From The Ashes

Back to Middle Earth for another week of Battle Company carnage. This week the warbands are attempting hold separate objectives whilst their forces arrive on the board in stages rather than all at once. Further more, My Goblin crew has a secondary objective: Save the lost archer! Last week I was unfortunate as to lose one of my heroes to the wilds and this game will be my ONLY chance to save him from certain death. A huge blow to my already struggling band of goblin hooligans. The Alliance of Men and Elves are very much the dominant force of the campaign and this could be a good chance for the Dwarves to give them a bloody nose if they play their cards right. The Orcs of Cirith Ungol are away again this week (Corporate team building seminar at head office or something) So that leave the Dwarves and the Alliance to play for glory and the Goblins to play a desperate rescue mission in the background before they get noticed.

The Goblins rush to grab their wounded comrade before the goodies can secure the area. The Goblins will need to drag the unconscious Hero off the board to assure his survival.

The Men of Numenor ford the river to claim the objective by the crossing.

The Dwarves, likewise take the bridge, the only other river crossing.

The Dwarf Leader spies the Goblin mob and bravely steps out to meet them in battle before they can flee with their wounded gang mate.

Alas his efforts prove fool hardy indeed as the Goblin assassin reveals his lethal skills and fells the Dwarf Leader in a single round of Combat. Shockingly, the Goblins are the first warband to score a VP.

The Dwarf reinforcements arrive and march on the Numenorians at the ford.

The rest of the Dwarves, enraged by the death of their Leader, make their way back across the bridge to attack the Goblins.

The skirmish at the river goes ill for the Dwarves. The Alliance reinforcements have yet to arrive, but it will spell doom for the Dwarves if they can't pull back from their dire situation.

Meanwhile, the Goblins continue to rush their comrade to the board's edge just as their own reinforcements arrive.

The ford remains contested ground as another Dwarf joins the fray.

With their lost comrade carried to safety, the Goblins regroup and take the fight to the Dwarves. The Goblins have massed their numbers and the Dwarves are spread out fighting a battle on two fronts.

The Goblin Leader sneaks away from the main battle and takes the objective within the ruins.

Finally the Elves arrive just in time to see the Numenorians drive off the Dwarves at the ford. The Elven Sorcerer holds the objective by the well as his kin march on the center of the field.

The fight at the bridge escalates as more goblins pile on the remaining Dwarves.

But there is a change in the wind. The Dwaf warband is broken and the survivors take cover as the Alliance forms up and marches up the field. The Goblins spot the greater danger of the Alliance from their vantage point on the bridge and chose to ignore the broken Dwarves.

The Alliance bares down on the thin line of Goblins, but not before a lucky shot fells an elf. The Goblin are clearly looking for some petty revenge for past wrongs.

The sole remaining Dwarf takes a chance to enter the combat as the Goblin assassin claims another enemy hero before being dispatched himself by the Numenorian Leader.

Both the Alliance and the Goblin forces break on the same turn, but the game ends their. The centre of the field remains contested and the Elf Sorcerer holds only a single objective for the Alliance to score 1 VP. Smirking from the shadows of the ruins, the Goblin Leader holds an objective of his own. With the Dwarf Leader killed earlier and the ruins in Goblin hands, the Goblins (by an outside chance) win the game 2-1.

Well there you have it. I aimed to save my missing hero and leg it before things got nasty. I was going into this game as the weakest warband due to casualties and lack of progress, but I will take any victory. No matter how jammy. To be fair I was helped by the Dwarves decision to split their forces. This kept the Alliance away from me long enough for me to get my forces together otherwise I think it would be a different story.

Next week we should have the return of the Cirith Ungol Orcs, but in a further twist of fate, the Numenorians have lost their Warrior Hero. Like my lost Goblin, they'll have a chance to reclaim him next week, but as drama goes, it does make things very interesting!