The Battle of Three Armies

Started by Duke Speedy of Leighton, 27 May 2017, 01:38:40 AM

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Duke Speedy of Leighton

27 May 2017, 01:38:40 AM Last Edit: 27 May 2017, 01:51:33 AM by mad lemmey
What ho!
Last night, John and I were due to play our monthly Warband game, and I got a message from Jarkko (our Finnish correspondent) asking if I had a game, so we invited him in. Given a choice of armies, he plumped for my Hugh Elves (High Elves, but awfully nice chaps), which I hadn't run myself yet. One quick list write later, he was ready to go. He picked up the rules quickly. It was the usual hilarity and failed dice rolls. Great game.
John brought his Elves (as ever, led by Perivale the Inert), but due to a slight miscalculation ended up with a list without its 200 point core being complete, but he got to try out his chariots at last.
I used my half finished  Dwarves ( not bad when you see them in the photos considering I only started them on Monday).
Jarkko:
General d6+2
Mage d6+2
2 x powerful archers
3 x warriors with shieldwall
2 x knights with fierce, one with hero

John:
D6+2 general
D6+2 Mage
2 x powerful bows
2 x guard archers w powerful
Chariots
Ents

Me:
D6+2 dwarf General with resolute, shieldwall & fierce (all those upgrades, he never saw combat)
D6 Mage
1 x berserkers with hero
5 x warriors with shieldwall and resolute
1 x shooters with slow and powerful

We decided to go for a 'king-of-the-hill' type scenario, he who held the hill at the end wins, randomised initiative, with the winner deciding to go first or last, Malcom in the middle no then the other player being forces to either go first or last. We also randomised where the armies would deploy 1-4 quarters, 5 free choice, 6 opponents choose) John and Jarkko got the opposite table edges, and then they got to choose for me...
The terrain was very dense due to three players with d6+2 generals, central hill, two ravines, two small woods , a pond, a fortified hilltop settlement and an open flank.
they could have stuck me in a ravine and scuppered me, but they were nice and put me on a featureless plain, well away from the objective, with only my little legs to get me there! Humph!

Despite Jarkko's protestations that he was my ally, his forces wheeled my way over the hill covering his flank, while his hero led cavalry sprinted off around the objective hill to deal with John's flank.

John took the only sensible recourse to this, and his Ents rushed ahead into the wood that split his forces from Jarkkos. Jarkko tasked his archers and spears to work together to meet this threat.
I just walked forward, peeling off one unit of warriors to reveal my shooters, and detaching two warriors to deal with the Elven threat coming over the hill.
John realised he was in range with his archers, and started to pepper my front line. My General would spend many points rebuilding his forces morale, rather than getting involved.

Dwarf magic brought a few surprises, stripping John of command points (John had many turns of low dice, and inevitably not activating, again, and again, and again, and... stripping his points away hurt his manoeuvre at all), but the real jet is the Dwarf spell allowing extra protection, powerful, fear (in return for hits on the Mage) on two turns allowed an awful lot of hits to go in for not much return.

With John's main battle line facing me, I weathered the arrow storm and crashed into his line with my warriors. Many times, John was having to boost his bows with command points, especially when my dwarves had powerful (and at times, fear), it was not pleasent, it took a few turns, but his line started to waver.

Meanwhile, the ents had sprung from their wood, hitting Jarkko's archers in the flank with five dice, and losing, and retiring into the woods in shame! The second charge was more effective, eventually taking out the arches, but those were Jarkko's only losses!

John charged his chariots into my line, and they singularly failed to achieve! They pushed the berserkers, but the resolute warriors to their front dealt them enough hits to bounce them back. The chariot fell back, and the dwarf warriors charged them, finishing them off.

Jarkko came over the hill and his knights slammed into my dwarves... well, that was his plan until my Dwarves charged him! Unfortunately he was pushed back, which allowed them to charge back in and supported by spears, chewed through my warrior units guarding the flank of my advance. My berserkers redeployed, on one wound left, charged Jarkko's spears (which blocked his lethal knights from hitting me) and threw in 6 dice of attack (3, fierce +1, hero +1, charging +1), and only scored one hit! Would the berserkers hold?

John had detached a guard unit to deal with Jarkko's flanking knights, but it wasn't enough, they crashed through, and then hit John's Mage, at the same time as my warriors that had broken through the chariots (who had no space to retire and had disintegrated), which had failed to perform. For John it was a Mage sandwich was too much to stomach, that finished him off, but not without 6 powerful magic missiles into the knights, giving them a rather bloody nose.

This broke John, and we ended the game.

Jarkko held the hill, had only lost one unit of archers, so won.
I had lost two warriors (and my berserkers were nearly off), but I FINALLY beat John!
As I said, much hilarity all round.

A few photos:
The table, Dwarves nearest, John deploying his Elves. You can see the density of terrain.


John's deployment


The Hugh Elves deploy


The two elven armies turn to face the dwarves (no racial bias here), you can just make out the ents in the nearest wood, and Jarkko's knights charging (or being charged by) my dwarves, in the far distance, Jarkko's other knights round the hill.


My flank warriors being overwhelmed. In the distance you can see a unit taking a powerful hit (glass chip on counters) and my General with many, many points...


The final moments, John's ents engage the rear of Jarkko's spears on the nearest hill. His knights have broken through and threaten my flanks and rear. My dwarf shooters and Jarkko's bows on the hills are engaged in a shooting duel. The Elf Mage is sandwiched, and John's line is breaking.
You may refer to me as: Your Grace, Duke Speedy of Leighton.
2016 Pendraken Painting Competion Participation Prize  (Lucky Dip Catagory) Winner


sunjester


Techno


petercooman

Nice game!

What's the table size?

Duke Speedy of Leighton

You may refer to me as: Your Grace, Duke Speedy of Leighton.
2016 Pendraken Painting Competion Participation Prize  (Lucky Dip Catagory) Winner

fred.

Great write up

3 player games are always fun. Hard to know when to switch focus, to batter the player who is suddenly in the lead!
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DFlynSqrl

Great looking game and looks like it was a lot of fun!

Orcs

I am glad you enjoyed your Threesome!

Game looks good.

I will have to try it one day, when I can get over the mental block that using base widths gives me.
The cynics are right nine times out of ten. -Mencken, H. L.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. - Robert Louis Stevenson

Duke Speedy of Leighton

Then don't use base widths, use 100mm blocks!
You may refer to me as: Your Grace, Duke Speedy of Leighton.
2016 Pendraken Painting Competion Participation Prize  (Lucky Dip Catagory) Winner

Bloodaxe

Damn you photobucket.  I can't see any pics. Do you have a blog?

Duke Speedy of Leighton

Yes, but it's not up there, it was the last report before Photobucket went south!
https://madlemmey.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1
You may refer to me as: Your Grace, Duke Speedy of Leighton.
2016 Pendraken Painting Competion Participation Prize  (Lucky Dip Catagory) Winner