First Middle Earth game with Sellswords and Spellcasters

I played my first game in my Arnor campaign, which I'm currently planning as a 3-game mini adventure (but that could change depending on what happens during the games).

Hallas and a patrol came across a mortally wounded royal messenger close to the Arthedain/Cardolan border. Before he died, the messenger told them that he had been ambushed by orcs and his message pouch had been taken. He did not know the content of the message, just that it was extremely important. Iavasonnen picked up the tracks of 4 Orcs and the group followed them for half a day before locating their camp at the edge of the Barrow Downs.

The orcs seemed agitated and Hallas feared they had been spotted, when he noticed a troll shuffling about nearby. That would account for the orcs' agitation!

As Hallas prepared to lead his men in a surprise attack, Iavasonnen scouted the enemy position. He swiftly returned with bad news, more orcs were approaching, a lot more, maybe a hundred or so. The orcs they had been tracking were obviously just the scouts for a much larger raiding party. They needed to escape fast and get word of the raid to the nearest garrison. The escape route would take them straight through the orc camp!

This game was going to be based on Scenario 1 in the rules Through the Badlands. The party needs to cross the table to reach safety and get word to the garrison. However, one of the 4 orc brutes starting on the table is carrying the lost message pouch, so retrieving that is also important. I was going to give Experience as per the scenario, but also give Renown points for attempting to retrieve the message. Each brute killed and searched had a chance of having the message, the first would have it on a roll of 5 or 6, the second on 4, 5 or 6, the third on 3, 4, 5 or 6 and the fourth would automatically be carrying the message. Characters got 1 Renown point for killing and searching a brute and a bonus Renown point for finding the message.

This has always been a hard scenario to win and I wasn't sure how it would go without a wizard to lob fireballs around!

 The first move went amazingly well, all the characters passed 3 activations! That had never happen before as the party rushed across the table with the orcs still unaware of their presence. Hanar then passed 2 more, failing 1 which meant the orc nearest him started to move closer.

 Now Iavasonnen failed two activations, which bought a horde of 6 orcs onto the table and allows the brute nearest Hanar to charge him. However the dwarf knocked the orc back, slicing him with his axe.

 In the meantime Hallas moved forward towards another brute who started to charge closer in resoponse (1 failed activation). Doltalagan almost flew across the table with 3 more passes.

 The newly arrived orc horde just milled around in confusion.

 Hanar finished the orc off and quickly search him, but no sign of the message!

 Hallas and his follower were charged by the nearest brute at the same time as a hidden orc sprung an ambush on Hallas.

 In the meantime Iavasonnen redeemed himself by taking out 2 of the orc horde with well placed arrows.

 Hallas and the orc brute battered away at one another, each wounding the other.

 Before Hallas' follower finished the orc off with a spear thrust. A quick search revealed no sign of the message here either.

 By now Doltalagan and his follower had closed on another orc brute, whilst keeping a wary eye on the troll.

 Hanar moved across to join Hallas, as the orc horde finally started to advance.

 Whilst more orcs started to arrive. After a vicious fight, Doltalagan killed the orc and found the missing meassage!

 Having made short work of the orcs, Hallas led the way towards the escape route.

 The party made a breack for it as the troll moved closer.

 Another ambush, but Hallas cut the orc down without even breaking his stride.

 All the party had now escaped, save Iavasonnen, who found the troll to be uncomfortably close now. However two passes (and the 20 cancelling out the fail) saw him nimbly slip past the troll to safety.

Leaving a very angry troll behind.

Well this was the easiest game of Scenario 1 I'd ever played, the first time I hadn't had at least two characters needing to be carried off by their friends! The dice certainly helped, just 5 fails in the first 36 activation rolls (I stopped keeping count after that!). When drawn, the cards had also fallen in my favour, only 3 cards brought more orcs onto the table and only 2 Ambush cards in the whole game!

I did not notice the lack of offensive magic, but then I hadn't had to deal with many orcs. The party had only engaged 7 orcs in close combat, killing them all. But still Doltalagan took 2 wounds and Hallas and one of the followers had taken a wound each. We shall see.