Battle for the North Downs
Turn-1 (Summer 1300 Third Age)

Blinded by their lust for the Palantir, the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains (500 pts / Ben) were caught off guard by the Witch King (642 pts / Warren) leading an army of orcs supported by warg rider scouts which appeared suddenly to their North-East. Little did the stout warriors realize that this very same army took Carn Dum by force in the Spring of that year and killed nearly all their dwarven cousins in the mines there.

But the Witch King was also caught off guard, as a contingent of Dwarven Rangers (150 pts / Jonathan) would soon join the battle in turn two from the North-West. With the priority going to Warren in the first turn, he wasted no time pushing his troops full move distances across the battle field, hoping to concentrate on the main body of the dwarves before the rangers arrived. But Ben was in no rush to fight. He carefully backed his troops to the west of the road hoping to buy time for his friend, Jonathan, to lead his troops in a flank attack. Leaving a few of his archers exposed in the open by the road, he delivered effective harassing fires and successfully distracted one of the orc war bands.

Though Ben and Jonathan successfully maneuvered most of their forces into a thicket of trees west of the main road and the priority rolls were in their favor for several turns, they could not muster the nerve to attack first against the wall of orcs that approached from the East. Warren, however, wasted no time in charging his warg riders from the north and knocking several dwarf rangers down. Taking only a few casualties, the dwarves found their courage and closed for combat with the advancing orc shield wall.

From then on, the battle was a grim melee that produced numerous casualties on both sides. Somewhere around turn 10, both sides had lost over 50% of their models and were required to start making courage rolls. But Warren seemed to have the advantage here as he won the priority roll for several turns in a row. Rallying his army with the high courage of the Witch King, he effectively isolated the dwarf captains into combats so that when it was the dwarves turn, they could not use the courage of the captains to rally all troops within 6”. Though the courage of a dwarf is much better than an orc’s, the Witch King’s 12” aura of fear reduced all dwarves courage rolls by -1 and they began to flee the battle in small numbers even though their buddies in combat generally fought pretty well.

One of the few remaining dwarf captains charged the Witch King, and though he had two might points left, his combat rolls we so low that the Witch King merely pushed him back an inch. The following turn, the dwarves got the high priority roll, but in a cruel twist of fate, the captain failed his courage roll, no doubt struck by fear of the Witch King,

Both sides had less than 25% of their original armies still in the fight at this point, but the Witch King orcs had just enough troops to surround the remaining dwarves and incur double wounds on their foes. Though it was a blood bath for both sides, the orcs remained standing on the battle field and claimed victory.

Because the orcs held the battleground at the end, all dwarven casualties were considered killed or enslaved. Warren rolled a (6) for his warrior recovery roll for the main body of his orcs and was able to get back all his wounded orcs! After all the casualties the dwarves inflicted, all their fighting was in vain. Only one permanently wounded dwarf captain survived. I believe he was heading in the direction of the Grey Havens to ask for the mercy of the Elves and be healed of his battle injuries.

The Dwarves are effectively out of the campaign at this point. Though they still have a 300 point defense force based at Thurin Dum in the Blue Mountains, it will take them years to rebuild an army suitable for field campaigning in the Ruins of Arnor.