The Empire Responds to the invasion of the Uruk Hai

Entering the barrow downs,

Forward scout parties had discovered evidence of massed goblinoids on the main path. Estimated numbers in excess of 1000.

Engineering guild representative decided to seek alternate path through the barrow downs. Advance scouting parties sent out to navigate the possible paths and their threat levels. Many parties did not come back, of those that did reports were made of large heavily armoured Orcs in massed ranks advancing over the slopes. One long disused path through the old river valley was estimated to have the least concentration of these foul creatures. But the guild must advance NOW as the enemy scouting forces had clashed with our own and surely had reported back. Who knows how many would concentrate their numbers, descending on these valleys in the days ahead. The guild scouts had not completed their work but time was against the marching column and a decision had to be made.

Once the column had reached the head of the old river valley it was seen what had been missed from the initial assessments, in the base of the valley the river had dried up into a stinking marshy swamp, the bridge was still in place however. But the orcs had started to crest the neighbouring hills, the guild must dash to the opposite ravine and reach open country at the foot of the dwarf holds.

Let’s hope they could do so before reinforcements arrived.

Objective for the orcs, capture supply wagons and gun limbers.

Objective for the empire, deny the enemy supply wagons or get them off the board at the north end of the road for victory.

As a pre game setup we randomly drew out some magic items from the 4th edition magic set, this magic set was the best magic system GW ever produced (in Jason’s opinion) and works brilliantly in other editions too. It was used to draw for the wizards spells also. Two commanders per side, donned their hats of office and decided on their colleges of magic. Each side had a level 4 magic user and a level 2.

Neither side knew what the other had until the game revealed it to them during play. Using the old power card system created a great sense of a game in a game with some proper moments of tension waiting for reveals, with some should I do this now or not moments thrown in.

Magical highlights included:

-double bluffs on power card betting to destroy enemy spells,

-whole units being rendered immobile through ice storms.

-a throughly luckless boyar suspended in mid air for 3 turns!! He watched his unit of winged hussars run around like headless chickens and get cut down before he was released to run about narrowly avoiding massed goblin artillery which missed him!

• the giant Cromwell steam tank being raised in the air and held there by the very same spell!

The empire deployment was pre determined, the orcs could pick and choose where to send their troops in the respective deployment zones. Tactics would shift radically dependant on orc commanders choices.

Other pre game moves was secret recorded deployment of scouts, where were they!?!? Oh bloody hell they were hidden on the rocks at the end of the paths!!

And outriders got some free manoeuvres after deployment to put pressure on straight away. The warg outriders lept towards the mid column, forcing a response immediately in turn one. The engineer guild outriders sped forward in the hope to bloody the nose of the orcs and stem the tide long enough for the head of the column to get off the bridge and make a proper show of itself.

The wargs did their job perfectly, the empire minced towards the enemy and missed every shot for two turns in their wild eyed panic at finding they are utterly useless in real battle and should have stayed at home for their sakes and, more importantly, for the sales of their comrades morale. It was pathetic watching them fail in such a mediocre fashion. They later died out of hand.

But not worry! The orcs had decided they hated themselves, a round of terrible animosity rolls (cheers Luke!) had the effect of showing us one unit of Uruk hai really disliked the pikes in front of them. They killed the whole regiment to an orc. ?

Lee the giant bravely died on a steam tank and m, in his death throes, fell on it to damage its hull quite disastrously.

The head of the column had largely collapsed by Turn 4 but no wagons had been captured. Plenty had been blown up by misfire rolls or by enemy artillery. The only chance for the orcs to gain victory was to capture one of the central war wagons. Enter the valiant Hussite hero, known here as Stalwart Stan. Who throughly saved the day in being the most impossible but to crack against a horde of black orcs. Completely improbable defence was made.

In other news a load of spiders had found the empire surprise of a howitzer hidden in a  supply wagon.

The rear of the empire column had finally started to catch up when 2 things happened, the night goblin reinforcements arrived. Took a look. Half ran away. ??‍♂️

But not enough to force the empire to turn and face them. BUT! As the empire came about, the Stargate activated and some strange looking fellows arrived with magic staffs and blasted molten fire upon everyone in sight!

Finally, alas the elven host sent to scout out this unusual orc activity by their high elven master, stumbled across the beleaguered empire column too late to aid any victory.

The result was an inconclusive engagement, neither side gained victory, neither side lost everything. The first big engagement of the wizards war has concluded. The dwarfs are unsure of business with the empire can be as reliable as it once was.

The orcs had proven their capabilities in war, now the continued advance into the counts border territories can begin. Three ares are now under threat from orcish invasion,

-the Norscan sea ports at the river mouth, so relied upon for its fishing in feeding the populace of the north western plains.

• the dwarf mines of mount Zee-Da-Guld, responsible for the stable imperial mint. Losing this would force the count to dangerously destabilise his currency and many peasants could starve in the resulting inflation. Not to mention the loss in trade from the very miffed dwarfs who expect their mine protected by the counts forces!
• The sacred Temple of Amon Hen is at risk of falling to enemy hands. Such a wealth of ancient artifacts and power would surely be a boon to any necromancer wishing to rob the graves of millennia in the temple crypts. Rumours of armies buried alive long ago exist around that holy places history.

Jason opinion,-The scenario turned out very well, it had a few options of tactics for both sides and would allow us to re play it and get a very different game each time. I would try to link up the empire forces next time, and use the wagons as defensive points to rally around. Weaken the orc forces then attempt a break out manoeuvre later in the game to dash a supply wagon or two to the finish line. I found the game thoroughly enjoyable and flowed really well, it was great to meet chaps who like to game narratively and it made it a winning experience of a tabletop battle spectacle for me. I look forward to the next engagement in our tale! The roll out mats from Lidl recommended by Dr Spork are a winner! There is only 5 in this game, 6×15 foot. a 6th exists which would give us a 6×18 foot table but we would need more players for that!?

Sorry I ate allll the Frazzles chaps. They were lovely though!

It’s no secret, I do not like learning new rules. I’ve tried to pick up the Hail Caesar rulesets, I just look at the pretty pictures and read the history side of things. I cannot be arsed to learn the rules. A major mental block occurs and I just put the lovely books to one side.

Then I came across Warhammer ancient battles. It was as if a Christmas tree had lit up in my head. It’s allllll the same

Rules as the old warhammer. Completely suitable for 4th through 6th edition. All the stats and special rules just lift out and drop perfectly into my games and best of all I pick it up intuitively, with next to no effort as I already have this framework burned into my soul from years of play.

A few of the supplements give extra depth and nuance with some additional flavourful rules like Parthian shot for your skirmishing light horse archers. Testudo, extra weapons options, war wagon rules, extra artillery options, more formations and more troop types and abilities. More than I can ever faithfully get through in a lifetime if added to the plethora of Warhammer supplements over the years. It’s given me a new lease of life in my fantasy wargaming, I’ve been able to invent my own troop types for classic races and do so with authority, integrity and good fun.

I don’t need new rules. I don’t need to

Teach my mates any new rules. I don’t need to rebase or adapt any of my miniatures!!!! Huzzah!

I am going to Incorporate the war wagons from WAB into a mega game in April of warhammer fantasy. And some rules for pike block formations with abilities for light horse to add extra dimensions to fantasy gaming.

I’m forced to consider the point of new rules. If you have an existing ruleset, all be it ‘out of date’ or extremely well known and well trod. If you get extra pieces to add in to a well established, large player base ruleset without having to by and learn a whole plethora of stuff from the ground up then does it really matter that it’s not a ‘perfect ruleset’!?

Does it matter if it isn’t as streamlined as many designers now would want? I don’t think it does. I think the merits of knowing the code rules and having plenty of people already with familiarity and miniatures ready to go more than out weighs the detracting factors. I’m only going to learn hail Caesar/kings of war if the collection gets soooo unwieldy in scope that I want a super paired back rules system to pop at quickly. But I really don’t care about ‘quickly’ so far. I like the intricacy and layering of these elements. It’s a great flavour generator in games.

Perhaps I’m just classic in my tastes