Kachas Pass

I mentioned last post that I played two games of Dragon Rampant.  The second one was my adaptation of the classic second edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles campaign pack, Bloodbath at Orc’s Drift.

As mentioned before, I have very fond memories of this series, and I wanted to recreate them with a newer system; Dragon Rampant seemed to be about right.

If there’s any interest in how I went about this I will do a post about the process.  Here is how the first battle went.

If you don't know, the objective of this battle is for the Vile Rune orcs to destroy the elven garrison at Kachas Pass as quickly as possible before going on to meet up with two other orc tribes at Orc's Drift.  The elves are trying to hold them off as long as possible, not helped by being below strength and having a leader who suffers from a death wish.  There is also a half orc spy at the garrison who the elves want to keep safe, while the orc chieftain wants him dead as he has embarrassing information.

I provided the minis for both sides as I already had the orcs and had got some of the lovely Demonworld elves to face them.  I've been painting them over the last month or so.  As I set everything out the day before, I realised I couldn't find the giant.  A quick rummage turned up an old Nick Lund mini (orc? ogre?) which, once I mended his weapon, was quick to paint up and looks just right.  I also realised I had no half orc spy, so an undercoated Irregular Miniatures elf stood in for him.  Since he was supposed to be sneaking around, it didn't look too bad.

The bold defenders in the Kachas Pass garrison.

The Vile Rune tribe arrives.  Rock giant Guthrum Mane is in front (once again I was suffering from poor activation rolls, most of the tribe was stuck off table).

The foolhardy elven commander leaps over the fence to tackle the invaders single handed.  He did manage to inflict some casualties, even Fangor Gripe, the Orc chieftain, took a wound.

Meanwhile the elven archers in the compound take their toll on the advancing orcs.

The rest of the tribe catches up, and the giant now resembles a pincushion.

Erdolas Thringol, the elven commander, sees a target worthy of his sword, or at least an epic death.  Sadly for him, it was the later, squashed beneath the giant's club.

Without their leader, and realising that no reinforcements are on the way, the rest of the elves do their best to hold off the orcs.  One unit of archers destroys a unit of orcs and manages to finish of the giant.  On the right, orcs have already contacted the other unit of elves and driven them back.

The elves try to flee to safety (they kept failing morale tests, and being already broken the attrition wore them away) whilst their comrades try to hold back the tribe from within the compound.

The compound is cleared.  A unit of orcs chase the remaining elves.  They never caught them, but an unfortunate series of failed Morale rolls meant that the elves never made it off the table.   

Kachas Pass in orc hands. When they investigated, there was no sign of the spy, just a picked lock and footprints vanishing in the woods to the east.

A great fun game, and one that I think replicated the feel of the original.  there was a real sense of story, helped by a deliberate choice of traits and glory.

I kept pretty much to the rules as written, though I tweeked the unit profiles by adding abilities.  Nothing that wasn't in the books though.  I did make up a trait for the elf commander, and extra glory for both sides.
Next time it's Ashak Rise, with dwarves fending off orcs whilst trying to save their gold.  I'd better get some dwarves painted then.

P.S. Details of how I adapted the original scenario for Dragon Rampant can be found here.