--- title: "War of Rohirrim battle report 1" subtitle: "To claim a throne" author: Seth publish_date: 2026-04-24 00:01 date: 2026-04-24 00:01 hero_classes: text-light title-h1h2 overlay-dark-gradient hero-large parallax hero_image: hera-official-1600x800.webp show_sidebar: true show_breadcrumbs: true show_pagination: true taxonomy: category: gaming tag: [ wargame, report ] --- I'm playing through the scenarios in the **War of the Rohirrim** campaign book, in order of publication. I don't have a Middle-Earth™ army, as such, but I've got plenty of fantasy miniatures, so the story of the campaign is going to be "emergent" as I cobble miniatures together. The first scenario is **To claim a throne** and it's a fascinating one, mostly because it's a one-on-one duel. Yes, each player grabs just one hero miniature from their collections, puts them on the table, and then duke it out. ## Story Taking notes from the **Middle Earth: Shadow of War** video game, I think the logical option, given my miniature collection, is for this to be a human against orcs campaign. I have heaps of orc miniatures, thanks to **Zombicide: Green Horde**, so the Evil army is an orc army. The Good human army is led by the Fellowship. But it's not the Fellowship we're used to. My campaign takes place in an alternate timeline of Middle Earth. Sauron's ring, the One Ring, was lost long ago and was never found by Sméagol or anyone. Bilbo Baggins became a skilled thief using select magical items he found in the troll cave, and he even found a ring that made him invisible, but it wasn't the _One Ring_. It was just a minor magical artefact that boosted his stealth stat. Sauron faded into obscurity. Decades later, Gandalf has gathered a core group of specialists around him, which he calls the Fellowship, to defend the realm against a great orc incursion. The human army has set up outposts to serve as a buffer against the wilderness and the kingdom of Rohan. One evening, after the Fellowship arrives at outpost Vohir, a lone orc captain named Turuk blunders into camp, demanding audience with whatever human tyrant rules these lands. Théoden isn't at the outpost, so Aragorn steps forward in his stead, and is promptly challenged to a duel by Turuk. Turuk is weaponless, and seems to be most interested in proving himself against a human warlord. Boromir quietly tells the guardsmen around the outpost that this is almost certainly reconnaissance, or else a distraction. "Keep your eyes on the plains of Edoras," he tells them, as the high-ranking fistfight begins. ## Round 1 **Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game** actually does start each round with a priority roll (which is how I play 40k, not coincidentally), and the orc rolls low. Doesn't necessarily matter in this case, because Aragorn chooses to stand his ground, and to let the orc come to him. On his turn, Turuk obliges, and charges at Aragorn. Aragorn has 3 Attacks to the orc captain's 2 Attacks, but because it's the first round I decided that they'd both have a -1 to Attack to reflect tentative first blows. They're testing each other out. Turuk rolls a 1, and Aragorn rolls a 4 and a 6. Turuk staggers back from the blows, and thanks to 2 very good Strike rolls by Aragorn, he suffers 1 Wound. Turuk spends 1 Fate point to cancel the 1 Wound, so he's fine, but he's also out of Fate points. Is it early to spend Fate? Yes, probably, but you gotta spend it while you got it. ## Round 2 Turuk rolls high for priority, and charges back into melee with Aragorn. No limits on Attacks this time, so they both let loose. Turuk normally has 2 Attacks, but a special rule for the scenario grants him 3 Attacks when he charges. Turuk scores 1 hit against Aragorn, and Aragorn scores 2 against Turuk. Turuk steps back to soften the incoming blows, leaving him uninjured. Then Turuk rolls a 6 to Wound. According to the scenario rules, this counts as a Knockout Blow. Aragorn staggers, tries to find his balance, and then falls to the ground. ## Post-game administration The Evil army won this scenario, so in the next scenario the Evil army can choose to win the priority roll once (after Round 1). During that round, the Good army cannot use Heroic Move. ## Next scenario Turuk chuckles as the weak human collapses to the ground, even as he watches for aggression among the soldiers who have gathered around to watch the fight. The humans are honourable, though, and none move to attack the captain, although two of the halflings run to assist the unconscious king. At last, Turuk laughs loudly and says, "You haven't got a chance. I look forward to meeting all of you on the battlefield." With that, he turns and walks away. A few humans move to stop him, but Boromir orders them to stand down, and then goes to revive Aragorn. Next scenario is [A new threat on Rohan's borders](https://mixedsignals.ml/games/blog/game_battle-report-war-of-rohirrim-2).