Sprinter hardly needed to shake Springer awake. "They're here," he said simply.

The experienced rangers called in their night patrol fairly quickly, but upon reaching the camp, found the dwarves with their preternatural ability to fight in the dark already on the move.



According to the plan, well-rehearsed now on its third iteration, the fighters moved north to where they knew the warg-riders would be attacking from. The dwarf archers remained at the camp, crouched behind a large log.


Turn 1

The wargs were not so easily trapped, and once they realized they faced nearly the entire enemy force, attempted to flee.


Turn 3

Alone with his spearman, Ambler in the east was the only obstacle to the wargs' escape. They charged him furiously, but, thinking quickly, he bottled them up between a rock and a log. One warg charged around the rock, but was unable to reach the ranger, while the other prevented Sprinter from charging up the other side.


Turn 7?

The spearman dropped, and Ambler found himself surrounded by the enemy, but it was too late for the wargs. The dwarves, led by Sprinter, spilled ponderously over the log, axes flashing. With a snarl, the biggest warg-rider lashed out with a blow that should have severed Ambler's head from his neck, but somehow the weapon snagged in the ranger's hood and simply left an ugly welt.

The combined forces soon dispatched the last rider, but now the archers drew near, carrying a wounded comrade. "Hardy shot down three Uruk, but they seem to have more troops than before," reported Laurel.


Turn 7? Big Picture

Rocky considered his options. Without range, numeric, position, or move superiority, the likelihood that his forces  could turn around and retake their camp seemed rather remote. With a sigh, he announced, "Let's form up by the river and wait for a better opportunity to deal with them." Accordingly, the rangers formed a perimeter, and the Blue Mountain Boys moved out.

---

Battle notes:

This battle was the exact reverse of Fangorn 1. Now I was trapped between Heath's two forces, and the smaller one moved twice as fast as mine. Would I be able to back my critiques of the way he played it with more success?

The plan was to string the dwarves and rangers across the table to entangle and dispatch the warg-riders, then turn around and, under cover of dwarf shields, advance upon the Uruks. The arrival of a further battle group of Uruks under Lurtz made this plan look less tenable, but the kicker was the Night Raid tactic Heath took. Now that there was an objective at the center of the table, I could not range freely and win. On the other hand, if I just sat on the objective, I'd have no cover, get shot to pieces with the crossbows, and suffer cavalry charges to my rear. Oh, and my rangers' range with bow was halved, so I couldn't retaliate against his bow fire. I wasn't allowed to retreat, so basically it was a guarranteed win for Heath.

Having made this determination, I decided to abandon the game, effect what damage I could, run up my troops' experience, then run off the table. Forced to concentrate my forces by scenario setup rules, the wargs had a fair chance to run off, but I gained a couple turns before Heath realized what I was doing, then managed to use a single ranger to engage them (after winning Heroic Move roll-off) until the bulk of my forces arrived.

The ranger archers managed to pick off a Warg, despite missing 2/3 of their shots. My dwarf expert archer did much better, rolling a 6 to wound on three of the four shots he was allowed under the steady advance of the crossbows. Needless to say, he was promoted!

After I'd exterminated the Warg company, I had fifteen troops against sixteen entrenched Uruk including Lurtz and seven crossbows. Heath having won the game (and province) regardless,  the slow-moving dwarves limited to committing to direct assault, and my rangers being ranged, I think my decision to simply run was sound.