Hobbit SBG - Black Guard v Galadhrim and Rohan

“Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed like rain on the mountain, like wind in the meadow. The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow. How did it come to this? ."

       Theoden King of Rohan, The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings

This weeks battle saw Thomas field a Theoden led Rohan force with Galadhrim mixed in - a 600 point army to take on my 600 point Mordor Black Guard with shade and the Dark Marshal on armoured fell beast.

We rolled for the scenario and it was domination,not ideal for any Mordor army, but play we must.

Mordor General - the Dark Marshal

The Battlefield

Thomas' Galadhrim force, with Haldir and Riders of Rohan

Warriors of Rohan hide in the ruins with bows, right next to an objective marker

The bowmen of Rohan prepare for war

Theoden, king gives a rousing speech about honour and courage
"Riders of Rohan..."

The Galadhrim spread out

with Riders of Rohan on their flank

My deployment sees the Dark Marshal deploy center field with the shade and 10 Black Guard

The rest of the Black Guard take the ruins with their captain

Mordor hold the middle objective

My move - The Fell Beast heads straight towards the ruin

While my Black Guard edge forward

The Captain moves through the ruins with the riders of Rohan in his sight

Riders of Rohan in the distance

Riders of Rohan move across the board and leave the objective

Warriors of Rohan spill out of the ruins to attack the Dark Marshall,
the shadow of darkness bears heavy on the men

"Riders of Rohan..." Theoden tries to muster courage in his men

Meanwhile the Rohan and Galadhrim combo are loosing shots at the Black Guard
and a few go down

The Mordor Line is spread thin, I meant to keep them all together!

and the captain is on the far right, away from the center stage

Theoden charges and takes a couple of Rohan warriors with him to take out the Fell Beast

Black Guard try to support the wraith

The good army senses the opportunity and they start to move in for the kill

The Black Guard Captain is not fast enough for the Riders of Rohan

The Dark Marshal wins and rends Theoden, and all but kills him

Now my Black Guard have arrived to support the wraith, but my line is desperately thin

Rohan continue to fire from the ruins

CHARGE! Rohan and Galadhrim assault the center of Mordor line

Eomer charges in!

Second win for the Fell Beast - theoden is slain, the leader of Rohan is gone 

Eomer rides down a Black Guard

The Mordor troops are heavily outnumbered and resort to shielding, but I need the kills

Eomer is charged by the Black Guard Captain, while the wraith transfixes him,
Eomer is slain

The fell beast flies in to help, and give the banner re-roll, but is this too little too late?

Rohan surround the supporting Black Guard

Haldir charges the wraith... as Rohan start to mop up

Haldir is alone as Rohan support fail their courage tests to charge

Haldir looses, and the Wraith sees a lovely line of Rohan

Wearing a red cape Haldir is flung through the line...

...and is killed, while the warriors and Eowyn are knocked prone

Shielding is keeping Rohan at bay

Mordor need to pull this back and the wraith is loosing will

An Ariel view of the battle field

Elves and Rohan surround the Guard

While I make a dash for the objective.. I'm nearly broken

another Rohan thrown by the fellbeast, but Eowyn refuses to die!

Galadhrim and  Rohan make for the objectives

Mordor hold on by a thread

Warriors of Rohan chase down my Guard and claim the objective

The fell beast wins again and chucks another warrior through the Rohan ranks

More Rohan die

But so does my Black Guard captain

And with no will left, the Wraith withdraws... and my army crumbles,
I am broken, no stand fast and all my held objective are deserted by my Black guard,
a crushing defeat at the hands of Rohan  (even thought they have lost all but one of their heroes)

Result: Mordor 4 vs 16 Riders of Rohan

The battle field at the end 

Rider of Rohan claims an objective

Warrior of Rohan claims another

Final Thoughts:

Result: Mordor 4 vs 16 Riders of Rohan

This battle was another clear victory for the army of good, the combination of Rohan and the Galadhrim was too much for the Mordor Black Guard. Unfortunatley the good army simply had too many troops for Mordor to handle. 

The final score was:

Galadhrim and Rohan 16 - 4 Mordor Black Guard

I enjoyed playing the Black guard and having the shade should have helped them win the fights, but the strength of numbers meant that it was too difficult for me to win the battles and had to shield a lot, which ultimately meant I wasn't killing Toms army.

Man of the Match:

Man of the Match - the Mordor General 
The Dark Marshal on Fell Beast

Quite simply, this goes to The Dark Marshal on Fell Beast, he was a beast - he was able to fly around the board offering banner re-rolls as well as taking out all but one of the good heroes. I used his spells and Fell Beast to good effect, but in the end I simply ran out of will and left the fight, that broke my Mordor army, but I had pretty much lost by then.

I love the new monster rules too, flinging a hero across the battle field was really effective and had I targetted the troops and not heroes - i might have won the battle.

Well done tom on a well deserved victory!

All in all another brilliant game and an enjoyable battle.

We welcome anyone interested in playing The Hobbit SBG, Lotr SBG, WotR or any warhammer/40K battle - why not let us know so that we can arrange some starter battles, like the one above, or if you/your club want to challenge us. We have all the LOTR/Hobbit SBG figures and LOTR scenery from the Mines of Moria to the siege of Helms Deep, snow fields to desert boards ready and waiting.  

Why not join our watch list for updates and look out for Easters weekend battle event... two days of fighting in the ruins of Osgiliath, Helms Deep and Far Harad, you cannot afford to miss it.

Feel free to email us to come along or arrange a game.

East Grinstead War Gaming club

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