Halloween: Horrors Stalk the Night!

Introduction

It's Halloween and once again I've arranged a seasonal battle to mark the occasion.  Like last year (see here), this will be a battle between the Witches and the Puritans (Witch Hunters).  This time, each of these forces will be supported by some rather uneasy allies, respectively the Rat Plague and the Five Musketeers.

[On a side note, I believe that this will be the 500th article on my blog.  I had no idea the number had grown so large until I was looking for the links to insert in the previous paragraph...]

The Scenario

Very simple: witches, ghouls and other beasties intend to raid the village of Middle Dorking and carry off at least some of the locals (for use as sacrifices, slaves, playthings, food...  Use your imagination!).  The local authorities would like to stop them.

3 villagers have been placed along the table's centreline.  Each of these can be moved, at a reduced rate, by anyone who has a model in base contact at the start of an action.  Whoever holds the most at the end of the game wins!  Note that in order to foster some unhealthy competition, each side (i.e. good or evil) wins or loses according to the number of objectives they have caught/saved.  Within each side, the force with the larger number of villagers will be declared the major victor and the other force will only be allowed a minor victory.

For example, if the Puritans rescue 2 villagers and the Musketeers none then the Puritans win a major victory and the Musketeers must be content with a minor win.  Even if the Witches have caught the third villager, the evil side still loses completely.  Clear?

The Game

The rat monster is an exceptionally dangerous foe; as well as its very high normal combat score it gains another +2 for its berserk attribute.  It loses this attribute as soon as it throws 3 failures in a single activation roll.  In this game, that happened in its very first turn - so the creature was no longer berserk.  Sighs of relief could be heard from the Puritans and Musketeers; this seemed like a very good omen for them!

Initially, the witches and rat swarms on the right surged forwards, though their bigger monsters on the left were sluggish and didn't make much progress.  For the good side, pretty much the same pattern occurred: the musketeers advanced rapidly on their right, whilst the Puritans on their left were slow to move.

Athos grabbed the nearest villager and tried to drag him to safety - but the shocked young man wasn't easy to pull along and the rat monster was overhauling the pair rapidly!

In the centre, near the unlit pyre, D'Artagnan and Leroux bravely tried to stop the rat priest from taking away the blacksmith.  They did look to be heavily outnumbered, but perhaps French élan would be enough to carry the day?

Nearer the wood, Aramis stomped on a seemingly endless swarm of rats and killed many of them, whilst Porthos faced off three huge, but distinctly reluctant, hell hounds.

At the other end of the village, Major Fairfax and his soldiers saw a ghoul trying to drag off a small boy.  Whilst one of the troopers led the rescued child away, the rest of them set upon the evil ghoul and butchered it!

So far, the few casualties had all been on the evil side, but that couldn't last forever.  Even as help approached, the beleaguered D'Artagnan was felled by the rat priest and his minions.

Another tragedy occurred when Black Agnes zoomed in and commanded her hell hounds to attack Porthos.  The musketeer could not resist the combined attack of such fierce opponents and he too fell in a bloody mess.

As he came into the open, John Sterne (the witch hunter) bellowed a challenge to Meg (the witch).  He fired both his pistols at her - but missed (despite having a reasonably good chance of killing the crone with a single shot).

Sword drawn, Sergeant Stone then charged forwards - but he was intercepted by a ghoul and thus couldn't prevent the rat priest from dragging away the kicking and screaming blacksmith.  He was promptly struck and transfixed by Meg's baleful glare.

When the ghoul tore apart the disabled Sergeant Stone, Leroux ran for his life.  Meg then cast another evil spell, this time at the witch hunter himself.  With an epic lack of situational awareness, John Sterne didn't see the attack coming and was bound and made helpless by witchcraft!

A long way from the action in the centre, a lone ghoul attempted to recapture the child from the village.  Major Fairfax and his lads fell upon the creature and butchered it; the child will probably have nightmares about the scene for the rest of his life!  [Normally in Song of Blades and Heroes, doubling an enemy's combat result kills it, whilst tripling it results in a gruesome kill.  Combined, these Puritans scored seven times the ghoul's defence.  Result: dead ghoul, though probably not recognisable as such any more...]

The rat monster chased down and finished off Athos, but rather than attempting to capture the nearby villager it turned and ran up the village street towards the Puritans.  Some of them shot at it as it came, but this merely seemed to annoy the creature...

In the open area, the rat priest continued to plod along with his prisoner, the blacksmith.  Aramis fought for his life against two huge hell hounds, but surely it could only be a matter of time before he made a fatal mistake?

The rat monster may not have been berserk any more, but it was still huge and fierce.  It charged down the main street of the village, tossing aside any soldiers who stood in its way.  One corporal attempted to shepherd the village boy away to safety, but he was really moving too slowly.

Eventually, most of the remaining troopers broke and fled, leaving the rat monster free to recapture the boy [and if you think he would have had nightmares about being taken by a ghoul then feel pity for him now!].

This tore the heart out of the good side and left them with very little in the way of forces.  Most of the Musketeers were dead; now the Puritans were also dead or dispersed.

For a brief moment, it looked as if Aramis might salvage the situation all on his own.  He slew one of the hell hounds, shook off the other and charged at Black Agnes.  The witch felt the Frenchman's steel as his rapier passed right through her body and with an unearthly shriek she fell, dead!

It was heroic, but it wasn't enough.  Meg used her black magic once more, paralysing the last Musketeer and making him easy prey for the nearby hell hound.

We did play on for a little while after this, but the outcome was already pretty much decided.  Major Fairfax rallied a couple of soldiers and chased after the slow-moving rat priest.  They nearly stopped it before it left the table - but couldn't quite do so.  After that, these last remnants of the human side chased after Meg - until the hell hound intervened and killed the major.  At that point, we called it...

Conclusion

That was a bitterly-fought game, for certain!  Initially it looked as if the Musketeers would triumph over everything in their path - but there just weren't enough of them and in the end they were outnumbered and overwhelmed.

The rats and the witches concentrated a lot of their force in the centre.  This gave them numbers against some of their enemies, but conceded some easy, early kills to the Puritans.  However, these Puritans seemed hard to motivate; their advance was very slow and a little bit fragmented.  In the end, the charge of the rat monster scattered the bulk of them past recall.

Man/Woman/Creature of the Match: A tough choice:

• On the one hand, Aramis cut his way through most of the rat swarm, one hell hound and the witches' leader (Black Agnes).
• On the other hand, Meg was instrumental in killing Sergeant Stone, the witch hunter (John Sterne) and Aramis.

I think I'd probably give it to the witch, because she survived and was on the winning team.  Her actions made a difference!

Biggest disappointment: I think it's a toss up between:

• The giant rat ceasing to be berserk on turn one
• The witch hunter failing to kill Meg with his pistols.

Take your pick!

Victory goes to the evil side, very obviously.  The rats held all three villagers at the end of the game, so they are declared the clear winners, with the witches taking the consolation prize.

Battle Report: A Plague of Evil

Introduction

It's time for my annual Halloween battle report.  In other years, we've usually played Witches vs Witch Hunters, using the excellent Song of Blades and Heroes [SoBH] as the ruleset:

• 2015: The Witch of Nether Thicket
• 2014: The Flames of Justice
• 2013: Night of the Witches!
• 2012: [Hordes of the Things, rather than Song of Blades and Heroes] All Hallows Eve!

This year, we played our usual SoBH game, but added a twist.  Since there were 4 players, we'd have 4 warbands; as well as the regular witches and witch hunters, we introduced the Three Musketeers [except that there were 5 of them in our game] and a Plague of Rats.

Let the match commence!

The Scenario

An unholy alliance of rats and witches has descended on the small, sleepy village of Simply Bibbling in the dead of night.  Most of the villagers have fled, but a few unfortunate souls have been captured by the forces of evil.  These prisoners are being herded from the village towards the nearby dark forest; should they enter that then their fate is sealed and they'll never be seen again.

However, all is not yet lost!  2 bands of armed men are blocking the escape route.  If they can prevent the prisoners from being carried off then the witch's evil plans will be foiled, hurrah!

Special Rules

• Each side is made up from 2 factions.  These activate independently, but can interleave their activation attempts in any order, as they see fit.  For example, the "good" side may decide to attempt an activation from the Musketeers, then from the Puritans, then from the Puritans again, then from the Musketeers.  If one faction cannot continue [because it has rolled a double failure or because it has run out of models that it can activate] then the other faction in the alliance may continue to activate its models until it finishes.  Only then does the side's turn end.
• The evil side [Rats & Witches] starts with 3 townsfolk prisoners.  To move one of the prisoners against his will, a captor in base contact must spend 1 action "subduing" the prisoner.  Further actions from that captor in the same turn may then be used to move both captor and prisoner together.
• If during any turn, a prisoner isn't subdued in this fashion then the opposition [i.e. the Puritans or Musketeers] may attempt to activate the prisoner themselves using Q5+.  Presumably this would be with the intent of making the prisoner run away, since they have no combat score and cannot be involved in any melee.

Victory Conditions

Very simple; this is determined entirely by the number of prisoners that are carried off by the bad guys:

• If the evil side can move all 3 prisoners off the far side of the board then they win a major victory.
• If 2 prisoners are moved off the board then the evil side score a minor victory.
• If the forces of evil take only 1 prisoner into the deep, dark woods [i.e. off the other side of the board] then they suffer a minor defeat.
• If all the prisoners are rescued, or all the evil forces are killed/flee then the evil side have a major defeat.

The Forces

Each faction has about 250 points, according to the Song of Blades and Heroes rulebook:

• Musketeers: D'Artagnan, Porthos, Athos, Aramis (all very competent, with varying extra skills & abilities), Leroux (a points filler, not quite as competent as the other four).
• Puritans: John Sterne (professional witchhunter), Major Fairfax (leader), Sergeant Stone (unfit & reluctant), 3 musket-men & 3 soldiers (inexperienced country boys).
• Witches: Meg (magic-using leader), 3 hellhounds (savage critters), 4 ghouls (gangrel misfits).
• Rats: Plague Priest (middling leader), Rat Monster (terrifying, overpowered behemoth), 3 giant rats (vicious rodents), 5 rat swarms (chittering tide of vermin).

The Game

How did our game play out?  Read on...

The first turn was mostly predictable.  The evil forces advanced slowly from the outskirts of the town, herding their captives along with them.

There was an exception, though: the rat monster caught the scent of humans and bounded off into the distance, snarling as it went [its berserk attribute meant that it had to roll all 3 dice for activation and then use all its actions to move towards the nearest enemy.  Even though it was only Q4+, it scored 3 successes and moved 3 times in a beeline for the Musketeers].

At this point, the players on the evil side were quietly amused by this; either the monster would tear some men apart and terrify the rest, or else it would tie up large numbers of enemies as they tried to surround & outnumber the ogre to even the odds.  Either way, it would mean that the rest of our forces could just saunter past the melee and vanish into the dark forest with our prizes!

The rat ogre continued its canter towards the men with another 3 successful actions in its next turn.  Worryingly, it didn't quite reach them (it was about 0.5" short) and the Musketeers swarmed the monster before it could catch its breath.  Even with 4:1 numbers against it, the rat ogre wasn't to be taken lightly, or so I thought.  However, Leroux managed to trip the creature up; it ended flat on its back and therefore lost its berserk status.

The remainder of the evil forces tried to pick up the pace, but ended rather spread out as certain models just refused to move at a decent speed.  In particular, the witch ordered all 3 hellhounds to attack the Puritans, but only one of them sauntered forwards.  The other 2 beasts skulked at the back and wouldn't do as they were told.

The Puritans then spent the best part of 2 turns pouring shot after shot towards the one hellhound which had advanced towards them.  Although the creature was knocked over, most of the firing resulted in just a lot of noise and smoke.  Throughout this, the witch cursed and swore at her other minions, but none of them would move up to assist the endangered hound [the witches warband is becoming somewhat infamous for the number of failed activation rolls it makes, I fear].

The musketeers continued to fence with the huge rat creature.  Even outnumbered, its formidable combat rating of 6 [C5, +1 for being huge vs man-sided opponents] should still have given it quite an advantage.  However, the musketeers barely worked up a sweat; Porthos ran his sword through the monster's heart and it dropped to the ground, dead.  [What?!  How did that happen?  Porthos attacked it; he rolled a '6' and the rat ogre rolled a '1' - the only result that would kill the tough creature outright rather than wounding it]

This, of course, freed up the musketeers.  They now came pouring forwards to threaten the scattered and dismayed forces of evil.

Almost unnoticed, the seething swarm of normal-sized rats was carrying one of the prisoners away, with none of the men in any good position to stop them from escaping.

Whilst a few of the Puritans made a half-hearted attempt to catch the river of rats on the flank, the musketeers swept onwards, into the ghouls.  The men slaughtered 2 of them [Porthos strikes again!]; the other 2 ghouls fled for their lives, leaving one very relieved little boy prisoner to be rescued by the Frenchmen.

Then, the musketeers and the Puritans joined forces to attack the remnants of the witch's warband from both sides.  The giant rats made a noble (?!) effort to impede them - for one brief moment they threatened to take John Sterne down - but there were just too many Puritans and the rodents were outnumbered and overwhelmed.

Meg was forced to release her captive in order to defend herself, but to no avail.  She was cornered by a common soldier, thus allowing Porthos (him again!) to cut her down.  Seeing her fall, the 2 remaining hellhounds fled.

We called the game at this point.  Although the rat priest had been skulking about in the background all game, there was no realistic prospect that he could take on the rampant forces of men to recapture even 1 of the prisoners.  I suspect he blended into the shadows and slunk away quietly...

Conclusion

Well, that was another fairly disastrous outing for the witches!  We (Steve & I, representing the forces of evil) didn't even cause a single casualty to the combined forces of men.  I'm not sure that we won even one combat roll!

In my games, it's becoming quite common for the witches to be hammered; mainly due to recalcitrant underlings who just won't do what they are told.  I'm seriously considering switching allegiance to the forces of good.

Still, all was not lost.  One of the three prisoners was carried off the board on a tidal wave of rats; the men failed to stop us from this.  Consequently, we only suffered a minor defeat, despite the casualty figures.  Remember you victory conditions, kids!

Rats!

Introduction

Regular readers may remember my Witch Hunters and Witches warbands for the Song of Blades and Heroes rules.  Well, it's been on my mind for quite some time to expand my game by adding new factions.

Various ideas for forces which might fit into a loose version of mid-17th century England have come and gone.  I have recently built a 3rd, small force of French musketeers (on a secret mission abroad to find Milady, or fighting for or against the Puritans?).  Additionally, I may someday do a troop of hidden ghouls/cannibals (think Sawney Bean or "The Hills Have Eyes").  I might even build a force of Scots Covenanters, if only to have someone more fanatical than the English Puritans!

However, tonight I'm going to describe my 4th faction: the rats!

The Head Rat

So, here's the fluff: somewhere in the growing towns and cities of 1650s England, at least a few super-rats have evolved.  Either these are the discarded experiments of some careless natural philosophers, or they are the product of satanic dark magic.  However they came to be, the dark alleys and deserted barns are now infested with a huge number of variously-sized plague-carrying vermin!

The leader of the band is the creature above.  He (she?) doesn't have a name - at least, not one that I could pronounce.  However, the head rat is man-sized, intelligent, bipedal and understands people well enough to attempt to disguise its appearance so as to be able to pass amongst them without challenge.  I suspect that it has unholy powers as well...

This model is from Black Tree Design.

Little Rats

As I understand it, all swarm models of the same type in Song of Blades and Heroes must remain in base contact.  That makes this just one very large swarm of rats, rather than a number of smaller swarms.  Hopefully this will provide an unusual challenge for their enemies!

The rat swarms are from Black Cat Bases, who make (in my opinion) all of the best swarms for 28mm figures.  They really do look like a seething mass of small animals, rather than 4 or 5 separate models which just happen to be sharing the same base.

Mind you, looking at the other models in this band, the rat swarms' bases seem a bit bare.  Hmm, perhaps I ought to put a little grass on them, to add a bit of different colour and texture?

Big Rats

About the size of a large dog, these critters aren't a match for a human soldier one-on-one.  But whoever said that they would attack one at a time?  There are enough of them to surround a careless person and give him a whole load of grief.

Models are old Games Workshop plastics; I've had these for quite some time.

Biggest Rat

At the other end of the spectrum, the warband has one huge, nightmare rat monster!  Although sold as a "Giant Wererat" (it's a Reaper Bones model), the animal has huge chunks of flesh peeling away from both flanks.  Either someone has already carved it up a bit or the stress of its mutation is tearing its body apart.

I think that I prefer the latter explanation; it's clearly a diabolical abomination and if such a creature was unstable (with a lifetime measured in hours after its transformation, at most) then the world would be a safer place for people like me.  Not much safer, but every little bit helps, right?

Conclusion

I've collected and painted these models over quite a period of time, so the styles and colours aren't quite the same.  Rather than repainting any of them, I'm tempted to just paint up more models instead (I've still got many of the dog-sized rats).    I'll probably add some grass to the swarms, but other than that these are all completed.

So, is this a good warband?  What powers or vulnerabilities might it have?  Are there any obvious gaps in its composition?  What do you think?

SoBH: Night of the Witches!

Introduction

A little while ago, I wrote that I had started on a new gaming project: to paint 2 suitable warbands for a Halloween game of Song of Blades and Heroes (here).  Well, last night I took the results of this obsession along to the Helensburgh Games Club and set it in front of 5 of the members.Here's how it went (and yes, I know that it wasn't actually played on Halloween, but Tuesday was the closest club night to the 31st and therefore it had to be played then)...

The Scenario

Normally, I would have created some interesting story and goals for a game.  However, since this was to be the first time I'd ever played SoBH, I thought that I'd better keep it simple.  We ended up with a straightforward pitched battle, with each warband entering the table from opposite edges and the winner being determined solely by who could drive off their enemies.

The Forces

The 3 Witches had the following figures:

• 3 witches (Black Agnes, Agatha, Meg): Q3+, C2, Magic User, Flying, Leader
• 1 Ghost: Q4+, C2, Terror, Undead, Flying, Free Disengage
• 3 Hellhounds: Q4+, C3, Animal, Savage [note that I've decided since the game that I might upgrade these to C4]
• 5 Ghouls: Q4+, C2, Poison, Savage
• 6 Giant Rats: Q4+, C1, Animal, Gregarious, Stealth

As can be seen, I really went to town on the attributes for this force!  Perhaps a bit more than necessary, in hindsight?

The Witch Hunters force was composed of:

• John Sterne, Witch Hunter: Q3+, C3, Fearless, Hero, Lethal vs witches, Shooter(S)
• Brother Matthew, the mad monk: Q3+, C2, Fearless, Cleric
• Sir Jasper, the magistrate: Q3+, C3, Leader, Dashing
• Colonel Brandon: Q3+, C2, Mounted, Long Move, Leader, Shooter(S)
• Major Fairfax: Q3+, C3, Leader, Shooter(S)
• Sergeant Stone: Q4+, C2, Heavy Armour
• 6 Musketeers: Q4+, C2, Shooter(L)
• 4 Soldiers (swords, spears or halberds): Q4+, C2

I've not included a points value for either force.  Partly this is because I realise that I calculated some of them incorrectly, which is embarrassing.  It also reflects the fact that neither warband is technically legal: both have greatly more points in Personalities than the 1/3 permitted by the rules.  However, a rough figure would be about 600 points (to the nearest 100) for either side - that's about double the amount for a "normal" game.  I was aiming for a large, multi-player event, though...

The Game

Note Sergeant Stone in the centre background, skulking in ambush

Initially, the southernmost soldiers and the ghouls advanced towards each other.  A perennial issue for the troopers was that while the squaddies themselves would move forward on command, the players didn't advance the officers at the same time.  This left them without leadership for some critical moments.

Colonel Brandon and his bodyguard moved up to join the sergeant in the alley.  Seeing this, the evil players immediately surrounded them with giant rats.  The ghouls moved up to the other end to block off any escape route.

Only 1 rat had enough activations to make an attack.  Even though the Colonel was at a disadvantage, his horse managed to kick the rodent away.  It was immediately replaced by another animal, though.

In his next turn, Colonel Brandon rolled 3 dice for activation (in SoBH, a figure can choose to roll 1, 2 or 3 dice against their Quality and receive an action for each success.  However, if 2 failures are rolled then your side's turn is over).  He made all 3 and used his Free Disengage (because he was mounted against non-mounted opponents) to flee through a narrow gap by the wall of the house.  With 3 actions and the Long Move attribute, he went right out of the village and half way across the fields...

Meanwhile, Sergeant Stone and the soldier double-teamed the nearest ghoul and slew it.

Their triumph was short-lived, though.  Surrounded by rats and a ghoul, the troopers had little chance of escaping.  First, Sergeant Stone was knocked to the ground.  Although he managed to pick himself up again, a fierce attack from the rats achieved a gruesome kill against him, despite his armour (it's probably best not to think about how this might have happened).  Once on his own, the other soldier didn't survive for long.

Seeing 2 more soldiers out in the open, the rat/ghoul pack moved on.  They achieved another gruesome kill against the first human, but the second lad was plucky (or desperate!) and fought back valiantly.  He killed 1 ghoul and floored another...

...before the horde closed in and tore him apart (another gruesome kill)!  The only other person nearby was a solitary musketeer who hadn't managed to hit anything all game.  He took one look at the grisly sight and fled in horror!

Meanwhile...

To the north of the village, John Sterne, Brother Matthew and a very nervous trooper were advancing slowly through the woods.  "There are witches abroad tonight" proclaimed the experienced hunter.  "I can smell their fear!"
He was correct, but Meg and Agatha were hanging back a bit.  Instead, their pack of enormous hell-hounds were in the vanguard.

The 3 beasts made a co-ordinated charge through the trees, with 2 of them concentrating on Brother Matthew and the 3rd facing the witch hunter himself.  John Sterne killed his adversary with contemptuous ease, but the cleric was hard pressed.  Before either of his comrades could aid him, the monk was torn apart (yep, another gruesome kill).  This caused the soldier to run a short way off, but when he realised that he was then alone in the forest at night, he retraced his steps very quickly and stood behind the witch hunter's imposing bulk!

The 2 remaining hell-hounds renewed their assault.  This time the witch hunter tied with one beast; both opponents wary of the other's power.  However, the soldier was immensely lucky and managed to swing his halberd at just the right moment to kill the animal that was attacking him!

From behind a nearby tree, Meg now decided to get involved.  She managed to transfix John Sterne and freeze him in place.  This would have made him very vulnerable indeed, but with a great effort of will, he drew in a breath and shook off the curse before the hell-hound could take advantage of his weakened state.

What of the Colonel?

Colonel Brandon was very experienced in battles, skirmishes and sieges against human foes, but he wasn't used to fighting supernatural terrors.  After galloping out of the village, he started to work his way to the north, trying to join up with John Sterne and seek advice from the witch hunter.  However, in his path there was a ghost!

He tried to calm himself down by thinking of how he'd survived all his fights so far, spurred his horse on and charged straight at the apparition.  When the Colonel opened his eyes again, he was alone; the spectre had dissipated and vanished.  "Huh, that wasn't so bad" he thought to himself as he pressed on.

Hearing the noise of a scuffle ahead of him, the Colonel galloped his horse up the hill, just in time to bowl over the last hell-hound.  Agatha, the 3rd crone, tried to hex the witch hunter, but he saw her preparations in plenty of time and managed to dodge the spell.

The hell hound picked itself up and backed away, just as Meg approached to support her sister.  The 2 sides eyed each other without attempting to disguise their hatred, but no-one was prepared to make the first move.

Finally...

Back on the southern outskirts of the village, Sir Jasper came huffing and puffing up to see how his troopers were doing.  The scene was grisly, with rats and ghouls gnawing on the carcases of the fallen soldiers while Black Agnes watched on.  Sir Jasper wasn't having any of that!  The stout fellow summoned up all his younger memories of fencing and lunged at the foul, black-clad hag.

With an eerie screech, the witch fell down, dead!  At the sound, the minions of darkness looked up and saw the magistrate standing over the body of their leader.  Almost all of them turned and fled in panic, leaving Sir Jasper facing just a single, nervous foe.

At this point, we had to pack up since our 2 hour slot in the room was over.  Neither side had driven the other off, so there was much discussion about who had won.  Opinions varied...

Conclusion

Well, that was fun!  I've not played Song of Blades and Heroes before, so here are my first reactions:

• I made some mistakes when preparing my quick-reference cards for the various characters.  This was annoying, but I managed to work around it on the night.  I'll have to redo several cards, though.  Bother!
• It's not obvious from just reading the rules, but a step in Quality is worth a lot.  The Q3+ characters were much more active than the Q4+ troopers or minions.
• The witches easily over-ran the soldiers in the village by using a single leader (Black Agnes) to give sensible group moves.  However, in the forest they seemed to be overawed by the reputation of John Sterne, the witch hunter.  I think they could have swarmed him and his sidekick with hell-hounds and the ghost, with 2 witches providing fire support.  Instead, they hung back and were reluctant to engage until it was too late and Colonel Brandon arrived.
• The humans were all over the place.  Their soldiers and musketeers were scattered in small groups and most of these never even saw an enemy (remember Major Fairfax from the order of battle.  He didn't do anything useful).  However, a handful of active people saved the day for them, with Colonel Brandon dispatching the ghost and Sir Jasper slaying a witch.
• On points, it looks as if the humans won.  Although the witches slew more foes, their kills were typically ordinary troopers, whereas the witch hunters felled fewer, but higher value, enemies.  I'm not sure which way it would have gone had we continued, though!
• This was a much bigger game than the recommended 300 points.  Additionally, it had a far greater proportion of Personalities than is technically permitted.  I don't think that either of these modifications hurt the game at all; I'd be very happy to play at this level again!