"15mm battlesystem report orcs vs elves with Dragon" Topic

So recently my son and I got in 2 games of battlesystem using 15mm miniatures mostly from Demonworld, BattleValor, Splintered Light and some 3d printed stuff I have printed.

This first report will go over the battle of my orc vs elf army. The orcs army had just shy of 400 figures on the table and the Elf army had about 250+ figures on the table, where my son (age 11) played the orcs, and I played the elves. Included in the orc army was a red dragon and the elves had a group of giant eagles and a group or pegasus riders. Both sides had a couple mages/shamans.

‌IMG_0777 by Albus Malum, on Flickr

There were no point systems used and while the orc and goblins and dragons out numbered, the troops of the elves were of greater quality. My son set up the terrain and placed his orc army on the side closest to the bridge which was trying to prevent him from crossing with his army. For the flying units, they were to arrive on the board at a random time, and random edge of the table ( pingpong in size). We also had a rule, that while they could stay on the table, they could only make 2 aerial attacks, (including only 2 breath weapon attacks for the dragon as he would not expend all just to fry some elves ( not suicidal)

On the second turn, the elves had the group of pegasus riders show up and they moved to threaten the orcs but not engaging, why the elves unit of unicorn riders ( which my daughter always tells me I cant let them die, raced to block off the bridge, but getting over whelmed by orcs, the next turn they teleported away to safety (I took them out of the game, and lost a powerful unit to keep my daughter happy, however I dont like loosing them either).

During turn 4 my eagle and a eagle riding mage appeared, while my units were racing towards the bridge, while orcs were beginning to file over the bridge. THen Trouble happened.

The dragon appeared, and in the worst possible place, he came in from my right flank near the rear of my army

]IMG_0785 by Albus Malum, on Flickr

Elven units scattering trying to get out of the path, eagles and pegagus racing to intercept. and the dragon circles arrows fly.. to no avail.. and fiery breath belches from the dragons mouth….

‌IMG_0786 by Albus Malum, on Flickr

The backbone of the elven army … those who survive.. scatter, while a lone elven mage on a eagle… casts… cant take a chance.. magic missle.. then the dragon circles again, as the great dragon flys overhead, once more, those few brave elves, who did not succumb to the awe of such a mighty beast, let their few arrows fly, most completely off the mark of bouncing off the dragons tough scales. but 2 lucky elves get a hit, and the mage lets fly another spell.. not enough to bring it down, but the dragon seeing the eagles and pegasus approaching, let one more breath free, then flew off the battle field.

Enough elves had fled or perished, and while a few small numbers were battling the orc and goblins who had crossed the bridge, there numbers were not great enough, especially seeing the great beasts ridden by the orcs just casually wade across the river. The elves would have to regroup, and find a new battle field in which to engage the orcs, and the next time, they must be successful…

A few more photos of some of the participants

]IMG_0807 by Albus Malum, on Flickr

some 3d printed elves

‌IMG_0795 by Albus Malum, on Flickr

and

‌IMG_0810 by Albus Malum, on Flickr

and some of the orcs

‌IMG_0817 by Albus Malum, on Flickr

a few more

‌IMG_0816 by Albus Malum, on Flickr

and

‌IMG_0779 by Albus Malum, on Flickr

A great time was had, by both myself and my son. The dragon was awesome, even if it layed waste to my army.

We did a few modification to the Battlesystem rules, we actually used a modified 1st edition AD&D combat instead of using the Battlesystem combat, and I actually think it went smother and faster. Previously, we have been playing 2nd ed. but what we did, was just the Ad@d AC and too hit tables, gave each figure average HP, rolled stacks of D20's then damage, and removed figures from the added totals. I will tell more about this in a latter post, but I think all in all, it was faster and easier then doing the (mimic of Warhammers) roll to hit, and rolls to reduce hits. a system Ive never really liked. Just roll to hit, do the damage, and be done. 1st ed AD&D works at the dnd table, and it works with 700 miniatures on the table, probably faster then people can run a complex battle in 5e DnD with all the nonsense they've added to it.

Great game, thanks for posting!

Nice game, nice report. The mini's are painted quite nicely. The 15mm size offers many advantages for BattleSystem, or any war game, over 28mm, for size of engagement. Still, I prefer 28mm as my eyes are not getting any younger.

I used a Ping Pong Table for a couple of decades: 9 feet by 5 feet, is a lot of area to set up a game, especially with 15mm figures! If the undercarriage is too flimsy, or it wears out, you can install two sets of folding table legs to each half of the table. I used construction adhesive to glue squares of plywood to the bottom, as the tabletop was too thin; this thickened it enough for the folding leg assemlby's screws to securely bite into it -- was solid, and stable, for around 25 years of both AD&D RPG game sessions (plenty of room for players and the DM to spread out), as well as many a miniatures game! If you find your table moves too much, when you bump the edges, you can buy a set of steamer trunk hasps, at your local hardware store: use two sets of them to latch the two table halves together, across the middle. This binds the two halves together, making the whole more stable, as well as preventing them from shifting, due to a bump.

Always enjoy BattleSystem/fantasy game reports. Thanks for sharing. Cheers!

A couple years ago I bought the pingpong table for my wife, I better not damage it or she will get mad at me. ( what else is new:) ) if you notice in the last picture, there is half of another pingpong table in the back of the picture. so I could expand it if need be. so far we have only played in the long direction. I don't quite have enough miniatures painted for a good Phalanx game spanning the full 10 feet. Visually, 28mm is great, takes a lot more space, and cant fit as many miniatures on the table. I really like 15mm but if I could convert everything I own into one scale, it would be 1:72 / 25mm, which would still be small enough to have a good size battle, but larger to make 3d printing miniatures a little easier. A lot of STLs people make for miniatures, they design for 32 to 35mm which is way to large even for DnD. I am seriously considering starting to use 15mm for Dnd. It would really open up the possibilities.

I hear you! I am a huge fan of true 25mm, which is really 1/72 scale, in spite of the arguments otherwise.

I bought into the Prince August molds, around 20 years ago. They produce 25mm figures, which I really liked. A few years later, I sold off most of my miniatures for a charity project which fell apart, after I sold them off. That took most of my PA mini's away from my collection. I started over, with a lot of Mage Knight mini's, as well as 1/72 fantasy and some historical mini's. I wish all of my mini's were true 25mm, or 1/72 scale.

I use a Chessex Mondo Mat, 4.5 feet by 8.5 feet, for my AD&D games. I had a custom-built gaming table made around five years ago, 5.5 feet by 9.5 feet. The Mondo Mat is fantastic. I also went into both 2D and 3D cardstock dungeons and buildings and castles… Fun rabbit-hole! I printed out my 2D Dungeon tiles onto paper, applied them to the glue side of peel-n-stick vinyl floor tiles, cut to size. I love my 2D/3D terrain, but for my RPG's, it is too cumbersome to use. For my mini's games, though, it is really fun.

I game with 54mm Army Men figures, having written my own rules, back in 1998, for my sons. For that, I go for 12 feet by 30 feet table sizes, when possible. Anything smaller, is just not in the same ballpark for fun… Those tend to be convention-sized games, without the convention. More fun than a human being ought be allowed! Too infrequent for my taste, though. LOL!

Larger BattleSystem games tend to break down into separate battles, across a larger table space, in my experience. If you have the players to handle it, this is not an issue, it is just something that naturally occurs. My last BS game had 8-10 players, and I tacked on two folding tables to the end of my gaming table; the players on that end fought their own battle, pretty much. They had a blast, and so did the rest of us, on the other end of the table space, but we were pretty much separated. Cheers!