Scenario 4: Corruption of the Greenwood

Following news being relayed to the Elf king by his patrol and further attacks on his people, Thranduil sent a larger band of his rangers to identify the location and reason behind this increase in foul creatures.

Forces of Good:

2x Mirkwood Ranger Captain

20x Mirkwood Rangers

Forces of Evil:

4 Castellans of Dol Guldur

6 Giant Spiders

6 Mirkwood spiders

6 Fell Wargs

2 Bat Swarms

Additionally, the following rules are in play:

• Evil have 5 objectives to corrupt which occurs if they end a turn touching it having not performed any actions other than moving.
• Good can un-corrupt these same objectives if they end a turn touching it having not performed any actions other than moving.

The scenario ends after 10 turns with the following victory conditions:

• Good claim victory if two or less objectives are corrupted at the end of the game!
• Evil clam victory if three or more objectives are corrupted at the end of the game!

Deployment

The Elves lined up well hidden, utilising the natural trees of their home to give them a jump on whatever creatures they find when defending their domain.

The creatures of Sauron however were ready to further corrupt the woodland, allowing for more of their kind to spread. Their focus, corrupting and taking over key locations of the wood and to feast on Elves along the way.

Turn 1 and 2:

The Elves advanced slowly forward ready to fire their bows at any oncoming creatures. The spiders who felt at home in this kind of terrain found it easy to navigate, the wargs and bats however, fell behind, not as used to woodland terrain of which there were multiple areas to slow them down. Despite the woods causing issues for movement, it did provide these creatures multiple places to take cover from the oncoming volley.

The first round of shooting injured several spiders but only succeeded in killing one. The beasts then moved up closer again to the elves ready to charge should they get the chance while also attempting to corrupt three of the key locations should the Elves bow fire fail to stop them.

The second Elf volley caused a lot of damage taking out a further two spiders and two wargs, but didn't stop any of the three key location's from being corrupted, putting the advantage in Evil's favour being in charge range and being up on objectives.

Turn 3

Priority went to Good and the Elves were ready. Knowing they would not be able to fire off another volley they engaged the creatures everywhere they could reach. The courage of the Elves was enough to charge each and every spider but the bats and Castellan's were there to re-engage. The Elves that failed to charge were left with no valid targets left to shoot.

The Elves had a terrible turn losing seven of their number to take out a single spider, wound two more and slay two wargs.

Turn 4 and 5:

Good took priority again and passed almost all courage tests again to charge with only a few Evil models left to unengaged to charge in themselves. The Elf captains lead the way knowing they had to start quelling the beasts numbers before they get overrun.

The fight value of the Elves came through this round giving them the majority of the fights, three of their own lay dead for two spiders, two wargs and wounds on a Castellan and another spider.

Evil then took the next priority and engaged all the Elves with two of the Castellan's pushing through to corrupt the remaining two locations. The Elves hold their ground but lose another three of their number to take out another two spiders. The advantage is moving more and more to the side of Evil, being ahead on objectives, models and with limited turns remaining. However, the Elven captains are still going strong and a lot of the remaining Evil model are wounded. 

Turn 6:

Good took priority back and engaged all the remaining evil models apart from the two Castellan's moving to the remaining two objectives to corrupt. Depending how these fights go and the ability to finish off a few members of either side the gaps will be created for either side to guarantee they win.

Another tough round of combat with the cost of two Elves dead to take out a spider, a bat and a Castellan. Evil now only outnumber the Elves by two models but the Elven captains can fill in the gap. Evil do take another objective putting them 4-1 ahead with another Castellan about to corrupt another.

Turn 7 and 8:

Good keep priority and pin all the Evil models that are nearby and are ready to reclaim one objective back but the Castellan's are able to move to claim the remaining un-corrupted one.

Following two rounds of combat, focused around each of the key objective locations, the Elves have completely faltered. Both Elf captains are pushed back and one pulled down by a bat and spider. Only a single captain and two rangers remain to face down the remaining horde. With only two turns left to try and un-corrupt three objectives their chances are slim.

Final moments:

The Evil forces push into the few remaining Elves and take them out one by one and corrupt the only remaining point leading to a complete victory for evil at the cost of most of the creatures and two Castellan's. Sauron gained a foothold in Mirkwood with further room to spread his domain but well hidden enough that most outside forces will think this is just attacks of nearby dwelling beasts rather than himself building a new domain.

Review:

This was a difficult scenario to judge, I felt it was pretty balanced despite how the game may have gone this time but I had to make some tweaks as explained below for this. The decision to make it how long do you sit back and shoot for as well as how much damage does it do as you will give up three objectives doing this. This time the shooting didn't do anywhere near as much damage as I expected.

Also hard decision I had was how to handle the terrain, the scenario says the board should be woodland but apart from the spiders the remaining evil models would suffer from difficult terrain, especially the bats as they wouldn't be able to use fly. I made a call that I would do half movement for areas immediately around tree's and bats could always fly 6" rather than 12". I think if you force the whole board being woodland terrain Evil will get shot off the board with no ability to prevent that as even if the spiders go on ahead they will get killed in combat from lack of numbers.

The next scenario will be Lurking in the Shadows where Mirkwood rangers will scout out again and encounter an unlikely foe of the Spider Queen. Thanks to Evil's victory in this scenario will get the advantage of choosing the spider models entry location on a 3+.