The Hobbit Part 2

Monday night game night saw us play through scenarios 4 and 5 from the Hobbit, Escape from Goblin Town, set.  Chris and I were on goblins this week and Steve (who is a tree) and Matt got to play Thorin, Dwalin and Balin.  The scenario required the Dwarves to stop ten goblins exiting off their table edge.  Special rules allowed D6 goblins to arrive each turn.  Goblin King arrives first time you roll a 1.  Ten turns for the boys to hold out.  Here is the set up:

Set Up

First round was just positioning, with the Goblins charging Thorin's side and leaving Dwalin and Balin a little unloved on the other side.  Chris and I thought that if we swamped Thorin and killed him then the game could be ours:

Thorin Swamped 

Fourth round and we had started to move more goblins over to the Dwalin / Balin side, cause they got bored waiting in line for Thorin to kill them.  They scored a wound on Balin and we started to realise that he was the weak link.  We started pushing more Goblins onto their side, trying to tie Dwalin and Balin up while we jumped a few goblins across to try and get them to escape:

Jumping Across to Balin

Sneaking a Goblin Past Dwalin

By sixth round the pressure on Thorin was beginning to toll.  Goblins scored two wounds on him, as his might store started to dwindle and he didn't want to use them to increase his duel role.  On the other side, Chris and I were about to get our second Goblin off the table edge - if we could just break Thorin on this side then we could take it.  During round 7, Dwalin went to try and stop a goblin from getting away, leaving Balin to get hit by four goblins.  Two wounds and a failed fate roll later, the Goblins had Balin as their first casualty.

With three rounds to go, the question was whether Thorin could hold on with one wound and one might left.  Dwalin was chopping through the Goblins on the other side, but Thorin was tiring.  But hold on he did, with some stoic game play and staunch roling from Matt, and ultimately it was a good win for the goodies.

Thorin holding out staunchly

Close Up of Thorin Holding Out Staunchly

Run Forrest run...

The night was but young so we set up for the last scenario: the Wizard and the Burglar.  This involved Bilbo and Gandalf at opposing table edges, having to get to each other.  The Goblin King, Grinnah and six Goblins in their way with the prospect of reinforcements.  I say "prospect" because the game ended at round 3.  Round 1 Gandalf fails immobilise, uses a might to cast it, only for the Goblin King to resist it.  Round 2 Goblin King threw a goblin at Gandalf, knocked him prone and cost him a wound.  Round three he gets up, fails immobilise again (on a 1 and thinks better of using 2 might points).  He is then charged by the Goblin King and a Goblin, loses the duel, is trapped, and gets hit five times (out of seven to wound rolls).

The sun sets on Gandalf

Just Back off Alright Steve...

My reflection on the nights gaming is generally very positive.  We had lots of fun as always (good beer thanks Matt), and the first scenario was again well balanced and could have gone either way.  I was annoyed we didn't get the Goblin King on though, just to try him out in that first scenario.  We made a point of using the different weapon options (feint, piercing strike etc) and found that we could make it work well even with lots of Goblins with different weapons (though it didn't make too much difference what we used).

The sour point is of course Gandalf being nailed so early on in the second scenario.  I've never played magic well, and tactically it is my fault by leaving him against the table edge, but it just didn't seem right that he should have 1 attack against the Goblin King's three...  There is some trick with using more will as well, which only occured to me later.  The Goblin King got a limited run in the second game, and he looked lethal from the little we saw.  Keen to do more goblin hurling in the near future.

I would be keen to use the rules in a bigger battle scenario as well - though how big I don't know.  There were limited tactical options with both scenarios, and so it came down more to luck (with the exception of my Gandalf debacle).  A larger escape from Goblin Town board would be good, but I just don't have the time to make one of those.

Anyway, I do like these rules a lot.  I am glad we have integrated the special strikes in now and got used to them.  Feeling on top of LOTR rules and keen to keep playing a few scenarios.  So, as per usual, just as we build a bit of familiarity we will be moving to the Empire of the Dead Campaign next week! See you then.

The photos were taken with an iPad 3 using the blux camera app I (Steveisatree) wanted to try out. I feel like it took pretty good photos but due to only being 5mp you can't zoom in much on them.