FORCES OF EVIL POST-GAME CONCLUSIONS

Ty Finocchiaro

Ty: I tell ya, I just didn't see that coming. When I looked over the scenario, I never factored in the actual distances involved. So, I didn't realize that the most powerful members of the Fellowship could deploy close to the doorway and then essentially block it after their first move. Seeing as Good always gets the 1st turn, that's just what they did. Aragorn on one side, Gimli in the middle, and Boromir on the other flank. Together, they formed a powerful barrier with zones of control that I wasn't going to get through any time soon.

Faced with this immovable challenge, my brain set to work on how to undo it. All I needed was about an inch of free space for my force to stream through, as Goblins thankfully have the Cave Dweller ability. If I could get that bit of open ground on one side, the Goblins could hop up the walls and around to the rear of the blockers and into the tomb proper. The problem was getting that all-too-important inch of space to open up.

My only hope lay in the Shielding option. By rolling more dice at one of the three combat powerhouses arrayed before me, I might actually win a combat and push the enemy back an inch. However, there was only room to squeeze four shield-equipped Goblins (out of 30!) onto the table. Since they were jammed into the narrow doorway and the edge of the table, any combat loss would mean double strikes. Plus, Aragorn with his free Might point pretty much assured that Bryan would get the opportunity to move first every turn. Hooray.

Well, after a few turns of no progress (thanks to Bryan's excellent combat dice), I could see that I needed a better plan. Thinking Might points could help, I threw a Goblin Captain out there to boost my chances of winning a combat. However, his Fight skill just wasn't high enough to beat any of the 6s Boromir seemed to able to produce each combat round. Thus, the Captain died after contributing nothing to my overall goal. In frustration, I tossed out the Cave Troll on Turn 4. Unfortunately, I couldn't combo this with a Goblin Captain for a total of 5 dice as there just wasn't enough room — Gimli would have just jumped in and evened out the combat. The next thing I knew, the Cave Troll was dead. In one round. Double strikes are nasssssty at the hands of Boromir.

Things were looking glum when my brain finally fired the solution and made me realize the uselessness of all my previous actions. Even if I did push one the three pesky blockers back, they would simply move forward to plug the gap next turn with a heroic move. Crud. What I needed was a heroic move action of my own to counter Bryan's, and then hope that the dice came up in my favour when it came time to choose which player got to take their heroic move first. I needed to get the final Goblin Captain on the board, have him win a combat against Boromir (practically impossible), push him back, then on the next turn, call a heroic move. Then, after all that, it'll come down to a 50/50 dice roll.

And that's just what happened. With the necessary gap open, I was flush with joy as I completed my heroic move. Then my joy turned to terror as I realized that during Bryan's heroic move, he could simply move up Legolas or Gandalf (who were watching from the rear) to block the precious gap and crush my plan. Again, luck swung my way as Bryan was apparently so intent on the three blockers that he didn't see this move. Once I asked if Bryan was truly finished moving, I piled 30 Goblins onto the table and got ready to exact my revenge on the Fellowship.

A few lucky combats on my behalf and crummy dice rolls on Bryan's part saw Aragorn, Sam, and Legolas fall to the chittering hordes. Unfortunately, I had spent so many turns trying to break through into the room that I only had a turn or two to do some damage. That being the case, I nearly took out Gandalf and Boromir, but just didn't have the time to finish the job.

The aftergame rolls were what I was looking forward to, as I really wanted to complete my Hobbit cadaver collection. However, Bryan dashed this joy by rolling very well for Wound recovery. Sam once again escaped death's cold embrace! Overall, however, the Fellowship is in pretty rough shape as it heads towards the dangers of Dwarrowdelf. My black heart is quite pleased.

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Index: Adventures of The Fellowship