More itsy bitsy spiders! Shire protectors battle company battle report 5

Not to be outdone (and to use the same scenery set up so we didn't have to think too hard) the Shire Protectors also found themselves under assault by eight legged beasties! With lower strength, defence, attacks, fight value etc. the Hobbits were really going to need protecting! I deployed down one corner, hoping to make the spiders take at least two turns to get to me if they appeared at the other end of the board (the six big terrain features were the spider spawning spots, with a D6 to randomise where they would appear).

Turn one started really well! Stones were thrown, arrows flew and two spiders dropped dead with one getting a wound on it!

It was then stacks on to two close by spiders, which both fell!

On the next turn, the spider the hobbits were fighting only rolled a two and a three and I had four hobbits and Cookie charging on the pony. The hobbits all rolled twos! Cookie rolled a one and... a 5! Phew!

The spiders continued advancing, my Sentinel, Geleth, kept singing Eldamar Madrigal, which made the spiders keep moving away from the fighting - very helpful!

Cookie on his pony kept on saving the day!

So far, so good, the dwarves, sentinel and Cookie have been doing the major work, while the other hobbits throw stones and fire arrows. The tough dwarven armour took a dent on this turn as Skodi took a hit from the purple spider, fortunately fate was on his side, though it used his might and fate points.

Hedger manages to take out a green spider, but the others are all getting very close now.

The spider against Hedger rolled double sixes, he needed a six to stay in the game...

And thanks to Geleth singing the Mirkwood spider away and joining in another fight, yet another spider goes down. Hatless Harry shoots an incoming green spider right in one of its eyes!

The Shire protectors continue to put a wall of slightly tougher warriors in between the spiders and weaker hobbits!

And on the other side of the tree Loki and Cookie intercept another spider, killing it.

The brave Sentinel, Geleth, puts himself right in the way of the Mirkwood spider, and it proves too much for him.

Loki intercepts another incoming beastie!

And on that final turn, both Skodi and Hedger lose to an orange arachnid, laying down their lives for the Hobbits!

At the end of the match, with the exception of Loki, the other proper protectors were all knocked out, but the halflings all survived! In the injury rolls they were all okay except for Hedger who has to miss a game to recover from the spider poison. 

Hedger managed to get one wound in, Loki made 6, Cookie got 7! Some of the other hobbits got a few hits in with arrows and rocks.

For rewards, Hedger received an elven bow and seasoned archer (can move and shoot). Skodi is now a blade master (can reroll a die in a duel). Loki is a dual wielding specialist (a skill we made up for dual wielders which allows either an extra attack or an extra defence instead of burly). As well as that a new dwarf, Monty, has joined the team (he has a shield) and also has a pet magpie. I've upgraded the models for Loki and Skodi as well so they look a little more epic after their spider slaying abilities!

Itsy Bitsy Spider(s) - Elven Battle Company Battle Report 5

For our next misson, we played the old Mirkwood spider attack. This has four spiders that attack for 9 rounds. When you kill a spider, a new one just takes its place!

I only have one Mirkwood spider model (though I just bought another I need to paint) so we have one Mirkwood and three giant spiders. 

This mission has traditionally either been a complete slaughter of the battle company or an xp pinata of spiders. They have powerful attacks, but awful defence and the Elves have great fight values for winning ties.

Round one goes very well for the elves, with shooting and heroes taking out three of the four spiders!

On the next round Ithil-galad takes out the Mirkwood spider on the charge.

Three giant spiders attack the other side of the camp and some wounds are added, but they aren't slain.

On the next round the wounded spiders are dispatched, Rochon the knight charges at the next Mirkwood spider, but Cyll the Sentinel is taken out by the poisoned fangs of a green giant spider!

Ithil-galad charges her horse, Legrinsul, at the green spider to avenge the Sentinel, Rochon charges the Mirkwood spider to smash it to bits and more wounds are placed on the giant spiders.

Still more spiders appear and although one is killed by Celeb-galadh, another manages to shred Telegan!

On the other side of the clearing, Ithil-galad and her team remove yet another Mirkwood spider, while Rist bravely holds off a green giant spider.

Ecthel-galadh is taken out by an orange scuttler, hile Thaun and Celeb-galadh hold back yet another Mirkwood spider.

Ithil-galadh spurs Legrinsul off to take a wound from a purple spider, but Rochon and Rist are sent to the ground by a green spider!

The numbers of the elves are thinning with still a few turns to go! Fortunately the mirkwood spider is crushed by Celeb-galadh and Brethil, though Tirith and Tawar just manage to deflect the blows of an orange spider.

Ithil-galad flattens her opponent, while Col-galadh and Thaun manage to get a wound on the green spider.

The green spider is finally defeated by a combined effort with Ithil-galad charging in.

On the other side of the clearing more elves are just holding on, getting a wound on the mirkwood spider and holding off the other giant spider.

And, phew, the spiders have had enough and all scurry away!

It was looking pretty nasty there, lots of elves went down! However, apart from Telegan the sentinel (who is going to have to miss the next game) all of the injury rolls were full recoveries!

The end tally was Ithil-galad with 9 wounds on spiders! And almost all of the other elves got at least two wounds on spiders as well, so they did really well! This led to many advancements and ability upgrades!

For example, Brethil is now a knight, Ithil-galad now has devastating charge, Col-galadh has Burly, Thaun is now an Expert Shot and a new knight also joined the company. Two more sets of throwing daggers were added to the armoury!

The company is now worth a whopping 285 points! We're looking forward to me painting up a few new models so we can play with them again!

Elves and Shire Protectors versus Wargs - Battle Company Battle Report number 4

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!

Shire Protectors Battle Company Battle Report 3 - They have a cave troll!

Well, Loki was captured by some goblins... and it turns out they have a Cave Troll! Yikes! These beasties can really ruin your day, with three attacks and a higher fight value than any of my crew, if they get into close combat and roll a 6... well... let's just say that there may be hobbit bodies here, there, and everywhere!

Some of the pictures didn't turn out so well, so excuse the slight gaps in the story! Loki is being held prisoner, he counts as unarmed and as long as three goblins stay around him he can't go anywhere. Meanwhile, the cave troll charges towards my squad. Arrows fly from Hedger, Tom, Harry and Geleth, they hit, but bounce off the tough troll skin!

The troll continues to charge down the hill, with arrows and rocks just ricocheting off the beast! Just before the troll charges, Tom's arrow manages to pierce the cave troll! And then a stone flung from Farmer Maddock also hits the troll in a very sensitive spot - it's down to one wound as it charges into the hobbits! I surround it with everyone and gulp as my son rolls the dice... a 1... a 1... and... a... 4! I have a chance, I just have to get a 5 with any of my eight guys. I roll a 2... a 4... a 3... a 1... a 3... a 2... a 4... another 4... and then... finally... a 5! Phew, that was almost a total disaster! Now I just need to roll a six! I get it first try with Hedger! Down goes the cave troll! Very anti-climactic, we were expecting to lose a few hobbits before the cave troll was defeated.

Now onto the remaining goblins. Three snipers are up in the ruins, with a smattering of other goblins. We race forward, arrows flying from both sides, but no damage is done.

Closer and closer we get, some arrows hit, but nothing manages to wound.

Finally Harry takes out one of the goblin archers. The other two archers hit hobbits, but can't manage to do any damage!

Tom and Harry take out the other two archers in a dazzling display of Hobbit archery! We are now super close to rescuing Loki!

Skodi takes out a goblin, and so does Cookie, CLANG goes the frying pan! Meanwhile, Farmer Maddock takes out a goblin wielding a spear!

It's all stacks on to the goblins near Loki, most of whom run chittering away!

And off the little buggers go! Victory to the Shire Protectors! Loki, who was a rescuer of Jolly has himself been rescued in return!

And with enough influence to roll twice on the reinforcement charts we have three more hobbits join up, Fatty Cooper, Marmadoc (M.C. Hammer) and Andwise (Andy) the Shirrif. Loki has also been promoted to an Iron Guard! So now I have four proper fighters (a ranger, two dwarves and an elf) and ten hobbits!

My son has been very patient as we wanted to level up my company to be roughly equal to his so we can do a teamed up mission. However, after three missions and mostly hobbit reinforcements, his Elven battle company still way outclasses mine - hobbits don't count for much! In any case, we're still going to do a cooperative mission next time, I'm sure he won't mind having better guys than me =)