Battle Report March 6 2004

The wind swept across the plain. Spotty forests and hills dotted the landscape that General Eldrith Greydawn, high elven lord, had chosen to engage the enemy. A small but swiftly flowing river meandered slowly down the middle of the plain. The current was too swift for all but the best of swimmers and even then only unencumbered forces would be able to cross. The only two fordable spots on the river for miles were right here, and he knew he must hold the Belothe Ford at all costs. It had been the key to numerous elven victories for centuries. The mystical songs of his wood elf kindred floated to him above the roar of the river below. This particular song told of great elven legends, and of the passing into the world beyond. He allowed himself to listen for a moment before getting his mind back to the business at hand. Perhaps he would be joining those legends soon, but not if he could help it. Eldrith took one last look across the battlefield that would be covered in blood tomorrow and slipped quietly back into his command tent for some much needed rest before the enemy arrived.

We didn’t take any pictures and I just decided to write up a report on a whim so I apologize to those involved if some of my facts got mixed up. I think overall, I have stayed true to how the battle fared. The high elves and wood elves were deployed on the near side of the river. We had an awful lot of missile troops, with a small contingent of infantry to move up the middle and hold the ford, and some cavalry to sweep around the right flank and roll the enemy up. The enemy in question was a swiss army combined with a hobbit force. The swiss are a new player-made list we were testing, basically medieval with better pike.

The green sections were forests. The brown ovals were hills. There were two bridges (that didn’t get used all game). There were also 2 fords. The one in the middle of the board was a common objective for both sides.

Elven assets: 2 Wood elf (WE) bow units (about 18 a piece)

1 High Elf (HE) bow unit (18)

1 Giant eagle unit (5)

1 Air Wizard on eagle

1 unit of HE longswordsmen (28+ lord)

1 unit of HE Pikemen (26 + Lord + Champion + Life wizard)

1 unit of treemen (3)

1 unit of bears (8, I think)

1 unit of HE Noble Cav (13 + Lord)

1 unit of giant snakes (4)

Enemy assets: (I can’t remember exactly)

3-4 units of swiss pike (28-30 a piece)

1 unit of swiss crossbows (16'ish)

2 halfling sling units with a ton of extra crew

1 halfling spearmen unit (about 24)

1 huge unit of centaur knights(28)

1 unit of sheriffs on pegasi ( 5 - 6 of these I think)

All in all, they had 4 or 5 wizards

From the get-go we (the Elves) were heavily "out-magicked". So our strategy had basically been made clear, we had to get our objectives quickly before the enemy was able to build up those high level spells.

The river counted as very difficult terrain to cross (1/2 movement when skirmished) and we decided that anything with greater than armor 2 was too heavy to wade it so they would have to cross at the fords or bridges.

Our objectives were to take the ford, take the hill and forest in the middle of their side, and kill the big Swiss pike unit. Their objectives were to kill our big Pike unit, both WE bow units, and take the common ford.

This was one of two turns all game where we won the initiative so the wretched Swiss and their runt friends moved first. Both of those armies are slow as Christmas so it was soon our turn. We advanced up with both infantry and cavalry. The missile units stayed back to provide cover for the advancing force screened by our Treemen allies and Bear brothers.

The lead swordsmen unit was quickly given protection from afar(guardian wind) by the wizard on the eagle and they skirmished to minimize any Halfling artillery fire.

The cavalry was quick to advance further up the right flank. The enemy quickly moved the large unit of centaur knights into a position to counter the flanking maneuver. In a bold move the hobbit riding Pegasus unit swept like a furry-footed fury into the flying wizard. The elven bowmen chuckled quietly to themselves at what they thought was an obvious fatal move by the flying runts. However, the bowfire was largely ineffective and ended up causing more wounds to their wizardly comrade than the Halfling unit. This same turn also saw the scoundrel Swiss wizard begin his manifesting of water spirits(indicated by the blue circle on the river). There was also a fog cloud summoned to cover the pikemen’s molasses-like advance.

This turn saw the Pegasus unit, having done its hit and run in fine fashion, retreat to behind the objective forest. While the cheese-loving pikemen slowly made there way over to the fight, the swiss crossbow unit moved up in an attempt to threaten the elven archers. Our infantry unit plodded steadily onward, capturing the ford, while the noble cavalry, supported by the mighty snakes threatened to engulf the right flank. The bowfire was particularly devastating this turn as two units were sent running for there fondue pots. One WE archer unit, having no targets began to advance across the field led by their loving Pooh friends. Another water spirit was summoned to harass the WE archers near the pond.

There was finally melee as the right flank was hit hard by both the noble cavalry and the giant snakes. The centaur knights, though brave and strong, simply could not withstand the awesome force they had come into contact with. Previous rounds of bowfire had sent several units of "world’s finest and bravest" running and the rest of army continued its trek to the real battle. Yet another water spirit was added to harass the noble elven infantry as it forded the river. Both WE units also began to advance across the field to bring more targets into range. The Halfling Pegasus riders jumped the unit of great eagles in the middle of the board. The eagles, although heavily wounded, managed to summon the courage to stay on the field.

With the centaurs routed and destroyed by the pursuing noble cavalry, the giant snakes crashed into the runt great sling. The eagles continued their struggle in the sky, but were hopelessly outmatched in numbers, strength, and skill. The elven infantry had mostly crossed the ford. The Treemen, who had advanced last turn were accosted at the river by the now 4 water spirits. I believe this turn also saw the blessing of the HE pikemen, and a similar

Guardian spirit was cast on the one of the watch-making pike units. The hippy-halfling nature wizard accompanying the hobbit spearmen also cast a tanglefoot spell on the elven longswordmen, thus slowing their rapid advance.

With the right flank now devoid of resistance, the battle was beginning to turn in our favor, despite the fact that the enemy still had 4 wizards to our 1. The infantry continued to advance toward the objective forest and hill. More missile fire was sent into the money-laundering pikemen, but not enough to force a retreat. The already depleted Swiss pike unit holding the objective hill was no match for the fresh unit of bears and was quickly devoured.

At this point, I think the battle was pretty much decided. The forces of the enemy had been collapsed and compressed into a small area, and the odds of them achieving their objectives were virtually non-existent. The Elven forces continued the advance on the objective hill and forest from both the right and the middle. The wizard heavy enemy was also able to dispel the blessed pike unit. The Swiss crossbow unit decided to make a run out of the forest in hopes of inflicting casualties and was shot dead to the last man.

The snakes were being hurt severely by the objective Swiss Pike unit, but were inflicting significant casualties of their own. However, their solid morale allowed them to stand hard in the face of such grave danger. The noble cavalry were engaged by the small-fry Pegasus unit, but chewed through them like a fresh pack of Redman. I didn’t draw it, but I believe an evil White-Cheese wizard created a pond on the back of the objective hill this turn. He was hoping to meld the water spirits over there next turn.

The elven longswords had been routed last turn by the fresh hobbit spearmen, and the stumpy-legs had foolishly pursued the unit out of the forest. This turn saw the no-knees become pincushions from the numerous elven archer units. This turn also brought about the demise of the giant snakes, but the elven pikemen held the objective hill (Objective #2).

This was the last turn we played. The noble cavalry, having taken care of the Pegasus unit, was poised to charge into the main battle. The enemy, after surveying the field of battle, decided to surrender to General Greydawn, rather than cause more unnecessary bloodshed. The Halflings and Swiss spent the rest of the day swapping French onion soup recipes and boasting of how each of them were more "neutral" than the other.

We had a good plan, and it did work in the end. However, if we would have been hesitant it could have been very bad, because we were so outnumbered in terms of wizards. Our missile fire was absolutely deadly, and if we wanted to be really mean, we could have made all of our objectives as terrain on our side of the river, making them come through a barrage of arrows. We did however, make at least one mistake. Letting the wizard get jumped like that was bad. I should have paid more attention to distances and not allowed the Pegasus to get in on him, or land him behind a unit.

As far as the enemy goes, I’ll just make some general comments. First, they deployed bad. The Swiss pike were completely out of position, they weren’t even defending their objectives, and they are so slow that it took them forever to get into the fight. The great slings were pretty ineffective as well. We were able to limit them to the targets we wanted and those were formed so as to minimize damage. Mostly, I think if they would have deployed better, with better protection on the right flank, then the battle would have gone differently, especially with the magical edge they had.