15mm Fantastic Battles: The Well at the Crossroads

 With just Ian and myself playing this week we opted for a game of our favourite fantasy rules 'Fantastic Battles'. In the most recent issue of 'Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy' there was a simple campaign for the ECW called 'For King and Kingdom' which looked easy to adapt to any period and would certainly suit our now occasional games of FB. Ian opted to be the Royalists using his Dingly Dell/Nature force ( a totally bonkers army) which left me the role of the Parliamentarians using my Ice Elves. WSS always includes beautifully drawn maps and these are easy to translate into wargames terrain and for the first game of our mini campaign I came up with the following scenario, adding a touch of fantasy here and there.  

The Well at the Crossroads.

Battle 1 in a mini campaign between The Ice Elves and the Forces of Dingly Dell. 

800 points per side.

Marching down from Nilheim and across the Feldros Mountains it was vital to their invasion plans that the Ice Elves captured the important crossroads along Ceolfrids Way. Rushing towards the crossroads to oppose them the forces of Dingly Dell were desperate to protect their lands from the ravages of war.

Before deployment, throw a d6 to decide on the position of the well, placing the well on the corresponding circle on the map. A small farm should also be randomly positioned on the table.

Deployment:

The Ice Elves may deploy up to half of their companies within 4BW of the Northern side of the crossroads, the rest of their force deploys within 4BW of the Northern table edge.

The Ice Elves must deploy all their force within 6BW of the Southern table edge.

Random Events, p41: at the start of each turn, players throw a d6 for Random Events as detailed on p41

The game ends when one side loses over half of their companies and /or their Warlord (or Magelord) and all other characters are killed. At this point the victors may take possession of the crossroads as their enemies flee or withdraw.

Any force who has unopposed possession of the well at the end of the game should throw a D6. On a score of 4+ they will find a relic deep down in the well. Throw a D12 on the table on p18 to randomly select the relic.

Victory Points: the winner gains 3VP and also gains a +1 bonus to the dice throw to decide Attacker/Defender next game. They may re-throw one set of dice once at any point during the second battle.

If the game is a draw then both forces earn 1 VP.

Earn 1 VP for unopposed possession of the well and 1 VP for unopposed possession of the farm. 

Victory Points earned:     Ice Elves:   4, but no relic found in the well  

                                        Dingly Dell:    1

After our initial deployments we rolled for 'mishaps' which led to one of my expensive companies of tiger riders fleeing, several units on either side lost resolve and some of Ian's units had to re-dploy either forward or backwards. The higher than usual number of mishaps caused a re-think in tactics. The photo below shows the main deployment.

Turn 1 and I made a quick advance with my spearmen (top centre) aided by the Blink spell, forgetting that I had now moved out of the command radius of my captain. Shows how much of the rules I had forgotten. 

Ian's newest Dingly Dell unit, a gnome and his goats. 

The Dingly Dell dragon is perhaps my favourite figure in Ian's force, great painting too. 

The Dingly Dell goats about to be crushed by the Ice Elf spears and their Yeti friend. The fate of all newly painted units in the whole history of wargaming.  

Dingly Dell Pirate artillery shelter behind some imps. Ian was commenting on how taking artillery could be a waste of points sometimes, little did he know at this stage.  

Goats about to be crushed.

Some large friends turn up to help the goats.

But too late, the goats are toast!

Ice elf archers shoot at the 'Old Ones'  (mysterious nature spirits). 

Needing '6's to hit they did rather well. 

The Old Ones charge in, but helped by some mounted crossbow elves, the Old Ones are scattered. Suddenly the forces of Dingly Dell have lost enough companies to be close to defeat and it is only turn 3. .  

Suddenly the Dingly Dell artillery open fire on my Tiger Lancers and with a lucky dice throw take out my Warlord. Ian now thought that his artillery were points well spent! 

The Dingly Dell Dragon takes on the Ice Elf Drakonion allies, an epic struggle ensued and Ian started to fight back. The next two turns saw the Ice elves loose a few companies but...  

The Tiger riders win the fight against the giant slug and game over. 

During this game both sides lost at least half of their characters. I was very glad to kill the hated Robyn of the Hood with his phoenix bow. 

The victorious Ice Elves claim the crossroads and the well. Sadly I did not throw high enough to find a relic but could claim a total of 4 victory points. Ian, with his dragon and some witches sat on the farm could claim one victory point. 

As always, 'Fantastic Battles' gave us a highly entertaining game with much merriment caused by all the goings on. In the second, larger battle the Ice Elves will delve deeper into Dingly Dell lands.