Orc's Penultimate Stand

This battle came about as a result of a discussion on the YMG forum about the effectiveness of Orc Crossbowmen, whom I call XBowOrcs. The concern is that they are not worth the price and always stay in the box. The reply is that they are "situational" and under certain circumstances they are worth the expense. I said they would work sitting in a swamp shooting out, because it would take some pretty major doings to invade the swamp with adequate force to neutralize them. My good pal (and superior Orc tactician) Marcus maintains that sitting them atop a hill was the way to go.

As a scientific kind of guy, I decided there was no better way to check out the competing theories than "On the game grid, Sark!" (Tron) To achieve this I placed a swamp on one side and a hill on t'uther and selected the Kingdoms Scenario "Last Stand." It is significant to note that this scenario gives the defender (the Orcs in this case) only 1700 points, to the Attacker's (HE) 2000. All the defender is trying to do is eliminate as many of the enemy forces as possible before the rest run off the defender's mapboard edge. This means it doesn't matter if the defender is totally wiped out, in fact, it sort of assumes that as a given. It's a matter of how much damage can be done to the steamroller.

The Orcs chose 3 SpearOrcs, 2 XBowOrcs, and 2 Wolfriders for 1696 points. In the picture below the XBowOrcs are flanking the 3 SpearOrcs in the center. The Wolfriders are behind the XBowOrcs by the hill, just out of the picture.

The High Elves fielded 1 HE Knights, 1 HE Bowriders, 2 HE archers and 4 HE Elder Battle Squads (EBS) for 2000 points. In the above foto you see the Bowriders on the far left, then the Knights with the four EBS's next making up the HE line. The archers are behind the EBS's. The HE plan was to seize the hill and roll up the Orcs from that flank, at which point they would simply roll out to the left and exit the opposite board edge.

                                                                Opening Moves

 On turn one the EBS's begin their inexorable march forward while the mounted troops race for the hilltop. The XBowOrcs move toward the hill as the Wolfriders protect their flanks. The SpearOrcs are on Hold as the remaining XBowOrcs move into the swamp.

 Through judicious use of The Lash the Orcs reach the hilltop first (okay, the HE cav let them as they didn't want to race ahead and get flanked by the Wolfriders). The Bowriders do 4 damage to the leftmost Wolfriders, if they had used their precision box they might have one-shotted them, but they were saving it for a time they needed an extra hit, and they weren't expecting such a blowout from one volley of arrows (4 dice needing 5s and 3s). This emboldens the Knights to charge the other Wolfriders and the EBS to make it a pinch.

So the Wolfriders get one-shotted. The wound you see on the Wolfriders above was caused by the archers previously. Of significance is the Wolfrider's sacrifice. They did 4 damage to the Knights (6+2charge+1lash+2frenzy=11dice). This allowed the XBowOrcs to to flank charge the Knights (charge, lash, ferocity) and one-shot them.

 Not to be outdone, the Wolfriders on the far left of the hill charge the Bowriders and do four damage as well, before they two are one-shotted. The SpearOrcs had begun advancing and they flank charged the EBS. All the command card love and lashes had been given to the troops on the hill, so this charge was largely ineffective.

On the extreme left of this picture you can see the the very edge of the Bowriders who have been left in the red by the now eliminated Wolfriders ("We killed them, but we paid a heavy price" Theoden). They will spend some time 2dice plinking from a distance.

                                              The Orcs begin closing the noose.

Sorry about the neck craning this may cause. All this to show that the XBowOrcs and their friends on the right flank pinched and one-shotted an EBS.

All the dice show Courage checks to be taken. Starting from the left at the bottom of the pic we see the XBowOrcs fail their test v. Bowfire. The pinched SpearOrcs above that pass theirs, but their EBS opponents do not and are eliminated by free hacks. The SpearOrcs in the upper center follow the previous example by routing and being eliminated. The last SpearOrc pass their test.

                                And so the end of the last High Elven turn looks like this

The XBowOrcs charge the archers and heavily damage them while taking a surprising amount of damage themselves do to hot elf dice. At this point the HE have lost enough to give the Orcs a 5/1 victory.

Final XBowOrc analysis: Meh. The xbows on the caused 1 damage and the xbows in the swamp did 0 damage. Notably, as heavy swords they kicked HEass!

Heroes for the Orcs: The Wolfriders who essentially sealed the fate of the HE Cav (370 points vs. 680 points).

Heroes for the Elves: The archers who did a combined 6 damage vs HeavySwordsOrcs in hth combat!

Now, I intend to re-fight this battle after hearing from the High Elven council. My first thought is that attacking on such a broad front was a mistake. I think I should have flanked the Knights with a couple EBS's to capture the hill, and left the Bow riders to cover the right flank while the remaining 2 EBS's demonstrated in the center.

Simpler, yet better bases

The better basing solution. I have taken 1/4" hardboard (the same stuff that they make clipboards with) cut bases to 2.5" X 3.5" and attached an adhesive backed piece of felt. I have a friendly neighbor cut the hardboard with his tablesaw and I took a 10"x12" sheet of adhesive backed felt and cut it into 2" X 3" pieces. I centered the piece on one side and turned it over and sat a card on it. Done!

Now the cards are easily sat upon the bases, sleeved or unsleeved. Their backs can be looked at easily. The bases don't slide and can be left in place while the card is moved about so you can be certain of the original position.

Battleground Kickstarter!

The Your Move Games Kickstarter project for the new Alexander V. Persia Deck is fully funded and that means this dream will become a reality! If you haven't checked it out and contributed, there is still time and each contribution gets us closer to more and cooler stretch goals. Check it out here:
Alexander v. Persia Decks Kickstarter

An Elvish Tete D' Tete

 The purpose of this post is to showcase my new battleboard. It is a 3'X4' magnetic dri-erase board that I bought off Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0016T9TQU/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 Here I have set up a sample battle with lots of terrain. This is the situation: The Dark Elves are besieged by the High Elves in a fortress. The High Elves need to bring up a Scorpion quickly to reduce the fort before Dark Elf reinforcements can battle their way through and lift the siege. Dark Elf Dragon Riders have spotted the Scorpion column making its way along a road beside a river at the base of a cliff and are sending a small force to try and destroy the hated Scorpion. The High Elves have a 2000 point escort composed of Bowriders, Knights, Swordsmen, the Scorpion, Battlemages, Bowmen, and the rear is held up by Elder blade wielding Rangers. The Dark Elves have sent the best force they could assemble on short notice, though it is only a 1500 point force composed of a Dusk Lord at the very top of the map and hiding behind the hill are Lashmistresses, dragon Riders, and a unit of Coven. Manning the barricade in the road is a unit of lowblood spears.

 

On turn one the column approaches the roadblock cautiously as the Elven general Akbar yells, "It's a trap!" On the Dark Elf turn they come over the ridge and open up ineffectively on the High Elven column as the Lash Mistresses fail to do even one point of damage on the scorpions and the Dusk Lord does only one point. To make matters worse, the Bowriders disrupt the Spearmen manning the barricade.

The next turn the High Elven column swings into action! The Bowriders charge the barricade in an attempt to open a path for the Scorpions but the spearmen hold, the Knights and Swordsmen also leave the road and begin moving to charge the threats from the hill. Behind the Scorpions the Battlemages turn on the Dusklord whilst the bowmen open up on the Lashmistresses. The Rangers begin sneaking around for a flank surprise.

The Dark Elf turn finds the Lashmistresses focusing on their objective. the Lashmistresses attack the Scorpions again....This time they do five wounds with five dice and the scorpions are no more! The Dark Elves have saved the day and win!

Conclusion

Although this game was over quickly, it was only because of the excellent attack by the Lashmistresses, had the attack failed miserably, like on the previous turn, the Dark Elves would have been swarmed by the High Elves and the turn out might have been quite different.

The magnetic board

You will note in the first picture that I have the board at a 45 degree angle. I find that this is the most comfortable angle to play at. The magnetic "pins" work very well. They certainly are strong enough, if anything they are almost too strong, but once I have units on top of felt backed terrain they are perfect. All in all I am very happy with the magnetic board! It works extremely well for solitaire play and I hope to try it out soon in a two player game.

Dri-erase magnetic board

I thought it would be great to try and find a way to play the game on a vertical surface as one of the advantages of BG is that the cards can do what minis cannot, which is be mounted on a wall for easy viewing. First I tried felt, and while that was sort of okay, things didn't adhere that well and there was no way to use the YMG terrain.

Then I remembered these really powerful tiny magnets I used to use for holding weapon armaments and making models poseable when playing that unnamed miniature system. I imagined that those tiny magnets and a magnetic surface would be just the ticket.

So my first effort was to try magnetic paint on a gameboard. It wasn't strong enough, was very expensive, needed xylene for a thinner, and I decided it wasn't worth it.

Next I tried a dri-erase magnetic board. These boards come in a 3'x4' size which is perfect for a game of battleground. In the picture below you see a regulation size (30"x36") sheet of gaming paper held on to the dri-erase magnetic board. This allows room for off map maneuvering and  maybe some extra charts mounted also. I happen to have an old drafting board that I rested the magnetic board on. I should make clear that the board is not magnetic, but metallic and magnets are able to stick to it. The next post will be an actual game played on this board, but I wanted to talk a little about the board itself.

I also wanted to show this other gaming paper battle mat I made. This one is 26"x15" which is the dimension of the rectangle between the two deployment zones of a regulation game. I like to play around with minimums to see how little one can get by with and still have an awesome gaming experience using BG instead of minis.If you're curious about gaming paper here is their website http://www.gamingpaper.com/ and I will vouch for it being everything they claim it to be. It is inexpensive, very durable, and comes in a range of colors and with an assortment of hexes or squares in different sizes.

I got my magnetic board from amazon  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0016T9TQU/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I paid $83 for it, but just now I see it is $90. That is still the best price and I can vouch for the quality. The reviews complained about this clear plastic that was attached and very difficult to get off, but they must have adapted to that because mine didn't have that coating. Since it is dri-erase, you could just draw on your terrain and borders, but I prefer the terrain pack and my gaming paper.

Magnets
The magnets I selected are from K&S http://www.kjmagnetics.com/products.asp?cat=157 and these are magnetic thumbtacks. what that means is that they have the plastic heads like push pins, but a magnet at the base instead of a pin. I bought twenty green for using on the mapboard and 12 each of black and white for using on the units. I think the way I'll actually use them is the green for terrain and units and the white and black for objective markers. The thing to watch is the shipping. Magnets have some very stringent shipping requirements because if they get stored next to electronic media they can cause mayhem, as well as messing with shipping and tracking devices. These are powerful magnets. err on the side of getting more than you need rather than having to order twice.

I tested the magnets and found that one magnetic tack can hold eight cards without falling off the vertical board. This means they will easily and securely hold a card on top of terrain on top of a gaming paper battle map.

New Magnetic "Pushpins"

Got some magnetic pushpins to try out. My idea is to mount a board coated with magnetic paint on a wall, or even just lean it up against a wall. The idea being that the advantage of using cards rather than miniatures is that you can play on a vertical surface which opens up table space and makes the cards easier to see.

For the experiment of just seeing if this works I mounted a sample game on the side of the fridge. The rectangular bit of graph paper is some gamer paper cut to 15X26 which is the space between the two opposing deployment zones. My Terrain is all felted so is extra thick, but the neo-dymium magnets still hold it up, but just barely. I did use a couple YMG measuring sticks which weren't felted and which worked quite well, so I know it will work.

This is a closer commanders eye view. The magnets are really strong. I will post ordering info and what not soon.

Undead Fusion

Undead Hott Fusion list

 

Special Ability: Undead

All units except Knights and Warbands ignore R results and move 100p less to a minimum of 100p

                         

Airboat X  

Artillery   

Beast   

Behemoth  

Blade

Cleric X

Dragon X

Flyer X

God X

Hero (Death Knights treat as mounted)

Hero(A) X

Horde  

Knight X  

Lurker  

Lurker(w)  

Magician X

Paladin X

Rider  

Shooter  

Sneaker X

Spear  

Stronghold

Warband