We had a quiet Sunday this weekend just gone, so we pulled out the Song of Blades and Heroes rule book again for a rematch. This time, I kept my victorious orcs and #2 Son decided to go for an elven warband - this time his points values were more accurate.
Orcs of the Red Eye (302 pts)...
Warchief Budlak Q 3+ C 4 Leader Tough (100 pts)
5 x Orc warriors Q 4+ C 3 (115 pts)
3 x Orc archers Q4+ C 3 Shooter - Medium (87 pts)
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| The orcs of the Red Eye |
Defenders of the Realm - Elf warband (298 pts)...
4 x Elf warriors Q 2+ C 3 (152 pts)
2 x Elf archers Q 2+ C 3 Shooter - Long (110 pts)
1 x Wood Elf warrior Q 3+ C 3 Forester (36 pts)
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| The elf warband |
We decided that this skirmish would be the second part of an ongoing mini-story (we are hoping to get one more game in later on this week to conclude the saga). After the rather one-sided affair between the humans and orcs last time out, a small scouting band of elves decided that the humans needed to get their village back and the orcs needed to be put back in their place to restore the natural order (and restore the buffer zone the human village afforded the local elf settlement).
We chose to play a straight up fight again as the scenario we rolled just didn't quite meet what we wanted to play. We diced for who was to be the defender and who was to go first. The orc faction was the defending force, so set up the table, the elves chose which side to enter from, the defenders set up first and then the elves rolled the best initiative so went first.
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| Starting Positions |
Turn 1
Both sides advanced across the battleground of the local village. The elves did not hold back in their efforts to close into combat with the orcs and reclaim the village from them
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| Turn 1 |
Turn 2
There followed an ineffective exchange of arrows, and close combat was joined (one wood elf versus two orcs)
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| Turn 2 |
Turn 3
This turn ended up being a bit of a disaster for the elves; the elves advanced but the dreaded double-one was rolled half-way through the process, so play turned over to the orcs whereby the wood elf was easily downed by the two orcs he was in combat with (O 9, E 6)
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| Turn 3 |
Turn 4
The combat began to coalesce on the village side of the board. The elves managed to inflict a gruesome kill on one of the orc archers which caused another orc archer to retreat away from the combat. The orcs retaliated by ganging up on a single elf spearman and hacked him down (O 8, E 5)
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| Turn 4 |
Turn 5
The elves managed to kill another orc archer but the tide really turned with another double-one being rolled. This meant that the orcs could really go on the rampage; they killed a further two elves and a Morale check caused a further elf to retreat off the board. What with the final elf archer being laid prone and the final elf spearman being isolated it should have been a small matter of mopping them up one at a time (O 7, E 2)
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| Turn 5 |
Turn 6
Unfortunately for the orcs, this was not to be. In a fit of rage at seeing his comrades being slaughtered, the final elf spearman managed a gruesome kill on the last orc archer which led to the entire orc warband fleeing from the board (O 0, E 2)
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| The orcs flee |
Again, this proved to be a very one-sided affair right until the very final roll of the dice by the elves. The gruesome kill and the subsequent Morale checks meant that all of the orcs fled. I tried to roll for my leader first, because if he passed the test, then his Leadership trait would have added +1 to the other's dice rolls; he failed and so did the rest. Even if some of the orcs had passed, they would have had to have taken a second Morale check for the loss of their leader, and then a third Morale check if their numbers dropped below half. They didn't stand a chance at Q 4+. Lesson learned for the future - do not fight too close to the board's edge just in case a morale check looms.
My son was beginning to get side-tracked towards the end of the game as he was upset at how badly the elves had fought and how badly his dice rolls were. I managed to entice him back for the final turn (I asked him if he wanted to surrender but he said "No") and everything changed on the one combat dice roll. I felt a little underwhelmed at how defeat was snatched so easily from the jaws of victory, but happy for my son as he now knew that games can change direction on literally one dice roll.
We will try to play one more game later on this week to round out the mini-campaign. I will keep the same orc force (just need to work out two replacements for actual kills) as they return for one final attempt to wrest the village away from the humans, and my son will take the remaining humans and elves (2 of each) and add to them to make up a full sized force. As the score is one-all, then this will be the decider.
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