A big moral question this week, pics first
Azog and the ogres battle their way thru the ruins
and the hunter orcs come around the other side
whilst the trolls come on the other side of the board and head for the Rohan heroes
the scenario was sacred heirloom, the objective to go to the 6 hidden objectives, and roll a dice, on a 6 this counter would be the heirloom, on a 1-5 discard the counter, it isnt the heirloom, keep looking - therefore after 5 failures to roll a 6 - the last counter would automatically be the heirloom, and then just keep hold of it until one of the armies was reduced to 25% - at the start of each turn the holder of the heirloom rolls a dice, if its a 1 hes transfixed and cant move that turn
As is normally the case after a defeat Timmy reverts to Rohan, a force he knows inside out and is undefeated with. I saw this coming and so were ready to go again with Azog - i turn over 4 counters but am unable to unearth the heirloom, Timmy is closest to the other 2 and fails to find it with the first, meaning the last counter is the heirloom, he immediately rolls a 1 and transfixes himself!
- in the first photo you can just make out a foot soldier between the 2 horsemen to the left of Azog - thats who im trying to catch - whoever has the heirloom at the end gets 6VP - basically the winner
Alls fair in love and war but what Timmy does is sprint to the back of the board over a number of turns with the heirloom, as would we all, but what he does is feed my troops single soldiers against insurmountable odds in an attempt to drive down his total to less than 25% men and end the game - in short King Theoden shouts 'weve got the heirloom lads, everybody kill themselves'
right? you decide
fair? you decide?
fun? no
After falling for this a number of times, across a variety of games i dont know whether im naive, trustworthy, or just an honest gamer immersed in the universe ive created, i once played against the fellowship in a similar scenario and the opponent sacrificed sam, aragorn and frodo with the same mindset - i mean WTF
i dont play strictly to the lore, you cant, but dear lord
Anyway, my confidence is boosted once more by applying maths to the game and outsmarting even the mighty Rohan, i had 3 chances to kill theoden, killed hama and gamling and only just missed Eomer - i know for certain it shook Timmy as for the next 3 days he kept asking me questions about Azogs force making sure i was within the points limit and the allowable force composition
in the end a technical win for the asshole horse lords, i hate rohan, but a moral victory for the Pale orc