Battle of the 5 Armies!

[cooper]

tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Battle_of_Five_Armies

scale 1:50

Dwarves: 500 (armored foot, "grim veteren") 10 units.
men: 200 (heavy foot?) 4 units
Elves: 1000 (spear and archers, "light foot/armored") 30 units of archers, 20 units of spears
eagles (rocs): 300? 24 unit (1 roc = 4 light horses in man to man, 20 roc = 4 light horse in mass combat 1:20, 300 roc = 24 units of light horse om 1:50.)

Goblins 4000 (heavy foot) 100 units
Mounted wargs: 1000 (light horse) 25 units
Orcs 2000 (heavy foot) 50 units
Bats 100 (donno) 2 units


Heroes:
Gandalf the grey (5th level magician)
Elf King (4th level hero)
Thorin Oakenshields: 4th level hero
company of dwarves: 12 (3rd level heroes-1)
Beorn: Lycanthrope (8th level super hero)
Bolg: Goblin King (4th level anti-hero)
Bodyguards 20: Armored foot (1 unit, or 20 goblins in plate in MtM).

The three commanders agreed that the Goblins were the enemies of all and previous grievances between them were put on hold in face of the greater threat. They arranged their forces on the two spurs of the Mountain that lined the valley leading to the now-sealed off great Gate of Erebor; the only entrance to the Mountain that remained unblocked. The 500 Dwarves and 200 or so Lake-men formed up on one spur and over 1000 Elves on the other, while a light rear-guard lined across the mouth of the valley to lure the Goblins between the two spurs of the mountain, and thus destroy them. Bilbo Baggins tried to sit out the battle on Raven Hill which was held by the Elves.

The 30 units of elven archers kill 9 units of goblins automatically (pg. 11) 20 units of spears led by the elf king roll 20d6 (with a +1 to each roll from hero leader [pg. 30) and kill on a 5-6. Probably killing 8 units.

10 units of dwarves (armored) vs. goblins (heavy) 10d6/5-6 kills. Probably killing 4 units.

5 units of men 5d6/6 kill 1 unit.

Soon the Goblins arrived (and now four armies were on the field), and at first the plan worked: they were lured into the chokepoint and took heavy losses.

Total goblins killed so far by elves, men and dwarves 23 units.

As the goblins were attacked from behind in the opening round they cannot return attack.

round 2! roll initiative d6 vs. d6

However, due to their superior numbers, the allied Free people's did not hold the advantage long. The second wave was even worse than the first, and now many Goblins scaled the mountain from the opposite side, and began to attack the arrayed forces from above and behind, as the main wave pressed forward. The battle raged across the Mountain

elves dwarves and men deal another 13 or so.

goblins probably do 36 units worth of total damage in round 2. Let's say 10 units of elves gone, 8 of dwarves, and 2 men.

elves, dwarves, and men are doing well, but are severely outnumbered.

We're probably at 40 units of elves left, 5 dwarves, and 3 men for a total of 48 units.

and then a great noise was heard: Thorin and his 12 Dwarf companions inside the mountain had thrown down a section of the stone wall they had erected across the mouth of the gates, killing many Goblins. Thorin and Company emerged, covered in the best armour and armed with the best weapons in Erebor. Then Thorin yelled, "Rally to me my kinsfolk," and charged down into the valley to join the battle with many Dwarves and many Men and Elves joining them.

woot, lets use the catapult/fireball rules here (pg. 12) A large catapult effects an area of 3 1/2". With a 28mm base for the figures it would effect about 9 units of goblins! 450 goblins go splat!

Thorin joins the dwarves as an army commander (pg. 21) now and grants +1 to all attacks for men and dwarf's remaining units, and forces a morale check on any goblin units his own units encounters automatically (pg. 30) 5 units of dwarf+2 units men= 7 units of foot (350 men and dwarves). Would roll 7d6 and add +1 to all attack dice while lead by Thorin. (so 7d6/4-6 instead of 7d6/5-6)

the goblin forces are now down to a combined total of 100+

Thorin advanced through the Goblins' ranks all the way up to the gigantic Goblins that formed the Bodyguard of Bolg, but could not get past them.

Now we move to the, Man to Man rules. Thorin hero 4 attacks per round (Man-to-Man table each attack is a 2d6 roll) can't kill enough bodyguards to get to the anti-hero, nor can the bodyguards land 4 simultaneous attacks in a single turn to kill Thorin. Stalemate.

The battle degenerated into a chaotic close quarters melee, no quarter asked or given.

stalemate. Some mass combat, and some man-to-man battles raging on (Thorin vs. Bodyguards).

As the battle was turning fully against the Free Folk, a large army of Giant Eagles of the Misty Mountains arrived, led by Gwaihir the Windlord. Bilbo was the first to spot their entrance on the scene (now there were five full armies on the field of battle) and began shouting that "the Eagles are coming!", a shout that was then continued among the other troops of the Free Folk. At this point Bilbo was knocked in the head by a large stone thrown by a Goblin from above on the Mountain, and he was knocked out. With the support of the Giant Eagles, the battle turned back against the Goblins.

6 units of giant eagles (function as Rocs pg. 36). 4 light horse per unit so 24 units of light horse charge into the goblin/warg line and force morale checks just like heroes would. I would have them route the warg riders (25 units of warg light horse).

Bilbo gets attacked on the man to man chart by a goblin. Checking the "individual fire with missiles pg. 41" A stone functions like a short bow (pg. 25 "hurled weapons"). Goblin rolls 2d6 and needs a score of 10+ to hit bilbo (chain armor) at long range. Success! Bilbo is knocked out.

Goblin army is now down to probably less than 80 units of foot only vs. 20 men elves and dwarves bolstered by 20 odd light horse (eagles).

Then Beorn himself arrived at the battle, apparently having heard news that a large army of Goblins was on the move. This time he did not appear in his former shape of a giant Man, but in that of a gigantic Bear. Beorn drove through the Goblin lines, but paused to carry the wounded Thorin out of the battle with his paw. Beorn then returned to the battle with even greater wrath and smashed the ranks of the Bodyguard of Bolg, ultimately killing Bolg himself.

Beorn (8th level lycanthrope super hero of neutrality pg. 34 & 39) charges into the bodyguards and attacks 8x per round on the Man-to-Man table and forces them to make a morale check as he is a super hero (pg. 30) as if they had taken excessive casualties (pg. 17). They roll 2d6 and save on a 6+...fail! he scatters them and then faces Bolg. We now move to the Fantasy Combat chart (aka Fantasy MtM table) and Beorn is victorious needing only a 5+ to kill the goblin king on the 2d6 fantasy man to man table. (pg. 44).

The Goblins eventually panicked and scattered, to be picked off by hunting forces from the victors later.

Using man to man combat, have small skirmishes of 3-10 foes attacking each other in the forrest.

[bluskreem]

This is pretty cool. I'd love to read more of these play by plays.

[cooper]

THE BATTLE OF HELMS DEEP/HORNBURG

tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Battle_of_helms_deep


scale: 1:100

THE ARMY OF ROHAN
Garrison of Hornburg: 10 units of 1000 foot and archers (500 light, 300 medium, 200 armored)
Army of Rohan: 10 units of 1000 medium horse.

(late reinforcements)
Scattered Rohirrim rallied by Gandalf: 10 units 1000 heavy horse.
Hurons: 6 units 100 treants and 12 units of 200 trees.

HEROES:
Gandalf the white (8th level wizard)
Aragorn II (6th level super hero-2)
gimli (hero)
legolas (hero)
Eomer (hero)
Thoeden (hero)
Erkenbrand (hero)

ARMY OF ISENGARD
Uruk-Hai Orcs: 70 units of 7000 (armored foot)
Dunlending Men: 30 units of 3000 (light foot)

anti-Heroes
unknown: various 4th level army commanders of varying disgustitude.

The forces of Saruman arrived at the valley of Helm's Deep in the middle of the night and quickly scaled over the first defense, Helm's d1ke...

This is done on the man-to-man scale (pg. 23). 3 orcs per turn can scale one ladder. Two orcs can carry a ladder without penalty, although no charge movement is possible. The defenders could have poured oil (2" wide auto-death and a pool 4" on the bottom), dropped rocks (killing the 1st climber d6/4-6 killing the 2nd, and d6/6 killing the 3rd), or attempted to push the ladders over (man to man the 1st, then pushing the ladder if success is met killing the 1st which will kill the 2nd and stunn the 3rd for 1 turn/round)

No defenders! So 10,000 orcs scale the d1ke.

[the orcs]... attempt to break down the fortress's gate with a battering ram. But Aragorn, Éomer, and some other Rohirrim attacked, through a passage on the side of the Hornburg, scattering the forces threatening the doors.

Gate walls have 35-40 hit points. Rams do 2 damage every round (pg. 22) and have a crew of 8 orcs. Eight Movable Mantels manned by 16 orcs (shield-like protection for the ram crew carried by others). Aragorn, Eomer, and a few men fight on the man to man scale and route the rammers and mantelists. 24 plate armored orcs vs. aragorn who has 6 attacks, eomer with 4, and a few other men who have 1 attack. 2d6/6+ to score a hit with a 2 handed sword or 10+ with a long sword--I hope aragorn is swinging with two hands. Orcs must land 8 blows in a single round to bring aragorn down, or he takes no damage. Afterwards Roll 2d6 9+ disables the abandoned ram. Success!

The Orcs and Dunlendings then raised hundreds of ladders to scale the wall. Aragorn and Éomer had to repeatedly move the defenders, who were getting weary, to repel the Orcs coming up the ladders and crossing the wall. However, some Orcs had crept in though a culvert which let a stream out of Helm's Deep, and while the defenders were busy with the assault on the wall, they suddenly attacked, having made it past the wall. The defenders quickly reacted and drove back the Orcs, and the culvert was blocked up under supervision by Gimli.

Still on the man to man scale with lots of ladder pushing, oil spilling, rock dropping and melee on the walls. I'm sure there is lots of archer fire back and forth that can be on a mass combat scale (defenders having soft cover (pg. 12) taking 1/2 casualties). Heroes move around to various groups with lowered morale (either from suffering casualties or from fatigue or both (pg. 11 & 17). Normally a dice roll is needed to rally or you risk a route (pg. 16), but Heroes and army commanders automatically rally troops they are with as long as they spend 3 turns with them before leaving (pg. 21).

Dwarves dig mines and counter mines twice as fast as humans (pg. 38), so I would rule that the humans overseen by Gimli perform as dwarves for the purpose of counter-mining pg. 23, but what we really have here is a "breach" so a dwarf doesn't add anything. Being a hero though helps in repelling the orcs who sneak in through this culvert as Gimli attacks 4x per round on the man to man scale which helps out the defenders. A breach is sealed (abatis) in 3 turns after the orcs are killed (pg. 24)

However, the enemies reentered the culvert and caused an explosion using a device of Saruman's. This made a wide hole in the wall, and Saruman's forces could not be stopped.

No~!

We'll use the lightning bolt rules (which are the gun poweder cannon rules (pg. 13) here at the "abatis" or covered up breach. Since a cannon does 3 siege damage (pg. 22) and it takes 3 turns to re-breach a hole, the "explosion" is a success and the orcs pour in.

The defenders retreated to the Glittering Caves and to the Hornburg. Soon Saruman's forces used their blasting fire to gain entrance to the keep. At this moment, however, the horn of Helm's Deep was sounded, and after a moment a sortie led by Théoden and Aragorn rode forth, followed by men on foot from the keep, and the defenders of the caves , who made a break-out attempt and were driving the enemy out of the deep. Théoden and Aragorn cut through the Orcs and Dunlendings and arrived at Helm's d**e.

Finally, some mass combat action! after more cannon/lightning bolt fire the walls come down a 3" hole will allow about 400 orcs per turn--based on 1:20 scale buildings, to stream in. aragorn and Theoden leading horse and foot (lets say 10% defender and 50% attacker casualties so far, orcs took a lot from the arrow fire and ladders) 9d6/5-6 Medium Horse (2 hits per attack MH vs. AF and the +1 to all dice rolled from heroes leading them) and 9d6/5-6 men vs. 45 units of saruman's orcs and 15 units of dunlending.

Both armies then noticed that many trees, Huorns, had moved to block a possible escape route for the Orcs. Then Gandalf, Erkenbrand, and a thousand riders from the Westfold arrived, and charged. The Dunlendings were so terrified of Gandalf that they could no longer fight. The Orcs lost control and ran into the trees, where the Huorns destroyed them. Thus, Rohan won the battle.

Gandalf at the head of 10 units of westfold horsemen roll 10d6/3-6 (with hero bonus otherwise 10d6/4-6) and count each "hit" as four (HH vs. LF) and wipe out about 20 units of orc and man. As they took excessive casualties (excessive casualties for light foot is 25% (pg. 17) the remain 5 or so units of saruman's dunlending men scatter failing their roll of 8+ on a 2d6. 18 units of treant+trees obliterate the 35 or so units of uruk-hai that run into them. Treants can animate 2 trees per treant and fight as 6 men each. Treants are immune to missile fire and melee weapons and goblins require a 10+ on a 2d6 to set one on fire. (pg. 35). Perhaps, 3 units of trees/treants/huron get burned total.

On the man to man chart, Gimli and Legolas had a competition to see who could kill the most orcs. Gimli one by one point with 42 kills.


Aftermath

After the battle those Dunlendings who surrendered were given amnesty by King Théoden and allowed to return to home. The Rohirrim required that all hostilities cease, and that the Dunlendings retreat behind the Isen river again. The slain Dunlendings were buried in a mound of their own apart from the Orc carcasses.

[cooper]

[glow=red,2,300]Frodo vs. the Barrow Wight[/glow]

Frodo: hobbit leader (pg. 26 man+1) w/an old magic short sword. (light weapon)
Sam, Pippin, Merry: light foot normal men.

barrow-wight: attack as light horse, defend as heavy horse. subtract -1 from attacks in full light, paralyze their foes when touched.

we must cross reference the mass combat chart with the man to man chart to determine hit dice and damage.

..."When he looked back he found that he was alone: the others had not followed him.
'Sam!' he called. 'Pippin! Merry! Pippin!' Come along! Why don't you keep up?'

There was no answer. Fear took him, and he ran back past the stones shouting wildly: 'Sam! Sam! Merry! Pippin!' The pony bolted into the mist and vanished...As he struggled on he called again, and kept on calling more and more frantically; but he heard no answer for some time, and then it seemed faint and far ahead and high above him. 'Frodo! Hoy!' came the thin voices out of the mist: and then a cry that sounded like help, help! often repeated, ending with a last help! that trailed off into a long wail suddenly cut short...

The barrow-wight moves though the fog and begins to pick off the scattered hobbits. Attack Sam, Pippin, and Merry. Let's see how Sam fares:

Attacking as light horse vs. light foot in MtM combat the wight gets a single 2d6 attack on the mace chart vs. no armor requires an 8+ to land a blow and a single blow will do 2 damage (light horse treat each hit as 2 hits when fighting light foot).

Success! Sam is out and petrified.

repeat with Pippin and Merry.

"[later when Frodo awakens]...He heard behind his head a creaking and a scraping sound. Raising himself on one arm he looked, and saw now in the pale light that they were in a kind of passage which behind them turned a corner. Round the corner a long arm was groping, walking on its fingers towards Sam, who was lying nearest, and towards the hilt of the sword that lay upon him...He wondered if he put on the Ring, whether the Barrow-wight would miss him, and he might find some way out...but the courage that had been awakened in him was now too strong: he could not leave his friends so easily. He wavered, groping in his pocket, and then fought with himself again; and as he did so the arm crept nearer. Suddenly resove hardened in him, and he seized a short sword that lay beside him, and kneeling he stooped low over the bodies of his companions. With what strength he had he hewed at the crawling arm near the wrist, and the hand broke off; but at the same moment the sword splintered up to the hilt. There was a shriek and the light vanished. In the dark there was a snarling noise..."

Frodo, as a normal halfling rolls a 2d6 on the man to man chart. Because I have made him a "leader" type pg. 26 Frodo rolls a 2d6+1 on his attack roll. Additionally, because Frodo is wielding--what I believe to be a magic (if fragile) weapon, he will add an additional +1d6 to his attack roll pg. 38.

Frodo attacks! 3d6+1 and needs to score an 8+ to land a hit (cross referencing a sword vs. an unarmored horse from pg 41 MtM table).

success!

But he only chops off the wights hand! Light foot attacks heavy horse on a 1:4 ratio pg. 40 therefore the Barrow-Wight can take 3 more hits from frodo before being defeated.


Luckily Frodo remembers a song by Tom Bombadil who comes to the rescue just in time...

Get out, you old Wight! Vanish in the sunlight!/Shrivel like the cold mist, like the winds go wailing/Out into the barren lands far beyond the mountains!/Come never here again! Leave your barrow empty!/Lost and fogotten be, darker than the darkness/Where gates stand for ever shut, till the world is mended.

[jmccann]

larsen-family.us/~1066/5armies.html contains a miniatures adaptation which might have some ideas you could use. He has several other battles from Tolkien as well - Pellenor and Helm's Deep of course and a few others.

[thegreyelf]

I don't understand the math in your unit breakdowns. Since Chainmail is a 20:1 ratio of men to figures, how many figures are you placing in a unit?

[cooper]

The default ratio is 1:20, there is no issue that I'm aware of (and I remember reading where people in the old days changed the ratios to better deal with specific battles) of changing ratios.

I'm somewhat confused by your question, what specifically Do you see an issue with? I list the ratios at the beginning of each example. 1:50 for the hobbit and 1:100 for helms deep. They certainly could be done 1:20 but that's a lot of miniatures for 10,000 orcs...


Perhaps you are referring to ogres, wargs, horse, and giant eagles? I'd love to answer you question, help me out.

[thegreyelf]

scale 1:50

Dwarves: 500 (armored foot, "grim veteren") 13 units.
men: 200 (heavy foot?) 5 units
Elves: 1000 (spear and archers, "light foot/armored") 10 units of archers, 15 units of spears
eagles (rocs): 300? 24 unit (1 roc = 4 light horses in man to man, 20 roc = 4 light horse in mass combat 1:20, 300 roc = 24 units of light horse om 1:50.)

If the scale is 1:50, how do you get 13 units out of 500 dwarves? Shouldn't it be 10 units? And 200 men (assuming you're still talking about 1:50 scale)...shouldn't that be 4 units?

Etc.

I'm trying to figure out how you split total troops into units. How many troops to a unit?

[cooper]

Hmm...for the life of me I can't figure out why I did 13 units of dwarves, must be a typo on my part.

[thegreyelf]

Fair enough! Good to know it wasn't just me being thick!

[cooper]

Removed the ability of normal elves to deal extra damage vs. goblins (reserved for elves with magic weapons only--demi-heroes). Adjusted the forces of good in the battle of the 5 armies to correctly reflect their numbers using the 1:50 scale.

[thegreyelf]

This is truly awesome work on your part, and is fantastic for people who actually want to play out these battles.


...that would include me, btw.

Oh, one last thing: shouldn't Bard be included in the list of Heroes?

[Deleted]

nicely done. I was just running a castle siege and I am curious about the modifiers regarding fighting on castle walls

[cooper]

What's your question Erich?

thegreyelf: thanks for the compliment. was bard at the battle of the 5 armies? I'll update.