Battle Companies Part III

 Scenario 5- Tame the Beast (vs. Moria Expedition (Jason))

After the loss of Cimberius, the company continues on their trek, searching for the raiding party led by Pippin. After a few days, they have set up camp for the night when they are alerted by a commotion nearby. Arvia scouts ahead and reports that he has seen a Troll fighting some dwarves. This could be a good opportunity to slay the beast and search it's den for useful items. Tiber gives the order and they prepare for a fight.

As they close in, they realise that this is the same band of Dwarves whose supplies they had taken in the past but they have now commited and prepare to engage. The Troll lumbers towards the dwarves and charges into Rollof, taking a throwing axe to the chest from Jark. Tiber and the Ungrateful Grandchild both narrowly dodge the arrows of the dwarves, who have spotted them. Strall fails his courage and freezes as the rest of the dwarves charge. Arvia calls a heroic shoot, hoping to snipe a dwarf and allow Tiber and UGG a chance. His bowstring snaps (rolled a 1.)

The Troll, slams its hammer down, just missing Rollof. The dwarves quickly begin hacking at the enraged creature, and before long it is on its knees. Gorm lunges and finishes the beast.

The men of the Fiefs quietly slip away.

FIEFDOMS DEFEAT

Pippin's crew races Prince Bangizwe's men to slay the troll, despite taking an early kicking, the Hobbit slays the beast with his dagger.

Scenario 6- The Wolves Attack (vs. Denizens of Mirkwood (CJ))

The company wanders for a few days and sets up camp one evening for the night. Arvia is keeping watch in the morning, when he wakes them up as he sees a familiar band of spiders, bats and wargs emerge from the trees. They prepare to fight, until they realise that a larger pack of wargs is pursuing them. The men and beasts form a bizarre alliance against the pack. 

The alliance all charge at once and Incy webs a warg. Tiber calls a heroic combat. Spot is bitten by another warg and falls howling. The beasts react in kind and kill many of the wargs that they face. Mr Balaur falls in the fighting with many scratches over him. Tiber slays his warg and rushes in to assist Fregar, who faces two. But he's too late as the clansman is bitten on the neck and mauled to death. 

Arvia and Gromm both manage to kill wargs, calling a heroic combat to help their allies. Mr Farley is bitten on the leg and falls but not fatally so. Meanwhile, the beasts kill the last of the wargs on their side and steal a warg from the Fiefs. Arvia slays the final warg, his third one.

As the beasts feast on the dead animals, the men slip away. As they do so they see a hunter hiding in the bushes, thinking that he was about to be cornered and killed. They beckon him over and Largo joins the company.

Fiefs 11-14 Denizens

FIEFDOMS DEFEAT

Pippin's crew fights alongside the Saga of Erik Blunt Axe, the kills are tied by the final combat. In which, Luthien (a wood elf sentinel hero) faces a warg alongside Erik's raven. They win the fight and Luthien fails to wound with any of her three strikes. The raven, however, manages to slay the beast and win the battle for the dwarves.

Aedin's Reavers and Uthan's Scouts unite to face the warg pack and absolutely slaughter the animals.

Narrative 4- The Icebay of Forochel

The company is wandering through the wilderness as the weather turns against them and before long, a full on blizzard engulfs them. They can barely stay together, nevermind navigate. 

Suddenly, it dawns on them as the ground becomes incredibly slipperly, that they are in fact on a lake and must get off of it quickly. At that moment, a loud warhorn pierces the wind and a band of raiders comes rushing towards them through the snow.

Tiber and UGG both rush forward on their horses but the former almost slips on the ice, just about keeping steady. A loud splash is heard as a raider falls through the ice and sinks. Tiber rushes one of the two leaders, but this time his luck runs out and his horse slips and throws him from the saddle. He uses his shield to defend himself from the axe blows and stands. UGG manages to slay a raider. 

The rest of the company is moving up as quickly as they can but come under bowfire. Brettan takes an arrow and falls to the ground roaring in pain and frustration. He is quickly followed by Largo, who is also struck. Terrens narrowly dodges another, as it flies through the hair over his shoulder. Tiber is beaten as he tries to shield off the chief again but is knocked down and injured. UGG takes the lead and runs down two as well as injuring the other leader over several fights. Finally, he slays the first bandit leader as Arvia leads the foot troops in. Chuck Norris is fended off and cut by the chief. Arvia and Terrens work together to kill the other bandits as Gromm assists UGG, whose horse skids and sends him from the saddle.

As Arvia, engages the chief, Terrens rushes from behind and hacks down the brawny opponent. With him dead, the men manage to kill the remaining bandits and make their way to the shore. It turns out that the bandits were holding a tribe hostage and using their home as their own. Forcing the locals to surrender their food and homes. In gratitude, the tribe leader allows the men to rest and recover in their village as well as tell them about the hobbit's warband, that they pursue.

FIEFDOMS VICTORY

Despite, early misfortune as Youareamir fell through the ice. Pippin's Crew clawed their way forward and destroyed the tribesmen in their path. Youareamir survived and even found treasure!

The Cair Andros Garrison is peppered with arrows as they cross the lake and is unfortunate in taking several casualties to the arrows and ice. They hit the enemy's lines and fight bravely, but can't break through.

Uthan's Scouts take some early losses to the blowpipes of the Woses and many horses are shot from the trees, but they approach cautiously and uproot the natives a few at a time. Ghan manages to kill Uthan's horse but is then slain himself.

The Denizens are hunting in their perfect habitat, they pick apart the Woses with sneak attacks and eventually find Ghan. He is tangled up in webbing and dragged away, never to be seen again. The spider broodlings then mysteriously have spears afterwards.

Companies as they stand

Good

The 2nd Battalion of the Fancy part of the Fiefdoms of the South of Gondor, of course

Rating: 336

Cair Andros Garrison

Rating: 249

Pippin's Crew

Rating: 480!!?!

The Survivors of the Black Gate

Rating: 353

Evil

Uthan's Scouts

Rating: 312

Prince Bangizwe's Host

Rating: 383

Fangs for the Memories

Rating: 376

The Black Sons

Rating: 426

Battle Companies Part II

 Scenario 3- Hold the Line (Vs. Men of the West (Sam P))

The company reaches a small town and takes residence for a few days. Unaware that Pippin's Crew has been rampaging in the nearby area and has earned a bounty for himself. Word being passed ear to ear, has caused a miscommunication and a band of veterans from the Black Gate, led by Merenor, is given the impression that a band of Gondorians is who the bounty is for, but their quarry is warned by a couple of young brothers, who have befriended the men of the Fiefs. Merenor leads his band to the inn and demands the immediate surrender of the company. But Tiber, a little full of ale, refuses and before long swords are drawn.

As the company rushes up the street making their way for an alley to make their escape. A throwing spear flies from the shadows, thrown by Heruthain and strikes the Ungrateful Grandchild, giving him a nasty wound. Chuck Norris is the first to return blood as he manages to injure Heruthain in return. Tiber rushes into Merenor and Traston, the two fellow Swan Knights on horseback and is nearly beaten down, but resiliently lances Merenor from his mount. 

The two groups fight viciously with Fregar taking a nasty head wound from Ruffy's blade and Gromm also taking a stab from Rhys. Arvia leads the troops on the ground and slashes Ruffy aside followed by disarming Ruith, before Baralindir joins the fray and downs Chuck Norris. Tiber demonstrates fighting spirit for his men, dismounting and putting Grimgel out the fight then fighting off two more opponents with a triple 6, but fails to wound. 

As the tide turns heavily, Baralindir and Traston flee the fight and Arvia uses his sword to force Rhys into submission. With the way free, they make their escape with their injured, leaving Merenor to tend to his wounded with his healing herbs.

FIEFDOMS VICTORY

The two brothers, Cimberius and Brettan join the company on their quest and tell of a deserted town nearby, that is rumoured to hold great treasures of weapons. They also mention the bounty and name some of Pippin's followers, Nearamir and Youareamir, the Ungrateful Grandchild snorts in derision at those names.

The Black Sons face Pippin's Crew, triumphing over the Hobbit, that is becoming something of a legend.

Uthan's Marauders engage the beasts of the wild, leaving many injured.

Scenario 4- Recovery (Vs. Denizens of Mirkwood (CJ))

The company arrives at the abandoned town and spread out to begin the search. Little do they know that this abandoned town has new residents. A pack of wild animals (Bats, Spiders and Wargs) resides inside and are prowling for food. Spider broodlings under a suspicious rug search a crevice and find nothing. Tiber then searches a barrel and also turns up empty handed. But as Arvia, pokes his head inside a ruin, he calls out as he finds a crate full of masterfully crafted weapons. His call is answered with a howl though.

The men see the beasts all emerge from a ruin and charge at them. Cimberius takes the other side of the crate with Arvia and they carry, closely followed by the rest of the foot troops. The beasts slam into them and Arvia calls a heroic combat. The Ungrateful Grandchild (UGG) lunges and spears the suspicious rug. Arvia makes to charge into Tiny the Giant spider, but freezes in terror. Luckily, Cimberius faces it alone and wounds the beast, as Brettan slays a few of the bats in the swarm. Mr Farley lets out a cry as Gromit savages him.

Tiber prepares to charge, when suddenly a web hits and ensnares him. Wincy towers over him ready to make the killing bite. Luckily, UGG and Chuck Norris leap in and save him, wounding the beast. While Terrens and the brothers manage to wound a trapped Gromit. 

Arvia cries out as the company sees Tiny and the bats carrying the crate of weapons, apparently believing it to contain food, away. As he does so, another web is hurled by Wincy and UGG is also bound. In the ensuing fights, Wincy bites Chuck Norris and takes him out of the fight. Cimberius is engulfed by bats and falls to the floor wailing. Arvia is wrestled to the ground by a spider and taken out. UGG screams as Tiny rushes over and chews on his leg. However, despite these losses, Brettan swings his broadsword and leaves a deep gash across Gromit's snout (old battle wound). The company cheers as Tiber breaks free and manages to subdue Wincy!

With the majority of the beasts out the fight, the remaining bats and Tiny flee. Now all the company has to do is escape with the weapons. Before long Tiber collapses with exhaustion with the weight of the spider he carries and insists Brettan and Terrens go on. As they near the escape, howls sound again and Brettan breaks rank and flees. Terrens struggles on but as is almost out he sees a pack of wargs prowling the streets and has to abandon their prize.

DRAW

Tiber and the other heroes pin down the captured Wincy and milk his venom. They then release him and coat their weapons with the poison. UGG is assisted in his escape due to his leg injury. As they flee, they buy a horse from a farmer, who's ranch they pass through and cover it with spare pieces of armour, before putting UGG upon it.

They are being stalked by the pack of wargs from the town though...

The Men of the Fiefs struggle with the beasts in the ruins.

The Saga of Erick Blunt-Axe clashes with Uthan's Marauders, the Harad manage to slip by.

Aedin's Reavers fight to a tightly contested draw with the Black Sons.

The Survivors of the Black Gate fight to a very narrow victory over Prince Bangizwe's host, but Ruith and Ruffy the Ruffian are both slain in the struggle.

Narrative 3- Ambush in the Hills

After hours of fleeing from the tracking wargs, night falls and the company realises that they must simply face their pursuers. They light a large fire and keep their backs to it as they see the flames light reflected in dozens of eyes creeping forward. 

Arvia draws his bow and as soon as he makes out a shape, fires. A loud yelp announces a hit and several wargs charge. Tiber spots the largest wolf pouncing upon Brettan and calls to the Ungrateful Grandchild (UGG). Both perform heroic combats and slam into the warg chieftain, but the beast is fast and leaps aside, pouncing up and dismounting Tiber before preparing to maul him. UGG pounds the base of his spear into the beast, which gnashes at him, allowing Tiber to escape injury. Meanwhile, Arvia is scratched by a warg. But the rest of the company kills several wargs as Brettan, Cimberius, Chuck Norris, Terrens and Mr Farley thin out the pack. 

In the second wave, UGG charges the chief again, while the company closes ranks around him. Fregar is caught and savaged as he gets trapped but not slain. UGG loses his fight with the chief and is similarly attacked by the monstrous warg. Terrens attempts to rally the remaining troops as Arvia is pulled down by a pair of wargs and struggles for dear life. In this moment, Gromm, Mr Farley and the brothers face the warg chief and Gromm manages to land a deep gash down it's flank. Chuck Norris, is trapped but wins and kills another warg. 

The Warg Chief is enraged and throws itself onto the warriors, shoving Brettan aside, knocking him unconscious on a rock and mauling Gromm. Terrens loses his nerve and flees. Mr Farley is outnumbered and brought down as Chuck Norris slays a third warg, looking up to see Cimberius underneath the chief, unmoving and with dire wounds. Chuck grabs a flaming brand from the fire and waves it at the beast. This combined with Gromm's wound, causes the pack to finally back off, allowing the company to make their narrow escape. 

FIEFDOMS DEFEAT

The next morning, the company burns Cimberius' body and continues their journey. Brettan doesn't say much, but has clearly developed a burning anger. Tiber gains a fate point due to his miraculous escape and Chuck Norris is knighted as a Swan Knight of Dol Amroth for his valour.

With their two best warriors defeated, the rest of the Fiefs men fought the Wild Warg Chief.

Incy's beasts rush around the dead marshes terrorising the poor spectres. Gromit earns a Manbane rolling pin.

Pippin's crew is cornered by the wargs. The Warg chief rips the flank apart until the Halfman himself leads from the front and strikes down the terrible foe, while on foot, earning an extra might and fight value increase for his deeds.

The Saga of Eric Blunt Axe faces the warg pack and scores early damage on the chief with throwing axes and bows. But luck is against them as these are the bravest wargs in the world with the majority braving the flames and charging. Eric fumbles a golden opportunity to slay the chief and the company breaks. They fend off the wargs but only get a draw for doing so.

Companies Post-narrative 3

Good

The 2nd Battalion of the Fancy part of the Fiefdoms of the South of Gondor, of course

Rating: 269

Cair Andros Garrison

Rating: 229

The Saga of Eric Blunt Axe

Rating: 206

Pippin's Crew

Rating: 352

Survivors of the Black Gate

Rating: 195

Evil

Uthan's Marauders

Rating: 277

Prince Bangizwe's Host

Rating: 275

The Black Sons

Rating: 310

Fangs for the Memories

Rating: 272

Aedin's Reavers

Rating: 230

CJ's "More will come" Legions: The Throwing Down of Dol Guldur

The Throwing Down of Dol Guldur 

If Easterlings are an indicator of the War in the North being explored, one of the last unprinted snows of potential SBG sourcebook material, then perhaps we'll get to see one of the last battles in the documented history of Middle-Earth: The destruction of Dol Guldur.

During the time of the War of the Ring, Dol Guldur launches several attacks on Lothlorien. Three times the power of the elves and the Ring of Adamant manage to repel the invaders. After the defeat of Sauron, the remnants of his orc forces retreat north to the old stronghold of Dol Guldor. The Mirkwood King Thranduil and the Lothlorien forces lead by Galadriel and Celeborn meet and lay siege to the fortress. Galadriel tears down the walls, laying bare the pits. Celeborn and Thranduil meet, and rename Mirkwood as Eryn Lasgalen. The land south of The Narrows is kept by Celeborn, known as East Lothorien. The lands north of the Mirkwood Mountains is kept by Thranduil, and the middle is given to the Beornings and Woodsmen.

This would be a first Legendary Legion for the Elves, who have three individually powerful Armies to choose from, and due to their longevity and general good terms with the Free Peoples of Middle-Earth, have a very generous array of available Allies in the Alliance Matrix. This Legion focusses on the entirely Wood Elf alliance that participates in this iconic battle, with a spotlight on the Lady herself, Galadriel. In place of a Dark Lord, you shall have a Queen!

Participants

Galadriel Celeborn with Hand-and-a-half Elven Blade, Heavy Armour, and Shield Thranduil, King of the Woodland Realms; All his upgrade options Mirkwood Captain Galadrim Captain; Options Galadrim Stormcaller Galadrim Warriors; Options Galadrim Knights; Options Mirkwood Cavalry; Options Mirkwood Elves; Options 

Additional Rules

Galadriel must be included, and is always the Army Leader. 

Mirkwood Elf Captains, Mirkwood Elves, and Mirkwood Cavalry gain +1 to Wound when making Strikes within 3” of Thranduil. 

Special Rules

“Resolve of the Woodland Realms” Models in this Army may use their Courage value instead of their Fight Value. Additionally, models in this Army may use one free Will point per turn either for Casting or Resisting Magical Powers.

“Wrath of the Noldor”/ “Beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night!” At the start of her movement, Galadriel may opt to be swapped out for the Lady of Light profile. Having given the Light of Earendil to Frodo, the Lady of Light does not benefit from this rule. During each End Phase, Lady of Light uses two Will points to maintain this Form. The first time that this cost cannot be maintained, replace the Lady of Light with the Galadriel model and profile again. Exhaustion Magical Powers cast in either Form remain in effect after one or both transformations so long as Galadriel has Will remaining.

“If you try to stop me...I will destroy you!” Lady of Light may cast Banishment on Troll, Spider, Bat, Orc, Uruk-Hai, and Goblin models as if they were Spirits.

"The time of the Elves is over"

With the destruction of the One Ring, the power of Nenya has ended. But Galadriel will do everything in her power to return to Valinor. Galadriel may not benefit from the re-rolls on her Fate points. However, when casting Blessing of the Valar, this is always treated as a Channeled cast, without needing to declare the Heroic Action, or spend any Might.

Designer's Commentary: 

With a lot of powerful Heroes and rules, restricting profile choices seemed necessary for balancing this Legion. So with the assumption that Guards of the Galadrim Court and Palace Guards were left to Guard their specific locations, the only other decision was whether to include Wood Elves/Rangers/Sentinels. Whilst Sentinels being very meta-strong was certainly a concern, the decision mainly came down to these two factions leading fully armed and armoured forces to win a decisive victory over the armies in Dol Guldur. For a similar reason, Haldir (already dead at Helm’s Deep in movie-land), Rumil and Orophin aren’t included- they’re border guards. So if you want March, Captains are available (one can be mounted, the other gets Thranduil’s wounding bonus). You can also have a small warband with a Stormcaller (boosted by the free Will), Celeborn as a dual caster and chopper, and Thranduil with his full range of customization to enable you to fill any points value.

Using Courage as Fight Value may seem entirely pointless at first, but it accomplishes a few things in a subtle way. First, Galadriel and Celeborn get a boost to F7. Then, any Galadrim Warriors in their Warbands that are given the upgrade to Galadrim Guards not only get the C6, but also F6. Also Galadrim Warriors have the option for a War Horn, which is also very seldom taken again as Elves have a high enough courage, but in this scenario you’re able to effectively boost the entire Army’s Fv with it (including the Thranduil’s Halls models)! The ability to reach a superlative F7 with basic troops (non-monster!) would require a huge points investment (mostly wasted on Good v Evil matchups), but it does allow a player to represent Elves following the example of Galadriel and tapping into a primordial 1st Age wrath as they expend themselves in their final war before diminishing. Finally it’s a middle finger to the Bat Swarms they’re likely to fight in Dol Guldur- you can halve my Fv, but I can use my Courage instead!

Meanwhile Thranduil's forces maintain their Army Bonus of a bubble of improved to Wound rolls. So from one side, killy elves, and the other, up to F7 elves! And when you're that high Fv, it'd be rude to not Feint nearly all the time... which side will win the kill-off? Nothing to stop you mixing them to devastating effect either...  

By keeping the usual Lothlorien Army Bonus of granting Resistant to Magic to all models, not only do your Thranduil’s Halls models have some in-built Magic Resistance, but in conjunction with Lady of Light’s Fortify Spirit Magical Power your models can get up to 3 free dice to resist magic with. Very thematic for the battle this Legion is based on! 

But by also expanding it to include the option to use this free Will in order to cast Magic, it gives the rule some consistency against armies with no Magical Powers. Celeborn and Stormcallers especially become far more useful Casters by having access to the extra Will, whilst Galadriel in her resolution to rout this Evil once and for all will be better able to cast and resist Magic at the same time.

And finally Galadriel herself. The ability to transform mid-game is a frequent fan request, but it would be hard to balance as Galadriel is a powerful Spellcaster and Lady of Light a strong combat fighter. Being able to switch at will to suit what was needed in any given turn would be incredibly strong. So to reflect both “transformations” in the films, Galadriel begins in her base profile, then when the situation demands, she can rouse herself to her War Aspect, wreak a lot of havoc (get the kills for Contest of Champions!), and then return to her usual form when exhausted (hence the “cost” of 2 Will in each End phase, limiting her to 6 turns max in spooky witch Form). The synergy between her War Aspect rule, Instill Fear, and Thranduil’s Crown could be very strong indeed! The absence of her inbuilt Blinding Light owing to not having the Light of Earendil can be offset by casting Channeled Blinding Light before transforming. Strategic players will be able to spend Will carefully to retain 1 Will in her store before transforming back, allowing any Fortify Spirits or Channeled Blinding Lights to linger right until the end of the game.