Battle 2 in the Campaign Carnival hosted by Purple Druid. This one was pretty one sided, the humans had a chance, they rolled the dice and did not finish the job.
The Scenario was for the humans to move the wagon train east along the road to the town, orcs were to block them.
After Action Report- Campaign carnival Scenario 2.1 Blockade
Rules- Chainmail 3rd Edition
Force Composition- Original Forces
Baron Elizabeth’s Guard
4 Light Foot 4
10 Armor Foot 25 2 killed game 1
8 Archer 32
10 Heavy Foot 20
8 Light Horse 24
8 Medium Horse 32 8 injured game1, out game 2
8 Heavy Horse 40
Hero Magic Sword 30
Hero Bow 23
Wizard 50
280
Gnashers Redux (using normal troops points, not orcs)
10 Armor Foot 25
8 Archer 32
10 Heavy Foot 20
10 Medium Horse 40 2 killed game 1
Hero/Bow/Mag Arrow 33
Hero 20 captured game 1
6 Light Horse 18 2 killed game 2, 2 injured game 1, out game 2
4 Heavy Horse 20
6 Heavy Foot 12
Giant 50
Wraiths 10
280
Force composition for Baron Elizabeth- all units not used in scenario 1 (the wizard, lt. horse, med. horse, and armor foot are not available)
Baron Elizabeth’s Guard- Green bases
4 Light Foot 4
10 Armor Foot 25
8 Archer 32
8 Heavy Horse 40
Hero Magic Sword 30
Hero Bow 23
154
Gnashers Redux- 60% of force after casualties from game 1, I did ten units on the list, so 60%- the first 6 units I roll for on d10 are in the fight. Here are the results-
Gnashers Redux- Gray bases (using normal troops points, not orcs)
8 Archer 32
10 Heavy Foot 20
10 Medium Horse 40 2 killed game 1
Hero/Bow/Mag Arrow 33
4 Heavy Horse 20
Giant 50
195
Scenario- terrain- I placed the road as written, and drew cards for terrain. I drew 2 forests in the south, and 4 hills in the northwest corner. I put a town at the end of the road just for funsies, it’s the Baroness’ hometown in Whitehart Wood, it needs a name.
In-Game Events- Deployment- The Hero and Lt. foot line up in front on the road with the wagon train behind. The Hvy Horse and Hvy Foot form lines north of the road. Archers take the hill south of the road, but will likely have to move turn 1. The orc Hvy Foot form a line over the hill, the archers take the hilltop, and the Wolfriders skirt the base of the hill. The Giant and the Lt Cav form the spear tip. Seeing that in Chainmail wagons only go 6” (and I’m using ½ movement rates due to 2mm scale) so the wagons can only go 3” a turn, or 3 ¾” on road, but in Chainmail wagons and horse get and additional move bonus on road, so i’m going to use this too. Otherwise the wagons couldn’t get across the board in 6 turns. The wagons will move 6 ¾” on road, but only 3” off road.
Turn 1- I’m ruling the army on the road (A) has initiative due to their moving fast on the road. The lt. Foot with hero and wagons move on the road. The archers move off the hill and right, med cav and hvy foot advance in line. Orcs respond by moving the hero and line of hvy foot over the hill towards the road. The giant launches a boulder at the med cav, but it lands wide hitting nothing. The orc archers make a full move and beat the med cav in a roll off, and kill one in missile fire. The Orc chariots were not in charge range, so they moved to meet a melee on the road. Then the orc med cav charges the med cav and hero. They don’t run, and kill one unit in melee and win morale causing the orcs to back up in good order. I ruled that the orcs couldn’t wrap around the side of the line on the first turn of melee, they could wrap to flank on the second turn unless the flank is more exposed. Things actually look ok for the humans right now, the giant is a little penned in due to the retreat.
Score- Humans 0, Orcs 0
Turn 2- Turn 2 was critical for the humans to get initiative. They did not. Orcs went in hard. Orc archers stood still to get off 2 shots, damaging the med cav first. Orc wolfriders charged the hero and the med cav, both sides took a casualty and melee continued. Chariots charged the hvy foot, they held, but took 4 casualties and fell back in good order. Giant moved to block the road, and the column of orcs and hero block the road behind the giant creating 2 huge obstacles before getting to town. Finally, the archers took their second shots on the advanced wagons and killed 3 of 4 wagons, scoring a point for killing a unit of wagons.
Score Orcs 1, Humans 0
Turn 3- Humans won initiative and elected to let the orcs move first. The chariots recharged the hvy foot, they each did casualties and then each failed morale and were removed from the battle giving 1 VP to the orcs. The hero and med cav stayed locked in combat with the wolfriders, did a casualty and they failed morale and turned and ran. The giant moved off the road and charged the hero and lt foot, wiping them all in combat (13 dice, the giant is a little too powerful for this list)for 3 VP. The human archers did a casualty on the chariots as they charged the hvy foot, and orc archers did 2 casualties on the lt. Foot before they got charged by the giant. The wagons moved up the road a little, but had to stay out of range of the orc archers' second shot.
Score Orcs 5, Humans 0
Turn 4 Orcs win initiative and that pretty much ends it. The giant kindly elects to gobble up the wagon horses (1VP) instead of wiping another unit. I think I’m going to swap out the giant for a unit of ogres for the rest of the campaign. It’s too strong without elves and or multiple magic swords/arrows. Regardless, the orc archers kill the last of the med cav (1VP), allowing the hero to turn tail and run off the board. The human archers also take off for the board edge out of bow range and the orcs do not follow since they already have the entire wagon train. I’ll end it here with a full victory for orcs.
Score Orcs 7, Humans 0
Final Score- Orcs 7, Humans 0
Duration- 4 turns, about 1 hour set up, 2 hours play, (plus and hour of looking up rules for giants, throwing rocks, magic swords, morale casualties, and how cav attack when standing still), casualties will probably take 30 min.
Conclusion- I translated the scenario from a long rectangular board to a square board, so the way board sectors worked out I probably had the Orcs too close to the road. If I was to do it over I would put the road about 10” south of where it was. The scenario also has a lot to do with how fast you want to make your wagon trains to be able to move. I was hoping to punch through the enemy line, but the loss of initiative on turn 2 was bad for that plan. The other way would have been to face my human army to receive the orc charge, then start moving the wagon train after the orcs have been softened up. I didn’t think I had enough time for this option so I went for the rush across the board from turn 1 tactic and it was too risky a plan. As I said before the giant is just too strong for this small size game. I think in Chainmail it’s intended if you have giants in the game, the other side needs ample options to deal with it and 1 magic sword is just not enough.
Status of Casualties- Captured- 1 Orc Hero, 1 Human Hero
(rolled per base) Humans- Killed- 1 hvy Cav, 1 hvy Foot, Injured- 1 hvy Cav, 2 hvy Foot (out game 3)
Orcs- Killed- none Injured- 1 med Cav (out game 3)
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