To Thranduil, leader of all those that love freedom,
From Ásaros and company on top of that which was once known as Dol Guldur,
Greetings.

We have accomplished that which we were sent to do.

A tide of goblins is reported to be descending upon us out of the north, but fortunately both Gwaihir and our dwarven mercenary artillery arrived just in time to quickly reduce the fortress.


Turn 3

I and the rest of Sind Fëan approached the only road to the summit from the woods to its southwest. A company of rangers followed closely.



When the trebuchet started to lob rocks, the enemy quickly retired behind the walls and shut their gate.



When Gwaihir finally arrived, they opened the gate momentarily to get off a pot shot with their ballista and then set their ballista outside the fortification in anticipation of its ruin.



It seemed to take forever, but finally the trebuchet breached the front wall.



Upon my signal, our troops made their way warily up the road. I signalled my archers to take point, and they frightened off some goblin archers that appeared momentarily above us on the south wall. I hastily attempted to signal the dwarves to stop firing, but now the trebuchet found its mark quickly, and dealt the south wall a mighty blow.

I had hoped to use it to cover our advance to the summit of the hill, but now it gave off great creakings like it was on the verge of imminent collapse. Not wanting to get caught in its fall, we were stuck with having to advance over difficult terrain, without cover, into the uruk crossbows.



Too late, I realized that it would have been better to advance along the ballista's line of fire. Anticipating our needs, the dwarves were already hauling the weapon to where it could better bear upon the foe.



At this point Gwaihir swooped in close to the ground to the very bottom of the hill across from where the enemy ballista was hidden.



We had a bit of a puzzle to solve. The troops needed to cross a gap through enemy crossfire to get to where our crossbow could support them. The only way to do this safely was to have Gwaihir cover for us, but if he went to the top of the hill, the enemy ballista would blast away at him. We would have to tackle this in multiple stages, starting with our ballista forcing the crossbows to move and hence reduce the shots they could fire on the turn we moved out. For the time being, I sent our archers up to harass the enemy from below the lip of the hill.



Our plans were forestalled by the collapse of the south wall followed by sudden enemy motion forward. Gwaihir skimmed over to the nearest crevice, and I immediately started clambering up, followed by our troops. Gwaihir was careful to stay far enough back not to get surrounded, but was certainly attacked. Ignoring the danger to their own troops, all the uruk crossbows and ballista cheerily fired into the fight. Gwaihir's size went against him, and I saw the giant bird take bolt after bolt, but he refused to budge from his position.



We finally pulled ourselves over the final ledge and began to beat Gwaihir's attackers back across the rubble of the walls. Lumbotir and Os-Mando were in the vanguard, where they cowed half their would-be attackers with their flashing blades. I saw both take deep cuts that should have felled them, but somehow they fought on.

Despite our superiority in numbers, we couldn't make much ground. Meanwhile, waves of bolts were slamming into Gwaihir. Finally, our persistence began to pay off as our three archers each killed off a goblin counterpart simultaneously. The goblins began to break, allowing us to tackle the front rank of Uruks while Gwaihir assaulted the rear. He was surrounded, but in a shining moment we swept every opponent from in front of us!

Now it just remained to mop up the remnants of resistance wherever it may cow. Gwaihir joined in in a kind of bloodlust, every flap of his wings dislodging a bolt or two from where it had lodged in his feathers, but some were soaked with his blood. The last Uruk, defiant to the end, swung his crossbow in a vicious arc which must have caught the head of the mighty bird just as it was snapping at him. Stunned, we saw the eagle slump over. But the next moment, shouting as one, we finished the battle for our great fallen friend.



Despite all our preparations to receive the Mordor host sent to relieve this place, we've found the time to raise a mound on top of this hill. The dwarven engineers with amazing alacrity have already carved a monument in stone. All agree this place shall heretofore be called Dol Gwaihir, from which all of South Greenwood, in memory of his valor, shall eventually be reclaimed.

Please convey our regrets to our flying allies, along with our inadequate gratitude, for our gallant protector.

---

Battle notes:

Heath apparently expected both Gwaihir and a siege engine, but he did not expect TWO siege engines. This was actually a last-minute decision on my part. I wasn't sure I'd be able to stop an Uruk bum rush with just the eagle, so hedged my bets with the ballista. This not only stopped the bum rush, but kept Heath's army behind (abundant) cover.

Oddly enough, with the catapult there, the fortress was an inconvenience to us both. He couldn't use it or fire through it, but the rubble of the walls created yet another obstacle for me. I calculated it out: seven rounds to make my way through two patches of difficult terrain and intervening clearing, losing 1.5 troop per round to eight crossbows and three archers, would leave me less than two guys and an eagle to take on his twenty. Not the sort of odds I feel comfortable with.

Hence the conundrum Ásaros mentions. I could shuffle my forces around, but he had the interior movement and would just move back out of the way. Hence, my only chance was to force the issue around his artillery piece where it was constrained to remain in the narrow corridor of clear terrain in front. I could only hope that he would rise to the bait instead of simply sitting in the rear of his fort shooting while I took the wheels off his ballista to shake at him. This would take time, but Heath, growing weary of my chess-like machinations, ended up advancing both ballista and schedule for me.

My main mistakes sprang from failing to adapt to the tides of this battle quickly enough. I should have had my assault ready to go before knocking down the first wall. I should have stopped pounding the wall I was planning to use to cover my advance after my elves had scared off its defenders. My original plan was to bring it to the brink of falling so that he wouldn't use it, but forgot about the spontaneous collapse rule. Then, of course, I forgot to pull Gwaihir, down to a single wound, from mop-up duty after the battle was won. On literally the last Uruk, Heath rolled a six on the one die he rolled against the four I failed to roll a six on (though he had to shake the table to drop it from where it cocked), then proceeded to roll a second to finish off Gwaihir. Major bummer, but I suppose defeating 250 points of fortified Uruk and goblin with but a single trooper lost would have been too depressing for him. How amazingly kind I can be!

This game certainly had its moments. It was a good thing I had all the time I needed, because my catapult in the beginning could not roll anything but a 3 on the wound table, and it took several turns to roll a 4 to bring Gwaihir in from reinforcements. Then there was Heath failing to roll Fury despite using all his shaman's Will. After which I had multiple combats with superiority but could not win, but a round later killing five Uruk WITHOUT superiority in fights. The usual vagaries produced by the dice in LotR.

I think, the rest of my army being largely intact, that I have a good chance to retain my hold on Dol Gwaihir, but I'll certainly miss playing with such a magnificent model...