Scenario 29: To Claim a Throne

The Third Age progressed ever onward but troubles still occurred in every domain. Even the Rule of Helm Hammerhand was troubled as not all the lords in his domain respected or heeded him, chief of these being Freca, the lord of the West-march. So when a witas-gemót (meeting of all the Rohan lords) was called by Freca, something outside the norm where only the Rohan King could call this meeting, all would arrive to see what Freca hoped to gain, much to the ire of Helm. Freca, looking to raise his own and his houses station, planned to offer marriage between his Son Wulf and Helm's daughter Hera, acceptance would join their houses, refusal would allow him to undermine Helm with claims he is both weak and making Rohan weaker. Through the surprise, arguments and insults a physical challenge was declared by Helm. Unable to back down now Freca followed Helm outside for a brawl.

Forces of Good:

Helm Hammerhand, King of Rohan

Forces of Evil:

Freca, Lord of the West-march

Additionally, the following rules are in play:

• As this was a suggested brawl, neither side wears any armour, additionally they will be fighting with their fists. (ignoring counting as unarmed)
• Evil has the priority on the first turn and the first time there is a tied duel roll Freca wins regardless of fight value.
• If Freca charges he becomes 3 attacks for the turn. Also any time Freca rolls a natural 6 on his strike to wound Helm, this blow will knock helm out if unsaved.

The Scenario ends on either of the following victory conditions:

• If Freca is killed by Helm, the forces of Good win!
• If Helm is knocked out by Freca, the forces of Evil win!

Deployment

Both men square up to each other read for the fight to begin, the entourage of both sides standing at attention to watch the coming blows and see who would remain standing. Most would favour Helm here but Freca would never have agreed without a thought he himself could win. 

The Brawl

Freca was quick off the mark and attacked first, launching a flurry of blows while Helm stood there and took it but the Rohan king was tough and was only lightly hurt. Freca proceeded to follow up again his hatred of Helm helping but again was only able to inflict a single wound.

Helm now took charge after letting Freca swing first and struck back, wounding and pushing Freca back. Finally after both had taken a moment to clean their mouths of blood, Helm stepped up again and swung. Showing why he would gain the moniker of hammerhand, Helm completely overwhelmed Freca, hitting too hard that he killed him instantly.

Everyone stood around shocked, bar Wulf who rushed to his father's corpse. Helm burst out saying he didn't hit that hard and couldn't himself believe that Freca died to this. Wulf both out of grief and anger threatened Helm and Rohan that he would not forgive this and raised his sword at Helm. At this threat and disregard of an agreed upon duel Wulf was banished from Rohan, but would his anger disappear in time or would he plan something behind the scenes?

Review

Now I said this on my last scenario but this time it actually is the quickest scenario I have done so far only lasting four turns. We ran through it four times and every time Helm won, with two of the other times taking just two turns.

This scenario is very favoured to Helm due to being 3 attacks, wounds and fate that unless Freca wins multiple fights or gets a very high role of multiple 6's to wound Helm should be able to take it. Helm on the other hand is quite likely to take out Freca in a single turn and if not should always do it in two.
But Freca still has chances to win, the extra attacks, win the first tie and knockout rule does help plus they both need fours to wound each other thanks to Freca's hatred Rohan rule.

I played this scenario about twenty times now and Freca has only won twice. But since Helm did win and the challenge to his leadership was not successful this campaign can continue as expected. Good winning hear mean they get an advantage in the next scenario where Hera gets to call a Heroic March for free once which will be useful when they run away from a rampaging Mûmak.

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