Once again Tropilium's generalship and high die rolls had them turning the tables on Stygustan and becoming the attacker.
Because Tropilium needs to get to grips with their enemies I had them charge out, I did not reveal Fladnag until he was forced to reveal himself intervening during Stygustan's magic phase. I should have revealed him straight away. I also should have sat the Tropilium army in the woods, in cover, until the Stygustanis had marched to within bow range. They then would have been able to charge out and give them what for.
The idea to suck the flank in and then jump them was good, but my execution left something to be desired. Equites are not very heavy Knights and charging anything that is un-wounded frontally is generally risky. My horrible die rolling for the received fire test and Leader Risk tables didn't help. This was compounded by high rolls for Leader Lost when Gracchus Armisurplus rolled OOF.
So Stygustan was not hampered by its low War Rating of 2 by keeping only 4 bodies. On the field Tropilium ended up not using their full War Rating of 6 as they held bodies back. War Rating points are used to activate bodies of troops. They remain active until stopped by a leader, a reaction test or closing to their combat range.
In this battle I used the red beads to remind myself who was active. You'll note I forgot to mark the Stygustan left flank chariots in a couple of pictures. At the end I used the beads to mark who had been lost in pursuit.
An effective level of 6 for Stygustan's mages also proved too much for Tropiliums level 3. Fladnag failed every opportunity to intervene and couldn't get anything off himself. The Amulet of Sorbrowane and Drums of Doom cancelled each other out again and the Brazier only affects Dwarves so I thought I'd have a little fun with Fladnag banging on it like a television set, trying to get it to intervene against Wartchemakalit's magic.
Hope you enjoyed it.
Great report, Sean, and an epic victory for Stygustan. The Tropilium Empire is on its knees now!
ReplyDeleteNational Morale:
Stygustan passes 2 dice and is happy to continue their run of glorious victories.
Tropilium passes 1 die and national morale decreases by 1 point.
The war should continue, but Stygustan no longer has direct access to Tropilium territory, because Treyine holdings in Tropilium are now in the way. Therefore, peace is declared but neither side has actually surrendered.
One point to note, is that Badenhorst acts as a captain, so only gives 1 WR to the army, not that it affected this game at all. If he ever wound up in charge of an army, he would get his full WR.
The unit with the artefacts routed so I had to roll for what happened to them:
The Amulet of Sorbrowane disappeared and will reappear in Summer 995.
The Brazier of Durmun was recovered by the Stygustani mages and is now theirs.
I see, I've been playing the War Rating for mercenary commanders wrong then. Got it now. The Artifacts after the battle is something I always gloss over. My thought was that they might some how hold on to them unless they were caught in pursuit. I can rationalize that when you rout you tend to drop things and run like hell.
DeleteI would like to see a Stygustan vs Treyine battle at some point for some Archer on Archer action. I suspect that the Armor difference would be the difference in that fight.
One of the pleasures I get from the campaign is rolling for artefacts after the battle. I like the rationale in the rules that they almost have a mind of their own and can go wandering. :)
DeleteI suspect you may be right about Stygustan versus Treyine. It is certainly possible now that they two armies could meet in the field, so we may yet see that fight.
Nice one!
ReplyDeleteHey Sean ! it's too difficult for me but :
ReplyDelete-I like some names(Armysurplus !!!) and don't undersatnd the other ones.
-The battle report looks fine
-I like the way you've chosen for the pictures: a lot of work for a very good and original result : congrats!
That's all .....
Thanks for taking a look Sam. Gracchus Armisurplus is straight from Asterix, or so wikipedia has lead me to believe. The two Egyptian made up names may be hard for non native English speakers. Impohtehnt is the word impotent and Wartchemakalit is the phrase What you ma call it (not sure why the ma was added to the phrase but it is always there). This one is used when you are referring to something and can't remember the name.
DeleteI rushed to do this report so I didn't give full orders of battle and I fear I may have used too much THW jargon for people who are not familiar with the rules. I'm try to strike a balance between entertaining and informing. I also don't want my reports to be too long.
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