Margana-the Last Battle- Malthodor!

 

 

The Orcs were coming to Malthodor and the people grew afraid. Prince Hiralim had never really recovered from the defeat at Snake Pass and whatever had befallen him in the Trolls lair. He had taken to wandering the corridors of his palace, muttering, and sitting alone in darkened rooms, muttering, and muttering, seemingly to himself, in council meetings, none of which boded well for the fate of Malthodor. He took no part in affairs of state, leaving the running of the defence of the principality to Fagland, for Malthodor was not itself a sovereign state, rather only a fief of the far greater nation that was Nogrod.

Concerned, Fagland sent word to Namis Thirit, the great citadel at the heart of Nogrod and, without hesitation, the King himself rode to the aid of his vassal. He rode in great haste, without delay, pausing not even to raise his guards, for he was King Salseer, and did not fear to travel any road alone and unguarded. He was descended in long lineage from Silirud himself and had known great hardship in his wanderings before he claimed the crown, growing both skilled in combat and wise in battle. Many leagues had he trod on that journey, first in the guise of a humble ranger, Serdirt, as he was known to a fat innkeeper in Reeb, and then, as he laid his claim to his birth-right, as Nogarra, the  Deannudi, the Man of the Tews.

Quickly the King appraised himself of the situation. Malthodor had grown prosperous and peaceful and soft over the years, many comfortable years with no threat to realm or heartland, soft and fat, like an old merchant too fat for his drawers, spilling out from the safe confines of the city walls.

Buildings had sprung up on the plain outside, houses, taverns, market places and people lived there happily until their numbers were too great to fit within the ancient walls of Malthodor itself, which had never been a problem until now, but now… the Orcs are coming!

Rallying what was left of the army following the defeats at Mount Spyre and the Forest of Nee, King Salseer calls for the Swan Knights and the Men at Arms of Malthodor, surely with these fearless warriors, the Good People of Malthodor need fear no lowly Orc? “Not cot nor byre shall we concede to those of evil heart!” he declares and makes the decision to defend the buildings that stand outside the mighty walls of the city

 

The road to Malthodor. The Nereg Nagrod, the last homely pub before “Kingtaxland” and several lowly houses align the road.

There are a couple of hills and a small wood.

The Army or Malthodor are the defenders and use the blue chits, the Army of Morrod are attacking and use the Red chits.

 

The Orcs deploy with the Orc-archers and the Rabble on the right flank. Noblig deploys on the left flank with his berserkers, the Orcses and the Snagas.

  Noblig is a survivor, Morrod has lost several war chiefs in this campaign, but Noblig is still standing. He has not become the Big Chief without gaining some wisdom and his senses tell him something is wrong. Ever since the battle in the spooky forest he has had a sense of unease, of foreboding, a sense of being followed, watched. A cold fear dwells in the back of    his mind, not quite tangible, just out of reach, he can’t quite place the cause of his concern, but last night as he was settling into his furs, as he drifted into sleep, he caught, as it were, on the very edge of his hearing the echo of a sound and it might have been “NEE!”

 

Salseer deploys Fagland the Withe with the Hearthguard of Meoland and the Archers of Northdom on the left flank, the Archers are bloodied from the previous battle and have minus one Resolve per company

  He deploys with the Men at Arms their bold standard of white swan on a blue sea waving bravely above them. The Swan Knights are to the right of them and far out on the right flank ride two companies of the light horse of Meoland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mishaps occur!

The Light horse are enthusiastic and they charge off to secure the hill and harass the enemy.The other troops are somewhat less happy and both the Hearthguard and the Archers of Northdom suffer desertion, each losing a company.

Noblig’s army have their problems too, the Snagas are diseased, no great surprise considering their diet and both the Berserkers and the Rabble are late.

The King and his Swan Knights

Turn 1 No Random Events

 No shooting as no one is in range

  The light horse advance onto the hill. The Orcses and the Snagas hurry to meet them, the berserkers run to make up the lost ground from arriving late.

 

 

 

 

 

 

the Orc-archers advance off their hill. They can see how weak the enemy are and they sense easy meat

 

 

 

 

 
the position at the end of turn 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turn 2 No random event

  The Orcses charge the light cavalry who evade off the hill. The Snagas follow up behind their larger cousins

  The Berserkers move on to the hill. They are always going to come late to this party

The Swan Knights reach the foot of the hill.

 

 

 

 

 

 The Orc-archers and the Rabble advance 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turn 3 No random event

 A small cloud of freezing fog appears in the middle of the battle field, swirling and shimmering, frost forms on the ground beneath it and the grass withers and dies at its cold touch.

 Each turn I have rolled a d6 for the Wraith, as for reinforcements, this turn I rolled a 3! The Wraith will roll each turn to attack a randomly selected unit from a random selected side 

I have created a monster and I am curious to see how the fear rules work. The Wraith has it’s own chit and activates when it is drawn from the bag.

 For this game it is armed with the Cause Dread trait

 

 

 

 

shooting- the archers of Northdom have had a bad campaign, what with changing sides in the n middle of a battle, being attacked by Dracoflies, getting bloodied and now desertion, no wonder then that their aim is a bit off!

 By reply the Orc-archers cause 7 hits. If at this point, I had remembered their bloodied status, the Northdom bunch would have scattered!

The Snagas cause 4 hits on the Knights

 

 

 

The Wraith chit is drawn……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morrod rolls 6 Malthodor 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Wraith attacks the Men at Arms! They have sufficiently high Resolve (6) to not be affected by Cause Dread and the Wraith attacks in the good old fashioned way with a gurt big sword

Wraith causes 3 hits the MaA 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Orcses charge the Knights who counter charge in response. The Orcses cause 5 hits but the knights cause 14 and wipe them out

 

 

 

 

Turn 4 No random event

The Orc-archers score 5 hits on the Hearthguard wiping them out. The Northdom unit take a one resolve loss as a result of this, Only Fagland is keeping them from running

 

 

 

 

The Snagas score three hits on the Swan knights and then charge them. They are wiped out in the ensuing counter-charge but cause another 3 hits before their demise.

The Wraith continues to battle the Men at Arms causing 4 hits and sustaining 5

 

Turn 5 Random Event Troll Hoard

A troll Hoard is discovered at the pub!

Shooting -the light horse pick off another three hits from the Berserkers, the Archers of Northdom cause two hits on the Orc-archers who cause four hits back and the rebellious, troublesome archers of Northdom disperse and run for home for the last time!

 

The Wraith slaughters the last of the brave soldiers of the Swan and then disappears just as he arrived, in a pale cold mist that rises swirling into the sky and fades like the steam from a boiling kettle

 

 

 

 

 

Noblig and his Berserkers wheel and charge the flank of the Swan Knights, they need 7 hits @ 5+ to kill off the knights

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bam! From 12 dice they score 8 hits! The Swan Knights disperse, Malthodor flees the field and the triumphant Orcs of Morrod win the day and draw the campaign!

 

 

 

 

 

And so the campaign ends, what have I learnt from it? Well, I have learnt how to play Fantastic Battles, at least against myself. The system has proven to be robust and flexible, dealing with the various situations that have arisen. The rules are clearly written and well presented and have always resolved any problems.

The game is fun and varied. After ten battles the campaign has provided a thorough test of the system and has survived my various attempts to break it with unusual characters and scenarios.  The flexibility of the unit generation and the ease at which an Order of Battle can be printed for each game make this kind of campaign easy to do.

The campaign system is greatly simplified, there are no areas of strategic significance, no supply lines to guard, it’s all about stealing territory and as such is simple and fun. I agree with the author that 5 years should be the maximum time to run a campaign.

My take home message? Shield wall is not as all empowering as it seems, all units have flanks and maybe the trick is just finding them. Favourite trait? Has to be expendable, truly overpowered! Expendable units do not count against Rout level nor do they cause loss of resolve to other units when they disperse, double whammy! Favourite combination of traits? Expendable, Unreliable, Rabble @ 15 points per company and still capable of flank attacks. Not having morale tests in the system means that the most cowardly unit will always charge home.

Much as I have enjoyed the campaign and the rule system, I do not think it is what I would use for fighting battles in Tolkien’s world. The game is light, fun- almost whimsical in nature whereas Tolkien’s battles are tragic, dark and very scary. The magic in Tolkien’s world is based around Fear or preventing/removing fear, a real contest of Dark and Light, something that is difficult to represent in a system that doesn’t have morale tests. Tolkien’s battles revolve around Heroes and the story lines are all about the deeds of heroes whereas Fantastic Battles is a true mass battle system and doesn’t really do heroes at all.

Overall, the experience has been brilliant and I have whiled away many happy hours for which I would like to express my thanks to Nic Wright for producing such great game and being completely accessible to rules queries and humourus happy banter.

Thanks to all who have followed this campaign may all your Battles be Fantastic!