Nice report for a pleasant enough scenario.

It's funny that you think Evil has a hard time winning here. The first time I played it, the dogs never sighted the Ruffians and Evil walked to victory with no combat at all! Admittedly that's kind of an outlier result....

I enjoy reading another report on this scenario, glad to see you still wanting to post battle reports.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

The second scenario in the campaign has been played. And it was exactly as unbalanced and unfun as I expected it to be... Perhaps even more so.

https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... he-bounds/

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Full Lord of the Rings campaign: https://aiwendil.net/

Kudos to you for even trying to work thorough the Shire scenarios, I have not seen any AARs give them an overall positive review.
Mostly they seem to highlight how bad the set victory conditions are (and how they can be exploited.

Well, I enjoyed reading the report even if the scenario is a stinker. I wonder if GW left off a digit when listing the numbers of archers?

I thought some of the old Scouring of the Shire scenarios were at least ok. I liked Brockenborings pretty well, and the Green Dragon guys love Bywater.

Thanks robh and DaveT, I agree that Brockenboring is a nice scenario! I just played through it:
https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... enborings/

A much better scenario than the previous one!

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Full Lord of the Rings campaign: https://aiwendil.net/

Another nice replay. I really like the flowers on the hobbit hole, too.

Can I have the dice you used for the Ruffian scoring two KIAs in two turns with a bow? You should have bought a lottery ticket that day.

Thanks Dave!

The next scenario has now been played and published, The Old Store House: https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... ore-house/

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Full Lord of the Rings campaign: https://aiwendil.net/

You're really cranking out the reports! It's always good to see another one.

I never got to this one back when I doing the SotS 2004 scenarios, and your write-up sorta makes me glad because obvious flubs with non-obvious solutions (like the purposeless NE traps) really drive me crazy. Did an editor remove important verbiage, or was the scenario never play-tested?

(Just because I think some of the scenarios in the book are good doesn't mean I think all of them are good....)

The 2019 version was pretty great, though. I don't remember any rules weirdness there.

Nicely presented report, congratulations on getting another one out of the way.

Thanks guys! Another one done, this one was much better than expected :
https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... hfarthing/

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Full Lord of the Rings campaign: https://aiwendil.net/

Another great report. The time your Ruffians spent honing their archery skills really seems to have paid off!

That one does sound a lot more fun than the previous scenarios were. Great collection of figures and scenery you have put together. Having a good looking table goes a long way to making games worthwhile even if the actual scenarios are a bit flat.
Where are the Hobbit hole frontages from?

Thanks for following along!


The front of the Hobbit holes are from Ziterdes / Thomarillion, from their 'Hermitage' sets (see for examplehttps://www.ziterdes.com/hermitage/6011935/ ; if you scroll down you see additional accessories including just the fronts.)

The final scenario in this campaign has now been played and published:
https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... f-bywater/

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Full Lord of the Rings campaign: https://aiwendil.net/

Great battle report as usual!

I had forgotten that I'd played the revised version of this so it was fun to revisit that one as well. (Thanks for the shout-out. ) I thought the older version with the returning hobbits was likely to be more balanced, if maybe a little more grind-y. Apparently not.

I know the Green Dragon guys rate this highly. I will have to go back and listen to their commentary as to why they like it so much.

I wonder if Worm's special rule ever gets used? It's very thematic but it seems to be one of those rules that reads better than in plays. Evil has no incentive to keep Worm where he might turn on Sharkey, as having read the books (and the rules) we know what could happen. Maybe he needs a supplementary rule that he always has to remain within 3" of Sharkey?

So with this book finished, what's next?

Thanks Dave for your kind comments!

I've been thinking about what's next up for some time. I am preparing for the latest Fall of the Necromancer supplement. But I do need to spray paint a number of models for that, for which I'll wait until the temperature outside increases. And then there's the painting still required. So next up will be something else for now - the Siege of Gondor (2003) supplement, for which I have everything ready. Considering the large and militaristic scenarios, I was reluctant to play through these solo. I convinced someone to play at least the first scenario against me, so that should hopefully be finished pretty soon:

Here's hoping I can convince my opponent to play through the full campaign.

What's up next for you?

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Full Lord of the Rings campaign: https://aiwendil.net/

Good luck with the opponent! I look forward to see seeing the scenarios, which I don't have much familiarity with. New (to me) is always fun.

I don't really have anything slated, I'm sorry to say. I'm trying to keep sbginventory.com up to date, but that's about it. I lost my mojo for War in Rohan scenarios when I realized that everything requires new (often fairly one-off) terrain.

It's a minority opinion, I suspect, but I'm not all that excited by the Fall of the Necromancer and War in the North stuff. I'm hoping that as the Amazon series gets closer that we'll get a Last Alliance announcement -- that'd be more my thing.

Ah, well sbginventory.com is still very much appreciated!

I understand one-off models and terrain are not very motivating. A lot of people seem fairly hyped for the Defense in the North stuff. I must say I am too, especially if we get some new Elfs and Beornings.

I cannot imagine there will not be a Last Alliance announcement before September. Even if GW couldn't reach a deal with Amazon, it would still be the perfect time to release a Last Alliance supplement with the rights they do have. And they were clearly planning one, from very early on when developing this new edition.

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Full Lord of the Rings campaign: https://aiwendil.net/