HORDES OF THE THINGS:
Battle Reports

On Friday, I managed to fit in four games in one evening. Here are the battle reports.

Battle 1 - Elves vs Chaos

Elves

1 Hero General, 1 Magician, 3 Knights, 4 Shooters, 1 Spear

Chaos

1 Behemoth General, 1 God, 1 Paladin (!?), 2 Knights, 2 Beasts, 1 Blade, 2 Hordes

This was a very short and scrappy game. The Elves held back their Shooters and advanced with the Hero, Magician and Knights. The forces of Chaos were unable to deploy to their full width because of constricting terrain. They advanced the Beasts through this terrain, and everything else in a big clump fronted by the expendable Hordes. The Hordes fell to the Knights, and both Generals (Elf Lord and Giant Troll) locked in a fruitless battle. In an attempt to be clever, the Elves broke up their line and ended up blocking the recoil of a couple of their own elements, including the general. The Troll (Behemoth) forced him to recoil, he couldn't, died, and the Elves lost the battle. The God never appeared.

Battle 2 - Dwarves vs Pirates

Dwarves

1 Hero General, 10 Blades, 1 Shooter

Pirates

1 Hero General, 6 Warband, 2 Shooters, 1 Artillery, 1 Water Lurker

The longest and closest game. The armies faced each other across a wide river with woods on their respective left flanks. The Pirates hoped that the Dwarves would cross the river to them as otherwise the Artillery would pummel them unchallenged. The Dwarves did not disappoint, but crossed far downstream from the main Pirate army. Despite harassment from Sharks (Water Lurkers) they soon had a number of elements bearing down on the Pirate's left flank. Desperate charges held off the assault, the Pirate Captain entered the fray (Avast There, Ha-Har!) and the assault was held. On the right flank, the Pirates crossed the river with their Shooters covered by the Artillery, and routed the Dwarven crossbows. With the Dwarf attack stalled, the Pirates plunged into the water to attack the remaining Blades. The Dwarves reached their break point when the Sharks put in a third and final appearance and killed an element of Blades outright. With 12AP destroyed, they lost the battle.

Battle 3 - Knights of the Round Table vs Eagles

Arthur

1 Hero General, 1 Hero, 1 Magician, 4 Knights, 2 Shooters

Eagles

1 Aerial Hero General, 1 Magician, 4 Flyers, 2 Blades, 1 Beast

The Eagle forces formed up with the Blades, Magician and Beasts in a line next to their Stronghold, covered by two Eagles (Flyers). The other two Eagles and the Hero were in a column to one side. Arthur was constricted by terrain and formed up his Knights in two adjacent columns, leading one personally and fronting the other with Lancelot (the other Hero). The Shooters lurked in a wood and Merlin hovered on the flank of the column. The Eagles sent the flying column forward into the rear of Arthur's forces, staying on the opposite side of a river from Merlin in order to disrupt his spell casting. They fell on the rear of the Knight column, but failed to recoil the rearmost elements. Attracting the attention of Merlin and the Shooters they moved on the next two Knights in the column who were turned to face and were promptly trapped against the two Heros when they tried to recoil. Unfortunately the Heros now turned to face the attack and dispatched the Eagles Hero. Game over for the Eagles.

Because the aerial elements of the Eagles army cost an extra PIP to use, it's a very difficult army to bring to bear on the enemy, and seems to be doomed if the opposition has Magicians and/or Shooters as the Flyers have such low combat factors. The column attack on the rear of the enemy army seemed to be a good plan, but it uses so many PIPs that the rest of the army can't be moved up to exploit it.

Battle 4 - Gnomes vs Elves

Gnomes

1 Spear General, 2 Spears, 3 Shooters, 2 Behemoths, 1 Magician

Elves

As Battle 1

Short but interesting. Both armies formed a line and advanced towards each other. On the Gnomes' left flank, Knights and Shooters clashed and honours were about even. The opposing Magicians would not risk bespelling each other; the Elves tried to force the Behemoths to flee, and the Gnomes targetted the Elven general. Eventually the Gnomes got lucky, and the Elven Hero was bespelled. Unfortunately, since the Gnomes had lost a Behemoth the casualty points were equal, and the game continued. The next Elf PIP roll was a 6, so they rescued their Hero from enchantment and placed him next to the Gnomes' Stronghold (a tasteful pond with lily pads on it and surrounded by toadstools). He attacked the Stronghold, captured it, and the Elves won the battle.

Lots of fun all round. We won two games each and got to try out a variety of troop types and armies to boot.