Scenario 5: Lurking in the Shadows

Following the previous expanse and corruption of the Greenwood, more creatures came to dwell, including a spider that outsized and overshadowed all others. The Elves unable to allow this further corruption and attacks upon their kind send out patrol after patrol to identify and find this creature. This time they would either find and deal with it or not return.

Forces of Good:

2x Mirkwood Ranger Captain

20x Mirkwood Rangers

Forces of Evil:

The Spider Queen

6x Giant Spiders

6x Mirkwood Spiders

2x Bat Swarms

Additionally, the following rules are in play:

• Anytime a spider is slain, roll a dice each turn and on a 5+ they will re-enter the board from one of the spider nests. On a 3+ (thanks to Evil winning the previous scenario) Evil choose which nest, on a 1-2 Good choose which nest. These spiders then act as normal.
• Shooting attacks that target The Spider Queen both suffer from a -1 to hit from and will only causing a wound on a natural 6.
• The Spider Queen can only spawn a single Broodling swarm per turn. (A custom addition from myself for balance)

The Scenario ends on either of the following victory conditions:

• The Spider Queen is slain for a forces of Good victory!
• All of the Elves are slain for a forces of Evil victory!

Deployment

The Elves formed a defensive circle upon noticing the spiders circling around them and emerging from multiple nests.

The creature they had been looking for, the Spider Queen emerged from its nest alongside other spiders and some bats awoke to join. Additionally, several spiders popped up around and behind the Elves from the other nests set up in the trees.

Turn 1:

The Elves seeing all the spiders emerge formed up, almost all of them staying out of range of the spiders, or using their elven cloaks to hide. This allowed the majority of elves to be ready to fire a volley at the oncoming spiders. The Spiders and bats however moved up as quickly as possible. A single spider made it in to combat and the Spider Queen spawned a Broodling swarm that also charged. The combination of both of these limited some of the Elf shots so they didn't hit their friends.

The Elf shooting didn't cause the damage that was expected and only killed two Giant Spiders. The Mirkwood spiders shooting their webs back failed to hit any Elves. The two combats both go the Elves way but they failed to wound their respective combatants.

Turn 2 and 3

Evil took priority this time around and the Spiders all now being in range, immediately charged in. However, due to their size they got in the way of each other. The Spider Queen stayed safe and moved around the side of the Elf formation looking for the best location to get stuck in if needed. The Elves thanks to their courage were able to charge most of the spiders to backup their friends.

The Elves had a hard fought round of combat, they lost four of their number to wound four spiders and kill both a Broodling and Giant Spider. If the Elves can keep this up this amount of damage they may be able to punch a hole to surround the Spider Queen.

One new Giant Spider joined the fray next to the Spider Queen while Good took back priority and engaged all the spiders they could reach. The Spider Queen happy with being relatively safe where she is charged in alongside her fresh giant spider and spawned a Broodling swarm along the way to give the Elves more to handle.

Both sides called heroic combats, both of the Mirkwood Elf Captains and the Spider Queen. Both sides with the thought of eliminating as many of their opponents as possible this turn to further capitalise on it next turn. A Mirkwood captain went first and lost the fight, taking a wound and losing his Elf companion. The Spider Queen went next and also lost but neither her or the Giant Spider took any wounds. The second Mirkwood captain then went and won and killing their opponent.

At the end of the turn the Elves lost another four of their number while two Mirkwood spiders are slain alongside a Broodling sawrm. Other than the Spider Queen and one Giant spider all the remaining spiders are wounded but the bats are now close enough to easily fly where they need.

Turn 4:

The Elves got lucky and only one new spider appeared, but they then lost priority putting them in a dangerous situation as the majority of the Elves are stuck in place each fighting at least one spider. The remaining Elves charged in but can only join a single combat.

The Spider Queen again called a heroic combat to see if she can take out several Elves alongside the new Broodling swarm she spawned. The Mirkwood captains are stuck in place with opponents they cannot take out in a single combat round.

The Broodling swarm wins the combat for its mother and they proceeded to wreak further havoc. At the end of the round of combat the Elves had another five dead to take out four spiders. The Elves managed to do more damage than expected and kept themselves in with a chance but the amount of new spiders that could awake and join in could be their downfall.

Turn 5:

The Elves again got lucky with only a single spider appearing from a nest. They then also won priority giving them a chance to go for broke and engage the Spider Queen with as many warriors as possible. After the spiders and bats were able to charge where they wanted the Spider Queen was facing a Mirkwood Captain and a ranger.

The Spider Queen chose to be cautious using a heroic defence to limit her chances of being wounded, and the decision paid off, the Elves were able to best the beast in combat but failed to seriously wound her causing only a single wound. The rest of the combats mirrored this, a single Giant Spider and Broodling fell and all Elves remained.

Turn 6:

The turn started off rough for the Elves as four new spiders entered play but three of them being at the nest furthest away from any Elves. Evil then took priority and the spiders having heard the cry of their injured queen engaged with reckless abandon charging their nearest targets. The Spider Queen took on the Captain who had previously wounded her. The new spiders also moved up ready to swarm whatever Elves remained next turn.

The spiders having were not only reckless but dangerous, a further six Elves including one of the captains fell to kill only a single Broodling swarm. The remaining Mirkwood captain against the odds did score another wound on the Spider Queen leaving her dangerously hurt. But at the end only three Elves stood against the remaining swarm of creatures.

Turn 7:

No new spiders entered play and Good again took priority, knowing this would be their final chance the Mirkwood Captain charged the Spider Queen hoping he could finish her off before he was overrun. The spiders not about to let this happen charged in to assist their queen with two of them joining the fight.

It all came down to this, a single combat between the Spider Queen and two Mirkwood Spiders vs a single Mirkwood Ranger Captain. The Elf fought as well as he could, but the odd's were never in his favour and he fell alongside his two remaining companions leading to a complete Evil victory. The spiders all slinked back to their nests, the Spider Queen knowing she needed to recover from her severe injuries. With another patrol not arriving back Thranduil instead focused up on defending the boarders of his domain rather than sending his Elves out hunting blind.

Review:

Another scenario that I enjoyed but found very skewed to the evil side. Again Good's wound rolls were lacklustre at times (which seems to be a common trend in this campaign so far). But the Elves are also far outclassed in combat despite their fight value due to the number of attacks of the spiders and that they keep coming back.

The first round of shooting I expected to do more as it likely will be the only round of shooting the Elves get which does make me question why the Spider Queen get's the shooting protection she does. This scenario really does lean on does the Spider Queen ever fluff a dice roll which can and will happen to take the wounds from combat realistically.

Personally unless you play in the spirit of it being a narrative game here Good stand no chance of winning and even if you do Good are incredibly hard pressed. The Spider Queen can almost always pick her battles and it is hard to ever pin her down with more than one maybe two Elves.

Evil taking the win means they will get a bonus in an upcoming Scenario Flight to the East where they can choose to take a turn of priority once in the game. But before we get to that point in the timeline we will be moving a few hundred years forward to the next scenario that will occur, that being the Fall of Arnor.