"Ambush at the Pass of the Raven -Battlesystem AAR" Topic

It has been a while since I have played these rules so I am sure we made some errors.

Background: The winter of CY 2573 was particularly harsh. Winter had come early and the sea ice grew so thick, the hunters of the Agsteinn tribe had to venture far from home. Weakened by hunger and raids from other tribes, the Jarl of the Agsteinn sent his daughter on a desperate mission to secure food form an allied tribe to the south. The Jarls daughter, Silja Brynjarsdottir and a small band of warriors are attempting to get through the Pass of the Raven and secure food from their kinsmen the Hallrgeir. To trade for food the Agsteinn have all of the tribes seal skins and whale bone loaded on their last two reindeer.

To win the frost giants must get the reindeer through the pass. Their opponents win by capturing the reindeer. The ambushers get extra points by capturing Silja Brynjarsdottir (reduce to 0 wounds by melee not missile fire of magic) as she will fetch a large ransom. Frost giants set up within 12 inches of their table edge. Ambushers set up second but must be out of sight.

Frost Giants enter the pass:
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Trap is sprung!
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Orcs pour down the pass
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And hobgoblins and trolls too:
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Huge scrum in the middle bottles up the giants.
The hobgoblin mercenaries sell themselves dearly while the orcs surround the giants
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The orc grinder did its work and the giants are surrounded and decimated.

Afterward:
Dag Brynjarsson staggered up the hillside. Behind him, he could still hear the clash and cries of battle as the last of the Agsteinn warriors met their end. Before he fled into the mist shrouded trees, Dag saw hobgoblin warriors trussing the limp form of Silja Brynjarsdottir.

The reindeer and their treasure, the last hope of his tribe, had been captured moments before Eigl Frostgeir and his mighty mammoth "Steinfotter" fell into the bloody snow. Dag wheezed a bloody breath, staining the snow with deep blue droplets. "You should have killed me here dogs. When I return with the Hallrgeir, Aki himself won't save you." Dag pressed his hand against the deep wound in his side, and set off through the trees.

Looks fun!

Looks like a blast! Thanks for sharing. Nice to see a battle of Evil vs. Evil, for a change. They don't all get along, do they?… Cheers!

Looks awesome. Now I want Mammoths.

This was a really fun game. The frost giants failed a few critical charge morale checks which allowed the orcs to dog pile them in the middle.

I spent this morning crafting some hill fort sections for the next game when Dag tries to get his revenge and rescue Silja.

One issue I ma having with Battlesystem is when characters fight it seemd like a pillow fight. Low armor and only a few hits per round means the combat goes on a long time. Has anyone figured out a mod so character combat moves quicker?

If it is character vs. character, try using RPG rules, and running 10, 1-minute combat rounds, per Turn in BS. Just bear in mind that you will be switching rules systems, and it will be a bit dis-jointed.

Otherwise, switch to BattleSystem Skirmish rules. These rules are for small engagements, and I think they would be a better fit for this type of scenario -- more skirmish, than mass battle.

BS Skirmish was available as a PDF, from RPGNow.com, many years ago, but WotC is not currently offering it (BattleSystem mass battle rules are once again available for download, however). You may wish to search Amazon.com, and e-Bay, for hard copies. They could, in fact, replace the RPG combat rules -- as written, they have a thin veneer of RPG rules on top of the mini's combat rules already. They're fun, and fast playing, compared to the RPG combat systems. Cheers!