Orc Raiding Party on a Rampage!

One of my oldest and bestest friends and wargaming buddies – who I see far too infrequently – was in town this week for a visit with family and a cousin’s wedding in Edmonton. We got together to catch up and then again to chuck some dice and move little men around a tabletop. Just like old times… I’d told him about A Song of Blades and Heroes and he seemed interested to have a go at it so I set up this little scenario…

SITUATION

An Orc Rading Party has crossed over into Halfling lands and is headed towards a Halfling village. A small group of Halflings (along with a few sturdier, goodly adventurers that happened to be passing through) prepare to defend their lands!

SCENARIO

Basically just a standard “there they are – get ‘em!” scenario…

FORCES

Orcs

Orc Boss

Q 3+, C 3, 60 points

Leader

6x Orc Warriors

Q 4+, C 3, @23 points ea.

Ogre Warrior

Q 4+, C 4, 50 points

Long Move, Big

2x Goblin Archers

Q 4+, C 2, @21 points ea.

Shooter (Medium)

Good Folk

Human Cavlary Leader

Q 3+, C 4, 92 points

Leader, Mounted, Long Move

Elf Elite Archer

Q 2+, C 3, 70 points

Shooter (Long), Good Shot, Unerring Aim

2x Dwarf Warriors

Q 3+, C4, @24 Points ea.

Short Move

4x Halfling Spearmen

Q 4+, C 2, @17 points ea.

Short Move

Halfling Archer

Q 4+, C 2, 11 points

Shooter (Medium) Short Move

Halfling Villager

Q 4+, C 1, 6 points

Short Move

THE GAME

As I was introducing the game to Mike I tried to have a fairly diverse mix of troops – with a smattering of the most common special rules (though I left out magic-users…?) – but trying to fit within a theme…

Despite the recent SoBH RPG campaign I recently started, it’s been a long time since I played a straight up, head-to-head/Warband-vs-Warband skirmish game of Song of Blades and Heroes. Too long. This game really reminded me why I fell in love with the system – and got me thinking about getting a campaign going in the fall!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

Mike took the goodies, I took the baddies. 

The river we said was bad going at the ford (reduced movement) and anyone defending the ford got a height advantage. Crossing the river elsewhere was perilous; it reduced movement, but also any model moving in it had to pass a quality roll on a single die or they would fall over.

Ogres can really cover some distance in an activation with that Long Move ability!

On the Goodies next bound the Elf archer knocked down my Ogre – and then that rotten little Halfling archer took him out!!

Orcs make it to the ford and are ready to cross!

Orcs storm across the ford and the real battle begins!

There was much slipping and sliding about on the muddy banks – both sides falling over constantly!

One of the Dwarves was famale and she seriously laid the smack down on the orcs – she scored gruesome kills one TWO of them – the second broke the warband (it was also the tipping point for group morale – so forcing TWO morale tests on those close enough) the leader broke and ran and everyone decided this Halfling village just wasn’t worth it!!

It was a quick enough game that Mike suggested we try another – and switched sides…

GAME TWO

Mike setting out with his Orcs.

Mike tried a sneaky plan to send his ogre towards the ford, but then try and cross elsewhere with his orcs – forcing me to split up my forces.

It might have worked if Mike hadn’t some to abysmally bad dice-rolling!

The Ogre cross the ford and tried to thump on the Halflings – but I galloped my Human Infantry leader and he was able to rally the Halfling militiamen and surround the ogre and knock him down!

The Orcs were actually pretty successful at getting across the river… well the first few…

The Dwarves did manage to hold their ground and force a few back into the river.

What brought it all to a sudden and spectacular conclusion was the Elf Archer took out the Orc Boss – who was just kind of standing in the open – the Ogre was down and failed morale and couldn’t get up and away in time and so was lost… With the loss of the leader and the Ogre and the Orcs floundering in the river Mike sensibly decided the situation was untenable and decided to call it a day.

What a great afternoon it was. Good to see Mike again – and get in a fun couple games. Good to play a Song of Blades and Heroes skirmish again…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Later in the evening Other Tim dropped by for a second game of Frostgrave – stay tuned for that report shortly!