Buckleberry Ferry

 Arthur and I continued following the Quest of the Ringbearer, as Frodo and company flee toward the Buckleberry Ferry.  This scenario is similar to the Short Cuts... scenario, with three ringwraiths starting the game as sentries, and the hobbits trying to cross the table to the escape point.  This scenario increases the challenge level for the hobbits in several ways:  the ringwraiths are not impaired by the daylight, so the hobbits no longer benefit from the stalk unseen rule, Frodo must reach the ferry in particular, and not just any point on the east side of the board, and most importantly, Gildor Inglorion, 70-point elf hero of fortitude and nemesis of the ringwraiths, has been replaced by Merry, 10-point minor hero.

Here is the ferry, the goal for the hobbits.  Dock is from the Laketown House kit!

The hobbits enter, staying together, as the ringwraiths cast about searching for the ringbearer.

As the ringwraiths slowly search toward the hobbits, they swing right to try to avoid the searchers.

A ringwraith finally gets close enough, the alarm is raised and no more sentries rule for the evil side!

And so the Nazgul attempt to pile on to Frodo, while his friends try to run interference.  Hobbits must pass a courage test to charge the Nazgul, with a -1 penalty due to their Harbinger of Evil aura - as a general rule, this means Sam almost always is successful, while Merry and Pippin are more hit or miss.

Merry gets taken out, but Sam and Pippin keep doing their best to distract the Nazgul while Frodo makes for the ferry.

The hobbits make good use of their wounds and fate rolls, plus a great amount of luck, and outlast two of the ringwraiths.  Each time they enter combat, they lose a point of will, so eventually they lose their last point and their corporeal presence dissolves.  Actually, this only happened to one of the Nazgul, as Sam, after many unsuccessful attempts, finally managed to wound the other and (temporarily) banished him from the mortal realm!

With two of the Nazgul gone, it's now a race between Frodo and the remaining ringwraith!

Frodo reaches the ferry with the Nazgul hot on his tail!  It all comes down to a single die roll:  who will win priority for the next turn?

Priority goes to the forces of Good!  Frodo launches the ferry, and even though it only travels 1", that is enough as the Nazgul cannot enter the water.  Victory to the ringbearer, by the narrowest of margins!

Short cuts make long delays

Arthur's friend Oliver was over on Sunday, so we tried Scenario 2 of the Quest of the Ringbearer, 'Short Cuts make Long Delays'.  In this scenario, Frodo with Sam and Pippin are walking to meet Merry in Buckland, when Frodo has a bad feeling and persuades his companions to leave the road and proceed cross-country.  Three ringwraiths start searching for Frodo, and at the far end of the board, elf hero Gildor Inglorion detects that Frodo needs his help and moves protect him from the ringwraiths.

Here is the initial table setup.  Lots of trees to allow the hobbits plenty of space to hide from Nazgul searches!

The ringwraiths are subject to the rules for 'sentries' until at least one of them can spot a hobbit.  Sentries have semi-randomised movement, and an additional challenge is that they can't see the hobbits unless they are almost on top of them (i.e., within 3").  Hobbits on the other hand must check courage every turn - however as they are quite brave, this did not turn out to be a problem for them.

Hobbits using the cover of the trees to escape the view of the pursuing ringwraith.

Gildor rushing to the rescue.

The ringwraith at the bottom of the picture was distracted and moved backwards in his hobbit search!

Pippin finally failed a courage test and fell behind, while Sam stays close to Frodo.  Meanwhile, Gildor eliminates the first ringwraith (this also raises the alarm, so an end to all the sentry tests and courage tests).

Pippin connects with Gildor and helps him to fight the second ringwraith.

Rather than sticking around to finish off the second ringwraith, Gildor hurries off to intercept the third ringwraith.

Pippin and Gildor then stop the last ringwaith, while Sam and Frodo escape to the safety of the elf encampment.

This turned out to be a straightforward win for the hobbits and their friend Gildor.  We finished quickly, so tried the same scenario again with Oliver taking the ringwraiths.  In the second game, the alarm was raised on the second turn, but the end result was the same with a clear defeat for the Nazgul.  Maybe once we get a better understanding of Nazgul powers, they will become more deadly!

Ersatz Ringwraiths (edit to add before shots)

 As Arthur and I want to play the Quest of the Ringbearer, we are going to need some Ringwraiths or Nazgûl.  I am not ready to pay GW prices for the official, New Line Productions-sanctioned figures, so I have decided to make my own!

For the foot figures, I started with Victrix Anglo-Saxon Huscarles, and added some greenstuff roughly shaped into the cloaks that are the main visual cue for the ringwraiths.

EDIT:  here are the original figures

And with greenstuff cloaks added.

I let little patches of mail show through to allow hints of their original status of great kings or lords of men.

One of the mounted figures started life as a Perry Miniatures War of the Roses mounted man at arms.  This is the only one with 'work in progress' photos.

The other mounted ringwraith needed much less conversion, it started as a D&D Headless Horseman, so the only modification was to add a cloaked head (a monk's head from the Victrix Anglo-Saxons).  Frodo on Asfaloth is a Wargames Atlantic halfling mounted on a Rohan horse - so I didn't completely neglect the GW product!

Unfortunately the black ended up looking a bit glossy.  I may see if I can retouch the Nazgûl a bit to dull them down somewhat.

Middle Earth Gaming - the Ringbearer sets out (but doesn't get very far)

Last weekend, Craig and Gord came over to join Arthur and me in a few scenarios from the Lord of the Rings 'Quest of the Ringbearer' narrative campaign for the GW Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game (M-eSBG).  I had not played much of the SBG since it had originally come out twenty or so years ago, concurrent with the Peter Jackson LotR movies.  To be fair, though, it was a refresher for Craig and Gord as well, especially as their (relatively) more recent experience had been with the Battle Companies variant, which used much less magic and special abilities than we encountered in the narrative scenarios!

We played three of the early scenarios in the game.  Arthur of course wanted to jump straight to the ambush at Amon Hen, but I overruled him, considering that we needed to start off with a smaller, simpler scenario to allow us to learn or relearn the rules!  We freely used proxy figures to fill out the numbers, so the board will have miniatures from many different sources, not just the 'official' GW figures.

The first scenario was a raid by the four hobbits (Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin) on Farmer Maggot's Farm.  This is considered to have occurred before the start of the story in the book or the film, before Frodo was given the One Ring and sent on his way.  It is supposed to be light-hearted, with the hobbits trying to rob poor Farmer Maggot, and Maggot setting his dogs to chase off the raiders and protect his crop.

The game starts with Maggot's farm in the background, and his crops stored in a small compound in the centre of the table.  The farm is not particularly Hobbit-ish, as I proxied in my Sicilian buildings for the farm, and crates of goods from the market.

The four Hobbits are supposed to gather goods from the compound and return them to their stash (the gabions in front of Arthur).  Meanwhile, Maggot's hounds will try to intercept the thieves!

Hobbits make a dash for the compound, while the hounds move round to intercept them.

This is a barrow-wight standing on a small lid to demonstrate the concept of 'zone of control'!  Meanwhile, to the left all the hobbits have been frightened off by the hounds.  Maggot never even came on the table!

Second scenario - Buckleberry Ferry.  The four hobbits are trying to get through the woods, past the Ringwraiths to reach Buckleberry Ferry. 

The ringwraiths set up a line to block the hobbits' advance.  The first ringwraith attacks Frodo, weakening him. After this, the other three ensure that they stand between the wraiths and the ringbearer!

However, the hobbits' heroics are for naught, as the ringwraiths wear down the resistance and finally capture poor Frodo!

Third Scenario - Fog on the Barrow Downs.  Another scenario inspired by the book, as the whole sequence with Tom Bombadil, the Old Forest and the Barrow Downs didn't make the cut for Peter Jackson's films (and for that matter, didn't get into Ralph Bakshi's movie either!).  Frodo and company must cross the Barrow Downs on their way to Bree.  However a fog comes up, in which the wights come from their barrows to try to capture the hobbits who have intruded on their territory!

Here we have the wights carefully stalking the hobbits.

All the hobbits have been paralyzed by the wights, one of them is being dragged back to a barrow to be sacrificed!

After far too many failed attempts, Frodo regains consciousness and summons Tom Bombadil to come to their aid.  

        Ho! Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadillo!

        By water, wood and hill, by the reed and willow,
        By fire, sun and moon, harken now and hear us!
        Come, Tom Bombadil, for our need is near us!

Actually, the hobbits tried this song many times, but the summons failed again and again!

So regrettably, despite Tom's valiant efforts, the four barrow wights succeeded in capturing and sacrificing the four hobbits!

Not a great day for the hobbits:  they went 0-3 in the three scenarios.  Still, fun was had by all, and we look forward to trying again soon.