Scenario 8: Flight to the East

Word had finally reached Gandalf of the corruption of the Greenwood, and the subsequent spread and attacks from Orc's and other nearby creatures. Fearing it could be the return of Sauron he always expected he prepares to venture there and in doing so found a fortress built within Mirkwood. Venturing in Gandalf had to deal with the protectors of the fortress and discover if Sauron was indeed hidden there.

Forces of Good:

Gandalf the Grey

Forces of Evil:

The Necromancer of Dol Guldur

4x Castellan of Dol Guldur

Additionally, the following rules are in play:

• The Necromancer starts hidden, replaced by six bases that represent where he could be, only one if these however is real which is secretly noted down, Gandalf has to find.
• If Gandalf is ever within 6" and has line of sight to a base at the end of his move phase it is revealed as either the Necromancer or a fake.
• Spells can be cast on these bases but cannot be resisted even if it is the Necromancer while he is not revealed.
• The Necromancer loses a point of will each turn he remains hidden. Should he choose to cast a spell he will reveal himself.
• Gandalf has 2 attacks for this scenario.
• Special note rule, the forces of Evil can take priority once this game due to winning the previous Lurking in the Shadows scenario.

The Scenario ends on either of the following victory conditions:

• If The Necromancer is discovered and Gandalf escapes any board edge the forces of Good win!
• If The Necromancer escapes undiscovered from the eastern board edge the forces of Evil win!
• All other results are a draw.

Deployment

Gandalf entered Dol Guldur and prepared to discover what presence he could detect within this fortress. The Necromancer shadowed himself and alerted his four Castellan's to preoccupy or deal with the threat of this Wizard.

The Initial Investigation

Gandalf begun moving through the ruins noticing several points of interest where he felt he should investigate, while he moved towards these locations he set up some protective magic to make himself seem more terrifying and to increase his reserves of spell casting potential. The Necromancer and his minions just moved through the ruins, the Castellan's moved as quickly as possible towards the Wizard while the necromancer moved to avoid him. 

Testing the Wizard

As both sides got closer to each other Gandalf let forth the first showings of his power blasting two castellans over and then engaging them in combat, hoping to eliminate at least one. The remaining two Castellan's moved up ready to take on the Gandalf. Meanwhile The Necromancer is still doing his best to stay away from getting caught out both himself and all of his decoys.

With his focus on combat and his elven blade Gandalf was able to best the two prone Castellan's and wounded them making their forms that much weaker but unable to fully vanquish one.

Evil then claim priority and all four Castellans are able to pin and trap Gandalf in place. The Necromancer further pushes across the board, however two markers get dangerously close to the Wizard.

Gandalf surrounded and worried about how he will fair against these creatures strikes up in combat and takes the fight, however being so focused on pushing all four of the Castellan's back he is unable to wound them. However they do all lose some of their form just from fighting.

A Hair's Breadth

Gandalf regains some control of the situation and is able to move first getting within range of two markers of The Necromancer and immobilising a third to keep it nearby. The two within range are both revealed to be fake. However, unknown to Gandalf the immobilised marker was in fact The Necromancer, however being unwilling to risk revealing himself by having Gandalf realise the spell was prevented he allowed it to happen knowing his Castellan's nearby should keep him safe.

The Castellan's again trap Gandalf and force him again to strike up to ensure he doesn't fall here. Despite the volume of attack's from the four of the Gandalf again takes the fight and this time succeeds in wounding one. The wounded Castellan manages to hold its form barely but between this and the previous injuries it has taken it is about to dissipate from even one more combat.

 The Decisive Moment

The Necromancer seized the initiative, thanks to having planned for this situation of a Wizard investigation for some time. (Due to Evil winning the Lurking in the Shadows Scenario.) As such he was able to move his true self further away from Gandalf while the three stable Castellan's engaged Gandalf in combat.

Gandalf tried to hold his ground but this time is completely outclassed by the Castellan's and is severely wounded, not even his ring able to keep him in better shape. Just a single solid hit on him and his ability to investigate further will be stopped.

Escape to Survive

Evil again took priority and Gandalf was again pinned in place while the Necromancer was about to escape. With a last attempt Gandalf tried to push back against the Castellan's but failed and was taken out and forced out of Dol Guldur while The Necromancer escaped undetected.

Both sides were able to escape the ruin, Gandalf with his life and The Necromancer without any of his presence found, even should the Wizard or his allies investigate again he would not be there to find as he relocated to the east for the time being to plan.

Gandalf 0/3/0 0w (alive and gets a long rest)

Review

This time I played as Gandalf and boy is this a challenging scenario, there's so much to do and I don't think you have enough movement to cover all the locations. We did play this twice once as each side but both times it was a solid win for Evil. I think between the six bases you have to discover, the terrain setup (which I believe this is pretty close to the scenario guide for it) and Castellan's being the same fight and attack's as Gandalf he really has his work cut out which makes sense as this is the occasion The Necromancer does remain undiscovered. 

I added in the spell casting on the markers as I don't actually know if you can or not but it seemed to make the most sense. As for the Evil side its kind of just hope the real marker isn't in Gandalf's chosen path and let the Castellan's pin him down.

Either way this was a fun quick scenario, took us two hours to place it twice alongside me writing stuff down and chatting, which is something I love about a lot of these scenarios is they are quick and easy to do while also playing for fun rather than competitively.

Evil claim victory meaning they claim a bonus in the future the Capture of the Grey Wizard Scenario which thankfully will be played as Gandalf did live his encounter with the Castellan's by rolling anything but a 1 on his survival roll post the scenario finishing.
I hope you look forward to the next scenario which will be Legolas arriving to deal with some Orc's in the Watchful Peace.