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So last night I went by my FLGS and played a drop-in game of Lotr with one of the staff (I dusted off my Goblins facing the store's Gondor). It was my first game in 4 years (converted to 40k), and it reminded me why I loved the system so much. Honestly, it was the most fun I've had in a game in a long time.

Moria list
32x Goblins
2x Cave Troll
1x Goblin King
1x Goblin Captain
1x Goblin Drum
15x Mordor Orcs

Gondor list
24x Warriors of Minas Tirith
2x Captains of Gondor
6x Knights of Minas Tirith
24x Rangers

Table setup (my pov):
Trees (not set terrain, just loose ones) took up the centre of the table, extending to the left flank and to both our deployment zones. In his deployment zone was a dead mumak, with a section of rocks on the left, just out of the woods. On the right flank was a hill with the Weathertop ruin at the top.

What ended up happening...
I apologize for the lack of pictures as I had no idea I would do this.

The Rangers deployed on the left flank (from my pov), across the table. I then deployed my archers and goblins plus the drum on my right side. His Gondor soldiers deployed opposite my goblins, and I shoved the Trolls and Orcs just behind the woods in the centre of the table.

Turns 1-3
I won priority for the first three turns and moved my goblins and drum up the hill attempting to get into the ruins. My trolls and orcs stay put behind the woods, while my archers volley fired into his rangers the first few turns (killing one, first blood ). His rangers continued to scoot up, shooting through the trees at my orcs nailing three. His Gondor force moved up to climb the hill also, while his knights charged bravely ahead. In true goblin/orc fashion, all 13 missed their open shots at the knights.

Turns 4-6
Keeping the drum behind the ruins, I continued to advance my goblins, but split them up. The King and a few goblins headed towards his archers who had begun to set up on the hill, while the rest of the force split and headed down the hill towards his Minas Tirith warriors. My orcs and trolls advanced to meet the knights. My archers timidly advanced to fill the air with pointy sticks. His rangers finally made a run for my lines, reaching the edge of the trees. His knights then charged into my orcs, who were screening my trolls, while a few warriors got into combat with some goblins. The archers opened fire on the Goblin King and almost killing him! I had to pass both my fate rolls and he was down to one wound. The knights didn't make much of a dent in the orcs, killing one and knocking another to the ground.

My orcs then fled behind the trolls to let them take care of the knights. My archers stopped shooting and ran up to join the orcs. My goblins slammed into his men, with the Goblin King just reaching the closest warrior to stop himself from a pin-cushiony death. His rangers continued a run for my lines, while he moved to reinforce his warriors with his second wave. The archers continued retreating from the still advancing goblins, killing three in the process. The trolls destroyed the knights, with my Goblin Captain taking down the final one, while the Goblin King called a heroic combat, killed the one warrior he was in contact with and charged one of his captains, slaying him that turn! The men and goblins continued to trade bodies.

Turns 7 onward

His rangers were a turn away from charging my lines, so I moved up my archers into the woods to distract them. He threw men at my trolls while trying to take down my goblins, but slowly I began to close in around him. Two goblins finally hit the archers and killed one (vengeance!). By now he had lost a lot of warriors to my trolls and Goblin King so he began to retreat. Using a heroic move, he pulled his remaining captain and all the men back to join up with the rangers, leaving some stranded behind to tie up as many goblins as possible. However, my trolls caught up to the closest fleeing warriors while I split my goblins, ready to charge toward the rangers, and to take care of the archers. My archers began to make contact with the rangers in the trees, with a flurry of shooting and combats that resulted in three dead goblins.

By now he had reached his breaking point and after seeing a dozen rangers flee the board (Goblin Drum!), we decided to call it a game. By now I had killed twenty five models while he only took down fifteen orcs/goblins.

Why I won
1) His Rangers
Instead of advancing his rangers to link up with his Warriors of Minas Tirith, he stayed behind shooting through the trees at my orcs. Had his rangers hit my lines with the rest of his warriors, I would have had serious issues.

2) His forces
They were too spread out. He divided up his Warriors into two groups, one with each captain. His knights hit ahead of his main force leaving them isolated. His rangers did little but kill three orcs through shooting. His archers continued to retreat facing five goblins, when he could've just swarmed them and then moved up.

3) My Trolls
Together, they accounted for probably half my kills. They were never shot at by his archers, and he had no plan on how to take care of them short of sending in crowds of men. Instead of tying them up and focusing on the rest of my force, he chose to swarm my trolls. By the time he decided to retreat and regroup, it was too late in the game.

In short, it was a denied flank tactic that worked ridiculously well.

Nice report. Its nice to hear that people are still playing. LOTR is still allot more popular than people give it credit for.

Hope hope this is first of many games of LotR you plan to play, it's to good a game to ignore.

At my local club around a third of the members play Lord Of The Rings and in terms of my website our Lord Of The Rings sales must be just under a half of what we sell in total. Its still a popular game and with any luck will become a lot more popular with the War Of The Ring expansion.

I'd forgotten how simple/fun it was...the game play is much freer than 40k.

Started dusting off my collections again, have now assembled 500 point lists of Moria, Mordor, Isengard, and High Elves.