Hi folks,
Had a couple of tries at Balins tomb scenario for SBG recently.

First go with version from FOTR journey book:
Good guys deploy, goblins off the board.
Good guys get first turn and advance Aragorn, Boromir, Gimli and Gandalf to the door. Legolas stands on tomb to get off any shots, hobbits hang back.

Goblins simply cannot get into game, they can barely get to doorway before being hacked down by the heroes. Even when cave troll arrives it fares no better. Gandalf sorcerous blasts or immobilises it and it is dealt with. Ten turns go in the blink of an eye, and heroes have barely broken a sweat.

Second go with scenario from Mini rules book from MOM set.
Here there is a little more challenge as the goblins could enter through the trapdoor at back of room.
Once again good guys get first turn. Its unclear when first group of goblins enter play, but we had them come on immediately to at least get them in the game.
The first wave is more or less dealt with by heroes. A second wave of spear goblins enter to try and support what is left of the first wave.
But goblins are blasted and battered again.
Cave troll enters play, is promptly immobilised and hacked down by heroes. Instant win to Good guys.

What gives, have the evil forces got any hope at all with this scenario(s)????

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Well first thing you're doing wrong with the MoM rulebook is that Gandalf isn't actually able to use Immobilise and Sorcerous Blast, all he "knows" is "Cast Blinding Light". Also, Legolas doesn't have the Deadly Shot special rule, so he can only shoot once per turn. None of the heroes have MWF characteristics in MoM either, which makes it more of a challenge.

I have played as the Evil forces a number of times against friends, (moreso with the MoM Scenario though) and have found that if the Fellowship doesn't get their act together, they end up getting totally squished or its down to a last turn roll to kill the last member of the fellowship/troll.

Got to squish Frodo once on the 3rd turn which was fun

In terms of the FOTR Journey Book, I think your opponent just had some really bad luck :|

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Hi, Thanks for reply.
I should clarify, when I said rulebook from MOM, I meant the actual mini- rulebook, not the A4 size pamphlet type intro document. The scenario in mini rulebook is on p71, and is identical to the same scenario in the hardback edition of the rules, likewise on p71.

No where in either of these documents can I see any special rules restricting Gandalf's effectiveness.

I think part of my problem (self inflicted) is that I made the Balins tomb terrain piece as per guide in FOTR journey book. But for the doorway I decided to make it just big enough to fit the door piece as comes with the MOM set. It looks cool, but its only big enough to let one goblin through at a time (we had to remove the door piece to get the Troll through, but that's a bit like the movie as it bashes its way in...)

Even with the doorway removed, there is only room to fit two goblins side by side, or one troll and one goblin just fit too.

The problem I found with the scenario, is that, the good guys get to deploy in middle of room, then get first move so that are at the doorway entrance immediately, and block it. Nothing can get through...

As I mentioned, the troll is toast after being immobilised... I can't see anything that says Gandalf cant use his full spell repertoire.

It's a tough one for the bad guys, unless I am reading it wrong...?

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Ahh right,

I was talking about the MoM starting to play book, with the 4 scenarios

Perhaps you will need to make the modifications to the terrain then >< If the goblins have no way to get in, for balances sake. I haven't tried that scenario yet; the only other time I've seen it was in the GW FOTR battlereports, where the fellowship got trounced as they were playing it as the campaign and so they had depleted might etc.

Did the goblins try and shield at all? That might give them a little bit of an extra chance to push the Fellowship away from the door - probably not if you have all those combat monsters there but you never know :S

Otherwise, perhaps the only way to give the baddies a chance is to play a little less aggressively? ><

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yeah, goblins were shielding, in the hopes they would get lucky and push the fellowship back, allowing more then to get in, when numbers may have started to count. But it was pretty much impossible. Even leading with captains and having spear support, if any of the good guys roll a 6 from their 3 dice, you know you've had it. Then there's might too...
The bad guys just cant bring their numbers to bare, and unless the good guys roll a series of low rolls (unlikely)... it just aint going to happen...

It might work, as you say if part of a campaign with the fellowship already weakened...

Pity, I had just got all the goblins needed painted up and made the room, and had the MOM scenic bits painted up too, but the scenario made a battle report pointless...

Still its made a good start on building my goblin forces for other games

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