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.

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!

MESBG... THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO SPEND A MONDAY MORNING!

Dan and I continue to work on our latest Middle Earth projects; Easterlings for Dan and Dwarves for me! We try to get our completed miniatures on the table top on a regular basis, as we both find, that spending a day rolling dice gives our painting campaigns a shot of much needed impetus. This Monday gathering was to include part of a massive Dwarven Gate that Dan has been painting. There is a lot more to add to these two pieces to complete the final model, but we thought it would be good to get these two colossal dwarves(!) on the table.

The game itself didn't have our usual complex storyline, but was simply a take and hold two victory markers affair, one marker either side of the stream running across the centre of the table.

I should apologise to Dan as most of my shots of the game tend to focus a bit more on the Dwarves, but his Easterlings are superbly modelled and painted and deserve to feature much more spotlight than they get here!

The Dwarf Captain and his warband set off to cross the stream with the intention of capturing the victory marker on the far side of the water.

The other half of the Dwarf force... King Groin and his Guardsmen make straight for the victory marker on the right bank of the stream.

The two main Easterling forces... Rutabi with her pike block on the left and Brorgir with an escort to the right. Dan was to confound the Dwarves by suddenly switching Brorgir to the opposite flank as the game made its way through its early stages!

I have a respect for the Easterling Acolytes based on previous experience; they seem to have the capacity to do damage beyond what you would expect from blokes hurling daggers at you!

The Dwarf Captain mirrors the Brorgir's stratagem by abruptly switching his warband's advance away from the stream in closer support of King Groin...

who finds himself approached by Rutabi and her menacing pike block.

Meanwhile, Brorgir has captured the victory marker on the far side of the stream and is leading his escort across the water to outflank the Dwarves. Thankfully, the Dwarf Captain has detached a small group to attempt to hold up the wielder of dark magic. 

Brorgir casts a Tremor spell and successfully flattens a column of dwarves, knocking them prone and vulnerable should they be attacked.

Yet more brave Dwarves nobly place themselves between the Easterling magician and their fallen comrades.

The King's leading Dwarves hurl themselves selflessly into Rutabi's phalanx in a desperate attempt to hold them up while Groin organises his forces ready for an all out attack.

The Easterlings push the Dwarves back, but the Khazad Guardsmen are already rushing around the phalanx to launch an attack upon their vulnerable flank.

The Khazad Guards complete their manoeuvre and surround Rutabi and her warband. The Dwarf Captain dispatches two of his warband to cross the stream and capture the second victory token. Both sides use their banners to re-roll those dice but it is the Dwarves who begin to get the upper hand.

After a desperate struggle, Rutabi and her warband are defeated and the Dwarves begin to swarm across the stream in search of that second victory token.

Brorgir hastens back from the stream to assist the lone defender of the victory token and the two Dwarves find themselves in severe difficulties.

The Dwarves form up and launch an all out attack on the remaining Easterlings, unaware of the danger that is fast approaching!

Khamul the Easterling swoops majestically over the stream on his fell beast... the battle could yet take one more dramatic swing in favour of the Evil hordes.

Once again, a line of prone Dwarves litter the field of battle as the fell beast uses his beastly powers to hurl the diminutive warriors to the ground. Crucially, the Dwarf banner finds itself scattered in the dirt.

Cinematically, the dining room door somewhat spoils the drama of the shot, but worse, the fell beast's attempted Rend on King Groin fails to have any effect and the Dwarves swarm in to attack the monstrous creature.

Driven back by the King and his host, the fell beast succumbs to overwhelming numbers and some decent dice rolling and the day belongs to the Dwarves of Khazad-Dum.

Our impromptu Monday wargame lead to a gripping little encounter which swung one way and then the other. After their initial success, the Easterling pike phalanx suffered when the Khazad Guard were able to work their way around the flank of the formation, negating the advantages the pikes have when fighting to their front. Both of us went away inspired to work on more troops for our future games... Dan is looking to add some allies to his Easterlings and I have some more Dwarf warriors, including some archers, to work on. 

MESBG... WARG ATTACK!

With the coming of the dark times, Theodan, King of Rohan, rescued from the malevolent  grip of Saruman the White by the wizard Gandalf, leads his people from the wooden city of Edoras to the mighty fortress of Helm's Deep. Seeing an opportunity to inflict a grievous defeat upon the enemy, Saruman orders Sharku to lead out his Warg Riders to intercept the rustic country-folk of Rohan and spread unimaginable terror across the land! 

The camp of the refugees... an idyllic country scene about to be rudely interrupted!

Sharku and his warband of repugnant Warg Riders smell human flesh and hasten into battle.

Sensing an easy victory and an opportunity to slaughter defenceless peasants, a group of Wildmen of Dunland, Lurtz, a plethora of Uruk-Hai scouts and a passing Troll, decide to join in the attack!

Theodan, gallant King of Rohan, Aragorn and the Royal Guard heroically leap into the saddle and prepare to repel Saruman's vile marauders...

while the courageous Eowyn assembles the peasant masses and prepares to lead them to safety.

From his lofty perch, atop the great flat topped hill, gallant Legolas sends forth a barrage of Eleven arrows and the leader of the Wildmen, The Headtaker, having injudiciously placed himself at the head of his forces, takes a nasty wound, but forges ahead, with his warband swarming around him to protect their much beloved and feared leader.

Theodan the King, leads his Royal Guard around the hill to intercept the approaching hordes of Saruman and Gimli makes a prodigious leap from the hill to join the coming fray.

With Saruman's forces advancing across the entire front, the Rohirrim are forced to divide their warband to meet the disparate threats and one of the valiant Royal Guard is unhorsed and overwhelmed by The Headtaker and his Wildmen.

Sharku's plan to outflank the enemy and strike the fleeing peasants is thwarted by Aragorn and a party of the mounted men of Rohan who bravely hurl themselves between the Warg Riders and their prey. Eowyn refuses to be intimidated by the vicious Wargs and continues to encourage the peasants to press onwards towards safety.

However, some of the Wargs do manage to break through to attack the peasants, who bravely engage the beasts, encouraged by the indomitable Eowyn.

As the battle rages, Aragorn makes a heroic move against Sharku and the two become locked in a mortal struggle. Sharku fights with demonic determination, matching his enemy blow for blow but, with his superior strength and skill, Aragorn overwhelms his opponent and Saruman's Warg Riders lose their leader, slain by a mighty torrent of blows.

Aragorn's victory gives Eowyn and the peasants a brief respite and once again gives them the opportunity to make their escape to the safety of Helm's Deep.

Over by the hill, the Wildmen are in danger of being wiped out, as the Rohan cavalry, lead by Theodan and Legolas, with his unerring bow fire, but large numbers of Uruk scouts begin to advance towards Gimli, who suddenly finds himself alone and at risk of being overwhelmed.

The advantage begins to swing further in favour of Saruman's horde, as Lurtz and the Troll advance menacingly towards Theodan and his few remaining warriors. The Uruk bowmen launch volley after volley of their deadly arrows towards the hill and Legolas is soon brought down under the deluge of the arrow storm.

Too late, King Theodan realises the peril about to befall him and the remaining Riders of Rohan. Beset on all sides by Wildmen, Uruks and the mighty troll, the riders fight desperately to force back the enemy.

Under the unyielding onslaught, King Theodan is laid low and the remaining men of Rohan are left to face the enemy without their beloved and heroic leader. With the tragic death of their king, the peasants lose heart and begin a desperate flight away from the field of battle. Eowyn, however, has only vengeance upon her mind and launches into a despairing charge across the battlefield, intent upon bringing down those responsible for the death of the king.

Can the gallant lady wreak her vengeance before she is ploughed down by passing carts or intercepted by yet more reinforcement Wargs hastily arriving on the battlefield?

Long before Eowyn can arrive, Aragorn thunders into the troll, Gimli blusters into Lurtz with Dwarf Axes flailing and the two remaining mounted Rohan desperately engage Wildmen and Uruk Scouts.

The situation now turns desperate for the enemies of Saruman as Gimli and Aragorn are surrounded, and even their extraordinary powers can no longer save them from the inevitable conclusion. Both heroes are hacked down by their vile foes, leaving only the valiant Lady Eowyn to stand against the forces of darkness.

And even she fell under the vicious onslaught of Uruk-hai scouts, leaving just a single Rohan Royal Guardsman to face Saruman's horde.

With their enemies slain, Lurtz, the troll, Uruk Scouts, Warg Riders and Wildmen were left to celebrate their victory in their own inevitable style. The forces of Goodness had paid a heavy price in their attempt to escort the peasants of Rohan to the relative safety of Helm's Deep and the virtuous of Middle Earth could only wait to see if new heroes would arise to lead them in their fight against the forces of darkness!