Isengard Invades Lorien

Wow, it’s been a couple weeks since I did any gaming. The wargames bunker's been in a bit of a state of upheaval as I've been moving things about. I only just cleaned off the game table this afternoon.

Darrin stopped by this evening and we played a little Hordes of the Things. Darrin wanted to try out the Elves and I'm loving the GW/LOTR Orcs I've been painting and was especially keen to play with my new Warg Riders and Saruman stands so I cooked up a little Lord of the Rings “What If…?” scenario.

Lacking any of the pretty GW/LOTR Elves we just used my generic Elf army.... so there's some odd stands included in the army that may not be true to Tolkien... but just... y'know... go with it....

Lorien, March 15, 3019 T.A.

SITUATION

After destroying the Rohirrim at Helm’s Deep, Saruman has turned his sights to the North and the Elves of Lorien….

FORCES

Isengard
1x Magician General (Saruman)
5x Warband
1x Spear
1x Blade
2x Shooters
1x Beast

Lorien
1x Hero General
2x Blade
2x Knight
1x Magician
3x Shooters
2x Lurkers

THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

The Elves marching in columns through the woods before the little known stone fortress of Lorien…!? (Uh... yeah... I really need to get working on some more strongholds....)


The Uruk-hai marches north. Warg Riders split off to flank through the woods.


The Orcs are in sight of the Elven stronghold.


The two forces close. I was really hoping to catch the elves before they could maneuver out of their columns.... but when you got spear/blade/warband.... and your opponent can't roll less than 4 PIPs.... (oh he did roll a one and a two later in the game..)


The Elves form their battle line.


The Warg riders are ambushed by dryads and leprechauns(!?) in the woods!


BOO-YAH! They live to fight another turn! But only one turn, the lurkers got them the next round.


Elvish archers force a column of Warband to recoil… I think it really just made them very angry in the long run…. On the other end of the line the Orc archers knocked out a unit of Elvish Knights?! GAH!!


The lines meet! CRUNCH!!


The lines move back and forth – the enraged column of Uruk-hai Warband begin pushing the center unit of Elf archers back… This will continue for some time… Uruk-hai blades knock out Elvish Archers.


Orc Archers finish off the second unit of Elvish Knights.


Dryads knock out Orc Warband in the woods.


Orc Warbands destroy another unit of Elf Archers while the other warband continues shoving the remaining archers back towards their stronghold.


More indecisive shoving.


Saruman tries to be sneaky and flanks the Elvish General…


… but it doesn’t work out so well… and it just got the Elf mages angry, because they came down off the hill they were standing on all game and zapped him good! Game over…

Losses

Isengard
1x Beast
1x Warband
1x Shooter
1x Magician General

Lorien
2x Knights
2x Shooters

Of Isengards losses all but Saruman were directly or indirectly caused by the lurkers ( the war band and beasts were taken out by the lurkers on their own – forced to recoil into friendlies or while flanked, and the shooters were flanked by lurkers while fighting blades to their front)

Knights continue to suck. What’s with them…!? Probably would have been better off with a couple more shooters... or magicians... or LURKERS!?