The March of the Ice Elves

 It was 15mm Fantastic Battles today with two armies that had never been used before facing off across the frozen northern wastes. My Ice Elves were to battle against Ian's rather wonderful and slightly offbeat Forces of Nature army. This consists of swamp beasts, gnomes mounted on snails, giant mushroom men as well as a dragon and little imps. Ian had really studied the rules and had made the most of a wide variety of traits and abilities. Phil also came along and the dice gods decided he was on my side so we split the Ice Elf forces between us. 

So with 1,000 point forces we deployed and enjoyed rolling for mishaps; especially Ian's flanking force that went backwards to the amusement of all.  

Ian's very nice green dragon. 

The Ice Elves arrayed for war. 

Mushrooms, gnomes and a very tall ghost. 

The conflict was prompted by the Ice Elves wishing to annex part of the Forces of Nature lands to act as a buffer between them and other battle ready forces.  . 

The battle after turn 1. 

The Ice elf mounted and Ariel forces advance. 

With the Ice Elf mounted forces advancing rapidly on the left flank the two sides soon came into conflict. The better armoured elves soon seemed to gain the upper hand and after about 3 turns it seemed like it was a case of how long could the Forces of Nature actually survive. 

The Ice Elf Witch King on his wyvern attacks Swampy the bog giant. 

Ian's unit of 'Simple folk', an 'unreliable' unit tasked with a flank attack that failed their mishap roll, headed backwards and kept going for 3 turns until they marched off the table amidst much laughter.  

Epic clash of Tiger riders against the Giant Elk's. A battle that lasted 3 turns but eventually won by the Tiger Riders who were left quite battered themselves. 

Phil's Ice Elf shieldwall proved very tough in combat against giant snails and mushroom men. 

An overhead view of the final frantic melee that took both sides to over half their companies as casualties in the 6th turn. So both sides withdrew and called the battle a costly draw. 

Fantastic Battles is great fun every time we play it. This battle was so close despite looking like an Ice Elf win after the first few turns. Ian did well to battle back and get the draw. I suppose we can both say that our armies have never lost a battle!

I have also finished a few more companies of 10mm Men of Rohan, 2 bases of Royal Guard and 2 bases of Outriders or scouts plus an objective base of two hobbits to be used in a game soon. .