Many years ago I drew a map of my own fantasy world and called it Aelgard. This was very much a Dark Age/Tolkien inspired world. Sometime later I focussed in on one particular area called the Braemarg which had several typical fantasy races spread around an area of wilderness, perfect for RPG games, skirmishes and major battles. Over the years many of my fantasy games have been based in the Braemarg using a whole variety of rules and figures varying from 6mm to 28mm. Here is the map.
The
Braemarg
The
little that we know of the Brae-Marg has been gleaned from Ancient
Elvish maps and
Dwarven
chronicles. It is a desolate and dangerous wasteland bordered by
several races.
Ermain Tor: home to the
Human Horse Lords of Baron Aldred.
Valheim and Nilheim:
the dark, northern land of Orcs and Goblins; known in the Brae-Marg
as ‘Pech’.
Feldros: high in the
Aven Peaks, this is a mountainous land of rampaging bands of savage
Beastmen.
Dunuik and C’Nos:
inhabited by numerous warring tribes of Barbarians who, for the right
price, will fight for anyone.
Galgoen and the Colbryn
Forest: Ancient home of the Elves of the Line of Guthelin.
KynMarroc: Mountain
Hold of the Dwarf Lords of the Line of Marroc ( the Rock Born).
This map is but a small section of the Fabled Land of Aelgard.
Fantastic Battles is the most recent set of Fantasy battle rules I have acquired, and also one of the best. After a couple of very enjoyable solo games I decided to run a small campaign of three linked scenarios using my 10mm Elf and Barbarian armies. Staring with a 500point border clash, each battle would get slightly larger, (750 pts and 1,000 pts), all with a bit of a twist in the story. Here we go...
The
Braemarg Campaign: Elves v Barbarians
using
Fantastic Battles.
scenario
1: Border
Clash
(500
points per side, no artillery allowed).
After
several clashes between small scouting forces both the Elves and the
Barbarians now deploy larger forces to try and deter further enemy
infringements upon their lands. As the elves, led by Iruath Greycloak
move across the River Greenspyke the Barbarians advance to meet them,
with Wulfnoth Irontooth leading from the front.
Elf
Objectives:
defeat the Barbarians and occupy the barbarian village.
Barbarian
Objectives:
defeat the Elves and occupy their watchtower.
(Use
the rules for Settlements on p21 for any enemy characters within the
watchtower or village).
Troll
Hoard:
somewhere on the battlefield there is a Troll Hoard. Randomly place 6
counters across the board, at least 6” apart. As companies/units or
characters come into contact with a counter, throw a d6, on a 6 the
Troll Hoard has been found. If the Troll Hoard is not found after the
first 5 counters, the last counter will automatically be the Troll
Hoard.
This
Troll Hoard is protected by a company of trolls which must be fought
before their hoard can be claimed.
|
Company
|
Res
|
Mov
|
Mel
|
Sht
|
Def
|
Traits
|
Pts
|
|
Trolls
Irregular
Company
|
5
|
3
|
5
|
-/-
|
4+
|
Monstrous,
Regenerate, Thrown Weapons
|
39
|
If
the Trolls are defeated the winning side can claim the Troll Hoard.
This is a new magic item, The
Bow of Nemyn,
a legendary elf bow from ages past. This magic item allows any
character carrying it one shot per turn, following the rules for
missile fire but also including targeting enemy character,
(following the usual rules for Line of Sight). Range: 5BW.
The
Bow of Nemyn can be carried by a character in future campaign games.
Winner
of the battle gets an extra 1d6 x 10 points of forces in the second
battle added to the points total indicated in the scenario outline.
The map of deployment is the top image and the lower photo is how the table worked out.
The dice decided that the Barbarians were the attackers (which suits the scenario). Rolling for mishaps, both the Treekin and the actual Treeman arrived late, you can just spot them fording the river to the west side of the board. On the Barbarians side, one company of Mounted Raiders failed to turn up.
This is how the two forces looked at deployment...
The 'Mishaps' saw the Elves Treeman and Treekin allies turn up late some way behind the main elf line and on the Barbarian side one company of light cavalry didn't even turn up!
In turn 1 the Barbarian's seized the initiative and moved forward at speed.capturing two of the tokens; the first throw amazed me by being a '6' which meant that Wulfnoth Irontooth himself was surprised by a company of trolls protecting their hoard. Charging into each other the Trolls and the Barbarians beat the hell out of each other, both suffering multiple hits.
Meanwhile the elves opted to wait for their forest allies to catch up, it was not worth their while trying to capture any of the tokens as the Barbarians already had won that race! Turn 2 was spent with the barbarians advancing slowly, apart from the berserkers who spent the turn rallying of some damage. The elf light cavalry advanced towards the Bison Riders and managed to get in a point of damage from shooting.
The elf light cavalry on the far flank tried to evade from the Barbarian Bison Riders but did not quite manage so got caught in melee and were soundly thrashed. In the centre the Treeman and Treekin charge into the Barbarian Warriors scoring several hits with little damage taken to themselves.
Life in the shape of lovely weather paused the game for a few days whilst my wife and I took advantage of it and went walking and cycling but I finally got back to the game today.
The elves scored a lucky break early on spotting Odoacer, the Barbarian Mage in short range and out on his own, so they shot and killed him. The elf Mage, Eritas then rallied the Treeman. On the far flank the ogres tried to charge the elf light cavalry but they evaded. Meanwhile the Treeman supported by the Treekin scattered the Barbarian Warriors. Wulfnoth and his berserkers moved towards the Wood Elf Warriors protecting their Tree lookout post but got badly shot up by the Elf Rangers and scattered.
By now the Barbarians were at well over half their companies lost but they did manage to fell the Treeman before they left the field, leaving the elves easy winners. (the Treeman falling into open space rather than on top of anyone.
With their own outpost intact, the elves quickly moved across the now empty battlefield to claim the barbarian village for their own, thus earning an extra 50 points worth of troops for themselves in the next battle.
Fantastic Battles is a great set of rules, easy to adapt to your own ideas and give a good, exciting game. So far I have only been able to play solo but am really looking forward to trying them against some of my gaming friends.
I was also very lucky recently to win a prize in a draw organised by Nic who wrote the 'Fantastic Battles' rules. The prize was a Battle Valour Delvian starter army, very kindly donated by Jeff Gatlin of Shieldwall gaming in America. This was a fantastic prize to win and I have jumped straight into painting them. According to Battle Valour's description, Delvian's are Dark Elves led by the goddess Winter. So I took the winter theme and using a 'cool' palette painted some spearmen first and added a Giant Yeti from Reaper bones and an Elf Mage from Demonworld. So starts my first 15mm army for Fantastic Battles.
