Suddenly the peace of the night was shattered by screams and thrown sticks and stones and shit. Broneslav had inadvertantly camped in the territory of another troop of rock baboons. He grabbed his stuff and found another place to camp that was quieter but not as comfortable. He would cross the bridge tomorrow and find out if the rumours of a mysterious city were true.
"Listen up, Lemmings! That last patrol has highlighted several targets for assault. We're going in after one of them. There's a hill overlooking the main route into Dorm 564 where Kurita are currently holed up. If we can take it, it can form the staging point for a full scale assault to take the Dorm town. Secondary objectives in this ops area are two small Hab Zones and the crossroads beneath the hill. Bravo Team will move in on the objectives, secure them, and hold while we follow up. If it all goes sideways, skedaddle. Got it?"
Bravo Team nodded with a mix of trepidation and adrenaline-fuelled elation. Theirs would be the danger and the glory. They would be the point of the spear for a change.
"Everyone else, be ready to move out on my signal. We're not sure exactly what Kurita has in this sector, so we need to be ready for anything. We know they have assault mechs, because we've blown some of them up, but they might have more and we can't rely on them running away like last time. Barb, you have command until we get there. Good luck and, hey, let's be careful out there."
Bravo team gathered round their team leader.
"Andy, you're on point. Get in there, scout the zone and delay any hostiles. Ophelia will provide indirect fire support. Call on her as much as you need to screw Kurita up. We'll take our approach path from your report. Understood?"
"Copy that!" echoed both pilots at the same time.
"Ok, losers, mount up! We're going to a party and there will be fireworks."
A short while later, Andy moved into the ops area. His display picked up a single heat signal.
"Bravo Team, medium mech on other side of ops zone. Looks to be moving on Hab Unit 4621. Lemming 5 moving towards Hab Unit 4629."
He pushed his mech forward as fast as it would go.
"Bravo Team, this is Lemming 5. Hab Unit 4629 secure. Radar shows hostile in Hab Unit 4621. Moving to flank."
From his new position in some woods on the hill, he spotted the enemy mech.
"Lemming 5 reporting. Kurita Shadow Hawk has moved to occupy the crossroads. Engaging."
He stabbed the fire button. Chunks flew from the enemy mech, which turned in his direction and knocked out his machine gun.
"Grudnabbit, Bravo Team, where are the rest of you? I'm taking heavy fire here. I have weapons systems down and cannot hold if this keeps up."
Andy's machineguns had been knocked out and the laser that was his main weapon had gone offline. He frantically fired everything else he had at the Shadow Hawk as he simultaneously tried to fix the damage to his mech.
"Lemming 5, this is Lemming 4. Moving in to engage."
Barb's Awesome had advanced up the road and could see the Kurita Shadow Hawk. She was annoyed that Ophelia's Catapult was lagging behind. They would need its firepower. She focused on the Shadow Hawk and waited to hear tone. The second it came, she hit the firing stud. Rockets flew from the pods on either side of her and turned the crossroads into a pitted wasteland. The Shadow Hawk crumbled under the onslaught.
"This is Lemming 4. Hostile is down. Advancing on remaining objectives."
The ops area was quiet apart from the burning wreckage. Andy took the opportunity to move into position on the hill, while Ophelia finally caught up and Barb advanced towards the nearby Hab Unit.
"Lemming 5 to Bravo Team. Hostile Atlas in ops zone. Kill it! Kill it with fire!"
"Don't be so overly dramatic, Lemming 5," came Barb's short reply, "Bravo Team advance."
As they pushed forward, the Atlas, which had previously secured Hab Unit 4621 suddenly found itself in a cat and mouse game with Andy's Wolverine. Using cover as best he could, he tried to pick bits off it, but it returned the favour and hammered his mech. He dodged back among the buildings and called in fire from Ophelia, but the Atlas's heavy armour held despite multiple hits. The pilot probably had a shocking headache though.
Barb had neared the crossroads now but was taking fire from a Kurita Warhammer that had moved in to back up the Atlas.
"Lemming 6, this is Lemming 4. Lock on my marked coordinates and fire at will."
"Roger that, Lemming 4."
Ophelia connected her targeting computer to Barb's signal and pressed the firing stud. Huge salvos of rockets powered down onto the Warhammer and blew its right arm off, taking a rail gun with it. Armour plates melted under the onslaught as the Warhammer fired at Barb.
A second full rocket salvo launched and the Warhammer collapsed under the weight of the fire.
Barb grunted with satisfaction. The Warhammer was down and they had control of the ops zone within the mission time limit. The Atlas could be picked apart at will now.
"Bravo Team, this is Lemming 1. Entering ops zone on your six now."
As Bravo Team regrouped for the next push, the other Lemming teams were now moving in behind them. The Atlas, if it had any sense would retreat as fast as its massive, slow behind could carry it.
I like the Fistful of Lead series so I decided to run this scenario using Battle Suit Alpha, the mech variant of those rules. I mapped my pilots and mechs onto Battle Suit Alpha as best I could, but I figure it does not make too much difference if they vary a bit, because both sides have the same advantages and disadvantages in this process. The campaign results are still adjudicated using 5150: Mecha Combat though.
For this game, I had 33 points of mechs in my team, which would normally require me to reduce the quality of some of my pilots, but I chose instead to just make the Kurita mechs match them in points value by drawing mechs from a deck until I had the right value. This created an enemy force comprising 1 Warhammer, 1 Atlas and 1 Shadow Hawk.
The scenario began with both medium mechs (Wolverine and Shadow Hawk) on the table. The remaining mechs would reinforce them by rolling at the end of each turn. On a dice roll equal or less than that turn number, they would enter the battlefield the following turn. As it turned out, it was turn 3 when Barb Dwyer and her Awesome arrived and turn 5 before the Atlas and Ophelia Paine's Catapult arrived. The Warhammer was way late to the parade. This clearly favoured me, but could have gone entirely the other way.
For the campaign, the Lemmings scored 1 more success than Kurita, so Kurita morale went down and Lemming morale remained the same.
That was a fun game. It was made easier by the bad guys not showing up on time, but the Wolverine nearly got slagged a couple of times. Drawing the card that lets you repair damage was supremely useful, especially because the Wolverine was fast enough to move to the furthest objective and contest it simply by being there.
In terms of game play, it all went smoothly and I do not think I played anything wrong other than forgetting to roll a d12 for Barb when shooting. I rolled a d10 which disadvanted her. My fault. I should pay attention to my pilot's abilities. Speaking of abilities, I really need to note their effects on the stat cards, so that I remember them all. There was much thumbing through the rules to check them. Next time.
Solo play went quite well. I started with the draft solo rules from Wiley Games, but wound up doing what was likely to be best for each mech. The card draw system for activation created enough chaos that I did not need to make any difficult calls on who would do what. The only bit I really retained was activating enemy mechs in order of precedence. Lance leader first, then 2IC then the trooper. That does not always make complete sense, but it does fit with the pecking order in House Kurita battalions.
Campaign Morale: (3 at start) 2
The Kurita mechs are not organised into teams for this campaign. I have made a deck of stat cards and draw the appropriate number of cards as needed when they are encountered. The mechs available are:
All mechs on both sides are Battletech figures, so I have listed them with the names they have in Battletech.
This is a miscellaneous list of monsters for Oathmark that are not part of the human or orc terrain lists, which I have covered in previous posts. It does not actually make much difference which terrain list the creatures are in, but it makes for a neat way to divide up my posts. Most of these monsters are not technically 15mm figures, but they have one significant benefit over other figures that I might prefer: I already had them.
These weird, gangly humanoid figures with massive talons on their hands live in lakes and feed on unwary travellers. They drag them to the bottom of their lake, where they feast on the drowned victim, eating everything but the liver, which floats to the surface of the lake and is all that anyone will find of them ever again. I am using doppelgangers from the Temple of Elemental Evil boardgame for these creatures for now, but have my eyes on some of the Demonworld figures that should suit nicely at a later date.
Tally: 3
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| Temple of Elemental Evil Doppelgangers |
In ages past, Elven technomancers created strange and terrifying war machines and unleashed them against their enemies. Barghests are just one such creation. All tales of eldritch black dogs with burning red eyes that prey on unwary travellers stem from these. The figures are some kind of mechanical giant dog that I found in the local games shop and liked the look of. Barghests are another entry from the Dwarf terrain list.
Tally: 2
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| Nolzur's Marvellous Miniatures: Iron Defender |
The Bodach is a fey creature sometimes called a redcap, because it dyes its cap in the blood of its victims. It usually takes the form of an older, human man, and uses its cunning and magic to lure its victims to their deaths. Sometimes the Bodach will side with an army because it sees the chance for even more carnage and destruction, and an even redder cap.
Tally: 1
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| Two Dragons peasant |
Everyone knows what a dragon is, right? In Oathmark, they can be wyrms that slither along or have wings and fly. I only have flying dragons so far, and way more than any person needs for a game like Oathmark. The collection includes a 15mm dragon from Alternative Armies, and two 28mm DDM dragons that look more impressive with my 15mm collection. Why do I need three dragons? I really don't but I do like having a choice.
Tally: 3
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| An Alternative Armies 15mm dragon and two D&D Miniatures 28mm prepaints |
These are 10mm Gargoyles from Pendraken. Each really needs the space of two normal figures because of the wings, so I use spacer bases to make them not look ridiculously crowded. This has the added benefit of making the figures go further, meaning that 12 figures count as a full unit of 20.
Tally: 20
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| 10mm Pendrakon Gargoyles |
The Seelie forces are the humans and their allies against the Unseelie. The Unseelie consider humans to be a blight on the land, and they may have a point from their perspective: humans cut down holy hawthorn bushes, plant their farms over the grave mounds of the Fair Folk and block access to the Other Realm by tolling their bells and chanting their prayers so loudly that none can find their way from Here to There. Humans think that the Unseelie are being unreasonable and making a fuss about nothing.
For more on my head canon for this conflict, see my roll call of the Unseelie. There I lay out the basis for the two main forces of any future game: The Seelie versus the Unseelie.
This is the full roll call of human-related figures. The whole force works out to somewhat over 6000 points. There are a few unit types that I do not have for the human forces, but there is still plenty of choice, especially when considering that I can draw on the other species as well. Most of the figures here are Two Dragons Vikings and Normans, with a smattering of Tabletop Games fantasy adventurers plus some ogres from Ral Partha Europe's Demonworld range, and a couple of figures plucked from boardgames.
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| The whole army arrayed. What are the chances I shall ever field all of it at one time? |
These are the elitest of the elite in the human armies. They lead and inspire the other humans to greatness, and many are legends in their own lunchtimes. I have way more character figures than I shall ever field in a single Oathmark army, but it is nice to have a choice.
Tally: 5 mounted and 14 dismounted
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| Two Dragons Normans and Essex Miniatures Vikings |
Battlefield support is provided by an eclectic bunch of sorcerous types. Again, I have more than I need but they will all get names and become beloved to me as they achieve glorious sorcerous exploits.
Tally: 7
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| Ral Partha Europe and Tabletop Fantasy Sorcerers. The TTF ones are scrawnier but carry a much greater weight of nostalgia for me |
The rank and file of every human army is a person with a shield and a spear or other hand weapon. Because many of these have spears, I could field them as spear units instead if I choose to, but I am listing them here as soldiers, because I also have an idea of buying figures for a high medieval army with long spears or pikes to use as spear units. I wonder if this is one of those ideas that will never come to fruition. Either way, soldiers or spear units, they are the backbone of the army. Some of these figures have been in my Pile of Shame since the early 90s, so it is a great feeling to have got them all painted at last.
Tally: 80
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| Two Dragons Vikings and Normans |
These basic missile troops gain strength from their numbers rather than their individual skill. The carry a range of missile weapons from bows to crossbows to thrown rocks. I lump them all together as basic archers. After all, you cannot afford to be fussy when you are recruiting from the lower echelons of society. At least they do not smell as bad as the militia!
Tally: 43
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| Two Dragons Vikings, Normans and peasants |
The better class of soldier has a chain vest or hauberk as well as their shield and sword/spear.
Tally: 25
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| Two Dragons Vikings and Normans with two Asgard 15mm barbarians towering over the others at the back |
Men with big axes or two-handed swords are useful when the heavy cavalry are not suited to the terrain. The linebreakers are just such a shock unit. Armed with large axes and good armour, they are well-practised at cleaving their way through their foes.
Tally: 17
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| Two Dragons Vikings |
What they lack in quality they make up for in quantity and pungency. They are also useful for carrying things for the rest of the army.
Tally: 60
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| A mix of Two Dragons peasants and Essex Mniatures monks |
These are lightly armoured cavalry, usually younger men who have yet to prove themselves, but they are fast and can still hit hard with all the enthusiasm of youth and a young person's firm belief that they will always survive and win.
Tally: 11
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| Two Dragons Normans |
The heavy cavalry are the elite of society, just one rank below the commanders and champions. They are well-armed, well-armoured and their foes know to fear their thunderous charges. While they might do poorly against a fully-formed unit of soldiers with spears readied, they will almost certainly sweep unprepared infantry away.
Tally: 24
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| Two Dragons Norman cavalry supported by a couple of Essex Miniatures Vikings |
These can be either normal ogres or ogre linebreakers according to whim. With the large swords and axes, they are more like the latter, while the former should technically have shields. However, the terrain that gives you ogres makes you choose either normal or linebreakers, so there will be no confusion there.
Tally: 6
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| Ral Partha Europe Ogres |
Buggane are large, shaggy ogre-like beings with an innate magical ability. I am using bugbears from the Temple of Elemental Evil boardgame for these. They are larger than I would really like. In scale they are about 25 feet tall, which makes them as tall as giants are meant to be and thus far too large, but I have them and do not need to buy more figures, so I am content with that for now. If I play enough Oathmark, I might replace the figures with some that are more in scale and use the bugbears as giants, but that is a plan for another time.
Tally: 3
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| Bugbears from the Temple of Elemental Evil boardgame doing sterling proxy service |
Massive humanoid monsters. They are constantly hungry because it is hard to gather enough food when you are this big, so they will fight for food. This is a Mage Knight berserker, who is very giant-like when placed next to 15mm figures.
Tally: 1
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| Mage Knight Berserker doing service as a giant |
Broneslav spent a while the next morning cleaning his gear. The rock baboons had really made a mess of it, and it was rather too smelly for comfort, like the midden behind his grandmother's house. Then he set out, picking his way out of the jungle and up into the mountains ahead. As he climbed, he kept his eyes out for danger, and he was right to do so. Ahead, he spotted a group of mould-encrusted zombies. Unfortunately, they had spotted him too, and were heading in his direction. He could easily outrun them, even in this terrain, but they would certainly catch up with him when he stopped to rest. Feeling that he could not take a chance, he unshipped his bow and waited.
There was no time left. He picked up his shield and sword, and charged. Two zombies were brutally slaughtered in his initial onslaught. Claws shrieking on armour were testimony to the ferocity of the remaining zombies' attacks, and Broneslav staggered under the impact of five undead bodies, but he held his feet and fought on. He knocked the feet out from under one of them and crushed its head with his booted foot, even as he spun with a terrific blow that sliced through the neck of a second zombie and through the dried up, rotting torso of a third. Undeterred, the last two zombies clawed at Broneslav and tried to drag him to the ground, but to no avail.
Spinning on his toes once more, he grabbed his sword with both hands and unleashed a fearsome roar. His sword might as well have been cutting through butter as it sliced a zombie in two, and the follow through gutted the last of the zombies.
Broneslav paused to catch his breath a moment before cleaning his blade and carrying on. As twilight arrived, he looked for a place to camp once more. Ahead he saw a slight fire. He tried to sneak up to see who it was, but a huffing noise followed by a low growl told him that he had been spotted.
Standing up, he looked over the rocks and saw a small hunting party of Rakasta gathered awaiting him. Two sabre-toothed tigers were standing alertly looking in his direction. Before he could even call out to ask permission to approach, one of the Rakasta beckoned him in.
"Welcome, Broneslav from the Far North. We have heard of you. You are welcome as brother and warrior to us."
From the sound of it, Rakasta moved faster through the jungle than he did, if this hunting party had heard of him already. He and the Rakasta traded tales and food, before Broneslav enjoyed a completely mosquito-free night's sleep.
"THE VIKINGS ARE COMING!"
The feared cry rang out as the church bells tolled their urgent warning.
Lady Meghain du Court summoned her retinue as fast as she could. The urgency of the situation told her that she only had time for her fastest troops and that the heavy infantry would not be able to keep up, if she were to meet the Norse raiding party in the open moors east of the village. She leapt into the saddle and led the charge. Three troops of knights, her retinue archers and some local villagers with bows would have to suffice. They raced off, with the archers holding onto the knights' stirrup leathers to help them keep up.
Meanwhile, Hroerekr ur Dölunum, jarl of Ferjaby, was leading his doughty warriors towards the village and the wealth of the local monastery. He cursed as he got a clear view of the village and saw the advancing knights.
"By Odin's hairy bollocks, we've a fight on our hands," he roared, "Form up my heroes and we shall send them to Hel, before we feast in their village! TO VALHALLA!"
For this game of Lion Rampant, the defenders are a standard Norman from the lists in the book, with the crossbowmen replaced by archers because those are the figures I have. The whole retinue comprises:
The attackers are a standard Norse army:
The Norse list allows you to choose between Berserkers and Archers, but I have "views" about who and what Berserkers were, so I am not going to field them this time. I also have a feeling that the Norse archers should really be a couple of units of skirmishers, but that is a pleasure to save for another time.
Deployment of both forces focused on the terrain on the Norse left flank with the Norse warband securing their right flank between woods and hills with a unit of Heavy Infantry. The plan would be to refuse that flank, while advancing on the other and in the centre. The Norman force formed up with the archers interspersed between their cavalry. They planned to advance slowly and whittle the Norse down a bit before the knights charged.
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| Storming Normans at the top of the photo. Vicious Vikings at the bottom. |
The two forces faced each other across a shallow valley.
"Let them take only as much land as they are tall!" Lady Meghain cried to her followers, "They shall keep that part of the land they are buried in and no more!"
She took her father's bagpipes from the saddle in front of her and began to play a rousing march. The skirling of the pipes rang out across the dale and the adrenaline pumped all the harder in her followers' veins. They truly appreciated that she had a better ear for music than her father had.
The Norsemen hammered their weapons on their shields and advanced with gruff bellows and insults. Well, except for those that could only do one thing at a time. The heavy infantry on the Norse right took some time to get moving, but were soon on the go.
As they advanced, the arrow storm began. A warrior beside Hroerekr fell with an arrow through his throat. First blood to the Norman archers. Not to be outdone, the knights rushed forward too, but it was the archers that scored second blood, while the Norse archers returned the favour, killing two Norman archers.
Lady Meghain's knights bore down on Hroerek's personal bodyguard, their hooves thundering across the sward. The rumbling of their advance could be felt in the bones of the men on foot.
"Who is this that dares oppose me?" bellowed Hroerekr, " I challenge you to holmgang! You shall dine in Hel this night, or I shall feast in Valhalla!"
The bagpipe playing stopped as Lady Meghain replied.
"I am Lady Meghain du Court and you shall grovel in the dirt before me, foul blackguard! This is my land and I shall defend it with all that I am. Though I have only the body of a woman, I have the heart of a lion, the wings of a dragon and my father's lance, which I have often bloodied in such as you!"
The two leaders approached each other and squared off. Their bodyguards stood back respectfully and gave them space.
"Die, foul Norseman!"
Lady Meghain wasted no time in attacking. With a speed and fury that Hroerekr did not expect, she was upon him, showing no sign of fear. He swung his mighty axe at her as she approached. They traded several blows and then suddenly Lady Meghain's lance found its opening and the Norse leader's lifeblood nourished Norman soil.
"Revenge!" cried Hroerek's bodyguard. They charged and in the furious melee that ensued, Norman knights and Norse champions died. But in the end, Lady Meghain was the one standing with one of her bodyguard beside her. The Norsemen lay still.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Norman archers and skirmishers were slaying Norsemen, and other vicious hand to hand combats were being fought. The archers and skirmishers were carrying the day, as the melees were mostly inconclusive. The Norse archers were nowhere to be seen. They had been cut down in their droves and had retreated into the lee of a hill to regroup. However, as the last of the Norse champions died, taking with him enough Norman knights that he would have a story to tell in the halls of the gods, the Norse archers decided that enough was enough. They ran for their boats.
Others of the Norse free men decided the same thing. Battered, wounded and facing an unrelenting storm of arrows that not even all their shields could protect them from, they turned and fled.
I think I got most of the rules right this time. Now to work on tactics.
This game saw more units failing their activations than the previous one. The Norse warband had a couple of turns where no one moved at all, even with the leader's reroll, for example, and many turns saw only about half the troops on each side moving.
It was also my first time trying a duel. I just felt that a Norse jarl would have insisted on it. I gave the Norman leader a 50% chance of accepting. She did, and then she scored 3 hits to the Norseman's 2 hits, thus beating him. I guess Hroerekr wins either way though; taking Norman treasure or heading to Valhalla.
The loss of their leader did not seem to dismay the Norse warband much at all. Both elite infantry units fought to the very last warrior, aiming to join their leader in Valhalla presumably. The rest seemed ambivalent. They ran at the last, but mainly because the Norman arrows were particularly well-aimed.
All in all, another good fun game. I really enjoyed the chaos of the activation rolls, and the need to pick and choose where I would act first. I just need to make sure that I give my side the better dice next time!
Refreshed and alert, Broneslav wished his hosts goodbye and set out once more on his journey northwards. He realised that he had been far too optimistic about his chances of getting to his goal and back in the time he had allotted, but he was determined to find out what the deal was with this city, so he would just carry on and see what happened. The first day trekking through the jungle passed without incident and he was less bothered by the mosquitoes thanks to an unguent his Phanaton hosts had given him. Even his sleep was better now, but he would have to conserve his supply because there was not a lot of it.
Broneslav heaved a sigh of relief as he reached the edge of the hills beyond the jungle. The oppressive heat was getting to him, and even with the unguent, the mosquitoes were plaguesome, and he began to wonder if it was all worth it. Suddenly loud screaming and a hail of sticks, stones and shit showered down on him. He ducked back into the cover of the jungle as fast as he could and looked around. Ahead of him, partially in the jungle and partially among rocks in the trees was a troop of oversized baboons. They seemed to think that Broneslav was not welcome here. He decided to circle around them and find a place to camp for the night, before he carried on into the mountains that barred his way to the city.
As he made camp, he reflected on his discussion with the village elders at Tanaroa. They had suggested that the city lay just the other side of the mountains, so he was near his destination, but it would still be a heavy climb to get there.
