Battle of the Black Gate

 

So Ed and I decided that it was a high time that we played another Lord of the Rings game, and of course we used now favourite rules, War of the Sundered Realms.

the battle we chose is the final battle of the third age when the forces of the West March into Mordor.

if you are reading this you will know the story well so I won't rehearse it, suffice to say that the forces of the West take up defensive positions on two hills against overwhelming odds.

the forces of the West set up with a mixture of men of Gondor and men of Rohan, with Gandalf in charge on one hill and Aragorn on the other.

they were surrounded by a horde of orcs, goblins, Easterlings, trolls, led by the mouth of Sauron.

the westerners chose to mount an active defence and the men of Rohan and the Knights of Dol Amroth charged turn off the hills into the enemy ranks. 

The Rohan horse spent the rest of the game rampaging around the table knocking over orc units, however the smaller unit of men of Dol Amroth was quickly surrounded and overwhelmed.

we gave the defenders of the hill an extra point of defence to reflect the fact that they were on the hills and this prove to be very significant in the determination of melees.

on the hill held by Aragorn, the assault of the Easterlings was met by tough resistance, and although one unit of Rohan infantry was wiped out by Easterling archery, the unit of 1970s Citadel Guard polished off another unit of Easterlings without a single casualty! the Easterlings then failed to get on the hill.

the troops under Gandalf's command had a much tougher time of it, orc archery whittled them down, and the early loss of the Knights of Dol Amroth left a gap which the orcs could exploit.

On the other hill, Gandalf intervened with a couple of fireballs which devastated one of the attacking orc units. at this point the Mouth of Sauron decided to lead the charge, unfortunately Gandalf  cut him down in short order.

The Mouth of Sauron is a really old Asgard figure which has led the forces of Mordor since the 1970s! The Gandalf figure is of a similar age.

at this point in the game forces of Mordor were spent, we rolled for the arrival of the Eagles, but they refused to turn up. Despite heavy losses on both sides it was clear that the forces of the West had a slight advantage.

it was actually a close fought game, great to get the figures on the table, many of which are old casts from the 1970s and 1980s.

And another triumph for these excellent rules!

Vintage Trolls

1970s Minifigs Citadel Guard