A fun battle of Humans vs Orcs that suddenly and convincingly ended, this time with all elements filled in! I finished my Saxons that would become my human warband elements. All painted with colors and shield designs from my Etinerra campaign world.
| Humans (Militia/Regular) Spear-General x1 Spear x3 Warband x2 Riders x2 Knights x2 Shooters x2 |
Orcs (Regular/Militia) – defending Blade-General x1 Blade x3 Spear x4 Warband x2 Behemoth x1 |
I diced to see whom could substitute regular elements with fantasy elements and the Orcs were given the option. So, I took the riders and traded them for Troll Behemoths! These buggers are really a hoot, styled after old irreverent Warhammer-esque figures. That one on the right is definitely digging for gold in that big schnozz there!
On with the battle!
Orc Warchief Al-Lozburg lined up his troops at dawn to face the wretched humans that were approaching his fort. He put his trolls on his left flank with hopes they could do some damage that way.
Confident in his troops abilities, and wanting to ensure good battle matchups, Major Osmond put his knights at the center of his line and his riders to oppose the trolls, perhaps to flank or rear attack them even. He assigned his rowdy militia men, hardy mountaineers and hillsmen who were quick with the axe, spear and spirit bottle, to the left, spying a band of wood goblins opposite. The armies marched quickly towards each other with little maneuver, “quick to blood” as they say.
“Oo’er, fancy a bit of horse-flesh, Bob?”
“Shaddup, Bob, there’s tasty, sweet manflesh atop those horses, we et them fust an’ then we et the horsies!”
The army lines crashed together and the orcs pushed the attacking humans back. Dismayed at seeing his lines so fragmented, Major Osmond pulled his forces back to regroup.
The aggressive Bestials pressed the attack, with the trolls racing forward to smash the militia riders, but the hardy horsemen held on against the fierce attack! Seeing an opportunity, Major Osmond sent his riders to flank and he caught the trolls in a deadly cross attack! The trolls, reeling from fire and swords, lost their interest in man/horse flesh and fled the field!
Undeterred, the orcs pushed back and a long battle ensued. Back and forth, the lines went. Orc casualties mounted, but they continued to press the attack.
Suddenly, when it seemed this blood-letting would drag on till the end of day, the humans struck decisive blows! Two of the feared Orc Blade units fell to the militia Riders and Spearmen, while the other Spear troops drove off a unit of Orc Spear! (In one bound! The most losses I’ve seen by one side in a bound in quite awhile!)
Seeing two-thirds of his forces gone, Al-Lozburg was forced to abandon his earthworks, giving the humans the victory!
Humans win decisively versus Bestials (Orcs/Goblins) 4 – 16G.
As for my new Human Warband elements? They spent the entire game fighting back and forth across the battlefield with no resolution! I’m pretty sure both sides were happy that the battle was over! (Or they were pissed because they didn’t get a chance to finish the job!)
THINGS I (RE)LEARNED
A mounted unit can pass through a friendly unit if going in same or opposite direction. Makes sense. Gives me some ideas for future positioning and using mounted.
THINGS I’M PLANNING
I’ve gone ahead and made a mega-order to Alternative Armies for their 15mm Imperial Elf and High Elf HOTT Armies, enough figures for several stands of Chaos Men as well as some PC-like figures for Heroes/Clerics. That will give me roughly the equivalent armies/combinations for both 15 and 25mm conflicts with various rules. And monsters!
I’m also looking at the campaign rules from HOTT and my existing wargames campaign. I’m considering a “mini-campaign” using an adaptation of the HOTT campaign system. It might provide a fun afternoon with friends and lead to some interesting resolutions in my game world!
"A mounted unit can pass through a friendly unit if going in same or opposite direction. Makes sense. Gives me some ideas for future positioning and using mounted."
Yes, this is well worth knowing. It allows you to put a mounted reserve behind a line of spears or blades, and push it through to exploit opportunities.
And, of course, it allows mounted to recoil through a line of foot behind them.
As for your report, it was a bit unfortunate that the trolls didn't really last long. Top Tip: Don't put them on the end of a line like that; you're practically begging your opponent to overlap them (as happened) or, worse, hit the flank forcing the behemoths to turn to face, at which point they are now recoiling through their own army, which squashes most stuff.
Basically you should cover the flanks of behemoths.
Yes, I'm learning those tasty bits – your 52 idea is giving me the opportunity to do that!
Doing these solo games gives me some great ways to learn things like this. Admittedly, the random element also comes into play, as I try to do as best I can for both sides and throw in the random to make sure I'm not biased one way or the other.
I would have liked to see the trolls do some smash-em-up. They'll be back!