'The Hill of Sleng' a first game of Warlords of Erehwon

 It was great fun today to have a first game of Warlords of Erehwon with long time friend Chris. We hadn't had chance to play a game for a while but had both been busy painting up some old school minis so we felt it was time to get them on the table. Originally we were planning on using the old school mini's for games of Dragon Rampant but felt that whilst we like those rules we wanted something with more fantasy flavour, where dwarves can be dwarves and orcs can be orcs! So we decided to give Warlords of Erehwon a try. Thus my random collection of Asgard, Hinchliffe, Dixon and Grenadier Dwarves took on Chris's mix of Citadel and Marauder orcs, all figures designed before the year 2,000; great stuff, what more could fantasy gamers in their 60's want!

Well we wanted a scenario for a start so for our first game we felt it best to try the 1st scenario first but with an added twist to give the game some background story. As host I kept the scenery fairly simple and came up with the following...

The Hill of Sleng

A first game of ‘Warlords of Erehwon’ scenario 1 with a slight tweak. 

“Orcs west of the Twin Peak Mountains” roared Amlodi, a veteran Dwarf Lord, “Never in my lifetime!” Moments later he spotted the smoke in the valley below, the large, crooked figures rushing around and the guttural shouts. “Orcs!” spat Amlodi, “Lads, let's bathe our axes in Orc blood”

The objective for the game remains as on p115 in the rulebook, to destroy more enemy units than you suffer, the side that loses the least points in troops is the winner. Players must also try to take possession of a large central hill, the Hill of Sleng. 

Sleng was a celebrated Dwarf hero of old and in the centre of the hill there is a statue to Sleng. For added kudos the Orcs may wish to topple the statue, if so use the following rules which are an adaptation from some of the rules for buildings.  

Only one unit at a time may attempt to topple the statue on a ‘Advance’ order and the unit must be in base to base contact with the statue. Once each turn throw a d10 and read the result as below…

1: The statue topples to the floor and breaks into several pieces. 

2-5: the statue rocks on its base but stubbornly refuses to topple.

6-9: the statue remains firmly fixed in place.   

Players may deduct -1 from the dice score for each successive turn/attempt that the unit remains in uninterrupted contact with the statue. Of course the dwarf player will wish to stop this from happening.

We found the rules for deployment easy to follow and our forces of Dwarves and Orcs were soon rushing towards each other in an attempt to get atop the hill of Sleng. It was seven Orc units v 5 dwarf units.

The dwarves deploy at the base of this photo with the orcs in the distance.

You can see the Sleng's statue on the hill.

A group shot of some of Chris's wonderful Orcs, led by the Orc Chieftain 'Krushitel'

My dwarven archers take cover in an old ruin.

Pulling an order dice from the bag Chris got to move first and Krushitel was quick to claim the hill and surround the statue.

Krushitel about to smite the Statue of Sleng.

The orc archers also occupied a ruin, seemed a good idea?

At this point, with the two forces poised ready to fight from turn 2, I got so busy with the game and with the rules I forgot to take any more photo's.

The dwarves sent Gunnar and the Dwarf Guard charging into the Orc chieftain and his orc warriors. Much to my surprise Gunnar and his dwarves trounced the Orc Warlord and his warriors wiping out the entire unit (it has to be said that Chris threw just about the worst score on his dice that I have ever seen!). 

Chris then charged another Orc unit at Gunnar and his stout guard with their 'blooming big axes'. Another awful dice score from Chris and that unit was also dispatched to Orc heaven. 

Half time score: Gunnar 2 v 0 Orcs.

 

Elsewhere the goblin wolf riders charged poor old Drokk the dwarf runesmith and again, shocking dice from Chris meant that Drokk survived.

Emboldened by the dwarf success the dwarf archers moved forward and shot an orc archer. In reply the orc archers missed. 

Drokk now fired off a thunderbolt spell at the goblins who this time made their save. 

As another Orc unit moved towards the hill, Gunnar and his dwarves chopped up a few of them before Amlodi the Dwarf Lord charged his bodyguard into those Orcs and soon defeated them.  

Three turns gone and game over with more than half the Orc warband destroyed for just 5 brave dwarven souls, the statue of Sleng was still standing. 

So, what did we think of the rules, with my dwarves certainly enjoying the game more than Chris's Orcs. 

1: the game certainly allows Dwarves to act as Dwarves and Orcs act as Orcs.  

2: combat is short, quick and brutal.

3: The dwarf high Resolution of 8 made it difficult for the orcs to harm them, compared to the Dwarves being armed with 'bloomin big axes' and their Strike Value of 3, and the axes seem cheap at only a point each.

4: we enjoyed the order dice system, pulling a dice from the bag not knowing whose it would be.

5: army selection and in particular weapon choice seem key to the rules.  

Obviously, now we have tried the rules our army selection may well be different for a second game. Chris and I always have fun trying a new set of rules but I suspect that I enjoyed this game more than Chris. We will give the rules a second go soon and I am sure that Chris will have better luck next time?