LOTR battle with zombies, played on 26th April 2026

 

The Battle for the Hills.

Evil side:

Right to left flank:

Jonathan with zombies and Haradrim contingent

 Patrick Uruk-hai pikemen and heavy infantry,

 Steven: orcs with battle trolls

and Alberik orcs, halve trolls and wargs

Good side:

Right to left flank:

Ronny with Rohan riders and dwarf riders, with dwarf and Rohn infantry

Peter with Gondorian infantry and Numenoreans (heavy elite)

Dirk  (me)with Elves, part form Lothlórien and part of Rivendell

3 players on each side had drawn cards they could use as spells one spending a "flag" rolled command die.

I had painted zombie figures for Jonathan from a board game he has.

He asked if these figures could be used in a LOTR game, and we did.

He could activate the zombies with an I or flag, and once on the move they wouldn't stop.

His wolf zombies were threated as cavalry so activated with a C or flag.

Zombies do not have strong "hitting power" so one die per 4 figures and for the wolves one per 2 figures. and an extra die for abominations.

One "unit" of runners going 30cm, others 20cm.

But!!:

•  zombies doe not recieve moral blows, so flags against them are ignored.
• arrows have no effect.
• When zombies inflict casualties, these deaths will join them!!

Objective of the game: controle of the middle hill and one of the hills on either flank at the end of the game.

The abominations

Zombie monk

Halve troll with orcs

Ronny made the misake to move his cavalry to far in turn one and was charges by the wargs with no option of counter charge.

The dwarf and Rohan cavalry was hit hard. Also the use of spells by Alberik gave him more momentum.

The strongest units of the Good side were crippled

The massive battle troll

In the centre, the Gondarians had taken the hill with their bowmen, keeping at bay the Uruk-hai pikemen and orcs and battle troll. 

But hte orcs and uruk-Hai kept coming and the Gondorians started to loose ground.

The elves were in for a chock. 

The zombies had taken the hill and the elves attacks were unsuccessfull with losses, rsulting in hte zombie units getting stronger! Impossible to stop the waves of zombies, with on top of that spells of the necromancer weakening the elves resistance.  With the zombie wolves also joining in,  and the Haradrins also, the good left flank had no hope of success.

Now all the three hills were fermly into the hands of the Evil side, and no reserves left on the Good Side/ Clear Evil victory

ECW battle in 54mm playes on 15/03/2026

 

We played a ficitve EVW battle, where a Royal force had taken position behind some hedgerows.

A classical deployment with the foot in the center, and 2 large bodies of horse on each flanc.

The parlementarian force had two canons. The royalists had one heavy and one light.

In front of the regiments of foot were 2 units of forlon hope on both sides. On the Parlement side were on each flanc a unit of dragoons that could deploy on foot, or mount and move on horse.

10 standard units of foot (2stands pikemen,  2 stands of shot) for the parlement, 8 for the royalists.

Both sides had veteran units.  For the cavalry, on the parlements left was Cromwell, whit his cavalery units, of which was one elite, 2 others of the same command veteran. 

Prince Rupert had taken the right flank of horse with this liveguard  (2 stands elite, always attached to him). 4 units of cavalier cavalry. 

On the opposite side of the table both sides had 4 units of cavalry, of which one was heavy (cuirassiers).

Parlement players : Peter as Cromwell 5 units of cavalry and the dragoons, Thomas the centre 7 units of infantry  including two medium canons and Jonathan the right flank with the cavalry and 3 units of infantry; and also the dragoons..

Royalists : Rupert (right) Alberik with the cavalry and with Ruperts own infantry unit (elite) and one light canon., centre  Geoffrey with 6 units of infantry and one heavy gun, and Ronny .

Rupert was catalogued as impetuous, meaning he had to test every round to see if he ordered a general attack of his command. We also tested each office rand general to see if he was impetuous or cautious. As for Rupert, Impetious officers would be tested first to see if they ordered an immediate attack, or in case of cautious, would have to be tested if they obeyed an advance order.  Only one offcer turned out to be impetious: the officer commanding the forlorn hope of the royalists, and also on the royalist side, one infantry officer was cautious.

All canons started with 4 shots maximum that could be used during the game, and 2 had to be used before any unit moved.

Crowell

The canonfire at the start had limited effect.

Cuirrasier

On the royalist left, first contact was made with charge and counter charge of 2 cavalry units on both sides.

The forlorn hope exchaged shots, but no much casulaties, and Sir Thomas was reluctant to advance to the hedgerow, considering it a difficult obstacle to take, and was himselve cautious and reluctend to move his infantry forward.

Cromwell ordered his vetran/elite command forward colliding with a counter charging cavalier unit.

Expecting a breaktrough, the result was totaly different. Cromwells elites had 2 casulaties, and inflicted only one. No flags so the fight continued.

Rupert, in his turn gave a general assault order and the veteran parlement units were beaten.

Rupert charged with his liveguard the dragoons,  who quickly mounted and fled.

Also on the royal left, the royalist cavalry took the upper hand.

The impetious forlorn hope officer ordered his troops to charge their parlementarian counterparts, a few rounds of close combat following. With the Parlementarian foor moving in support, the royalist forlorn hope took heavy losses and run.

Both Parmenet elite cavalry and there opoents in the fight were reduced to one stand and removed from play.

Cromwell ordered his remaining cavalry forward. It was fatal for Rupert himselve, but his units drove their opponts from the field, folowing the parlement cavalry in hot pursuit, of the table.

With all the remaining officers dead, no chance of return to the table.

Also on the parlements right, a similar situation. The parlements cavalry running of table, the royalist in pursuit, but with officer had a chance to return to the table.

Ruperts own foot,  had with the two general advance orders of the prince moved into the direction of the parlements canons.

Sir Thomas responed by sending 3 infantry units towards this threat.

With both flancs loosing, Thomas had no other option but to move towards the hedgerow.

However, woth 3 units commited against Ruperts infantry, his attacking force was outnumbered by the royalists, in a better position.

The Parlementarians took losses.

At some point, one unit was able to push the royalist unit back and cross over the hedgerow, but the royalist reserves came up and drove the parlementarians back.

At long last, Ruperts infantry was destroyed, but these units commited in this combat were utterly mised as reserves and support to breach the royalist hedgerow defense. 

By the time they came up, the other units were starting to retreat.

Sir Thomas had to admit defeat. 

A royalist victory!