the need for that Might in the future. But dice will be dice.
Even given more equitable luck I think on a bet I'd still back Evil in this scenario.
Because of that suspicion of lopsidedness, I can't really give this scenario top marks. But I found as I was playing that I was really enjoying myself. I liked the fidelity to the movie scene, the unusual terrain, the multiple ways of scoring Victory Points, the fun heroes, and the different troop types (elves, men, uruk-hai, berserkers). All in good sized but still manageable package.
Worth a revisit sometime.
My rating: ★★★★☆