Since I had made the terrain, I needed to do a new battle on the board. Sorry, picture heavy report.

For those unfamiliar with the game, it requires some initial setup..The deck of goblin cards determine when goblin reinforcements come in and where. The cave troll is removed from the deck, the deck is shuffled and six cards removed face down.The cave troll card is put back into the deck and reshuffled and then the deck is placed on top of the six cards. This allows for the unknown of when the cave troll will enter the game. It can arrive as soon as turn 2 and as late as turn 10.

The Fellowship has designated places for initial setup.



Nine of the 12 goblins provided are then placed in the entrance of Balin's Tomb. I place the heavy hitters of goblins with shields in front.



In this game, evil always move first. Seeing a Dwarf, the goblins charge forward. With no effect. Legolas kills one of the advancing goblins.



Turn two reveals the first goblin card - They are Coming - one goblin each at the trapdoors and one at the well. This catches the Fellowship by surprise as a goblin climbs out of the well and immediately attacks Frodo. While failing to injure Frodo, one of the archers from the trapdoor kills Sam.



To Frodo!



The Good kills the goblin threatening Frodo, Boromir, Aragorn and Gimli also kill goblins.

Turn three has another goblin come out of the well but nothing of significance happens with the exception of Aragorn killing another goblin.

Turn four has another goblin come out of the well and two arrive at the Tomb entrance. Evil manages two attacks against Frodo to no effect. Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn deliver killing blows.

Turn five has two more goblins climb out of the well. The Fellowship suffers greatly this turn, Pippin killed by the goblins out of the well and Merry felled by an arrow. The Fellowship fails to deliver any wounds.



Turn six evil can now have two goblin cards. We Cannot Get Out with one goblin at each trapdoor, one at the well and one at the entrance. Goblin Reinforcements has two more at the entrance. Evil manages to wound Frodo and Gandalf. Frodo, Gandalf, Gimli and Boromir manage to lessen the goblin onslaught.

Turn seven has two more goblins at the well and two at the entrance. Gandalf is killed this turn by arrows, the result of very bad dice rolling for him. The arrows can only inflict own wound while Gandalf has three dice to roll for defense. He failed to roll to defend himself six times. Aragorn, Boromir, Gimli and Legolas avenge the loss of the Grey Wizard.

Turn eight has five more goblins arrive. At this point I have to get another goblin from my Moria army as GW only provided one sprue of goblins. Gimli suffers a wound while two arrows strike Legolas to no effect. Legolas and Aragorn kill a goblin each.

Turn nine, the Cave Troll charges into the Tomb and immediately heads toward Frodo, but fails to deliver any wounds.





Gimli and Legolas attack the Troll but fail to wound. Elsewhere Boromir receives two wounds and Aragorn continues his onslaught. Frodo is now being guarded by Aragorn by the east door.

Turn ten, Boromir is killed, Aragorn kills.



Turn eleven, the Troll kills Legolas, Gimli manages two blows but to no effect. Aragorn kills.

Turn twelve, with evil failing to kill any of the remaining Felowship, good technically wins with three remaining members and Frodo alive. Gimli is in combat with the Troll and other Goblins while Aragorn pushes Frodo out the east door and down the stairs while providing a rear guard action.





Some "action shots"





Thoughts:

I failed to use Gandalf's sorcerous power to move goblins away from another member of the Fellowship soon enough. Moving the goblin away allows for good to have a chance to wound with no defense roll.

Gimli is a tough nut to crack, he can ignore a single attack roll which means only the goblin with shield and the Troll can inflict wounds. Aragorn is deadly, managing nine kills.

The randomness of where and when goblins and troll enters the game adds a nice touch. The good player needs to suspend some belief and be initially surprised by goblins coming out of the trapdoors and the well.

GW should have provided two sprues of goblins.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

Your 3-D pieces really enhance the look of the board. Painted models help a lot, too, of course.

From this and comments elsewhere, it seems the play balance is a little off in this game? If "historically" things went down like this, it's hard to imagine the book having a happy(ish) ending.

Oh, the play balance is definitely off, especially if a player wants to "game" the system. It would be easy for the Fellowship to retreat to a corner with Frodo in the back and the hobbits behind the "big" fellows so they can't be shot. Knowing that goblins can come out of the well can also adjust how you initially play.

I still find it a fun game to play, just with a little bit of imagination and the randomness of the troll arriving.

If GW ever brings it back, it's worth buying, not just for the collector of all things GW LOTR.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

Fantastic battle report!

Thanks, appreciate it.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."