The Battle of Dain's Tower, or Razgul's Rematch

This past Monday I had booked a day off to use up my 2022 vacation time and arranged with the Mad Padre that we'd get together to play. Since he couldn't find someone to puppy sit, we opted to play over Zoom. Virtual gaming was something Mrs. Rabbitman set me up for at the start of the pandemic but I haven't done much of it, not having a social media platform I like to host games on.

But the Padre has Zoom for his parish, so Zoom we did.

Since the last game was still set up, I opted to rejig the scenario. I widened the table to give the orcs more room to maneuver and revised the orders of battle, upping each side to 47 points, so that the Dwarves could include two units of skirmishers. The Orcs and goblins now numbered 108 figures! and the Dwarves had 49.

You can see the Orders of Battle I wrote out and emailed to the Mad Padre so that he could chose sides and then reference during the game. For ease of identification on camera I used my brightly coloured Sharp Practice chips.

Each side also included a sub-commander, dividing each army into two warbands for better activation rolls. Each Commander-in-Chief could use his command reroll on any unit within the 12 inch range. Mike, being a pastor, naturally chose the forces of Evil.

Orc and goblin Order of Battle

Dwarf Order of Battle

Table with obligatory cup of tea. The objective is to control the ruined tower dominating the valley.

The camera clipped to my dad's old tripod to give Mike a better table view

Orcs advance!

Dwarves advance!

View from the other end, showing the Zoom output, which I naturally barely looked at. I don't think Mike saw my face very much either until our post game chat.

Scouts (some Welsh light infantry drafted in from my early Medieval armies -they're allied human shepherds) seize the hill, and get wild charged by Uruks coming up the other side! The other unit of scouts was also wiped out by also failing to evade some wild charging Uruks shortly after this. They never got a shot off.

Covered in the blood of my scouts, they carry on downhill into my dwarf veterans

Who beat them and chase them back up the hill

More Uruks wild charge the Dwarf king and his Guards

Notice Orcs working their way around the flank

Dwarf veterans keep pushing the Uruks back down the steps where they finally rout

Thoin, son of Thain, rashly charges the Uruks

Awfully good roll. Those Uruks broke too

The Orc warlord callously sends the lowly mob of 1 point goblins up the stairs, where they are promptly slaughtered by the longbeards

Thoin starts getting arrows from the orcs in the woods. This seems familiar

With his Guards all dead, Thoin elects discretion over valour and hides behind the rocks. The orc warlord comes after him

With two units of veterans on the hill top, the Dwarves have a firm hold on the objective

Orcs charge! Thoin fights them off!

Goblin light foot get charged by Dwarf veterans and break

Battle lines swinging back on the orc right

Two units of orcs at bottom start swinging around Dwarf right. Note Thoin has taken cover behind the shieldwall

Final Dwarf position, gathered around the hill. With only 4 depleted units (last unit of Uruks is battered and will probably rout with a -6 modifier), the orcs are too battered to push them off. But the Dwarves are too exhausted to take the fight to the orcs. Grôn and Dani are busy tending wounds, standing watch and brewing tea. Ravens have been sent to bring up supplies and reinforcements.

With lots of charges and tense moments epic fun was had. The new dice were rolled with vigor and Razgul is happy with how they performed. I've got more ideas how to better represent how I think orcs and goblins should be, and how to adjust my Dwarf order of battle.