Boðvoc has done sterling work adapting it for Warlords of Erehwon (henceforth known as WoE). He even wrote a preliminary scenario to determine who was the attacker and who the defender for The Mists Recoil.
NB: I'm having problems orienting the photographs again, so I've removed some of them. I also forgot to take any of the final turn or two, it was too exciting.
The Scenario
The original scenario is designed to use the Warhammer Fantasy skirmish rules, essentially those used in Mordheim. We decided not to try to adapt WoE to anything smaller scale; hopefully the rules would be robust enough for our purposes.
The attacker is trying to land their forces in the teeth of an artillery battery and a skeleton defence force (literally, in our case).
The dwarves are arriving in a number of boats at the only safe landing on this stretch of coast. Each unit had it's own boat, a mix of card models, a resin boat and an XPS craft I built years ago for DnD.
In the original, the attacker has 500 points, the defender has three war machines and just 50 points. Neither side has any magic.
After working out sample WFB lists and comparing them to the WoE lists, Boðvoc decided on 750 points for the dwarves and 200 for the undead, plus three war machines.
The invaders are in as many boats as necessary, which move a random 2D6" each turn, with a chance of getting stuck on sandbanks.
He also adapted the Albion weather table, mostly to lessen it's effects on the game (ha).
The Undead
I had an Undead Hero as the leader of my force. Given the model (a lovely Gary Morley Armoured Wight Champion), I gave it heavy armour.
The main defence was two Skeleton Bolt Throwers and a Large Stone Thrower (the marvellous Skull Chucker).
I rounded out the force with seven Skeleton Archers. The three war machines are free for this scenario, but I upgraded the stone thrower to a large machine from my small points allowance.
The Dwarves
Boðvoc had five units; Amlodi Forkbeard, dwarven chieftain, accompanied by his four drinking companions, Gunnar Funðinsonn Dwarf Ranger and his mates, Ulf the Ranger plus friends (I can imagine some rivalry between these two units), a unit of Archers and a unit of Dwarven Guard led by Brokkir.
Opening Moves
I threw for the weather, getting 'Misty'; visibility reduced to 1D10+6". Hmm, it looks like the Isle of Albion wasn't quite ready to give up it's secrets to those hairy dwarves.
This led to a strangely bloodless opening few turns, with the dwarves inching forward while the skeletons scanned the fog, looking for targets.
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| The Dwarven Fleet sails on |
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| "Row, row, row yer boat" |
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The Dwarf Guard reach the shore
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The Main Battle
Eventually the boats reached the shore. Brokkir's Guard were first to land, but the mist concealed them as they advanced in the direction of the defenders.
The remaining dwarves soon joined them ashore, but as the mist thinned, the Skeleton catapult spotted Gunnar and his Rangers. Fortunately for the dwarves, the shot went wide. In response, the rangers take out one of the catapult's crew.
The dwarven archers target their skeletal opposites, although many arrows seem to strike true, none of the bony lads fall. The skeletons return the favour, but the dwarven armour is too tough for their arrows.
The dwarves otherwise advance towards the cliffs and the undead scan for targets (at this point, most of the advancing dwarves were hidden in the mist).
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| The Dwarves have landed |
The mist finally clears, allowing the catapult to target Ulf's rangers, killing four and forcing them to take cover. Gunnar orders his rangers to return fire ("we've got this for you, Ulf laddie") and take out the remaining catapult crew, neutralising the threat.
The dwarf archers destroy two of the skeleton archers, the bolt throwers target the standing dwarven missile troops, but only 1 of Gunnar's Rangers falls. The remaining dwarves advance.
The mist rises again. The dwarven archers finally see off the skeletal archers, but one of the bolt throwers forces Gunnar's Rangers to take cover.
Amlodi Forkbeard charges up the hill to tackle the bolt thrower behind the hedge, dragging his reluctant guard with him (they had to carry his beer barrel!). The hedge proves little defence, and the crew are pounded into dust. In response, the hulking Undead Champion slays one of Amlodi's guard. The dwarves hear a thin hissing sound as their axes fail to bite on his armour; could the foul creature be laughing at them? The dwarves cowered in fear, though Amlodi later claimed that it was a bad batch of beer.
The mist turned to drizzle, giving better visibility, though by this stage all troops could see each other. Brokkir's dwarf guard rushed the bolt thrower facing them, quickly destroying the crew. Now only the Champion remained to halt the dwarven invasion.
Amlodi was in no state to appreciate his triumph, he lay shivering in the mud with his drinking chums. Elsewhere, Brokkir and his troops faffed around behind the hedge (slight misreading of the rules on obstacles here).
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| The dwarves close in |
The End Phase
With the defenders reduced to just the champion, the dwarves had cleared the way for their army. But they still wanted to destroy the huge creature.
Amlodi was to take no part in this, apparently he wanted to see what the rest of his lads could do. Archers shot, Rangers scrambled up cliffs and hacked, but in the end, the spirit inhabiting the corpse saw that it's task here was over.
It had failed to hold off the dwarves, due partly to the cursed mists.
His master's new ally, that dark clad stranger, had promised the weather would be to their advantage. He lied.
There would be more bodies to inhabit, more battles to fight ere Albion was won, but for now the spirit fled back to it's master to await further orders.
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| Only the Undead Champion remained atop the hill. |
Reflections
Well, that was a great fun game. I think both of us had a fair idea of how it would play out on the table top, but we were both wrong. The first few turns may not look like much (the dwarven boats slowly moving forward, concealed by the mist), but it was actually quite tense.
As I expected, once the dwarves got on to the hill, the Undead were doomed. I hadn't expected the dwarven shooting to be so effective, and I expected a bit more from mine. I didn't manage to take out a single dwarven unit, though I found the image of the proud dwarven leader cowering in the mud at the feet of the mighty Undead Champion hilarious. I suspect Boðvoc doesn't agree.
We made a few minor mistakes, but we are becoming more conversant with the rules, and they seem pretty good for our purposes.
You can read the victor's account over on The War Crow
A Note on the Terrain
I was hosting, so the terrain is mine. This is part of my ongoing upgrade of my wargaming terrain. The baseboard is in the process of being made, for this battle I simply used the three 2' x 4' sheets on the dining room table. The 'grass' is one of those cheap fake grass mats from Lidl, with the blue cloth I used to use for games of Man o' War for the sea. The two part hill is a recent build, and not quite finished. I do intend to rebase those hedges in the near future too.
What's Next?
The next scenario is an Ambush. The victorious dwarves are pushing forwards, trying to catch the undead already on the isle. I will have twice the points of the attackers, I guess I'd better get some more undead painted then.
I certainly need a Dark Emissary, and have been collecting bits to kitbash one.
