Middle Earth in Flames LotR

40 WHITE DWARF THE LORD OF THE RINGS

MIDDLE-EARTH

This complete campaign is set aroundthe dramatic events shown in bothThe Two Towers and The Return of

the King films, specifically the militarycampaigns wrought by Saruman againstRohan, and Sauron against Gondor.

The campaign uses a map (see page48), and allows you to take the part of oneof the four great factions – Gondor, Rohan,Isengard and Mordor – moving your forcesaround the map, claiming territories andfighting out encounters as separate battles.Additionally, we present some advice forcreating map campaigns of your own.

What is a map campaign?While a narrative campaign follows a setstory through a series of defined battles, a

map campaign has two separate elements –the Campaign Turns and the battlesthemselves. In the Campaign Turns, youuse a map to plot the locations andmovement of each of your armies, allowingyou to choose which battles to fight andwhich to avoid. The second stage is to playthe battle games – these are used to resolvewhat happens when armies clash on themap. Like in most campaigns, there areseveral options for each player to achievetheir victory conditions. This means thatthe combined events of a Campaign Turnbecome part of a larger strategic game.

Finally, as the campaign progresses youwill have the opportunity to expand yourfledgling force into a powerful army, givingyou a great incentive to paint fresh troops!

War has come to Middle-earth, as mighty armies try to claimthe land for their own! Mark Latham presents a new mapcampaign for The Lord of the Rings strategy battle game.

TM

The map for the Middle-earth in Flames campaigncan be found at the end ofthis article. We recommendenlarging it on a colourphotocopier. Alternatively,you can download a PDFversion of the map and thecounters from our website.Just log onto:

www.games-workshop.co.uk/thelordoftherings

IN FLAMES

www.games-workshop.co.uk/thelordoftherings 41

CAMPAIGN RULESPlayers and forcesThis campaign is designed for four factions:Gondor, Rohan, Isengard and Mordor.These are represented by appropriate armylists from Legions of Middle-earth or oursourcebooks, as detailed below. Thisallows up to four players to take part, eachassuming control of one of the factions,though the campaign can also be playedwith just two or three players. With twoplayers, each person takes two factions,either both of the Good nations of Gondorand Rohan, or the Evil realms of Isengardand Mordor. In a three-player game, oneplayer takes both of the Good or both theEvil factions, while the remainder are splitbetween the other two players.

Armies Each player will control a number ofarmies during the game, representing theforces he can bring to bear in any givenarea. Army Markers are used to show thelocations of your armies on the campaignmap. Army Markers and Territory Markersare printed with the map – these areprovided for you to cut out and use whileplaying your campaign.

Each Army Marker has a points totalassigned to it. Every time an army needs tofight against another army, the playercreates his force to a points limit equal tothe army’s points total. The minimumpoints total an army can have is 300points, while the maximum is 600 points.In addition to this, each faction can onlycontrol a maximum of five armies at anyone time. At the start of each battle, theplayers choose a new force from theappropriate army list in Legions of Middle-earth or a sourcebook.

Legions of Middle-earthThis expansion for TheLord of the Rings strategybattle game is aninvaluable guide to thearmies of Middle-earth.Within its pages you willfind army lists for everyfaction from the strategybattle game. Examplearmies are shown on thefollowing pages.

FactionsTo start the campaign, each playermust choose one of the four factionsto play. He then gets to place twoarmies on the map. One is placed onthe capital and the other is placed inan adjacent space. These armies eachstart out with a points total of 300.

Rohan Gondor Mordor Isengard

Left: The Middle-earth in Flamesmap covers the areas of Mordor,Gondor, Isengard and Rohan. Atthe end of this article are someguidelines for using other factionsin the campaign – if you choose todo this, then the creative typesamong you might want to trydesigning your own map!

Right: Armies for each faction mustbe chosen from a relevant army listin Legions of Middle-earth or asourcebook, using the guidelineson the following pages. You canuse any list related to your faction– this example is of a Minas Tiritharmy with Fiefdom allies, while theexample overleaf uses the Tower ofEcthelion list.

FACTIONS The following forces represent typical factions from the Middle-earth in Flames campaign.

TOWER OF ECTHELIONTOWER OF ECTHELION

THÉODEN’S HOSTTHÉODEN’S HOST


Théoden with armour on horse (90),Háma (50), 3 Outriders (45), 12 Warriors of Rohan (4 with throwingspears, 4 with swords, 4 with bows)(88), 12 Riders of Rohan (4 withthrowing spears) (164), 3 Royal Guardon horses (54).

Faramir on horse (85), with 6 Knights ofMinas Tirith (with shields, plus 1 withbanner) (194), Beregond (25), 24Warriors of Minas Tirith (8 with bows, 8 with swords, 8 with spears) (200),Warrior of Minas Tirith banner bearer(32), 5 Citadel Guard with spears (45).


MIDDLE-EARTH IN FLAMES

LEGIONS OF THE WHITE HANDLEGIONS OF THE WHITE HAND

BARAD-DÛRBARAD-DÛR

Saruman (170), Gríma (25), 10 Uruk-hai with shields and swords (100), 10Uruk-hai with Pikes (100), 5 Uruk-haiwith crossbows (55), 3 Uruk-haiBerserkers (45).

Ringwraith (110), Orc Captain withshield (45), 24 Orc Warriors (8 withbows, 8 with spears, 4 with handweapons and shields, 4 with two-handed weapons) (144), Orc bannerbearer (30), 6 Warg Riders (3 withbows, 3 with spears) (81), 11Morannon Orcs (4 with bows) (88).


CAMPAIGN TURN SEQUENCEIn a Campaign Turn, each player gets an

opportunity to do several things. Theorder in which this happens is

determined by following the turnsequence. Once every player has takentheir actions and any tabletop battles havebeen fought, a new Campaign Turn startswith another Initiative roll.

1. Initiative rollAt the start of every Campaign Turn, eachplayer rolls a dice and compares the resultsto determine the order in which they willtake their Turn Actions. The player thatrolled the highest takes his Turn Actionsfirst, followed by the player who rolled thenext highest, and so on until all playershave taken their Turn Actions. Players thattie re-roll until there is a clear order.

2. Turn actionsOnce Initiative has been determined,players get to take their Turn Actions in thefollowing order:

(i) Gather Resources (ii) Move Armies (iii) Distribute Resources

(i) Gather resourcesCertain spaces on the map are identifiedwith red flags as being Strategic Points.When your faction controls one of thesepoints it has the potential to generateresources that you can later spend to createor reinforce armies. Roll a dice for eachStrategic Point you control and on the rollof a 4 or more, add 100 points to your“treasury”. Your capital counts as aStrategic Point, but automatically adds 100 points to your total every turn withoutneeding to roll. A captured enemy capitaldoes not generate an automatic 100 points– instead, a dice is rolled like a normalStrategic Point.

The Rohan player gets to roll three dice to gatherresources. Scoring more than 4 on two of his rolls, hegets 200 points, plus a further 100 for his capital, toadd to his army total.

1. Initiative Roll2. Turn Actions3. Resolve Battles



Right: In order for this Rohan army to move into themountains, it needs to make a Scouting roll. Scoring a 5 onthe dice, the army succeeds and moves into the space.

(ii) Move armiesIn order to capture a Strategic Point, anarmy simply has to move into the relevanthex and end the current turn’s movementthere. The player then places one of hisTerritory Markers to show that he retainscontrol of the hex even if his army movesaway in a later turn. If a player’s armymoves onto a Strategic Point that alreadycontains an enemy Territory Marker, thatmarker is removed and replaced by onebelonging to the new arrival. However, ifthe enemy has positioned an army in thehex to guard the Strategic Point, a battlemust be fought (as described below), andcontrol goes to the victor. Moving an armyinvolves two things – first a Scouting roll,then a Forced March roll (as explained onthe following page). If an army fails eitherof these rolls, it stays where it is and canmove no further that Campaign Turn. Thereare a few other things that can restrict anarmy’s movement:• An army cannot move into a space

occupied by another army from itsown faction.

• If an army moves into a spaceoccupied by another faction’s army, itcan move no further. The other armycannot move either, even when it is itsturn to move. The two become lockedin combat and a battle is fought at theend of the Campaign Turn to seewhich army will remain in that space.

• When two armies are locked incombat, no armies from any factioncan enter that space.

Automatic

2+

3+

4+

5+

(Clear)

(Forest)

(Swamp)

(Mountain)

(River)

D6 rollTerrain Type

Scouting Chart

Scouting roll: To represent the problems ofmoving armies over difficult terrain, anarmy needs to pass a Scouting roll before it can move into an adjacent space. To dothis, first check what type of terrain youwant your army to cross – determined bythe colour of the line separating the twospaces. Next, look up that colour on theScouting chart above. This will give youthe number you need to roll on a singledice in order to find safe passage into thenext space. Remember, an army cannotmove any further once it has failed aScouting roll.


Forced March roll: Each space on the maprepresents a considerable distance.Marching an army across such an expansecan be very troublesome. To represent theexhausting effect such manoeuvring canhave, you will need to make a ForcedMarch roll for each space moved. TheForced March chart tells you the numberyou need to equal or beat in order tosuccessfully move into the next space. Asindicated on the chart, you must make aroll for each successive space you wish tomove to, and you will find it getsprogressively harder the farther you go. Ifyou fail a Forced March roll, the army doesnot move into the space and can advanceno further that Campaign Turn. An armycannot move more than four spaces in asingle Campaign Turn.

To reinforce an army, move points fromyour treasury into that army’s points total.These points may only be moved inmultiples of 50. A new army can becreated at any Strategic Point you controlas long as there is not already an army inthat space. You need to have 300 points inyour treasury to start a new army, as that isthe minimum size an army can be, and thenew army cannot exceed 750 points.

Automatic

3+

4+

5+

First Space

Second Space

Third Space

Fourth Space

D6 rollTerrain Type

Forced March Chart

This Isengard army can automatically move one space,and moves a second and third time by rolling a 4 and a6. However, it cannot move a fourth space because a 2was rolled. The terrain is clear, so all Scouting rolls arepassed without needing to roll.

3. Resolve battlesWhen two armies meet on the campaignmap, a tabletop battle is fought. This gameuses one of the scenarios from The Lord ofthe Rings rules manual, generated atrandom in the usual manner. The opposingforces are chosen to the points totals of thearmies involved. However, in order toestablish a clear winner and loser, therecan be no draw result.

If the game ends in a draw, playersmust find some method to determine aclear victor – perhaps by counting up thenumber of models in each force left on theboard, or playing an extra turn to try toclaim an objective.

The army that wins remains in thecontested space, while the defeated side isutterly destroyed and its marker is removedfrom the Campaign Map. Once all thebattles have been fought, a new CampaignTurn starts, with everyone making anotherInitiative roll.

With 300 points remaining, the Gondor player choosesto raise a new army (2) in another Strategic Point.

(iii) Distribute resourcesOnce a player has moved all the armies heintends to, he may distribute the resourceshe gathered at the start of his Turn Actions.The points in his treasury may now be usedto reinforce or create new armies, orsimply be kept in the treasury for use in asubsequent Campaign Turn. An army canonly be reinforced while it is at a StrategicPoint, and not engaged by an enemy.

Winning the Campaign

• The campaign lasts for 15Campaign Turns, at the end ofwhich the player whose factioncontrols the most Strategic Pointsis the winner.

• In the event of a tie, playcontinues until, at the end of anysubsequent Campaign Turn, oneplayer controls a majority ofStrategic Points.



Faction bonusesYou may want to give each faction somekind of bonus to represent the characterand background of the armies in play. Hereare a few suggestions: • Isengard’s armies add 1 to all their

Scouting rolls.• Rohan’s armies add 1 to all their

Forced March rolls.• Mordor adds 1 to each dice’s result

when rolling to Gather Resources.• Gondor adds 1 to the dice when

making its Initiative roll each turn.

Other factionsWith a bit of work, you could increase thenumber of players in the campaign. Thesimplest way to do this is to use other armylists from the regions already covered, suchas the Minas Tirith force, for example.Otherwise, the introduction of Elven hosts,Dwarf throngs or even Hobbit forces willadd extra flavour to the campaign. With alittle preparation you could even shift orexpand the campaign map to cover thelands of Harad and the East, allowing youto involve more exotic forces.

Gathering resourcesDetail can be added by having StrategicPoints provide resources differently. Youcould have some points generate resourcesmore or less readily than others. Forexample, desolate or remote places, likethe Emyn Muil or the swamps of Nindalf,could only produce resources on the roll ofa 5+. Places abundant with resources ormanpower, such as Fangorn Forest or theheartlands of Gondor, could produceresources on the roll of a 3 or more. Thiswould make some Strategic Points morevaluable than others – as such, it is a goodidea to have only a few of these specialareas on your map.

ALTERNATIVE CAMPAIGN RULES

Bottom: It is hard to find theresources needed to raise an armyin such a barren land.

Below: Players can choosescenarios that are appropriate tothe location of the battle.

A lot more detail can be added to the Middle-earth in Flames campaign. Here welook at ways in which you can customise this campaign with your own ideas.

ScenariosThere are many other scenarios you canuse aside from the four from the rulesmanual. When fighting over a capital orstronghold, you could use the Walls ofMinas Tirith scenario from The Return ofthe King journey book, or the Osgiliathscenario from Gondor in Flames, forexample. Bear in mind that differentscenarios may need a few adjustments toaccount for the different points totals andforces you will be using.

You could also change what happens tothe losing army after a battle. Instead ofbeing wiped out, the army’s points totalcould simply be reduced by 100 pointsand it is moved into an empty adjacentspace. However, if this reduces the army’spoints total to less than 300, the army isdestroyed. A Scouting roll is needed if itmoves into a space by crossing terrain. Ifthe Scouting roll is failed, the army iscaught by the victors and wiped out –otherwise it moves into the intended space.


TM

KEY : IsengardCapital

RohanCapital

MordorCapital

GondorCapital

StrategicPoints

IN FLAMES CAMPAIGN MAPMIDDLE-EARTH


Permission is granted to photocopy this page for personal use only to play Games Workshop games, allfurther rights reserved. Do not reproduce, amend, distribute or otherwise use this page other than aspermitted hereto.All materials pertaining to the New Line theatrical productions: The Fellowship of the Ring; The Two Towers; and The Return ofThe King which are © MMVIII New Line Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Watcher logo, The Lord of The Rings, TheFellowship of The Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of The King and the names of the characters, items, events and places thereinare trademarks of The Saul Zaentz Company d/b/a Tolkien Enterprises under license to New Line Productions, Inc. and GamesWorkshop Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Games Workshop, the Games Workshop logo, ’Eavy Metal, Citadel and the Citadel device areeither ®, TM and/or © Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2008, variably registered in the UK and other countries around the world. AllRights Reserved.


Strongholds(Strategic Points)

ClearTerrain Mountain Forest Swamp River

IN FLAMES CAMPAIGN MAP

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Middle Earth in Flames LotR