This is a scenario for scenario of Games Workshop's Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, the first in the War in Rohan sourcebook.
Here we see the fierce Dunlendings trying to burn down a Rohan village. The game lasts 10 turns; Evil wins if at that point at least 4 buildings are on fire. Good wins otherwise, and can limit Evil to a draw if a Captain can exit the board after Rohan is reduced to 50% of their initial force.
(Click on any image to see an enlargement.)
The Good forces feature two Captains (one is "Erkenbrand" for easy differentiation) leading 24 Warriors of Rohan.
The Evil forces are led by the three relatively new Dunlending heroes: (left to right) Frída Tallspear, Gorûlf Ironskin, and the Wild Man Oathmaker. The warriors are twelve Wild Men (back row), six Huscarls (behind the heroes), and a Dunlending Warrior Warband. Somewhat oddly, the scenario calls for a troop distribution not matching the contents of the Warband: it uses no Dunlending Warriors with two-handed weapons, substituting extra warriors with bows and shields instead.
GW's been pretty good about not doing that recently. Here I just went ahead and used what comes in the Warband. I can't think my substitution of weapon types makes much difference, and it's cheaper than buying two Warbands.
Not shown but of importance are the torches implicitly carried by the Evil models. This lets them set fire to a building by ending their movement in base contact and rolling a 5+. Once on fire, the Rohirrim can try to extinguish the flames by rolling a 6. But if they roll a 1, the fire rages out of control and can no longer be put out.
Our Rohan village has seven buildings (1st image). There are three to the west, which I'll call (top to bottom) W1, W2, and W3, three more to the east (E1, E2, E3) and the Stables (props to Lachie) in the center. Perhaps surprisingly in a scenario involving fire, the well has no effect on play other than blocking movement and line of sight. I just put in there for looks and because it seems appropriate that a village would have a well.
The Good models must set up half in the west and half in the east, within 3" of a building. So they put a Captain in each board half, with an even distribution of warriors and bowmen placed with an eye for shooting.
Evil freely deploys the Wild Men and the Oathmaker within 6" of the north and/or south edges. It might be better to concentrate them on one edge to overwhelm the scattered Rohan defenders. But Evil is hoping to be able to set buildings ablaze as early as possible. So half them and the Oathmaker go in the north (2nd image) and half go in the south (3rd image) so as to maximize the chances of reaching a building.
The other Dunlending leaders and the Warband troops enter on a 3+ on Turn 1, or 2+ on later turns.
1st image: E1 and W1 (background). 2nd image: W2. 3rd image: E2. 4th image: W3. 5th image: Stables and E3.
Good begins with Priority. Not what he would have preferred. There are a few Evil models close enough to set fire to buildings, so Good shifts some men to block that where possible.
Evil's reinforcement rolls are pretty bad. Of 20 rolls looking for 3+, only 10 succeed. Frída and three Huscarls are among the laggards who will try again to enter next turn.
Despite Rohan's best efforts, a couple Wild Men reach building E1 and set it on fire (1st image).
Shooting sees the Good bowmen taking out a Dunlending Warrior and a Wild Man (1st and 4th images).
There are three Combats, which are all won by Evil, and two Warriors of Rohan are slain (1st image again).
Casualties: Good 2 (8%), Evil 2. Fires: 1
1st image: W1 and E1. 2nd image: W1 and W2. 3rd image: E2. 4th image: W3, Stables and E3.
Evil Priority, 5-5.
With a 4-7 Might deficit compared to Evil, Good forgoes any Heroic Moves at this point. So Evil proceeds with his move.
Buildings W1 (1st image) and W2 (2nd image) are set alight. W3 is made of sterner stuff and is safe for now. Evil has a clear path to E2 (3rd image) but can't quite make it into base contact, so it's safe, too.
Evil's reinforcement rolls are poor and despite the increased chance of entering, Frída and two others fail to enter.
Good moves to tie up the Evil models as much as possible. Spears are thrown on the way in but none have any effect. Neither do any arrows from either side.
In Combat, Gorûlf and a Huscarl lose to a lowly spearman, '2' highest vs '3' (4th image, left). The Dunlending deems it not worth it to spend a Might point is proven correct as the spearman fails to land a Wound. "Ironskin" indeed!
That's all the good news there is for Good, though. Elsewhere 4 warriors are mown down at no cost to the Dunlendings.
Casualties: Good 6 (23%), Evil 2. Fires: 3
1st image: E1. 2nd image: W1 and W2. 3rd image: E2. 4th image: W3. 5th image: Stables, E2, and E3.
Evil Priority, 6-4.
Hoping to preserve building E2, the nearby Captain calls a Heroic Move. There's no Evil Hero nearby, so the Captain takes his move. Calling "With Me!" he and his men tie up the local Huscarls and bowmen (3rd image).
Evil then moves. Both building W3 and E3 prove inflammable, W3 in the favorable-to-Evil sense of the word and E3 in the favorable-to-Good sense of the word.
Frída finally enters and moves to counter the Captain near E2. The two remaining reinforcements roll '1's again and will have to try again next turn.
Combat is bloody, with both sides losing five models. One of the losses is a Wild Men in an upset where he and the Oathmaker lose to a lone bowman (1st image, right).
Casualties: Good 11 (42%), Evil 7. Fires: 4
1st image: E1. 2nd image: W2. 3rd image: E2. 4th image: Stables and W3. 5th image: W3 and W2.
Good Priority, 6-4.
Sensing the Captain might run for it, as Good is nearing 50% casualties, Frída calls a Heroic Move to cut him off. The Captain decides to save his last Might point and stoically endures being trapped (3rd image).
Elsewhere, Good ties up as many Evil models as possible to prevent further ignition attempts.
With the Rohirrim thinning in the south, Gorûlf and some extra warriors head towards the Rohan Captain near W2 (5th image).
In Combat, the surrounded Captain gets his '6' but so does Frída and she wins due to her higher Fight value. Evil can but gnash her teeth as out of 4 doubled Strikes, only one Wound is scored!
Elsewhere losses are a bit lighter than last turn, with three Evil and two Good models being slain.
Casualties: Good 13 (50%), Evil 10. Fires: 4
1st image: E1, Stables, and W1. 2nd image: W2. 3rd image: E2. 4th image: Stables, E2, and E3.
Evil Priority, 5-1.
With Good now at 50% casualties, it's time to get a Captain off the board. Both Captains call Heroic Moves. Evil sees little point in countering both of them, as (due to taking turns when Heroic Moves are opposed) one of the Captains is guaranteed to move before the Evil models on his flank. But Gorûlf, with more Might than Frída, calls a Heroic Move to at least mess with Good a little bit.
Evil wins the roll-off and moves to prevent "Erkenbrand" from getting any funny ideas about quitting the game (2nd image). Then the Captain near E2 bolts for the Eastern board edge (3rd image).
Evil then moves to tie up as many models as possible, while still finding time to set the Stables (1st image) and E2 (3rd image) on fire.
While all those fires mean trouble for Good, Rohan's morale remains high as Combat sees six Dunlendings killed at the cost of a single Warrior of Rohan and one Wound on "Erkenbrand". Two of the six Evil casualties are caused by the Captain (3rd image), freeing him to leave the board next turn.
Casualties: Good 14, Evil 16. Fires: 6
1st image: E1, Stables. 2nd image: W2. 3rd image: E2 and E1. 4th image: Stables, E2, and E3.
Evil Priority, 5-3.
Evil's goal now is to prevent Good models from extinguishing fires. So all the Good models are engaged. One Wild Man finally manages to set E3 ablaze. The entire village is now on fire.
The Rohan Captain exits the board (off to the right of the 3rd image). Evil can't win now, but a draw seems very likely.
By a combination of poor rolls and thinning ranks, Combat is relatively bloodless this turn. "Erkenbrand" takes another Wound but is saved by Fate. Elsewhere 3 Rohirrim die while taking out a single Dunlending.
Casualties: Good 17, Evil 17. Fires: 7
1st image: E1. 2nd image: W2. 3rd image: E2. 4th image: Stables.
Good Priority, 6-6.
In the north (1st image) and east (3rd image), Good is outnumbered and tries to make the best attacks that he can. In the west (2nd image), a brave Warrior attacks Gorûlf and a Huscarl to enable "Erkenbrand" to attack a Huscarl at advantage. In the south (4th image), a Warrior runs for it in hopes of being in a position to put out a fire next turn.
Combat breaks for Evil this turn as 3 Warriors of Rohan die in exchange for a single Dunlending.
Casualties: Good 20, Evil 18. Fires: 7
Image: the remains of W2.
Good Priority, 5-1.
It's near the end of the game (remember: ten turns) so it's time for Good to attempt some extinguishing. He rolls three times, for W2, the Stables, and E2. The Stables are saved -- at least for now -- but disaster strikes the other two as both fires rage out of control may no longer be put out!
Evil is of course free to re-ignite the Stables during his move. Though it takes six models to do so, he finally succeeds.
Outnumbered, with all buildings on fire (two of them permanently), and extinguishing much harder than igniting, Good throws in the towel. Ordinarily this would be an Evil victory, but since a Captain escaped to bring news to Edoras....
Tie Game!
Hrm. I can't say that was a very good scenario.
I've intimated elsewhere that I'm not overfond of these fire rules. You may have noticed that I made little effort during the game to put out a fire. And why would I? On any given extinguish attempt, Good's only got a 1/6 change of putting out the fire. The bad guys then can re-ignite it 1/3 of the time. So it's a losing proposition. You might as well wait until the last minute so Evil has less reaction time.
And then of course if your extinguish roll is a '1' the fire is permanent. So I can get punished for trying to do the right thing, and I will have to do it at some point if I want to win the scenario? That's sour.
Something else that bothers me (and probably only me) is that I'm not a fan of how GW has rendered Dunland. The Wild Men? Those guys are great. But the might-as-well-be-Rohan models don't seem very Tolkienian to me. Regarded purely as sculpts, they're very impressive, though.
Barring loaded dice, is it even possible for Good to win here? I don't mind a little scenario imbalance, but walk-overs aren't fun.
I feel like there's a good scenario in here trying to get out. But this needs work.
Those GW Rohan houses sure are good looking, though.
My rating: ★★☆☆☆