The Dragon Men Barons, Baron Ironhelm and Baron Thoran are rival claimants for the Throne of Aelgard. Having both hired mercenary forces their armies clash, the aim...the death of their rival!
The Dark Tower was placed centrally on the table, a dice throw moving it a few BW westwards. The Dark Tower is a place of fear, thus it radiates Fear and causes fear on all units within a few BW, (see the photo's).
This was the theme for our latest game of Warband. This time we were playing our own variant of the 'Grudge Match' scenario but with 4 armies on the table. We opted to choose forces of only 350 points, choosing the weakest general and magic user for each force. The remaining points were split roughly equally between core units and optional units. I was Baron Ironhelm with good friend Aaron as my Orcish allies. Across the table Ste was Baron Thoran with Johnny playing his Barbarian allies.
(http://i1248.photobucket.com/albums/hh499/Merlin1960/grudge%20set%20up_zpsq0ex4ycl.jpg)
The armies deployed.
We won Initiative in the first turn but threw poorly for Motivation and Magic thus not much moved. Baron Thoran and his barabaric allies all headed my way, intent on my death with the giants leading the way. backed by a rather large mammoth. Turn two, initiative went to the enemy so the giants charged into contact with my Baron, it looked like the game was going to be over very quickly. Thankfully I was able to get some units into contact with the Giants to help my Baron and the Dragon charged into the mammoth. The giants and my Baron both took hits as did the Mammoth and the Dragon.
(http://i1248.photobucket.com/albums/hh499/Merlin1960/main%20fight_zpskullzkr2.jpg)
My orcish allies ignored the fear causing Dark Tower and raced across towards the main battle. Having concentrated their efforts on a quick kill of my Baron, Baron Thoran's men were then flanked by the Orcs, causing them all sorts of problems, (Wolf Riders with 'Hero' is a very good combo!). After a couple of rounds of melee I was able to rout both the giants and the mammoth, but had suffered quite a few points of damage myself. Trying to move away from the advancing Orcs Baron Thoran was suddenly in charge range for my dragon, I dithered a little here, did I charge the routing Giants and get rid of them for good or did I try for an heroic charge on my enemy. Well, we were supposed to be trying to kill the Baron so, with a good throw for Command points I went for the Baron, scoring 4 out of 4 hits (cue the Happy Dance) and chucked in all my command points scoring 4 more hits, resulting in one dead Baron and more Happy Dance! Objective achieved, Game over after 5 very eventful turns.
(http://i1248.photobucket.com/albums/hh499/Merlin1960/Mammoth_zps033zxvzh.jpg)
This mammoth model I found lurking under a pile of stuff, a quick balsa wood howdah was assembled, crew added and he was ready for battle.
(http://i1248.photobucket.com/albums/hh499/Merlin1960/baron%20and%20dragon_zpsjdcig8g6.jpg)
Baron Ironhelm and his Dragon do the Happy Dance
Overall we thought the game worked well with 4 armies of 350 points, using low powered characters helped as it diluted their effects. Next week we may have 5 players so I will be thinking of a scenario to suit. My friends are enjoying the game so much that two of them have now ordered their own copy of the rules and are creating armies of their own, great stuff!
Cool report, and nice looking armies.
I do like the way Warband is encouraging the addition of a few extra figures to a Pendraken army - I always like it when a set of rules makes you think what else would go with an existing army.
I am slightly disturbed by the Dragon doing an Happy Dance though. :o
Some fantastic ideas here.
Great batrep.
Cracking minis too. :-bd
Great stuff ! :-bd
Cheers - Phil
Agreed getagrip, some really interesting ideas in that game. It's interesting to see a flexible application of the rules, terrain effects, and army builds working so well.
A very impressive set of minis too. I particularly like that the Baron's Chromatic Dragon overlord has turned up to make sure his minion fights well!
The game looked like a lot of fun too, with some high risk moves, punching and counter-punching going on all over the field!
Excellent work sir! :-bd
Bodvoc, how did you handle the turn sequence with 4 players?
Nice report! :)
For the turn sequence we made the Baron on each side overall commander, so those players did the initiative rolls then each player did their own command and magic rolls. Then we just followed the normal game sequence and as every player was used to the rules, whenit was my turn, both me and my allies moved, shot etc...
Great stuff, impressed at lasting five turns - I thought when I started reading it'd be over on Turn 2 there :D
Where's the blue dragon from? It's very nice!
The blue dragon is a D and D painted mini, repainted to suit my army scheme-blue!
Cheers! I might keep an eye out if one comes up cheap, I like the pose :)
Great report and lovely looking armies, the war mammoth is a cracking looking figure and the howdah looks really cool too. :-bd
Great battle. Thanks for posting it.
Wow, really like the pictures and your figures !
Thanks for sharing,
Which sieze of base do you use?
I am using 6cm wide by 3cm deep bases as I had started on basing all my 10mm figures to this size just before Warband came out. I am thinking about doing an 'official' Warband army, based on the 10cmm by 5cm bases, but not just yet.
6x3cm looks good to me
My fantasy is on 60x30, about to enlarge to 100x50...
Is 60 x 30 an Impetus size? Useful to be able to include existing Ancient armies.
No, it was the size bases I had left over after my AWI Americans were done...
Quote from: WeeWars on 18 April 2015, 10:09:30 AM
Is 60 x 30 an Impetus size? Useful to be able to include existing Ancient armies.
Going by the forums anyone playing impetus in 6mm and some 10mm players go with 60x30 bases
We play impetus in 10mm on 80mm wide bases, same as for 15mm. I think 60mm wide is "official suggestion" for 10 or 6mm though :)
An weirdly enough our WSS era to 7YW is based on 60 by 30mm!