Battle Report

[skeletontom]

Muzzy and I did a Lord of the Rings game today, my Goblins vs. his Riders of Rohan. The Goblins made mincemeat of his little riders, here's a rundown:

Both sides deploy, Goblins on the right, Rohan on the left, Rohan went first (since good always gets initiative on the first turn in LOTR)


The Goblins advance, Riders prepare for a pincer (or so they think!)


Theoden and The Riders charge the right flank!



The Goblin King sends his boys up the center, while Eomer and his riders prepare an attack against the left flank


The Riders charge the left flank, but the Goblins prove tougher than expected, meanwhile the Goblin right flank holds and Theoden is wounded!


Theoden loses two of his Riders! Meanwhile a troll and group of Goblins charge the Rohan rear line


A wounded Theoden wisely retreats from the advancing Goblin horde with his one Rider, and charges the Goblins attacking his rear line


Both of the Rohan lines are engaged, Theoden loses his last Rider, and Eomer loses two Riders and is charged by a Troll, having been immobilized by a wicked spell cast by the Goblin Shaman in the previous turn!


Theoden and Eomer are both felled in battle, the Rohan force is broken, the Rohan Captain flees the battlefield, with half of his warriors following, doom comes to Rohan.


The Goblins celebrate their victory by feasting on the dead Rohirrim, there will be much sorrow and wailing in the halls of Rohan this night.


Overall, a very fun game. Muzzy rolled really bad on priority every turn, so the Goblins decided the course of battle for most of the game. Many Might points were spent by the Goblins to insure that the Riders never got off a cavalry charge, which really hurt the Rohirrim. Cavalry do you no good if you can't charge with them.

[muzzyman1981]

Very fine game Tom =D I had a great time and hope that others will be willing to play some LotR as well....especially once I get another better list up and running =P

[skeletontom]

Oh and I forgot about "Slippery Jack", the Rohan warrior who could never make his climbing roll and kept falling down every time he tried to climb down from the ruins

[muzzyman1981]

LOL Don't remind me =P That was just too funny....but Theoden keeping alive for as long as he did was pretty funny too.

[skeletontom]

Yeah he literally had Goblins hanging off of him!

[Katzu]

In your mind, which is the better system from a playability standpoint? I'm gonna try to get my collections up maybe tonight, and there have been 1-2 rulebook editions since I last played, but for the folks at home, how would you rate LotR to 40k?

[skeletontom]

I don't know if one is "better" than the other. LOTR is skirmish based, while 40k is based on unit combat.

The strategy in a LOTR game will be entirely different from 40k, because it revolves around getting your troops into a good position for assault. The shoot phase isn't nearly as important in LOTR as 40k, because ranged combat isn't as effectual. You might soften up your opponent a little using ranged combat, but ultimately you win or lose based on assault, and controlling the order of battle (which depends on a combination of Might, and winning priority).

LOTR definitely takes longer to play. The game that Muzzy and I played lasted a little over 3 hours, and we only had 500pt forces. Of course, most of that time is spent moving models around and jockeying for the best assault position, once battle is joined it doesn't take very long, especially when one force is broken and has to start making courage rolls.

Between the two, LOTR is definitely easier to play. There are less rules, and much less ambiguity than you find in 40k. And you don't have all the rules variations between the different armies that you find in 40k, so it's less confusing. I would say that LOTR is much better for a beginning wargamer to learn than 40k.

[muzzyman1981]

I would have to agree (yes, and I love Warhammer 40k and my Space Wolves). It took me about 3 months to begin to start getting the hang of 40k but I think I've played 2 games of LotR and I'm pretty sure I've got most of the important rules down, and the rest are easy to understand.

You got any free time this week Matt? I could bring my Rohirrim and we could get a basic game going, I can use my rulebook that Kevin is holding for me.