The Storming of the Mountain Gate
A salient of Saruman's Uruk army storms a dwarven stronghold. The
defenses seem impregnable until strange explosive devices blow holes
through the very side of the mountain. The dwarves marshall their
defenses to meet the onslaught.
Starting position left.
Starting position right.
The uruks focus on a single breach--the one farthest from the dwarf
ballista. Nevertheless, the ballista hits but scatters to the end of
the line where it picks off a single pikeman. It was the only hit the
ballista would make until the end of the game.
The regular entrances were well defended. The vault wardens proved
difficult to dislodge, only one team being destroyed after Jon rolled
three sixes and a four. Meanwhile, their high strength meant they were
deadly when they won.
In contrast to the ballista, the ranger bowmen picked off almost half
the crossbowmen early on (there had been four by the pillar).
The regular dwarf archers were less effective--I doubt they registered
a single kill, despite stronger bows. The Uruk captain leading the
berserkers up the ladder was unstoppable, killing a whole squad of
dwarves all on his own.
A second assault appeared on the other breach after the dwarves moved most of their forces to counter the first.
An iron guard waits in the shadows of the passage he is assigned to
defend. With their two attacks, they proved a match for the uruk pikes,
but their numbers (eight) were too few to stem the tide.
Conclusions on the new dwarf units tested here:
Vault wardens are great in constricted areas. What else can you say
about a regular trooper that has a better chance of wounding a troll
than the troll has of wounding him?
Iron guard somewhat address the lack of spears available to dwarves,
but, like berserkers, are fragile for the points one must spend on
them. I think for 16 points I'd still take two Gondor spearmen over one
IG.
The rangers outfitted with a regular bow give some needed range. Keeps
one's opponent honest, I guess, but on the other hand removes two of
the defining characteristics for dwarves--heavy armor and short bows.
The ballista is, well, a ballista. Not terribly effective (in contrast
to historical record), but its potential for long-range destructiveness
sits on everyone's mind. In this game, it effectively lost four shots
as Jon set up only 24 inches away.