They shall not pass

With the COVID-19 situation, wargaming has been restricted to the ongoing Kings of War camapign between the Mhorgoth's Undead and the Basileans under Gnaeus Sallustis. This week the Undead assaulted Fort Balin in the north of the campaign area to secure a larger foothold.

My plan was a fairly simple one - to try for a draw that would leave me in possession of the Fort at the end of the game. So I packed the fort with big infantry units as possession was on Unit Strength. The front was covered by a crossbow horde with the dragonshard shield, giving them defence 6+ for a turn. Two wizards were in support. Some cavalry was deployed to stop the attackers simply turning by threating their flanks.  

For the Undead sieges are quite tricky games. Many units are Shambling and so can nt double. This makes them unsuitable for using the siege towers as they would take too long to reach the walls. so these were left to the Vampires and Werewolves.  

Soulreaver Vampire infantry

The first couple of turns saw me immediately charging on my right as I as I had the chance to destroy a siege tower and slow down the Undead's right. This cost the Knights their lives but bought me 3 turns and eliminated one of the three towers.  

Centrally the Zombie Trolls charged the gates and hacked through them in pretty short order. I was able to kills them with a timely sally from troops inside the fort, but the gates were breached. On my left the Vampires advanced with their tower but outpaced their skeleton flank guards and were quickly cut-down by my Elohi flying troops. They succumbed in their turn but two of the siege towers were now lost.  

As the final siege tower reached the wall, Undead forces tried to push through the gates with a Mummy regiment in the lead. The gate was a stalemate but the Werewolves gobbled-up the crossbowmen, only to be evicted themselves by some Ogre Palace guards storming the walls.

The final turn saw a couple of desperate ladder attacks that were easily repelled and the Fort was secure. All the Basilean units outside the walls died but they bought precious time and eliminated the threat of two of the siege towers.

Who ordered these ladders then? 

They shall not pass 

   

 

Flight of the Pheonix

The lockdown means I've been home more than usual this week so was able to squeeze in another game in the Undead vs Basileans campaign. This time Mhorgoth attacked the river crossing again - so the scenario was Dominate where you must have the greatest Unit Strength within 12" of the table centre at the end. The Bridge acted as the centre and the table was bisected by a river counting a difficult going.

This time I went for a very different build to usual. I has a solid infantry core supported by healers who would try and hold the middle. Supporting them was a flying wing of 2 Elohi Hordes, an Ur Elohi hero and the Phoenix as a support caster. Their job was to crush the enemy from the flank.

The Undead also fielded a fast flank of freshly painted werewolf hordes and the Lykanis werewolf hero. The centre was a mass of skeletons / mummies / zombies, with faster moving Wight's and Vampire cavalry on the flank.

Turns 1 and 2 went pretty well with the flying wing deleting the Vampires and Wights, giving me space on the outside. The second rank of zombies and skeletons were fed-in which kept my strike force busy in turns 3 and 4.  

Centrally a large grind developed with both sides unable to really do much damage due to the Basileans heals and the Undead's life-leech / drain-life.

Whilst my strike force was cutting through hordes of Undead, on the opposite flank the werewolves quickly moved to envelope me - the race was on for each side to turn the others left. Lacking the numbers of the Undead I fed in units slowly to try and force combats that would delay the werewolves. Gnaeus himself bravely tacking 3 units at one point before being unhorsed unlioned.

A decisive moment was when my Elohi charged a key unit in the Undead centre, causing heavy damage but rolling snake-eyes they failed to rout them. Next turn there was further damage but another snake-eyes left me stuck on their flank at the end of my last turn.  

With me unable to break through centrally the werewolves completed their encirclement in enough strength to win the game for the Undead on Unit Strength.  

So its hard to be clear if the flying wing really works or not. The double 1's twice skewed things but looking back my left probably lacked troops and struggled to delay the werewolves enough. The Paladin foot were as tough as ever and held out well with their healer support.  

  

So Mhorgoth has made his first inroads into Basilean terriory.

 

 

Bronze Age Adventures

With us not meeting a few club members are solo playing, so I will be positing the results of this up. Firstly Nigel has been playing some 28mm games. As he says

"I just finished Nordic Bronze Age army after Wargames Foundry did a special offer for 29th February. I've been collecting figures for this army for years but I think it is now finished. I set up a game Nordics versus The Celts (using Welsh and Picts) and using Kings of War Rules. Nordics used

2 units of Chariots (Heavy), 2 troops of light cavalry 4 units of warband and 5 units of spear. The Celts has a similar force but replacing troops of chariots with troops of cavalry."

 

It was a Nordic victory! I put it down to the lur players and dancing maid.

Rise of the Lycans

One of the iconic units in any Undead army are the werewolves - fast and hard hitting they can fill the same role as heavy cavalry but are slightly quicker, more manoeuvrable, and not troubled by spear phalanx. 

There were enough figures in the Undead mega army to do a Horde and a Regiment. This is boosted to 2 Hordes using some Owlbears as stand-ins.

 I've also completed Lykanis, a melee hero who can Inspire the werewolves. A useful addition to a werewolf force.

 

Reforcements off-table - an M&M Napoleonics game

We found ourselves in reduced circumstances this week with half the club in self-isolation due to the yellow peril. So we dipped into the C S Grant scenarios book and selected Reinforcements of Table - the Russians would try to resist a French attack while they awaited the arrival of the Hanoverian relief force. We opted for Muskets and Marshalls and 28mm figures.

Marshall Patronne opted to mass most of his infantry on the flanks with the centre held by cavalry and the gun line.

As the French closed in they suffer minor damage from the waiting Russians but were able to turn the right flank of the position by routing the Cuirassiers guarding that side. Luckily the Hanoverian cavalry arrived in the nick of time and stabilised the position.

Seeing a hole the French poured more cavalry around the Russian right but were faced with fierce and were actually pushed back  

On the Russian left several French columns toiled up the hill - the first was rebuffed but numbers told and the Young Guard secured the position as a brief struggle.

The French attack on the Russian right arrived rather later and found  the defenders in better shape. They attacked boldly but were unable to  secure the position. The final result was a draw with the French and Russians each holding 1/3 of the ridge and the final part contested.

 
This may be our last club game for a while but we will see how the situation develops on social distancing