Campaign carnival After Action Report Scenario 4

 After Action Report-  Scenario 4.3  Counterstrike!

Rules-  Chainmail 3rd ed.

Force Composition-  

Baron Elizabeth’s Forces

6x  Heavy Foot 12

6x Armor Foot w/ 15

Hero 30

6x Med Cavalry 24

Hero/ Magic Sword 30

8x Light Cavalry 24

4x Light Foot 4

4x Heavy Foot (Elf Ally) 4

6x Heavy Cavalry 30

Wizard 50

       217

Orcs Gnashers Redux

8x Archers 32

2x Heavy Cav 10

2x Ogres         30

4x Armor Foot 10

Wraiths         10

6x Heavy Foot 12

4x Med Cav 16

Hero 20

6x Light Cav 24

        161

Scenario-

Terrain and Deployment

Humans deploy first, with heavy cav on left flank, armor foot with hero, heavy foot and med cav with hero across the front, and light cav in column on the right flank.  Wizard posting up in the rear.

Gnashers respond by spreading out the monsters, with ogres on the flanks, and wraiths in the center.  The armor foot posts between the 2 barricades, with heavy cav and heavy foot behind them.  Med cav and light cav take the right flank.  

In-Game Events-  Since the orcs are at significantly lower points, they will auto win initiative for turn 1.  Orcs choose to have the humans move first.

Turn 1-  The 4 human units on the left rolled to see if they found the goat trail, no luck.  The light cav swings around the hill in column, staying out of charge range of the orc cav.  The human med and hvy cav make half moves while the infantry make full moves forward keeping them near each other.  The wizard targets the wraiths with a fireball, but they make their save and only the armor foot adjacent the wraiths perish, but it causes the other base of armor foot to lose morale.  The orcs move forward with the wraiths and ogres pushing forward, the med and hvy cav keeping pace.  The archers move behind the earthworks and fire on the human heavy foot killing 3.  The orc light cav presses on the human light cav.

End turn 1  Humans 1, Orcs 0

Turn 2.  Humans win initiative and choose to move first.  The light cav does a left turn and charges the orc light cav, trading wounds and forcing it back in good order.  The hero and med cav charges the ogres and the armor foot charges the wraiths.  The other human hero and the heavy foot charge the other ogre and the human hvy cav charge the orc light cav.  The elves and the light foot move forward staying out of bow range.  Then the wizard fireballs the orc med cav with the hero attached and kills two bases of cav leaving the hero to act alone.  Orcs respond by the hero charging into the human med cav, and the heavy foot charging the center.  The human hero with the magic sword gets a hit on the ogres and slays them.  They also kill the heavy foot and the hero fails morale and surrenders.  The wraiths touch 2 units of armor foot and paralyze them and the armor foot responds by killing all but one heavy foot.  The ogres on the left smash all the human heavy foot, leaving just the hero in single combat.  The human heavy cav slays the orc heavy cav.  

Score end of turn 2- Humans 5, Orcs 1

Turn 3-  Humans win initiative and elect to move first.  

Human light cav charge the orc light cav, but the wounded orcs from the camp mobilize in the face of total annihilation, and some orc med cav manages a countercharge into the melee.  They trade wounds and the orcs are pushed back in good order, all fatigued save the med cav. The wizard fireballs 2 bases of archers, limiting their effectiveness.   They respond by doing 1 wound to the elves.  The human hero and the med cav pivot and charge into the orc hvy foot and the wraiths, i ruled they had to slay the orcs before they could reach the wraiths.  The orcs died and the hero with magic sword moved forward to fight the wraiths but failed to do enough wounds.  The armor foot were unparalyzed by the elves who moved into their rear, but cannot affect the wraiths so they just stayed locked in combat.  On the left side of the battlefield the heavy cav charged the ogres and with the hero did enough wounds to slay them.  All of the human units on the field save the wizard and the light cav and the elves are now fatigued.

End of turn 3 Humans 7, Orcs 1

Turn 4  Humans win initiative again and go first to deliver the death blow to the orcs.  

The elves swing around the armor foot to threaten the wraiths as they are able to inflict wounds on them, but the hero with the magic sword manages to finish them off.  The med cav detach from the hero and about face to cover the orcs cav on the right.  The wizard fireballs the remaining archers who held morale last round, and the rest of the army rests as the light cav receives a charge from the orc med cav, hvy cav and fatigued light cav.  The light cav trade wounds and the orc light cav breaks due to losses.  The rest of the melee holds.  I’m going to call the game at this point as the orcs would probably take the opportunity to run away while the humans are resting.  

Score at end of turn 4-  Humans 10, Orcs 1

Final Score-   Humans 10, Orcs 2

Duration-  5 turns (turn 5 was just the orc hvy and med cav routing the human lt cav in melee, scoring 1pt)  they then flee with the rest of the orcs.  About 3 hours of play including set up.  

Conclusion-  The Baron Elizabeth’s forces won 3 out of 4 games in the Campaign Carnival.  Their original goal was to beat down the newly reformed tribe of Gnashers Redux from the Whitehart Wood enough to consider her hex in the Wood cleared, which would then allow the construction of her keep.  The next phase of the Whitehart Wood Campaign will be the arc of Baron Elizabeth gathering her materials and resources and constructing a proper keep and wall and defending her territory while doing it.  The Gnashers Redux are severely whittled down but still will cast a presence in the hex.  Their surviving numbers are 3 bases of heavy foot, and 1 base each of armor foot, light cav, med cav, and hvy cav.  This force will be added to the map for future campaigns.  

Status of Casualties- The orcs skulk away off the battlefield into the dense wood with just 3 bases of heavy foot, and 1 base each of armor foot, light cav, med cav, and hvy cav.  No additional human units are killed as a result of this battle.  

Thus ends the Baron Elizabeth vs Gnasher Redux Campaign Carnival.  The Baron’s forces started the campaign with a fairly successful retreating action, followed by a disastrous escorting of a supply train that affected their resources and numbers.  They managed to muster strength and counter with a successful surprise attack on the orcs and then a masterful assault on their main camp.  With 3 victories out of 4 2 being rather large victories, I proclaim the Baron successful in her efforts to put down the Gnashers and make her hex safe for keep construction.  This campaign has been an absolute blast, kept me solo wargaming all summer!  Big thanks Purple Druid!

Campaign Carnival After Action Report Scenario 3

This Scenario required the orcs to set up in the north all in column, and the Humans to set up in 2 groups-  1 all mostly foot set up in the south, and 1 all mostly cavalry set up in the east.  The cavalry unit must wait 1 turn before acting in the battle but can't be targeted by the orcs.   

After Action Report-  Scenario 3.2 Outflanked

Rules-  Chainmail 3rd Edition

Force Composition-

Baron Elizabeth’s Guard

4 Light Foot  4

8 Armor Foot 20

8 Archer         32

8 Heavy Foot 16 2 killed game 2,  4 wounded out game 3

8 Light Horse 24

8 Medium Horse 32

6 Heavy Horse 30  2 killed game 2,  2 wounded out game 3

Hero Magic Sword 30

Hero Bow 23 captured game 2

Wizard 50

        220 points (minus wounded)

Gnashers Redux (using normal troops points, not orcs)

10 Armor Foot     25

8 Archer             32

10 Heavy Foot     20

6 Medium Horse     30 2 wounded out game 3

Hero/Bow/Mag Arrow 33

Hero     20 captured game 1

6 Light Horse     18

6 Heavy Horse     30

6 Heavy Foot     12

Ogres     20

Wraiths             10

            220  (minus wounded)

I’m also going to swap out the giant for the rest of the campaign.  I’ll replace it with a unit of ogres, 2 units of heavy cav, and 2 units of lt cav.  (adjusted above)

Scenario-

Terrain-  as per the scenario map

Deployment-

Orcs-  all in column, Armor foot, hvy Cav, and hvy foot in front, cav, small infantry unit and the archers behind.  

Humans-  Armor foot in front of defensive force, med cav and hero in front of flanking force.

Turn 1- after movement

Humans get initiative, have orcs move first.  All the front columns advance, and the 2 cavs in the rear go from column to line.  Humans respond by having the 2 small units flank out, armor foot charges the hvy cav, but before that the archers fire indirect, taking out 3 hvy cav.  The wizard drops a fireball right on the wraiths, ogres, and 4hvy foot, taking them out.  

Turn 1 After melee-

The human armor foot only had 2 dice hitting on 6, vs the hvy cav 4 dice hitting on 5, but humans rolled box cars and the remaining hvy horse surrendered to failed morale.  Incredibly lucky for the humans.  

End of Turn 1-  Humans 3Vp, Orcs 0

Turn 2- Movement

Orcs won initiative and elected to move first.  The hero and armor foot and the unit of hvy foot both charged the human armor foot.  Orc archers went to line, lt cav and hvy foot in the rear pivoted east.  Med cav pivoted west.  Human Archers were out of range of anything not in combat, so pivoted and moved forward.  Wizard moved forward and dropped a fireball on med cav and the archers, taking out 4 med cav and 2 archers.  The Human  cav all moved west, lt cav going north around the trees, hvy and med cav going south.  

Turn 2 melee-  the human armor foot got double charged by the orc armor foot with hero and hvy foot, but they were in line.  The hero and armor foot killed 2 armor foot, and the other combat resulted in 1 casualty for each side.  This caused the humans to lose morale and rout, bumping into the wizard causing him to rout and move back.  The orc hvy foot lost morale but only moved back in good order.  

End of Turn 2  Humans 3, Orcs 0

Turn 3-  Movement

Humans win initiative and go first.  With the wizard and armor foot routed, the archers move forward to absorb a charge from the orc armor foot.  The small unit of hvy foot pivots to harass the small unit of orc hvy foot.  Before getting charged the archers fire at the orc hvy foot and kill 3.  The lt foot pivots back towards the orc armor foot, and the human cav continues west, the lt cav getting in a charge against the orc lt cav.  The movement of the human hvy cav is slowed due to pivoting.  The hero and med cav get closer but unable to charge.  The orcs respond by the hvy foot in the north also charge the lt cav, and the armor foot goes into the human archers.  The small unit of human hvy foot are double charged by the orc hvy foot and med cav.  

Turn 3-  Melee

The human lt cav vs orc lt cav result in no casualties, continue melee, and the combat with the hvy foot yields 1 casualty on each side, also continue melee.  The orc hero and armor foot do 5 wounds to the archers slaying them.  The human hvy foot resists the charge of the orc hvy foot, but the med cav takes them out.  The lone base of orc hvy foot saves morale.  The humans manage to keep the wizard and armor foot from getting charged, so they will rally next round.

End of Turn 3  Humans 3, Orcs 2

Turn 4-  Movement

Humans get initiative and go first.  The newly restored armor foot does an about face, the wizard backs up and prepares to drop a fireball.  The lt foot charge the flank of the orc armor foot, the med cav charges the flank of the armor foot, and the hvy cav pivot and get ready to charge next turn.  The wizard drops the fireball at the rear of the armor cav near the orc archers, killing 2 bases of armor foot and 4 bases of archers.  Orcs respond by charging the newly turned around armor foot with the 2 small units on the left.  The orc hvy foot wraps the flank of the human lt cav, and the orc archers do a wound to the lt foot.

Turn 4-  Melee

In the combat with the human armor foot they lose 3 units, are pushed back in good order but hold morale due to casualties.  The orc armor foot repels lt foot making them retreat, but the med cav hits hard into their flank and causes them to lose 3 bases and surrender, capturing the orc hero, they still failed morale even with the hero morale bonus.  The lt cav don’t manage to inflict any wounds, but the hvy foot into their flank do, they lose 3 and are pushed back in good order.  Everyone but the human cav and the wizard are about to be fatigued, and there are no units in melee, so it might be wise for the whole board to rest and reset, but the orc med cav are in charge range of the wizard, so next turn initiative is crucial.

 

End of Turn 4-  Humans 5, Orcs 2

Turn 5-  Movement

Turn 5 Orcs won initiative and elected to go first, resting all units except the med cav which charges the wizard.  The orc archers fire on the lt foot, killing 2.  The rest of the orcs rest and reset on fatigue.  Human cav decides to strike because they are one turn away from fatigue.  The hvy cav charges the orc hvy foot, and the lt cav charges the orc lt cav.  The hero and med cav charge the orc hvy foot, as it is the only target in range.  

Turn 5 Melee-

The med cav charges the wizard but fatigued so it attacks as lt cav.  They can only do 1 wound so the wizard lives but is pushed back in good order.  The hvy cav wipes out the orc hvy foot, and the lt cav does a wound to the orc lt cav but they stay in melee.  At this point, with the med cav unable to take on the wizard, the battle is essentially over.  The humans will graciously allow the remaining orcs to retreat off the field and claim victory.

In-Game Events-  I forgot to add fatigue points in the first few rounds of the game, so fatigue may have affected the game differently, but I decided to just keep that omission throughout the game to keep it fair.  There were a few more mistakes here and there, but I’m learning every game.  

Final Score-  Humans 7, Orcs 2

Duration-  5 turns, probably an hour of setup and 3-4 hours of gameplay, played over 3 sessions.

Conclusion-  Humans have a pretty solid victory, but orcs had several opportunities to strike hard.  It was definitely a challenge to try to get the whole orc army out of column formation efficiently.  The wizard’s fireball continues to be very powerful, the wraiths did get a roll to resist but failed, the ogres do not seem to get a roll to resist spells.  Now that I realize the power and range of wizard spells I’ll keep them further apart so they can’t be targeted together.  This scenario felt balanced, the orcs had to deal with coming out of column, and the humans had a split force.  Things probably would have gone differently if either the wraiths or ogres had gotten into combat.  

Status of Casualties-   Orc Killed-  4 units armor foot, 4 hvy foot, 2 units med cav, 2 units hvy cav  Orcs Injured-  2 armor foot, 6 hvy foot, 2 med cav, 2 hvy cav, 1 orc hero captured.

Humans Killed-  2 armor foot, 4 archers    Injured-  4 archers, 2 hvy foot

  

Campaign Carnival After Action Report Scenario 2

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)