Battle at the Bridge

The Mordor orcs are on the move again, raiding villages along the river. Ostensibly lead by Gothmog, but spearheaded by a powerful troll, they have had little opposition. Until now.....

Another game of LOTR strategy battle game was fought down in the dungeon on Friday night, but this time Matt remembered to take some photos on his ipad. Lighting is not ideal for photography, there are a number of spotlights, hence the floodlit appearance on the pictures, but they give a reasonable flavour of the game.

The troll and the majority of the orcs headed for the bridge, guarded by a dozen or so men of Gondor and a couple of heroes. Legolas took up position on a small hill and picked off a few orcs on the bridge. Aragorn took the more direct approach, charging straight at the troll. After a worrying start, he soon had the measure of the beast. With a mighty blow (a double 6 to wound!) he toppled the behemoth and scattered a few orcs into the river for good measure. But still the orcs came on.

Thinking that I might gain an advantage by spreading my forces, some of the orcs chose to wade across the river, lead by Gothmog, with the weakling Elven prince in their sights.

Further downstream, a small band of warg riders attempted to outflank the forces of good. They successfully negotiated the shallow crossing without mishap and raced up on to a small rise. Gathering together for a concentrated charge, they hesitated a little too long, for suddenly they were assailed by  Gimli and his band of Gondor men. The dwarven axe felled many, the rest dispatched by spear and sword. Not wanting to be bested by a pointy-eared elf, the doughty dwarf sprinted upstream to the bridge, keen to fell more of the orc scum.

Here the fighting was most fierce. Aragorn swept many orcs aside before hacking the orc captain in two. Gothmog and his followers struggled to cross the river, but finally managed to scramble up the bank. After a brief tussle, the orcs were defeated and pushed back into the swirling waters, their blood and filth staining the banks. The three heroes had proven more than a match for the Mordor scum!


As Gimli finally clattered up the bridge, the few remaining orcs were legging it back to the tower. Cheers from the men of Gondor, who suffered just a couple of casualties on the bridge. Gothmog slunk away, fearfully wounded, fearing the punishment he would receive at his master's command.

Another fine game of LOTR SBG, which turned out to be far easier than we had expected for the heroes, partly aided by Matt's uncanny ability to roll sixes and my pathetic rolling of 1s and 2s. The Mordor orcs are pretty poor troops it has to be said, I hope Gothmog can convince the overseers that stronger, better armoured orcs are needed to crush the enemies of the Eye. Can I hear the Black Gate slowly creaking open?