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.