This time I actually got a bit more terrain out, along with a balding GW grassmat - the munchkins were particularly keen to use the river and the tower, although the tower played no role whatsoever in the game except during pack-up when I dropped the heavy lump on two roofs and chipped a great lump out of each of them, dammit! Containing the vehement bad language that wanted to spew forth at that moment was a great effort of will!
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| Goblins to the left of me, skellies to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you... |
The brief for the newly confident captains was simple: no fiend was to be allowed to set foot across the river, at any cost! This was a matter of pride (and probably political necessity) for the Duke.
John Trollsbane led his men to the rickety crossing that seemed the most likely place for their foe to attempt, while Captain Nameless (I really must speak to that boy and get him to choose a name that isn't "John as well" - no imagination...) sent a spearman and an archer to secure the ford.
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| Follow me! Trollsbane really got the hang of group moves in this game |
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| The spearman here turned out to be the Hero of the Ford, rebuffing skeleton after skeleton and shattering their foul magic |
The ford proved impassable for the forces of caddish countenance as the Hero of the Ford bellowed "None shall pass!" as he struck down foe after foe. Eventually an archer moved close enough to start picking stragglers off with astonishing accuracy (we house-ruled that the archers had Combat 2, but a skill I called Accuracy which gave +2 to shooting rolls. That was an error for my chances to succeed!). The eagle-eyed Legolas wannabe also dropped my Necromancer with his first shot in response to a failed blast of evil magic.
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| "Ok, good shot son, now if I roll anything but a 1 I'll be fine... |
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| "....oh!" |
This was the story of the conflict by the ford. I was mercilessly cut down by a withering hail of sword-blows, cloth-yard arrows and brutal dice.
Over by the bridge, things looked more promising...
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| Swarm 'im, lads! |
...when John Trollsbane got swarmed by a tide of grinning gobbos. Manly tears mopped up, the fight continued with a certain heightened intensity with the fallen captain's comrades double-teaming my evil minions with ruthless efficiency. Step 1, knock a monster to the floor. Step 2, bring another chap in to stab him while he's down. Rinse. Repeat. Very soon I had a single goblin left and decided to try and get my pyrrhic victory - run for the bridge and try to upset that Duke!
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| "Run, Forest (goblin)! Run!" |
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| Yeah, that didn't go so well for me... |
End result? Ninety minutes or so of focussed gaming on about as nice a table as I can currently put together, with each of the three players using miniatures they'd painted themselves, and Good winning out over Evil. And all concluded in time for afternoon tea. Perfect!
Post game injury rolls (from Song of Deeds and Glory) gave John Trollsbane an understandable Hatred of goblins, Yellow-legs the archer took a nasty cut from a skeleton and will be at a Quality of 5+ for the next game (down from 4+), and my necromancer will be back apparently unharmed. I didn't bother rolling for the minions but thought I could develop the evil sorcerer into a recurring foe.
Oh, and I got a bit of prepping done on the animals I'll be taking to BOYL to use as table-dressing and/or resource tokens for the siege. They're all properly undercoated now but I couldn't be bothered to take a second photo:
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| Fear not, goats WILL be added to the livestock list! |
Till next time,
Rab
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