Scenario 1: The Battle of the Last Alliance

The big scenario to set the stage, is the culmination of the second age and the final stand of Sauron against the Men and Elves who united against him. At the end of a twelve year conflict the Dark Lord finally emerges to deal with Elendil and Gil-Galad, the high kings of the Men and Elves respectively. 

This is one of the few scenarios of this campaign that was played in person, so please excuse the lack of fully painted armies and a few proxies. I loved when I played this scenario before and thought it would be the game that I used the history for to kick off my new campaign.

Forces of Good:

Elendil, High King of Gondor and Arnor
Isildur
Gil-Galad, High King of the Elves
Elrond, Master of Rivendell (Heavy Armour)
36x Warrior of Numenor (12x Shield, 12x Spear and Shield, 12x bow)
37x High Elf Warriors (12x Nothing extra, 12x Spear and Shield, 12x Bow, 1x Banner)

Forces of Evil:

The Dark Lord Sauron

4 Orc Captains (Shield)

2 Mordor Trolls
72 Mordor Orc Warriors (24x Shield, 24x Spear, 12x Two Handed Weapon, 12x Bow) 

Additionally. the following rules are in play:

• Sauron arrives on the board on the 4th turn and can cast 2 spells the turn he arrives.
• Slain Orc Warriors continuously re-enter onto the board on a 5+ each turn.
• Good heroes do not take terror checks to charge Sauron.
• If Gil-Galad is slain, Elrond can call a free heroic strike each turn, ditto for Elendil and his son Isildur.
• Additionally, Elrond is not able to cast magic (A custom addition from myself for balance).

The scenario ends on either of the following victory conditions:

• Sauron has been slain for a forces of Good victory!
• All four Good heroes have been slain for an Evil victory!

For this scenario, due to past playthroughs, Sauron's cast two spells the turn he arrives has been changed to casts two spells the first turn he casts to make sure this is not wasted due to range limitations. 

Deployment

Both sides deployed staring each other down, and on completion of a rousing speech by the forces of Good both sides began marching towards each other.

Early Turns

Both sides moved up the board keeping their line, the centre of the good line hanging back slightly in order to shoot down as many Orcs as they can on the way in to combat. Several kills were scored and 2 wounds dealt to the right side Troll.

Combat Starts

Combat began on the left flank, with the Orcs getting stuck in as much as possible and Elrond facing off against a Troll. The Men and Elves cut through the Orcs on the left flank that had reached them but Elrond failed to deal with the troll and was wounded in the process.

Both flanks then engaged in further combat as well as small sections of the centre, the Men and Elves traded well against the Orcs, killing more than they lost. Elendil dealt with the wounded Troll, however Elrond again lost to the troll and was wounded again. Meanwhile Isildur struggled fighting an Orc captain.

Sauron Arrives

Sauron arrived and moved up the board to join the fray. Elrond and Isildur finally dealt with their respective opponents. Elendil and Gil-Galad move forward to meet the Dark Lord. The ability of an endless supply of Orcs started to take a toll on the forces of Good as every lost fight and death is a permeant blow and lead to more and more of the forces of Good falling due to being further outnumbered.

Duel of Heroes

Sauron took on both the High Kings in multiple duels, their skill and fearlessness able to get the best of the Dark Lord several times, inflicting a few wounds. Gil-Galad suffered a few wounds back from Sauron's magical prowess but remained alive to continue fighting. However, the risk of succumbing to further injuries forced him spend might each turn time Heroic Striking, with Elendil following suit when Gil-Galad ran out of might. Both flanks for Good crumbled over the multiple rounds of combats due to the continuous addition of more and more orcs nearby joining the combats. As such, the remaining forces regroup as fast as they could around the centre to give time and space for their Kings to end the Dark Lord.

It was a long and gruelling fight over multiple turns, all four of the Good heroes ended up on just a single wound, both from fighting Sauron but also his endless supply of minions. Gil-Galad put up a lot of work matching Sauron's fight value and Elendil finding the weak points to put some wounds through on the Dark Lord. But the power of the ring could not be undone and though Sauron should have fallen already six times over he remained standing.

Final Gambit

With the centre line fully surrounded, the remaining forces of Good restrained the Orcs as much as possible to allow everyone who could to engage Sauron and end him then and there. Elendil, Gil-Galad, and Isildur all engaged, with Elrond stuck too far away to help. Along with them, eight brave Men and Elves joined the combat and trapped Sauron.

With everyone running low on resources, Elendil spent his last point of might to Heroic Strike and Sauron matched this seeing that this could be the turning point for either side. Both sides achieved the same fight value of 10 but thanks to their elven weaponry the fight goes in favour of good. Both Kings did everything they could but Sauron survives the flurry of blows and remained. Isildur steps up but again wasn't able to finish the fight. By now Sauron had taken his final wound 12 times.

Outcome

With the worry that the plan had failed, the remaining warriors put their hits in, with Sauron on 1 might, he would have to fail to come back twice on a 2+. 16 Attacks were made and somehow, despite needing 6/5 and 6/6's, six wounds were made by the troops. Now it was left to Sauron. Could the ring continue to sustain him? When attempting to save the 3rd wound he failed forcing him to spend his last might. then again on the 5th wound he failed again, slaying his physical form and ending the battle as the Orcs fled in fear.

A cheer would ring out for victory but the forces of Good were devastated. Over 2/3rds of the Men and Elves lay dead on the slopes of mount doom, and unless Sauron and the Orcs are truly vanquished, this Evil could once again return.

Review

All in all this was a very fun scenario that I think depends on how much you can get into Sauron as it's a fight you never know how long it will take to finish him off. Additionally, it's how you play Sauron, sitting back and spell-casting would slowly win the game but isn't the narrative style as he did join to deal with the High Kings. 

Looking at the amount of turns that passed and combats that occurred, there must have been at least 60 Orcs that returned from being killed to slowly pressure the forces of Good and each loss you suffered maked the next fights harder due to the increase of being further outnumbered more and more.

You could see the longer the game went on that the more more dangerous it is for Good as you can no longer isolate Sauron/ keep the high kings where you want them if the Orcs manage to re-engage.

However, to keep the campaign making sense, Elendil and Gil-Galad will still have fallen here. Not sure there would be any continuation if they had lived and the next scenario will be from Fall of the Necromancer to start off Sauron's attempt at returning to power.