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.

We're not in Bwendi any more (Forgotten Ruin)

 The mission brief was simple. Tiger Troop was to advance to Trout Waters and find out why the locals were fleeing the area. Their rescue of the farmer in Goose Valley had made them local heroes already and word had spread that they might be able to help where no one else could, assuming you could find their camp.

Pan was leading the mission briefing, "Tiger Troop, we need to get in and out fast and bring the target back with us. The L.T. has authorised additional ammo for this mission in case things get hairy, so go and draw the extra supplies now. We meet back here in 15 minutes and will head out immediately, so now's the time to use the latrines, if you need them, because we are not stopping on the way!"

The slog into Trout Waters was grim. Selcuk complained that he was going to get trench foot from the thick mire that they were wading through, while Tarquin was wondering how they were ever going to get all the mud off and get their clothes dry in this rain-soaked hellhole. The others were just miserable. The sleet of Goose Valley had been replaced by icy rain that seemed to come at them from every direction. Even within their environment suits, Tiger Troop could feel the cold, dampness. Worse yet, the miasmas arising from the swampy ground seemed to penetrate their air filters as if they were not there.

Thus it was, that a grim group of soldiers deployed with A Team on the right flank, following one side of a broad stream, while B Team deployed on the left of it, with Pan in the centre. The march into the ops area had killed any of the usual banter.

"Contact!" Pan's message to the rest of the troop was not really necessary, as the howls and war cries of the approaching hostiles had also given them away.

"Blow me," muttered Mary, "Those people look like lizards!"

Pan scanned the approaching lizardfolk. A group of bulkier warriors on Tiger Troop's right flank looked promising.

"Target marked on your HUDs," she announced, "Deescalate the rest and we'll see if we can get the intel we came for."

B Team opened fire, while A Team moved up on the flank. Selcuk dropped a grenade into the middle of the bigger lizardfolk and the target fell immediately, but the shrapnel from the grenade seemed mostly to have been absorbed in the swampy ground.

"Holy smoking frog in the sky," cursed Sofi, "The hides on those things must be an inch thick. My bullets are just bouncing off them."

The lizardfolk charged towards Tiger Troop, who responded by laying down as much fire as they could. The crump of grenades and the chatter of small arms was deafening, as they used up their extra allocation of ammunition. Lizardfolk fell, but each fallen lizardperson was closer to the soldiers than the last.

As the two main groups of lizard folk were deescalated to a passive state, A Team and Pan moved forward quickly to secure the intel.

Meanwhile, B Team were facing the last of the lizard folk, firing and reloading as fast as they could. Selcuk's grenades took their toll, but the small arms fire just seemed to bounce off the hostile warriors. Still, it was only a single lizardperson that managed to reach them, slicing viciously at Selcuk. Luckily his armour held, and he managed to boot the lizardperson back. Bonolo and Sofi both took the chance to sight carefully at the hostile as it staggered, and it disintegrated in a spray of bullets.

"We have the intel," Pan informed the troop, "Time for a tactical retrograde manoeuvre towards the camp."

Tiger Troop moved out once more, their spirits lifted a little by the fact that none of them had been injured and because they knew they would get a hot meal when they returned to camp.

Back at camp, Pan reported what had happened and handed over the intel. The lieutenant handed one of the bits of paper back.

"This isn't part of the package we were after. You can take it back and see if it is useful."

Pan took the paper and perused it around the fire, while the others did their best to warm up and dry off.

"Uh, Sarge?" Leaf Moondream sounded really uncertain, "Why is that paper glowing and why are you sparkling?"

Pan looked at Leaf as if the Private was a million miles away. As she did so, she felt a strange sense of new knowledge.

A voice in her head, or perhaps just surrounding her, spoke, "Welcome, Warrior, I have chosen you. I am Tyr and you will be my champion against the Jotnar, the forces of Chaos. Serve me well, and you will be well rewarded."

Suddenly the world around her came back into focus as the paper she had been reading evaporated in a golden light and the voice retreated. She knew that there was no way to refuse that voice, and the sense of energy that suffused her body made her not want to.

"I can do magic now!" She told the others.

They did not laugh as she had expected.

"Yeah, s'pose you can, Sarge," said Wigbert quietly as the others nodded, "Did you know that your eyes are glowing?"

This game was mainly characterised by the uncanny accuracy of the grenade launchers, the total inability of the troop support weapons to hit anything, and the ability of lizardfolk to absorb bullets without being hurt. I spent a support point and got extra ammunition that came in really handy, because it gave me several rounds of rapid fire that came in handy. I am a little concerned about the next mission, because it introduces the aggression rules, which add rolls for reinforcements and other nasty surprises for Tiger Troop. The Troop is going to need some time on the firing range before that to get more accurate!

With all that in mind, the story really is telling itself. Trout Waters is swampy and the dice roll was lizardfolk. The exposure gained during this mission saw Pan transformed into a Paladin and she also managed to learn two spells. Maybe I should sculpt some kind of banner onto her back now to mark this change. With all the troops getting melee weapons, I feel like I should be sourcing some 15mm weapons to add to the other figures as well. Forgotten Ruin offers some interesting opportunities for conversions, but I cannot decide if the fixed length campaign (12 missions plus a final showdown) makes that worth it.

Welcome to The Dire Frost (Forgotten Ruin)

Prologue

In the blink of an eye, Tiger Troop had gone from the underground bunker to a grim, grey-green landscape with wind howling between the mountains, driving a blinding sleet before it. They moved out from the arrival zone in anticipation of the rest of the battalion coming through The Curtain.

Platoon Commander 2nd-Lieutenant Thruppence Cholmondley-Warner deployed the three troops of her platoon in a defensive perimeter as she and Sergeant-Major Harding reviewed where they had arrived. It was a valley with high mountains on either side, heavily forested even on the slopes. Higher up, snow lay thick on the peaks. A river ran down the centre of the valley and a muddy track ran parallel to the river. That meant people. Scanning further down the valley, Harding pointed out smoke rising from a chimney. Thruppence's binoculars brought the building with the chimney into focus, despite the sleet that sought to obscure everything. The house was wooden, built from whole tree trunks by the looks of things. Other outbuildings of similar construction lay around it. She assumed this was a farm, but the state of it made her wonder how much civilisation had fallen. Noticing the first farm made her aware of others clinging precariously to the hillsides. The valley was populated. Not heavily, but if there were people here, then the platoon should make contact if possible. Friendly locals could be the difference between survival and annihilation, and hostile ones should be dealt with sooner rather than later.

As she considered their situation, she commented to her platoon sergeant, "You know what is missing here, Sergeant Major? The rest of our battalion. I think the boffins have buggered things up again. Well, no plan survives contact with reality, so let's get on and sort ourselves out. We need scouts out, shelter and to orient ourselves. Get the troops setting up a camp first then send Tiger Troop out on a recce."

"Yessir!" Sergeant Major Harding started giving orders while Thruppence continued to assess their location and circumstances.

Into Goose Valley

Thruppence pointed up the valley towards the nearest farmhouse.

"Tiger Troop, you will recce that farmhouse. Make contact with the locals if you can and report back. Take Private Jarlsoy with you. I need Private Moondream to assist the Weapons Team in setting up."

"Yessir!" Pan responded, and started giving orders to her troop. In short order, the troop was equipped, divested of extraneous gear and moving out up the valley. With the rain and the mud, it was exhausting pulling their feet free from the mud of the road, but they soon made it into the treeline which offered shelter and a less muddy route, as well as cover.

It was clear that this area was little cultivated. The undergrowth was thick and there were many large rocks everywhere. As Pan formed up her troop near the farmhouse, she observed that there was a ruined stone building near the objective. The fields near the building were also stone-walled, perhaps built from the rocks they would have had to clear to make the field cultivable. However, the farmhouse itself was wooden. She wondered what kind of ruin had befallen the area that the stone buildings were abandoned and wooden ones been built in their place. Had they lost the ability to build stone structures?

There was a sudden rustling in the undergrowth near her feet.

"Oy! Watch it! You nearly stepped on me!"

A small lizard, about the size of a six-year old child, stepped out from a bush near where Pan was advancing. Pan's jaw hit the floor. What was this?

"Can't a person get any peace and quiet round here?" the lizard continued.

"What?" replied Pan wittily, at a loss for words for once. Not even her usual expletives had prepared her for a short, winged lizard that spoke the Bwendi tongue.

"Oh, wait, you don't look like the locals. Have you fallen through the space-time continuum too?"

"The what?"

"Sarge, the beastie is asking if we have travelled in time and space to get here," Private Smith broke in, "I'm guessing we have given how quickly The Curtain took us from home to here, wherever here is."

Pan sighed. Mary Smith had always been a bit of a know-all. Worse yet, she was often right.

"Yes, that is what I was talking about," the lizard creature replied, "I assume that you were not told where you were going. Perhaps I can help as I have taken time to orient myself already. You are in Goose Valley in the south of the Dire Frost. I cannot tell you when though, relative to your own time coordinates systems. Now, if you will excuse me, I must fly. I am looking for a way home, but perhaps we shall meet again before I do so. Good luck."

The lizard being rose into the air on its stubby wings and then suddenly dissolved into a glittering shower of sparks that raced off at a high rate of knots to the west.

"Smith, stop gawping and focus on the patrol!"

The odd creature had gone and they had a farmhouse to scout now. Unfortunately, it looked like there would be opposition to that. Several groups of lizard-like people were moving through the rough ground around the farmhouse and they did not look like they were inviting Tiger Troop round for tea and cake.

"Adeyemi, take A Team and occupy the high ground. Lay down fire and keep the hostiles away. Bonolo, you and B Team will take the farmhouse area and flank the hostiles. I'm going to take the long run round. There's a few things need investigating here."

The teams did as ordered and were soon moving into position, just in time for them to get a bead on the hostile lizardfolk. The second they were at the edge of the brush, A Team opened fire. The chatter of M23 Assault Rifles mixed with the heavier roar of the M33A TSW and the occasional crump of a 40mm grenade launched from the TAC17 slung under Bjornson's M23. Immaculada and Sofi from B Team had taken up a flanking position and joined in as the rest of B Team moved towards the farmhouse.

"What the heck?" yelled Sofi as a blast of eldritch green light smashed the ground near her, blackening the vegetation in the process. She sighted on the sparkling lizardperson that had hurled the light at her and fired a long burst of 5.56mm death that cut the creature in two.

"Did you see that?" She turned to Immaculada beside her.

"Yup. Weird! Not seen anything like this since we played that online game of Mazes and Minotaurs. Do you think we're in an M&M world now? Who knows what kind of place The Curtain was hiding?"

Distracted by Sofi, Immaculada's TAC 17 grenade flew wide of her target, but coincidentally landed among a different group of them, blowing several to pieces.

Lizardfolk were falling everywhere under a hail of copper-jacketed lead, but still they raced forward at full speed. Despite everything, half a dozen bloodthirsty monsters were nearly at the hill that A Team occupied.

A Team fired for all they were worth as the lizardfolk charged but it was not enough.

"Give it your all!" yelled Adeyemi to her team as the last of the lizardfolk closed. To show that she meant it, she clubbed the first to reach her over the head and the kerb stomped it. It fell and twitched but did not move again. As she did this, Smith kicked a lizardperson back and it tumbled down the hill, only to be cut down by a heavy burst from her M33A even as it tried to stand and charge again. The last of the lizardfolk to reach the hill was also clubbed down by Adeyemi, and suddenly the battlefield was quiet, although the ringing in Tiger Troop's ears would last a while longer.

"Fan out and search the area," Pan called over comms. Tiger Troop did as ordered. With the area cleared of hostiles and scouted, they approached the farmhouse. A (human) farmer and his wife could be seen peering through the windows as they neared the place.

It took a while but Pan was eventually able to convince them to took to her. It was tough, because their Bwendi was very strangely accented. Bjornson helped here. His Scandinavian forebears had left him with an interesting idiolect of Bwendi too, and these people seemed to have a similar background. From the farmers, they learned that the hostiles were kobolds and that the one shooting light bolts at them was a known sorcerer. From the sorcerer's defeat, the farmer presumed that Pan and her people were great heroes too. He was grateful that his farm had been saved by the Bwendi troop, and gifted them with a pile of swords and axes. One of these made a particularly satisfying 'schwing' noise when drawn.

Tiger Troop returned to camp carrying the spoils of war and their report. The lieutenant thought they were making fun of her at first, but was soon forced to believe it.

Hostiles eliminated, locals met, magic sword (+2 to hit / +1 DAM, +3 versus monsters and champions) and a Potion of Ghost Form acquired, and Pan has a surprise to come in the next battle thanks to generating a tonne of Exposure Points this turn. All in all, I feel that this was a successful mission. It certainly went much more smoothly than the training missions in many ways, although I realised that I did Dash moves wrong during this game. Lesson learned and hopefully the mistake will not be repeated, although I imagine different ones will be made.

Private Sofi got lucky that the kobold sorcerer missed her and that she hit with every single shot when firing back. The sorcerer's spell could have really hurt the Troop if allowed to fire every single turn. It also gave the Troop something to report about, so between that and the small, talking lizard, they have learnt that they are not in Bwendi any more and perhaps not even in the same world as the one they started out from. At least the farmer they made contact with told them the name of the place they have landed in: Goose Valley. And they have a rudimentary understanding of the local geography now, including names of major places around them.

Goose Valley now counts as cleared. From there, Tiger Troop can investigate Trout Waters or Sundale, so one of these two will be the mission location next turn.

The Battle of The Plain of Towers (Oathmark)

 The hawks are in ascendence in both Elkall-Anuz and Storace, and both are seeking to expand. The orc leader, Overlord Padraig of the Valley, has ordered his armies to seize nearby territories and to add them to his kingdom. Meanwhile King Steven von Kurzhosen has declared that these territories must be his. Thus, the stage is set for a clash.

This is a mini-campaign to test how to make a pbem game work using the principles set out in a previous post. The players have control of their kingdoms, will muster their own armies and will write battle plans, but I shall play out the battles solo. The two players are my long-suffering opponent, Steve, and my long-suffering brother, Patrick.

The campaign takes place in a period of expansionism on both realms' part. They begin with 3 territories and the winner of each battle has first choice of their next territory from a list based on the figures I own. The goal is to play 7 battles that will help the players organically develop their kingdoms for a future campaign.

In this first battle, both players have 750 points. Each battle after that will add 250 points to the army size, so the final battle will be 2250 points. If this pbem works, I hope to run the mini-campaigns from the expansions using the full kingdoms as the basis for them. Running a full Oathmark campaign might also be on the cards, but first I need to finish this campaign.

The campaign map below shows the state of play at the start. Both kingdoms have a capital city and two territories. I have chosen to make a hex map of the kingdoms, because it is easier in Campaign Cartographer 3+ than the standard kingdom sheet. I do not anticipate any significant issues with it, but this mini-campaign is all about finding out whether there will be any or not. The main difference between this and the standard kingdom map is that each hex in each row borders on the same number of territories as all other hexes (mostly), while some territories in the same ring on the kingdom sheet border more than others.

The Armies

The Kingdom of Elkall-Anuz (Patrick)

1 Captain with 13 Orc Warriors

1 unit of 10 Orc SpearOrcs

2 units each of 10 Orc Archers

The Kingdom of Storace (Steve)

1 Human Champion with 11 Human Warriors

1 Human Champion with 4 Human Cavalry

1 unit of 10 Human Soldiers

1 unit of 10 Human Archers

1 Human Spellcaster (Level 1 with Fireball)

The Battlefield

The two armies have met on the Plain of Towers. This largely open area of moorland lies in the no-man's land between the two kingdoms. It is an area of low rises and sparse vegetation with the eponymous towers lying ruined across the whole plain. As the armies deploy to use the tiny amount of available terrain, they yell insults across the dividing plain.

The view from the human lines (l to r: cavalry, spellcaster, archers, warriors, soldiers)

The view from the Orc lines (l to r: archers, soldiers, warriors, archers)

As I set the armies up, I realised that I could easily have set the battlefield up as a 4' x 4' equivalent space and not really lost anything. The armies look tiny in the 6' x 4' equivalent space. That is because they are!

Steve's plan is to move his cavalry to the right flank while advancing on the ruin directly in front of his infantry and driving the orcs before him. He sent me a few more details, but that is the gist of it. Patrick's plan is to advance to missile range, then let the humans come towards his orcs and shoot them.

The Battle

With the insults called out and the boasts made, both armies advanced. The human spellcaster moved up and lobbed a fireball at the orc archers on the left flank, but it guttered out short of the unit, inflicting no damage. Seeing the danger, the archers headed for the ruins of Orcumont Tower to their left. The rest of the human infantry advanced, although the archers were less enthusiastic than the others. Meanwhile, the spearorcs and orc warriors moved up into the lee of the hill in front of them, hoping that it would shield them from the wrath of the spellcaster. The orc archers stayed where they were on the hill, ready to rain arrows on the cavalry. However, the cavalry had other orders and wheeled neatly in an obvious move towards their own right flank.

End of turn 1

Seeing an opportunity, the orc archers moved off the hill and fired a volley at extreme range. A cavalryman died. First blood to the orcs, but the archers soon regretted it. Seeing the archers, the spellcaster lobbed a fireball into their midst and three archers fell dead, charred to a crisp. Meanwhile, the human infantry continued to advance, the orc archers took up position in Orcumont tower, and the orc soldiers and warriors moved onto the hill, as the human cavalry continued their manoeuvres, successfully blocking line of sight for the spellcaster.

End of turn 2

The two armies closed the distance between them rapidly. Arrows flew, though none were killed by them, the spellcaster moved into the cover of nearby Grouchy Tower but did not find the opportunity to launch another fireball. The human warriors, led by their champion, charged the orc archers in Orcumont Tower. Despite casualties, the orcs' morale held and it was the warriors who were repelled. Seeing that their manoeuvres would lead to nothing, the human cavalry did an about face and raced towards the orc archers on their left flank.

End of turn 3

The occupants of Orcumont Tower were sore beset by human soldiers, who charged them in the flank, leaving them disordered. The soldiers drew back to catch their breath before renewing their assault, and the human warriors charged in. This was too much for the few surviving orc archers, who fled the field. The spearorcs had, by now, engaged the human archers and many archers fell in the melee. The cavalry charged the orcs on the hill, seeing that they could not reach a softer target, and all but their champion fell, as the orc captain kept his line strong. The battle was furious and bloody now.

End of turn 4

The orcs seized the initiative in the next phase of the battle and charged the lone champion, who fell under their massive orcish feet, but not before he had slain several warriors and left the orc captain's unit disordered. The spellcaster seemed to have lost her lighter and failed to cast a fireball again. The human warriors managed to turn about towards the orc spears, but the assault on Orcumont Tower had left them in ragged order and that was all they could do. The soldiers wheeled in good order, having caught their breath, and began their march towards the remaining orcs, as the orc spears and the human archers both successfully dressed their ranks and prepared for more carnage.

End of turn 5

Seeing the champion fall, the spellcaster managed to find the right spell and got revenge against the warriors as her fireball fried three more, but the captain held his unit together and advanced off the hill, ready for the fray once more. The orc archers took revenge for the spellcaster's deeds, and pinned her to the ground with several arrows. The human archers slew another spearorc, but the spearorcs were made of tough stuff and merely charged the human warriors, slaying many and forcing them back, as the soldiers desperately sought to manoeuvre round them.

End of turn 6

The spearorcs charged the flank of the human warriors again, but were driven back for the loss of nearly half their remaining number. Hails of arrows fell on them next, but they held their ground, though disordered. The human archers themselves suffered badly under orcish arrows as the other remaining units manoeuvred to return to the fray.

End of turn 7

As dusk fell, the human soldiers fell on the last of the spearorcs and cut them down. Arrows flew from both sides, and the orc warriors fell on the human soldiers in turn, driving them back and disrupting the manoeuvres of the human warriors. Panting with exhaustion, the armies surveyed the slaughter fields in the encroaching darkness and as one agreed silently that this was enough. Just a handful of humans and orcs remained. The Army of Storace conceded defeat and trudged back to their camp. The Army of Elkall-Anuz had won this time, but the remaining human champion swore that things would be different when next they met.

End of game

The Result

The final casualty tally was:

• Humans 503
• Orcs 412

This gave victory to the orcs, who get first choice of a new territory for their army. The actual figures left on the table were 16 humans and 15 orcs, so it was a close-run thing in that measure. For me, I think the key moment was the humans' decision to march their cavalry over to the other flank, leading to the cavalry being out of the fight for too long. It also helped that the orcs won the initiative for the last few turns, so they were able to pick their fights.

The solo system worked quite well, and the activation rolls ensured a modicum of chaos as crucial units failed to activate and exploit their advantages.