Thursday, December 17, 2015

Another Dux Rohirrim Test Game

Last Saturday my friend James visited for a wargaming slumber party.  His AAR can be found here and includes photos of his stunning modern Afghanistan terrain.  The only thing missing from that game is the forthcoming Too Fat Lardies Fighting Season rules, but we shall wait patiently for that.
We had time for two games, and I persuaded him to try another test of adapting TFL’s Dux Britanniarum to Middle Earth.  This was my second try, the first attempt is described here.  This time we tried a slightly larger force. The Rohirrim got two four-man groups of archers, a group of six Royal Guards (Elite foot), a group of six foot (Warrior), a group of four Shock Cavalry (Warriors) and a group of four Horse Archers (Skirmish cav).  James deployed them on a ridge, with the Shock Cavalry in reserve.  Rohan got one Level Three and two Level Two nobles - one was assigned to the Shock Cavalry.  We allowed the Horse Archers to activate either on the Missile Troops card or the Cavalry card.  We used British cards for the Rohirrim.



 The evil force, with a group of six Uruk-Hai (Warrior foot), two groups of six Orcs (Levy Foot), one group of six berserkers (Elite foot), one group of four foot archers, and one group of four Warg riders (Skirmish cav).  The orcs had three Nobles, a Level Two and two Level One.



 While the horse archers and warg riders threatened each other, the Uruks advance on the left, wanting to drive the archers out of those spiffy ruins that James brought with him as a Christmas present.



Rohan warriors come forward to protect the archers.  Since the Uruks had charged uphill, we wondered if the Rohirrim should get an extra dice, at least in the first round of combat.  The DuxB rules are silent on that subject so we decided not to, but we wondered.



I unleash the Fell Catbeast of Mordor, but he isn’t interested in doing all that much to help me.



We were using a GW Aragorn model to represent the Noble leading the shock cavalry.  His card came up after the Rohan foot and the Uruks had fought two rounds of combat.  It was, if I may so, shocking to see the effect of Shock Cavalry, which double the amount of dice they throw in combat as well the number of shock they inflict.  We also allowed the Rohan foot to fight again, since the rules suggest that when another group joins a combat, or when the rival Noble’s card is activated, all sides in an ongoing combat fight again.  I think we got that right.



At any rate, it was enough to kill the Uruk Noble and rout the survivors.  At that point though the card for the Warg riders came up.  Treating them as Raider Cavalry from the Dux Raiders supplement, we allowed them to go from Skirmish to Formed if they wish, which they did. The Wargs slammed into the Riders, and in two bloody rounds, three Rohirrim and three Wargs went down.  Aragorn survived and won, but the Rohan cavalry were done for the game.



However, it wasn’t fun and games in the centre.  Sockrat the Orc summons his rabble forward, but they are two groups in a Formation.  They surge forward. A vicious melee develops at the top of the hill.  Here the benefit of Formations really showed to us, because while the Rohan hearth guard had Quality working on their side, the Orcs had Quantity, so a base 12 dice vs a base 6 dice, with modifiers thrown in.  The orcs were thrown back with heavy loss, but took down one doughty Rohirrim and caused some shock.  However, and here I have to confess something really, really, really awful ….



… ummm, err, I used a unit of Berserkers.  Yes, I know, a unit of berserkers.   Now, in my defence, I used six GW models, who are based on the big naked fellows on the ends of ladders who get thrown up to the ramparts of Helm’s Deep in the SPJ Two Towers film, and who generally lay about with sword and death.  Very cool, I know.  But hitting poor James with six of them, other than being immensely satisfying, was probably a little unfair.



 I know that Lindybeige, who is only slightly less mad than Professor Elemental, would likely have said this was silly, though he is talking about Vikings and not about Isengard berserkers.



Unfair or not, the hearth guard broke, or rather, hustled their Noble off to safety.   That was enough to decide the game, we felt, though both sides were left pretty tattered.



So what did we learn?

First, the idea of using Rohirrim horse archers as separate units of skirmish infantry, as Ross McF suggested, seemed to work.  The only question we had was whether the regular penalties for archers firing and moving (lose 1d6 from movement, -1 on the to hit die roll) should apply.  I am inclined to say not, though I am still worried about making the Rohan horse archers into supermen.

Second, no more units of berserkers, though I think that an orc force should have at least one berserker as a Champion.  I haven’t been using champions at all, actually.  I think they would be a way of modelling some of the main figures from Tolkien, such as Legolas and Gimli at Helm’s Deep.  It would allow them to have some effect on the game, without making they too dominant as they are in the original GW LOTR rules.

Third, shield walls.  If the Rohirrim want to win, they need to use shield walls.  Which means I need to paint up at least six more of the plastic Rohan foot I have lying around.

I am sure there were more things we learned, such as a greater familiarity with the DuxB rules.   In general I am quite happy with them, but I think my next few visits to Middle Earth will be using Dan Mersey’s Lion Rampant rules to see how they compare.

Blessings to your die rolls, and beware the Fell Catbeasts of Mordor!
MP+

25 comments:

  1. Nooooo! The Catbeast unleashed!!! The end of the Middle Earth is nigh!!!
    LOL
    Great report and photos Mike
    Love it!!

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    1. Thanks Benito. The end of Middle Earth is indeed nigh, once the Catbeast finishes a long nap. Hopefully during that time Gandalf can find the lost Ball of Yarn of Numenor to distract it with.

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  2. Very nice - almost enough to make me want to buy some GW - almost.

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    1. Almost. They are nice figures. If I ever expand my collection, it will be with other product lines, unless I can find some of the GW LOTR figures second hand. They are not cheap on ebay, however, so ...

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  3. Unleash the Fell Catbeast of Mordor! Absolutely priceless and the less said about the Berserkers the better! Great post Michael.

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    1. Thank you Michael. The Catbeast might give some of your dinos a run for their money!

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  4. Mike
    Great looking table and minis (and Cat). The problem is of course that no Cat will do what you want it to! Cheers, PD

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    1. Thank you Peter - isn't it rather that we do what Cats want?

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  5. Sad, my 13-14 year old excitement over historical berserkers is now dulled to a froth-lacking whimper.

    But orc berserkers are another matter. Fantasy is fantasy afterall and a good story trumps all!

    Nice to see you got a 2nd game in. Agree fully on the poor humans needing shield walls, they would also be thematic with them being Norse-ish in design.

    Your dragon reminds me of Falcor from Never Ending Story - just, peach-coloured and somewhat more lethargic. :)

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    1. I was similarly crushed, Dai. When I was 13-14 I was quite keen on being a Berserker but my high school guidance counsellor sent me in another direction. I suppose seeing as it is fantasy one can do whatever one wants, but I think Lindybeige's essential point, that a unit of berserkers fighting in ranks together, is just daft. Maybe a group or even a small mov of them unleashed at a key moment might make sense. You know, herd the biggest and dumbest warriors together, throw buckets of blood on them to get them all lathered up, and point them at the enemy?
      Luigi would indeed make a very disappointing dragon.

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    2. I think he's the best dragon. They could use some furriness.

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  6. Well its not like you gave them some kind of special "berserkers" rule. But should Orcs get elite troops? In the Tolkien works the elite guard types are trolls or hobgoblins or your big uruks.

    Yes more champions would be gooder.

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    1. True, no special rules. I just wanted to put something on the table that would spank you hard.
      I would agree. Save the elite status for the really big things, like Trolls. I wouldn't even want to think about Nazgul or Balrogs.

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  7. I thought the way the Rohan shock and horse archer cavalry was handled worked well BTW.
    But yes Rohan needs more shield and spear armed foot to form a shields all.

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    1. More Rohan foot troops on the paint bench this Christmas. I have about a dozen that never met a brush yet.

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  8. Love the Lindy Beige video. He's become something of a legend either for his trove of knowledge or his funny sweaters. I can't decide which, but I like him.

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    1. He is barking mad, but he's fun in small doses. Did you see the one where he talks about running a World War 2 game by email? Hysterical.

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    2. He actually did that using Arty Conliffe's Crossfire rules, which he and I both love. Apparently he bit off more than he could chew but everyone with the exception of him enjoyed themselves.

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  9. Great looking game an scenery- looks like fun was indeed had.

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    1. Thank you Alan, it was fun. Some of your chaps did their part in that game.

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  10. Good stuff, Padre!
    Hmm, I have a bunch of berserkers and I certainly intend to use them on the table. Just have to figure out how to beef up the other side to get a fair fight.
    Champions and Named Leaders are another thing we have been pondering. I want them to be important, but I still want the game to make sense. In short, a game where Aragorn is more like Dick Winters than John Rambo.

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    1. I'm not even sure I would add any special rules beyond the core Dux rules for named leaders. I would use the really big leaders separately. For example, would Gandalf the White or Aragorn with Anduril be a Level Four Noble? Strider be a Level Two or Three? I wouldn't want to give special rules for special swords, mithril shirts, etc. Just let them be leaders. Champions for me are an unexplored part of the rules but make sense for putting non-national characters, like Legolas or Gimli, who might fight alongside Men but would never lead or rally them.
      I haven't even begun to think of real baddies, like Nazgul, and how they would work on the table. I think they would automatically cause shock to all units in a certain radius unless a heroic leader was nearby, but other than that I wouldn't want to overbalance the game. I need to revisit your rules sheet, there are some good ideas there.

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  11. Nice report and seems your getting there with the tweaks here and there :)

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  12. Glad to hear that the separate Horse Archers were not a complete disaster,

    I vaguely recall some set of rules 10 or 15 years ago where you could stash 1 or 2 berserkers in an ordinary unit. When the enemy got close the crazies would automatically charge, possibly out of sequence?

    Anyway, I confess that I don't really "get" Jackson's orcs as master soldiers fiercer and more competent than men, I see them more as hordes where they need 2 or 3 or more:1 to stand any chance but we do each get to choose what we like on the table top.

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