Here I'll post my playthroughs of the Scouring of the Shire (2004) scenarios. After over 5 months of not playing SBG I was really itching for some more! I have (mostly) completed a house move which has taken up a lot of my (hobby) time. So the past week I had a bit more time and I spend it painting all the hobbits in my collection. That means I only need some more terrain to play all the appendix scenarios. It will be something for me to look forward to every week. After the standalone scenarios from this source book are done, I will likely continue with the LotR DeAgostini campaign since I really want to get back to that. The reason I am now playing these scenarios first is because I thought these would be easier to manage and I really wanted to get a game in in my new house.

Full overview:
https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... -overview/

Linked campaign
Scenario 1: Maggot's Farm (09-11-2021)
https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... gots-farm/
Scenario 2: Beating the Bounds (08-12-2021)
https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... he-bounds/
Scenario 3: Brockenborings (14-12-2021)
https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... enborings/
Scenario 4: The Old Store House (20-12-2021)
https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... ore-house/
Scenario 5: The Southfarthing (24-12-2021)
https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... hfarthing/
Scenario 6: The Battle of Bywater (22-01-2022)
https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... f-bywater/

Appendix
Scenario 7: The Founding of the Shire (15-03-2021)
https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... the-shire/
Scenario 8: Whatever happened to Halfast? (25-03-2021)
https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... o-halfast/
Scenario 9: The Battle of Greenfields (08-05-2021)
https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... eenfields/
Scenario 10: The Wolves of Winter (14-05-2021)
https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... of-winter/
Scenario 11: Odovacar Bolger's Promenade (08-06-2021)
https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... promenade/
Scenario 12: The Road to Rivendell (22-10-2021)
https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... rivendell/

I'm starting chronologically in terms of Middle-earth timeline, so starting with the standalone scenarios. The first one being Founding of the Shire. A short and fun little scenario!

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

Nice battle report! Evocative pictures and write-up.

When reading that the Troll was controlled by Evil so often, and he seemed to be killing hobbits so readily that I thought Evil was a sure winner. I guess I wasn't paying enough attention to the casualties.

Thanks Dave!

I felt the same way, the troll performed so well I was sure the Hobbits were going to lose. Until I realized there are only 13 Goblins and 24 Hobbits. Good really has a high number advantage here. I just can't see Good losing this scenario for that reason. So in hindsight, to balance it a bit more I would maybe add a few more Goblins. But thematically it doesn't necessarily have to be a 50/50 scenario, so I think the possible imbalance is justified.

It sure has me itching for more. I've already commenced building some Hobbit holes and all the hobbits are painted. So plenty more playthroughs to come in the next couple of months

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

I do like a rogue troll, wish it featured in more scenarios. Just found and bought the 2004 Scouring of the Shire, wish I had got it when Hobbits were cheaper, could see my whole Lotr hobby focus being on this book.

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

Did the Hobbits use to be cheaper? It is indeed a nice section of Middle-earth to focus on, you could make a lot of designated terrain and boards for it.



I've played the next scenario in the appendix, this time focusing on Halfast and his companions who get lost somewhere in the hills of Evendim:

https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... o-halfast/

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

Nice report as usual.

That looked like a fun battle. I'm surprised that Good did as well as they did. The Barrow Wights seemed to have underperformed; even with Resistant to Magic, I'd think 16 Will points would result in more than one Paralyze!

Given that control of the Wargs depends on it, Priority does seem like its really going to drive the story here.

Cheaper is a relative term. When the game first came out my son preferred plastic figures to metal so the hobbits weren't really on my radar of figures to get. I enjoy your battle reports, easy to follow and engaging.

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

Thanks! Me too, would have been cooler if the Barrow Wights performed better which would make them more frightening.



Thanks a lot!!


After finishing my Hobbit holes, I have enough terrain to play the next appendix scenario, The Battle of Greenfields. I'll be honest and say it was a very disappointing game, so it might not be worth your time!

https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... eenfields/

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

Well, they can't all be winners.

Still, it's always nice to see another battle report. Things have been pretty quiet around here lately in that regard.

The Good side did seem pretty unlucky there. I wonder if maybe the hobbits set up too far forward? I think you'd want them deployed so they'd get at least one turn of stone throwing in, which would at least help winnow down the number of warg riders before the general melee starts. It wasn't clear to me from the report if they got that chance or not.

Of course nothing's going to help you if Evil is rolling 6s and Good isn't....

You are right that it probably would be better to deploy the hobbits farther away from the warg riders so that they could have a volley of throwing rocks. My reasoning was that by moving them forward, the rangers would have more shots since the wargs would then stay in their range. But even with 1 Might per ranger, they barely hit anything. And it has been some time since I played MESBG so I kind of forgot that shooting doesn't really do much when all the models are tied up in combats.

Aside from just bad luck, I do think I played the Good side suboptimally. That said, as a more casual narrative gamer I kind of wish scenarios to be more forgiving and not already be determined by deployment. And I still think it's a bit of a waste to have the Rangers only potentially matter for one or two turns.

But you are right that they can't all be winners! I think I was just especially looking forward to this scenario because it features two iconic Heroes that aren't really used in other scenarios. Hopefully the next one will be better. It does feature Gandalf so that seems already pretty cool.

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

The next appendix scenario is up, the Wolves of Winter:

https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... of-winter/




This scenario surprised me, in a good way!

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

Another fun battle report. Your Wild Warg Chieftain deserves a cape and a red "S" on his chest based on his performance here.

The snowy mat was really effective, too. Brr!

Again, nice battle report and gaming table! Going back to the previous scenario, I think it would be a better game using points of the rangers and having more hobbits. I don't quite understand the rangers being there and having to be hidden from the hobbits, the Battle of Greenfields happened almost 200 years before Bilbo "found" the Onr Ring.
Back to this scenario, I enjoyed that Gandalf's magic didn't always work, seemed to even the odds more.

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

Thanks Dave and Mapper!

Today, I played the very fun 'Odovacar Bolger's Promenade' scenario:
https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... promenade/


This is probably my favourite so far out of these Appendix scenarios. It's not included in the new source book, but it does I believe make a reappearance of some sort in the Quest of the Ringbearer.

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

Nice writeup. This scenario does sound fun; the "None (No, really!)" Evil force specification is certainly an attention-getter.

The trees seem very effective if they can get moving. An S4 hit can be shrugged off by dwarves but the hobbits are so much squishier. I'm glad the hobbits (well, one of them) were able pull it out despite that!

Revenge of the trees! I like it, of course any scenarios requiring lots of trees is a winner in my book. The scenario in the Quest is just the main four hobbits, I like this one better.

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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 final appendix scenario, the Road to Rivendell, has been played:
https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... rivendell/



I enjoyed the scenario quite a bit, but I do think the whole Lord of the Rings campaign thing has burned me out a bit on setting up everything, playing it solo while taking photos and notes and tearing it all down. So I may go idle for a while.

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

Very nice, it shows that minimal terrain and figures can still be a nice and fun scenario. Take a break, you deserve one! ( just don't make it too long of one, I enjoy your 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."

Thanks Mapper!

Maybe it won't be that long before I do the next report after all. I think I'll continue with the Scouring of the Shire (2004) supplement, with the campaign scenarios. They have very low model counts with low complexity, so they shouldn't take so long to prepare for, play and write about. For preparation I only need to paint the Ruffians really, so that shouldn't be so bad if I can find the time to paint them.

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

All Ruffians are painted, so time for the start of the main campaign, starting with Maggot's Farm:
https://aiwendil.net/scouring-of-the-sh ... gots-farm/

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