Knife through Butter - Tropilium versus Treyine

The Tropilium General led the pursuit of the defeated Brethren lackeys of Treyine and slew many personally. It was a great victory and ...

The Tropilium orderly shook the Tropilium General a second time.
"Sir, the Brethren are upon us and make to cross the river."
The Tropilium General shook his head. "What? Crossing the river?"
"Yes sir. What are your orders?"

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Outscouted and outnumbered , the  Dice Gods favored the Brethren and they became the attackers. Troplium rolled for terrain and it was pretty clear except for a river cutting the table in half. The Tropilium army deployed with their light cavalry on the flanks, the first rank of missile troops, the next of Legionaries with the right anchored by the Black Company. Let's see how cavalry fared against their pikes. The General was in the third rank on the Equites.

The Brethren plan was simple. A front line of missile troops and the one infantry unit, the cavalry in the second. They would cross the river at speed and hope that their missile troops could weaken the enemy until the Brother Knights could mount a charge at the center of the Tropilium line in hopes of killing their general.

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Here's the set up with the Tropilium Army on the this side of the river.

The two sides fire and eventually the Brethren missile troops are silenced.

As the Brethren cross the river their missile units come under fire and rout off. The Brethren Knights and Sergeants charge across the river, taking casualties. But the Tropilium missile troops and Mages run for it.

One of the Legionaries at the end of the line routs from the Undead cavalry while the rest brace for impact. They exchange casualties but morale waivers (boxcars?!) and the Tropilium infantry rout away.

The Tropilium General counter-charges but one against two, Rep 4 against Rep 6, are no match. They retire from the field. Their light cavalry never enter the fight and the Black Company, having lost their missile men fall back, never having gotten into the fight.

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Casualties were non-existent, the Brethren army too small and slow to provide a pursuit.

Dragon! Rogue Dragon Over the Northern Marches

The troops watched in awe and fear as the enormous beast flew lazily in the sky.

“What is it doing, Caster?” asked the General. “What is it waiting for?”

The old magic-user watched in silence and thought back to his younger days. Far too many springs to count, he thought. Back to when he had seen his first dragon. He shook his head and replied.

“Who can say? Dragons do what they want, when they want, and none can figure them out.”

“Can we kill it?” asked the General.

“Perhaps we can; or perhaps it will tire of the fight and fly away. Or perhaps we will all perish. Better to prepare for the worse and hope for the best.”

Gracefully the dragon made a wide, sweeping arc, towards the army as it had before. But this time it was different. This time its massive wings beat fast and it began to pick up speed.

The fight was on!

When you’re facing a dragon, best played as a Non-Player, we need to determine how it will act. Will it melee or fly over your army attacking with its breath? When will it leave, if ever? Here’s how we do it:

Dragons in RRtK

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Here's what happened:

Each activation I rolled on the NP Dragon Test to see what the dragon would do. It continued to fly over the Tropilium line breathing fire and death on units at random. As long as there are more units than the Rep of the dragon it will  fly over, breathing fire, and weakening the enemy. Until there are less units than the Dragon Rep or...

It rolls three or more "ones" on the NP Dragon Test. Then it acts as if it has more Rep than enemy units and attacks the opposing unit with the highest Rep, the leader. It did, so it attacked. The first round of melee was a draw and more Tropilium units surrounded the dragon, who left after taking 3 hits.

After a few more rounds of fire breathing it rolled three ones again and went back to the attack, eventually chasing off the leader and routing off quite a few opposing units.

But for each hit the dragon takes that's one less d6 it rolls on the test. It rolled zero successes (a score of 1, 2 or 3) and that means the dragon flies off. This meant that the few battered units left on the field could claim a victory.

My guess is that if the dragon had stuck around for two more turns it would have won.

I like this new procedure with the NP Dragon Test as it allows for the dragon to behave in a Non-Player way. I realized this was necessary because if I had played the dragon there wouldn't be much of a battle. AC 8 meant few hits from missile fire, if any and I would spend the whole time flying over and breathing fire on the units until they all routed.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

Coming soon!

North Troplium versus the Rogue Dragon