Hobbit: Batrep - Cirith Ungol vs Riders of Snowbourn

"Forth, and fear no darkness! Arise! Arise, Riders of Theoden! Spears shall be shaken, shields shall be splintered! A sword day... a red day... ere the sun rises!"

 King Theoden, The Pelenor Fields, Return of the King, The Lord of The Rings

This latest battle report saw Louis coming to mine for a 1000 point battle. Louis brought his new Rohan army themed on the riders from Snowbourn, you may recall Theoden asking "Where are the riders from Snowbourn", looks like they got caught up in this battle first! Louis's army consisted of Theoden, Eomer, Eoywn, Grimbold and a captain; they were leading two warbands of riders, a warband of Royal Guard, archers and spearmen.  

My army was another fluffy army.  I went for 1000 points of Cirith Ungol - from Mordor list. The Dark Marshall on fell beast leading Morgul knights, Shelob, Shagrat, Gorbag and shaman/captains. My troops were Mordor Uruk Hai with shields, supported by orcs with spear with a few trackers.

Having taken it in turns to set the scenery and rolled for scenario Lords of Battle. Now it was time for the riders of Snowbourn to take to the field as we rolled for deployment. 

The battle field

The Riders from Snowbourn - Louis' Rohan Army

Eowyn with a warband of Rohan Spear men

Rohan Captain with archers

Eomer with Riders of Snowbourn - Royal Guard, out riders and a couple of Rohan riders

Theoden with Riders of Rohan 

Grimbold leading Royal Guard foot and Grimbold command

Shelob - the Spider of Cirith Ungol

The Dark Marshall on Fell beast leading 5 Morgul Knights 

Gorbag with orcs and Cirith Ungol Banner

Shaman leading orcs as proxy for trackers

Black Guard Captain leading Mordor Uruk Hai and orc spears

Mordor Uruk Hai Captain leading Uruk Hai;s, banner and orcs

Shagrat with his Tower Guard

Deployment shows the Mordor army in the ruins and also dressing across the gap, Rohan line up in from t of them

The Mordor army view of the Royal Guard

Priority to Rohan, Grimbold leads the charge as the Royal Guard charge the ruins held by the trackers

Two riders charge in to the Mordor flank,

whilst the spear men move forward

Rohan riders spread out, whilst Theoden leads his war band between the fields to move towards my flank

Theoden is protected in the middle of his warband, surrounded by riders

The Rohan archers move forward towards the barrier

Mordor's move... my troops surge forward breaking their lines to engage the Rohan army 

The two rider are surrounded by Uruk Hai and orcs

Shelob and the Dark Marshall move towards Theoden

Shelob positioned to engage the riders, but have cover from the fields and wall

The Dark Marshall, is just out of range of the bows

Shelob Cirith Ungol manages to avoid being hit by the entire Rohan archers volley

The Trackers target Eomers war band - his Royal Guard

The result is two dead guard and a dismounted rider, from 5 shots!

The Barrier is too much for the Royal Guard,who only kill one tracker, but take several casualties 

Meanwhile, the fighting continues

And both riders are killed

My priority... Theoden stuck in the middle cannot heroic move as the riders would need to remain within 6" of him,
so Shelob pounces across the field and attacks a rider

The Dark Marshall Transfixes the rider to the left and charges the centre,
the whole front of the war band is trapped!

Louis tries to charge Shelob, but fails his courage test, tapping the whole war band

In the fight, the rider is thrown straight down the line

Knocking 8 riders and Theoden to the ground

with 4 killed - the rest lose their mounts

Next turn the riders charge Shelob, their courage hold this time

The archers, unable to find a target anyone, jump the wall

Rohan charge the Fell Beast

Meanwhile, Eomer charges his last few riders into a line of Mordor Uruk Hai

The path between ruins turns into a mass brawl

The Mordor army again surge forward 

Eomer is surrounded

The Morgul Knights move... 

and engage the riders of Rohan

Shelob is fighting 

Gorbag bravely covers the rear

My Uruk Hai charge the Rohan spears covering Eomers flank 

Meanwhile the Uruk Hai in the ruins jump over the wall and prepare to cut the Royal Guard off

Eowyn and Guard fight an Uruk Hai

But his shielding pays off and saves him from death to the Shield Maiden

Eomer uses a point of might and wins the fight... 

He kills 3 Uruk Hai

Theoden Strikes up... 

and rolls a 2, he still doesn't beat Shelob, but has equaled her fight

The Dark Marshall, lobs his rider in to Theoden

Another rider down and Theoden knocked prone

Three Morgul Knight vs One Rider of Rohan

Mordor roll... and that's another dead rider

Mordor numbers press the Rohan

Grimbold calls the charge

Meanwhile after loads of heroic actions Eomer is again surrounded, having been charged

Things are starting to look worrying for Rohan

The Rohan archers charge the Fell Beast and Shelob... its all or nothing!

Grimbold charges the troops in front

Shelob senses a kill and pounces on the still prone Theoden

And promptly kills him

Rohan enraged by the death of the King, kill the Morgul knight 

Two Knights charge the outrider

They win, but fail to kill

Eomer is still surrounded

Mordor Uruk Hai charge the Rohan banner and Eowyn

The shield maiden loses, but doesn't die

Rohan are now fighting for their lives

Shelob helps another Morgul Knight

Meanwhile the Dark Marshall is charged again

The outrider will die!

Shagrat and Gorbag lead the charge in to Eomer, winning the roll of for Heroic move and use every available orc to attack him, whilst Shagrat strikes up to fight 10!

The Rohan numbers are very low and they are outnumbered on every side

The dice are rolled...

Eomer is slain

The Dark Marshall wins and throws the captain - anther wound

Mordor (and my dice rolling) seem unstoppable!

Last of the Riders falls

Eowyn takes on the Black Guard and Uruk Hai captains

and is also slain

Grimbold is all that is left of the Rohan command, they are broken, demolished and the game ends

We shake and add up the points 

Final thoughts:

This was a really nice battle, two fluffy armies - Rohan and Mordor.  Mordor did much better than I thought, but then in our post battle discussion we both agreed that Theoden led his riders into a BIG trap and lost the whole flank for his army, Louis was trying to get the riders through and out flank my foot troops, but with Theoden in the middle he was just unable to get the riders out of the way.

The end score was Mordor 61 vs 21 Rohan, a clear victory to the Cirith Ungol army from Mordor, now I understand why none of the riders from Snowbourn came to the call of Theoden for the Pelonor fields... I would love to see this army fight again as I think it has a lot of potential. 

The fell beast was worth it's points, moving around the flank and wiping out most of Theoden war band.

Man of the Match:

The Dark Marshall - Mordor 

Man of the Match - The Dark Marshal

This was a toss up between him and the Grimbold. But given the Wraiths special abilities -1 to courage, banner and spell caster he considering the amount of damage he did to Theoden and his Rohan riders, this had to go to the Dark Marshall.     Grimbold held up to everything thrown at him, but failed to make the difference int he battle.

 Another fun and enjoyable game, can't wait for the next match!

Leonardis

We welcome anyone interested in playing The Hobbit SBG, Lotr SBG, WotR or any warhammer/40K battle - why not let us know so that we can arrange some starter battles, like the one above, or if you/your club want to challenge us. We have all the LOTR/Hobbit SBG figures and LOTR scenery from the Mines of Moria to the siege of Helms Deep, snow fields to desert boards ready and waiting.  

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Mid Sussex War Gaming club

East Grinstead