WEDNESDAYGAME. LAST VERSE OF SONGS.

Our Wednesday game this week was, what turned out to be, the final game of our Songs of Blades and Heroes campaign.

 

Derek's Dirz took on David's Dark Elves. The scenario was 'on dangerous ground', which gave a chance of mishap or disappearance when in terrain. The battle was fought in forest terrain part of which contained a witch wood. This probably explained the strange terrain effects, and definitely explained why all the combatants thought that this battle was being fought in deep snow: how else can I explain the lack of winter terrain! 

 

David is on the case for next time. 

 Here we have the terrain with the Dirz on the right and Dark elves on the right. The snow meant that all movement was at one rate less (short instead of medium, etc.). The ford had to be crossed in one move, or else a risk throw for being in terrain would be required.

 The first few turns saw the Dark Elves make good progress towards and over the ford. Poor rolling by Del meant that his Dirz hardly moved and were only able to fire a few desultory arrows.

The sure footed dark elves were soon in amongst the reluctant Dirz.A general melee ensued with casualties on both sides.

     Two Dirz warriors fell. The dark elf hero fell as did their witch.

Numbers told in the end: a grusome kill on an unfortunate Dirz led to the remaining members of the warband retreating off the board after failing their morale rolls.

In the post game phase, only two of Del's casualties made it past the injury table. Then, to make matters worse, on the exploration table, he rolled 'Eldritch Graveyard. Not only did he not find anything, but the denizens of the graveyard killed another Dirz ( rolled a 2 to have to roll on the survival table, then a 1: dead!). All David's made it.

At this point with Del's warband only having three members and David well out in front with eight campaign points, we declared him the winner of the overall campaign.

WEDNESDAY SONGS. BATTLE OF THE GOLDEN EGG.

Our Wednesday game this week was my Orcs taking on Del's Dirz. The scenario was Place of Power and the terrain was in hill land. There was heavy rain, which meant that models became disadvantaged if they rolled a 1 for any quality roll.

The initial set up. The place of power is 'the golden egg' an old Harry Potter chess pawn. The Dirz enter from the right, the orcs the left. Casualties and injuries on both sides from previous battles had had an effect. The Dirz were down to four figures and the Orcs seven. Grobag, my leader, missed this battle following a near deadly injury in my last battle. This caused some difficulty in coordinating my force.

As defender, I set up the terrain. Del, as the attacker chose the table edge closest to the place of power

It was not very easy for models to keep their feet. The Dirz seemed to have stumbled into a hidden stream bed running off the hill of power (well, how else to explain all the 1s Del rolled!)

The Dirz archer caused havoc, killing a grunt and hitting my wizard.

My grunts charged forward and after killing one Dirz, were repelled losing two killed.

As I had reached half strength, my force had to take a morale check, Which my wizard failed.

Whilst attempting to run awy, my grunt slips in the rain. The Dirz archer passes three dice to score a power strike with an arrow.

As my wizard rolled a 1 on his combat dice, compared to the archers 9, he succumbed to a gruesome kill.

The last grunt failed his morale check and headed off the table, slipping in his haste to escape.

Another failed mission, but all my casualties survived, although some will miss the next battle.

THURSDAY GAME: FLYING LEAD AND LASERS.

For last Thursday's game, Rick put on a Sci-Fi scenario to test how Flying Lead rules handled this genre.

 

The Scenario involved some Capitol forces trying to rescue a captured intelligence officer.  

 

 

The set up was clever. Rick got me, as defender, to place different coloured poker chips where I wanted the defenders to be. He then revealed that I was actually the attacker and then described the scenario to me. I set up my assault teams as shown above.

  My right flank squad ran slap bang into a heavy bolter. They took casualties, but wiped out the crew.

 The defenders are alerted by the firing. These were randomly generated by Rick.

The left flank squad make progress. However, the squad by the bridge are reluctant to move.

 The defenders manage to bring both squads under fire. The left flank squad makes little progress.

 Two of the right flank squad manage to get to the cover of the buildings while the others go to ground at the edge of the woods, some of them with malfunctioning weapons.

 The left flank squad have got across the bridge, but are not making headway.

At this point, with both squads held up and taking casualties, the decision to abort was taken.

This was a good try out. The emphasis in Flying Lead is on ranged combat, so it is better suited to a larger table area than the normal 3 by 3 foot area suggested for SOB&H. There were no problems handling laser and slug weapons. The system is realy meant for small warbands, almost role playing, but worked well, emphasising the morale effect side of things as well as the effect of fire.

Rick already has the next scenario in mind.

WEDNESDAY SONGS: RUSH ALONG TO THE WATCHTOWER.

We managed to fit in a second game last Wednesday. This was the next battle in the campaign between David's Dark Elves and my Orcs.

David won initiative and decided, as I have properties, to go for a raid. The raid was on my watchtower, in the hill lands of my territory.

The initial deployment. I deployed all but my ogres on the hill with the watchtower. David split his force into two.

The left flank party attacked and grusomely killed one ogre. This caused some of the grunts to run away after failing their morale tests.

The right hand ogre was overwhelmed and gruesomely killed by the right flank section of the Dark Elf warband.

The dark unicorn necromancer raises an ogre as a zombie.

      The ogre killed, the right flank section attack the hill, brushing aside the defenders.

 On the left flank, after taking losses, the hill is taken after the defenders run away after failing their morale roll, following a gruesome kill on one of them.

This was a very quick game. The result is that I have lost my watchtower and the benefit to initiative rolls that it gives. To compound a bad night, my exploration roll came up as a 'lost' result.

 

 

WEDNESDAY SONGS: AN ACCIDENTAL MEETING.

As part of the post game process of last week's game, David rolled ' a chance encounter' on the exploration table. My Warband was randomly selected as opponents. The scenario is 'accidental meeting', which means that we each set up each other's figures, at least a 'long' away from each other.

                                           The initial set up.
My plan was to exit the table as quickly possible, avoiding unnecessary fights.

 

 David's leader attacked my grunt, expecting easy pickings. Alas! he was undone by David's habit of throwing 1s at the wrong moment and killed. My grunt was grusomely killed by an enraged Dark Elf, in return.

  Meanwhile, I had managed to gather most of my warband in one area.

 

 One of my ogres and my mage are trapped on the far side of the table. After some initial success, the ogre is killed.

              The Dark Elves gather on the far side of the river.

My mage is gruesomely killed.

 The ogre is gruesomely killed. The dark unicorn necromancer prepares to reanimate it.

Another of my isolated grunts is overcome and killed. At this point I managed to get my remaining warband members off the table to end the game, before the unicorn can animate the ogre.