Slaughter fields.

Spring 994 - Orkerdammerung

The Undead army had little to say for itself. The Necromancer deployed his melee troops on the right and his skirmishers on the left, ready to swarm around the woods in the middle of the battlefield. The Orc army matched his deployment.

Deployment (Undead at bottom of picture looking a bit like Goblins)

 Both armies advanced as expected with the skirmishers quickly coming to blows.

As the skirmishers met, they quickly realised that the Orc skirmish line included a unit of main battle wolfriders, who saw off their opponents very quickly.

Steve reveals his cunning plan: pretend that a unit of wolfriders is skirmishers and manoeuvre them like that until they met the enemy in battle, then feign confusion about their true nature! :)

 While the skirmishers were destroying each other, the main battle lines met. The Orcs were pushed back while the Undead stood their ground. This was going to be a battle of attrition.

The battle rages as Orcs are pushed back and Undead stand steadfastly

Orcs start to rout but the undead line is close to falling apart

In the end most of the Undead were destroyed but the Orc commander fled with his unit and the rest of his army followed.

The aftermath. All that remained of the Undead

This was a real slugfest. Both armies stood and took a pounding. My poor rolling on the attack might have contributed to this but it really game down to the wire as the Undead Fanatic status counted for more than the Orcish higher Rep. Naz-Goth is no more and Steve must choose another nation to lead to defeat. The Book of the Hungry Moon has been temporarily lost in the Orc rout. It will reappear in Winter 994.

Spring 994 - Campaign Update

Spring arrives early this year and with it the nations of Talomir prepare for another round of grabbing what they can. Every single nation that can go to war has declared war on someone, leading to a merry-go-round of invasions. Superb! Rumours of an invasion of Barylistan by herds of Beastmen have arrived from the south, but that is not the concern of our nations, for they all have their own problems.

Magic-User Availability
Capalan League recruits 1 Level 1 Magic-User
Mangu recruits 1 Level 1 Magic-User
Mirish recruits 2 Level 1 Magic-Users.
Stygustan recruits 2 Level 1 Magic-Users.

Hero Availability
Mangu recruits a hero (Rep 7, AC 6, Mtd Melee, ET, TER, WR 1)

Mercenary Availability
Northern Tropilium recruits 1 Riata Warrior company.
Tereken recruits 1 company of Eskelin Knights.
Tropilium Recruits the Black Company and 2 Riata Warrior companies.

Going to War (aggressor listed first)
Mirish invades Mangu
The Abyss invades Naz-Goth
Tereken invades Altengard
Treyine invades Altengard
Tropilium invades Stygustan

Talomir in Spring 994

Winter 993 - Campaign Update

The year 993 saw Valkae disappear beneath the armies of Altengard and Treyine. The Capalan League is now a single enclave in the mountains surrounded by nations keen to annex it and only protected for the time being by peace treaties that will last a matter of months at best. Naz Goth is in a perilous state. Its attempt to recapture land from the Undead hordes was swiftly beaten back and now it faces a fight for its very existence. Although both nations were shaken by their recent battle, the fight will continue. Mangu's attempt to take Mirish territory has failed and they have now been driven back, but must face a renewed onslaught from Mirish. The nation of Treyine now marks the central dividing line of northern Talomir. Any western nation that wishes to conquer the east must first go through Treyine, and vice versa. The stage is set for a huge showdown in the near future ... or will the leaders of Talomir see sense and forge a lasting peace treaty?

Talomir in the Winter of 993

As the Winter progresses, Talomir is rocked by a wave of deaths among the wizards. Sages state that the end times are approaching; that magic is becoming unstable. Others point out that they were not the most skilled of mages and probably tried things that they were not capable of dealing with. Only time will tell who is right.

The King of Mirish has died unexpectedly. The circumstances of his death are uncertain and his replacement is being decided in the courts of Mirish even as the heralds announce this news.

Meanwhile, in the vaults of the High Church of the Red Sun a lowly cleric has uncovered the Amulet of Sorbrowane. Clearly the Pontiff had placed it there for safe-keeping. Will this prove the key to the rejuvenation of the Tropilium empire?

Leader Deaths
The Mirish leader has died.
Two Mirish L1 Mages have died
In Northern Tropilium an L1 Mage has died
In Tropilium an L1 Mage has died

Magic Items
Drums of Doom: Stygustan
Fiddle of Calling: Treyine
Harlapane of Heroes: Altengard
Pipes of the Dead: Not found yet

Artefacts
Amulet of Sorbrowane: Tropilium.
Brazier of Durmun: Return in Autumn 994.
War Horn of Naz-Goth: Not found yet.

Holy Relics
Crystal Light of Yakub: Mirish.
Spear of St Lindorf: Treyine.
Book of the Hungry Moon: Naz Goth.

As Winter comes to a close, the will to fight in Mirish and Naz Goth diminishes, but both are determined to soldier on in the face of adversity. The wars will continue in the Spring.

Autumn 993 - The Battle of the Buried Bones

Pagash the Mighty Belcher looked back and wondered at what could have been. Around him his Orcish army fled in disarray. It had all started badly. He was going to have to kill his nephew, Woben, for organising a mealtime meeting with the Undead.
His stomach still lurched every time he thought about it. Why had he gone along with the idea of having a treaty with them? In the end he’d had to declare war on them, despite the fact they had nothing he wanted in their land. Had it been the necromancer clouding his mind? Now he thought about it, it must have been. The initial part had gone well, with his army taking position on the high ground, while the skirmishers and wolfboys had moved around the sides. Then a charge into the centre.

The Orcs charge while the Necromancer fails to summon more troops to aid him. The skirmishers retreat in the face of the Orcish charge. Meanwhile the Orcs seek to envelope the Undead.

Unfortunately the skirmishers had run off at the first sign of trouble. R’Nuld, his cousin, there was another one he was going to have to speak to, preferably after pulling his tongue through a hole in his neck. In the centre, the Undead had proved tougher than he’d thought. Slowly his Orcs had begun to flee the battle, but he could still have won, he was sure.

The Orcs start to flag as the Undead cavalry fall on the Orcish right flank (Those undead look suspiciously like Goblins! Treachery!!), but they still hold their own and take their toll on the Undead too.

Then the Wargs had run off to bury the bones of their opponents. This left him alone in the battle and numbers told. Even worse he had been forced to leave behind the wizard Pawdanyas and the hideous D’Beemagy. Not that they had ever been any use, other than for parties. He’d also probably lose less money at card as well.

Surrounded, the Orcish general uses his own troops as a shield. The Necromancer with his cavalry is nearly spent, but a unit of zombies has closed with the Orcs and chomps its way through the meagre fare that is the Orcish brain.

Still back home now to prepare for the upcoming invasion.

This was an interesting game. The Undead wizard failed miserably to cast any spells successfully. I had planned to use him to reinforce my army by summoning more skeleton warriors to my side. Total failure. Fortunately, a combination of the Terror attribute and the Fanatic attribute kept the undead in the battle long enough to rout the Orcs. With the way my dice were rolling, and the failure of my general to inflict casualties on the Orcs, despite my best efforts and multiple substitutions of dice, it was just as well that I managed to get a fresh unit of zombies into the fray. That made all the difference.

One unit of Orcish warriors and the Orcish mage were captured in the pursuit.

Near Run Thing

The victory celebration in the Mirish camp was in full swing. The Mangu had been defeated and sent running home and the wine flowed liberally. Inside his tent Pereira was finishing his debriefing. 

"Be sure to give the elephant handlers and skirmishers extra wine," he began"And send this pouch of gold to the Sorcerers."

"Hassan wishes to..." Pereira cut off the lackey. "Tell him not to worry, fate is a fickle mistress and here's to a speedy recovery"

As the tent cleared out Pereira was alone with his thoughts. They had been very lucky, things could have easily went the other way.

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Having played many games of Rally Round the King with and against the Mangu I forgot how devastating their archery is. This is due to two reasons. 

The first is they are Rep 5, this means they will stick around longer and usually out-shoot their opponents getting in the last shot. This also allows them to function in smaller groups of 2 instead of 3 without worrying about failing morale.

The second is they are elite shooters and get a +1 when shooting. This meant the flanking force of 4 skirmishers were at a 8 when they fired at the Mirish horsemen, the major arm of that army.They kill a lot of people. They took out two of my sorcerers and the hero before he even came into contact!

The Crystal of Yakub more than paid for its 2 Recruiting Rolls, allowing for the skirmishers to have rasied morale as they needed it to exchange fire with the Mangu horsemen. Finally the sorcerers were effective. Both in attack and in counteracting the Mangu spells. I realized that to be effective the would have to concentrate on one or two units and they did well hammering the Mangu Leader unit.

A very close game that could easily have been a Mangu victory. As usual the major Pursuit yielded light casualties as the Mangu are so  fast.

Autumn 993 - The Battle of Twin Gorge Plain

"Sire, the messenger has arrived from Valkae. He reports a great victory for our forces once more."
"A great victory, Lord Cavill? Against Valkae? Hardly. I expect they might try to put a fight up, but they should not have had a chance against our overwhelming numbers and training."
"Yes, Sire, but surely any victory is great if the casualties are low, and ours were particularly low."
"Aye, Lord Cavill, I'll grant you that. Now send the messenger in and get him to make his report."

The Valkae army advanced quickly towards our centre. They saw that their only chance was to demoralise us by killing our general, Lord De La Warre. (Valkae on the left of the picture. Treyine deployed with stakes in front of the archers and melee troops behind them. A reserve of archers and the cavalry may be seen peeking into the far right of the picture).

As the Valkae melee troops approached, they were met with a rain of arrows that caused casualties all along their line. The marines were driven back by this fire, but the Sword Maidens and Warriors were driven into a frenzy and charged.

Weakened by the storm of arrows, the Valkae marines tried to close once more with the archers but were driven back again after an exchange of shots. Meanwhile the Warriors had taken too many casualties and ran, leaving their general and the Sword Maidens to fight on alone. The archers who faced them had suffered few casualties and were inflicting many more than they received.

The Valkae skirmishers had tried closing with the Treyine flank archers, but were driven back by fire. Then the Sword Maidens routed, taking their general with them. That was too much for the rest of the Valkae army, who all ran. Our cavalry ran down the Marines and the Warriors but the skirmishers and the Sword Maidens escaped. Well, those that survived did.

 "Sire, I am pleased to report that the surviving members of the Valkae government have capitulated and we now control the southern ports of their island."

I played this game solo because Steve was not able to pop round yesterday and because I thought it would have been a bit too one-sided to be really fun. The terrain consisted of two gullies on the bottom edge of the game board with a wood between them. The rest of the table was flat and featureless. The Valkae army rolled Penetrate Centre for their tactics. This meant that they had to try to bull through in the centre while their skirmishers on the left flank prevented encirclement there. Treyine rolled a Static Defence with archers in front of melee troops and a reserve deployed behind the main line. The entire Treyine line had stakes deployed in front of it to blunt enemy charges. I did not have space in the deployment area for all of Treyine's archers, so I deployed a line of archers in front of the cavalry reserve too. As expected, the archers weakened the enemy before they made contact. Normally I would expect the archers to get cut to bits, leaving the melee troops behind them to finish off the enemy, but in this case, the Valkae army's low armour class meant that the archers were able to finish the job.

One thing that struck me about the solo system is that the options for tactics only give the Treyine army a 1 in 3 chance of using their most effective tactic, and the one that I have used in almost every battle we have played. It will be interesting to see what tactics they roll up and how they fare when other players in the campaign must fight them and do so using the solo system.