We rolled off to see who was defending the hill and Harad won. Given that we both had cavalry we decided that the hill would be shallow enough to be easily traversable; apart from the western cliff side of course.
Opening Moves
As the Harad forces look around, the Fiefdoms cluster around the ruined arcade, apart from the knight who rides in from the north
Qayid and the knight clash. The Fiefdoms had priority, but Qayid declared a Heroic Move in order to Charge. The Knight did the same, but Harad won the roll-off. The Knight won the duel, but was unable to pierce Qayid's armour.
The bulk of the Fiefdoms troops move towards the hill, but leave themselves open to charges from the Harad force. They manage to unseat Khamsa the Raider
Qayid and the knight continue their attacks, but neither side can unhorse the other.
The Harad Bowmen and the Blackroot Vale Archers engage in an archery duel, but neither side can hurt the other. The Clansman falls to a combined attack.
Middle Phase
The Harad force tries ganging up on the Knight, but they are unsuccessful.
Both sides' archers continue their shooting, but hit nothing, and a scrappy fight develops around the base of the hill.
At this point there are only two troops on the all important hill.
Disaster for the Fiefdoms! Qayid finally hits home (with a little help from one of his spearmen) and downs the Knight. Not Fate nor his lucky talisman can save him.
The Blackroot Vale Archers avenge their captain, downing both the Harad Bowmen on the hill. With their fall, the hill is unoccupied.
End Turns
The triumphant Qayid rides towards the Archers and the rest of the Harad force pull back to the hill.
They are pursued by the Fiefdoms troops, who now engage all the remaining Bowmen, shutting down Harad's archery.
Qayid survives a hail of arrows, but on the hill one of his Bowmen is pulled down.
By this point Harad was Broken, but only Qayid was at risk as the rest of the troops were on the hill. The Blackroot Vale Archers decide to tackle the oncoming horseman, but his charge knocks both of them down. One of them is out of action.
On the hill one of the Men-at-Arms also falls, Breaking the Fiefdoms as well.
The remaining Archer breaks and runs, bringing the Fiefdoms below one quarter strength (a Man-at-Arms and the Axeman on the hill). The forces of Harad take the day.
Aftermath
I'd like to say that I deliberately abandoned the hill to draw the Fiefdoms out, then strategically withdrew to safety, but in truth I got carried away with charging, completely forgetting the objective, and was lucky to get the win.
My Battle Company is quite some way ahead of the Fiefdoms, consequently they had four re-rolls for this game* (a balancing factor for less powerful companies). These were very well used, in one instance to re-roll a failed Fate roll.
Neither of or Companies suffered much from injuries, though Eashra, one of my Bowmen recently promoted to a Hero now has an Old Battle Wound.
Arbaea, the Battle Company Banner Bearer now has Bane of Kings (this is a re-roll on all failed Strike rolls, exactly the same as the Harad Master of Poisons ability - I may simply call it this). Eashra has gained an extra shot per turn, making him a very handy archer. Lets hope he doesn't end up with an arm wound like Sayaad.
This was a great fun game, and much closer than the report makes it appear. There were a few frustrating dice rolls. The Knight needed to roll 4+ to Strike Qayid, but failed to roll better than a 2. Better luck next time.
We've now played most of the scenarios. There are a couple more that require a camp, so some terrain building required I think, and the one based around rescuing a lost Hero, which we are saving for when that happens.
*And four bonus Influence Dice, which will allow for some serious spending before next battle.
Sounds like a great game once again.
ReplyDeleteIndeed it was, the campaign has been great fun so far, and we've got some nice painting from it too.
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