THE DEFENDER

Fighting within the walls of Helm's Deep.

From a Defender's point of view, the first thing to do is to make sure that your forces – normally heavily outnumbered by the enemy – are evenly spread on the battlements of the perimeter you have to defend. This deployment will allow you to move them quickly to react to the Attacker's moves. Thus, there will always be someone ready to intercept any scaling attempt. If the enemies make it onto the battlements, you're in trouble.

There is an exception that you should keep in mind, though. You can be sure that some of the Attackers are going to go for the weakest part of any fortification: its gate (and any other access doors). Thus, it is a good idea to make sure you have a few extra models on the battlements overlooking these passages and, most importantly, standing in the courtyard and ready to defend a possible breach and stop the enemy from swarming into your fortress. If you don't leave anyone in the courtyard, it could take too long for the Defenders to get down from the walls if a gate is breached.

As the enemy approaches the walls, it is a good idea to leave any of the Defenders that are not carrying missile weapons lying down on the battlements and hidden from view of the enemy archers. Your bowmen, on the other hand, should all be positioned so that they can open fire on the incoming Attackers while still benefiting from the cover offered by the crenellations. They will certainly be shot, but they can return fire. Their solid cover gives them the advantage, because half of the enemy arrows will break harmlessly on the walls next to them.

The Uruk-hai overwhelm the defences at Helm's Deep

It is vital to concentrate your fire on the most dangerous foes first. I'm pretty sure that if you're being besieged by Uruk-hai, your target must be their deadly bomb teams. If these evil contraptions make it to the walls or – even worse – to your gate, they can blow a hole into your defences and deny you all the advantage you have in your defended position.

Of course, even if you manage to kill the warriors carrying the explosive device, other Uruk-hai can still pick it up, and sooner or later, they'll have it against your fortification. Yet, it is good to delay the inevitable, as stopping to pick up such a heavy burden will slow down the enemy a great deal, and every turn gained is a boon in these tense games.

If the enemy has no bomb teams, then concentrate your fire on the enemies pushing siege towers or carrying battering rams for the same reasons as above. Though less powerful than Saruman's crude bombs, rams can still break through your gates and thus deserve special attention from your bowmen. If a siege tower makes it to your walls, you're in trouble, so you need to stop them with your missile fire if you can. If you can't stop the towers, then your only defence is to have a good number of your best troops ready to receive the shock troops that are about to assault you. If no rams or siege towers are present (your enemy must have really come unprepared for the siege), then direct your fire at the ladders.

If you have war engines, leave the ones that do not need line-of-sight in the courtyard where they'll be safe from the attention of their counterparts in the enemy army. In a siege, one of the best uses of hard-hitting machines like catapults and trebuchets is first to target the enemy siege engines and siege towers. Your engines' high Strength is often the only thing that can stop these siege devices!

When the assault comes, make sure your men are ready to intercept any of the Attackers that make it to the top of the ladders. Intercepting everyone can get a bit tricky if the enemy deploys more than one ladder on a wall. It's also bad if they have an Uruk-hai Siege Assault Ballista, which can transport screaming Berserkers atop an ascending ladder to make things worse! The only way to prevent them from reaching the battlements is to deploy your Defenders in front of the ladders and make sure that their control zones are sufficient to close any gap where the enemy can place his ladders. Try to have your hardest models (ie, Heroes) facing the enemy ones, so that you don't have to stop these combat-monsters with ordinary warriors.

Defending the walls from invaders.

Once the ladders are up against the wall, the best thing to do is to drop them back on the heads of the Attackers, and your troops must try and do so as quickly as possible before the weight of several warriors has made it all but impossible. If you can, try to direct two of your men to push each ladder. Often, in the turn after the ladders are raised, the advantage comes down to priority. If the Defender wins priority, then the ladders can be thrown back empty. However, if the Attacker wins priority, then he can charge the Defenders on the ramparts, thereby preventing them from pushing the ladders down. It is so important to go first in these circumstances that I recommend using your Heroes to declare heroic moves if you have to. I definitely think it's a good use of your Might.

When you are actually defending the battlements from enemy models that have charged up the ladders and engaged your men, it is wise to use the Shielding rule if you can; you just need to win the fight to have a 50/50 chance of seeing your enemy plummeting down from the top of the ladder to its death (and maybe knock down a few of his comrades in the process).

Next: The Attacker
Previous: Introduction