Dwarven rampage?

 Today, we introduced Rhod to Midgard, and he took command of half an Orc army with Phil, That left Lawrence and myself with my Dwarves, both armies were 400pts.

As it was Rhod's first game, we tried to keep the game as uncompetitive as we could.

The greatest strength of the Orc army was under Phil on the Orcish right, facing my strong left. I was most concerned about the Trolls and having my single unit of Dwarf Scouts facing 3 units of Orcish Archers!

Here, Lawrence was facing Rhod. Basic Orcs backed up by 2 units of Goblin Wolfriders.

Unbelievably, the Orc C-in-C challenged me again to single combat!

...with the same result!

The Wolfriders charged across the table, but ended short, so got charged by Lawrences Spears...the Wolves were destroyed totally!

In the centre, my Hearthguard advanced, supported by the big catapult.

On my left, my Dwarves were lucky, suffering no loss from the massed Archers.

Keeping Phil's heavy troops back was my order of the day!

On the Orcy left, Rhod advanced, untroubled by the occasional rock coming his way!

I tried to time my attack in the centre to stop the Orcs getting the charge!

The Orcs again advanced short, and my Guards shredded them!

I had thrown all my 'Mighty Deeds' into the attack, and my wounded C-in-C paid the price when I rolled a 1 on my 'Risk to Heroes'

My Champion led the other Hearthguard unit in and just look at the die roll I made!

The survivors fled!

On the right, Lawrence rolled as well as me...

His 3 units demolished the 2 units of Orc Warriors.

The surviving Wolfrider unit had been tied down by Lawrence's Dwarf Scouts, out of picture, sorry.

The game ended as the Orcs Reputation collapsed, we checked ours, and we still had 15!!!

Poor Rhod, he had a tough entrance to Midguard, I just hope it didn't put him off!

Battling the Barbary Pirates!

 Today, at Phil's suggestion, we got Galleys and Galleons out again...its been a while and we struggled to relearn the rules! - still, we had a couple of fun games and I think we have the rules sorted in our minds again!

Our first game...to relearn the rules...was the Treasure Hunt scenario, where we each had a Xebec and a galley, we had 6 turns (not enough!) to land on each of the sandy islands and the winner would be the player with the most treasure!

Our typical force (These were mine)

The 'Terrain'

Phil started opposite me.

...and Lawrence to my right!

I started detaching my galley to check 'Castle Island'. 

Phil was quickly at his first island.

His landing party returned with a boat full of Luvverly treasure!

My Galley sent a boatload of greedy sailors ashore...

but they ended up as lunch for the locals!

Phil, with a favourable wind landed on the big island...

Lawrence, having difficulty navigating up wind passed my ships, who helpfully warned them about the natives!!! - in the distance you can see Lawrence's galley finding no more treasure...just a sandy beach!

Phil's Galley landed a party...

...and again they returned loaded with treasure!

My boats raced for the same big island.

...but the game ended just before I got a landing party ashore from my Xebec!

Phil was the big winner, Lawrence was as empty handed as me, but at least he hadn't got any crew eaten by cannibals!

The Second game:

I started with 2 Merchantmen, the 'Troy' and the 'Toulouse', I had to get to the far corner of the table to escape.

Phil had a Xebec to my left...and Lawrence to my right.

After heading down the direct route across the table, (and thus baiting the pirates with a favourable wind to advance to cut me off.) - I cut to port, getting a better wind for my ships, and confusing the pirates, hopefully.

Lawrence's Xebec was making good progress, paralleling my ships.

Phil had to reduce sail to avoid overshooting my new trajectory.

You can see the situation at this point in this picture.

As the wind changed, it slowed me and sped up the pirates, curses!

My command failed, and Phil's pirates got a crashing broadside into the Troy!

He was quickly past, but Lawrence was now rounding on my battered ship.

I swung Troy ahead of the pirates, while Toulouse shot up the chasing Xebec.

Phil had raced round to intercept Troy, which had recovered some damage, but another command failure meant the Troy rammed him! Fortunately, some good shooting from Toulouse disrupted Lawrence's Xebec, which sailed out of control off the table!

Sadly, Phil grappled the Troy, and his bloodthirsty crew forced my crew to Strike their Colours.

Fortunately, the Toulouse was left with a clear run to the escape corner, and amazingly, due to the damage caused to the Xebecs, my lone surviving Merchantman was declared the winner...just!

Fun games!!!

Return of the Orcs!

 Today we were two at the club, Phil being at the Salute show down south!

Lawrence was keen to have another game of Midgard, and brought the standard book Elf army, so I brought the book Orc army I had beaten (just!) with my Dwarves last game. 

Sorry some of my pics are a bit blurry, these was something wrong with the focus today!!!

The Armies at game start, Elves, defending, to the right.

My right, 3 Orc Warrior units and my Goblin Wolfriders.

In the centre, 4 Warrior units with my war-chief.

My left with Trolls and light archers and the other Warriors.

Lawrence had Heavy Cavalry to the left of his Warrior line, with 2 units of Archers behind.

On their right, more Heavy Cavalry with the Elf lord.

I started by sending my Goblins forward.

The Centre held back.

On my left the Lights went forward with the Trolls.

Lawrence moved his line right, to face my centre.

His Heavy Cavalry moved warily forwards.

I decided to advance the centre to support my Wolves.

I failed a couple of second moves, so the line was slow!

I did not fancy the Elvish Heavy cavalry charging me, but I could not get round their flank, so would have to suck it up!

Even my light Archers were failing moves, just wandering through the wood.

The Heavy Cavalry charged, and as expected they won big time, and got a lot of Reputation for first charge, etc.

Brittle means Brittle!!!

On my right, the 2 sides were glaring at each other!

My Trolls passed their second move, so were able to charge the Elvish horse! I wiped them out, but they managed to badly damage the Trolls!

I would have to use my Skirmishers to harass the Elvish infantry!

The Elf Lord moved behind their line and charged in with their left wing Cavalry!

I was knocked back, but my Orkses were saved by the wolves hitting the Elves in flank!

That Elf Lord was the touch of death, but he had helped damage my units!

My Trolls sped behind the Elf flank, they were vulnerable.

The Elf centre advanced, Lawrences reaction to a low Reputation I guessed.

He had cleverly timed his charge to avoid giving my Orcs the charge.

One of my Units collapsed!

On my right, the Wolves again flanked an Elvish Spear unit and it broke!

Another Orc Warrior unit broke and ran...even though I had the advantage with a flank attack with my War Chief!!!

A final unit from my centre broke...

...followed by another, shot to shrivens by Elves!

I lost a final 2 Reputation - I only had one left!, and Lawrence only had 3.

Another close run thing, but at least the good guts won!

I think I may be cursed with bad dice in this game too the way things are going, at least Lawrence threw awfully when his left wing Cavalry broke, so it wasn't all one way!!!