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Setup

This is a 6,000 vp game between Thane Morgan's Wolfen and my (Justin Floyd) new Desert Orcs. The objectives are as follows: Thane had to destroy my Orc longbow unit (with Air wizard), my Orc beast lancers (with Chieftain and Earth wizard) and kill my Titan (the Dark Lord Sauron?!?!). I had to destroy his bow unit (with wizard), his javelin unit (with wizard) and kill the 5 earth elementals. The tall hill with the menhirs was a common objective. We needed 3 of 4 objectives to win.

Starting from the top right corner, Thane's mighty Wolfen army consisted of 20 Javelineers plus Chaos Shaman (objective), 20 hunters with Champion, 5 earth elementals (objective), 20 bow-wolves with Chaos Shaman (objective), an Elder-Wyvern, 2 units of 6 Minotaur allies, 20 sword-wolves plus Champion, 2 units of 11 Great-Wolves with Pack Leader, 20 Lunatics, 20 Spear-wolves plus Wolf-Lord, 2 giant spider allies and 4 huge spider allies.

From the top left, my wrathful army was 20 Orcs w/ scimitar plus Hero, 27 Orc warriors with Hero, 20 longbow-Orcs with Air Shaman (objective), the Dark Lord Sauron (using Titan stats - objective), 2 units of 16 Orc beast-riders with 2 mounted Heros each, 38 Orcs w/ 2 weapons plus Orc-Chieftain and Greater-Orc Hero, my Command unit of 10 Orc beast-lancers with mounted Orc-Chieftain and Earth Shaman (objective), 4 Orc Scorpion-Lancers, and 2 Giant Spider allies (infiltrating, not shown).

AND SO IT BEGINS!

Turn1

Basic movement, with Thane sending the Javelins and Hunters around the far flank to where my Scimitars waited, and sending the rest of his army to take the Menhirs. His elementals screen his bow-wolves. Not realizing that my longbows were out of range of his missiles, I foolishly screened them with the Orc warriors. I then sent the rest of my army toward the eventual bloodshed at the Menhirs except for one unit of beast riders (mysterious). Sauron was content to stand back and watch the mortals die.

Turn 2

Thane moved first. He jumped my army with almost everything (as the Wolfen-scum are wont to do). The Wyvern hit my Command unit which skirmished around it, while one pack of Great-Wolves and the spider-allies charged my Beast-Riders, and the other pack hit my Scorpions. The rest of his troops advanced with the Minotaurs reaching the Menhirs. Realizing my previous misjudgments, I sent the Warriors to back up the Scimitars and the wayward Beast-Riders turned toward the real conflict, though it was almost too late. My 2-weaponers went to challenge the Minotaurs, and Sauron slowly drifted towards the fight.

Thane's bow-wolves picked off a few 2-weaponed orcs who had Guardian Wind cast on them. The Orc Earth Shaman tried a level 2 Petrify on the Wyvern, but it resisted the spell. Now to melee: the Wyvern put all of its attacks on the Earth Shaman, but did not kill him. The Command unit inflicted enough wounds to break the would-be wizard-assassin. The not-so-Great-Wolves and spiders fought viscously with the Beast-Riders and barely did enough wounds to make them test and break, though the huge-spiders lost half their number and the Great-Wolves' Pack Leader was slain, breaking both units as well. The other Great-Wolves munched their way through my poor Scorpion-Riders who put up enough of a fight to make them test. Both units broke.

This turn of melee started an interesting phenomenon in which Thane would have 50% odds and roll 33% and I would have 33% odds and roll 50%. This held true for every turn of melee, on both rolls to hit and rolls to save.

Turn 3

As is obvious, many of the Wolfen-cowards ran away. The Giant-Spiders and my Command unit pursued into each other. The fresh Beast-Riders covered their craven brethrens' retreat.

(below) Before movement, I insidiously infiltrated my two Giant-Spider allies right next to Thane's clot of fleeing troops. Sensing disaster, the Spear-Wolves skirmished and tried to save their broken brethren, but it was too late. The Spiders charged one unit of Great-Wolves, driving them off the board, and ensured that the other Great-Wolves and the Wyvern would also flee. This was my best tactical move of the game. On the far flank, the Javelineers charged my Scimitars and threw their deadly darts, but Guardian Wind kept the casualties to a minimum (four). The Hunters charged my block of Warriors. At the Menhirs, the Minotaurs and my 2-weaponed Orcs fully engage. Thane's Lunatics charged my Command unit (which was engaged with his 2 Giant-Spiders) and are in turn charged by the fresh Beast-Riders. Even Sauron stepped in to lend his mace to the cause (Lunatics are nasty!). Thane's Earth Elementals and Bow-Wolves slowly began moving forward as I turned my Longbow-Orcs to face the far flank. Thane's Sword-Wolves crept up to the Menhirs.

In Magic, the 2-weaponed Orcs resisted a Warp Weapon from the Chaos Shaman in the Bow-Wolf unit, and the Orc Earth Shaman in the Command unit Petrified one of the enemy Giant-Spiders.

This is a good reason to spread out your fleeing troops!

There was more melee in this turn than in some games! The Minotaurs slew ~80% of their Orc opponents. That 2-weaponed unit broke and fled the field, but not before killing enough Minotaurs to break one of the two units. The Lunatics stumbled over each other in their frenzy and only killed a few Beast-Riders. They were nearly annihilated by the Orcs - Sauron himself killed three Lunatics (six wounds worth)! The Giant-Spider avenged his brother and finally felled the Orc Earth Shaman.

This melee saw the death of fewer Orcs and more Wolfen than should have been. The Hunters, engaged on the front of a large block of RaF Orcs ran away. The Javelin-Wolves got the better of the Scimitars and broke them.

Turn 4

One of Thane's Minotaur units and the Hunters fled. My broken Beast-Riders and Scorpion-Rider rallied, as did Thane's 2 Huge-Spiders. The Lunatics and Giant-Spider stood fast. My Command unit did not even notice the loss of their sorcerer.

My Command unit overran the Lunatics and charged the Sword-Wolves, my newly rallied Beast-Riders charged the remaining Minotaurs, and my Giant-Spiders ran over to scare the broken Minotaurs. They were finally jumped by the Spear-Wolves as Thane's Javelin-Wolves charged my Orc-Block. Sauron stood fast and reveled in the carnage wrought in his Name.

 The end is near!

The Orc-Chieftain slew the Wolfen Champion opposing him as his troops speared, gored and trampled the Sword-Wolves!

The Minotaurs were no match for the fury of the Desert-Orc Beast-Riders and their mounted Heros!

The Wolfen's darts shivered upon the mighty Orc-Shields as the Desert-Warriors smashed their enemies to dust!

End

At this point, with most of his army dead, routed or in shambles, Thane surrendered. Truth be told, every turn saw Thane roll incredibly bad as I rolled incredibly good. No exaggeration - he failed most of his to-hit and to-save rolls the whole game while I made most of mine, despite the odds being in his favor. I probably should have lost due to 3 or 4 maneuvering errors I made on the first 2 turns. However, I see the imbalance of luck as such:

With the presence of the mighty and terrible Dark Lord Sauron driving them on, the Desert-Orcs were incredibly motivated and fought ferociously and without fear. The Wolfen, seeing that Old Doom on the battlefield, were hard placed to simply hold their ground. They would need a greater power to overcome that Ancient Terror…

"LONG LIVE THE SHADOW!"

"LONG LIVE THE FIGHTERS!"

I thought I had him when my wolves got in on the boars and the scorpions, and he separated off his one boar unit. I had figured the Wyvern was a reasonable sacrifice, the odds were good that I would kill the shaman, and it held up the lancer unit from the other combat. Unfortunately, I did not kill that shaman, and lost my only flyer. That really hurt me in the end game, because while my fleeing troops had to leave the table, his were unthreatened and could rally. I think I probably should have kept the Wyvern in the air for turn 2 and just suffered the extra casualties to my great wolves. It probably would not have hurt so much, because neither of the boar units would have used their ramming attacks for fear of hitting each other, so I would likely have lost fewer casualties in first strike than what I actually did.

The spiders driving off my fleeing troops really hurt, I really should have separated the units so he couldn't have affected more than 1 or 2 of them.

My rolling really was the worst strike against me, I still could have put up a good fight were it not for that. I thought I was going to shred the far flank with my hunters and javelins, but my hunters could not hit. I couldn't believe my spears couldn't kill a spider.

The wolfen are an exceptionally fast army, and subtle tactics are required to keep from overextending. I've noticed that I'm almost always engaged in combat on the second turn - in some cases on the first. I often end up engaging far on the other side of the table, and on the enemies flanks, so I'm going to need to start having support on the flanks to cover retreating units. I may start using hunter units or 6 figure Great Wolf units for this.

This speed is a big psychological advantage against your opponents, as it causes concern and often confusion as the enemy. Most armies have battle plans that come into fruition on turn 3 or 4, so you can really disrupt opponents plans before they can begin to implement them.

We killed a good number of orcs this day, and any battle you can say that is a good battle!