2022-10-19, Warlords of Erehwon Campaign: The Battle of Temple Hill

It's been a while as I have been busy getting the living room ready for this Hell'O'Weekend, tidying up after several gaming sessions and decorating with all kinds of dead things.

But the day after Emil and I duked it out at Knightsbridge, Kevin visited my humble abode for an introduction to WoE.

After their defeat at Knightsbridge, the Dwarves of Hammerdeep fell back along the track towards the Heartlands of the Elven Realm, and at the intersection of Temple Hill they met the pickets of a Human force arriving from the Northwestern Jarldoms.

The two forces assembled just Southwest of Temple Hill and awaited the arrival of the Undead horde with grim determination.

And, arrive they did along the same path from the Northeast as used by the Dwarves.

While the Allies deployed from the Southwest.

Both sides used the first turn to deploy further. The Skull Chucker got a shot in on some Vikings with its Howling Horror ammo.

On Turn 2 I had a blunder. My Skeleton Riders advanced too soon, which made them vulnerable to an attack from the Hounds of Odin, who would soon annihilate my Zombies.

Lots of carnage on my right flank. The Skeleton Riders aren't all that tough when they don't get to charge (Str+1) with their lances (SV3), and their low number dwindles quickly against a numerous adversary.

A unit of Skeleton Spearmen finished off the Wolves, while the rest of my force attacked head on over Temple Hill.

Which, in retrospect, was a mistake; too many missile armed units on the other side got a chance to shoot at a single target all the time.

At the end of Turn 3, my army had taken serious casualties, and even my Undead Champion failed to do much damage in a brawl with the Dwarven Hero.

In Turn 4, my warband broke, and the Dice Gods did not let me have a last chance to even the score a bit. My Champion even got banished by some Vikings.

I made two grave mistakes in this game: Not keeping my shock cavalry back to strike at the enemy with a charge, and pressing on across the hill. Being heavily 'outgunned' by the opposing force I should have stayed behind the hill and let the enemy come to me, so I could chose how to respond, but I got cocky because of the three concecutive victories of the Undead, and I paid the price.

The Defiler fell back into the Northern Wilderness to regroup and plead for reinforcements from his master, the Necromancer.

2022-10-18, Warlords of Erehwon Campaign - The Defense of Knightsbridge

After the defeat at the ancient watchtower, the surviving Elves fell back to the hamlet of Knightsbridge where they met up with a contingent of Dwarves from the mountainhold commonly known as Hammerdeep (situated in the mountains somewaht east of Desolation Pass.

Hoping that the heavily forrested terrain would slow the advance of the Undead host, the allies took up position in and around Knightsbridge.

Unbeknownst to the defenders, though, the Defiler had called upon the foul magic of the Necromancer and made most of his warband 'Spectral', so the woodland did not hamper the advance of the restless dead.

Early on there were clashes on the defenders right flank; the Skeleton Riders and the Dwarves duked it out repeatedly.

A small detachment of Zombies and Skeletons made rapid advance along the trail, being met with a hail of arrows and Baruk Khazâd.

It was clear that the defenders were relying on the hegderows for a defensive perimeter - and for now they succeeded in keeping the shambling horde from entering the fields around the hamlet.

But not for long - to the surprise of the Elves the hedges did not pose any hindrance to the Skeleton Warriors. The archers routed after a brief melee.

Then, the Skellies ran into the Dwarven Hero.

Something happened on the trail ... I need to set the camera to flash in this kind of light condition.

At the end of Turn 3 the defences still held - but for how long?

At the end of Turn 4, the Allies were broken, and the Dice Gods did not favour their attempt to stand fast. The game ended with an Undead victory, but a close one this time, as the forces of Darkness were only one unit away from breaking, too.

The Dwarves fell back along the south-western trail leading from Knightsbridge, hoping to meet up with reinforcements from the Elven heartlands.

Making almost the entire warband 'Spectrtal' was quite expensive, points-wise, and I don't think that is something I am going to do very often, as I prefer using my points for extra troops instead.

This batlle was close, and had the dice allowed for another turn, my warband might well have been broken, which would have meant that we would have to count points to determine the winner.

Emil seems quite keen to get another go at defeating my Undead, and I shall have to find a day for us to get together again for a tussle. In the meantime, I had an encounter with Kevin the day after which I shall write up during the upcoming weekend (we have friends over tomorrow, so I shall not have much time on my hands).

Warlords of Erehwon Campaign - Another Table Set

Played another game with Emil today, but I have not had the time to sort out the pictures, yet, as I have been busy constructing the warbands and the table for tomorrow, when Kevin will be joining me for an introduction to the game.

As usual, I have taken pics of the table.

BTW, have you noticed something in the pics of the other tables?

 

Warlords of Erehwon Campaign - Table Ready for the Next Game

After the defeat at the ancient watchtower the surviving Elves fell back into the Northern Province, and the next encounter will happen on the border of civilization.

As usual, I have set the table for the next game well in advance (I set it earlier today, before Emil had responded to my text message about when to have another game), as we are not going to play before Tuesday.

I have taken pics from all four corners, like the last time.

In the meantime, danger lurks everywhere.

Oathmark: 2,500pts, Orcs & Goblins vs Dwarves

Yesterday, I played against Ulolkish's Dwarves (augmented by 19 minis of mine) in the garage attic.

We played on the large table, so allowed for setting up 12" in from the table edges.

On Turn 1 we mostly used Forward unto Battle - except for my Shaman (Lvl 3) who laid out some Smoke to cover my advance on the left.

NOTE: We have house-ruled that 25x25 units-of-one have no facings/can turn freely to see/move in the direction of the player's choice. The main reasons for this is that it seems odd and cumbersome that a single person has to suffer the same maneuver restrictions as a body of men in formation.

This may make Spellcasters too powerful, as they can cast more spells than usual, and I am toying with the idea of allowing some kind of dispel/nullify counter action by an opposing wizard to balance it out.

On Turn 2 my Shaman laid out some more Smoke, and the Dwarven Archers started moving around it (and in behind the flank unit.

Apart from that, the turn saw only general advance.

Turn 3 saw some blood drawn by bowfire, and the battlelines were closing in.

- And the second Smoke screen dissipated.

Turn 4 saw some real action all over the battlefield, with units charging and counter-charging. On my far right it looked as if the Dwarven flank was about to be turned.

But the flank held, supported by the Runesmitth (Lvl 5) who rained death on the Wolves of Isengard in the form of a Lightning Bolt.

We had to turn the remaining Smoke aside to avoid getting the Uruks entangled in the cotton.

Turn 5 made it really clear that I need larger units for my Isengard army. Had some of the units surrounding the Dwarven flank unit, I might actually have annihilated it and been able to start turning the flank. Instead, the unit held its ground, and with the continued support from the Runesmith and the Archers, it was a real pain...

Turn 6 saw my lines worn  ever so much down, and the stubborn little buggers on my right still refused to die.

My Shaman conjured up a new screen of Smoke in an attempt to minimize losses to the Dwarven Archers.

On the left much fighting had occurred, situation still inconclusive, but I was way behind on points.

But when in Turn 7 the Runesmith broke my remaining Wolves with a Lightning Bolt, and Cascading Panic disordered some of the nearby units, I did no longer see Victory withing reach (and it was getting quite late in the evening), so I called it quits.

We did not count the Victory Points/losses, but I am quite sure that the Dwarves had more points remaining on the table than my army. I really need to get some various types of Orcs (Oathmark: Goblins) painted, especially Archers as I feel heavily out-'gunned', even by only one large unit of enemy bowmen, but also to bring more staying power and Rank Bonuses to the table.

This game took an awful lot of time, about five hours if I remember correctly, and I was suffering horribly from 'combat fatigue' towards the end (headache, could not remember/calculate Target Numbers, etc.). It surprised me that it took that long, as my last game (2,000pts) lasted only two hours all in all, but of course my many small units in this game slowed down things considerably.

I am playing a game tomorrow on the same table with the same list against an army made up of my own Gondorians, Rohirrim, and High Elves commanded by Emil, and I have been contemplating using different tactics to see if I can gain an advantage tht way.

Oathmark Solo Test Game, Turn 8

I finally found some time to wrap this up (sort of), so here is what was to be the final turn of my solo test game of Oathmark.

The Warg Riders managed to contact the Minas Tirith Archers, this time actually drawing serious blood, and forcing the Humans back in disorder.

The Warriors then wheeled back before slamming into the Warg Riders, who were not able to fight back very well, and were pushed back.

The Trolls were still unable to comply...

The Dwarven Archers broke the Dunlendings closest to them - I forgot to roll for Cascading Panic.

The Orc Archers (Goblin Archers) managed to take down a single Dwarf.

I had forgotten to mark the Minas Tirith Warriors as activated, but luckily the Dice Gods had me covered when I tried to activate them.

The Dunlending Spearmen failed their activation roll and stayed put.

The Dunlending Militia smashed into the very small unit of Dwarf Soldiers, but got mauled.

The psuhback send ripples right back through the Dunlending lines.

The Rohan Archers failed their Activation Roll, and thus had a +1 to TN when shooting at the Orc Archers...

...but never the less all but annihilated them.

At this point I could see no use in continuing - Saruman's invasion had been brought to a halt - for now.

The last couple of pics show the battlefield as it were when I called it quits.

Thoughts on the game so far:

It is NOT as simple as God of Battles - far from!

To me, the mechanics seem a bit clunky; I, for one, cannot memorize the stats and special rules for every type of unit, and I have to look to the roster and meticulously calculate Target Numbers every time some interaction occurs, which slows down gameplay considerably. In GoB, I really only had to memorize one stat for each type of unit, and 'rank bonuses' were sort of worked into the number of dice rolled (depending on unit size). Tomorrow evening, I have a gaming session with a live opponent (2000pts), and after that I shall have a better idea of how the game flows.

Movement: Some really quirky situations arise when units are close together, and one is trying to make contact, and I think some houseruling/consensus of rules interpretation will be necessary to avoid heated discussions when battles hang in the balance.

I like the way some of the Special Rules work - especially Charge (X), which forces you to carefully position shock units before committing them to battle. The Brace rule (spears) can seem a bit meh, but I think that careful positioning of spear units to take some of the air out of enemy shock troop attacks can be the key to success in many battles.

Missiles: Brutal!
I still think that defensive tactics will be very hard to cope with. Place a line of Spearmen units in front, a line of archer units close behind them, have some crack troops (Warriors and/or Linebreakers) guard the flanks, and the enemy should have a very hard time cracking your position. Of course, if the enemy has a lot of Elven Archers and/or catapults, you may want to reconsider your tactics...

Terrain:
I think terrain is not going to be very popular. Having to halve one's move is not nice when facing enemy archers, as it gives them even more chances to decimate your units before you can reach them.
Some units have 'Nimble', which allows them to ignore terrain movement penalties, and as mentioned before, I really think that Wolves/Wolf Riders should have this special rule. As it is now, some Elves on foot move faster through rough terrain than those quadrupedal predators, and I think that is weird and just wrong.

I already toy with the idea of making a house rule that lets units assume 'mob'-formation to gain Nimble, but get an Activation/Morale penalty, lose rank bonuses, and have TN+1 when fighting (but maybe force enemies to shoot at them at TN+1) while in this loose formation. This would make it more viable to play games in dense terrain, which to me is more interesting than a large open battlefield. But it is too early to introduce this, as I still have to learn all the ropes of the game (although I do have the rules ready in my mind).

Overall:
I am in two minds about these rules.
The game works, although I fear that it runs too slowly for my taste. I like the versatility of army composition. and with the right additions (Oliphaunts. anyone?) it may cater very well for Middle-Earth battles like the one I just snailed my way through. I think some of the peculiarities are really weird, and will have to be houseruled in order to not create awkward situations too often; it can be done, but it is often harder to find consensus on house rules than finding a ruleset all can agree upon.

Well, as mentioned, I am playing a 2000pts game tomorrow evening, and I shall of course record it here, as always.