Act 3 - Osgiliath
Scenario 1 - Disable the TrebuchetsThis scenario follows the rules for the Disable the Trebuchets scenario from BGIME #60, however I have made quite a few modifications.
Firstly, regarding the forces: The Good side consists of Faramir with Heavy Armour, 14 Warriors of Minas Tirith, and a custom Osgiliath Battle Company.
The custom Osgiliath Battle Company consists of Ingold and Cirion, with normal stats. Ingold is the leader, while Cirion is a sergeant. Then Baranor, a spear-wielding Osgiliath vet, is the other sergeant. The company is then rounded out by three warriors; Dírhael (spear vet), Thorondir (archer vet) and Belecthorn (archer vet).
To counteract the stronger Good force due to the Battle Company, the two orc captains in the Evil force have been upgraded to Morannon Orc captains.
Secondly, the gaming area: due to storage restrictions, I only have enough Osgiliath tiles to make a 3' x 3' board, rather than the suggested 4' x 4'. However, I modified the deployment of the forces to address this.
Finally, I introduced a special rule that allows Gothmog to flee voluntarily during the Evil move phase in any turn after the Evil force has been quartered. This is due to the fact that for Good to win, they must completely wipe out the Evil force, and I wanted to give Gothmog a higher chance of not being outright killed, since he is pretty pivotal in some later scenarios.
Objectives:
The Good player wins when all the Evil models are slain.
The Evil player wins when the two trebuchets are disabled, or when all the Good models are slain.
If Evil manage to disable one trebuchet before they are wiped out, then the game is a draw.
Fought over for decades, the once great city of Osgiliath is the scene of constant battles between Gondor and the encroaching Orc hordes. The current battle raging across the city involves the Steward of Gondor's two sons; Boromir and Faramir. While Boromir leads his forces across the river to assault the orcs' position and drive them back, his brother Faramir is stationed with the trebuchets, tasked with protecting them so that they can continue to bombard the orcs.
However, knowing that the Gondorian assault must be weakened, and quickly, Sauron's lieutenant Gothmog leads a raiding force behind enemy lines to attempt to sabotage the trebuchets and disrupt the Gondorian attack. Caught unawares by the raid, Faramir must rally his troops to protect their siege engines. The below photo shows the layout of the board at the start of the scenario. The two trebuchets are placed in the centre of one of the board edges, while the remaining Good force is deployed within 12" of the trebuchets. The Evil force moves onto the board during the first turn from the edge opposite the trebuchets.
Gothmog's raid has caught Faramir and his men by surprise, and so the Good player must take a Courage test for each model before they move, for the first six turns. While about half of the Good force are confused by the shouts of onrushing orcs, the rest manage to compose themselves and move towards the attackers, seeking to block up choke-points and make their stand.
Another turn of movement sees the Gondorians securely blocking access to the trebuchets; the orcs will have to fight their way through to the siege engines.
Ingold and his battle company have taken the left flank, with Thorondir and Belecthor, the two archers, racing up the battlements of the ruined buildings to get to shooting positions. Meanwhile, Faramir has blocked the central archways through the building, while the other warriors of Minas Tirith secure the right flank.
Gothmog urges his troops forward, eager to bring an end to the time of men, and the orcs crash against the defenders.With Evil seizing Priority, they waste no time in launching themselves into battle. One of the orc captains, along with some warriors, engage Ingold and Cirion on the left, while Gothmog himself charges Faramir, who will look to use the advantage of the doorway he is defending to his advantage.
In the Shoot phase, the first casualty occurs, with one of the orc archers successfully hitting a Gondorian archer, who tumbles off the building. However, Thorondir gets revenge, for he leans over the side of the stairs and picks off the orc supporting the Morannon captain.
Cirion swiftly slays his opponent, however Ingold is overpowered by the brutish strength of the orc captain and has to rely on Fate to save him suffering a Wound. Faramir holds firm due to Gothmogs strikes rebounding off the stone doorway.
Seeking to move up and attack the orcs from behind, the Gondorians on the right flank progress forward, trusting that their captain can hold out against Gothmog. The Evil tactic was to use the strength of Gothmog and the second Morannon captain to smash through the central archway and then pile the orc warriors through behind. So since no orcs were coming down the right flank, the Gondorians moved up, hoping to flank around the orcs and attack them on two fronts, assuming that Faramir could hold the archway.
On the left flank, Cirion called a Heroic Combat and deftly slayed his foe, allowing him to charge the captain and help out Ingold. Unfortunately, the strength of the Morannon captain proved too much again and the forces of Good were beaten back.
However, the Good side are managing to delay the raiding party reaching the trebuchets, which are still bombarding the orcs across the river as Boromir assaults them.
Throndir and Belecthor are living up to their names, using their keen eyes to pepper the orcs with arrows, swiftly reducing their number.During the next few turns, Thorondir and Belecthor are successful in picking off three orcs with their ranged attacks. The other Gondorian archers decide it is time to move, since they have no targets, and rapidly descend down the stairs to assist their fellows.
Having slain the orc warriors on the left flank, Ingold, Cirion, Baranor and Dírhael trap the orc captain.
However, enraged by being outnumbered, the Morannon captain unleashes his fury and beats back his attackers, felling Ingold in the process!
The Good force is beginning to crack under the orc assault, as the second Morannon captain manages to slay his foe and break through the archway.
However, the covering soldiers immediately engage the orc captain in an attempt to aid Faramir from being attacked on both sides, yet the attempt is futile, as Gothmog uses all his might and hatred of men to cut down the Steward's son!
While their numbers are dwindling, the orcs, lead by Gothmog and the Morannon captain, have dealt two huge blows to the forces of Good, and look to press forward towards the trebuchets. Can the remaining defenders hold them off?Two Gondorian warriors bravely attempt to hold up Gothmog and the captain, while Cirion and the remainder of the Battle Company finally dispatch the worn-out Morannon captain on the left flank and retreat back to help.
The Gondorians on the right flank manage to engage the remaining orcs before they can attempt to pass through the archway, and cut down three of them, helped by Thorondir's keen shooting.
The final few turns are quite brutal for the Evil forces. Attempting to aid their comrades by joining the fight, the two orc archers are surrounded by Gondorians and cut down swiftly. Another orc warrior, fleeing from the defenders through the archway, is slain by a brave Gondorian warrior, who then charges through and engages the Morannon captain.
Witnessing his last warrior cut down beside him, Gothmog knows that there can be no victory on this mission. Leaving his final captain to occupy the Gondorians, Sauron's Lieutenant cowardly flees the battle, biding his time for another assault.With just Gothmog and the captain left, the Evil side invoke the special rule and makes Gothmog flee, losing this battle, but surviving to lead Mordor's forces in the future.
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So, the first scenario in Act 3 ends in a Good victory!
Post-Game Recovery:
First up, the casualties. I've decided on a new way of rolling to see the fate of Heroes that have been 'slain' in a scenario:
On a 6, the Hero recovers all Wounds, and can then roll to recover other Points as normal.
On a 2-5, the Hero recovers all Wounds, but starts the next scenario with no Fate, and the Might and Will that they finished this scenario with.
On a 1, the Hero must roll on the Hero Injury Chart from Battle Companies.
Note that this is not the case for Battle Company Heroes that are slain - they follow the normal Battle Companies rules.
So, Faramir rolled a 1 (of course
). However, Heroes can use Might to modify this roll if they have any, and luckily Faramir just had one point remaining! So effectively Faramir rolled a 2, and this starts the next scenario he is in with 0 Might, 3 Will, 0 Fate and 2 Wounds.
Ingold rolled a Full Recovery thankfully!
Regarding Battle Company progressions, only Cirion got enough experience to level up. He chose the Path of the Warrior and got the Hero Slayer special rule
Additionally, since Good won the scenario, the Battle Company can roll on the special rewards chart below:
The company rolled a 2 and thus got an additional Influence Point. I decided to spend 4 of the 5 total Influence Points on a Lucky Talisman for Ingold, because I would prefer him not to die again
The next scenario, Stem the Tide, features Boromir's assault across the river, which technically happens parallel to this scenario. Thus, the number of turns that the trebuchets were active for in this scenario will impact how long they are firing for in the next scenario, which I will detail in that report. Additionally, this scenario lasted 10 turns, so at the beginning of the 12th turn in Stem the Tide, the Osgiliath Battle Company can enter play. Again, I will go over this in the next report.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed the kickstarter for the Osgiliath act! I certainly enjoyed playing it. Apologies for such a long post