"Battle in the Westfold" Topic

After a multi-year hiatus, GW's LOTR is making having a fine resurgence in the heart of Dixie. I thought I would share with you a recent struggle between the forces of Rohan and Isengard.

Near the Gap of Rohan, the Rohirrim have established a small earthen fortification. Leaving half of their contingent at the earthworks, the balance of the riders are out on patrol. Just as dusk settles a strong Uruk raiding party assaulted the fort. Ground forces are lead by Lurtz and Warg Riders by Sharku. Unfortunately, the riders arrived too late and in too few numbers to save the day. "Captain is back on the menu, boys!"

Here are photos: link

Lost Pict

Nice report. Sounds like a fun little battle.

That's a nice looking fort, too.

Cool. Why didn't the Rohanian infantry stay in the fort, by the way? Looks like they came out to fight in the open.

The infantry stayed in the fort, but decided to pre-position their bowman in the cliffs. Bad move in retrospect, as the Uruks stayed out of bow range of the cliffs concentrating archery fire on the fort (followed by storming the earthworks once the defenders were whittled down). The Rohirrim cavalry charged the right flank and had the shielding rule use to great effect against them. Once the charge broke, the Rohirrim lost priority, lost a heroic move against Lurtz and were dragged off their mounts. The Wargs arrived in the middle of these and charged into the remaining cavalry with much rending of horse flesh. Fun game for the Uruks – and an interesting afternoon for Man.

Lost Pict

Thanks for the explanation. Looking at the design of the fort, could the bowmen have been positioned on the higher level (in the center section?.

And if the Rohan Bow were to be placed on the cliffs, too bad they could not have been considered hidden, at least until they started firing. I am not familiar with the GW LotR rules, but any minis system should allow for a hidden deployment so one side cannot "game" the rules to allow for an unrealistic advantage IMO, such as pre-measurement to stay out of archery range.

Many of the Rohan bowmen were in the inner ring to start the game.

I helped come up with the Uruk plan. I asked one of the Rohan players afterwards if he thought we were "gamey" in the attack. Neither he, LostPict or myself thought so. The archers were just behind the fort. There were only 4 or so on the high ground. Not enough for a proper ambush. The archers were so far back, there was no need to measure. Not sure if LOTR SBG allows pre-measure or not.

The Uruks just pinned down the fortress garrison with missile fire (and the help of a banner to inflict more wounds) and focused the hackers and wargs on the hapless cavalry. Then a good old-fashioned storm the walls. Tough going even though we were in firm control of the battle at that point. LOTR SBG makes storming walls tough.

Classic concentration of force tactics used by the Uruks.