The (Big) Battle of Five Armies
The dragon Smaug is dead. Beneath the dead halls of his mountain lies a treasure hoard of wealth uncounted, a vast array of gold and gems and dragon plunder unmatched since the breaking of the world. And where gold lies unprotected, it cries out to all, the greedy and the generous, Come and claim me, and keep me from all others—the cry of the dragon's heart.
And come they have. Elves, men, dwarves, each with claims, each with hopes of doing good (as they each see it) with the wealth within the ancient dwarven halls. But others hear the call as well, with no pretense of good upon their hearts— only greed, cruelty and malice. From the dark deepness of mountainous caverns, from the vile dungeons of twisted mines they come; the goblins of the Misty Mountains, the evil wargs of the forest slopes, and the vicious orcs of Mount Gundabad, all descending upon Erebor, with carrion bats in clouds above their heads...
This is the Battle of the Five Armies— Elves, Men, Dwarves, Goblins and one other (which I shall not spoil, for those not familiar with the tale). The alliance of the free folk is filled with mighty warriors, but few in number, though ably led. The hordes of Gundabad are many, and their lust for battle great. Who will triumph upon the slopes of Erebor? Who will win the hoard below its walls?
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| A Big Honkin' Battle (with tiny little soldiers) |
THE PROJECT
A few years ago, Games Workshop released a boxed game set titled The Battle of Five Armies, based on the climatic fight in J.R.R. Tolkien's children's novel, The Hobbit. (Why they left out the "the" in the name of the battle, I don't know.) The set included plastic miniatures in the growing 10mm scale, as well as two mountain spurs, printed cardboard rivers, and tiny ruined walls to represent the abandoned town of Dale that once thrived in the mountain's shadow in the years before the dragon. I bought that set and (gradually) painted all the parts. I've played the battle many times, but I always wanted to make it even bigger. So a couple of years ago, I was able to arrange a trade for another copy of the game (which is sadly out of production), as well as some companion metal miniatures for extra forces (also out of production). And I've been slowly painting these (very, very slowly) ever since. This weekend, I finally completed my task (football season speeds it up; I paint while the various games are on). The photos you see here are the result.
THE GOOD ARMY (The Free Folk of Middle-Earth)
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| The Good Army Top of Hill: Eagles, Thorin Beorn Back Row: Dain Ironfoot, Dwarves, Lakemen (archers & spears), Bard Gandalf and Bilbo in foreground Front Row: Elf Cavalry (Elf King in foreground), Elf archers, Elf Spearmen Extreme Right: Ents, Rohan Cavalry |
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| Ents (Eureka Miniatures' "Wood Trolls") Riders of Rohan (from Copplestone Castings' "Horse Tribe") Also known as "Not Appearing in this Battle" |
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| Closer shot of the main forces from the battle. |
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| Dain is looking the other way! Oops! Well, at least it's a nice cloak. The Elf Cavalry also isn't in the book, but was released as a booster force by GW. Unfortunately, they're not the world's best molds, and the spear heads are flimsy (two broke off during painting, and are too small to glue back on. I tried). |
THE EVIL ARMY
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| The Evil Army Top of Hill: Smaug, Giant Bats (Splintered Light Miniatures 15mm Bat Swarms) Back Row: Orc Chieftain, Goblin Shaman, A horde of goblins, another Chieftain Wings: Left- Wargs (wolves), Right- Warg Riders (goblin wolf cavalry) Foreground: Left- Hill Trolls, Right- Goblin Guard. Center- Bolg. Two more Chieftains are also milling about. |
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| Closer view of Goblin Guard and Warg Riders |
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| Hill Trolls and Wargs (note Goblin Shaman on rock). The Trolls are fuzzy, so I'll try to make a better picture... |
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| Closer view of Smaug and Bats. The latter look great and are quick to paint (spray black, dry brush grey), but each bat has to be glued in place... and there are a *lot* of bats in a swarm... |
THE FORCES IN ACTION
The Valley of the Great Gate
According to the novel, the battle takes place between two spurs of the mountain, in the valley of Dale that lies beneath the Great Gate of Erebor, the ancient home of the King Under the Mountain and one-time dwelling of the unlamented Smaug. The River Running cuts through this valley, dividing it in half. In the scenario with the game, the river is impassable except at a ford back within the valley, above the ruins of Dale. The river springs from an impassable small lake, created by Thorin and Company as a defense for the gate. (Note the crude stone wall between the lake and the western spur; this is Thorin's Wall in the game. If you look carefully, you might be able to detect Thorin behind it...)
The battle begins with the alliance of Free Folk arrayed on the two mountain spurs as described in the book— the elves of Mirkwood on the western spur (the left side of the photos) and the men of Laketown (well, now just "Lake") and the dwarves of the Iron Hills on the eastern spur (the right side).
The goblin horde must enter piecemeal. The game begins with the goblin cavalry (wolves, or "wargs," and warg riders) approaching on the eastern side of the River Running. Only after that turn may the goblin infantry begin to appear; though I have them arrayed on the table for easy set up, the forces are not in the battle, being subject to a die roll each turn to see how many may enter. This is a key strategic and tactical consideration for both sides, as will be seen.
Because I chose to use both boxed sets to create the spurs, they are longer than the scenario calls for; this produced a pronounced narrowing of the battlefield on the eastern edge, which would hamper the cavalry movement; it also placed the western spur significantly closer to the ruins of Dale than the scenario map in the book suggests. However, as I've never had the ruins amount to much strategically in previous plays, I thought this latter situation an interesting complication to the game.
The Howls of the Vanguard
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| The vanguard charges; first blood! |
The cavalry being heavily bottled up on the goblin right, I wanted to break through the Free Folk line to get to the ford. I hoped the massed array would do the job, despite the heavy infantry line ahead. Alas for Bolg, it was not to be. As is not unusual for a goblin horde, their chieftains got off very few orders— in fact, out of all three chieftains, only one successfully issued one order— sending a lone warg rider unit smashing into the line of the Lakemen. The rest apparently decided to clean the wolves' toenails prior to battle. Grrrr. The whole exchange didn't amount to much, but first blood went to the Lakemen.
Tralala-lolly, There Are Elves In the Valley
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| The Elves bridge the valley; the shaman threatens the Elf right. |
The elves then decided to advance off the spur, to create a thin line of elves stretching across the valley. The cavalry advanced to monitor the ford, as did some of Dain's dwarves. The Lakemen chose to advance against the warg riders, and wound up sending them back into their line in confusion.
Well, That Wasn't In the Book...
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| The Lakemen fall, but the Dwarves hold the line. |
From here the battle proceeded with mixed results for both sides. The east became a bloody bottleneck, with both sides trading losses and little or no movement forward or backward. Bard the Bowman, acting to boost the attack capability of his Lakemen wound up being slain very early— a tragic and potentially dangerous loss for the Free Folk.
The Elves Squeeze A Shaman
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The Elves roll really, really, really well.
(And the shaman goes "squish.")
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Meanwhile, in the center, a goblin shaman entered with a small contingent of goblin infantry, and decided to press the attack. He had initial success, and cast what would be the only successful spell of the game (a "Command" to a recalcitrant unit, spurring it into an elf spearmen flank). But the elf counterattack butchered his small command, and with nowhere to retreat to, the shaman also fell to their spears.
Gandalf took charge in the center, sending elven archers to hold the ruins of Dale and harass the enemy across the river, as well as the new goblin line that appeared (but failed to move) in the south. At this point the elf cavalry apparently threw a shoe, and for want of a nail, did nothing the rest of the game.
A Bolg Too Far...
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What happened to all my goblins? And there's a bear!
(Where? Over there!)
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I decided to bring up some heavy hitters. My goblin "entry" rolls were horrible, and while I had planned to introduce ordinary (read "militarily pathetic") goblin infantry and hold the heavier troops in reserve, I opted instead to place my Goblin Guard, which has equivalent combat skill to the elves (with one important exception), and attached my general, Bolg of the North, to it for added combat power. I wanted to roll up the elven left and pave the way for my hordes to claim the western side of the valley.
When You Stick Your Neck Out, the Elves Become Your Guillotine
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Bolg falls.
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I heard an inner voice saying, "Don't do unsupported attacks! Don't do unsupported attacks!" As any good goblin would, I ignored it. And Oh! The carnage I waged upon the elves! They fell before my cleavers like pointy-eared corn before a scythe... but the guard fell as well. Too late Bolg realized the danger and fell back... But Gandalf, seeing the goblin general caught far from any support, ordered the elves after him— and Bolg fell, and with his fall ended the terror of battle. The few goblins remaining fled the field; those reinforcements yet to arrive beheld their allies break, and scattered as well. The battle was done, and the Free Folk were victorious.
WRAP UP
This one lasted only four turns, largely because I failed to be prudent in my use of Bolg and his guard. Waiting for more forces would have been the better choice, slow in coming though they were.
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| The No-Shows Thanks a lot, guys. |
However, though the above lost the game, other elements contributed:
1.) The narrow eastern shore. With the cavalry doubled, the side was too narrow for most of the wargs and riders to do anything at all but try and move aside whenever their compatriots were forced back.
2.) The doubled defenders. The ability of the elves to all but stretch across the entire valley created a defensible position which offered the attackers little options for maneuvering other than "straight at 'em, boys." Still, the line was thin, and could be broken, and was... just not enough. The same situation held true for the dwarf/men alliance. A single boxed-set's worth of forces faces great challenges in effectively defending the ford, or preventing the cavalry onslaught from getting through. So for two boxes, more land space is needed.
3.) The entry restrictions on Bolg's forces are too much for the amount of troops he has with two sets. In the called-for scenario, he gains advantages when all his forces arrive. But with a maximum of six units entering per turn, and over sixteen infantry units to bring onto the field, Bolg isn't likely to achieve that goal. Clearly for a big battle, the potential entry number needs to rise (possibly use a d8 for that instead of a d6?).
It's possible that none of the above really needs to be changed. Or perhaps Bolg's changing entry rules (and maybe only a partial initial cavalry deployment on the east) would solve the problems.
Either way, it was fun to get my forces on the field. Now, on to the next project... why, yes, there's always another project. Didn't you know?
Signed,
Parzival, the Wargamesmonger
