The White Rider

Sometimes despite your best efforts things just don't go to plan.

Ian and I had decided to play Lord of the Rings and I was looking to do something a bit different than our usual Rohan/Isengard bashes.

I had recently completed two Nazgul on Fell Beasts ad we decided to find a scenario that would enable us to use them.  The one I found recreated the movie version of Faramir's flight from Osgiliath in the Return of the King.  In the movie Faramir and a few other stragglers are desperately trying to reach the safety of Minas Tirith, all the while being hounded by the Nazgul. In true Tolkien fashion Gandalf rode forth from the white city and helped to rescue Faramir.

For the purposes of this scenario we used a 6x4 foot table, with no terrain, to represent the plains of Pelargir.  At one end of the table was Gandalf, riding out from the city. At the other end of the board was Faramir on horseback, escorted by 4 knights of Minas Tirith, all being chased by 2 Nazgul on Fell Beasts.  

Gandalf rides forth!

Faramir runs for Minas Tirith, hotly pursued.

This was quite a departure from our normal games as it included 2 fell beast and also had three very powerful characters, all of which were spell casters. I really had no idea how to go about playing this, as it was about to become painfully obvious.

The first time we played, Faramir and his escort fled down the table and the Nazgul both decided to black Dart him on the first turn, which killed him outright!  We decided to reset and start again.

Game two was a bit better, and this time I sent some sacrificial knights to stall the nazgul, which they barely managed but in the end it was not to be and the nazgul managed to kill both Gandalf and Faramir!

Game1, Turn 1:  Faramir nailed by a Black Dart.  Start Again!

Game 2:  Still not going great for the good guys

Gandalf buys the farm.

We decided to have a third try and this time swapped sides. By this time we were starting to work out how to get the best out of Gandalf so this  was going to be tricky.  In the end I refused to use the Black Dart until I absolutely had to and even then it did not help. In the third game Ian quite comfortably managed to get Gandalf and Faramir to the gates of Minas Tirith, as well as managing to slay a Nazgul with a nameless Knight of Minas Tirith!

In the end I had one of those nights.  Everything went wrong for me.  I lost just about every fight, and every 50/50 roll-off went Ian's way. Also Ian was very successful at getting off his spells or resisting mine while mine were a disaster.  Just one of these nights I guess.  Still good fun and nice change from our usual Lord of the Rings fare.

I was at Targe at the weekend with my youngest as well, and had quite a good time, but that is a post for another time.