Siege of Lothlorien - War of the Ring AAR

I have been playing a little bit of War of the Ring (Games Workshop's take on massed battles in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings universe) lately. It's a nice elegant system, all contained in one rulebook (though there is one extra army book with more specialised army lists). I like it as it flows nicely and I get to use most of my LotR miniatures (blue chip investments). The only modification needed (as with many GW games) is to limit the use of characters. A common modification in our circle is to have one character for each full 1000 points in play. Size wise 1000 - 2000 points gives you a good game in a couple of hours.

Bruce K, Brad H and I played a 1500 point game at the July League of Ancients wargaming club meet (I commanded the forces of Mordor). The following armies were used:

Elf and Dwarf Army
Radagast the Brown - 160 points

Wood Elves with longbow - 135 points
x3 companies (120), Longbows (15)

Wood Elves with longbow - 135 points
x3 companies (120), Longbows (15)

High Elf Archer Regiment - 300 points
x5 companies (300)

Galadhrim Knight Regiment - 250 points
x5 companies (250)

Dwarf Warrior Kinband - 120 points
x3 companies (120), Dwarf Captain (50), Shieldbearer (25)

Dwarf Warrior Kinband - 120 points
x3 companies (120), shields (free)

Dwarf Archer Kinband - 105 points
x3 companies (105)

Ent - 125 points

Easterling and Mordor Army
Khamûl the Easterling - 125 points

Easterling Kataphrakt Cohort - 205 points
x3 companies (105), Easterling Captain (50), Banner Bearer (35), Easterling Drummer (15)

Easterling Archer Cohort - 70 points
x2 companies (70)

Easterling Cohort - 325 points
x3 companies (90), Easterling Captain (50), Banner Bearer (35), Easterling Drummer (15), Dragon Knight (35), War Priest (100)

Morannon Orc Warband - 185 points
x4 companies (80), shields (20), Orc Captain (50), Banner Bearer (35)

Morannon Orc Warband - 185 points
x4 companies (80), shields (20), Orc Captain (50), Banner Bearer (35)

Warg Rider Warband - 75 points
x3 companies (60), shields (15)

Mordor Troll - 100 points

Mordor Troll - 100 points

Mordor Troll - 100 points

The battle generator in the book makes you roll for both objectives and deployment. We rolled Seize the Prize for the objectives (5 fluid counters that are seized by the units, but can be lost during the battle) and Battle for the Pass for deployment (deploying length-wise along the table).

Deployment:

Elf and Dwarves: dwarf bowmen (right flank), Wood Elves in the forest, High Elves, knights, Wood Elves, Dwarves (left flank). The Ent was in ambush (and never came out of his woods). It had nothing to do with his general forgetting about him 😛.

Easterlings and Mordor: trolls (left flank), Easterlings, Easterling archers (in a walled field), Easterling Kataphrakts, Morannon orcs (x2) (right flank).

The game was a race to the one lone objective in the middle of the table, which the elven knights rushed out to seize in turn one (see photo above). The forces of evil knew that they had to rush forwards to try and grab these objective(s) back, and to avoid the hail of arrow fire that would surely rain down on them. The plan was for a right flank punch, with the trolls set free to cause chaos on the left flank.

The elves rained a hail of arrows down on their enemy, but their low strength and high toughness of the orcs and trolls meant that there wasn't many deaths before the lines hit.



During the magic phases though, the forces of good did manage to banish Khamûl which redressed the balance to some extent.



On the left, only one troll was taken down before they reached the dwarves, who in turn died in droves.



This was all a side show to the main battle on the other side of the battle, where the fifth objective changed sides a few times and eventually was seized off a unit of orcs by the dwarves for a marginal victory by the forces of good in the last turn of the game.

We stumbled through the game a little, but considering it had been a few months (and the evil commanders have only played a few games - all this year), we were able to enjoy ourselves and not forget too many rules.

I highly recommend the game to those looking to expand from the LotR skirmish game, and also to those (with a few modifications) looking for a massed battle game for historical battles.