Slow Mo Piquet: Turn 5

As the frontlines get closer, action intensifies. This turn 5 went through the complete Prussian sequence deck in five phases.

Phase 1

Roll 1: 8:2, 4:2 pips

Empire turns 3 useless cards (incl. Officer Check) and, on their last pip, the Cavalry Melee. Let‘s see whether they get to use it before the Prussians can use theirs with the charge bonus.

Prussians turn Officer Check and Musket Reload for no effect.

Roll 2: 8:17, 3:6 pips

Prussians turn Officer Check and Cav Melee just before the Reichsarmee get to use theirs (though with the WRC in hand I see that the Prussians get the charge bonus because their card resolves the melee, not because they actually moved to contact...); they resolve it on pip 3 with a roll of Empire D10 unmodified vs Prussian D8 up 1 for charge down 1 vs cuirassiers (I‘m not sure I like this, cuirassiers are already stronger as heavy cav...) up 1 for the army cavalry combat effect card for a net D10, rolling 8:4 resulting in a 2 base loss and a 14“ rout move for the Prussians. 

Melee morale effects: both units, as cavalry, are automatically disordered after the melee. The Prussians lose a total of four morale chips for losing a melee and 2 stands and routing (I assume they do not lose another chip for becoming disordered as the disorder is from the cavalry melee rule, not from a successful morale challenge); the victorious Cuirassiers do not lose a chip although they do get disordered. The pursue test for the Cuirassiers is their unmodified morale D6 vs D8 for routing cavalry, a 3:5 so they stay put.

After a useless card on pip 4, the Prussians turn Infantry Move on pip 5. As the Prussian Burgsdorf Grenadiers have the routing Dragoons directly in their face I‘m not sure whether they have to wait until the cav routs through them, or they can move through the routers at their own initiative. I‘ll read the rules (for now) that line can also voluntarily move through routers at the cost of becoming unformed, but will make them pass a difficulty check, as for moving in IV terrain, i.e. their morale D8 down 2 for line formation to a D4 against the terrain IV DC D6. They fail 3:6, stay put and go out of command as the Willemey Grenadiers advance normally.

The Reichsarmee don't need the cav melee card anymore and turn another cav melee, an elite reload (useless because the Kurpfalz guard is still out of range) and dress lines.

Roll 3 for 5 remaining pips: 8:6, 2 pips Reichsarmee 

Turn infantry move and move the first line brigade up to the village.

Roll 4 for 3 remaining pips: 13:14, 1 pip Prussians: Fusiliers move up

Roll 5 for 2 remaining pips: 7:12, 2 pips Prussian: turn cavalry move, move the routing Dragoons.

Phase 2

Roll 1: 15:12, 2:1 pips

Empire bring infantry forward, and turn a reload.

The infantry lines are drawn, the Prussian Dragoons have routed away while the Suebian Cuirassiers still block their infantry, and the Kurpfalz Guards are about to enter the village in their front.

Prussians turn a useless Musket Reload

Roll 2, 7:9, 2 Prussian pips: Elites reload, DL

Roll 3: 12:16, 1:3 Pips

Prussians turn infantry move and use two pips for a full oblique move of the Willemey Grenadiers. The Kurpfalz Garde respond with an opportunity fire, D10 up1 (first fire) down 2 (long range 8") vs D6: 7:2, 5 hits, 1 stand lost, no morale challenge (not worth it gainst the Morale 8 Grenadiers).

First volley fired by the Palatians, but for no effect. An intensive exchange of first fire volleys ensues.

Empire use their pip to reload the guard.

Roll 4: 18:7, 8:3 pips (exactly using the remaining 11 pips)

Empire: replace the opp. pip

Turn Cavalry Move and use it to retreat the Cuirassiers behind the infantry line (the risk of charging the Grenadiers and take a full volley seems to big).

Turn DL and Melee, then Move III/IV and the Guards enter the village.

Turn another Move III/IV.

Prussians use 2 pips for a full oblique move of the out-of-command, and 1 pip for a half oblique move of the Fusiliers

Phase 3

1st roll 16:17, Prussians turn DL

2nd roll: 4:14, 3:7 pips

Prussians turn cav move, move routers, then turn Native Mobility, Melee, Move in III/IV, Heroic Movement for a maneuver which is not very useful, and DL.

Empire turn Officer Check, rally unformed Cuirassiers, and move the General's staff ahead a bit.

3rd roll: 10:3, 5:2 pips

Empire turn infantry move and use 2 pips for the Infantry brigades (the out-of-command Guard in the village stay put). Then turn maneuver, but keep that for later and let Kurmainz 1st bat. fire on the Hussars at medium range, D10 up1 (1st fire), down1 (med range) vs D6: 3:1, one stand loss.

Prussians turn Maneuver and DL.

4th roll for 2 pips: 18:19, Prussians turn Brilliant Commander and plan to use that to let the Hussars retreat with Cav move

The last pip goes to the Empire, who use the Maneuver to wheel the Cuirassiers for a march to the left.

Phase 4

Roll 1: 11:6, 4:1 pips; Empire turn DL and Command Indecision, for limited damage, but the Prussians retreat their Hussars put of firing range.

Roll 2: 10:17, 2:5 pips

Prussians turn cav move, their Dragoons rout off the table. Then turn inf move and advance the Grenadiers. Guards fire on Willemey, D10 up1 for point blank, 1:4 for no effect. 4/Kurmainz fire against Burgsdorf at medium range, D10 vs D6, 4:6 for no effect (forgot their 1st fire bonus, prbably reflecting their poor fire discipline). The Grenadiers return the fire, Willemey against the village with D10 up1 1st fire, down2 village, down 1 for 1 stand lost, D6vsD6, 3:5 for nothing. Burgsdorf return fire at 4/Kurmainz, D10 up1 1st fire, d1 medium range, d1 unformed, D8vsD6, 2:1 for a single hit not worth a follow up.

Empire turns Deployment and Musket Reload. (The Prussian Grenadiers should have started with a D12, I guess they are too confused from the approach march...)

Infantry blazing away

Roll 3: 7:15 just using up the remaining 8 pips 2:6.

Prussia advances the Fusiliers, and I/Salmuth fire at 2/Kurmainz at long range, D10 up1 1st fire, d2 long range, D8vsD6, 3:5 for no effect. Then turn Cav Melee, and Musket Reload, reloading the Grenadiers.

Empire reload their central units.

Phase 5 of a long turn

1st roll: 8:3, 4:1 pips

Empire reload 1/Kurmainz, fire the Guards D10 up1 for pointblank, 7:3 for 1 stand casualties against Willemey and 4/Kurmainz at Burgsdorf D10 d1 medium range, and refill one opportunity pip.

Prussians reload the Salmuth Fusiliers.

Roll 2 8:19, 3:6 pips

Prussians turn Officer Check, move their General up, rally the unformed Grenadiers and return them to in command. Willemey doesn't bother to fire on the village again (D12 d2 for losses and d2 for the village).

Turn Deploymemt, and Burgsdorf fire at 4/Kurmainz again D12 d1 for medium range, 3:6 for no effect

Empire turn 3 DL.

Roll 3 for 6 pips: 10:14, 1:3 pips

Prussians turn a DL and fire Salmuth at 2/Kurmainz D10 d1 medium range, 4:1 for 1 stand loss.

The flats are marching in stop-motion

I did a replay of the scenario shown in this blog post, but this time tried to create a stop motion animation instead of just one single photo per turn. Here's the result:

The order of battle is the same as in the first playthrough of this scenario. The first and second line of the Prussians have been improved to a 3 bataillon first line with the grenadiers on the flanks, and a single Fusilier bataillon as second line.

The (non-written) orders were the same as in the first playthrough, so the general sequence of events was similar, too.

I did re-use most of the die roll results from the first game, in particular the devastating first volleys fired by the imperial infantry, to get a similar overall result as in the first battle. This was also helpful for the stop motion filming (see below).

So it is no surprise that you will recognize some main points from the first battle, like the wide sweeping flank movement of the Imperial cavalry, the defensive line on the hill, the devastatingly effective volley fire of the imperial infantry etc.

You will also notice some changes, e.g. the Prussion infantry wheeling to form line of battle even earlier, more frequent use of square formations to defend against the cavalry threat, and the Cuirassiers actually charging home, first riding down one square and then being shot to pieces by another one.

Note that I did indicate some musket fire from the squares by some cotton wool - although the game rules don't allocate a separate die roll to defensive fire from squares, they do implicitly include it in the melee results of cavalry against squares as you can see in the second attack of the Cuirassiers.

Regarding the stop motion technique, I really like the outcome.

I took 12 photos per Shako turn (i.e. 1.5 inch per step for cavalry, .5 inches for infantry in line). Even at low frame rates of 5 pictures per second, the motion is fluid enough to feel like a movie rather than a slide show. This works out to a bit more than two seconds per Shako game turn, which makes the minis move fast but not dash across the table too blindingly fast.

It is much better to play a scenario through without stop motion filming first, take photos after each turn and then more or less reproduce the battle in a second playthrough, using the first play through as story book. In the stop motion, you want all units to move simultaneously although the game has Igo-Hugo mechanics, and you want to fluidly include volley fire and melee results in the same X photos per turn that would be taken up by just plain movement in less eventful turns. You also want to complete formation changes before the end of the turn in some cases (even if they take up the whole turn as per the rules), i.e. before a unit that just formed square is hit by an attacker. In fact, I noticed that it is hard to spread out formation changes like left turns or forming square over 12 individual motions.

I still have to work on

• picture quality (better camera)
• less shakiness (keep the camera in place without interruptions, get a remote trigger to actually close the shutter to take photos without camera vibrations)
• right balance of
1. frames per second (I think the fluidity of motion at low frame rates of 5-6 pictures per second is better than I expected) and
2. the effective movement speed in inches per second of video (no matter how smoothly the minis move over the table due to the length of each individual step, if they zoom around too fast it's hard for the eye to follow the movements and catch all of the events on the table).
• better approach to zooming in on the action, and changing perspective. In general, I like the fly in effect created by moving he camera tripod a couple inches after every shot, but again it makes the picture very shaky. Maybe it's actually better to keep the camera perspective fixed completely, or to make hard cuts with a bigger repositioning of the camera at key junctures where some text might be introduced into the movie anyway to separate scenes.
• the smoke effect to indicate units firing - in principle, it works much better than I anticipated and is more necessary to show what's going on than I thought. I also like the animated effect of the smoke drifting away and eventually vanishing from the table. I just need to make the smoke move less - the current movie looks like it's taking place in weather conditions of extreme autumn storms...
• smooth movement (no stop-and-go, no erratic changes of facing and speed, no riding backwards) for the brigade commanders.

The flats are marching - encounter 1: delaying action

(Zusammenfassung auf Deutsch: erster Ausmarsch der Grünewald-Figuren, die ich bisher angemalt habe: die Reichsarmee versucht, den Vormarsch eines kleinen preussischen Korps zu verzögern. Regeln: Shako, Figuren: Grünewald, ich hoffe, die Bilder sprechen für sich selbst. Ein Klick auf die Bilder bringt eine größere Version auf den Bildschirm).

I don't really have enough minis ready for a proper game, but couldn't resist giving them a chance to take a first walk on the tabletop after finishing the seventh unit.

I used the Shako ruleset (not Shako II), but without written orders and with flexible interpretation of the division and army morale rules (considering there was a total of seven units on the table...). I did use the special SYW rules for deployment of the battle lines from the march in columns, though, because this kind of maneuvering is part of the visual and tactical appeal of 18th century battles for me.


The idea is to string a few practice games into a loosely connected series of games with a simple narrative. Maybe something like a fictional intrusion of a regular Prussian force into Franken (similar to the real 1759 campaign in Franken by the Wunsch Freikorps). This initial engagement will be a simple delaying action where the Imperials try to gain time to organize their forces.

The order of battle is the small fraction that I have already painted of the OB present in the 1759 combat of Zinna, the theme of my first historical flats project in a long time.

Prussians (on the right side of the photos)

• I. Bat. Salmuth Fusiliers
• II. Bat. Hoffmann Fusiliers
• Converged Grenadier bat. Burgsdorff
• Converged Grenadier bat. Willemey

Allies (coming from the left)

• I. Bat. Hohenlohe 
• I. Bat. Kurpfalz Foot Guards (should be the II. Bat., but I couldn't resist painting the more fun combination of life and company flags)
• Hohenzollern Cuirassiers

I took a photo after most turns, here we go (as always, click on the photos to see enlarged versions):

After turn 2: columns marching onto the table, Prussians start deploying into line of battle first to avoid being caught unprepared by the opposing cavalry

Turn 3: the Prussians are deploying into two lines, the Imperial troops are taking the high ground on the hill.

Turn 4: both sides have deployed, the grenadiers on the Prussian left form a square to fend off the Imperial cavalry (there are no hasty squares allowed in the SYW version of Shako, so you better get prepared in time...)

Turn 5: the initial infantry deployment is done, the Hohenzollern Cuirassiers on the Imperial right are starting to bypass the Grenadier square on the Prussian left in a wide, sweeping flank movement.

Turn 6 (viewed from behind the Prussian lines): the Cuirassiers continue their movement around the left flank into the Prussian rear, the Prussian second line is turning around to face this threat. Meanwhile, on the hill the infantry lines are closing in - the Imperials retreating slightly after reaching their hold position on the hill to give their cavalry more time for the flanking movement.

Turn 7: on the hill, the first volleys are being fired. To the surprise of everyone, the Imperial foot severely hurt the Prussian grenadiers on the hill, swinging the momentum in their favor. (In rules terms, the Kurpfalz foot guards, usually considered second rate at this stage of the war, stagger and cause a kill on the grenadiers in their very first volley, taking no damage in return).

Turn 8: the surprises continue - the Kurpfalz infantry charge the staggered Grenadiers on the hill, cause another two kills in the approaching fire (I do assume that chargers get to fire before engaging, although it isn't 100% clear to me from the rules), enter melee unfazed by the return fire from the Prussians and break the Grenadiers in the ensuing melee. At the same time, the infantry at the foot of the hill exchange a first volley, this time with the more expectable results in favor of the Prussians. The Cuirassiers have nearly finished their ride around the battlefield, distracting half of the Prussian force without engaging them or giving them a chance to fire a volley.

Turn 9: The Prussian fusiliers at the foot of the hill break the Franconian infantry in their front. Happy with a successful delaying action and the surprising performance of the Kurpfalz foot guards, the Imperial troups retire from the field to preserve their troops to fight another day.

Overall a fun game. I'm very positively surprised in many ways: 

• the flats move well on the tabletop - if you handle the stands carefully, with stable plastic bases they feel like they can take being moved around on the tabletop, although I will look into magnetic regimental bases going forward to avoid too many direct touches of the minis themselves.
• the flats look great, as well - in linear battles most units tend to face the same direction, and as long as they do I like the photos that come out. In many ways I think the neat rank and file presented by flats with more realistic body proportions is more visually pleasing and easier to "read" than a similar number of the usual full-bodied 3d tabletop gaming minis with many different poses and oversized hands and faces - these tend to look fantastic in skirmishing games but dissolve into an indistinguishable mass of colors and movement in larger numbers.
• the Shako rules are easy to use. Although this was my first Shako game in many years, I had to reference the rulebook very infrequently, and find that many aspects are not only simple enough to fit on the two page Quick Reference Data Sheet but could also be memorized nicely over time.
• once the battle starts, SYW battles are much more restricted than Napoleonic battles fought with Shako (as they should be). But this is not only historical, it is also counterbalanced by the really challenging task to deploy your army from the initial march columns entering the field. I really look forward to trying this again with more units. The only challenge will be to find a large enough battlefield when the number of units involved grows. Maybe I'll have to use the "Marching to Glory" supplement as a partial replacement to a full on-board deployment.
• With six bases per infantry unit, I like to visualize the unit state via the arrangement of the bases - cleanly aligned for good order, slightly out of order for staggered, facing backward for "fall back" etc. I just need a good idea how to distinguish blown from staggered cavalry. I'm even thinking of removing bases to reflect kills, that might look more appealing than counting kills with dice or other tokens palced next to the units.

Coming up next: a rearguard action where the units that took losses in this ancounter will start with a a kill or two each to introduce some continuity.

WH40K: Der Basilisk macht Bumm

Nach Ankunft der ersten schlagkräftigen Artillerieeinheit fühlten sich Kilians Space Marines ausreichend gestärkt, um sich mal wieder dem Heizakult von Waaghboss Donnerbirnä zu stellen.

Der inzwischen komplett mobile Heizakult lässt schonmal die Motoren warmlaufen.

Space Marine Kommandant Kilian blickt siegessicher über die Aufstellung seiner Truppen: von links nach rechts Devastoren, ein unterstützender Trupp Volterraner, Terminatoren, Cybot, taktischer Trupp. Nicht im Bild: die Scouts, die per infiltrieren ganz nah an den Orks aufgestellt hatten und der ganz am rechten Flügel aufgefahrene Basilisk, der gleich in der ersten Runde eine entscheidende Rolle spielen sollte:

Erster Schuß des Basilisken (vom Schützen aus gesehen, im Hintergrund sieht man die beiden ausser Gefecht gesetzten Wummen der Pikkups in Rauch aufgehen)): gleich ein Volltreffer, Durchschlag geschafft und eine 6 auf der Schadenstabelle gewürfelt. Es macht einmal bumm und...

... der schöne Kampfpanza von Waaghboss Donnerbirnä ist nur noch ein Schrotthaufen. Leider mussten damit Donnerbirnä und seine Bosse so weit vom Feind entfernt aussteigen, dass sie zur leichten Beute des taktischen Trupps und seiner Bolter (plus diverser anderer Geschosse) wurden.

 

Die anderen Orks waren vom frühen Verlust ihres Chefs so verunsichert, dass sie auch nichts mehr zustandebrachten. Der einzige Mob, der die feindlichen Linien erreichte, blamierte sich im Nahkampf mit den Volterranern bis auf die Knochen (nur einen Gegner umgelegt und selbst zwei Verluste!!). Der Rest des Trauerspiels (aus Orksicht) war dann nur noch ein schnelles Zusammenkehren der Orkreste.

ASL Diary ep. 3: SASL Bunker Busting

Once again I failed to take photos so a text report from my first Solitaire ASL outing after several years' hiatus will have to suffice.

The mission was Bunker Busting from the outskirts of a village on board 11 into the huge forest covering most of board 5.

The company was in good shape (full size and more than half were already battle hardened 4-6-8 veterans). I only received a single section of engineers and used them on the right flank where I suspected some buildings to be fortified and strongly held.

However, my initial relief to face the enemy (with a huge amount of ? all over the woods) with a low enemy AC# of 2 soon turned into near despair - although I sent several courageous half squads spread out across most of the front checking out the many potential enemy hideouts (I only avoided the few ? hexes on the very left flank) they encountered nearly no opposition at all, except for a few unentrenched stragglers.

Halfway through the game I started to get seriously worried that I would not even find enough potential VPOs to balance the VPs the enemy would surely get (1 for my engineers section, a handful for ? remaining on board and some casualty VPs). I had just started to run my engineers with the two remaining DCs across the complete width of the board to help subdue the one pillbox I had managed to find (of course, that was on my weak left flank that I had initially planned to hold only...), when the first of two surprizes hit me: a convoy of six horse drawn transport led by a T37 came driving along a road on my left flank, apparently unaware of our advance into their route.

The transports didn't carry many troops and the T37 fell after several rounds of inconclusive firefights with my ATR teams (providing some much needed additional VPs) but the exchange blocked my lateral movements enough so that my poorly led, often panicking troops on the left had to take the pillbox alone.

They had just managed to do that when another surprize hit: apparently, some other parts of the Soviet machinery had noticed our advance after all and sent a seven hex human wave crashing through the woods we had just cleared. They caught my company commander with just one half squad who was on the move after mopping up a lonely foxhole in the woods, and I barely managed to extract him after reinforcing the close combat with all available troops (just a few heavy weapons teams who were trailing the other squads on their way to the left flank). After this skirmish and another with a straggling squad of mine that fortunately broke under the Soviet advance fire in time to retire without melée, the wave just rampaged on through the part of the forest I had already cleared of any enemy presence without encountering any VPO locations.

So at the end I managed to pull off a close, very low scoring win (would have been even closer without the T37 chugging along) and lost three half squads to various Soviet stragglers.

ASL Diary Episode 2: RB3 The Bread Factory

Dear ASL Diary,

ok, I'll admit that the cliffhanger at the end of episode 1 was not 100% open ended - I only started writing it when I knew I had already pushed some real counters around at least once. Unfortunately I did not think of taking photos from that first ASL session in many years, so a text summary will have to suffice.

Although I had read through most basic passages of the rule book during the last few months I felt really rusty and thought that a solo playthrough of a simple infantry only scenario might be a good way to reactivate the few synapses in my brain that still remember some ASL rules stuff.

On short notice I arranged to get a table in my favorite game store (Spiele-Pyramide in Karlsruhe) to give others a chance to take a peek at the game, too. It turned out to be too short notice for anyone to join explicitly for this event, but maybe someone will at least come across the announcement in the future and notice that there is some hardcore ConSimming to be had there.

To show off one of the graphically nice historical maps I chose one of the small standalone scenarios from the original Red Barricades historical module, scenario RB3 Bread Factory #2.

The Soviets set up mostly towards the South and Southwest, with the medium and heavy MGs in the central buildings. They fortified the Eastern one of the VP buildings and one hex of the three hex building in the center of their position, and used the trench to connect the VP buildings with this three hex building (in RB trenches allow direct access to adjacent buildings).

Consistent with my usual playing style, the Germans advanced slowly behind the railway embankments. In the South I had the officer with one 4-4-7 in one building and the elite squad with DC in the other. Unfortunately the elite squad broke under fire and when the officer went berserk per scenario rule, in turn 3 in this game, he found himself alone in close combat with one Russian halfsquad.

He was then reinforced by another German officer, but he also lost the squad accompanying him before reaching the building, so the Soviets had an easy time defending their buildings.

The ROAR entry for this scenario shows it somewhat in favor of the Germans, so I guess I need to learn to be more aggressive with my units if VCs are control based.

Overall I liked the scenario, it seems to offer both sides an opportunity to attack resp. counterattack. It also served nicely as a way to come across all typical events and rules for infantry fighting in constrained terrain, brush up on the RB special rules for terrain and generally get a feel for the game. So looking at why I pulled it out it's a neat "Mission accomplished" for this refresher game.

For the next few games, also to introduce a few new players, I have a few scenarios from an old Heat of Battle Firefights pack. These are very small, played on beautiful scenario specific maps and show off some special rules like snow / winter without becoming too complicated.

WH40K: Orkflut

Wieder einmal hört man Motorenlärm in der Ferne und die Cadia Fists rüsten sich zum Kampf gegen die unaufhaltsame Orkflut. Die letzten Male ging es ja nicht gut aus...

Anfangsaufstellung der Space Marines: Scouts vorgerückt in einem Wäldchen, auf der rechten Flanke die Terminatoren, in der Mitte der taktische Trupp mit Captain und Flammenwerfer (der kein einziges Mal zum Einsatz kam...) und links die Devastoren.

Die Orks haben seit dem letzten Mal schwer aufgerüstet, ein Buggy und ein mit Orkbossen besetzter Kampfpanza sind dazugekommen.

Die Orks bei der Aufstellung: ein Orkmob muss immer noch zu Fuß gehen (neben dem Kampfpanza), die anderen dürfen schon fahren.

Kurz vor dem Zusammenstoß

Sobald die Bosse aus ihrem Kampfpanza stürmten, war die Überzahl gegen die Space Marines einfach zu groß und sie zogen sich zurück. Es ging auch weiterhin bergab, die Verteidiger des Imperiums wurden einfach überrollt.

Der Kommandeur der Orks freut sich über den ersten Sieg im Nahkampf, nachdem er erstmal einigen Beschuss hatte einstecken müssen. Sobald die Orks mit ihren vielen Attacken im Nahkampf waren, gab es kein Halten mehr...

WH40K: Orks gegen Space Marines

Heute haben wir die Revanche für das letzte Debakel der Space Marines gegen die Orks gespielt. Die Cadia Fists nahmen diesmal einen Cybot mit, dazu einen Sieben-Mann Trupp Marines und ihren Captain, sowie zwei Scouts zum Stören auf der Flanke.

Die Orkbosse können es kaum erwarten, endlich mal motorisiert in den Kampf zu ziehen. Der Pikk-Up ist zwar noch nicht ganz fertig, aber für eine Probefahrt reicht er schon. 

Hier die Anfangsaufstellung (nur die Scouts haben es sich anders überlegt und sind ganz auf der linken Flanke neben dem Cybot ins Spiel gegangen).

Die grüne Flut rollt an. Die Killakoptas haben mit ihrem Bazzookabeschuß den Cybot das ganze Spiel über kaltgestellt. Die Bosse in ihrem Pikk-Up haben alles aus dem neuen Fahrzeug rausgeholt bei dem Versuch, die Scouts zum Kampf zu stellen (das war eher die Freude am Fahren als strategisch sinnvoll, aber sei's drum - die grünen Jungs mögen eben Benzingestank und Motorengebrüll :)

Obwohl sich die Bosse mit im Kreis-herum-fahren beschäftigt haben und damit wenig zum Gesamtverlauf der Aktion beigetragen haben, sind die Space Marines im entscheidenden Nahkampf als erste eingeknickt - entscheidend die letzte Runde, in der den verbleibenden Marines einschließlich Captain eine einzige Verwundung gelang, die dann auch noch mit einem Save (6+ - der einzige gelungene Save der Orks im ganzen Spiel) verhindert wurde.

Entnervt von ihrem Pech gaben die Marines dann schon nach einem um 2 verlorenen Nahkampf Fersengeld...

Vielleicht klappt es nächstes Mal mit der Revanche, heute war jedenfalls Jakob mit den Orks nochmal siegreich.

WH40K Spielbericht: Skirmish Orks - Space Marines

Um endlich mal meine erste (noch recht winzige) Orktruppe spazierenzuführen, habe ich letztes Wochenende ein paar von Kilians Cadia Fists ausgeliehen und mit Jakob ein Mini-Skirmish Spiel gemacht. Wir haben auf 75x75cm Platz gespielt und jeweils gut 300 Punkte eingesetzt.

Ich habe die Space Marines (im Vordergund) gespielt, ein Trupp Space Marines mit Raketenwerfer und Flammenwerfer ganz rechts und auf dem linken Flügel die Terminatoren mit einem Space Marine Captain.

Missionsziele waren der Trümmerhaufen in der Mitte, der Obelisk links im Hintergrund und die kleine Eldarstele rechts hinten (bei einemSpiel mit nur einer punktenden Standardeinheit pro Seite allerdings eher Schmuck als wirklich spielentscheidend ;)


Jakob hat (mit etwas Hilfestellung vom Papa) die Orks gespielt - links fünf Bosse, in der Mitte zehn Boys und dann die einzigen bisher motorisierten Mitglieder dieses zukünftigen Heiza-Kults (der erste Pickup ist schon in Produktion), nämlich drei Killakoptas.

Wie unschwer zu erkennen ist, alles Figuren aus der "Sturmlandung auf Black Reach" Basisbox.


Das letzte Bild zeigt die Halbzeit des Spiels - die Bosse haben zwar den Captain verletzt und einen der drei Termis ausgeschaltet, sind dabei aber selber nur noch zu zweit und haben sich "taktisch zurückgezogen", setzen jedoch gerade zum zweiten Angriff an.

Die Killakoptas haben sich ein wenig begeisterndes Feuergefecht mit den taktischen Marines geliefert, dabei einen Kopta verloren und drehen gerade in Richtung Termis ab. Dank eines schwungvollen Waagh (5 gewürfelt) reicht es den Boys in dieser Runde zum entscheidenden Angriff auf die Space Marines, die dann recht zügig abgefertigt wurden.


Da die beiden Bosse es dann sogar noch geschafft haben, dem Captain den letzten Lebenspunkt zu nehmen und die Marines nach dem zweiten deutlich verlorenen Nahkampf vom Tisch flohen, haben wir das Spiel als klaren Sieg für Jakob's Orks gewertet.

Vielleicht können sie ein paar erbeutete Rüstungsteile ja zum Aufpeppen ihrer ersten Fahrzeuge benutzen, damit sie das nächste Mal nicht mehr zu Fuß gehen müssen...

Battle Report: Border Skirmish II

Noch ein Repost von meiner alten Demonworld-Seite...

Another Border Skirmish

After the recent Isthak incursions into Elvish territory the Thanaril had taken to patrolling their borders more aggressively with local forces. However, so far they had not caught up again with the Isthaki invaders. Instead, the stupid humans had taken up arms and started causing trouble on the border! Athulain had hoped that this nonsense would stop after the inconclusive border skirmish he had fought with a local Empires contingent a few weeks ago.

But to his surprise the humans kept coming. In fact, they had dared send a motley collection of provincial troops into the Northern reaches of the Elf forests! He would teach them to stay home peacefully once and for all. And to humiliate them in their unbelievable carelessness (his scouts had advised him that the humans had neither brought any magic users nor any flyers to explore the battle field!) and preposterousness (they had even dared to bring a unit of dwarfs!) he would do it in style - just with a few local units of Thanaril and the support of a few Luthari archers. [As this was a learning game for the Elf player, we decided not to use the rules for magic and flyers to keep things simpler].

The Armies (1550 points)

The Empire had ventured into Elvish territory with a local force of provincial pikemen and crossbow archers, a cannon, some mounted archers and a bull heard from the east and support from a unit of noble lancers under Jorghan the Paladin and some dwarf arquebusiers. They were commanded by Dar Kilmor.

The Elves countered this army with a Thanaril contingent of hunters, spear bearers and Thirgar lancers. They were led by Athulain with help from Imriel, and supported by a unit of badger people and some young treemen who started the battle hidden in the woods on one flank.

The Battle

In classical fashion, both armies sent their right wings (full of cavalry) forward to charge the enemy.

The Empire charge was led by the bulls, who charged straight into the hunters and spears and kept them busy for (nearly) the rest of the battle. The noble lancers under Jorghan's command were not as lucky, as they were surprised by the hidden treemen before they could charge the Luthari or other targets. They spent a long time hacking away at the treemen, hardly doing any damage but suffering a slow death by attrition themselves. Later, the pikemen started to join the fray, and Jorghan got away from the futile engagement with the treemen and attacked the Luthari, too.

The Luthari archers were the only Elf unit that did not do much - they had set up too far behind the woods to get in much missile fire, and were caught in the flank later as they were trying to march to more open fields of fire behind the melee of the Thanaril on their side.

The melee on this flank continued almost through the end of the day. The Thanaril spearmen and hunters were nearly destroyed, and the badgers had a hard time surviving the crossbow fire and the threatening charge of the pikemen. But they held out more than long enough to see the battle decided on the other wing.

On the Elves' right the Thirgar lancers went charging straight ahead. They soon found themselves faced with a selection of targets (or threats, depending on your viewpoint): the mounted archers who had advanced to their right flank, the cannon that kept shooting at them (with little effect) and the hated Dwarves.

They decided to take the initiative and charge the most important threat first, the mounted archers [in this move, both armies had equal amounts of attack orders issued, but the Elves won the die roll to resolve the tie and opted (wisely) to move first.] They smashed right into the ranks of the archers and nearly annihilated the unit on first contact [including a couple of second attacks due to their higher initiative, the Thirgar performed 6 melee attacks on the archers and scored kills on all six of them - no die roll was higher than 6 in this first round of melee...].

This furious attack more or less decided the battle on the Empire's left flank, and it was then only a matter of time for the victorious Thirgar to ride down the cannon and the arquebusiers (who withdrew to the central hill before being charged), and then to threaten the rear of the remaining humans who were already involved in heavy fighting with the Thanaril infantry. The rest was mopping up and chasing the few remaining humans from the field.

Athulain was very satisfied how the day had gone. The Thanaril had lost a few valuable fighters, but they had utterly routed the human imbeciles who had dared invade the forests of Iconessa.

Lessons learned

• Elves versus Empire is a great combination to play with beginners of the game. The units are not too exotic, there are no special elites that need a lot of tactical experience, and very few special rules are needed. In addition, if you don't use magic and flying rules, a newbie playing the Elves has a good chance of beating the Empire. This means that he/she will feel in control of his/her forces right from the beginning and really enjoy laying the game, instead of being stressed about handling new rules and losing to a veteran player with more tactical experience. Highly recommended! (In a more competitive environment, an Empire player has to use all means available, like lots of magic, fire, dragons etc to have at least a small chance of winning against the other aces, at least in this general's experience).
• Units without morale and/or with high initiative really dominate melee. This clearly visible in how long the bull herd managed to keep multiple Thanaril units busy before being completely eliminated, but even more in the furious charges of the Elf lancers that let them literally sweep away several enemies in short time - here the second attacks of a model with higher initiative really help!
• It is very hard to do anything against treemen if you can't set them on fire. They are so tough (high armor, many hit points) that a normal melee against them takes ages, and while they continue fighting your unit will keep losing elements and rout sooner or later. So remember to bring a fire mage or three, and/or some units that can shoot burning missiles, if you face treemen.

Copyright Notice: This report (C) Klaus Herrmanns 2003. All rights reserved. Please only pass this on to others for private, noncommercial use. Illustration created using the Powerpoint template from Christian 'Firehawk' Reznicek, used with permission (thanks Firehawk!). If you want to use this article elsewhere, let me know at koljag@SPAMBLOCKyahoo.com (remove the SPAMBLOCK before using the mail address). If you quote me as author and add a copyright notice like this, I'm perfectly happy to let you re-use this article.

Battle Report: Border Skirmish I

Border Skirmish

After the recent Isthak incursions into Elvish territory the Thanaril had taken to patrolling their borders more aggressively with local forces. Unfortunately the local leaders of the Empire's southern provinces felt threatened by the more frequent appearance of Elves at their borders and had also started patrolling more intensively with whatever forces they could find in the region. On this day, two patrols met across the river that marks the border between the forest of the Thanaril and the Southern province of Annakam.

The Armies (1200 points)

The Elves had a Thanaril contingent of hunters, spearbearers, archers and skirmishers, supported by the badgers in the center and the Luthari archers under Caliar Ildriel on their right flank. On the very left flank Andor was waiting to cross the river and disturb the attack of the Empire troups.

The Empire had a local force of provincial crossbows and pikemen on their center and left. They were led by the noble mounted knights and supported by the dwarf arquebusiers behind mantlets [yes, we used the 1st edition mantlets]. Their commander was Dar Kilmore in the center. On their right flank, facing the other river fording, the positioned the rolling fortress with flamethrower and the Order's knights on foot with Gordan Orkslayer as their leader.

The Battle

The Empire troups were determined to protect their borders. On their right flank the rolling fortress advanced partly into the river, blocking the small ford completely. Although the Thanaril archers tried hard, they could hardly scratch the massive tower on wheels. The Thanaril spearbearers were stupid enough to try and attack the fortress in the water. However, after getting into contact they discovered how nasty the flame attacks can be and dispersed, with part of the unit staying so close to the tower and the rest so far away that the flames could not reach them.

Because the fortress chose to simply block the ford until the end of the game, it defeated all efforts of the Thanarils left flank to do anything; the unit of Order's knights on foot behind it together with Gordan spent the whole army marching back and forth in beautifully studied formation changes, but without a chance (or a need) to to anything more. Some observers felt reminded of the dwarves' performance in the famous battle of Bassano...

On the left flank of the Empire more action took place. The block of dwarves and crossbowmen advanced very slowly behind their mantlets, not causing or losing many casualties throughout the game. But the mounted knights quickly rode into the river at its wider ford and crashed right into the Thanaril skirmishers who advanced to slow them doen. They did this so skilfully that they even managed to bind the hunters and the Luthari in melee for a couple of rounds until the skirmishers were dispersed and the badgers found the space to crush into the knights and destroy most of them in a single round of combat.

Immediately after the fleeing knights the pikemen had moved up and replaced them in the melee for control of he larger ford, holding their own until nightfall.

At the end of the day, both sides retired fatigued and with limited losses, but knowing that they had defended their honour well in a close fought border skirmish. Unfortunately both knew that their next encounters with Isthak would not be such limited affairs...

Summary, or 'How to play Demonworld'

This game illustrated two simple ways to make Demonworld games fun: simple scenarios, and a roleplaying approach.

In terms of scenarios, terrain can make a big difference. In this case, using a river as the central feature of a small battlefield made all the difference. Fords as the only points wehere rivers can be crossed (or at least crossed fast) focus the game in ways you will never see on other battlefields.

And the choice of armies can be varied to give some color, too. In this game, we both happened to choose armies focusing on standard troups, with only the bare minimum of one two star commander and an extra hero, and few elite troups, on both sides.

This fit in nicely with the roleplaying approach - my opponent started the game looking at the map and the armies and devising a simple background plot (by saying that the river marked the border between Iconessa and the Empire, and defining the goal of his Empire army to keep the Elves off Empire territory). He then used the background plot to bring color into the interpretation of game events (which happen to fit nicely in with games I played earlier against other opponents, so I could even link it together with an earlier battle report), and looked at the background when he needed to make strategic decisions (e.g. how aggressively to attack, or whether to cross the river, or simply block the fords where possible).

Having a small story appearing out of the game, and varying terrain and armies so it's not always the same stuff you see at tournaments, is a wonderful way to make DW gaming fun. So merci, Claude, for a great game!

Copyright Notice: This report (C) Klaus Herrmanns 2001. All rights reserved. Please only pass this on to others for private, noncommercial use. If you want to use this article elsewhere, let me know koljag@SPAMBLOCKyahoo.com (remove the SPAMBLOCK and the following dot before using the mail address. If you quote me as author and add a copyright notice like this, I'm perfectly happy to let you re-use this article.

Spielbericht: McDonald's a la Thain

Aufstellungen (1500 Punkte DW 1. Auflage)

Thain: Stufe 1 Schamane, Stufe 2 Priester, Speerträger, Wildsäue, Sünder, Bogenschützen, Wilde Krieger, Adlerschützen, Adlerpfeil

Imperium: H. Barrach Colonh, Gordan Orkschlächter, Kampfstierherde, 2x Khybor's Schrecken, Zwergenarquebusiere, Pikeniere, Adlige Lanzenreiter, Adlige Armbrustschützen, Armbrustschützen mit Schutzschilden, Fußvolk

Die Schlacht

An einem ruhigen Frontabschnitt des Belagerungsrings rund um Waalford, an dem kaum besondere Eliteeinheiten wie Drachenreiter, mächtige Schamanen etc eingesetzt werden, wurde erstmals im Westen des Imperiums der Einsatz einer Stierherde als Kampfmittel erprobt (übernommen aus den Gepflogenheiten der Ostmark). Hier ist der Bericht des (stellvertretenden) Kommandeurs, den unser Berichterstatter (mit einigen Schwärzungen zum Schutz der beteiligten Einheiten) ausfindig machen konnte.

Darstellvng vnd ausfyrliche Beschraybung des Gefechts bei der Vestvng [geschwärzt] am [geschwärzt], und des Verhaltens der beteyligten Aynheiten, inssbesonders der neuartigen Ochsenherde avs dem Orient des Ymperiums, vom kayserlichen Subcomandanten [geschwärzt].

Vom weitern Eynsatz der Ochsen, wie es im Osten gepfleget und utilisieret wyrd, muss im Kampfe des Ymperiums gegen die Barbarn der thainischen Horden abgeraten werden, specialiter im Belagerungsring um unsere Statt und Veste Waalford. Allhier seynd die Barbaren von der langen Belagerung so ausgehungeret, daß wir inen so nvr Labung und Verproviantierung delivrieren. Und haben sich die hungrigen Speerkämpfer beim Anblick der Ochsen so in Kampfeswut echauffieret, daß sie die ganze Herd in wenigen Minuten zerlegt und avsgenommen. Hevte morgen wurde im Feldlager der Horden unter einer goldenen Fahne mit einem roten, geschwungenen 'M' eine große Hamburgerbraterei von unseren Kuntschaftern vermeldet, also wie großes Feiern und Fressen. Villaycht sind die Ochsen aus dem Orient wilder und schröcklicher anzusehen und tryben dem Faynd die Furcht in die Gebayn und den Hunger aus dem Gedärm, jedoch die hisigen Bauern zychten schaynbar nur Fleisch, nicht gräsliche Kampfwesen wie uns aus dem Orient immer wieder tradieret wyrd.

Das ybrige Chargieren dieses Kampfes isst kurz dargelegt und verzaychnet: in großem Kampfes Mut und Stanthafftikeyt haben die Verbyndeten des Kaysers, die zwergischen Arquebusen-Feuerwerksmeister, die Geschytz gegen eine schröckliche Horde Geister verteidiget. Jedoch haben die Geschütz (alas, wie ymmer) auser mt dem alerersten Schuß nichts getroffen. Die Pikenier, nachdem sie sich aus dem Gehau mit den Gaystern zurykgezogen, haben die Kuttenmäntel zerschlagen und davon gejagt und den Zwergen die Speerträger vom Laybe geschafft, die nach der velociter erfolgten Schlachtung der Ochsen mit nach vorn gerycket waren.

Die noblen Lanzenrayter seynd sicher vor dem fayndlichen Geschoß im Wald nach vorn gerücket und als die Wilden Krieger frech geworden und in wildem Rausch die Reuter angegriffen, haben sie die halbnackten Veryckten kurz und byndig in die Vlucht geschlagen. Darauf gallant die fayndlichen Bogenschutzen chargieret, seind aber beim Anreiten von dem großen Pfeilgeschytz und den Pfeilen der Schytzen so arg decimiret, das sie nicht mer viel destroieret haben.

Gar nycht galant seynd die noblen Armbustschützen unter yrem Anfyrer [geschwärzt] schon nach kurzem Scharmytzel mit den wilden Säuen davon gelaufen und mit Pfeylen im Rücken (!) davongelauffen. Haben auch im Stych gelassen den wackern Gordan und unseren Comandant [geschwärzt] der, wann er von seynen schweren Wunden genesen (Merida sey im gnädig und hayle ihn) den faygen Adligen die Lehnsgüter aynzihen und weiterverlaihen wird an die tapfern Krieger von Fusvolk der Provincia, die zur Seyt gerücket und ihm zu Hülfe gekommen und nach Erschlagung der letzten Säu seynen leblosen Corpus vom Velde getragen haben.
Die Armbrusstschytzen der Provinicia in groser Ruhe haben hinter yren Schutzschilden ausgeharret und die geförchteten Schützen der Adlerhorde von den thainischen Inseln fern gehalten, die auser den Pfaylen in den Rücken der so genannten adligen Armbrusster nichts beweget haben.

Wie wir, die wir kaynen Drachenreyter und keynen Magie-Scholaren gesehen haben in vielen vergangenen Sträußen, die wyr mit den Barbarn gefochten, erscheynet auch der Fürst der Thainer seine wenigen Helden andernorts aynzusetzen als an unserem Abschnitte vor der Veste [geschwärzt] - warn wieder nur klayne Schwärme der widerlichen Gayster der Thainer gegen uns, und hat ein alter Man hinter den Säuen aynmal die blaychen Gespinste der ehrlos gefallenen Thainer vor unsere Rayhen gezabuert und danach nichts mer getan obwol er raychlich Ruhe gehabt [Zauberpatzer des Stufe 2 Priesters beim zweiten Zauber...].

So unser werter Herr Comandant [geschwärzt] wieder reconvalesciret, und die faygen Adligen gegen die tapfern Reuter verglichen und blosgestellet sind, haben wir fyr dismal die Barbarn im Zaume gehalten, vnd gesehen, das die Märchen von den Kampfherden der Ochsen des Orients hier im Westen nychts tavgen avser zur Verproviantirung der Faynd. Vnd sollen die Ochsen in Zukunft wider von unsern braven Soldaten gegessen werden und nicht übers Schlachtfeld zum Gegner getriben. Villaycht können dann die ymperialen das Banner des McDonald erobern und unter unserer Fahne Burger braten und an die braven Truppen der Provincia vertaylen.

In vertrettung für den Comandanten [geschwärzt] (dem Merida gnedig sey und wider heyle von saynen schweren Wunden, die er erenhafft erworben in disem Gefechte), den [geschwärzt],
[geschwärzt], Subcomandant der kayserlichen Truppen im Belagerungsryng gegen die Barbarn vor Wallford vor der Veste [geschwärzt]

Punktwertung

Knapper Sieg für Thain (Thain verlor ca 600 Punkte, Imperium ca 850, zum Ende mit unklarer Lage auf dem Spielfeld, aber leichten Vorteilen für Thain).

Copyright Notice: Dieser Bericht ist (C) Klaus Herrmanns 2001. Ich behalte mir alle Rechte daran vor. Bitte nur zum Privatgebrauch weitergeben und mich informieren, wenn der Artikel anderweitig verwendet werden soll (wenn ich das erfahre und mein Name und eine Notiz wie diese erscheint, ist das ja kein Problem).

Die Bilder wurden mit den Powerpointvorlagen von Christian 'Firehawk' Reznicek erstellt, vielen Dank für die Weitergabe dieser tollen Materialsammlung!

Battle report: Snow over Iconessa

Snow over Iconessa

Athulae was worried. She had started to feel uneasy a few weeks ago, when rumors arrived in the woods of Iconessa that the Human hero Jorghan the Paladin had left for the North after subduing the Orcs, and no news of his expedition had surfaced since then [the last game of my Empire army against Isthak was such a crushing defeat that I didn't feel like writing up a report... Jorghan survived, though]. And now, apparently out of thin air, an Isthaki force with lots of Demonic hordes had arrived very close to the Elves' homeland, the forests of Iconessa. How they had come there, whether by magic or (Athulae hoped) on foot, marching through the regions east of the human empire that were deserted by the Orcs after their last defeat, nobody knew. The Elvish counselors were all very uneasy about these events.

As a first line of defense Athulain Gilfar had been tasked to face the invaders with a hastily collected ragtag army - some local Thanaril hunters, skirmishers, archers and spear bearers brought together by Ilea the Nymph had been joined by a detachment of badger people under the leadership of Farendil, their master. Athulain had brought a unit of Luthari archers with him. When they deployed in the hills outside of the Elves' home forest they realized that in the night a few treemen had moved up to a little woods in the center of their position to aid the Thanaril in defense of their home.

But what Athulae saw lined up on the other side of the battle line was truly frightening: Two units of huge Dai Re Coon ice demons and an even larger Ice Giant in the center, some Torgogs and two units of fierce looking beastmen [brothers of the Icelord and Berserkers] on the Isthaki's right and some Polar Bear Riders behind a wild looking hero [Barsak] on their left, with several single figures, a few women that looked like magic users and a mounted knight behind their lines.

One of the magic users must have been a powerful conjurer, because without an interruption three Dai Re Coon commanders joined the ranks of the Isthakis as the battle was joined. As the Isthakis closed up to the Elves, they lost very few fighters to the Elves' missile fire. Athulae herself found few targets for her bow of Iconessa, although she did manage to hit a few of the Dai Re Coon. The only help for the Thanaril was the forest itself - even though they were not within their own proper territory, the Elvish influence was still so strong that the one Ice Witch magic user failed to create a blizzard for more than a few minutes until the soft warmth of the trees brought the sun out again [the Ice witch fumbled on her second attempt at a blizzard spell and lost all magic abilities for the rest of the game].

On the Elves' left flank the Thanaril skirmishers couldn't do more than slow the big beastmen berserkers down. But they did that so efficiently that the beastmen did not contribute singificantly to the rest of the battle [the brothers of the Icelord were stuck behind the Torgogs all the time and didn't really do anything, either. Which means that Isthak effectively won the battle using 1800 points against 2000...]. At the same time, Ilea daringly went to the front to try and banish some demons before they hit the Thanaril ranks, and to attack the Torgogs with the Lord Bow she had brought to the battle. However, before she could do anything she was attacked by the Isthaki knight [Norfred] and killed despite Athulains attempts to defend her (of course the cowardly evil knight hit on the Loreath before turning against the High Elf hero...). After Ilea fell Athulae lost sight of Athulain as he struggled with the masses of Torgogs around him [he was swallowed twice, and due to a rule mistake we made him take too many hits from the Torgogs - had we played the Torgogs correctly he might well have survived].

On her right, Athulae saw the polar bears smash right into the Thanaril archers and spear bearers after Barsak had tied up the bowmen in melee. The bears were cut down very slowly by the numerically superior wood elves, but tied up the whole flank for nearly the whole battle.

In the middle, the Ice Giant spent most of his time stomping and trampling over the Thanaril, badger and Luthari lines again and again. One after the other, all the defenders of the forest there died under the feet of the giant or in melee with the overpowering demons, the only survivor being Farendil who held his own against one of the Ice witch fighter heros, The only local success for the Elves came as the treemen emerged from their hiding places in the woods and fell into the Dai Re Coons' back as they were fighting the wood elf hunters and spearmen. This one unit of demons was completely eliminated, and due to the timely help of the treemen even Athulae, who had been drawn into the melee, survived this clash.

But as night fell, more than half of the Thanaril and the Ilah Ri were destroyed, Athulae and Ilea were nowhere in sight, and the field belonged to the demonic hordes from the north.

As she withdrew with the remaining troops towards the forests of Iconessa, Athulae could only hope that the sacrifice of this advance force had not been in vain. At least the next wave of Thanaril defenders would have to face less of the frightening Ice Demons, and most of the evil heroes, as well as the huge Giant in their ranks, had suffered many wounds that would not heal in time for the next encounter. So maybe this wave of intruders could be stopped, after all. But it was clear that the Elves would not be able to sustain similar losses very often, and Athulae hoped that the powerful Elvish mages in the capital would soon figure out what had caused this Isthak incursion in the south, and find ways to prevent them in the future. In any case, the Elves would have to take up patrolling their borders much more aggressively than they were used to.

Copyright Notice: This report (C) Klaus Herrmanns 2001. All rights reserved. Please only pass this on to others for private, noncommercial use. If you want to use this article elsewhere, let me know - if you quote me as author and add a copyright notice like this, I'm perfectly happy to let you re-use this article.

Spielbericht: Jorghan's Strafexpedition

Jetzt mal wieder ein alter Spielbericht: die Fortsetzung der in der Schlammschlucht begonnen Geschichte.

Aufstellungen
Orks: Ferniak mit magischer Waffe, Farran, Wahngrok mit Stiefeln Ulgroms, Ugh, Erzähler, Oger, gepanzerte Oger, Throigar Bronzeriesen, Orkgarde, Goblin-Spinnenreiter

Imperium: Jorghan der Paladin, Adlige Lanzenreiter, Adlige Armbrustschützen, Pikeniere, Dar Kilmor, Drachenreiter, Provinz-Armbrustschützen, Kampfstierherde, Malagor

Die Schlacht
Jorghan blickte mit einer Mischung aus Zuversicht und Besorgnis über das Schlachtfeld, auf dem sich heute der Erfolg oder Mißerfolg seiner Expedition in das Orkgebiet jenseits der Grenzen der Ostprovinz entscheiden würde. Nachdem den Menschen im Südosten die ständigen Überfalle zu viel und die Abwehrschlachten zu zermürbend wurden, hatten ihn Vertreter der Region gebeten, die Orks im eigenen Land zu stellen und dort so empfindlich zu treffen, daß sie ihre Raubzüge in Zukunft unterließen. Unter der nominellen Führung eines etwas ältlichen, aber liebenswürdigen lokalen Adligen waren sie ausgezogen, aber er wußte genau, daß die Männer auf ihn blickten, um Zuversicht für die kommende Schlacht zu gewinnen.

Er hatte mit einem Trupp zuverlässiger Ritter einen Keil auf der rechten Flanke seiner Armee gebildet. Auf seinem Flügel würde er hoffentlich schnell mit den Goblins ihm gegenüber aufräumen und dann die Linie der Grünhäute von der Seite her aufrollen. Auf dem linken Flügel würden die Kampfstiere das selbe zumindestens versuchen - vorausgesetzt es gelänge ihrem Anführer, sie in den Gegner zu treiben und vom Niedertrampeln der eigenen Einheiten abzuhalten...

Eine solide Mischung von adligen und lokal angeworbenen Soldaten, Armbrustschützen und Pikenieren angeführt von dem braven, aber nicht besonders furchterregenden Dar Kilmor stand in der Mitte. Entscheidend war, wie lange sie dort stehen würden - die Orks waren mit einer furchterregenden Ansammlung von muskelbepackten Ungetümen, Ogern und sogar einigen der berüchtigten Throigar angetreten, und die einzigen Grünhäute waren die Elitetruppe der Orkgarde in der Mitte der Schlachtreihe und die Spinnenreiter gegenüber von Jorghan. Der einzige den Männern bekannte Schrecken, Khazzar auf seiner Wyvern, war gar nicht aufgetaucht - stattdessen führte sein Bruder Ferniak die Orks. Wenn die tapferen Verteidiger der Menschheit da zu früh kalte Füße bekamen, würde auch ein Durchbruch der Ritter auf der rechten Flanke zu nichts nütze sein.

1. Runde
Auch der Magier Malagor machte Jorghan eher Sorgen. Seit der Schlacht in der Schlammschlucht wurde der ohnehin schon greise Zauberkundige von einer chronischen Grippe geplagt und machte einen elenden Eindruck.

Bereits in den ersten Minuten der Schlacht bestätigte sich Jorghans Vorahnung - der alte Magier wurde bereits bei dem ersten Versuch, einer Einheit mit der magischen Parade eine längere Lebensdauer zu geben, von einer magischen Entladung umblitzt und löste sich in einer Rauch- und Feuerwolke auf. Das fing ja gut an - hoffentlich betrachteten die abergläubischen Provinzsoldaten das nicht als ein schlechtes Omen. [Dieser üble Zauberpatzer - und das ohne Schicksalsgemme :( - sollte mein größtes Pech in dieser Schlacht bleiben, für die restlichen Kämpfe konnte sich nur mein Gegner mit Recht über Würfelpech beklagen.] Nun ja, so mußte eben der blanke Stahl den Tag entscheiden - dem Paladin und seinen Rittern schien das ohnehin die ehrlichere Art der Auseinandersetzung. Trotzig klappte Jorghan das Visier herunter und setzte sich an die Spitze des Ritterkeils, um die Spinnenreiter niederzureiten.

Ferniak verteilte unterdessen Steinhaut an die umgebenden Einheiten und trieb seine Oger und Riesen in die Schlacht. Nicht genug, daß sie ohnehin nur langsam über das Feld stampften, sie waren auch von den vielen Armbrustträgern ihnen gegenüber so beeindruckt, daß sie noch langsamer vorrückten als ohnehin.

So waren die ersten Zusammenstöße den Flanken vorbehalten. In der rechten Flanke von Jorghan's Keil tauchte unvermittelt Wahngrok auf, der sich dank seiner Stiefel schneller auf die Ritter warf, als diese erwartet hatten. Gerade noch rechtzeitig löste sich Jorghan von der Spitze seiner Truppe, um seinerseits Wahngrok in den Rücken zu fallen. In dem folgenden Getümmel gelang es den Rittern nicht nur, die Spinnenreiter in Schach zu halten und schließlich in die Flucht zu schlagen, auch Wahngrok fiel nach vergeblichen Versuchen, sich durch die ihn umringenden Ritter herauszuschlagen. Jorghans Ruf war wieder einmal bestätigt, und wenn die Mitte hielt, würde er mit den verbleibenden Rittern rechtzeitig dort erscheinen, um die Schlacht zu entscheiden.

Auf der anderen Seite des Schlachtfeldes warf sich der Orkheld Farran Rotpelz auf seinem treuen Wolf todesmutig der anstürmenden Kampfstierherde entgegen.

3.-4. Runde
Farran konnte die ihn umgebende Meute aber nur kurz aufhalten, und die Oger hinter ihm hatten sich zögerlich in Richtung Mitte gewandt, als ihnen schon die Kampfstiere im Nacken saßen und sie schließlich in ungestümem Kampfrausch zerschlugen und zum ungeordneten Rückzug trieben.

Alles würde sich also in der Mitte entscheiden, wo die fast unbezwingbaren Elitetruppen der Throigar und der Orkgarde unter der Führung des Clanngett langsam auf die Männer des Expeditionsheers zustampften.

Beide Einheiten spürten auf ihrem Anmarsch den feurigen Atem des hinter ihnen gelandeten Drachen, der glatt zwölf Orkgardisten [drei Elemente] wegblies und drei der Bronzeriesen versengte [sprich den ersten Trefferpunkt verpaßte].

Danach jedoch stieß die Orkgarde auf die Pikeniere und schlug sie nach heißem Kampf hin und her zurück. Zwar sammelten sich die wenigen verbliebenen Pikenträger später noch zu einem verzweifelten zweiten Angriff auf die Orkelite, aber nur um sofort wieder zurückgeworfen zu werden.

Direkt im Anschluß verwickelten die Gardisten die überraschten Provinz-Armbruster in einen Nahkampf - die verblüfften Bauern hatten sich bei dem Versuch, die Oger in ihr Schußfeld zu bringen, zu nah an das wogende Gefecht auf ihrer Rechten gewagt. Aber dann wurden aus den Bauern, an denen das einzige militärische ihre Schußwaffen waren, die Helden des Tages. Nachdem die Pikeniere schon etwas Zeit herausgeschunden hatten, behielten die Armbrustschützen im Nahkampf gegen die Orkgarde länger die Nerven, als es ihre Anführer je für möglich gehalten hätten [drei Nahkampfrunden gegen Garde plus Ferniak nicht geflohen! Allerdings hat es geholfen, daß Ferniak bei drei Angriffen eine 18 und eine 20 würfelte...]

5.-9. Runde
Während auf den Flanken die Kampfstiere die Oger niedertrampelten und Jorghan ihre gepanzerten Mitkämpfer schlug, wogte der Kampf um die imperiale Mitte weiter. Das tapfere Aushalten der Bauernsoldaten brachte wertvolle Zeit für die adligen Armbrustschützen, mit ihren Geschossen weiteren Throigar die ersten Wunden zuzufügen, und die gepanzerten Oger in Schach zu halten, bis sie von dem siegreichen Jorghan und seinen Rittern niedergehauen wurden. Auch der Drachenreiter tat seinen Teil dazu, die großgewachsenen Hilfstruppen der Orks in die Flucht zu schlagen.

Der einzige Wermutstropfen für die imperialen Truppen war der Pfeiltreffer von Ugh's Bogen, der ihren von den Orkgarden bereits verwundeten General Dar Kilmor niederstreckte.
Beim Einbrechen der Dunkelheit [Ende neunte Runde] waren alle Oger in die Flucht geschlagen, und die angeschlagenen, aber noch nicht vernichteten Orkgardisten und Riesen in der Mitte sahen sich eingekreist von Lanzenreitern, einer kompletten Einheit gepanzerter (adliger) Armbrustschützen, dem siegreichen Helden Jorghan und dem fast unversehrten Drachenreiter.

Bei ihrer Rückkehr in die heimischen Dörfer würden sie im nächsten Ork-Kriegsrat sicher nicht empfehlen, so schnell wieder in die Provinzen des imperialen Südostens einzudringen.

Froh, die Begegnung mit den riesenwüchsigen Gegnern überstanden zu haben, und ihnen dabei sogar etwas Respekt eingeflößt zu haben, zogen die menschlichen Soldaten wieder heim zu ihren Bauernhöfen und Kasernen. Nur die Männer, die den aufgebahrten Leichnam Dar Kilmors nach Hause trugen, strahlten nicht so siegesgewiß. Jedenfalls hofften sie nach diesem Erfolg alle auf ein paar friedlichere Jahre - dann wäre auch das Opfer des alten Adligen nicht umsonst gewesen.

Jorghan der Paladin und seine Ritter trennten sich direkt an der Grenze des Imperiums von den heimkehrenden Siegern, um zu neuen Taten aufzubrechen...

Copyright Notice: Dieser Bericht ist (C) Klaus Herrmanns 2001. Ich behalte mir alle Rechte daran vor. Bitte nur zum Privatgebrauch weitergeben und mich (mailto://koljag@SPAMBLOCKyahoo.com) informieren, wenn der Artikel anderweitig verwendet werden soll (wenn ich das erfahre und mein Name und eine Notiz wie diese erscheint, ist das ja kein Problem).
Die Bilder wurden mit den Powerpointvorlagen von Christian 'Firehawk' Reznicek erstellt, vielen Dank für die Weitergabe dieser tollen Materialsammlung!