Iz'Garok the Traitor, 15mm Fantastic Battles

 I haven't gamed in a while due to moving house, decorating some of the new house and also going on holiday. Happily today we returned to gaming with a 1,200 point game of 15mm Fantastic Battles. Ian's Undead would take on the combined might of Phil's Orcs and my Barbarians. As we like to have a bit of story in our games here is the scenario I came up with...

Iz'Garok the Traitor

Revenge can be bitter sweet but Orc Lord Baarn Dur has sworn a most dire revenge against Iz'Garok the Traitor. Iz'Garok betrayed Baarn Dur and now it seems his days are numbered. Fleeing into the Wylde Iz'Garok is now being hunted down by the Orcs and their new Barbarian allies.

The Wylde is currently under the domain of the Dread Lord who commands an undead army who reacted instantly and now the two forces face each other across a soon to be battlefield with Iz'Garok caught hiding between the two armies.

Will Iz'Garok be safe if he reaches the Undead army or will he be caught by the orcs or their allies. Once the terrain for the game has been decided upon but before deciding who is attacker/defender players take it in turns to place 6 counters, outside deployment zones but at least 3BW apart. These counters represent possible hiding places for Iz'Garok. As units contact/move over the counters they may throw 1xd6 to see if they may have found Iz'Garok, needing a 6 on any counter. If Iz'Garok has not been found when the last counter is moved onto then that is his hiding place. Immediately throw another d6 to see how Iz'Garok reacts...

Orcs/Barbarians	Undead
1,2: kill Iz'Garok straightway	1,2: kill him, no-one likes Traitors
3,4: take Iz'Garok to Lord Baarn Dur	3,4: Hold him captive
5,6: Iz'Garok escapes and flees 4bW towards the undead forces treated like and acting as a Rogue.	5,6: Enlist him as a rogue in your army.

Decide Attacker/Defender as usual and let battle commence.Ian and his Undead were the  attacker leaving Phil and I to defend. Deployment was as in the photo below (Undead on the right). Mishaps led to one company of skellies running away and a few other units on both sides either being late or a bit enthusiastic.  

Turn 1, Phil's archers move into the wood, find a counter and throw a six. They find the traitor and decide to kill him. (that was my carefully thought out scenario over and done with, ah well, on with the main battle!) Note: my trees are still packed in a box so we just used a few mdf bases to represent woods-we decided it must be Autumn! 

Next photo shows Ian's new Undead Chariots (Kallistra).

 True to the rule of the newly painted these were fairly useless today. 

An over view of most of Ian's Undead, a lovely looking army with themed bases. Ian has made the outer edge grass green but scorched and black in the centre. Looks very effective. They might look good but how well could they fight? 

Ermantrude the giant undead cow advances towards the Barbarians. 

The Barbarian sworn cavalry work their way round the undead giant but the Undead Mage-Lord Koogerand Hymax has been busy summoning an undead dragon and a hydra. In the background you can just see the Wyvern summoned by the Barbarian mage Talorcan. 

The Hydra is a lovely 3-D printed model that Ian got from Ebay.

 Being newly painted, in melee it last just one turn!

On the other flank Ian was trying to work his way around Phil's Orcs by going through the settlement. . 

Phil had taken up a good defensive position that did not allow the Undead to make the most of their more numerous units. 

Phil's newly painted Orc Boar riders (Alternative Armies) battled well all game, so maybe that theory of new units being rubbish in their first game only works for Undead units. 

The Mighty Thor, also in his first game performed very well. Using Barrage (to represent his throwing hammer) he only ever missed with one dice. Once in Melee with Ermantrude the giant Undead Cow Thor was the easy winner. Thanks here to the author of the rules Nic, for suggesting the stats for Thor, they worked really well.  

On our left flank there was a massive battle between Phil's Orcs and lots of undead. Some of the melee's lasted 3 turns but the Phil's fearsome Orcs prevailed.  

Having patiently waited for the right moment the Barbarian Sworn warriors helped by some Bearserkers make mincemeat of the Undead Dragon. 

At this point the undead horde collapsed. In the photo below you can see the undead characters fleeing from the table pursued by the Mighty Thor! 

Overall it was a resounding victory for the Orc/Barbarian alliance. The battle was finely balanced by turn 3 and looked like it could go anyway. At the end of turn 6 the Undead were almost completely destroyed. It would seem that their superior numbers  were not enough against a tougher, better armoured opponent. 

Once again, we all had great fun using the Fantastic Battle rules so we decided to play again next week.