Tuesday 27 May 2014

The Battle of Otten Village - Part 2

The Battle


No fluff today, just battle report goodness. You can find the introduction and army lists in part one.

Turns 1 to 3
The fimir won the dice roll to move first and we were off. My opponent did not hold back in the slightest as the fimm warriors moved into the centre, no doubt hoping to hold up the beastmen and skaven whilst Fergus and his retinue of fianna fimm (their elite troops) start swinging around the flank. The door to the house is on the far side from them and they wanted to get some captives whilst the chaos forces were distracted.

Dorrin's band moved in towards the middle of the battlefield also hoping to flank the fimm regiment with one of the units and wipe them out quickly. There wasn't much excitement in the first few turns as the trolls repeatedly fail to show up, they were too busy contemplating the meaning of the universe whilst picking their noses probably. Melondil shot with his crossbow, hit despite the swirling mists, but failed to cause a wound. This would be a recurring theme of the game for him.

Turn 3 - Jostling for position - also in shot is some fine tape measuring action.


Turns 4 to 7

At the start of turn 4 the trolls finally showed up, they miraculously passed their stupidity test and ran straight at the fianna fimm! Regeneration makes trolls exceedingly hardy; they effectively have a fifty-fifty chance of ignoring all damage taken on a turn and have multiple wounds each. They are also pretty quick on their feet so another passed stupidity test or two should easily see them get into melee. I was hoping that they would be able to lock Fergus in combat long enough for help to show up.

Turn 4 - The trolls rise up out of the marshes

Dorrin riled the beastmen up into a frenzy (providing them with a burst of berserk strength, resilience and fearlessness that would last the remainder of the battle) as the fimm warriors charged in.  A beastman was knocked out of the fight but Dorrin cut a fimir down in response without even breaking a sweat. The combat stalemated and despite the impetus of the fimir assault, Dorrin didn't allow his fighters to give any ground.

Note that throughout the game we ignored any penalties on units due to being divided by linear obstacles such as hedgerows. Normally it would result in penalties to movement, but as we were just playing a skirmish we felt that this could be overlooked.

Turn 5 - Combat is joined

Unfortunately for the daemon-fiends it didn't stay as a stalemate for long. Dorrin and his animalistic comrades cut a swathe through the fimir ranks, only losing one more of their own in doing so. They ran down the last warrior when his nerve finally failed.

Meanwhile, the skaven lead by Melondil reformed and moved away from the now frenzied beastmen as while in that state they were unable to differentiate between friend and foe! There was no way the cowardly rats would be able to handle being charged by their own side so they did their best to keep the ruined building between them so they would not present themselves as a target.

Turn 7 - The remaining warrior flees the combat and gets cut down

On the far side of the battlefield, the trolls behaved remarkably well after a bit of a false start (they wandered back towards the table edge at first, maybe they were worried that they might have left the oven on?) and charged the veteran fianna fimm who were raiding a cottage. Unfortunately for the trolls, it didn't end well. They lost five of their six wounds between them, failed to hurt the fimir in response, failed to regenerate their wounds and fled the combat - what a disaster! Luckily the last troll's regeneration kept it from being killed as it fled. It was a dreadful showing overall and this quick defeat allowed the fimir plenty of time to gather their captives.

Turn 8 - The trolls charge the fianna fimm...

Turn 8 - ...and promptly get their pimply asses kicked

But what came next was quite a surprise to us. The troll, completely forgetting why he was running away in the first place, turned about and rushed straight back into the combat! Not only that, but the sight of this enraged, seemingly unkillable monster was too much for the fimir to take and they gave ground to avoid the fight! Perhaps they thought that they wouldn't be able to deal with him so easily a second time?

Now that their foe was out of position, Dorrin and Melondil took the opportunity to form a proper battle line. The Fimir are far quicker on their feet than the heavily armoured beastfolk and the dwarf so I had to be prepared to take the charge here. The skaven kept themselves out of arc of their still berserk allies and out of range of the fimir too as they wouldn't be able to withstand an assault from such potent combatants!

Turn 10 - Dorrin's forces form a battle line

Fergus stampeded in with his retinue and the proper fighting began at last. A challenge was issued to Dorrin with a guttural roar and, in true Warhammer style, the two heroes engaged in single combat! The initial round of combat proved fairly uneventful. Dorrin managed to knock a single wound off of Fergus, his axe easily cutting into the monster's thick hide. Apart from that, the beastmen and fimir only did one wound to each other - not enough to cause a casualty on either side so the fight dragged on.

Immediately after the first round the skaven piled into the flank. Fergus bellowed loudly, commanding his troops to hold their ground which they did without problem, clearly unfazed by the ratmen to their side. As if to validate their lack of concern the skaven caused absolutely no damage, even Melondil with his great halberd was unable to wound with either of his attacks. Thankfully the skaven's armour protected them in return.

Turn 11 - The Fimir charge in and the skaven pile into the combat too

Whilst all this was going on, the remaining troll spent two turns waiting by the unconscious body of his friend wondering why he wasn't moving. That's the problem with trolls, always lying down on the job!

Turns 11/12 - The remaining troll stands over his fallen friend

After several rounds of furious fighting (and the troll finally charging in after getting bored of trying to rouse his partner) the chaos forces gained the upper hand. Dorrin hacked down Fergus, his own unnaturally high Toughness protecting him from harm despite being hit several times. A further two fimir were dispatched by the beastmen and in exchange two skaven and a beastman were gravely wounded.

Turn 13 - The troll finally comes to his senses and, enraged, stumbles into the melee

Finally, with the loss of their hero, it seemed that the writing was on the wall. Although they did manage to drag two more skaven down with them the remaining fimir were surrounded and fell quickly to their bestial assailants.

Turn 14 - The captive runs off as the final fimir is surrounded and cut down

A resounding victory for Dorrin and the forces of evil! Or possibly for good? I'm not quite sure yet, we'll have to wait and see...

Part three will have the aftermath where there will be a lot of casualty rolls being made...

2 comments:

  1. Yaaaargh! Revenge will be mine! Fergus will be avenged.... :) Nice job of writing it up, looks impressively like it could have graced the pages of WD way back when! :)

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    1. Thank you, the pictures have come out surprisingly well, although I would still like a new camera. I'm looking forward to our next game. Dorrin wants to get his hands on that Dirach!

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