The Armies
The Rohan army had six Knights, a Horsebow, one Heavy Foot, a Bow Levy, and a Hero (Theoden). They also had a contingent of four stands of Ents. The Ents were treated as Behemoths/Elephants in the rules. The special rules for them included Delayed Entry, Terrain Affinity: Woods, and Sub-commander for the stand including Treebeard. Delayed Entry meant the Ents would not arrive on the board until the Rohan player rolled a "six" and spent all those points bringing them on.
The Saruman army had eight stands of Pikes, one unit of trolls (Behemoth/Elephant), two Light Foot, one Bad Horse, a Heavily Fortified Camp, and one stand of goblins riding wolves. The General is a stand of Elite Foot. These were treated as Javelin Cavalry, but move slightly slower, must follow up when they push back the enemy (Fierce), and treat woods as clear terrain like the Ents.
First Battle
The Saruman army was the invader so the battlefield topography was Steppe. Rohan had the tactical advantage. The roll for the number of terrain pieces was high, so the Rohan player placed a lot of woods because the Ents would be able to operate freely there.
The Forces Arrayed
The Rohan forces (top) are arrayed with the Knights and infantry in front of the camp. Theoden and the Horsebow unit are on their right flank (left side of the picture) beyond the woods.
Saruman's forces are in a line with the Trolls and Bad Horse on the left. The Light Foot are on the right of the Pikes. The wolf-riding goblins are on the right flank. The General is behind the Pikes.
Saruman looks out over his army from high atop the tower of Orthanc
The goblins race through the woods to outflank the Rohan line.
Saruman's main line advances straight forward.
Men of Dunland enter the woods.
Rohan shifts their infantry to meet the goblin threat emerging from the woods.
Realizing the infantry will be too slow, the Rohan commander details a unit of Knights to assist.
The mass of orcs and trolls grind forward.
Theoden has not moved at all so far, and now we see why. He has obviously been bemused by Wormtongue. Actually the Rohan player was plagued by low die rolls but I wanted to find an excuse to put my Wormtongue figure on the board.
The goblins approach the camp.
The riders of Rohan look in vain for the Ents to arrive. They will not come!
The battle lines meet and the men of Rohan are quickly defeated. Their camp is on fire behind them. The rest flee in despair, cursing the wretched Ents who left them to fight alone.
Goblins and wolves prove their worth by taking the camp.
Review
A good learning game for both sides. The Rohan player was hampered by the woods that made it hard to maneuver. He was also plagued by low rolls, and never rolled the "six" required to bring the Ents on the board. Most of his command points were spent trying to meet the threat of the wolves and goblins.
We had never played using Pikes and Knights before and now know that Knights have almost no chance taking them on frontally, especially when double-ranked.
We used the large Ent contingent just so we could get enough points on the board, but Rohan would be better served having more infantry and Knights instead.
