My son isn't a super fan of playing matches against one another, so he found the mission in the book that is two companies teamed up against wargs. His Elven company is about 190 points or so, my Shire Protectors have passed 150 points. So we took on 24 fell wargs in a friendly competition to see which team could get the most warg kills. He has the numbers in terms of points, but I have more models, all of whom can shoot (if you call strength 1 stones shooting!).
We set up the board with our companies around a common campfire and four squads of six wargs on the board edges, ready to charge at us!
As you can see, it's a tight perimeter, so if we keep in formation the wargs shouldn't be able to outnumber anybody.
The wargs always move first, but then normal priority rules apply. They are being ravenous and just charging straight towards the closest enemy model, not doing anything overly intelligent. The first warg casualty is an arrow to the face from the Elven company's sentinel (Shire Protectors 0, Elves 1).
On the Hobbit side, Hedger missed, but newcomer Fatty Cooper's stone throwing beans a warg between the eyes, felling it (1-1)! Slightly further around the circle Cookie uses his Frying Pan like a bat, smacking a rock into another warg (2-1)!
So with a fairly poor shooting round last time, the wargs are now upon us with only three down so far. The elves hold their line steady, but some sub-par rolling means that there are no close combat warg kills. We noticed one gap between the beasts though, and the elven archers fire with pinpoint accuracy, taking down another warg (2-2)!
On the Shire side things are looking, quite frankly, amazing! Jolly and Rory take on a warg and while Jolly wastes a small amount of beer to splash it in the beastly face, Rory smacks it with his Shirrif Stick (3-2). Cookie clongs his frying pan to the side of a warg's head while it tries to savage Loki, knocking it out of the match (4-2)! Hatless Harry sends an arrow through a warg eye, taking it out of the match (5-2)! M.C. and Andy team up to smack another warg down (6-2)! Go Hobbits! Skodi is pushed back by slavering jaws, which cannot penetrate his heavy dwarven armour. Hugo is less fortunate and a warg knocks him down to the ground with a paw as big as his head - he's out for the rest of the mission. The sentinel attempts to use a song to get a warg to back off, but the warg is too courageous and charges him. He fights off the warg, but only just barely!
Hedger loses his combat (as seems to be usual!), but Cooper manages to take out another warg, clonking it on the head with one of his barrels of booze (which fortunately doesn't break - phew!) (7-2).
So at the end of this round, the hobbits lead the tally, 7-2!
The Shire takes on the next round buoyed by their previous performance! Stacking onto one warg, Loki and Skodi are assisted by three hobbits and take out another warg (8-2). The Elven team's sentinel teams up with Skodi, but it's the dwarf that takes out a warg (9-2). The Shire Sentinel counterpart is slashed to the ground as he tries to defend against a warg while next to him Farmer Maddock is similarly knocked out!
Ithil-galad shows her company how it's done by charging Legrinsul into a warg, taking it out (9-3), the rest of the elves, however, cannot seem to make any headway into the wall of fur!
The Shire Protectors and Elves team up, angry about the poor hobbit casualties. Skodi takes out a warg with his massive axe (10-3), assisting the Sentinel and hobbits. Next to them Tom, Andy and an elven archer take on a warg, with Tom the archer managing to take the advantage given by the others to smack his bow across the warg's head, stunning it out of the match (11-3). The nearby galahdrim archer fends off a warg, keeping it back! At the other end of the battle, Hatless Harry again manages to take out a warg! (12-3) At this stage my young opponent was not happy that the elves were doing so poorly and we had to have a bit of a break to calm down.
After a bit of a chat about how random the game can sometimes be, Col-galadh steps up and slashes a warg down (12-4) as the rest of the elves only barely manage to fend off the wargs. In one of the most hilarious combats of the match, the cockatoo is attacked by two wargs, but swoops around them in a dazzling display of aerial aptitude and uses its seed-cracking bill to take one of the wargs out! (12-5)
Elves and Shire join forces and this time it's the elf that takes out another warg (12-6). Finally the elves find their footing, Ithil-galadh charges another warg, taking it out (12-7) while Celeb-galadh steps up and uses a dazzling dagger display to take out another (12-8).
At this point we were almost out of time as we were about to head out for an appropriately socially distanced lunch with my parents so we were pretty much ready to call it a win for the Shire as the Elves would have to take out four wargs in a single turn for a draw. Ithil-galadh spurred Legrinsul into the back of a warg that was focused on the elves in front of it, and she took it out (12-9)
And all along the line of elves that had been just barely holding on, the tide continues to turn dramatically against the wargs! Col-galadh steps forward slashing to take out a warg (12-10). Celeb-galadh similarly steps up aided by an elf with a spear who takes out another warg (12-11). And in the last combat with warg, Shire and elf it's the elf and his higher fight score that makes the difference and the last warg goes down (12-12)! From 12-3 to 12 all! The remaining wargs are taken out by expert elven swordselfship!
What an amazing catch up by the elves! They rolled poorly for the first part of the match, though their high fight scores and galadhrim armour helped them weather the blows until they could find their feet and slash their way from almost certain loss to a draw! We had a lot of talks about how random dice can be, but that over a long period of time the randomness turns into averages and, although in most games there aren't enough dice rolls to see that happen, we saw it a bit here!
With an excellent post-game reinforcement roll, the Elves now have two sentinels! As well as that, many elves had earned enough experience to level up! Ithil-galadh, who took out three wargs, now has Fearsome Charge, causing terror when she charges an enemy. Celeb-galadh, who dispatched two wargs now has Steady Aim, so he can move half distance and shoot without penalty. Thaun, the wood elf with a spear is now a Hero in the Making, receiving a point of fate and his galadhrim counterpart with a spear also is now a Hero in the Making! The elves rocket up to 240 points!
Meanwhile, the Shire team had numerous injuries, fortunately none of them critical, though Farmer Maddock will be missing the next mission. Cookie leveled up after getting another two kills - he has consistently done well and we decided that he could become a Knight and so now he has a Pony and the Pony Lord special rule (like the Horse Lord rule, but instead of all the Horse Lord benefits, he just gets the ability to ride a pony and charge like a horse would). Rory also joined him as a Hero in the Making! The Shire is now worth 179 points! They did remarkably well on that mission! I think if Hedger doesn't up his game, we'll be changing the company name from Hedging Bets to Cookie's Cutters!
