Two Very Very short games

The latest round in the club's Battle Companies campaign was very short and not particularly sweet.  I played Kev and the scenario called for me to defend a hill.  Kev simply went for all out attack with his Warg Riders and in 3 turns entirely wiped my force out!  We had an odd number of attendees so Alan played Kev next and there was no time for a third round.

100 % casualties

I did manage a second game.  After our day out at the Wartime experience event we attracted a new member and her young son.  I too the lad on in a game of Wings of War and am afraid I showed him no mercy shooting down his camel in even less time than it had taken in my first game.

Closing in for the kill

That was my gaming for the night.

Games 65

 Rules played 26 New 11
Places played 10 New 0

Rivendell B Team Relic Found Gondor Captain Assassinated

It was catch up time in the Battle Companies campaign again so I brought out the B team again,  You may remember on their first foray they found Leigh's Hobbits quite a handful (see earlier post). This time I played Kenny and his Easterlings and Alan  with his Men of Gondor.


Kenny has had a difficult start to the campaign and was down to 4 men against which I was able to muster 7.  Find the relic has a string of 5 objective markers across the centre line of the table 4 of which are dummies and one of which is the relic.  4 were in the open with 1 on a hill to my right.


Both sides charged forward and fought over the central objectives.  I detached one spearman to look at those on my left.  We battered backwards and forwards with a couple of casualties on both sides and soon discovered that the relic had to be the one on the hill.  Once again I had a spare spearman to detach and pick it up.  The Easterlings were now down to 2 men and had no chance of getting to the relic.  I decided the best option was to pull back and make for my baseline.  I didn't realise that one of my opponents figures had a leg wound which made pursuit virtually impossible so I was able to claim the win.


Kenny does not have a copy of Battle Companies which is currently out of print so had 4 battles worth influence points and experience to spend.  He is now in better shape with 6 figures and some upgrades which is good.


My second game was against Alan who managed to beat Rory whilst myself and Kenny were battling it out, giving him an impressive 4 wins out of 4.  I was facing 10 figures against my 8 and I drew the task of assassinating his leader.  Instead of the camp we used a fantasy graveyard which made an interesting setting.  I snuck up on the camp but the alarm was raised almost immediately and very quickly I lost 3 elves to no men.  Now outnumbered 2 to 1 I didn't fancy my chances of winning at all, particularly as the Gondor leader was taking no risks and had not engaged at all.  Two more casualties on my side and that was the game up.


I am actually not at all sure how I won from such a dire position other than fantastic dice rolling!  The spearman on the right forced his way in killing 3 and other battles went my way.  Suddenly the Gondorians were broken and had to start making courage rolls.  I lost one elf but a failed courage test meant that I had 4 onto 3.  The Gondor Captain took a hit and then failed his fate save and I had somehow won!  I was also lucky in the reinforcement rolls getting a knight and another spearman (the B team is spearman heavy)  .


So I now have 2 strong warbands both of which have played 5 games and are 10 strong.  Our next meeting is intended to be an all in affair so the A team will make an appearance but as usual if anyone can't make it I will have the B team ready to take to the field again.

Games 57

 Rules played 22 New 9
Places played 9 New 0

Ding Dong Dell

The next round in our battle companies Lord of the Rings campaign was just two games this time.  My first was against Rory and his Angor force.  Although it ended up being a bit one sided in my favour the game actually took over an hour which I think is a record for the campaign so far.

The scenario involved the individual figures coming in from all edges of the board so it took us a bit of time to sort ourselves out but unsurprisingly it all ended up in big scrap in the middle.  The dice rolls were with me so I was pleased o chalk up another victory.  I was able to generate a mounted knight as reinforcement, but had to rely on a warg mounted orc supplied by Kev as a substitute as I didn’t have a suitable figure with me.

The second game was against Andy and his Mordor Orcs.  I was defending a camp with six lots of supplies which Andy’s forces had to set fire to.  To do that they had to be in contact with the supply marker, not in combat, and then roll a 4+. 

Andy, who has leading the campaign and has a fairly large warband attacked from all sides.  I decided to concentrate my forces and try and cause early casualties and risk some supplies being destroyed. Just about the first combat saw my elf knight (orc warg rider) put out action – not a good start!

On the other side of the camp I managed to mob two of Andy’s better Orcs including his leader and although they put up some resistance they went down.  Casualties were soon mounting on both sides but first one, then two then three lots of supplies went up.  Andy’s Orcs hit break point and the game ended (on a roll of a 1 or a 2) on the first roll just in time for a draw to be declared.

 

Games 35

 Rules played 18 New 7
Places played 6 New 0 

 

Theres founsands of them hobbitses sir founsands of them!

Well only 12 really but that is a lot for a group of 5  to break through even if they are much better fighters!


Leigh wants to take part in the Battle Companies campaign but had not managed any games as yet and with the next round coming up on the 30th I said I would field a new warband to help him catch up.  I used the same core Rivendell force as I started the campaign with so the warband straight from the book.


The first scenario was hold the line .  I charged straight up the road and lost 3 men as I got mobbed as I burst through.  The other 2 almost made it but just as I was about to get them off and win the scenario an arrow in the back was enough to give Leigh a victory.


The second scenario was stand your ground with my warband defending.  I did much better and dispatched quite a few of my furry footed opponents but once again he just hung on for the win


The final scenario was Rory's special.  I did much better once again causing multiple casualties but as the game ended with the Hobbits broken we both still had two objectives so it was a draw.


I will keep this warband available in case anyone needs some catch up games after the next round

Games 33

 Rules played 18 New 7
Places played 6 New 0 

Rivendell did Very Well

The Lord of the Rings (or Middle Earth if you prefer) Battle Companies campaign has now kicked off.  In it's early stages numbers on the table are quite low and games over rather quickly so we easily managed 3 games on the first night.


My Rivendell Elves proved to be quite tough nuts to crack.  First up were Kev's warg riders who are a bit weak.  Having  discounted any possibility of success he very quickly took down 2 of my guys, but after that lost figures pretty quickly for an elf win. 


I was able to recruit an additional warrior for my next game which was fortunate as one of my casualties had to sit out a round.  Next up were Kenny's Easterlings who were as heavily armoured as my elves.  We din donged backwars and forwars for a while but I was able to complete my mission and assassinate his leader


For the last game I was faced with Rory's Arnor.  Rory is running the campaign and has written 5 scenarios of which this was the first -  The Crossing of Emyn Sul.  The objective was a ruined tower and 4 outbuildings.  One contained a hideous fiend (can't remember it's name!) which would attack any who came close to his lair.  In fact Rory took it out quite quickly.  I was rather worried by being outnumbered by archers 4 to 1 and indeed mine was soon shot down.  I was however able to close without further mishap and win the day.

The two warbands close on the ruined tower

I am not sure how the campaign will play out.  Games will get longer as warbands get bigger, but there is a worry that those who did not do well early on will struggle to compete in the later stages.  We will have to see how things develop.



Games 19

 Rules played 13 New 7
Places played 3 New 0 

Middle Earth Battle Companies

A number of Falkirk club members are interested in running a campaign based on the new Battle Companies supplement for the Middle Earth strategy battle game from GW. The core rules are very similar to their Lord of the rings game and in fact the only issue with using these rules is that some of the 22 companies are not covered by ealier versions.  However I don't think that most people will rush out to buy anything new and we will muddle through with what we have.


The basic companies are 5 to 6 models but the idea is to run a number of games from which they will gain experience additional gear and new recruits. Anyone familiar with Mordhiem will notice many similarities.


The campaign has not started yet so I wanted to try a couple of practice games to remind myself of the rules. Richard obliged with his (nasty) dearfs.  The starter companies are actually rather small and the games were pretty quick once we had decided on a basic scenario and got started.  We ran the scenario again with opposite sides (shock horror I got to play dwarfs against elves).  On both occasions the elves seemed a bit better powered than the dwarfs and won.  I forgot to take pictures I am afraid


If the games were all at basic warband level I would not be too interested but I think as warbands develop they the games will get a little more complex and interesting


I used Lothlorien against Richards Durin's Folk.  In the campaign I expect to use Rivendell and with that in mind have purchased some early High Elf figures from John.

Games 14

 Rules played 12 New 7
Places played 3 New 0