The boys seemed surprised when I showed up. "Yeah, you did say you would show and good you did!" Francis the host exclaimed as a couple of the regulars bailed and with me, this four way game was possible.
First things first. I have not read any of the Middle Earth books, nor do I know much about the story, nor have I watched any of the movies -- probably the only person in the world? Certainly within the crowd I know in the hobby anyway...... However LotR rule system is well known to the guys and they helped me through it by basically telling me what roll was needed and how many dice to throw.
What was really interesting was the scenario as it was a token grab, with the winner with the most tokens each having a different amount, but could only be taken by the leader and off the table before his particular Lord of the Rings army melted away. HOWEVER, two of these desirables could awake a big-ass troll which apparently is not desirable to be around. On top of that, were the many winding rivers which cut through the battlefield. While there were bridges -- no problem to cross -- and fords -- roll for those too but a 1 in 3 to only go half speed -- but to cross a river tempts a 1 in 3 chance of dying !! AND on top of all THAT, was the 'so who goes first ' roll off. If any players tied on this, a random events chart is consulted with good, bad and ugly results. With players - example: the oldest or the tallest - meeting out the targets and the other player rolling for hits/kills. So some idea of the random chaos of each turn.
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| part of the contingent of Dwarves under my control |
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| a Troll! |
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| "if I duck and weave..." |
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| From their impressive LotR collective collection, my 'shorties' wandering around to collect tokens - one of which is the white square in the distance. |
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| close-up of the warriors under my control. What another 6?! I must admit I had quite a few during the game. |
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| This photo shows some of the dilemmas we all had through out the game. The green blobs are deadly, impassible swamps which thus restrict movement options and fighting options. Both Kev's Gondor -top- and Francis' Goblins -bottom- both want the token but know the second troll has not be awoken. Take? Not take? Let the other guy look, and then if not the Troll, try to steal the darn thing?? |
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Overhead shot demonstrating the terrain broken up by the deadly rivers. Ask Dave how deadly! |
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Dave's warriors still fighting the first Troll - it being under my control for the entire game. He did manage to kill it but he also had the second Troll to deal with! <grin> |
...not my usual wargaming thing, but great fun.