Five Armies - Second Playtest

Here's a belated report of Thursday's game - we playtested our Battle of the Five Armies HOTT game again.

There's still work to be done, but it's all coming together very nicely. Most of the figures are ready (it's my contribution that's getting delayed, but they shouldn't take long to finish), and there's a bit of work to be done on the terrain, but the basic outline of the game is there. Most importantly we seem to have the scenario set-up, in terms of lists, event timings and so forth, sorted, and the balance seems about right to give a good, exciting game.

Here's the initial setup, with the Goblins and Wargs advancing out of the ruins of Dale and the Elves, Men and Dwarves on the mountain spurs waiting for them:

The Goblins advance, and the Elves move off the hill to meet them:

Goblin hordes:

The Men and Dwarves wait on their spur for the Goblins to reach them:

Which, eventually, they do:

I didn't take any photos after about halfway through. The game was very close, with the outrageous luck of the Elves in surviving deadly combats contributing to the fact that the Goblins/Wargs couldn't clinch a victory. Beorn and the Eagles turned up just in time to put the icing on the cake for the Elves, Men and Dwarves. Which is how it should be.

We'll probably be doing it again next week.