Rohan versus Morannon: teaching Noshi MESBG batrep

It has been years since I played, but as Noshi wants to give MESBG a go, we knocked together a small game last evening at home.

Now, the game was loosely based on the Battle Companies, with a few modifications.

1. Instead of a Lieutenant and 2 Sergeants, we only each had a single hero each.  She had the Orc captain model to represent him, I used the Hama model.
2. While she had the Mordor list, she used Morannon Orcs.  This is due to their profiles being in the Pelennor fast play book, while the stats book of Middle Earth is still lying under the christmas tree until later this week.

Please not that this might be the very first time ever I played with unpainted models for the try-out, as it all are models that are in my pool for AHPC painting this year, except my Rohan archers who had been completed a few weeks ago.

Her warband as such had three warriors with shield, of which one was her Hero, two with spears, two with double handed weapon and two with orc bows.

Rohan fielded three warriors with shield of which one was the Hero, two with throwing spear and shield and two with bows.

We picked scenario two of the Battle Companies book, a Show of Strength, in which the hero needs to put down as many models as possible before one side breaks, being 5 models to loose for me, and 6 for her.

And I got to try out my Crisis bought Pworks The Valey 3 by 3 mat for the first time, in which we just reduced the deployment zones to 6 instead of 12 inch, but it fits the table perfectly.

Turn 1: Morannon Priority

Noshi took first priority, and started advancing her Orc force forward.  The Rohirrim did the same, one warrior bravely shielding his leader.  Some arrows whizzed to and fro, but without any effect.

Turn 2: Rohan Priority

Priority shifted to Rohan, and slow and steadily they advanced, the archers taking up position behind some low walls as the hero and the warriors pushed to the center.  The orcs where still out of reach, but closed the gap, and nothing more happened this turn.

Turn 3: Morannon Priority

The evil side got priority again, and the first charges where going to come in.  Two orcs charged my warrior and hero, and put them in combat.  In response, my third warrior and one with a throwing spear assaulted the orcs lurking behind the statue in the middle.

Shooting was ineffective, as Noshi did manage to hit but not wound her own soldier.  The fights where paired but no-one went down this round unfortunatly.

Turn 4: Rohan Priority

With most of the force locked in combat and the one archer who stood bravely his ground, more orcs charged in.  But first my second warrior with throwing spear hopped in the combat where my hero was in to even the odds.  The orc leader charged the archer duly, while his escorting warriors brought numbers to bear in the center.

The Orc hero swiftly took down the archer, and in response my hero, albeit with spending his Might point, brought down the warrior he faced. 

In that same scrum at the middle, the warrior with throwing spear was also knocked out of the game however...

This resulted in 1 kill each for both sides heroes, and my losses being heavier at the moment then the Morannon forces...

Turn 5: Morannon Priority

This might be the crucial turn, as both forces where now really slugging it out in the center and charges came in from all sides. The Orc hero joined the fray, and ganged up with a double hander on my warrior.  My hero was engaged by an orc with a spearorc as support.

In the resulting combat, my hero was taken out by the double hander, failing his Fate roll, making it impossible for me to score any additional points.  Noshi's leader took down the warrior with his Might point and scoring a scecong point as such.

We ended the game as a result here, because I couldn`t overtake her anymore, and it not being a campaign game we didn't need to get on for more experience or such, resulting in a Morannon victory.

The rules don`t seem to have changed that much since I last played... in 2004, and Noshi enjoyed the little game.  Of course, that means I`ll be painting a lot of Elves in the future, as that is the force she really would like to play with :-)