More itsy bitsy spiders! Shire protectors battle company battle report 5

Not to be outdone (and to use the same scenery set up so we didn't have to think too hard) the Shire Protectors also found themselves under assault by eight legged beasties! With lower strength, defence, attacks, fight value etc. the Hobbits were really going to need protecting! I deployed down one corner, hoping to make the spiders take at least two turns to get to me if they appeared at the other end of the board (the six big terrain features were the spider spawning spots, with a D6 to randomise where they would appear).

Turn one started really well! Stones were thrown, arrows flew and two spiders dropped dead with one getting a wound on it!

It was then stacks on to two close by spiders, which both fell!

On the next turn, the spider the hobbits were fighting only rolled a two and a three and I had four hobbits and Cookie charging on the pony. The hobbits all rolled twos! Cookie rolled a one and... a 5! Phew!

The spiders continued advancing, my Sentinel, Geleth, kept singing Eldamar Madrigal, which made the spiders keep moving away from the fighting - very helpful!

Cookie on his pony kept on saving the day!

So far, so good, the dwarves, sentinel and Cookie have been doing the major work, while the other hobbits throw stones and fire arrows. The tough dwarven armour took a dent on this turn as Skodi took a hit from the purple spider, fortunately fate was on his side, though it used his might and fate points.

Hedger manages to take out a green spider, but the others are all getting very close now.

The spider against Hedger rolled double sixes, he needed a six to stay in the game...

And thanks to Geleth singing the Mirkwood spider away and joining in another fight, yet another spider goes down. Hatless Harry shoots an incoming green spider right in one of its eyes!

The Shire protectors continue to put a wall of slightly tougher warriors in between the spiders and weaker hobbits!

And on the other side of the tree Loki and Cookie intercept another spider, killing it.

The brave Sentinel, Geleth, puts himself right in the way of the Mirkwood spider, and it proves too much for him.

Loki intercepts another incoming beastie!

And on that final turn, both Skodi and Hedger lose to an orange arachnid, laying down their lives for the Hobbits!

At the end of the match, with the exception of Loki, the other proper protectors were all knocked out, but the halflings all survived! In the injury rolls they were all okay except for Hedger who has to miss a game to recover from the spider poison. 

Hedger managed to get one wound in, Loki made 6, Cookie got 7! Some of the other hobbits got a few hits in with arrows and rocks.

For rewards, Hedger received an elven bow and seasoned archer (can move and shoot). Skodi is now a blade master (can reroll a die in a duel). Loki is a dual wielding specialist (a skill we made up for dual wielders which allows either an extra attack or an extra defence instead of burly). As well as that a new dwarf, Monty, has joined the team (he has a shield) and also has a pet magpie. I've upgraded the models for Loki and Skodi as well so they look a little more epic after their spider slaying abilities!

Itsy Bitsy Spider(s) - Elven Battle Company Battle Report 5

For our next misson, we played the old Mirkwood spider attack. This has four spiders that attack for 9 rounds. When you kill a spider, a new one just takes its place!

I only have one Mirkwood spider model (though I just bought another I need to paint) so we have one Mirkwood and three giant spiders. 

This mission has traditionally either been a complete slaughter of the battle company or an xp pinata of spiders. They have powerful attacks, but awful defence and the Elves have great fight values for winning ties.

Round one goes very well for the elves, with shooting and heroes taking out three of the four spiders!

On the next round Ithil-galad takes out the Mirkwood spider on the charge.

Three giant spiders attack the other side of the camp and some wounds are added, but they aren't slain.

On the next round the wounded spiders are dispatched, Rochon the knight charges at the next Mirkwood spider, but Cyll the Sentinel is taken out by the poisoned fangs of a green giant spider!

Ithil-galad charges her horse, Legrinsul, at the green spider to avenge the Sentinel, Rochon charges the Mirkwood spider to smash it to bits and more wounds are placed on the giant spiders.

Still more spiders appear and although one is killed by Celeb-galadh, another manages to shred Telegan!

On the other side of the clearing, Ithil-galad and her team remove yet another Mirkwood spider, while Rist bravely holds off a green giant spider.

Ecthel-galadh is taken out by an orange scuttler, hile Thaun and Celeb-galadh hold back yet another Mirkwood spider.

Ithil-galadh spurs Legrinsul off to take a wound from a purple spider, but Rochon and Rist are sent to the ground by a green spider!

The numbers of the elves are thinning with still a few turns to go! Fortunately the mirkwood spider is crushed by Celeb-galadh and Brethil, though Tirith and Tawar just manage to deflect the blows of an orange spider.

Ithil-galad flattens her opponent, while Col-galadh and Thaun manage to get a wound on the green spider.

The green spider is finally defeated by a combined effort with Ithil-galad charging in.

On the other side of the clearing more elves are just holding on, getting a wound on the mirkwood spider and holding off the other giant spider.

And, phew, the spiders have had enough and all scurry away!

It was looking pretty nasty there, lots of elves went down! However, apart from Telegan the sentinel (who is going to have to miss the next game) all of the injury rolls were full recoveries!

The end tally was Ithil-galad with 9 wounds on spiders! And almost all of the other elves got at least two wounds on spiders as well, so they did really well! This led to many advancements and ability upgrades!

For example, Brethil is now a knight, Ithil-galad now has devastating charge, Col-galadh has Burly, Thaun is now an Expert Shot and a new knight also joined the company. Two more sets of throwing daggers were added to the armoury!

The company is now worth a whopping 285 points! We're looking forward to me painting up a few new models so we can play with them again!

Beastcaller Battle Company Battle Report

So what do you do when you quite like playing with beasts, but have always loved a little bit of narrative play? You make up a battle company to suit your purpose! The battle company book gives lots of good ideas, so I just made a starting company with the same number of points as all the other companies. It represents one of the beastcaller goblins (Druzhag and Ashrak) and their pack of beasts. 

And I made up a Beastcaller path that is essentially the same as a shaman, but with spells that are about the beasts instead of other people.

So the first mission represents the goblin and crew coming out of the caves and spying some elves just across the river. What better prey?

They are just hanging around, playing their musical instruments and singing annoying songs... destroy them all!

Off to a pretty good start, the two spiders take out two elves as the beasts emerge out of nowhere and attack without warning! Another elf, though, takes on two wargs and the shaman and one of the wargs falls!

Another elf falls to spider poison, while the other spider takes a wound and the hero warg barely avoids defeat by using a point of fate!

These last two elves are surrounded by all the luck of the Valar! Down goes the yellow spider, even after the point of fate it had and the green spider loses a wound too!

Finally the last two elves are defeated! Shar'lok the shaman urges on the gigantic warg and green spider to feast on elf-flesh!

While the beasts are nursed back to health, the shaman does a little healing and as the night progresses a swarm of bats flocks to his pack and report that three bands of dwarf rangers are coming towards the river - time to get back to the cave!

This is the second mission, but the first mission only took about 10 minutes so we just launched straight into it! Three batches of three dwarven rangers are blocking the river crossings!

The high speed of the beasts means that they're less likely to plunge into the river! One dwarf is quickly dispatched as the beasts begin their crossing.

Two more dwarves fall, while the shaman gets closer to the bridge, he's so much slower and is starting to have to dodge dwarven arrows!

In a massive ganging up, another dwarf falls to a warg and two spiders!

To try keep Shar'lok safe, the bats and the hero warg attack a dwarf, who beats them back and takes a wound from the bats!

Two other dwarves hold off the beasts and inflict wounds on the spiders!

As another two dwarves finally make their way around the hill, the brave archer near the river falls beneath flashing teeth!

Near the cave the two dwarves who were doing a great job against the spiders fall under the willow.

The hero warg intercepts the other dwarves to keep Shar'lok safe from throwing axes! He is defeated by the dwarves, but has kept his master alive!

The bats and other spider also put themselves between Shar'lok and harms way.

The dwarves pay for their encroachment!

The final dwarf falls as the shaman makes it back to the safety of the cave!

With so few models, and quick ones at that, the missions are fast and furious! I'm hoping the beastcaller will be fun and might go well against the elves, but then again, I'll probably have to make another hero army so that the elves are never in any "real" danger =) The beasts take a long time to level up, but can be extremely powerful, especially as the spiders start with two attacks and two wounds!