This is the do-over battle report for the March of the Dead scenario included in the Battle of Pelennor Fields boxed set for Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game. I first played this scenario 2 days ago as a straight wargame mission. That was unsatisfactory, because the power levels of the armies were oddly matched. The Orcs couldn't swarm the Dead because they couldn't get over their Terror effect, and the Dead couldn't seem to Wound the Orcs because they don't hit hard enough. It went back and forth endlessly until finally the Dead won, but it was definitely at the expense of, well, fun.
So I replayed the scenario today, this time approaching it as a the narrative scenario I think it's meant to be. Among my ghost miniatures, I have a favourite "Banshee." That's what I call her, anyway, because I used her for the Banshee role in my Deth Wizards game. I'm imagining her as a sort of a Medea figure, but with less infanticide and more overt tragedy. Maybe the orcs slaughtered her children, just as she arrived too late to save them. She died shortly thereafter, but she was alive with her sorrow long enough to vow vengeance upon the orcs.
This scenario is her village's chance at revenge.
Special rules
As in my first attempt, there are 9 Dead and 24 Orcs. The Dead have a permanent Banner effect granting them rerolls on Attacks when more than one Dead is involved in a Duel. The Dead emit Terror, and have the Blades of the Dead special rule, which means their To Wound rolls target an orc's Courage instead of Defence.
Unlike the first play-through, the goal of the Orcs in this scenario is to escape. They want to crawl back into the cracks of Vesuvius whence they came, and the Dead want to send as many Orcs as possible to an early grave. Mechanically, that means that any time a Dead miniature wins a Duel but fails to Wound, the Orc target gets to move closer to the exit point in the southwest corner of the board.
- If more Orcs get away than are removed, then the Orcs win.
- If more Orcs are killed than those that exit, then the Dead win.
Round 1
The Banshee leads two ghosts from the village's guards from the west toward the ruins of their former home. It's crawling with orcs, as they've camped in an attempt to wait out the daylight and travel at night. Many are in the ruins of buildings, sheltering from the open sun and from any Roman cleanup crews that might be passing by.
The Banshee and her guards hide behind some crates, while another 3 guards hide behind some barrels, and the final 3 move up to one of the buildings in hopes of attracting the attention of just a few orcs. The Dead let out a howl, which attracts d3 orcs each. Sadly, the Dead don't kill a single orc, resulting in 5 orcs making sudden progress toward the exit.
- Orcs destroyed: 0
- Orcs escaped: 5
Round 2
Seeing their fellow orcs take off to the south, several other orcs decide it's time to clear out, as well. I'm treating a failed Courage test against Terror to mean that an orc can't even see the Dead, so nobody quite knows what's going on except that a bunch of orcs have run off screaming.
Orc watchmen start to descend to ground level, and a few on the ground succeed a Courage test and Charge the Dead. The Dead do better this time and destroy 2 orcs, but then again another 3 get away.
What's really frightening is that an orc manages to destroy one of the Warriors of the Dead on the east end of the battlefield. That wasn't supposed to happen. It barely happened last game.
- Orcs destroyed: 2
- Orcs escaped: 8
- Dead destroyed: 1
Round 3
The Banshee and her guardsmen retreat behind the west building, hoping to sneak up on a few orcs. An orc spots them, though, and destroys one of the Banshee's guards.
Things get worse, as more orcs pluck up the courage to Charge at the Dead. The orcs destroy 2 more ghosts and, I have to admit, this is actually really terrifying to me. The orcs did score casualties in my previous playthrough, but not at this rate. The Dead army could actually lose this battle in a way I hadn't even bothered writing into my custom rules: By actually losing!
- Orcs destroyed: 5
- Orcs escaped: 10
- Dead destroyed: 3
Round 4
Angry that there is no peace even in death, the Banshee screams a cry of undeath that chills the fleeing orcs. She and her remaining guard fly from the shadows and attack, swiftly putting an end to one of the orcs leading the get-away.
The other ghosts hear the cry as a rally, and come to help. 3 orcs are killed, but so are 2 Dead. Another 3 orcs escape.
- Orcs destroyed: 8
- Orcs escaped: 13
- Dead destroyed: 5
Round 5
I'm really surprised by how little the Banner effect is doing for the ghosts. I guess it must be helping them win Duels, but the same old problem of not hitting hard enough still plagues them. This round, 2 more orcs escape by failed attacks, and only 1 is destroyed.
Even worse, my Banshee gets herself killed in a last ditch effort to catch a fleeing orc. My heart shall never heal, but I'll take solace in the hope that she has at last found peace (and that she's a minitaure, and I get to use her in a future game despite her untimely re-death.)
- Orcs destroyed: 9
- Orcs escaped: 15
- Dead destroyed: 6
Post-game administration
This turned out to be a fun scenario after all! It's a real treat to get confirmation bias that playing wargames as narratives is superiour to playing it like chess. Absolutely nothing went as planned, the dice definitely betrayed me, and in the end the Orc army won. But narratively, the Dead did get their revenge on 9 orcs, and many were sent to the afterlife in the glory of vengeful battle.
I hadn't intended to play the final scenario, but I read it through today and it sounds like a lot of fun. There's a siege engine and a troll, and I've never played a with a siege engine in Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game so I'm eager to learn those rules. Of course, I've [re-]learnt my lesson, and I'll play the scenario narratively.
Next up, the titular Battle of Pelennorium Fields!
Photos Creative Commons cc0.