ALMOST BLOODLESS RAID!
Unfortunately at present I've no way of taking images let alone posting them, so I'm going to have to describe things the best I can.
THE FIGURES.
Clan of the Sea Dragon.
Mostly Saga Viking shield-maidens with a few Wargames Foundry, Shadow Forge and Bad Squiddo Games figures throw for variety.
Leader; Yarla Sibbi Fine Hair, chainmail coat, helmet, shield and sword.
Heroes; Yarla Vigdis Iron Tits, Yarla Bothild Long Axe and Yarla Dotta Bear Kin. All have some type of body armour and head protection, all are armed with either long, sharp, axes, or, big, heavy hammers so they don't carry shields.
Carla; All carry some type of hand weapon and throwing axe. Some have leather armour, a few even have chainmail, about half have helmets, all carry shields.
Great umBongo.
General, heroes, rank and file plus villagers, all from Wargames Foundry's Darkest Africa ranges. The archers are from. Copplestone Castings Amazon Archers pack. Temple Guards are from a maker I can't remember the name of.
Leader; Great Indunna Shanika, no armour or shield, two-handed cutting and bashing weapon.
Indunnas; Baako Long Spear and Titilayo Strong Arm. No armour, but they both carry shields. Baako carries a long thrusting spear while Titilayo carries the traditional umBongon throwing and stabbing spears, both carry some type of hand weapon.
Temple Guard; Long thrusting spears and large square shields, they also wear frightening wooden face masks.
Impis; No armour or helmets. They all carry large, oval, wooden shields. Their weapons are the traditional umBongon short, stabbing and throwing spear, some also carry swords.
Archers: No armour, shields or helmets. All carry a longbow type bow and some sort of hand weapon.
Villagers; unarmed and unarmoured, just there to be slaughtered.
Unless otherwise stated all units are twelve figures strong and represent about a dozen real people. Named characters are single figure units.
Rules: My adaptation of Osprey's 'Dragon Rampant' rule set.
THE TERRAIN.
There is a temple in the middle of playing area, the temple contains a 'solid' gold statue of Qelhatat the Great, the legendary founder of umBongo. The temple is 'guarded' by three priestess and two temple workers. It has palm trees growing against the north east side, there are also some smaller palms in front of the temple. In the north-east corner of the area is a small farm surrounded on two sides by palm trees. The farm is occupied by the farmer and her wife and their three children plus a really big Cape Buffalo type animal (six or seven feet tall at the shoulder, with a bad temper!). In the south west corner of the area is a small house where the local Witch Doctor lives (an attractive, pleasant young woman known for her good works in the local area). Her garden contains the local 'Tree of Life' and a small nursery for immature Trees of Life.
The area is generally flat and is dotted with clumps of trees you would expect to find in a hot country where the locals don't wear much in the way of clothing.
THE SITUATION.
Having heard of the legendary golden statue of Qelhatat the Great, Yarla Sibbi Fine Hair gathered her friends together and began to recruit warriors for a raid into umBongon territory. Unfortunately as most of the best warriors are off with Queen Thorkatla Hallidottir in the north fighting the evil 'Little People' and their bestial allies, Sibbi has to make do with the lower quality Carla to fill up the spaces in her Longships.
Unperturbed by the quality of her Carla and their equipment, Sibbi and her forces jump aboard several Longships and set sail across the Inner Sea to the magical, mystical, shores of umBongo. After only a couple of days at sea Sibbi's forces reach the golden, palm edged beaches of umBongo.
Thinking that the beach might make a perfect target for future holidays, Sibbi orders her ships to be beached and unloaded. After which everyone takes a dip in the warm, clear waters...unloading had been hot, sweaty, work after all.
Unbeknownst, to the Sea Dragon raiders a local fisherwoman, was watching them from the trees. Becoming frightened by these strange, pale skinned women, she ran home to her village. On hearing the story of these white skinned, yellow haired, warriors, the Village Head Woman, goes for help taking all her valuables with her (just to be safe).
On the morning after the initial landing, Sibbi ordered her forces to 'gear up' and get ready to move out. After a short delay while everyone combs their hair and puts on their make-up. The Sea Dragon raiders plunge into the jungle lining the edge of the beach...and almost immediately plunge out the other side. The so-called jungle had not been as much of a major obstacle as everyone had feared. The raiders now found themselves within a couple of hundred paces of the target temple.
As Sibbi leads her forces towards fame and fortune, she forms her Carla into the traditional shield wall while posting herself and her friends in the middle of the wall. At this very moment War Leader Shanika arrives with two Impis and a unit of archers. Shanika herself is accompanied by a small escort of Temple Guards (six figures) and the two famous Indunnas, Baako and Titilayo. The umBongon force outnumbers the Sea Dragon Raiders by nearly two to one.
Unperturbed by the sight of the umBongon's red war shields, Sibbi ordered her Carla to advance. The Carla on her left flank step off and advance briskly towards where they expect the advancing umBongon Impi to appear. However, the Carla on Sibbi's right start to think that no amount of gold is going to get them to fight the angry, dark brown women who are making their way towards them.
Sighing heavily, Sibbi sent Bothild Long Axe off to the left, just to keep the Carla focused on all that gold. While Dotta Bear Kin went to place her boot on the butts of the Carla and get them moving. Then, accompanied only by Vigdis Iron Tits, Sibbi advanced on the temple.
While all this is going on War Leader Shanika sent one impi to the north of the temple and the other to the south. Her archers are sent further to the south in the hopes of outflanking the invaders. Like her opponent she has sent one Indunna with each of her impies just to keep them on the right track. Leading the temple guard, Shanika moves to back up the impi that is moving to the south of the temple.
Coming around the corner of the temple, Sibbi and Vigdis come face to face with the first of the umBongon impies. Pausing only to hitch up her long red dress, Yarla Sibbi screams her warcry and charges into the umBongons, seeking out the umBongon Indunna, she engages her in single combat. Not to be out done, Vigdis charges the impi brandishing her huge warhammer above her head as she too screams out her warcry.
Shocked by the appearance of the two raiders the impi came to an untidy halt and receives the Sea Dragon charge halted. At first Sibbi had difficulty getting around Baako's longspear, but she puts her helmeted head down, raises her shield and battles on. Vigdis, on the other hand, is sending umBongon warriors flying in all directions, killing three with the first swing of her hammer. The umBongon counter attack is thwarted by Vigdis' 'iron tits' and has no effect.
While this is going on, in the north Bothild forms her Carla into a shield wall between two areas of dense bush; she can hear enemy warriors somewhere ahead but cannot see them. In the south, Dotta's Carla take up a position that gives them a ringside view of the battle going on between Sibbi, Vigdis and the unBongons. No matter what threats Dotta makes they refuse to advance, however they do form a shield wall...just in case.
Back at the fight, Sibbi has got the better of Baako and is forcing her back having now got passed the point of her long spear. The impi was faring no better as Vigdis swung her great hammer crushing skulls and smashing bones while the spears of the impi simply bounce off Vigdis' metallic bosom. Eventually the impi can take no more and turn to run. Raising her hammer once more, Vigdis slaughters the few survivors.
Watching as the last few warriors were crushed beneath Vigdis' hammer, Skanika leads her temple guards forward only to be charged by the now berserk Vigdis. Standing to fight, Skanika's lack of any form of protection proves her downfall. The fight between Vigdis and Shanika lasts but a moment. As Shanika tried to penetrate Vigdis' armour with her cutting and bashing weapon, Vigdis brought her hammer down on the umBongon chief's head smashing it like it was an over ripe melon. Seeing their leader killed the temple guard were the first to remember appointments at the hear-dressers and run from the field. They were swiftly followed by the archers and the remaining impi. Strangely the witch doctor, villagers and priestesses hold their ground.
With the battle effectively over, Yarla Sibbi climbed the temple steps and slaughtered the priestesses where they stood before coming to a halt in front of the life sized statue of Qelhatat the Great. Turning towards her victorious troops she held her sword and shield aloft in triumph.
"Right then," she cried over the cheers of her adoring Carla, "lets get this thing back to the ships! Did anyone bring a crowbar?"
The Aftermath.
Oddly the Sea Dragon Raiders did not, kill, loot or r*pe the villagers, they didn't even carry them of as slaves. True the priestesses were dead of course, but were now, no doubt, sitting at the feet of their goddess in their version of paradise...or maybe they were just dead.
The umBongon warriors didn't stop running until they came to a kraal were they explained how they'd all fought bravely against a numerically superior foe armed with magic weapons and had only run away when Skanika had been killed.
The Carla, who'd basically done nothing during the entire fight, congratulated themselves on a hard fought victory and started to imagine what they'd do with all the gold they'd been promised.
Yarla Sibbi, watched as the statue was taken to the ships and told herself that next time she'd only bring other Yarla with her. That way the gold wouldn't have to shared with a bunch of Carla who'd basically done nothing.
On getting the statue home, Sibbi found that it was only gold plated not solid gold. Disgusted she went away to plan her revenge.
I did say 'almost bloodless'.
Good stuff
Great background, AAR and here's hoping you can find someway to post pics in the future :).
The posting of pics is a problem.
I don't even own any type of camera anymore and to be honest I've no idea about how to get a picture from my 'camera' to this site! And you really do need pictures to do this sort of thing justice.
Still...
A cracking report ! :-bd
Cheers - Phil :)
Quote from: Steeleye on 16 November 2020, 01:07:53 PM
The posting of pics is a problem.
I don't even own any type of camera anymore and to be honest I've no idea about how to get a picture from my 'camera' to this site! And you really do need pictures to do this sort of thing justice.
Not even a camera on your phone? That's the only one I own currently.
Sounds like a fun game though!
Great report
Thank-you for the kind words.
No I haven't got a camera on my phone, I asked the guy in the shop for the cheapest, least complicated, basic phone he'd got...I got the one costing £1, works fine for what I want!
As I'm unlikely to post pictures (which is a pity coz I used to be quite a good photographer) in the near future, I think I'll make any further posts more of a narrative...you know the sort of thing...blood flying in and arc from your sword, heads bouncing as they hit the ground and so on.