MESBG... STIRRING ACTION ON THE RIVER ANDUIN

 It is the 15th March and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields is raging. The forces of Gondor and Rohan desperately struggle to hold back the monstrous tide of Mordor. At the port of Harlond on the River Anduin, a nameless Captain of Gondor and his apprehensive warband have been tasked with holding the dock against whatever forces are sent against them and prevent reinforcements arriving to turn the tide of battle inexorably in favour Dark Lord Saruman...

The wily warlord, Gothmog, understands the importance of Harlond and dispatches a mixed force of Morannon Orcs and Easterling warriors to drive the Gondorians into the river and secure the dock for Corsairs who rapidly approach to join the battle.

The Forces of Evil sweep towards the waiting Gondor Warriors...

and the first of the Morannons is brought down by an archer of Gondor, but the advance is inexorable and the Morannons are soon clambering onto the dock.

With the arrival of the Easterlings, the men of Gondor find themselves forlornly fighting to hold on to the narrow strip of the dock, in a series of frantic struggles to the death.

With the ships of the Corsairs approaching the dock, the relentless Guritz engages the Gondorian Captain in a wild flurry of blows and prepares to lead his allies in a glorious march to the battle on the Pelannor. However...

through the thinning ranks of Gondor, there suddenly appeared a horde of ghastly apparitions, sweeping Morannons and Easterlings from the dock and back away from the banks of the Anduin.

The Easterlings found themselves facing the deathly throng, fighting for their very lives... 

In the wake of this Army of the Dead, their dread King and his Herald sweep across the dock and into the thick of the fray. In desperation, Mordor's corps found themselves searching for salvation... can anything save them from the slaughter of the Dead?

Once again this battle turns upon it's head as the Mumakil rampages towards the hopeless struggle at the dock...

In a desperate act of selfless sacrifice the King of the Dead swoops across the battlefield to engage the Haradrim but the forces of Mordor find courage from the arrival of the mighty war beast and even the presence of Legolas and Gimli can stop their renewed advance...

And even the death of the Mumakil can not turn the tide of battle one last time... the Morannons and the Easterlings have inflicted too much damage on the warband of Gondor, but the bigger battle will be fought out without the intervention of the Corsairs.

CLASH OF SPEARS... A SPINE-CHILLING ENCOUNTER IN THE FORGOTTEN LANDS OF AMNESEA.

Following their humiliating defeat at the Battle of Epicondulus, the respected elders of Hallitosos have despatched the heroic and much beloved Strategos, Testakles, to command their forces engaged in the harrowing campaign against Heinos the Necromancer and his unspeakable hordes, drawn from the infernal depths of Hades.

Testakles and his hardy band of warriors have inadvertently stumbled across the ruined Temple of Persephone, one of the seven mystical gateways to the subterranean halls of the dead... home to The Defeated, the fallen hoplites of Amnesea. Unbeknownst to the Hallitosians, the High Priestess of the temple, Amonia, lies in hiding beneath the great wooden doorway at the centre of the eviknaeum and could be discovered at any moment, to be taken in chains and paraded in humiliation before the elders and populace of Hallitosos. As the Hallitosians prepare to plunder the temple, they suddenly become aware that their presence in this most macabre of shrines has not gone unnoticed and shadowy spectral figures can be seen inexorably approaching their position.

To win this battle, the mighty Testakles merely needs to prevent the skeletal hordes of Heinos from entering the heart of the temple ruins and rescuing the concealed High Priestess, Amonia, from her un-noticed captivity.

The Hallitosian commanders... on the left, the mighty Testakles and, on the right, the slightly sinister Domestos. Domestos had already encountered the hordes of Hades and is determined to avenge his earlier defeat.

The dreaded forces of Hades are commended by Heinos the Necromancer and his trusted lieutenant, Verdigris. Heinos has sworn to free the High Priestess from the temple and prevent her from falling into the hands of the mighty Testakles. Verdigris, on the other hand, is very much aware that the High Priestess is perfectly capable of taking care of herself and needs no rescuing from anyone!

Amonia, High Priestess of the Temple of Persephone, innocent and virtuous guardian of the secret ways of Hades, the King of the Underworld...

Approaching the Temple from the east, Verdigris unleashes his skeletal horde against Testakles and his force of Citizen Hoplites and javelin armed Psiloi. Despite his best efforts, the warriors of "The Defeated" seem a little reluctant to advance and engage the deadly spears of the Hoplites. 

His archers, however, eagerly advance to the edge of the Sacred Lemon Grove and discharge a hail of arrows towards the Hallitosian Psiloi defending the eastern approach to the temple...

and the first casualty of the battle falls with an agonising scream, greeted by a chorus of clattering skeletal limbs from the scented trees of the Lemon Grove. 

Testakles is unable to resist the challenge laid down by Verdigris and sends his Hoplites forward to meet the advancing skeleton warband, leaving the Temple to be defended by Domestos and his lightly armoured skirmishers. Will his impetuosity bring ruin to the Hallitosian cause and condemn his compatriots to another ignominious defeat?

On the western side of the Temple, Heinos sends his warriors and blood thirsty Zealots through the boulders towards Domestos, whose Peltasts manoeuvre to get into a position to hurl a shower of javelins towards the advancing throng.

Sensing a blood letting ahead of them, the undead surge forward...

The Peltasts, however, determine to take the battle to the enemy and move forward to hurl yet more javelins, causing little damage and exhausting themselves as they scurry back to the cover of the Temple.

The ill considered advance from the Peltasts leaves them exposed when the Zealots launch a devastating attack...

In a vicious encounter, half of the Peltast unit is wiped out by the fearsome Zealots, although the fanatical warriors suffer equally from the javelins of the Hallitosians. The Peltasts are pushed back into the testing confines of the Temple, giving them little space to fight effectively.

On the opposite side of the battlefield, Testakles continues to drive his Hoplites forward and away from the Temple. He forms up the spearmen into close order and then joins their serried ranks as they prepare to engage the enemy.

The living and the dead launch themselves heedlessly into the combat and casualties are suffered on both sides...

and the colossal clash sees the Hallitosian Hoplites driven back. Both Testakles and Verdigris take stock of the situation and the two warrior groups stand fast weighing up their opposition.

As the stalemate continues to the east, the finale of the battle begins to take shape to the west.

Heinos launches every available warrior towards Domestos and his remaining Peltasts in the Temple in a final desperate bid to rescue the High Priestess from her confinement.

As the skeleton warriors fall in huge numbers under the javelins of the Peltasts, it appears that the day is lost to "The Defeated", however, the remaining Zealots summon up one last effort and drive their way into the Temple, forcing their opponents headlong before them.

As Domestos stands and watches in disbelief, the Peltasts crumble before the fanatical Zealots and are slaughtered to a man, leaving the Zealots to snatch the High Priestess from her place of hiding...

Before the remaining Peltasts can react, the Zealots whisk the High Priestess away from the Temple and a very unlikely victory has been snatched from the jaws of defeat.

Even though the field of battle is littered with the bones of the Horde of Hades, the rescue of Amonia gives an unexpected last minute victory to Heinos the Necromancer. Both sides will need to retire to lick their wounds and Testakles will, no doubt, receive some criticism for allowing his Hoplites to be enticed away from the Temple, where they would certainly have turned the battle decidedly in the favour of the Hallitosians.

MESBG... AN AWFUL LOT CAN HAPPEN IN FIFTY-FIVE DAYS!

 A mere 55 days after our last game, Dan came round on Monday to set up a game of MESBG on the dining room table. A lot has changed in those 55 days... last time we played I had a fully functioning right knee and I wasn't clunking around in a cumbersome leg brace... last time we played, the new edition of the rules was still causing all sorts of prophesised controversy with players coming to electronic blows on social media over undisclosed changes and adaptations.

The battlefield... just a small table as we were using the game to get our heads around the new rules.

Our game was a straightforward scenario, with a couple of objective markers, one of which contained a precious relic to be collected and defended. Which of the markers contained the relic was determined randomly, using the new Intelligence Test(!). Having a force comprising Uruk-Hai and Dunlanders, I didn't hold out much hope of discovering the relic, even if I did manage to get to the objective first.

As it turned out, my Dunlanders, lead by a Wild Man Chieftain, Intelligence stat 7+, got to the objective marker on the ruins first and, at the second attempt, discovered that the sacred relic was, indeed, contained therein! Ominously, my Uruk-Hai, advancing on the left of the ruin, found themselves being approached, at an alarming rate, by Theodan and his Rohirrim horsemen, while the Dunlanders readied themselves to face a warband of Gondorian warriors, eager to get their hands on the sacred relic. 

As things transpired, my group of Warg Riders, having failed to get onto the table on the first game turn, arrived in time to deflect the Gondorians from their planned assault on the ruin and give the Dunlanders  time to form something vaguely resembling a line of defence. 

The fight between Wargs and Gondorians turned out to be something of an epic blood bath, with both sides gaining the upper hand before a combination of numbers and the Shieldwall rule swung the conflict decidedly in the favour of Gondor.

Out on the flank, the Uruks initially gained the upper hand against Theodan and his riders and, for some time, it looked as though the Bad Guys might just get away with the sacred relic and win the day. For some time, but not long enough! Even with the assistance of some of the Dunlanders, who jumped down from the ruins to join in the fight, the ascendancy ultimately swung in favour of the Rohirrim and the White Hand casualty rate began to rocket towards breaking point.

With the Men of Gondor closing in on the ruin and causing further casualties on the Dunlanders, the White Hand army broke and victory went to Theodan and his allies, although the Wild Man Chieftain still had his grubby hands on the sacred relic!

Our first small engagement with the new version of MESBG was an enjoyable experience, although games with Dan always are; we play for fun and to tell a story not to be ranked in a league table. By the end of the game, we both said that we hadn't noticed any massive difference from the old rules, apart from having the option to play first or second in the Priority Phase and having to test the intelligence of my Wild Man Chieftain! The outcome of fights involving cavalry was different, but that was only because we'd been doing that wrong when we played using the old rules!

We're already planning our next outing and that will be very different... we both decided to use the arrival of the new rule set as an opportunity to try commanding different factions in our Middle Earth gaming. Dan has switched allegiance to the forces of Evil and has been working on a Mumakil, Haradrim Warriors and Morannon Orcs, while I've been painting up some Army of the Dead and have some Warriors of Gondor sprues to build a couple of warbands as defenders of the Pelennor!

I'm not sure what's going to happen to all the Dwarves I have at various levels of completion but I'm sure the coming months will see all of that malarkey come to a positive conclusion!