Gwindor's Charge

 I finally managed to squeeze in the scenario I attempted last week. I moved to my desk (with the battlefield on my laptop) in the hopes that Onyx would not notice what I was doing. It was also cool enough to leave the patio door open, so Onyx was distracted by the outdoors.

I took the scenario from an article in issue 436 (August 2019) of Miniature Wargames. It represents the opening of the Battle of the Unnumbered Tears from J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion. The elves (blue) with a contingent of men (red) face off against Morgoth's orc hordes.

Witnessing the execution of his brother, Gwindor leads his elven cavalry in a berserk charge of the orc command.

The rest of the army follows. Despite taking casualties, Gwindor sweeps away the orc command.

Fingon's cavalry and Hurin's Men of Dor Lomin (right) overrun the orc skirmishers on the hill.

Gwindor and some elven spears charge off the field (they exit the board) while Fingon and Hurin destroy some orc warriors.

But the orcs take revenge and wipe out a band of elves.

Their victory is short-lived, and they get cut down. The path is open to the very gates of Morgoth's stronghold.

Battle Notes

For this scenario, I gave definite advantages to the elves to reflect their ardor (inspired by Gwindor's charge):

• The elves did not have to roll activation; instead each unit could act each turn. In contrast, the orcs rolled activation to simulate their surprise. 
• In addition, I considered the elves as advantaged when making saves while the orcs were neutral. 

I also accidentally disadvantaged the orcs; they were supposed to get reinforcements (a la the horde rule from HoTT), but I forgot until midway through the battle. Even then, they rolled horribly for reinforcements. Not surprisingly, the elves ran roughshod over them. (but wait until the next scenario)!

I used my latest generic universal rules. The key mechanic is what I am calling the Resolution (Res) Test. Roll a D6 and cross-reference vs. the following chart to determine success.

• Major Disadvantage         6+
• Disadvantage                    5+
• Neutral                             4+
• Advantage                        3+
• Major Advantage             2+

What make the rules successful for me is that I don't bother with a bunch of modifiers; I just eyeball the situation and determine a status. It's quick (albeit probably only suitable for solo gaming).

I did make a change on the fly. Initially, I planned to roll activation for each unit separately, but it bogged down the game. I ended up using the Squad Hammer activation rule (roll 2D6 and take the highest).