Lord of the Rings Three Player Game

Another of our irregular games with my friend and his son. Not So Young N is now quite the expert on the rules with a lovely scenery collection too. I fear we have moved on from the original purpose of us giving him a chance to play the game to him indulging his father and I with a chance to natter and drink coffee whilst he canters to an easy victory. Either way its a fun few hours of rolling dice.

The Easterlings were out in force

I'd taken Wargs and Orcs. And Orcs ON Wargs.

The Easterling cavalry went after the Gondorians

My cavalry raced through the ruins

Before bumping in to some rather tough opposition.

As the Gondorians, showing a firmer grasp of tactics and the rules in general, formed a shieldwall

The Orcs were struggling to keep up. Combined arms you say? Never heard of it mate.

The heavily armoured troops meanwhile were grinding each other down.

A bold charge by the Warg riders

The Easterlings were beating the other Orcs

The remaining Orc fooot had also been wiped out, with just the Shaman leading an...ahem..."charmed" life

The Wargs unsurprisingly came off worst

The Orcs dead and my courage tests wreaking havoc the Easterlings began a march toward the Gondorians.

The Shaman ran off and tried some magic. Which didn't work.

The Easterlings were milling about.

Eventually the clash came and despite the Dragon knight wreaking havoc the Easterlings were running out of men.

The other Gondorian forces began to close the trap

Soon after this Courage tests and a few more casualties saw the Easterlings too flee the table and Gondor was triumphant!

First Game of 2026 - Lord of the Rings MESBG 3 player

After a longish break No Longer Young At All Noah and his dad came over for another three player game.

I took Orcs NLYAAN had Rohan and his dad had Khand/Easterling force.

Just a straight up fight using the Domination scenario from the version of the rulebook we currently use (I don't think it's the most recent one).

Just a few pictures as we were catching up and chatting mostly.

My Warg allies catch some Khandish axemen in the open. I was pleased to discover the Khand are just as useless when someone else uses them.

The Warg riders were soon amongst them.

Theoden led the Rohan charge

The Wargs administered a good kicking to the Khand.

Theoden charged my Orcs, seeking possession of the shiny blue objective.

Not many Khand remaining now.

That's it for pictures!

The Easteerlings and Rohan foot warriors ground one another into the dirt. I managed to surround Theoden and bring him to the ground and then held three objectives to claim a fairly comprehensive victory!

Lord of the Rings three player

I still have some games to catch up on, but this one is striking while the iron is hot, played on Saturday just gone.

The usual suspects for our three player MESBG games. Hosted by NSYN - all scenery his work - in fact only the Easterlings were mine.

I managed to locate an "official" three-player scenario from White Dwarf. The central tower contained gold which we had to get back to our huts.

I got my Easterling archers up on a hill. From whence they proved again how useless archery is in MESBG.

My Kataphrakts charged wold riders and a succession of 6s saw them all die very quickly.

meanwhile I raced for the tower.

With two more Kataphrakts heading off to mess up the Gondorians.

The King of the Dead decided to deal with the Cave Troll personally.

I was making off with plenty of gold (blue/beads) but Gondor was doing well too. The Orcs were mostly dying.

My remaining Kataphrakt was finding it difficult to kill any Gondorians.

The Ringwraith was trying to snipe my General for bonus victory points.

Soon my gold gatherers found an angry Dead Ruler hunting them down.

Faramir too was proving resilient.

The Dead Blokes were ruthless in dealing with my forces.

In the end Gondor had the most gold, had killed most Generals, was unbroken and the clear winner.

The scenario worked well and it all looked very jolly. 

Lord of the Rings three player

Another three way game with Actually Quite Tall Now N and his dad.

I took Orcs, AQTNN had Easterlings and his Dad took Rohan.

My Wargs were soon engaging the riders of Rohan

As the Easterlings formed shieldwall

Rohan riders, gadding about

My cavalry raced off to meet the Easterling threat.

And were soon amongst them.

I had taken a Shaman. but as I have no real clue how to use magic in MESBG he's really just an expensive and not very good captain.

Still exploring the marsh.

The Warg chief cut down some riders and the foot soldiers swarmed the others.

The Kataphrakts were tougher nuts to crack.

Finally Theoden got to grips with the Easterlings.

the battle with the Wargs wore on.

I was running out of cavalry.

And Theoden too was running out of men.

Suddenly I reached break-point at my army very rapidly melted away, soon followed by the men of Rohan and the Easterlings held the field.

Good fun, if a little untaxing. I wonder if I can persuade AQTNN to give Midgard a go...?

Lord of the Rings Ruins

Some ruins from the original Games Workshop Lord of the Rings game box.

Simple drybrush paintjob. No idea why it's taken me over 20 years to get them painted.