Their opponent were an Orc and Goblin army of 398 points and composed of 6 Orc Warriors Rep 4, AC 2, 3 Black Moon Orcs Rep 5, AC 4 with the general in one of them, 3 Trolls units Rep 5, AC 4, 10 Goblin archers (foot skirmishers aka meat shield) Rep 3, AC 2, 2 Wolf riders (mounted skirmishers) Rep 3, AC 2, and 1 Boar rider unit Rep 5, AC 2 (shock). Trolls, Black Moon Orcs and Boar Riders produce terror. Orcs and Goblins Battle Tactics is A, their War Rating 3, and made Penetrate Center deployment (20%-60%-20%).
In the first picture it can be seen how the Orcs & Goblins have already moved in their first turn, while the Elves waited for them in the forests. The Orcs had a screen of Goblin skirmishers in front of them and all the cavalry in the right wing.
No heroes nor magicians on neither side on this occasion.
All pictures are clickable as usual.
Second turn and the Elves right wing had already pivoted to face the charging Orcs whereas in the center the Goblin skirmishers suffered two hits each, although they resisted as they were heavily supported (+3).
The Goblin skirmishers accomplished their goal which was to protect the Orcs from enemy fire, and then they stopped and let the Orcs charged the enemy through them. All the Elves resisted the charge and shot before the clash, producing one hit on each of the Orc units, who kept charging and then melee was joined. The Orcs on the left pivoted to face the Elves' right wing whereas the cavalry stopped at charge distance, threatening Elves' left flank.
The archer Elves in the center were outnumbered and routing on both extremes at a rate of two units per turn, and in no time there was only the general with the spears holding the line. On the left flank the Elves rejected the Orc charge, and on the far right the archers finally decided to leave the forest to try to help their general.
The Elves had an extraordinary luck all through the battle, rolling sixes to hit and ones to hold their place, and thus they completely wiped out the Orcs' left wing, held in the center, producing many hits and even pushing back one unit of Trolls and one of Black Moon Orcs. On the right flank, one unit of archers resisted the Boar riders charge and forced them to retire!
But finally the Elves in the center broke and their general died, and as there were only five Elf units remaining on the battlefield, I decided to finish the battle at this point. Most Orc and Goblin units were badly injured nonetheless. 
Great AAR Javier. So what do you think of bow based armies ?
ReplyDeleteBows are useful, specially against cavalry, and always if they have high Rep like these Elves, but a bow based army is as bad as an only cavalry army or any other type of unit army based alone.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, if I have to choose between those two armies of Elves and Orcs, I'd choose Orcs as archers cannot advance and then shoot like in other rulesets so they are more defensive and static. Also, in RRtK troops move fast and they contact enemy very soon, so archers can only fire a couple of times before melee. In the case of muskets with a range of three inches, they could only fire when being charge most of the times.
That's an interesting comment on the effectiveness of the bows. With Warrior Heroes, the uber-army in our campaign is the Treyine army, which is bow-based. They have literally slaughtered everything that comes at them.
ReplyDeleteGreat report again, and good to see you getting on well with the rules.
Hmm, I thought WH and RRtK were almost the same thing so maybe I'm doing something wrong?
ReplyDeleteYou know, it's causing me pains to get used to how archers and skirmishers work in RRtK as in comparison to DBA/HotT or Warmaster.
Actually, I cannot see any usefulness in mounted skirmishers.
They are basically the same thing, which is why I was surprised that the archers did not do better. That said, you used the Goblin skirmishers well to soak up the arrows, which could well be why the archers did not do well against the melee troops. I think it is just in how you use them.
ReplyDeleteMounted skirmishers are very hard to use well, I think, but their benefit is their speed. Getting them onto the flanks and rear of the enemy to cut off retreat paths and generally try to break up enemy formations may be their best use. I have not used them enough to know though.
It certainly is a very different game from DBA or Warmaster, but that is no bad thing! :-)
No it is not a bad thing at all, it's different and new and I need more time to get used to it :)
ReplyDeleteY ahora que tienes ya varias partidas a tus espaldas, ¿qué opinión te merece el reglamento?
ReplyDeleteEn tus batrep tiene una pinta estupenda.
Por mi parte no le estoy dedicando mucho tiempo a la lectura, pero lo que tengo leido me gusta.
Saludos
Enbaji
Como ya dije, para jugar en solitario no hay nada mejor, pero para jugar contra otro jugador creo que es mejor cualquier otro sistema, como Warmaster o DBA.
ReplyDeleteDe todas formas lo que menos me gustaba de RRtK son los escaramuzadores y ahora resulta que los estaba usando incorrectamente, pero bueno.
Lo que tiene el juego es que no te permite hacer maniobras porque las tropas chocan enseguida. Lo más importante es el despliegue.
Tampoco el terreno es muy importante a la hora de jugar. El terreno difícil da cobertura si te disparan, y la caballería no puede atravesarlo, pero aparte de eso nada más. Es decir, la infantería pesada o las picas por ejemplo, luchan igual que los escaramuzadores dentro de un bosque, cosa que no me acaba de convencer.
En definitiva, me gusta bastante pero no es el sistema de mi vida; prefiero DBA y no porque sea más realista sino porque es más jugable.