DESCRIPTION

At the end of the War of The Ring the Elves of Lothlórien, led by their queen Galadriel, attacked Dol Guldur to rid the dark forest of its evil. The Elves laid siege to the fortress so that Galadriel could open up the catacombs and dungeons to the light of the sun, ensuring the creatures of Evil could no longer dwell there. In this one step she could lift the weight of Evil from the forest and make it a place where the Men of the Fourth Age could live in some peace without a fear of its evil presence. Will you fare well in your attack on the fortress, or will you drive the forces of Good from your walls?

The taint of the dark forest attracts the forces of Evil to its dank, secluded areas.

PARTICIPANTS

POINTS MATCH

As well as the attack on Dol Guldur, you can use this scenario to re-enact any great sieges that the forces of Good made against the many fortress of Sauron and his forces. If you want to play this game with other participants then you need to take about 1,000 points of attackers (Good) and 600 points of defenders (Evil). Each side must include at least one Hero.

LAYOUT

Scenario Map - click to enlarge

In order to represent the fortress of Dol Guldur, you need to set up a castle wall across one side of the board. This represents the eastern wall of Dol Guldur away from the gates, so the walls should have no gate in it and should be solid stone all the way across. This should be set up 12" from the edge so there is an open area behind the wall. Each 6" section of the wall should have an access ladder leading up to it from the open courtyard behind. On the opposite side of the board you should set up some trees to represent where the forest moves close to the wall which has allowed the Elves to get in close undetected. The rest of the board in between should be mainly clear with only a small amount of low terrain.

STARTING POSITIONS

The Evil side needs to set up half its models first with no more than half its Heroes (rounding down) along the wall. This represents that the remaining forces of Dol Guldur are stretched around the perimeter wall trying to keep all of the troops at bay that are attacking out of the wood in diversions. The rest of the Evil models are not deployed but will arrive during the game as per the special rules. You then need to set up all of the Good models within 6" of the tree lined board edge to represent them running from the wood to start the attack.

OBJECTIVES

The Good force is trying to get Galadriel up onto the walls so that she can see down into the pit of Dol Guldur, then expose it to the light of the sun and banish the evil from the fortress. To do this they need to get Galadriel onto the wall for 3 turns with her being uninterrupted (she can do nothing once she starts and if she is engaged in combat or uses a magical power then the count has to start again. This needs to be achieved before 20 turns have elapsed, as night will fall and at this point the creatures in the catacombs can be unleashed on the Elves.

The Evil force is trying to stop Galadriel and the Elves from destroying the fortress. If they can stop the Elves from achieving their objective, then the Evil side wins.

SPECIAL RULES

There is a Fortress Full of Them: Starting from the 4th turn, D6 of the Orcs off the board can be brought into the courtyard as they react to the major attack taking place (note that only one character can be in each group brought on in this way). As well as this, the Evil side does not have to take Courage tests when below half strength as they know that the fortress may be low on troops but there are still hundreds of them to help them in the fight.

Support the Attack: Due to the large number of Elves attacking the fortress, when they are killed you can roll for them at the beginning of each of the following turns and they will come back on the roll of a 6. This represents the Elves from the diversion moving to support the main attack as it goes against the walls.