Meanwhile, in Isengard - 2

Here are three more “waaag riders”, as the late Sir Christoper Lee so wonderfully puts it, for my Isengard army.  The two chaps on the right are metal castings, from the now OOP Games Workshop Warg Attack boxed set.  The archer on the left is a plastic figure.

The mounted archers give this army a skirmish cavalry capability to go against the Riders of Rohan.  In Dux Brittanorum/Rohirrim or Dragon Rampant, I can rate them as skirmish cavalry with the evade option.

 

Desperate and smelly hard riding fellows.

Pretty tough troops, but they aren’t able to go everywhere (poster in NYW by street artist William Puck).

 

These fellows got used in a recent monster game of Dragon Rampant .   Stephen hosted with his big gaming table, allowing us to put five armies a side.   My Isengard force went to another player who narrowly drove off a samurai war band.   I fielded a Rohan-based force at the other end of the table.  At 24 points per war band, I spent most of them on two 6 figure units of Elite Riders, one of them with bows.   I took three foot units, a  12 figure Light Archer unit and two 6 figure units of Scouts, using my elven warrior nymphs in an unlikely role as allies of humans.    Scouts are basically Bidowers in Lion Rampant.  At full strength they shoot with 12 dice, they can flit through woods and bad terrain, and they can Skirmish/Evade.   God help them if they get caught in melee, but they can do a lot damage before the enemy can come to grips.

 

Towards the end of the battle things got pretty funky.  In the centre of the last photo you can see an actual dragon, trying to catch the nymphs in the woods with his flaming breath.  The chaps with green dots on their heads are hapless orcs, who walked into a wall of arrow fire and got badly shredded.   A bone-lich rides a boney steed centre left and tries to keep the dragon alive.   This sort of scene shows the range and kookiness of fantasy battles with DR.  Of the eight fellows in the game, only two had played Dragon Rampant before, and everyone felt it was an easy game to learn and a fun game to play. 

 

 

These figures bring my 2016 totals to:

28mm:  Foot Figures: 56; Mounted Figures: 8; Buildings: 2; Terrain Features: 4

6mm:  Mounted figures:  36;  Buildings:  2

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+

This Christmas, Give The Gift Of Ruins

That’s what my friend James gave me, at any rate, and a very fine gift it was.   James made these two scenic bases out of some spare bits on his workbench, because he knew my Middle Earth project was gaining steam and needed some scenery to suggest the ruins of ancient Numenor.  James’ account of how he made them is here and is quite interesting.

Here they are in action from our boys’ gaming and slumber party last Saturday, known officially as OPERATION THUNDERING DICE. As you can see, the archers of Rohan found them most useful while they answered the crude and doubtless envenomed arrow-storms of Mordor.

OP THUNDERING DICE saw games on Saturday.  For the first game we got to play test a contemporary Afghanistan game.  This is a project James has been working away steadily at for the last year, single-handed, and it was a joy to see and play with his scenery and 20mm kit and figures.  Here’s a look at his stunning Afghan village, showing the complex terrain that ISAF troops faced in the Panjwai district.

And some 20mm Elhiem Canadians taking some stick as they try and root out the Taliban.

James as written a very entertaining AAR here.   I’ll try and write some thoughts on what we learned from my second attempt to use Dux Britannarum for Middle Earth.

Blessings to your die rolls!

MP+

First Crack At Dux Rohirrim

For those who were having trouble viewing the images, I deleted them all from Imageshack and uploaded them directly to Blogger, to see if that makes a difference.  MP

For the last few nights I ran through my first play test of Too Fat Lardies’ Dux Britanniarum with my Middle Earth figures.   I think my good friend Thomas the Penguin has beaten me to the punch in trying this, and I used his first cut at a set of rules to help my thinking.

I was constrained by the number of painted figures that I wouldn’t be ashamed to put on the table, but that was alright, as I wanted to start small.  Here’s the Rohan force.  One group of four horse, rated as warriors.  I used the rules for British Shock Cavalry, but I allowed the one figure with the bow to shoot as well, even after moving, to reflect what Tolkien says in The Two Towers about how the Rohirrim fought when mounted (see more on that below).  More on that anon.  I also gave them a group of four missile troops, a group of six rated as Warriors with a Level 2 Noble, and a group of six rated as Elite to reflect the Royal Guard with a Level 3 Lord.

And the bad guys.  Boooo!!!!   One group of six Uruk Hai rated as Warriors with a Level 2 Noble.  Two groups of ordinary orcs rated as Levy with a Level 1 Noble.  Not shown is a group of four missile troops, using the figures kindly sent to me by the Duke of Tragardland.  Finally, a group of four Warg Riders.  These were the ones who gave me some pause for thought.  I decided I would treat them as Warriors, and used the rules from the Dux B supplement Dux: The Raiders to allow them to fight as either Skirmishers with the ability to evade combat, or as Formed cavalry if they wished to fight that way.   To reflect the fighting ability of the Wargs, I gave them an extra dice in Combat.

First turn.  The Uruk Hai rush forward to engage the Royal Guard, while the warg riders go straight for the archers.  I was unprepared for how fast cavalry are in these rules, getting 3 dice movement pus 2” per dice.  I also had not bothered to read the rule about missile troops and harassing troops just scattering if contacted by the enemy.  The Rohan archers got one shot off, then the wargs were on them and they were gone.  Bad start for Rohan.

Guard send the Uruk Hai packing with two kills and three points of shock.  And yes, I blush to admit, those are unpainted warg riders in the foreground.  The shame of it all.

I asked Luigi the cat what he thought of it so far.  He said that he would sleep on it and get back to me.

But now things were turning against the Riders (and, I suppose, the Walkers) of Rohan.  Thanks to a Portentous Signs card played against the Rohan cavalry they picked up two points of shock and a third from the pesky orc archers.  Cavalry with Shock against them are considered to be Blown, and so can’t charge.  I moved the Riders up beside the Guard, hoping that the Lord’s card would come up first and he could rally the Shock away before the Warg Riders closed.

No such luck.  In the next turn the cards broke Bad.  The Warg riders charged and killed two of the four Riders.  Then the two groups of Levy Orcs, in one formation, charged the Rohan Warriors, who foolishly were on their own and not in Formation with the Guard.  Formations are key to DuxB, I am finding.  The dice broke hard against Rohan, 2 hits vs 6. Rolling the kills, the Warriors lost three figures and were thrown back.

The only high point left for the Rohirrim were when the Guard pushed forward and killed all but one Uruk, leaving him and his Noble to rout away.  I have to admit, the GW figures are pricey, but they show to good effect in this shot.

But disaster as the orc arrows take out one of two remaining Riders.  The survivor has more than twice as much Shock as surviving figures, and routs.  The Royal Guard are surrounded, down to five men and their Lord, and will doubtless sell their lives dearly, so that songs are sung of them in the Halls of Eorlas, etc etc.  Ms Foy looks on in disapproval at this sad day for Men.

Some quick thoughts.

First, I liked DuxB very much.  I’ve played enough TFL rules that the basic mechanics feel the same, and I like the emphasis on leaders and morale, which feels very Lardy.  I didn’t pay enough attention to the Fate cards, and wasn’t quite sure how and when they can be played, how hands are replenished, and what their effects are.  I need to study that more.   I also didn’t use any of the DuxB rules for the Pre Battle Phase, and there are elements there, like speeches, consulting the gods, combat between champions, which could be very Tolkien-esque.

I learned to be wary of one's missile troops if you want to keep them, though really, in these rules, they don’t amount to much.  The real heart of the game is in the clash of melee troops.
I am not sure how much I want to handicap the Orcs.  Thomas suggests treating them as Saxons but dropping them one level of quality from the rules, so that most of the orc foot would be Levy, the better or big orcs (Uruk Hai) would be Warrior, and only a very few, say Saruman’s Berserkers, would be Elites.   I also think that Orc leaders should be few and far between, and generally no more than a Level One or Two, with perhaps a few better ones like Ugluk from the Two Towers.  The trick, though is to make the orcs a formidable opponent rather than just axe fodder, so they should at least get more figures than the Men, enough to make a fight of it, Quality vs Quantity.  I would only allow better Orcs, like those of the White Hand, to use the ShieldWall rule.

The Warg riders are interesting.  Tolkien says very little about them in Two Towers that I can see.  Most of what I know about them comes from the SirPJ movies, which I am trying to keep out of my head.  I don’t want to make them Shock cavalry, but the nasty bitey wolves should have an effect in combat, I think, so they should get at least an extra dice in melee.  I like the idea of treating them as Raider cavalry, put perhaps they should have one of the precious few Nobles assigned to them if they are going to act as Raiders and go from Formed to Skirmish at will, but without a Leader they can only be Skirmishers?  Otherwise the Warg Riders are dangerous opponents, I think.

It’s hard not to want to treat the Rohirrim cavalry as Supermen. However, as I saw, the Blown rule in Dux B can work against cavalry very quickly, so one wants to keep them in reserve for the coup de grace, as shock cavalry should be used.   As for the horse archer capability, Tolkien writes in TT:  “A few of the riders appeared to be bowmen, skilled at shooting from a running horse.  Riding swiftly into range they shot arrows at the Orcs that straggled behind, and several of them fell; then the riders wheeled away out of range of the answering bows of their enemies, who shot wildly, not daring to halt.  This happened many times …”  (Chap 3, “The Uruk-Hai”).  To be faithful to Tolkien, the Rohirrim, at least some models,  should be able to fight as horse archers, which otherwise do not exist in DuxB.  In a large force one could perhaps designate one group of four Riders as horse archers, or in a smaller force, as I did, I mixed a group, treating three figures as Shock cavalry and the fourth, a model with a bow, as an archer.  I suppose one could even allow the archer to shoot just as the group charged or was charged, provided the group did not have any Shock on it?

Thoughts and suggestions?
Blessings to your dice rolls!
MP+