13 Ambyrmont - First steps on Taboo Island

 Broneslav woke to a gaggle of children staring and pointing at him. They were chattering excitedly about the strange warrior and what he would be doing today. After washing and dressing, Broneslav went outside and found more children playing "Broneslavs and headhunters". No one wanted to be a headhunter in this game!

Fano and Ulmut ate breakfast with him and then showed him to a canoe.

"This will be yours. Do you know how to paddle it or should we send someone with you to drop you off on the island? They cannot land, but they could paddle you up to its edge."

"Don't worry. I'll paddle my own canoe," Broneslav assured them. Replete from a hefty breakfast, he loaded his essential gear into the canoe and set off. Paddling across the lake went easily. He was comfortable on the water and enjoyed the ease with which his canoe rode over its surface. As he paddled, he examined the rocky island ahead of him.

Its nearest side was a rocky cliff face. Above that cliff he could make out terraces and vegetation. As he got closer, Broneslav started being able to make out ruins on the terraces and the form of a large structure carved into the cliff face. He was worried that he would have to paddle around the island to find a landing spot, but he soon realised that steps ran down from the temple to the water and that there were a couple of rickety wooden jetties sticking out into the water from the steps. He steered his canoe to the steps and leapt from it onto the steps. With the canoe moored to the rickety jetty, he braced himself for the encounter with the headhunters that must surely come. He knew it must surely come, because around the steps, sticks had been stuck into cracks between the stones and the remains of people's heads adorned those sticks.

Marching up the steps, Broneslav saw the remains of statues flanking his route. Only feet remained of these once great works. Reaching the top, he faced an entrance into the cliff. Red marble pillars held up the remains of a roof that jutted out from the cliffside, and carvings of humans holding braziers flanked the entrance. With only one route in, Broneslav had no choice but to advance through the temple entrance into the hot and humid air within.

(1) Location of guards

Sword in hand, the young warrior stalked forward wary of what he might face. Small creatures scuttled out of his way into the refuse and detritus that had gathered along the walls. Ahead, he could see that larger piles of rubble and rubbish had been placed to narrow the passage. He could make out bright, flickering firelight shining from beyond it. Only a single person could pass throught that gap at a time. Well, he was alone as was his preference, so he boldly stepped into the gap and found himself face to face with four warriors. They threatened him with their spears, but he did not hesitate and leapt forward, only to stumble on loose rubble. Despite this, his wild slashing cut down two of the warriors. The remaining two thrust their spears at our doughty hero. Their spear points skidded off his armour and his counterstrike killed the remaining two grimfaced foes.

Broneslav now had time to focus on the cries of alarm that had arisen from ahead of him. Looking into the massive chamber beyond where the guards had lain in wait for him, Broneslav could see two dozen tribespeople grabbing weapons and preparing to attack him even as a group of children started climbing a rope to a hole in the ceiling. He paused. Could he defeat this many foes?

Big City Nights (Forgotten Ruin)

Before now, the platoon had stayed out of major urban environments, but now they would have to make their way into the great, local metropolis of Stave Harbour (population 3571).

Pan was sitting beside Goat Fjord and staring into the water. The cool, clear water of the fjord stared back at her. This was no metaphor for anything. A pair of golden eyes were looking up at her and she could not look away. A mission transmitted itself into her head. There were no voices involved, just an instantaneous knowledge that Tiger Troop needed to go to Stave Harbour. Ever since the thing that claimed to be a god had entered her mind, this sort of thing had started happening to her. She was not keen on it.

"Tiger Troop, we're heading into Stave Harbour. It is apparently the local big city, so we need to be a bit careful. Our primary mission is to eliminate a target, who has been stirring up the locals and getting the dumbasses and shitwits to join their cult. Our secondary mission is to scout the city. Now that we have pacified part of this area, we need to make more contacts and embed ourselves with the locals, but we need to know what we are getting into first."

At the edge of the city, Tiger Troop paused to check their kit and to deploy. The L.T. had approved the mission and given them extra ammo plus the support of the platoon mortar. Apparently, the L.T. also felt that this mission was important. Ahead among the city streets, strangely robed people could be seen slowly marching with feral purpose towards the troop. A group of archers was ready to support them.

"Corporal Adeyemi, your team will focus on scouting the objectives on our right flank. Lance-Corporal Bonolo, with me. We're going to get that complete cult. He must be with that large group somewhere."

The two teams moved out on their separate mission. As A Team advanced to the first scouting objective, B Team moved into cover and opened fire at the cultists. The cultists advanced unafraid (or braindead!) while the archers moved towards a firing position.

The din of the fusillades from B Team drowned out Pan's first attempt to radio in a mortar strike on the cultists, but B Team's fire was somewhat accurate and several fell.

Arrows flew towards Tiger Troop but A Team had adopted a defensive approach to advancing on the second scouting objective. As Adeyemi moved out to scout, the rest of the team opened fire on the archers, quickly whittling them down to a single man, who showed no fear and continued to shoot arrows at them right up until he was cut down. Pan's further attempts to call in a strike were more effective although the mortar stonk required correction. However, once on target, the cultists were felled and did not rise again. Pan checked and saw that the primary target had been killed.

"Target down. I repeat, target down. Fall back to the RP, Tiger Troop."

Tiger Troop did not need telling twice. B Team fell back quickly to the RP. A Team had been further forward, so it took them longer to fall all the way back. Pan remained on station ready to call in more fire if needed.

As B Team reached the RP, a small group of cultists emerged from a building behind them. Their droning cries wafting across to the soldiers on the light breeze. Firing a few shots to discourage them, Pan retreated to join her troop and led them back to camp. The small number of remaining cultists would not be a threat to the locals and now Stave Harbour (population 3543) owed the platoon a favour.

Conclusion

That mission went way too smoothly. I was a bit worried that the cultists would swamp Tiger Troop, but it turned out that our heroes could stand back and just shoot. Having both fire support and logistical support was probably a deciding factor here. Between the shooting and the mortar, the baddies did not even get close to hurting any of the soldiers. The archers were another question, but their shooting was woefully inaccurate in the end.

The troop scored the main objective and scouted one of the two secondary objectives. This was enough for a victory.

12 Ambyrmont - To Mantru

 Broneslav awoke early. It was too cold not to now that his fire had died down to ash. Pulling his warmest clothes around him, he looked down into the crater of the volcano. The first obvious feature was a massive lake at its centre. Near its shore, smoke rose into the sky. This would be the settlement he had guessed was here. Then his eyes took in the island at the centre of the lake. Even from this high up, he could make out some details of the ruins carved into the cliff on the west side of the island. There, then, was his objective. Broneslav grunted with satisfaction. If he could avoid falling over his own feet on the way down, then he would be within an ace of achieving his goal.

Clambering down the mountainside kept him warm and occupied his whole attention, so it was only when he reach the bottom that he had time to look around more. Ahead of him there was a small village with a palisade around it.

The Village of Mantru (from X1 The Isle of Dread. (c) TSR, Inc.)

As Broneslav approached the stockade around the village heads popped up looking over it. Excited children ran out of the main gate, goggled in wonder at his shining armour and shouted questions at him, none of which made sense to Broneslav because they all shouted over the top of each other. The villagers clearly felt safe from him and were not hostile, so he waved to the children and smiled at them. A small delegation of adults awaited him at the gate. They were armed with spears and were more wary than the children.

Broneslav raised his empty hands to show his peaceful intent and stopped short of the gates.

"May I approach? I mean no harm?"

The adults in the gateway conferred briefly and gestured to him to come forward. The mandatory questioning then occurred in stilted Common. Broneslav found their accents hard to understand, but they too found his difficult. In the end, he was invited in and taken to the chief's hut, where he was introduced to Fano, the "talking chief", and Umlat, the village's priest. Both men were extremely old and infirm. Fano was badly scarred from a fight or accident and his left arm hung limply at his side. Umlat was simply ancient, having lived far beyond the normal lifespan of others in his tribe. Between the two was a stone statue of an old man, which was introduced to Broneslav as "the chief".

Fano interpreted "the chief's" wishes and questions while Umlat supplemented with questions of his own. In short order, Broneslav had been interrogated and found welcome. He was soon seated on the sandy beach by the lake edge with about fifty villagers enjoying a meal of baked fish and yam paste, and fruits, together with a yam beer, which Broneslav considered to be an acquired taste.

On top of this, he had been told that he would stay the night with one of the extended families that lived in the large huts, and had been given the opportunity to put his belongings in there. These huts were long and open inside with sleeping benches lining each side. The whole family lived in this single room with no walls or divisions for privacy. This felt weird to the young warrior, who was used to having his own sleeping cabinet.

Feeling very full and relaxed for the first time in a while, Broneslav conversed with those near him and found out more about the village and his surroundings. He repaid this information with tales of his adventures, which some of the adults looked sceptical about, but the children loved. After the meal, Fano and Umlat joined Broneslav once more.

"We have a problem and your stories tell us that you might be able to help solve it," began Fano, "There is a tribe of headhunters living on the island you can see in the lake. They have recently moved in and are creating trouble for us. They are more warlike than we are, but more importantly, we cannot set foot on that island because it is taboo to us. Our gods require that we stay away from it. Will you help us by driving them off?"

"Of course!" Broneslav's response was instant. "Tell me all you can about them, and I shall travel there in the morning to see what I can do."

The "talking chief" and the priest told Broneslav everything they could and promised to let him use a canoe to get to and from the island. They said that they would offer whatever other help they could, but that no one from the village could actually join him on the island.

"Not a problem," the youth replied with a confident grin, "I work better alone anyway."

He was satisfied with this. With the villagers' help, he could reach his objective and the information about the headhunters there was a useful warning. As he lay down to sleep in the hut, he wondered what else he might find there. Well, tomorrow he would know for certain.

The Necromancer's Tower (Forgotten Ruin)

The eldritch glow of purple fires streaming up and down the tower at Outfield Mound was not the worst part of this patrol. Nor was it slogging up the hill towards the tower. No. The worst part was not knowing what kind of twisted, reality-warping shit they would find at the top. Tiger Troop were all grim-faced as the bears they were riding slogged up the hill in the dawn light and the early morning rain. The night before, Pan had briefed them. Friendly locals had asked for their help in eliminating a key inhabitant of the tower and retrieving items of value that had been stolen. The L.T. had added a requirement to investigate the area too and had got Deadeye Vigrestad on standby to support them. Deadeye was the platoon's best sniper. However, while A Team and Pan were going to make the assault, B Team would be patrolling the other side of the hill to distract the occupants. Clearly, there were some serious bad guys here and the platoon probably did not have the resources to take them all out in one go, hence the diversion. Still, they had bears to ride to the ops zone. It made a nice change not walking in through the mud and had caused some hilarity when Mary fell off her bear several times. Private Smith was clearly not someone well suited to riding.

Pan and A Team dismounted near the base of the hill, and moved into the forest. Despite the near constant rain, the forest floor was not too muddy.

They pushed forward hard until they could see the outer buildings around the tower. A large wooden hall dominated a rise, and a fountain sprayed lilac energy, not water. The rest of the ops area was covered in brush and trees, undulating ground and large boulders. Ahead they could make out the hostiles.

"Sarge," Wigbert queried, "Are we in a Sinbad movie?"

"What are you talking about Wigbert?"

"Well, those hostiles ahead look like skeletons!"

Pan cursed the vagaries of whatever quantum state had landed them here. Yes, dammit, they were skeletons, but her team would have to destroy them and finish their patrol.

A Team at bottom right of the picture. Hostiles at middle and top.

"Fear not, brave paladin," a voice in Pan's head declared, "You have the power to defeat this foul sorcery."

Pan wondered when her internal monologue had become male.

Pushing forward, A Team began the process of fire and manoeuvre that they had practised and used for so long. As they launched grenades and bullets at the hostiles, several of them disintegrated in clouds of dry bone and a zap of lilac energy. However, many more seemed to just soak up the bullets.

"Sarge, how are we supposed to kill these hostiles if a double tap to the heart just passes through them?"

"Just shoot them more and hit the bits that are there," snarled Pan.

A Team did as instructed and the closest mob of undead was soon reduced to just a few individuals. However, two more mobs were shambling forward to the fray.

Suddenly, Pan had an intuition. She called on the voice in her head. Even as she stood up and pointed, a blast of ice erupted from the ground near one of the groups of skeletons. Brittle, dry bones shattered in the eruption of energy. Pan heard curses of wonder over comms as the others realised what she had done. Despite the astounding happenings, they still continued to reduce the skeletons to powder.

With only a few of the undead remaining, A Team prepared to move out onto the objective. Suddenly, there were crackles of lilac energy all across the battlefield and the remaining skeletons collapsed to the ground. A Team breathed a sigh of relief, only to be horrified as even more of the skeletons appeared ahead of them.

"Move out!" ordered Pan, "We can take the objectives and get back out, if we are quick. Those things are not exactly fast."

She checked the two groups.

"Wigbert, Tarquin, the main target is with the group advancing towards you. Take it out!"

Wigbert took up position by the large hall as Tarquin dropped a grenade onto the advancing horde. It still kept coming, but there were half as many of them remaining.

Pan blasted the other advancing horde with more ice and it too disintegrated. As Wigbert and Tarquin tried to take out the skeletons coming towards them, the others were able to disintegrate the remains of the other horde, and Justice was able to scout the area as ordered and to advance to the hall, where she recovered the pig that they had been sent for. Mack the Hoe had said it was a golden pig, but it just looked grubby brown and hairy to Justice. Still, it did not seem to mind being stuffed into her pack for the ride home and grunted happily in her ear.

As the last of the skeletons charged towards Wigbert, he fumbled his reload. Tarquin was also slow. The skeletons reached him and Wigbert was knocked out of the fight in the furious melee. Seeing what had happened, Mary pointed her TSW at the group of three undead and scythed them down in a furious rain of copper-jacketed lead that emptied her magazine.

"Target down." Mary's unsmiling voice reported the result over comms.

"Very good. All objectives complete. Grab Wigbert and pull back."

Even as Pan gave the order, the L.T came onto comms.

"We have a new target registered. See if you can take it out, but not assess the risk first."

Pan acknowledged the order and told her team to pull back. Whatever the L.T. said, she could see no targets anywhere near her and she was going to get her team out of here. They pulled back in good order and were soon riding their bears home again.

Wigbert had a headache, having taken a bad dunt to the head, but his environment suit had saved him from a worse injury. Having ascertained Wigbert's survival, Pan was free to go for debrief and to report the success of the mission. Mack was so pleased with getting his pig back that he gave Pan a magical hammer.

Conclusion

This was my first special mission and I was not sure how it would work out, because you generate three objectives and have to complete two to win. As usual, the dice set up the story nicely, so there was that. They also decided to play silly beggars. I cannot recall rolling so many 1s in a row before... ever! Good job quantity has a quality all of its own. The sheer number of dice I rolled really helped there.

As usual, I did myself no favours by forgetting that I had support until half way through the game. Never mind. Maybe I shall remember next time. Overall, this mission was a stonking success, even though I was not able to achieve the extra objective due to a lack of enemies on the table. They arrived just as the game ended.

This was the first game where I have used magic. It worked nicely, but costs you the initiative, so Pan will need the rest of her troop to ward her if she is going to use it a lot in the future.

The Doom Stones (Forgotten Ruin)

 "The intel you gathered on your last patrol was useful and has given us further direction. You will head to Sundale. The intel tells us that it is an area of ruins. You will patrol as far as the stone circle known as The Doom Stones. A local shaman lives there and we need them on our side. Unfortunately, the hostiles want the shaman dead. Kill the hostiles and find out what it will take for the shaman to work with us."

The briefing had been thorough and local contacts had proved helpful, so Tiger Troop was well-prepared heading out. They were also cheerful. Sundale might be a wind-blasted hellhole, but at least it was not a rain-soaked, swampy hellhole, where the ground tried to suck you down with every step. They were almost looking forward to this patrol.

"Objective ahead. B Team on the right flank. A Team on the left flank, as planned. Move out."

Pan gritted her teeth. It was clear why the shaman needed help. Their hut was surrounded by hostiles of a type that the team had not yet encountered. Androgynous figures moved with purpose between the stands of trees and brush towards a large stone circle. Some were armed with bows, while others had large crescent-shaped halberds, and a final group was barely visible as it moved stealthily from cover to cover with evil intent. It was fortunate that the archers seemed more interested in debating the merits of different types of bow strings, and were unaware of Tiger Troop's approach.

"Lock and load, Tiger Troop. It's about to get hot."

The team moved out.

From the diary of Private Selcuk Immaculada

We've been here a month now and no sign of the brass sending more support. I wonder if we'll ever get home again. The L.T. says we need to embed with the locals and work on making this place home. Not happy about that. It's the near constant cold rain that gets to you. Even the environment suits are stopping protecting us as much now. Luckily the locals speak something close to Bwendi, so we're able to talk and to trade, but I'd kill for a pumpkin spice latte right now and these guys don't even seem to have coffee. It makes me wonder if the brass dumped us in the wrong place. The L.T. says we were supposed to jump into the future to deal with whatever was going wrong in our now, but I'm not even sure this is the same world. And then there was today's mission. I'm not sure how to deal with that. I mean, I screwed up badly.

Yeah, I screwed up today. It started ok really. We had the right flank and were moving in round the shaman's hut. The Fae were a bit weird to look at, like they took their shape from what we thought they should look like, but they were easy enough to drop. The shaman told us who they were afterward, but that just confused me. Something about them not fully existing here but only poking through reality. Think the guy might have eaten one too many magic mushrooms!

Anyway, there we were advancing round the old shack near some creepy stones when these skinny women with big pointy sticks started running towards us. We opened up and cut them down, but still they kept coming until the last one fell just a few metres from me and Wigbert. Over on the left flank, I could hear A Team shouting as some other creepy elf guys ran towards them. A Team took a beating and we could hear it as first the Corp stopped shouting, then Mary's TSW stopped shooting. Turns out that these fae assassins were quick enough to get in and start carving up A Team with poisoned knives. Only Tarquin was on his feet by the time the assassins were all down. Wigbert's not happy. Says Tarquin ran and left him to fight one of those guys on his own.

While that went on and while we were mopping up the fae charging us, the fae archers were trying to decide what to do with us. When they did and started shooting at us, that's when it happened. I did not see it, but the others said it was like Leaf suddenly starting twisting inside out. Then there was a giant two-tailed cat where she had stood. I heard the yowl as she charged at the archers and laid into them but could not see her. So there we are all shooting at these guys who are firing pointy sticks at us, so I dropped a grenade on their leader, but I missed. Leaf's yowling stopped at that point. So did a couple of the archers though.

So, by now I've moved forward close enough to see what I did, and I felt sick to my stomach. There were bits of Leaf everywhere mixed in with bits of fae. But that was not the end of it. The archers received reinforcements and the Sarge had moved to flank them, the others joined her and it was the flanking fire that cut the last of them down.

The others regrouped within that stone circle. Creepy it was. I got a really bad vibe from it, but it was cover. Turns out it was also the hiding place for more of these fae. They just popped into existence behind the defensive perimeter the others had set up. I saw it happen and still cannot believe it. I yelled and the Sarge shouted to light them up. They might have had a nice ambush planned but the others just blasted everything they had at those fae and cut them to ribbons. They didn't stand a chance at that range with the rest of B Team hopped up on adrenaline and mad like that.

So, we started gathering our wounded, and the Sarge ordered me to get Leaf, or that cat, or whatever. She said we're not leaving wounded or bodies behind. That was when I realised what I had done. I felt sick. No one wants to drop fire on their own. Then I felt even sicker when I went to pick her up. I've never seen someone's body glue itself back together like that. By the time I had got to her, she was hobbling onto her feet like a person. Her ears and eyes have changed though; pointier and more cat-like. She has freaky cat pupils now.  And when she smiled at me, her teeth were razor sharp. It really freaked me out. By the time we got back to camp, she was fully healed too. It's a relief but it ain't right.

Leaf says it does not matter, what I did. Shit happens, she says. She's always been like that. Just accepts what happens and rolls with it, like life is no real hassle and you just got to find a way through. She even tried to cheer me up back at camp. Would have been better if she yelled, but no, she just gave me that creepy cat-stare and told me to get my head back in the game, because all's well that ends well. She never looked that feral before. I really hope she does not eat me in my sleep. This place is changing us. First the Sarge, then Leaf. I'm scared how it will get me.

Conclusion

This was the first time using support. I spent two points and managed to roll the same result twice, so a single mob was unaware at the start of the game and would slowly become aware over a few turns, unless attacked or approached too closely. I had the choice, so I picked the archers, because I figured dealing with melee troops first would be to my benefit. Mostly that worked. The halberdiers were fairly easy to kill thanks to good to-hit rolls. The assassins got in too quickly and started dropping my troops. Their poisoned knives meant rolling twice for damage so A Team lost three soldiers in two rounds, before Tarquin dropped the last one.

Selcuk's shot going wild and landing on Leaf was a disappointment. This was my first time with a werecreature and I really hoped she would do have a chance to show what she was up to. As it stood, her initial melee roll was terrible, but she stayed on her feet just the same. Then a grenade landed on her. Oops!

Despite losing nearly half the troop, no one was badly hurt in the end, although that cost me a story point for a reroll, and the two-part mission was a success. The enemy was cleared out and the secondary mission to investigate the circle was achieved in a single round shortly after that.

This was the first mission with the aggression rules in play too. The first investigation marker started generating extra aggression every turn until I could investigate a randomly chosen other marker, plus my dice rolls were high, meaning that the archers got a second champion to join them. The second result of the aggression was an ambush by warriors in the central terrain feature. Typical! Just when I had set my troops up in the circle to use it as cover, bad guys choose to leap out of the ground behind them instead of in front of them!

At least all the troops survived in the end and will not be injured for the next battle. The stories the 5 Distance from Place series games generate really just tell themselves.

Rasalhague Dominion / Clan Ghost Bear Mechas (Battletech)

 I was supposed to be painting 15mm fantasy, so, as is the way of things, I wound up painting my first clan star for Battletech instead. Why is it so hard to focus on the things you need to do and so easy to get distracted by side projects?

2nd Tyr Assault Cluster, Rasalhague Dominion

With the release of Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands, and all the photos of the boxes at Essen plus everyone reporting their own acquisition of this boxed set that has not reached the rest of us in Europe yet, I felt inspired to paint the clan mechas from the Alpha Strike boxed set. I had undercoated them an age ago in blue, so, despite originally thinking I would paint these as Jade Falcon and those from the Clan Invasion boxed set as Ghost Bear, I chose to follow through on what I had started instead. I am quite pleased with how they worked out in the end and it was a fairly painless process, apart from painting all those gold and silver stripes. I am happy now, but was cursing at the time, especially because my hands are not that steady so the stripes come out a bit wonky all too often.

Warhawk (Masakari)

The painting process itself involved an ultramarine blue base coat, block in weapons and other colours, and then dip with Army Painter strong tone. After that, I dry brushed the base coat and two lighter shades of blue over the top. Then I touched up the gold and silver panels a bit and highlighted the weapons and cockpit windows. Nothing radical there.

Timber Wolf (Mad Cat)

After the painting, I applied decals bought from Defiance Industries Wargaming. They did not have 2nd Tyr Assault Cluster in their inventory, but produced the specific decals to order for no extra cost. I really feel like the decals set the mechas off nicely.

Pouncer

Regarding the background, I am working with the Dominions Divided supplement set in the Ilclan era. The story there feels a bit contrived, but the Rasalhague Dominion feels a smidge less evil than the other options. Also, I like the colours plus the Scandi connection.

Nova (Black Hawk)

I picked the 2nd Tyr Assault Cluster to be my formation. The history of the Rasalhague civil war has them taking a beating, describing them as "understrength in both machines and personnel" at the end of it. That gives me a lot of freedom to field whatever I want/have to hand, because it means they will have to pull old mechas out of storage and maybe rely more on salvage than they might otherwise do. I like this freedom that also fits with the canon.

Fire Moth (Dasher)

These mechas will be fielded as Rasalhague Galaxy from Clan Ghost Bear for games set in earlier periods, but I am hoping that Battletech Aces: Snowblind is not too far away so that I can use them in a solo game set within the background they come from. In the meantime, I shall just have to nag my local games shop until they get Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands in, and then I shall have to paint the originally planned Jade Falcon units for that.

Battle for the Ancient Oathmarks (Oathmark)

 Following their victory on the Plain of Towers, the hordes of Elkall-Anuz have become even more hawkish. Their control of the River Galder offers new opportunities for their army, while the Kingdom of Storace has vowed revenge and occupied an area with silver-bearing lodes, while the orcs were establishing control of the river.

The Armies

The Kingdom of Storace

1 Prince with a Starsilver Sword and 9 heavy cavalry

1 Champion with 4 cavalry

1 Mounted spellcaster (Level 1 with Fireball)

The Kingdom of Elkall-Anuz

1 Champion with 9 elf soldiers

2 units of 10 elf archers

1 unit of 3 trolls

1 unit of 1 troll

The Battlefield

A relatively flat plain with a stone circle (oathmark) in the centre. Two oathmarks (standing stones) lie to either side of the Elkall-Anuz deployment area, and ruined structures lie near the left and centre oathmarks. A wooded copse lies near the central oathmark. A marsh lies against the Storace deployment area, providing a convenient secure flank.

Storace at the top of the picture. Elkall-Anuz at the bottom

The army of Storace, led by Prince Rohr advanced around marshy ground, ready to sweep down on the feeble orcish horde they were to face. With him was his trusty advisor and wizard, Combibulan the Prestidigitous and two companies of his household cavalry. In his hand, Prince Rohr bore the dread starsilver sword Slicer.

"Milord, I believe these orcs are elves! And I spy trolls too. The orcs are not playing fair once more."

"Did you really believe that those uncultured oafs would ever play fair? Pah! They shall be as dust beneath our feet. I hope you brought your good hoofpick with you for clearing out bits of elf and troll from your horse's hooves."

The Battle

Seeing the enemy approaching from their right flank, the elven commander ordered his archers and soldiers to wheel. Arrows and fireballs began to fly but no casualties were caused. The human cavalry raced towards the oathmark in front of them, while Prince Rohr led his personal bodyguard towards the central oathmark.

"Mah rock. You cain't have!"

One troll took it upon himself to guard an oathmark while the fight developed in the centre.

Prince Rohr raced forward as members of his guard fell to elven arrows. Not long before he would reach them and they would die like dogs.

His guard slammed home against the elven archers and cut down half of them in one go, but their morale held and they held their lines in front of him.

The trolls tried to remember how to manoeuvre to face the oncoming cavalry as the rest of the army of Elkall-Anuz sought to protect their central oathmark.

The human cavalry tore down an oathmark and raced behind the trolls towards the other standing stone. Suddenly inspired, the trolls performed a complex manoeuvre that allowed them to fall on the human cavalry as it tried to sneak past. Meanwhile, Prince Rohr and his remaining knights had trampled the elven archers underfoot and driven them off, before engaging the elven soldiers. Thought cut down to half their number, Prince Rohr was still confident that his knights would carry the day. It is said that Prince Rohr was never not confident though, no matter what.

Combibulan, meanwhile had lost his way a bit, but now found it and launched a blistering fireball at the archers in the stone circle. The archers held, but their numbers were much reduced.

The trolls finished off the human cavalry, but then got distracted eating them. Prince Rohr led his men against the elven soldiers and drove them back once more, causing chaos and dismay in their ranks.

With the soldiers in disarray, Prince Rohr was able to pivot his cavalry and charge the archers in the stone circle. Despite this disrupting his ranks, the archers were annihilated.

The trolls continued to not respond to orders and were having huge difficulty leaving their meal behind to support the rest of their army. Seizing the initiative, Prince Rohr ordered his men to tear down the oathmark. Seeing that his goal was achieved, he gathered his troops and returned home in time for tea and biscuits.

The Result

This was a victory for the Kingdom of Storace won on the very last turn of the game. It could so easily have gone either way. If the elven archers had managed to score one more hit on the human heavy cavalry, the unit would not have been large enough to destroy the oathmark. If the trolls had not failed so many activation rolls, they would have got close enough for their presence to prevent either or both oathmarks being destroyed. If the elves had won the initiative on the last turn, the last remaining soldiers could have reached the oathmark and might have prevented its destruction, although the spellcaster represented a real threat to that: a good fireball would have destroyed them. So many ifs!

To some extent, the ifs are all a result of both players choosing small elite forces. An orcish horde with many more speedbumps would have been much harder for the humans to deal with. A human horde that could attack on more than one front would have presented a similar problem for the orcs.

All in all, this was a fun game. Both players had come up with simple but effective plans that I found easy to implement, and I feel that either of them could have won.