Midgard Dwarves against Elves - The Rematch!

 Colin brought his Elvish Host over again for a return punch-up against my Dwarves. He had tweaked his army, losing the bolt shooter, making some elf archers into skirmishers to allow the points him to raise his spears to Armour 4, and giving his dragon the Flying trait (he'd obviously been drinking Red Bull). I just kept the same army as before (I had meant to tweak my list as well, but just forgot!).

We played the Take The High Ground scenario and Colin rolled low, so was the defender. He needed to keep 25% of his army off table, arriving in turn 4, so put the dragon and accompanying Beast Master Hero aside, along with a unit of skirmishers. We then deployed for battle.

The Elf host deployed on the ridge. It doesn't really show in this picture, but they do actually have a low slope in front of them. The three standing stones are the objectives which will bestow extra Reputation to whoever holds then from turn 3.

The Dwarves prepare to attack! Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu! 

Turn One

The first turn was fairly inconclusive. the Dwarves trudged forward  across there entire frontage and the Dwarf sorcerer cast a couple of mist spells which meant that the elvish archery had little effect this turn, except to force the axemen on the far right of the line to retire slightly..

Turn Two

The Dwarves kept advancing and their skirmishers skirmished, not inflicting any casualties but forcing an elf archer unit to step back out of the battle line.

With the Dwarves almost at the foot of the slope the elf spears all charged across the line, crashing into the dwarves. With their heroes, including the army commander in the front, they gain a haealth boost of Reputation points!

On the right flank the dwarves and elves just glared at each other!

On the left (from the dwarves perspective) the attempted flank march floundered, slowed by the rough ground and the need to avoid the elf archery.

The elven charges saw mixed results, in places they pushed the dwarves back and in others were pushed back in turn, or else the vicious melee was fought to a draw with neither side gaining the upper hand. But foolishly accepting a challenge from the Elf Commander cost one dwarf hero dearly.

 

Whilst the champion leading the ogres was felled by a luck blow! Two heroes down already, things were looking bad for the dwarves. Their Reputation had fallen to 8, whilst the Elves were on a mighty 16!

Turn Three

Things took a turn around at this point. 

Although the elves continued to press home their advantage on the right flank, forcing the dwarves back, across the rest of the battlefield the dwarves were victorious and unit after unit of elf spears collapsed beneath the blow of dwarven axes!

The Ogres destroyed the unit in front of them as the belated flank attack swept up the slope unopposed!

An elf hero, left standing alone amongst the bloodied bodies of his warriors scorned to flee, but fell bravely beneath the axes of the dwarves.

Things were looking a little better for the dwarves, but down a shadow swept across the battlefield as the mighty dragon landed!

Turn Four

The Dwarves pressed on, destroying another two units of elves and took possession of the objectives. But could they hold them from the onslaught of the dragon?

The dragon crashed into the dwarven ranks, whilst the supporting skirmishers advanced on the ogres. They tried to drive the big beasts back with their arrows, but were ineffective. The Dwarf sorcerer cast battle rage on the beleaguered dwarves, who some how managed to fight the dragon to a standstill, although at a heavy cost.

At the end of the turn a small advantage to the dwarves.

Turn Five

The Dwarf King left his bodyguard and threw himself into the fight, leading a fresh unit of dwarf axemen against the dragon. His legendary weapon bit deeply through the winged lizard's scales, inflicting a deep wound on the monster.

On the far right flank, the elf commander pressed home the attack in an attempt to destroy the isolated dwarf unit, but they bravely held on.

At the end of turn five the dwarf Reputation still stood at 3, whilst the elven morale had drained away, leaving on -1 Reputation. Another victory to the dwarves, but it was a narrow one and a hard-fought game! 

It was a fun game and we played to a conclusion with 400 points in just over two hours!

We are really enjoying Midgard and talking of playing a much larger all day game at some point in the near future!

Sellswords in Bogland Game 3 The Finale

 Ian and Ross came over for the third, and final, instalment in my Bogland campaign using Sellswords and Spellslingers. Ross lost his wizard in the last game, so the party elected to delay their advance until the wizard's apprentice joined them.

The party must now locate the last two parts of the mystical necklace, hidden in the Fearsome Forest and the Ghoul's Barrows (I wonder what they will find there?).

As the party cautiously advanced through the Fearsome Forest they heard ominous crashing sounds coming through the undergrowth behind them, and a marsh troll burst upon the scene. Ross's elf turned and shot the beast with an arrow before moving off to join the rest of the party.

Another failed activation triggered an Ambush. A  strange plant burst into life and flung a purple fruit at Ross's fighter. The missile burst on impact and released a cloud of vapour, breathing this in the fighter immediately felt his limb turn to lead and his energy drain away. (PC need to pass a will test or else lose 1" off of their movement, if they are reduced to 0" move they collapse in a coma).

Another activation fail drew the Scenario Event card, which activated half a dozen sentient man-eating plants, including the rather nasty large jawed monstrosity on the right.

The PCs press on, with the elf bringing up the rear-guard, pausing occasionally to shoot at the on-coming (and rather annoyed) troll. 

As the walking plants close in, another ambushing fruit bush appears, throwing poisonous fruit at the PCs and causing Ian's ranger to slow in this tracks.

Ross's fighter finds himself surrounded by man-eating plants, as he chops bits of the largest assailant.

Ross's apprentice cast a heal spell on Ian's ranger to restore his movement. The apprentice proved to be a far better spell caster than his master, and had healed most of the party in one way or another by the end of the game. Unfortunately this delay allowed the troll to catch up and attack the elf.

                                      
But what of Ian's fighter and his faithful squire? Well to be fair the squire spent a lot of time chopping plants and rushing around to aid various PCs in their combats. His lord and master, however, just seemed to wander about the forest, oblivious to the various dangers, stumbling upon treasures! First he found another piece of the missing necklace, and then, after drawing the hidden treasure card, found a chest full of silver coins!

The party finally escaped from the Fearsome Forest and approached the Ghoul's Barrows. In from of an ominously stained alter, stood a pile of skulls. Ian's fight examined the pile for evidence of the final part of the necklace, only to bring the whole pile crashing down!

In response ghouls charged out from all the barrows and leapt upon the PCs!

In the meanwhile the persistent troll caught up with the apprentice, wounding him. The elf and the ranger rushed back to his aid and succeeded in killing the troll.

Just in time, as a giant spider was closing in on the PCs from the forest. Leaving the spider to feast upon troll meat, the three hurried off to join their comrades in the epic melee that swirled around the altar.

Slowly but steadily the PCs cut their way through the ghouls, until all the foul beings lay dead. A quick search of the barrows found the last piece of the necklace and the party beat a hasty retreat as another troll was rapidly approaching.

Finally success for the party of heroes! Undoubtably the apprentice earned his place by his excellent spell casting. In the course of the game he had cast a successful Heal spell on each of the party and cast a Enhance Others spell to boost one of the fighter's combat skills. I think he had been more use in this game than the previous wizard had been in the first two adventures out together!

War of the Worlds Survivors 3

 On with our monthly VSF adventure.

This times things were complicated by a river dividing off a quarter of the table with a single bridge. I told the players that the river was fast flowing but wadable, but there was a chance of being swept off their feet by the current. No one bothered to ask further or try and cross until the later part of the game, so they didn't realise it was quite a low chance of most PCs being swept over!

There were 5 search points on the player's side of the river and a tempting 3 search points on the other side. There are a few Shades wandering about, but no Martian Fighting Machines as yet.

It went like this.

Mark advanced confidently towards his nearest search point (out of sight behind the hedge) whilst his rifleman took a pot shot at a shade, but missed.

Colin moved towards a different search point, swing around to avoid the two shades close to the centre of the table.

Henry advanced more cautiously, pausing to shoot a nearby shade.

A shade rushed up to Mark's rifleman, but he held it off until two of his companions charged in to his aid. Between them they beat the creature to the ground and killed it.

At this point Mark rolled spectacularly for the Martian reinforcements and a Stalker arrived, just across the river from his party. I make the players take it in turn to roll for Martian reinforcements, which allows me to pass the blame on!

Whist Colin and Henry engage the Shades by the bridge, Colin's Sikh boldly rushes forward towards a search point on the bridge itself. Mark's party all run for cover behind a nearby copse, out of sight of the Stalker, which moves towards the bridge.

Whilst Henry's party take cover behind the hedge, Colin braves the Martian and run across the bridge.

Instead of firing it's heat ray the Stalker moves closer and unleashed a new weapon. It shots a net that drops down over two of Henry's party. Avon avoid it, but Blake, the leader, is caught in it's folds (Henry is reusing his name tags from our previous Sci-fi campaign!).

More reinforcements, a Scuttler this time. 

A birds eye view of mark's party, who spent most of the game like this, waiting for the Stalker to be drawn off chasing after the others. Unfortunately for him, I kept rolling rubbish activation dice and the Stalker spent at least three turns just standing in front of Mark's position.

Co9lin managed to destroy the Scuttler with a very lucky shot and rushed forward to claim two of the search points. At this point a second Stalker arrived so everyone decide to leg it whilst everyone was still alive! Whist Henry and Colin dodged Stalkers and Shades on their frantic retreat, Mark quietly slipped away in all the chaos.

A great game, may a little easier for the players due to my poor dice rolling (yes it does happen sometimes!). The Stalker turning up so soon in the game could have been very nasty for the gang.

Everyone found some useful salvage to make stuff from and Henry and Colin both found much needed food. But everyone's food stocks are very low so the next game will be a food hunt of some sort.

Painting in March

 This was another productive month (at least by my standards). So far ,posting a monthly result is certainly encouraging me to pick up a brush when time is available.

I had planned a 3-4 player Zombie Stagecoach game for the later part of the month, so that occupied a lot of my painting time.

But not all, some more Martian Fighting machines of various sizes.

A mob of Wild West zombies (or is it a horde? a plague? an infestation? What do you call a group of zombies?)

A mutated coyote thing, from the Zombicide Undead or Alive boxed set, very nasty.

An even nastier (and hungrier) big mutated critter!

 

Fast zombies and an undead mariachi player.

Middle Earth Elves defend the crossings from the Orcish host

 Having a bit of time on my hands I decided to try out a Midgard scenario I'd put together as a solo game, before inflicting it on others. Inspired by the excellent Crossings of the Eyewash scenario by David Hunter, a small force of Noldor Elves are defending two river crossings against a larger force of Orcs. The orcs need to break through quickly as Elvish reinforcements will arrive as the game progresses.

Led by a hero, a unit of spears, supported by a unit of archers defend the northern crossing. The archers peppered the approaching foe, damaging the lead unit of orcs and forcing them back, delaying the orc advance.

Unfortunately this made space for a unit of trolls to take the lead and the elf arrows just bounced off their hide.

The other ford is guarded by a hero with a unit of 2-handed swords and axes, backed up by a unit of spears.

Without archery cover, the orcs start massing on the far bank.

The elves brace themselves for the onslaught, but the orcs waver (the lead unit failed their test to make a second move!).

At the other ford the trolls charge across the river, crashing into the elf spears causing serious losses.

The elf hero moves up to join the melee whilst the archers force the orcs behind the trolls to retreat. The elves are hurting the trolls, but their losses are greater.

Seeing how things are going at the northern ford, the elves to the south decide to charge across the  rivers, catching the orcs off guard.

The elves gain the upper hand and the orcs fall back, into the masses crowding up behind them,

Things are looking bad for the elves to the north, but in the nick of time the first elf reinforcements arrive, a unit of heavy cavalry.

They rush to the aid of their hard pressed kin.

Just in time as the trolls keep up the momentum pushing the spears out of the ford, clearing the way for more orcs to cross the river.

I neglected to take any more photos of the closing moves. The elf spear at the north crossing broke, leaving the hero standing solo to face down the trolls. But the elf cavalry came to the rescue, getting a flank charge in and wiped the big beasts out (they were already a half strength after the prolonged melee at the ford). 

At the southern ford the lead unit of orcs was destroyed, after retreating into the unit behind and trampling some of them as well! Supported by the elf spears, the elf axemen went on to charge the next orc unit and lucky dice routed that as well. 

At the end of turn five more elf archers arrived, but as the orc Reputation was down to minus 1 to the elf plus 4 they were just spectators really. I was quite pleased with how the game went, it seemed an easy victory for the elves, but lucky shooting dice kept the orcs from following up the successful trolls. Plus the elf cavalry arriving within easy reach of the northern ford helped. If they had turned up further away I'm not sure how things would have gone for the lone elf hero.