Battle on the River Fomawr

This week saw us play yet another game of the excellent Fantastic Battles, again using 15mm figures. Having moved house recently this was the first game to be hosted at my new abode. As we are still busy decorating and sorting we had to set up and play in the lounge. Soon I hope to have the third bedroom as a dedicated wargames room, but more about that if/when it happens. For now, on with the game... 

Battle along the River Fomawr.

 1,200 points per side, Fey Elves against Orc/Dwellers of Dingly Dell.  

   As the King of the Fey, Crasterlon Ice-Heart looks to spread his powers southwards, the Orcs and their Dwellers of Dingly Dell allies march north to block his way. The two armies clash as both forces followed the path along the banks of the River Fomawr. 

 From the map you can see there is a temple on the left/west side and a shamans hut on the right/eastern side. Using the scores indicated on the far left column; the temple and the shamans hut are placed on their respective flanks by throwing a d6 for each and placing them in the centre of that flank section of the map. All other terrain pieces were diced for and positioned randomly.

Temple: treat as a settlement (p21). 

Shaman's Hut: First unit or character to make contact with the Shaman's hut throw a d6. Score 1,2: Shaman joins your force as a Magic User. 

           3,4: There is a large flash of light and the shaman disappears for good. 

          5,6: The shaman runs 4bw towards your enemy force to try and join them as a Magic User for the rest of the game. Shaman is called 'Old Col', he dresses like a Druid and he has the following spells... Entangle x1 (4+) and Bless x2 (3+). 

 All other pre-game procedures are as on p19.

So the dice decided that I was the attacker setting up along the Northern edge with the Orcs and dwellers of Dingly Dell deploying opposite me. The temple remained mid-table but the shaman's hut was moved south towards the Allied forces. Both sides had a couple of units wander forward in their enthusiasm to get to the enemy. 

Here is the table after deployment, watch that green dragon.  

Yup, Ian's Dingly Dell's Green Dragon got to the temple first and sought aid from the gods gaining a useful prophecy dice. 

A photo of the Fey line with the orcs opposite and the Dingly Dell folk on the far flank. 

On the eastern flank a Dingly Dell gnome, Bobby Dazzler sought the aid of the druid Old Col who promptly ran off to join the Fey. After Col had cast a couple of helpful Bless spells, the two met again in melee where they managed to kill each other. 

Meanwhile King Crasterlon ordered his wyvern to charge some peasant folk, aided by his wolf pack. However, the peasant folk were actually pretty tough. This melee lasted most of the battle with me feeding in my Draconians and Light cavalry too before I finally killed them, but not before Crasterlon and his Wyvern were slain by the peasant folk. 

Over on the other side of the battlefield Phil's Orcs managed to get the best of the Fey, but again over a number of turns. Phil made excellent use of the Empower spell so that by mid-game things were not looking good for the Fey. 

Both sides fed in more and more units into the frey. Steadily I slowly edged my way back into the battle so that by the final turn we were not too sure which side would break first...or would both armies break simultaneously?

 It was so close and exciting by now I forgot to take more photo's. 

Sadly for me, the one melee left that I stood a chance of winning resulted in a poor dice throw for me then the Orcs finished off my elves in the middle and took the win in a very hard-fought game. 

Great fun!