Dwarf - Goblin Campaign Epilogue Part II

Previously

The goblins were set upon and broken under Snowden's soldiers!

And the dwarves had crumpled the line of rebel skirmishers...

Back to the action!

 

So the a goblin and the troll turn to the winds leaving only two goblins,
against the rebel companies, who start to turn northwards.

Durburz bellows for his guard to stand their ground as the rebels
surround them, one of his guard daggers a rebel throat.

He subsequently has his legs removed from him by the captain, and the
other two heroes match this by stabbing their respective opponents.

The last two goblin warriors are reduced to one swiftly.

Durburz is assaulted by the rebels, but manages to hold them off.

The last goblin warrior is finished off, and the groups
of rebels march to attack the dwarves.

Mather assembles his remaining followers hoping the other
allies will join him soon.

On the western flank a dwarf is gutted and a rebel brought to his knees.

The captains order their units to reform.

Then Orin orders a dwarven charge!

Slicing, cutting through and bowling over Mather's section. Orin takes
his mighty axe and cleaves the man in two, blood splattering the floor.

The rebel forces march further south in hope of saving their friends.

Durburz twists and dodges the blows and slices, yet the captain jabs
him straight between the eyes, leaving him motionless.

Seeing the last of Mather's warriors flee, the dwarves start to
reorganise themselves seeing the rebels mass before them.

More standing off between these sides as arrows are exchanged.

Lord Snowden and the captain hasten North to re-join their forces.

The dwarves form a small line against the organising mass
in-front of them.

Hatain's company try to subdue the rebels before the shinier rebels arrive.

The shiny rebels are having none of it, and so, attack the dwarves.
Who are still clearing up the other rebels, another group of them
start flanking the main attack.

And so a couple of dwarves are pierced by many shiny rebel spears,
the dwarves respond by cutting down two other rebels.

Suddenly the shiny rebels are everywhere, engulfing the dwarf line.

Now half a dozen men and dwarves fall alike, with the rebels
bettering the dwarves.

Hatain is short of followers, yet the remaining green rebels make a
hasty retreat, leaving things 'slightly' more even. But the shiny rebels
give no quarter and charge again.

Although Snowden stabs the dwarf annoying him, two more shinys
fall to dwarf axes, leaving another of his companies very worse
for wear. Then Hatain slices the nearby captain's arm, bringing him to
his knees and then punches him unconscious.

Snowden calls for his men to hold their ground, yet two bowmen flee.
He charges Hatain to deal with their biggest threat.
Snowden's men charge yet again.

One of Orin's warriors succumbs to the shiny steel, bringing Orin
to question if this battle is winnable.

Orin throws caution to the wind, calls his dwarves to stand fast!
And attacks the shiny mass.

He brings down the two rebels with ease; leaving Snowden's bodyguard
 in pieces. The lord couldn't get the better of Hatain,
who gives him a nasty leg wound.

Three rebels have had enough, along with one of Orin's dwarves, of the
angry dwarf captain. The battle is now very finely balanced.

And the dwarves bring the odds ever in their favour.

Two more rebels fleeing leaves the battle almost in dwarven hands.

Yet another rebel falls to dwarven might.

Hatain has managed to hold of the rebel lord, and Orin hurries to his aid.

Both rebels are quickly surrounded.



Both are cut, sliced and diced to the floor.


The goblins were cut down upon the field, the rebels companies have been either scattered or killed, giving the dwarves the Victory!

Hatain pulled the rebel lord from the floor, he gave a cough and splutter, followed by a gush of blood.
"So tell me 'Lord'," Hatain began. "Who do you serve?" Lord Snowden looked bleakly at the dwarf. The dwarves had proved their skill upon too many occasions this day, and would in the future if the rebels rose against them. He would have to concede this field too.
"I serve you. If you'll have me lead my people as I have done for many seasons?" Snowden responded.
Which left Hatain in a predicament. Snowden couldn't return to the settlement and keep the faith of his people without potential revolts, but killing him would only lead to rebel uprisings no matter who governed these people, unless it was Snowden.
He had won the battle but lost the war...

At this point Orin interjected. "Hatain, the goblin wounded are dealt with, what of the rebels wounded and dead?" An idea then came to Hatain.
"Strip them of all their valuables, the Lord and captains also." Hatain ordered. "Then let them be on their way." Orin looked sharply at the captain, this was ill advised, they could muster up a force to deal with the dwarves easily. But he followed the orders given to him.

Over the course of the next day the injured and dead dwarves had been healed or buried under stones, the valuables of the rebels, in particular Lord Snowden, were loaded into wagons. So both, very depleted, dwarf companies prepared to leave the region and also let the rebel survivors go back to their homes. But as the wagons rode into the sunset, Hatain exchanged some last words with Snowden.
"Say what you will to your people, to keep them under your rule." Hatain said, "but we will return some time; and either you pay for our allegiance or the might of the dwarves will make your people rue this day, when anyone stood upon this field against us." And the dwarf captain turned away; flicking the hood over his head and walking towards the wagons receding on the horizon. Snowden stood gazing at the dwarves leaving.
His people would not take this defeat well if at all.

Until then

Fish

Siege of Gondor - A Review

After five battles it seems like the Gondorians came out just on top.

With two minor and a major victory, against two major victories.

Although I did complete the Epilogue, the pyre of Denethor, a school-boy error in the game meant the result was inconclusive.

Now I'll go through some of the tactics that I learnt and tried to employ, some huge mistakes and points to be learnt from.

Prologue


Some struggles here

Objectives - Models entered sides of the board on a D6 system. So try to place models, when you get the chance, as close to key fighting points and near objectives to win the game.
Rather than trying to win smaller skirmishes in the corners of the field and deploying near them, Losing means enemy models will simply need more turns to reach objectives.


Orc traffic through Osgiliath

Travel routes - The orcs moved through the ruined city in groups of three to six, which means they can be flexible to disperse your troops in key places and effectively deal with the Gondorian defences. 

One of the mistakes here was that the objectives were unfairly placed, the orcs could get more easily to three of them, while the Men could only get easily to one of them.

Act One


The Gondorians guard the palisade very thinly

Hold the line - Initially I thought that the Gondorians could hold the line at the palisade and prevent the orcs getting more than two objectives. However the morannons promptly cut down one or two of the defenders, easily as they need 4's and 5's to wound, and the entire flank collapsed equals loss.
The line was too thin. So maybe a better strategy would be to try and hold the two keeps?
 
Bar the gate - Placing a group of men with Faramir at the gate to prevent any of the ladders getting through, would not only delay the ladders arrival at the walls, but give plenty of shooting opportunities for the archers and rangers



Two-pronged attack on the sparsely numbered men

Two pronged - Have small groups of morannons to break the line, and help the other orcs breach the palisade. After breaking the defensive line, victory should be easy with superior numbers.
 
Stubburn defence - If they defend the keeps, get a small contingent, 12 warriors plus two captains to hold the gate while the ladders are ferried through, use the contingent to shield the ladders approach to attack the main keep, the rest of the orcs attack the ruined keep.

Beregond was used as a proxy for Damrod, and the captain of Gondor for 6 warriors of Minas Tirith.

Act Two

 
The defender needs to prevent the gate from being breached, the siege bow and ram will do it within 6-8 turns with no resistance, then Gothmog and the captains should easily kill any defenders at the gate. 



Orcs are ordered over to the siege bow assisting the
lone crew-member in firing at the gate

So shoot down ram and bow crew with the rangers and archers, each delayed turn is important. The ladders should be simple enough to hold, focus on pushing down ladders over surrounding any enemy models that make it onto the ramparts.

The opposite are the pointers for the attacker if crew members are being constantly killed it will take nine or ten turns to get attackers on the ramparts.



The archers fire on the ram-crew downing two of them,
as they smash a small opening in the gate


Kill archers on the wall with the orcs. Fortunately the orc archers in my game killed all four of the rangers. Have a couple of orcs stationed as untrained crew in the case of on of the crew being killed. If you do get models on the ramparts, engage as many defenders as possible and draw archers into fights.

Act Three
 
The easiest two objectives are to stay above 25% and to prevent 10 or more models getting behind the ramparts. If Faramir is saved in the knights charge then even better.

The Knights charge takes more orcs out of the ladder carrying picture


Holding up ladders - The knights although they are saving Faramir, can delay each ladder while they have sallied forth, they are little use behind walls. So by engaging ladders delays them by two turns minimum, assuming they are killed upon charging.


The captain holding the ladders on the southern flank back

Captain of Knights - Having a hero sally forth with the knights allows for a greater priority influence, which means they can have charge bonuses and maybe even save Faramir.



But the bolt thrower gets the last kill

Bolt Thrower - Equipping this with swift reload, can make for some interesting killing, aiming at the right battlefield targets, ram crew, morannons and heroes can stall the ram, and wound harder to kill models.



The knights and rangers are almost eradicated, Gothmog orders his
minions into the full assault with a clear stream of orcs coming to the field

Although the Mordor player gets all dead returned to the field edge, at some point models returning will not be able to reach the walls before turn fifteen.
Furthermore the returning orcs will be in small groups which are easier for archers and the defenders to deal with.

Half-out attack -The Mordor player needs to carry two-thirds of the ladders, four, and use the remaining orcs to shield them from the knights assault.

One of the mistakes here was that, a ladder carrier cannot fight after dropping a burden, unless charged, as several of the orcs broke this.

Act Four

Kill the Trolls! - The main threat to the defender is the presence of trolls, two Mordor trolls should be used both for pushing the towers. If two trolls try to go through the gate, they will be stalled by the defenders and their own battering ram. Which if stopped a troll should try to break through the gate.



Another ladder is dropped as the first siege tower reaches the wall

Limited orcs - Unlike the previous act, you have a finite number of orcs. If the defender stalls the attack, they can pepper you with arrows and the assault will fall short. You may have to abandon ladders so the assault can progress at all.



And ladders are thrown up. The witch-king shouts "Your staff is broken",
but this is lost in the background battle noises 

Duel of casters - Try not to break Gandalf, it will take to long or have little effect as he is just as good in the scenario without the staff. Focus on killing crew members, Beregond and controlling individual defenders from pushing down ladders, immobilising them etc...



The troll chief pushes down the gate, and  through three men

Keep the gate - This is the main access point on the field, if breached let a troll fill the gap, preventing the other orcs getting behind too *evil laugh*. Although it may kill many so keep reinforcements coming down from the ramparts.



The bolt thrower and archers volley, taking down five orcs.
Gandalf casts a spell, lifting an orb of blinding light around the men nearby

Archery - The easiest way to win. Keep a two-one kill ratio so the raised ladders can be met with two shielder-s rather than one man against a captain. Aim to kill bearers on one ladder than single on all of them and use the bolt thrower on the ram crew, prevent the ram getting to the gate.
 
Furthermore as a defender you want at least 24 warriors of Minas Tirith for the last two scenarios, as an attacker, try to have 50% of all infantry as morannons for all the battles.

Next time shall be some time over Christmas when the Face-off will be revisited once more...

Until then

Fish