Small, Far Away

Actually small and at home.  15mm Dragon Rampant at my house to be exact.

As hinted at previously, I was booked for a day of Dragon Rampant with good friend Stuart (Merlin).  We played a scenario from the book (The Sacred Mole of Ukkert), partly to remind ourselves of the rules.  Merlin has played recently, but its been an age since I did.  We both used armies we used previously, so there was a bit of rivalry between the forces.

The barbarian horde escape with the mole in its sacred box.  Cunningly Badvoc has given it to his fastest troops (the lovely looking elk drawn chariots) to carry. 

Some of the orcs lurk in the woods, hoping to ambush the invaders.

The rest of the orcs wait in the field.  And  wait, and wait 

Eventually some of the orcs manage to clamber over the hedge, but the bulk of their forces are sill milling around, doubtless discussing agricultural policies and their effects on an agrarian society.  The orc cavalry are Befuddled by Cantor the Red's magic, costing them a valuable turn.

The chariots move unhindered across the table, already nearly half way across with their precious load

At last, some of the orcs are able to respond to the threat, but canny Badvoc has deployed his forces as orc fodder, simply to try and cut them off from the chariots (and they say us orcs are brutal!)

The chariots reach their escape point.  They think its all over.

It is now.  Victory to the barbarians.

That was a great fun game.  Frustrating at times, but also a valuable revision exercise, reminding me of the rules.  I failed a far greater than average number of activation rolls, and very often early in my turn.  As a result, the bulk of the orc force stood by, watching as the chariots wheeled the Sacred Mole off the table.  Perhaps they didn't really care for it after all?  

Merlin had very sound tactics, placing the Mole with his fastest unit, and doing his best to move it as fast and as far as possible.  I think he only failed one activation for them all game.

It was a strangely bloodless battle.  We were both concentrating on the Mole, so units were used more as blockers than anything else.  Even the magic was mostly used to deny the orcs some movement by Battering them, rather than damaging them.  I might be misremembering, but I don't think either of us lost a unit, though we both took casualties.

EDIT I lost my Bellicose Foot, otherwise both armies ended up with all units at half strength or higher (undamages in many cases).

I'll report on the second game in another post, as this has already gone on a while, with a lot of pictures.  Look out for part two here.