A Siege Assault of Gondor

“Shall we being the assault of the walls, Sire?”

“Yeeessssssss,” hissed the Witch King as his Fell Beast feasted on fresh apples from a Fuji apple tree. “Gothmog, lead the charge.”

“C’mon boys! There’s man-flesh to be had!” The Uruk-hai assault machine began its slow approach to the towering white walls ahead. The grunting of the uruks pushing the behemoth siege tower masked the whisk of the rocks hurtling overhead, but for the shadow that repeatedly shaded the mighty force. The three catapult operators barked orders to their trolls to fire faster as return rocks began hurtling toward them from the trebuchets behind the walls. Must be two trebuchets behind those walls, by the rate of fire of those rocks, thought the Witch King. I must avoid those.

One catapult fell to the crushing blow of the vile trebuchets, while the two others remained hidden behind large trees, trolls heaving rocks into their cradles. CRACK! Gothmog turned his warg to see what had caused the penetrating sound -- a tree had been obliterated by a trebuchet load, leaving one of the two remaining catapults exposed. A crushing rumble pulled Gothmog’s attention back to the walls, as the Numenorean craftsmanship began to fail. The glow of that wicked grey-beard will not save their eastern flank.

The men on the top of the siege tower bucked against their palisade. The roaring flame of Sauron rushed through their veins. They saw the distinguished cracks of the ancient stonework, the perfection in the laying of the brick, and reveled in the destruction their comrades were causing. “Get ready to charge over that wall, ladies!” the leader commanded.

The Witch King banked his beast eastward, preparing his approach to the target wall segment. Fear comes from that wall. A shudder passed through the wall segment. The foundation failed, and the wall collapsed upon itself, sending Citadel Guard crashing to the ground. Uruks cried out in joy -- and hunger.

“Everyone to the breach!” commanded Gothmog. His warriors dropped their battering ram and ladders and surged through the gaping ruins. Passing through the breach, they fell under shadow as the mighty Witch King soared overhead, targeting the grey wizard. The Wizard repelled his onslaught, kept his will through the force of his Staff. Ducking back to the wall, the Witch King engaged two spearmen on the far eastern wall segment, separated from their leader Faramir by the ruined section of wall. The three uruks on the siege tower poured onto the ledge as well, assaulting the remaining troops guarding that wall.

The rattling of rapid-fire Avengers caused the assaulting Uruks to press against the walls, inside the angle of attack of the tower-mounted guns. The uruks captured the far eastern wall without a loss, and Gothmog’s ground forces annihilated the first trebuchet crew as several uruks were diverted to the armored interior doors.

The tower fell under shadow as the Witch King emerged again. The grey wizard is weak. Gandalf’s staff shattered to pieces, his blinding light extinguished. The Witch King darted back behind cover to avoid the magical guns of the Gondorians.

Gothmog’s warg reared up in blood-lust as he charged the crew of the second trebuchet. Felling him, only two Gondorian crewmen and two armored doors remained between him and Faramir’s men on the walls. He heard a wild cry. The trolls approach.

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This was a great game. It was a 1000-pt venture, with the assaulting crew (Mike: evil side) getting half point siege weapons, and free siege equipment. The two trees that Mike hid two of his catapults behind were the saving grace of his assault, giving him just enough time, under fire from Jon’s trebs, to batter a single section of wall to 2 batter points, causing the wall to collapse of its own accord one turn from the siege tower arriving at its base. Once the wall was breached, the Gondorians were no match for the superior uruks in melee. No uruks were lost in that part of the assault.

Siege weapons were approximately average this night. With trolls, Mike’s catapults were hitting the wall on a bit less than 1/2 of their shots, just a touch worse than expected. Without trolls helping to fire 2 shots per catapult, the assault on the walls would most likely have failed. Mike also required the assistance of in-the-way trees. Between them, they absorbed 3 treb rocks, which would have knocked the catapults out of commission several turns earlier -- again leaving the castle nearly unassailable.

The Witch King got the better of Gandalf this night. Gandalf’s light was unnecessary as he could not protect the wall, and Mike’s force had no other archers to fire at the shielded Avengers anyway; and Mike’s catapults were destroyed the turn of the breach, so they never had the chance to fire at the Avengers. Gandalf succeeded in one sorcerous blast, knocking down three ladder-bearers. But the Witch King, in his approach, survived several rounds of arrow-fire and an Avenger, and once hidden along the side of the wall, could repeatedly surface to attack the wizard, and duck back behind cover. Gandalf could have run to the far western wall for safety, but then he would have been unable to do anything either.

The siege tower also barely escaped death-by-avenger. It had 1 batter point remaining, 1 turn from the wall, having taken damage from the avenger the previous turn. But neither avenger could damage it for that last batter point. Granted, the wall had fallen, but the tower allowed 3 uruks to dismount onto the far east wall and eliminate the 4 or 5 citadel guard situated there.

Overall, this game yet again highlighted the difficulty of balancing a siege game. A turn before the wall fell, the game looked solidly in Jon’s hands. Mike had only 1 catapult left, and it was injured -- a single treb hit would destroy it. The wall had 6 BP remaining. The tree providing cover for Mike’s catapult was fallen. And Jon had priority. But Jon’s trebs missed. And Mike’s siege tower only had 1 BP remaining, but survived TWO avenger attacks that turn. His assault force surviving, Mike then rolled a hit and a 6 on his batter roll, bringing the wall to 2 BP. The next turn, the wall fell, as was likely. At this point, the game swung completely into Mike’s favor. So it’s hard to say. Had the trees not been there, nor Jon’s trebs missing on a key turn, nor Mike hitting a 4 BP barrage, nor the avengers failing twice to down the siege tower, the end result could have been a total victory by Jon. Instead, it was a total victory by Mike. So while the end result appeared to be that the game may have been unbalanced in Mike’s favor with the half point siege weapons and free tower, one or two different outcomes in the things I described above might have made it appear that Mike’s force was totally underpowered for this assault.

Overall, I think this was our most well-balanced siege that we’ve played yet, and the game came down to the effectiveness of the weaponry and use of the terrain. Catapults and trebs hurl nasty, large projectiles, and one landing in the right place at the right time can swing the tide of battle!