The other day we played a LotR Battle, Gondor vs Haradrim. Many good named heroes gathered on the battlefield to face the evil hordes of Harad. The epic duels, powerful clashes and heroic last stands followed the Gondor force warriors fall.
The good force consisted of the flower of Gondor and had among its lines the below heroes with their special rules:
Prince Imrahil, Boromir of Gondor (Horn of Gondor), Duinhir (Lineage of Numenor), Dol Amroth Captain (Dol Amroth for Gondor), Forlong the Fat and Angbor the Fearless.
Swan Knights of Dol Amroth
The whole Gondor force
Knights of Minas Tirith
Men-at-Arms and Axemen of Lossarnach
Rangers
Clansmen of Lamedon
Swan Knights on Foot
The evil force consisted of the below heroes and their followers:
Mumak Beast Master (Master of Mumak), Sulandan (Poisoned Arrows, Ascedant), King of Harad (Poisoned Arrows), Hasharin (Bane of Kings, Stalk Unseen, Pretenatural Agility) and three Chieftains, a black, a red and a Serpent (Poisoned Arrows).
The Mumak and the whole Harad army
The right flank
Haradrim warriors and raiders
Serpent Guards
Watchers of Karna
Haradrims of the left flank
Haradrims of the rearguard
The battlefield was a flat plain with a small ruined castle in the middle to split the whole area in two parts. I had the good forces. My plan was simple: attack with the mounted forces on the left, defence with the forces on foot on the right. In theory this was a good plan, but only in theory, because in action it was a failure! I started first and according to the plan I charged with the cavalry against the opponent archers. In the meanwhile, the foot soldiers had as a task to stop the Mumak. So I forced them to make a barrier against the oncoming beast. Unfortunately, Imrahil proved to be the main target of the Haradrims' shoots and he lost his horse at first turns. Additionaly to this, SKoDA had heavy loses, they were speedily slain by the Haradrim archers. Half of them did not even reach the enemy lines, they fell during the glorious charge! Below you can see what I mean:
The cavalry charges
The rest force advances
The Harad moves
The barrier against the Mumak
KoMT and Imrahil (at the back) without his horse
SKoDA's numbers are reducing
Mumak charges
The rest Harad follows
Finally, the cavalry reaches the enemy lines!
Charge!
Hold the lines!
Gondor (at the back) and Mumak charge
A view from the top of the howdah
Keep calm!
War Mumak approaches!
A panoramic view from the good side. Imrahil runs
to catch the rest of the Knights.
A panoramic view from the evil side
A panoramic view of the battlefield
At last, the time of the fights came. This is the moment when all the tactics move aside and the warriors clash each other with furious force. At the next fight turns, it was obvious that the Gondor cavalry previous serious loses from the Harad arrows turned the tide and for that reason they were overwhelmed by the enemy and died one after another. Additionaly, the lack of a strong Good bowmen unit, except for the sixteen rangers, did not do much harm to the enemy numbers. On the contrary, the strong heavy Good infantry managed to kill the War Mumak but not without "bleeding".
The clash. Imrahil still runs!
The clash inside the ruined castle
War Mumak death
Forrest-Imrahil-Gump still runs...
And finally dies not so gloriously!
When the SKoDA and KoMT died all, their opponents turned to reinforce the rest of the Harad army, which fought against the Good infantry. In contrast to the Harad, the later did not have any reinforcements, so they were vastly outnumbered. It was a matter of time for Harad to prevail. High Courage values did not allowed the SKoDA on foot to leave the battle and they fought and died to the last one.
Harad gathers its forces
The last Knight dies surrounded by the enemies
Lessons learned: Arrogancy is a bad leader. I did not respect the enemy archers and I overestimated the abilities of my cavalry. Princes of the Blood did the same mistake on the morning of October 25, 1415.
