By Thomas Evans
Having recently
dug out a version one rule book that I bought years ago, I've been
persuading my friends to play and have now fought six battles. Since I'm a
very slow painter, I've been using the very pretty paper armies from Lazarus'
Lair (http://showcase.netins.net/web/lazlair/),
which works very nicely provided that you don't laugh or sneeze or in fact
breathe too heavily on the battlefield, all of which result in your somewhat
insubstantial troops flying all over the place.
Tonight (
The first fight
was a bit daunting for me. I was playing the Generic Goblin from the rule book
(Wb gen, 2Fl, 2Rd, 2Bst, 9Hd, 1Lk) against the Generic Elf (Mg gen, 2Mg, 4Sh,
2Sp) and it was a battle that I had no idea how to win. So far as I could see,
a warband general was easy pickings for 3 magicians and I couldn't really see
any of my other troops actually killing anyone either.
Anyway, I
attacked and (using a mixture of v1 and v2 rules) my opponent set up the
terrain fairly neutrally, the only memorable features being two woods in
opposite corners, such that we each had a wood on our right flank. I then
deployed a block of horde against the wood, put my riders and flyers to their
left to react to the enemy deplotment and my beasts further left to make a run
for the woods opposite and (presumably) the enemy shooters. The general
was hiding at the back and I didn't anticipate that changing as things
progressed. My opponent deployed his shooters in the wood and his spear and
magicians in a line next to it.
It turned out
that I needn't have worried about the magicians so much, since my opponent's
PIP rolls were abysmal throughout. He therefore remained fairly static as I
advanced my line rapidly (rolling five or six PIPs almost every bound),
charging down two shooters (now out of the wood) with my beasts and riders
on the left. However, despite my overlaps I was doubled by both shooters
and my 2AP troops began to melt away. Beasts recoiled off the table, flyers
were filled with arrows and fell to horrible deaths. All was not good. However,
on the right flank, the Elf magicians were largely paralysed allowing
me to overrun them with my hordes and somehow their general fell, recoiling
through his friends into a small patch of impassable, which made my opponent's
PIP problems still more acute. Having tied up the spears
(virtually immobile since the start) with the remaining flyer, I set
about trying to kill enough elements to win me the game, not entirely
straightforward, since I was 10AP down. A combination of hordes and the last
rider took out some shooters taking the game to a fairly dramatic final turn,
in which I was a horde from defeat, but managed to win some improbable
victories and force another magician into the impassable with the hordes, who
had unexpectedly done almost all the damage and ultimately won me the game.
The second battle
was much less messy. I was playing Generic Reptilian (Bhm gen, 2Bhm, 1Fl, 2Rd,
6Hd) against Generic Medieval (Kn gen, 5Kn, 1Hr, 2Sp, 2Sh) and this time I had
a much clearer idea of what I wanted to achieve. I got to defend and set up
terrain, which was a considerable advantage, since I set up two large wooded
areas on either side of the centre of the table creating a funnel through which
his knights would have to go if they wanted to avoid the woods. I also put some
medium areas of bad going in the deployment areas. He set up pointing down the
funnel with his general in the front rank (though I'd explained the knight
behemoth risk to him) and his shooters away from the main lines to his right.
Essentially, I
just set up my behemoths facing his knights and ploughed through the funnel,
supported by the riders and spurred on by a continued stream of fives and
sixes for my PIP rolls. He rolled abysmal PIP dice again and was
forced to stand still, concentrating all his efforts on moving the shooters
round my left flank. There was a considerable moment of worry, when it
looked like he could have charged into the flank of the line of behemoths and
recoiled them into one another, but I managed to keep the shooters occupied
with some cannon fodder hordes and my line crunched into his, while my flyer
was enticing his rear ranks into the bad going and unfortunate death. My
general fought his, and it was all over quite quickly...
Not as quickly,
however, as the final battle of the evening. I had previously played with a
Generic Dwarf army (Hr gen, 9Bl, 1Sh) against another friend and,
frustrated by the dwarfs' general lack of enthusiasm to do anything except sit
still and wait to be attacked, I had thrown my hero general, unsupported, into
the fray, certain that his high cf would protect him against overlap and flank
contact (no automatic recoil death if flanked, since v1 rules). A few seconds
and a 6-1 to my opponent later I realised my mistake.
So I was
determined to use the Dwarfs properly and thus fielded them again against a
non-generic Undead army built by my friend on the spot. Since I'd told him
about the efficacy of blades against foot, he only took four of the
twelve hordes available, along with four riders, two knights, two flyers
and a magician general. I defended again and set up several woods and some
impassable at the sides of the table to ensure that I would be able
to protect my flanks and defend along a narrow front. My opponent deployed
in separate blocks of like troops; I deployed the blade in a line between
a wood on the left and impassable on the right, hero behind, ready to jump out
when the enemy closed, and the shooters deep in the woods by the left table
edge.
PIP dice were
fair this time, though I did little but move my shooters through the woods on
the left, only to be killed by the magician when they got into a position to
outflank the enemy. My opponent advanced cautiously, avoiding bad going, trying
to draw me out of my defensive position. In the end it was all irrelevant. My
opponent had also placed an irritating flyer over the impassable on my right
and it was this that ultimately proved my undoing. Though conscious of my
hero's fragility after his unfortunate fate in his previous outing, I was getting
frustrated by my opponent's unwillingness to engage me. His two knights were
isolated, so I decided not to allow myself to be held back by my previous
misfortune and charged the hero out to meet them. To cut a short story even
shorter (I'm sure there's a dwarf joke in there somewhere), the flyer contacted
me in the rear, I lost the combat and couldn't recoil.
Perhaps the Dwarfs
aren't for me after all.