It's been two years since I first played Mighty Armies with Editor in Chief Bill . Now we are starting a new campaign, but this time with my own Orcs and Dwarves! Since I'm on vacation here in the United States, Bill went ahead and sent me the miniatures from the TMP collection - it was easier to send me everything now, rather than when I am back in the Philippines.
I will be able to play the game on my own when I go back home, and I hope to show the other editors how to play too.
Bill and I are not in the same part of the United States, so we're playing virtually. He can see the battle through my laptop cam and Skype. We're still using the original Mighty Armies rules (first edition).
The game went this way:
For this campaign, we switched sides - I am now the Orcs, and Bill is the Dwarves.
Even though the Dwarf King gets the Tactician bonus, I won the dieroll, so Bill had to set up first. Dwarves are expensive in points, so he only had a few stands that he placed in a single line. His right was close to some woods, and he placed his crossbows on his left flank.
I then placed my stands after studying what he had done. Although I have won all of our games so far, I was worried this time. The fact that I had plenty of troops was not much of an advantage, because Dwarves are tough! My strategy was to keep my warriors in large groups, so that they could win combats more easily.
Therefore, I placed a large block of warriors in the middle of my battleline, two ranks deep (with my Warlord in the second rank). I put archers, Goblins and Wolf Riders on my flanks.
I won the dieroll for the first move (despite the Tactician bonus again!), and with good rolls for the first few turns, I had no trouble moving all of my troops to advance. Bill, on the other hand, was rolling poorly, and chose not to advance.
On my right flank, I let the Wolf Riders run forward until they could launch arrows at the Dwarf crossbowmen. Unfortunately, they missed. (Wolf Riders are poor archers, and Dwarves are armored targets.) On his turn, he fired back at my Wolf Riders and killed them...
On the next turn, I made a charge down the center of the battlefield with my Warlord and his supports, smashing into the Dwarf King at the center of the Dwarf battleline.
I won the combat, forcing the Dwarves to retreat, and Bill had to choose one stand to eliminate. He sacrificed one of his crossbow stands. (Because the Dwarves are Disciplined, they retreated but remained facing my troops.)
On Bill's move, he hit me on both flanks. On my right flank, he wheeled his remaining crossbow stand around to fire on my Orc Hordes,... but he missed. On my left flank, he wheeled his warriors and charged into the flank of my warriors, but despite the bonus for charging and flanking me, he lost the combat! One of his Dwarf Warrior stands was killed, and the other one retreated.
Looking at the battlefield, I knew at this point that victory was mine. It's pretty easy to win when you outnumber your foe.
On my turn, I decided to split up my Warlord's group. Two stands wheeled to the right to charge the crossbows. The other four stands charged the Dwarf King again!
I won the battle with the crossbows and wiped them out.
Unfortunately, I lost the combat against the Dwarf King and his warriors. This surprised me, because it was four stands against two... Dwarves are tough! I had to eliminate a stand, and my Warlord and his soldiers ran away.
Then I remembered the Wolf Riders on my left flank, and had them shoot at the Dwarf Warriors that retreated earlier. The Dwarves were slain!
At this point, we realized that I had killed enough Dwarves to win the game. I am still undefeated!