This was the second game of the night and since we spent so much time shooting the breeze after the first round of games we didn’t even get started until well after midnight. This often occurs because we are more than just Battleground players, we’re all friends! Rob didn’t want to stay too late, so he decided to sit this one out as a spectator for an hour or so before he left to drive home. Dice where rolled and the teams where determined. Since it was so late we decided on 3000 points per side (1500 per player) with no terrain and a 10 unit wide deployment zone. In the end this game really stacked up to be 2 one-on-one games played simultaneously on the same map with little interaction between allied units until the Orcs and Goblins mysteriously vanished so swiftly. More on that below. We have a plethora of images for this game for you, with my wife pitching in to take a few. I’m hoping that other participants can help flesh out what went occurred on the Orc/Ravenwood front since I had my hands full with Tim’s High Elves at the time. We didn’t use any of the proposed Dwarven upgrades because frankly I forgot about it, but that must also be a testament as to how little I feel the Dwarves need any help other than a 2 turn Sprint. It turns out I really could have used that 2 turn sprint in the end game, but alas for starting games after midnight
Set Up
Elves of Ravenwood played by Brook, High Elves played by TimFrom top to bottom:
Wolf Pack (3rd rank)
Bear Pack (2nd rank, very hungry) backed by Wolf Pack (also very hungry)
Bear Kin backed by Archers
Brownies Backed by Archers
Brownies Backed by Wolf Kin
High Elven Battle Squad
High Elven Battle Squad backed by (surprise!) Healer Mages
High Elven Battle Squad backed by Bowriders (Bow-bitches, a Dwarven nightmare)
High Elven Battle Squad backed by Chariots
Brook revealed to me that he had accidentally gone over his points allowance by 148 points because he achieved an army under 1500 points, then tossed in the Brownies for consideration of removing a Wolf Pack, never removed the Wolf Pack, and thusly neglected to alter his points total. Remember that we didn’t start this game until after midnight and mistakes do happen! This also helps explain how Chris’ Orcs got totally mauled so quickly - LOL
Orcs played by Chrs, Dwarves of Ruuuuuunegard played by Yours TrulyFrom top to bottom:
Orc Marauders backed by Trolls (apparently frightened of the Big, Bad Wolf)
Orc Swordsmen
Goblin Spearmen
Goblin Raiders
Goblin Raiders
Dwarven Hammermen
Longbeards (the Legends walk!)
Dwarven Militia backed by more Militia
Dwarven Spearmen backed by Axemen
Marcus – “Chris, where did you find these guys? In a cave or something?”
Chris – “Yeah… Duh! Just like where you found yours.”
Standing orders – I really don’t recall there being anything fancy with the Ravenwood/Orc front other than standard close orders. I know that at least one of the Archers where targeting the Orc Swordsmen and I wouldn’t be surprised if both of them where. Tim had all of his Battle Squads set to advance as far as the blue bead in the middle of the map and hold. His Bow Riders where targeting my Spearmen. I had most of my guys on standard close as well with the exception of the Spearmen who where set to hold a terrain objective near the map edge to stymie the Chariots. The Axemen behind them would then close through the gap and engage the High Elven line.
Early Turns
The lines close, some guys get shot a little. The Healer Mages start plopping Auras on Battle Squads like they are going out of style. The Longbeards and Hammermen get a Rune. I seem to recall that the first round of archery sucked for Ravenwood. Chris and I where under whelmed with heart-brokenness on that matter.
Things on the High Elven/Dwarven front are still quiet as the armies slog towards each other. More Auras are appearing on Battle Squads and the Dwarven Spearmen received a Rune as they head towards their objective and an imminent showdown with Chariots, which I was thrilled about. The Axemen where sprinted once to catch them up with the rest of the line units. Let’s head on over to where the excitement was, shall we?
This is the same turn of the game from the other side of the table. That monstrous blue thing on the Brownies in the middle of the table is to remind half the universe that those Brownies need to roll for a courage check.
As the Ravenwood archery was a failure on their fist turn of firing, they made up for it on this turn by inflicting 3-4 wounds on the Orc Swordsmen. Chris lashed these Swordsmen to engage the Bearkin to keep them from foiling the Goblin pinch party that was going on with the Brownies. The Bear Pack was heading towards the premier engagement with the Marauders while the Wolf Packs where preparing to swarm the Trolls.
Mid Turns
The Dwarves have finally engaged and the grind commences as the charge turn proved to be unspectacular for both sides. Note that the Chariots have not quite engaged with the Spearmen yet and the 3 damage on the Spearmen is courtesy of the Bow-bitches (may they stew forever in the 9 Hells).
While Tim and I where screwing around, Brook and Chris where doing an incredible job of killing off each other’s troops. Both Brownie units have dissolved since the Goblins have finally found somebody that even they could push around. The Bearkin had a relatively easy time finishing off the Orc Swordsmen with all of that archery support. The Trolls sent one of the Wolf Packs off barking and IIRC Brook just let them run off the table edge since they where badly damaged. I could be wrong here and maybe they just died outright? The important thing is that the other Wolf Pack that had flanked the Trolls was inflicting grievous harm on the Trolls. Bears and Marauders keep on doing their thing.
This is for you fine folks that feel the Dwarven command deck needs a tweak. On the turn the Chariots rammed into my Spearmen, both units put each other into the yellow. On the following turn, I played a Rune of Power that contributed to the obliteration of the Chariots. I played a Rune of the Wary on the Chariot return attacks and it’s good I did because the Bow-bitches where still shooting them and the Spearmen survived with 1 red box. Keep in mind that THE COURAGE FROM DWARVEN COMMAND CARDS STACKS so I had an effective courage of 15 for my courage check… which I succeeded by rolling a 15! The Spearmen staying put would keep the Bow-bitches occupied for 1 more turn.
Dwarven might is now beginning to assert itself despite Healer Mage tomfoolery. The Hammermen are hacking away furiously on a Battle Squad while the Longbeards have dispatched one without sustaining a single point of damage! Oh the hymns that where sung of them on that day. The other line units are all bogged down and Tim had the Bow-bitches fire the killing shot on the Spearmen. I initially had my unengaged Militia head towards my left flank to help deal with the Bow-bitches, but panicked and had them about face to head towards the Ravenwood front because…
…what the hell happened to the Orcs? With the exception of a couple wounded Goblin units they are all gone! I’m hoping Brook or Chris can flesh out the details here as I’m running on assumption based upon my shady recollection of that front and the pic above. I do remember Brook saying that he had an incredibly lucky turn. The Trolls failed a courage check and died as the Wolf Pack went apeshit on them. IIRC The Bearkin helped out their brethren by pinching the Marauders into oblivion and one of the Goblin units perished beneath a hail of arrows.
Endgame 
Well, now I was in trouble. It only took 1 more turn for Ravenwood to eliminate the Goblins and while I was doing well against the High Elves, I was not going to be able to defeat both of them. The Axemen got pinched by the Bow-bitches and failed their pre-combat courage check which proved to be fatal for them. My Militia actually managed to defeat the Battle Squad they where engaging (can you believe that?) and engaged the Battle Squad that was a part of that victory party on the flank. The Healers had been moved over to back up this Battle Squad, but that would prove unnecessary since the Militia where pinched shortly thereafter by the Bow-bitches and died as well from another courage failure from return attack damage. My Hammermen where engaged by the Troll-slaying Wolf Pack that could no longer help itself now that the Wolfkin where gone, but the Hammermen let me down here and did practically no damage as the Militia and Longbeards move in to engage. A turn later Brook direct controlled his Bear Pack to keep them away from the Longbeards and Hammermen got put into the red by bow fire and the Wolves, failing their courage check and perishing as a result. I was down to 2 fully healthy units, but I was seriously out numbered and would only be receiving 3 command actions per turn to my opponent’s 6. To their everlasting shame, the Dwarves where forced to surrender.
Final Thoughts Our opponents having too many points probably led to the Orcish downfall occurring a turn sooner than it actually did and may have allowed us to hang in there, but there was still the matter of that disastrous turn which spurred the entire collapse. Tim’s purpose this game was to tie my guys up for as long as possible while harassing me with shifty cavalry. While his High Elves didn’t totally hold up across the board, they held up long enough for the Ravenwood flood to arrive. Nice team play there.
I made a mistake by having too many units break off to engage Ravenwood units and not taking care of things at home. I should have had my unengaged Militia move to engage the Bowriders and the Longbeards move to engage the Healer Mages. If I was able to annihilate the High Elves there would be no command action superiority for my remaining opponent (Ravenwood). The tricky part would have been pinning down the Bowriders. Still, I don’t totally blame myself for panicking when my ally’s entire army dissolved while leaving half a dozen of his opponent’s units alive!
Weird Dwarven luck – First of all I must say that my attack dice where pretty good this game. No doubt about it. In the end I consider my fortune to be about even, but 3 irritating things occurred this game to even it out on my side.
1 – My overall courage was great… until I blew my last 4 courage checks.
2 – What would have helped #1 above would have been to draw lots of those mutli-colored Dwarven command cards, but I made it exactly halfway through my deck this game and only drew 3 of those. Not horrible, but add that to #3 below…
3 – Fighting High Elves means that Dwarves need help with offensive skill. There are 6 cards in the Dwarven command deck that directly effect that – Strike(x2), Accuracy(x2), and Rune of Skill(x2). Of these, I drew 1 Rune of Skill the entire game out of 15 cards and that’s it. Yo card deck! A little help here please?
I recall there was a rash or Orc/Goblin/Troll courage failures on Chris’ side in addition to my final 4. Our opponents? 1 Ravenwood failure and 1 High Elven failure. Yo courage dice, a little help here please?
Heroes of the GameRavenwood – The 2 Extra Brownies! In all seriousness, I’m going with the Wolf Pack that finished off the Trolls and then went on to have a big part in the death of the Hammermen. Brook got some serious value for those 146 points.
High Elves – Hands down the Bowriders. They shot up my Spearmen and then went on to pinch my Axemen and one of my Militia into oblivion. They would have been a severe pain in the endgame.
Orcs – Sadly, nobody stood out as achieving much of anything. The only units that won any fights where Goblins against Brownies and Wolf Kin.
Dwarves – It was neat to see the Longbeards take out a Battle Squad without taking a scratch, but I’m going with the Spearmen that took out the Chariots while absorbing a ton of bow fire from the Bowriders.
Keep calm and Chive on.
