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| Ithilien-the Twin Shrines,nice for a picnic |
The Clash of Axes
Khabaal is not surprised in the morning to see a small troop
of Variags appear on the road. They are led by the brigand chief Zharius and
they are soon in Khabaal’s camp helping themselves to his wine and food. Jogging along behind them are some Jakhala,
swift of foot, they make easy work of the steep hill side.
Trudging up the road, obscured by the dust, come some
Easterling axemen, they are led by the fearsome Zhaax, a man of terrible
reputation, a pit fighter made good.
The Orcs are nowhere
to be seen, they slipped out of camp in the night, eager to avoid more Menfolk.
The Forces of Evil
Khabaal’s Warband
Doing well in this campaign, slowly growing stronger Akhim
Dahn, the Mumakrim, is yet to prove himself, maybe this will be his chance
Zharius and his Variags
“King of the Brigands” Zharius, leads
the Variags of Khand. An adept tactician, Zharius employs his men in hit and
run attacks against enemy formations. Zharius is an expert shot and can draw
and fire two arrows as quickly as most archer’s fire one. He is completely at
home firing from the back of his horse whether reaching round to fire behind or
ducking low and firing under his horses’ neck. His profile can be found in the
Southron Empire pdf in a previous blog
Zhaax
and the Easterlings, half of them have shield and hand axes, half of them are
equipped with double handed axes
Zhaax-Born the lowly son of a tavern keeper, he had
many brawls and showed himself to be a natural warrior. He became a pit
fighter. His skills were recognised by a wealthy man after watching his prowess
in the fighting pits with any weapon, however, it was the great axe that became
his favourite. He showed a lively intelligence and a keen understanding of
tactics and was soon given his freedom and made a captain. In number of small
actions, he demonstrated a great talent for war. Quick as a cat and totally
fearless he rose through the ranks. He is greatly respected by his men who will
follow him anywhere
This model is a
real composite job. He is built around the axe which is from Gripping Beast
miscellaneous medieval weapons set. As soon as I saw the axe I could see how I
wanted this guy to be. I wanted him to have greaves and mail like the other
two-handed axe men but I had run out of the Victrix Carthaginians in purloined
Roman armour so I used the legs of the Punic officer in lamellar breastplate.
These are in a very static pose and had to be cut at an angle at the knee to
make them seem more animated, this meant that one of them was too short and so
I cut the figures base around the foot and left it in situ, cut into a wedge.
The body is GB Saxon Thegn, as a hero I think its ok that he has different,
more protective, armour than his men. The arms were a nightmare as nothing I
had worked well with the axe. I used forearms from two different figures, I’m
not sure which, his left hand is from a space Ork I think and his right is a GB
Arab cavalry archer’s open (just released arrow) hand. The head is GB Arab
cavalry, (so much mileage from one box!) with an added plume from a Victrix
Carthaginian Officer
The
Jakhala with their captain Jabala. Swift of foot and armed with poisoned
javelins and hide shields. Quick to attack and quick to run away, desert
dwellers they are amazed by the rich vegetation of Ithilien.
The Good Guys
Baragund is delighted to see
several Warbands approaching down the road, he is even more pleased when he
sees that they are led by three redoubtable lords, Forlong the Fat of
Lossarnoch, Duinhir of the Morthond and Dervorin of the Ringlo Vale. “Hoorah!”
he thinks, even his thoughts are exclamations, “Hoorah for the fine gentlemen,
now shall victory be assured”
The
Fiefdoms war band is looking quite strong even with the unfortunate Melathor
missing. Baragund is again full of his youthful optimism and noble resolve
The Gondorians have also taken
heart from the sight of their allies
Forlong
is perhaps the most well-known of the Fiefdom lords, after Imrahil, if only for
his legendary appetite and imposing bulk.
A small force but doughty, the Lossarnoch warriors have Reckless Charge
and with Forlong’s “Lord of Lossarnoch” special rule, are sure to cause some
casualties.
The Forlong model is all Games Workshop with Gandalfs head on Boromir of the White Tower body and a Rohn Royal Guard spear.Hes been filled out with green stuff
Duinhir
and his longbowmen of Morthond excel at archery, their arrows are a welcome
addition to the force
And of course, there is bold
Dervorin, son of the Lord of Ringlo Vale and some of its fine warriors
The forces meet at a place where
the river and the road run alongside each other at an ancient shrine Idhrinn
Nethel dedicated
to the twin spirits of summer and winter. One statue stands looking forlornly
across the river to where its sister has collapsed in ruin. The statues were
once connected by a roofless hall long since fallen to rubble. Here the Poros
is quite narrow and shallow but still rapid and anyone crossing is taking a
risk. On a 1 or 2 (d6) they lose their footing and are swept d6“ downstream.
The Western bank has a large wooded hill, this is quite dense forest and counts
as broken terrain, move at half speed. The piles of rubble are mostly not high
enough to provide cover but count as broken terrain to cross.
Zhaax
and his Easterlings enter on the road with the Jakhala forming a skirmish
screen in front of them
Zharius
and the Variags form a line on the left flank and Khabaal’s war band climb the
small hill in the centre
The
forces of Good deploy in a long line across the field. Forlong takes the road
with Faredor and Dervorin on his right flank. Duinhir takes his archers of
Morthond on the far side of the stream to climb the wooded hill to provide
flanking fire from there
The Fief Warband deploys on the
right flank
The First Turn-Evil win
initiative
Both sides advance, the Jakhala
whooping and ululating their war cries, the Easterlings grimly silent, they have
a reputation for neither receiving or giving quarter, for them war is always to
the death!
The men of Lossarnoch beat a slow
deep rhythm with their axes on their shields as they walk
The Second Turn-Good win initiative
The men of Lossarnoch and the
Gondor war band march side by side. The axemen begin their war chant
“Lossaaaarrnoch! Lossaaarrnoch!”
The first to fall is Meruvin of the
Fiefs Battle Company, on the very right of the line, shot by one of the Variags
Bladruth, the Black Root Ranger,
is the next to fall, also to a Variag arrow
Dervorin
is hit by an arrow fired by Jihalakhan but fate saves him, and Ilynmar has his
horse shot out from under him by one of the Jakhala
Variags!
A constant pain in the flank!
The Third Turn-Evil initiative
The Jakhala advance throwing their
javelins
Forlong waves his spear in
defiance “What?!You can’t hit me from there?”
He calls in his gruff voice “You must be poor shots indeed to miss such
a target as this!”
Khabaal and his company are picking
there way through the rubble
Navid hits Dervorin
The Fourth Turn A crucial turn.
Evil win initiative. Khabaal, Dhalmud, Xephon and Akhim Dahn climb a small
cliff to join Zharius on top the ridge
Zharius is plugging away at the
warriors of Ringlo Vale
He has hit four…. he does not
think it’s too many
Navid has killed two of the Ringlo
Vale men.
Dervorin goes down, taken out by a
Jakhala javelin.
One of the Easterlings is hit by
an arrow fired from the woods, the first Evil casualty. The Good Guys have lost
9!
The Jakhala back off, the
Easterlings advance and the Men of Lossarnoch giving one last furious war cry
charge home.
“Forlong! Forlong!” they cry
With
a flurry of blows Zhaax and Forlong meet in the middle of the fray.
Both heroes use Heroic strength.
Forlong the mighty Lord of Lossarnoch rolls double 6, Zhaax rolls 5 and 4.
Zhaax uses a point of might to get the draw and wins on Fight value 6v5
Forlong fails Fate and takes 2
wounds
And gets pushed back
The Fifth Turn Good win
initiative
The Men of Lossarnoch win most of
the duels against the Easterlings pushing them back but causing few injuries.
Forlong charges back into the
fray, despite being wounded, the Big Man wants to go out fighting.
Forlong
rolls a 2! Zhaax rolls a 3, Forlong uses his last two might to up his roll to a
4 and wins the duel inflicting a wound on the tall Easterling and pushing him
back
Sir Barahil of the Royal Household
Knights of Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth, a rather haughty man, charges into the
battle on the small hill. He is met by Khalid who, assisted by one of the
Variags, deftly turns the couched lance an the knight with the hilt of
his scimitar knocking His Lordship to the ground with a roll of double six!
The Archers of
Morthond are finally able to fire, they take out Boko and Mula the Jakhala of
Khabaal’s company.
A javelin hurled from the melee
below wounds an archer
Heavy fighting right along the
line
Good are winning most of the duels
but seem unable to inflict any casualties
The Men of Ringlo Vale are taking
heavy casualties from the arrows of the Variags and the Jakhala javelins
Atop the small hill Khabaal meets his
old foe Baragund and takes him down.
Zharius charges into Berethor knocking
him to the ground causing a wound
Akhim Dahn chops down Garulf with
his short, broad scimitar. The Fiefs Warband is being whittled away
At the end of Turn 5 Good have 17
casualties, Evil have 5 casualties.
The Sixth Turn-Evil wins
initiative
The Variags push forward with Khabaal’s
company, taking down the last of the Fiefs warband, Eothard of Lamedon and
Dunhold of Morthond
Zharius shoots and kills Mared of
the Gondorian Battle Company
Scrambling
down the small cliff, eager to get into the fray, Akhim Dahn trips on his golden
cummerbund and falls knocking himself senseless
Outflanked
and taking heavy casualties the Good centre is being overwhelmed
Zhaax swings his Master Forged
Battle axe in a wide arc Forlong is slow to respond and the Fatman goes down for
good. Both rolled 4 in the duel which meant that Zhaax higher fight value wins
the combat and his double six ensures the wounds.
Good casualties at 23 exceeds the Break
Point of 22 and the Good Side will be rolling Break Tests
The Seventh Turn
Good win initiative
Most of the Good side pass the
Break tests
Again, the Good Guys win many
duels but with few casualties
The Eighth Turn
Good win initiative, this time most
of the Morthond archers and the Gondor war band fail their Break tests
Two Ringlo Vale warriors have somehow
survived to the last blow
Its all over, a complete victory
for the Evil side.
This was fun! The duel between Forlong
and Zhaax stretched over three turns and was gripping stuff. The battle in the middle
was a real slogging match and was interesting in that the Good side won most
duels but couldn’t break armour. The evil side caused most casualties with bow
and javelin.
Placing the Archers of Morthond on
the other side of the river was a big mistake, it took 3 turns to get them in position
and by then the two sides were in combat and there were precious few targets.
Running three Battle Companies
within a larger battle has been fun but challenging. This was a 600-point
battle, I hope the next one will be twice that and on a 6x4 table. I think I may
lose the Gondor Warband for that and focus on the Empire and Fiefdom Battle
Companies in a large battle setting.
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