Now I call this 'not a battle report' and that's evidenced by the fact I had thought I was the Rohirrim in this but I think not, as that's clearly Otty measuring his first turn move.
So I guess I was the Orcs this time around, but I still love the anticipation in this charge. Otty had re-jigged the force compositions again - more Rohirrim, but also the Orcs had a smattering of crossbows for some long range effectiveness.
I think I was a little lucky and killed a couple of Rohirrim as they closed, I think one turn was relatively effective - 2 or 3 kills which was really surprising and lucky for me. But, the next turn they whiffed and so I suppose it balances out
And they come together. Obviously I've no idea who had priority, if I did it'd be a battle report. But I think although I did receive a number of casualties and it looked like the Rohirrim had just about broken through on their left flank I think it wasn't quite as successful a charge as Otty had hoped.
I may well had lost a few troops, but I think I won priority, or did some heroic charges and 'with me' I was able to tie up a lot of Otty's cavalry so he couldn't charge again [although it does look like they have charge counters on a fair few, I dunno].
But there are significantly less horses here, 5 or 6 less, which is a massive loss for Otty.
I think I managed to blunt Otty's charge again, at which point he was regretting choosing not to do an Heroic Charge in the previous turn. His force was becoming scattered, but even worse, the dice were abandoning him too.
Another catastrophic turn for Otty. trapping a lot of his horse lords meant I was able to overwhelm him with pikes and warriors. Another 5 or so down.
I think my dice were on fire and Otty's had all but left at this stage, just Gandalf and two knights left which i think wins me the game.
Gandalf may escape and live to fight another day but he'll need another 5 days to recover the Rohirrim he led to slaughter in this doomed charge.
It's amazing how fascinating a game can be when it is fundamentally a head on charge. No objectives, no terrain, just a series of combats, rolling for priority, choosing whether to utilise Might to fight first and then how you position your forces to hamper your opponent. And then when the dice desert them... on the one hand it's hilarious but on the other it's perfect generalship 😉