Fall In Battle Report, The Westfold is Burning, Part 1

Here is a battle report of the second game I ran at the wargame convention,  Fall In 2013. The first was Fords of Isen. That Battle report can be found here.

Here's the setup: The Uruk-Hai are raiding across Western Rohan after taking the Fords of Isen. King Théoden has ordered all the villages evacuated and everyone to retreat to Helm's Deep. So the Uruk-hai take notice when one village, nestled in the shadow of Fanghorn Forest, is being defended. They are not sure why it's being defended, but they wanted to burn it down anyway, so they surround it and attack. Before being surrounded messengers escape from the village. Presumably to summon help.

 The village while the defenders are being deployed

Same shot, different angle.

 Rohan Guard Tower with Archers

 Village center, well made by Architechs of War.

My scratch built Rohan Great House.

 Uruk-hai and Wargs surround the village, oh and one troll

 Rohirrim you better hurry and set up.

Start fighting already.

 The village has too much wall to cover for the amount of defenders so they choose to make a few strong points. The pig pen on one side. I guess the chickens don't rate defending.

And the cows on the other side. Other than 4 archers in the tower, the village is wide open. It was a tough decision.

 One group of Wargs goes straight for the undefended barricade. The other skirts along the wall.

The fighting Uruk-Hai go straight in. One group of scouts with bows trys to kill the archers in the towers, no luck.

 On Rohan's turn, 2 Ent's come out of the tree line. They don't care about the Rohan Village, they are here to step on Uruk-hai. I had the Ent's in the tree line and didn't tell the Evil players, but they were too clever, and saw them anyway.

The Uruk player closest to the Ents decides not to mess with them and races for the wall defended by the Rohirrim. The other Uruk player is racing underneath the tower. The tower archers take a toll for passing by.

The Wargs attempt to cross the barricade, and the other group is moving along the village wall to pass the Warriors in the Pig Pen.

 A large body of Riders take the field. Led by Théoden, Éomer, and Erkenbrand. This is a pretty important village after all.

 The Uruk's slam into the Warriors defending the wall. This fight will go on for awhile. The Uruk's are better fighters, but the wall keeps casualties low.

 The Ent's close on the Uruks, and the Troll and 2 Berserkers head for the Ents.

 The Pig Redoubt is well protected, so the Wargs run right past for some unguarded fence. They are not dummies.

The Riders move as fast as they can but will not prevent the Wargs or Uruks from getting into the village.

This will later come back to haunt the Rohirrim as they have to assault their own village, to protect what's inside.


Part Two is here

Fall In Battle Report, Fords of Isen

Last weekend was the wargame convention Fall In, where I ran 2 games of LOTR:SBG. Here's the first battle report of that game.

The Setup based on the story from Unfinished Tales by Christopher Tolkien. The King's son, Théodred was not fooled by Saruman's treachery and was guarding the Fords of Isen against attack from Isengard. Théodred learned of the pending attack and struck first. Leading the Rohirrim across the Fords, he attacked Saruman's forces. Initially successfully, he was eventrually thrown back after striking the main body of Uruk-hai. His companion Grimbold fights a rear guard action while Théodred makes an escape.  He retreated to the Fords, only to find Uruk-hai on the other side of the River Isen trapping him. between 2 forces. He seizes a small Island in the middle of the Fords to make a defensive stand. This is where we start the action.

Théodred trapped on the islet. Grimbold and the rearguard racing for the ford chased by Wargs. Uruk-hai on the West bank, Wargs and Dunlendings on the East bank. Elfhelm bringing reinforcements from the top of the table.

Close up of Théodred position on the island, protected by 18 Warriors and 6 Royal Guards.

 Grimbold and Royal Guard race for the ford. Sharku and Wargs not far behind.

 Wargs and Dunlending Warriors assault from the east.

 Elfhelm's followed the Wargs to the battle now they are needed to save Théodred.

The Uruk-Hai split into 3 groups. One turns to cut off Grimbold, one assaults the island and the 3rd group of archers moves around for better shots.

 The Rohirrim didn't wait for the Wargs to attack, they charged into the water. One slips past. Some Dunlendings turn towards Elfhelm.

 Rough going for Grimbold. He gets in trouble very early and never recovers. Wargs will be attacking the rear of the column in a turn or 2.

 Good fight in the water. Going back and forth.

 The Hammer arrives

 Uruk-Hai swarming around Grim and his men.

Elfhelm(using Erkenbrand model and stats) enters the fray.

 Uruk-Hai scouts move to the southern tip of the islet. Assaults on Théodred's hill has been ongoing for the entire battle. The Royal Bodyguard has made several sorties from the hill to help the warriors when they were in trouble, but always moving back up the hill to stay near Théodred.

 The Dunlendings are having a rough day, but holding on.

 Grimbold's command is gone. And those Uruk-hai are heading back towards the Ford.

 Most of the Dunlendings are gone and now the fight has moved to the Island.

Théodred is hard pressed. 2nd to the last turn, The Rohan side broke(50% Casualties), but this had almost no effect. All the cavalry were bodyguard and 6 of the foot were bodyguard, and are immune to breaking. All the normal Warriors were dead. So again, no effect.

On the last turn, the Uruk-hai broke. We didn't go thru the rolls, but they were about to lose easy, 40-50% more of the remaining models. This was a narrow Rohan victory. The Rohirrim were slaughtered, but Théodred was alive and they held the Ford.

It was a fun but complicated battle with all the forces scattered around the board. It was equal in points, but unbalanced in sections. Honestly at first I thought the Uruk-hai side was going to run away with this battle. In the first 3 or 4 rounds, the death toll was about 4 to 1 in favor of Isengard. Once Elfhelm got into the fight and the Royal Guard came down off the hill, it started to even out. It could have gone either way. I think everyone had a good time. Next my other battle, The Westfold is Burning.

Xin

Making Terrain for Fall In part 4

Getting tired of my posts yet? Almost done. I finished the Rohan House I started 2 weeks ago. After the initial construction, the steps aren't hard or long, just waiting long periods between steps as paint or glue dries takes up a lot of time.

 Test fit Pillars for the front overhang

All the parts are done, lets paint this bad boy. First is black. Then I start a 3 layer dry brush. Americana craft paints, dark to light Graphite, Zinc, Slate Grey.

House and base painted. Fitting the "thatch" roof. Those poor Teddy Bears. The wood is Americana Asphaltum, then dry brushed with Asphaltum and Slate Grey. Trying to get a weathered wood effect. It doesn't show well in the photo's but it's there. I think for photos you really need to exaggerate paint effects.

Will need to trim some of that thatch

I got the teddy bear fur all glued down with watered down white glue. Now to test some colors for the thatch. Thatch is Americana Antique Gold with a little black to darken it. I made a big batch in a container. 

After it dried I went back and did a drybrush of Antique Gold and white. Here it is complete!

Guards of the Fountain Court, what are you doing in Rohan?

Ah that's better, Gamling and some Rohan Royal Guard. The thatch came out very yellow in this pic. It's more faded than it appears.

 Much better coloring

Ok, now I just finish up some odds and ends and Fall In here we come!

Xin

Making Terrain for Fall In part 3

Next up, finishing the "islet" where Theodred dies as told in Unfinished Tales.

First is a rough cut of just insulation foam. Now for the messy part. I use a knife to trim an edge, then use a Surform tool to sculpt the island to shape. Very useful but mess tool.

Sculpted insulation. I put on a light Spackle to smooth out gouges from sure form tool. Then glued on rock formations from Woodland Scenics plaster molds.

I paint on my base ground color, Americana Dark Chocolate. I also glue on loose gravel and sand of varying sizes for ground texture. After all that dries, I go back and drybrush using the same color, but mixed with White. I use the same technique on all my figure bases. It's not the best looking base, but it adds continuity to the terrain and figures.

The rock out croppings are painted with 3 different grey's from Americana. From dark to light, Graphite, Zinc, Slate Grey. Again standard rock technique for continuity across terrain and figure bases. Glue down some light green flock and we are good to go.

One of the Rohirrim keeps a watchful eye on the Fords of Isen.

 

In the home stretch, just a few more figures to paint, and one or 2 terrain pieces to finish off and it's off to Fall In.

Xin

Making terrain for Fall In, part 2.

Next piece of terrain under construction is a Rohan House. The 2nd battle I'm doing is an Uruk-hai attack on a Rohan village. I wanted a Rohan style building. I managed to dig up on the web an old pdf file with a plan for a Rohan house, at GW put out years ago.  

 I printed the plan out onto cardstock. Using that as a stencil I marked out a pattern on Basswood.

 Trimmed it with a scroll saw. Then I sanded down the rough edges. Getting better at using the scroll saw, need to work on smooth cuts.

I wanted the building to sit on a stone foundation so again foam insulation to the rescue. I just free handed a stone pattern with a ballpoint pen. This was surprisingly easy once I started.

Once all the pieces were cut, and base was done, just add glue.

 Roof drying

 Decorative parts added.

Now all together. Well still need to do the columns and teddy bear fur roof and paint it and steps and.....AAAAAGGHH. But I'm getting there.

Xin