Rabbits In My Basement: The Battle of Durin's Tower

Saturday, May 23, 2026

The Battle of Durin's Tower

Grishnak pointed a ragged claw at the Orc chiefs arranged around him. "Right, da stunties is over der on dem rocks, see? An' wez gunna push 'em off!" Growls of agreement. The dwarves had been expanding their reach through the northern mountains and had begun clashing with the orcs, driving them from rich veins of ore and stopping raids on trading caravans. He pointed his scimitar at the hills from left to right. "Grashak you takes yer gobbos up da left. Razgul, you an' yer boys hit dat big rock in da middle. Me? I'm gunna grab dat pretty rag over der." He pointed to where the Dwarf King's red and gold banner fluttered at the foot of the hill capped by an ancient ruined tower.

Orcs, goblins and trolls deployed.

Overview of Dwarf deployment

King Thain and his shield wall at the foot of the tower

Meanwhile, across the valley, Sami put out his pipe and carefully put it away in his pack. "Aye, seems we're in for a hot day o'work!"

Dani spat. "Ach! What de ye ken about work?"

Grom leaned on his spear. "More 'n youse I reckon" he mumbled.

"Shut it you lot!" shouted their captain, Thorkl Stone Hammer. "Those trolls are coming up fast!"

Remembered to get my Nerd Dice out for this!

Both sides at 12 Reputation and approximately 430 points (note spiffy new Reputation Tokens)

The Dwarves got a lot of Armour 4 and Spears as Tribute. Hearth Guard also got Brutal. Orcs and Goblins got Reluctant, and Brittle. Although uruks and Trolls were Brutal. Dwarf heroes were much more tooled up with traits as well. Baldor's sword, Foe-Cleaver is a Legendary Weapon.

Turn 1

Turn 2, Goblins keep passing their Command Tests to move, unlike the others.

Dwarf Rangers have advanced to try and knock a few Trolls down

Turn 3. Dwarf Rangers caught in a desperate hand to hand with some orcs. But they hold for a turn and wound Razgul. Thain charges down to hit the trolls before they charge him.

Trolls charge up the rocky hillside in the center. Dani, Sami and Gron fight them off, their spears and axes black with troll blood.

Sami caught his breath and wiped his eyes. He hoped it was troll blood on his face. That last one really gushed when Dani jamed his spear into it's neck as he went for the big brutes groin. Dani was bandaging Gron's head now. They returned to their initial position and reformed their shieldwall on the blood slick grass, trying to keep ranks inspite of the massive carcasses littering the ground.

They were pretty spent.There were too many smaller dwarf bodies among the slain trolls. Thorkl told off a quarter of those still standing to look for wounded and dispatch any trolls still breathing.

But the battle now ebbed away from them as goblins approached the hills to their right and another wave of black anger washed up around the King's red banner to their left.

Thain has pushed the Trolls back but his comany is battered

Turn 4 "To the King!" Baldor Foe-Smiter arrives on the field with his Hall Thegns

Baldor arriving lower edge of picture

Thain brings his reserve of Hall Thegns up and smashes the trolls again destroying them.

Beogruff, cousin of Beorn, charges from the woods to take the goblins in the flank. Wargs and riders are hurled like bloody rags into the trees

Beogruff charges the second unit of wolf riders. Even though he's wounded he slaughters them all.

Grimbeard charges downhill into the goblins, wiping them out.

Sensing the crisis is at hand, Thain leads a charge with his other company of spears, smashing into some orc warriors. They recoil and their brittle morale breaks. Orc Reputation collapses to -1.

This, my sixteenth game of 2026, capped off a very Middle Earth themed day. That afternoon Mrs Rabbitman and I took in the Stratford Festival's production of The Hobbit. It is very much a children's play, but they did great things with a minimalist set, effective lighting, and a cast of nine. Yes nine. After Bilbo, Gandalf, Thorin, Bombur, and the Narrator, the other four had to play all the other roles, quick changing from dwarf, to goblin, to Bard, to Gollum, to elf, and back. The monsters were all accomplished with puppetry, which was quite nifty. The Battle of the Five Armies was more ballet or interpretive dance, than epic spectacle, but it was effective. I'd have liked some shadow puppetry warriors or light effect on the background to accompany the actors, but that's me.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was far better than those horrible movies that Peter Jackson made. Yes I said what said.