Rohan vs The Last Alliance: a Battle Companies battle report

Time for a first, as this wasn't only the first game of Lord of the Rings I got in this year, it is also the first game me and Noshi played in our new home.

In order to distract her a bit from the final days of labour, we set up past saturday for a game of Battle Companies, a system we both really like.

While I took my beloved Rohan to the field, she took the The Last Alliance force.  Now, for ease of play, after these initial "set up pictures" where made, we switched out one of the elven swordsmen for the Elrond model, to better distinguish who was her leader, and who the normal warrior.

The scenario we rolled was A Show of Strength, where both leaders will prove their meddle against their opponent.  I deployed first, with Noshi splitting her force in two contignents on the other side.

Both forces carefully advanced upon one another, looking for an opening covered by ineffective arrowshots.  Until out of the blue, that cursed Elven archer struck again and one of my spearmen crashed to the ground.

I finally got initiative, and the Rohirrim bravely charged in, including a duel of leader vs leader... but then Noshi pulled in a Numenorean as well and suddenly my leader was in a tight spot.  Amazingly though, he won the duel AND caused a wound on her leader.  In order to not lose him, and as such the game as that would mean my leader would have more kills then hers, she used her Fate and duly rolled a six.

I proceeded with having priority and locked her leader again, but she now pushed two Numenoreans against my leader.  I now lost the combat, and one of the warriors wounded my leader, but in a show of "what that elf can, so can I" he also succeeded his Fate roll on a 6.

My hero archer now also joined the fray to make all the combats one on one... and was duly hacked down by a Numenorean.  My spearmen hero though also took down her elven swordsman, and my leader slayed his opponent, bringing the score to 1-0 for Rohan.

Now charging her leader with a warrior and the spearmen hero, the Elven leader went down as he had used all his Fate, after the spearmen leader used his Might to do so.  This won me the game as she couldn`t catch up anymore, and we finished the turn after another Numenorean, her hero, was hacked down as well.

So, that was a closer victory then it might have looked, as it could have gone very, very wrong in the leader vs leader duel, and both leaders had to use their Fate swiftly.  But I managed to get out of the tight spot, and the battle turned in the favour of the horse lords.  It seems the curse of the Elven Archer is finally broken!

For Rohan!