The end

This is it, the end of the campaign, the final battle in which Eilif and his king Einar fight an all or nothing battle for survival against the Orcs.

For this battle Eilif has brought everything he could muster from his lands plus three units of Elves, one Mountain Giant and a wizard. The Orcs have also brought all his forces plus four units of big Orcs, three Trolls and two wizards.

I deployed first and then I rolled for the Orcs deployment. I got Penetrate Center, so the Orcs deployed in a very similar way to me, with the shock troops in the centre and cavalry in the wings.

Bottom left, the Elves and one cavalry unit, centre king Einar with his bodyguard (huscarles), the wizard and the Giant, on the right a unit of archers and Eilif' Rangers backed by another unit of cavalry, and finally four more units of Fyrd. In front of them the Orcs deployed as commented and with a unit of skirmishers up front.

Turn 1. Humans 2 - Orcs 6. Orcs don't activate. Humans advance and fire to the Goblin skirmishers. They cannot resist two units of Elves with long bows, one of Rangers and another of archers plus the wizard, and they are all eliminated.

Turn 2. Humans 2 - Orcs 5. Orcs activate first and move forward, then humans charge and the battle is joined.

The Elf archers make one unit of Orc cavalry flee the battlefield and kill a few Orcs on foot. In the centre, king Einar charges one Troll and suffers many casualties, the Giant goes for the Troll in the middle but the combat is inconclusive, the third Troll results wounded but most of the fyrd unit goes down in the process; The Trolls resisted quite well the melee because they had a spell of protection that the Wizard casted on them. Eilif and the archers don't charge but shoot and kill many Orcs. The right flank advances forward unchallenged.

 

 

Same moment from a different perspective. At the bottom you can see the Orc cavalry fleeing from the battle.

Turn 3. Humans 6 - Orcs 3. Humans don't activate and the rest of the Orcs charge and the humans received them in Shieldwall. The evil sorcerer casts a unit of Undead!

The Orc general is slained by the archers in melee as his units suffered many casualtiesfrom bow fire during the charge!

A general view of the massacre.

 The Orcs are already doomed and in the following turn they are finished. Einar charges and kills the wizard, making the Undead unit to disappear, the Giant kills the last Troll, the elves wipe out all the Orcs on the left flank, and the two units of cavalry finish the weakened units of Orcs.

A feast for the crows and new lands to colonise for  Einar and his people!

Happy Christmas!

Giant hunt

After Eilif successfully returning to his king's court with Elf allies, he is commanded by his king to one final quest before the decisive battle king Einar is planning against the invading Orcs.

Eilif is sent to try to hire or recruit one of those legendary Mountain Giants to fight against the Trolls the Orcs are rallying against them. He is allowd to recruit some free men from his kingdom to help him on his quest.

So Eilif Rep 5, AC 4, armed with a Sword of Rage, his comrade Arne Rep 4, AC 4, Sword of Rage and short bow of Seeking, both riding horses and accompanied by two Rep 3 archers and three Rep 4 spearmen, set off on their final mission.

I'm playing a Contact Encounter in which I have to find the Mountain Giant who is being attacked by some Hill Giants in one of their usual territorial quarrels. Basically, I have to help and save him from his attackers.

At the top of the picture there is the Mountain Giant defending the pass to his valley and then four Hill Giants attacking them. One of them has already spotted Eilif and his men at the bottom of the picture.

Hill Giants activate first, the closest to the Mountain Giant attacks him and is smashed against the ground after a few pathetic efforts to win the melee. Other two Hill Giants are on their way while the last one charges Eilif.

This Giant doesn't reach Eilif's men who in their activation shoot arrows to no effect and then charge him.

Eilif and Arne have both extra melee dice for charging on horse and having Swords of Rage plus the numeric superiority. His recruited men weren't so lucky as they were all wiped off like insects.

Finally, it was the Mountain Giant's activation who moves forward looking for some trouble.

In the next turn he is simultaneously attacked by the last two Hill Giants. A fierce fight is ensued in which all the combatants lose some Rep but little else.

Eiflis hurries to help the Mountain Giant before it is too late. The archers can't make it this turn without horses.

There are a few more rounds of combat and the archers finally arrive and add their weight to the general melee. In the end, one Hill Giant is killed by Eilif and the other by the Mountain Giant whereas Arne barely survives with Rep 1 and one of the archers is crushed to death.

So that was all, a short and very fast game in which Einar managed to save the now grateful Giant, and so, bringing him to his side for his king. 

Next there will be a huge all-or-nothing battle deciding the future of Eilif's people as a conclusion of this campaign in which I am alternatively using one ruleset for skirmishes (Warrior Heroes Adventures in Talomir) and another for battles (heavily modified Great Hall Burning), both from Two Hour Wargames.

1/72 Bloodletters

My son asked me to print him 20 Bloodletters in 1/72 scale but I doubt I ever see them fully painted. Anyway, I have to say they look really good and I am considering to print some other stuff for my self, like cave bears and wolves for my 1/72 Fantasy adventures. 

In my previous post you can see one of these ones next to a human. I think they turned out a bit big but I don't care much about it.

Half of them already based (I used 25mm Warlord round bases).

 

The other half already primed and waiting for my son to paint them.