Part 1: "Broken, But Breathing" // A Narrative Battle Report

Orcs & Goblins ⚔︎ Empire

The battle had been long and hard-fought, but the warband was ultimately shattered. Ugag and his mob had descended upon a small village in the foothills of the Grey Mountains when another host arrived. However, these humans were not the shiny boyz previously encountered. They were mercenaries from Reikland, likely under the service of a local Baron who received news of their latest pillaging. Not only did the mercenaries have more bodies on the field; they also had black powder. Ugag had broken off on his own, again, to charge directly into a group of fanatical rabble. Gruuma knew the mob wasn't worth their time. The sound option was to ride along the flank and take these new challengers from the rear. A handful of potbellied halflings hid in the woodline. Red-shafted arrows whizzed past their heads as the boars gained momentum. The halflings tried to turn and scamper up the boughs of gnarled oak and elm, but it was too late. Tusk and tooth shredded through the feeble bowline, and the woods rang with the high-pitched, jovial squeals of the boars as they feasted on flesh and bone. From his vantage point Gruuma took a moment to survey the situation. Ugag was out of sight. He knew it would be up to him to salvage whatever victory he could.

Halfling archers moments before impact

In the center of the field, Krekka the mad shaman and his mob of spears advanced toward the center formation of swordsmen. Gruuma could hear their battle cries as a company of quarrelers behind them let loose a volley of bolts. They missed the goblins, and in return Krekka gave the order to release the rabid fanatics hidden amongst the company. With ease the hooded freaks swung iron ball and chain, sweeping a path through the densely packed swordsmen and into the quarrelers. Gruuma saw the panic as the mercenaries sought to close the gaps made in their formation, and sprang to action. He broke from the trees and swept through the backline to aid the shaman.

The sound of black powder rang across the field. From his saddle he could see a group of outriders break the mob of boyz that held the warband's right flank. Boyz fled towards the woods, and the outriders made sport of it. They rode down the slowest lads, and wasted no time shooting them point blank. Ugag was nowhere to be seen, and the rabble that had originally been chasing emerged. In a tidal wave of fervor and hatred, they descended on the goblins. They wielded farm tools and crude weapons as if they were great-swords and battle axes. It didn't take long before the goblins broke and ran off into the woods too.

Ugag had led them over the mountains months ago, carving out the cave warren as a base to raid the region beyond. Now they retreated to it broken, boars lathered and blowing hard, the smell of blood and powder still thick in their nostrils. It was not the victory Gruuma wanted, but a warband that still breathed.

Ugag charging solo (again)

Enemies all around, luckily the goblin fanatics could be deployed

Swordsmen v Night Goblins

Campbell's classic Empire army

+ /+/ +

Summer has been full swing. It's taken me a while to write up this battle report (happened back in April). This 500 pt game took 6 full rounds and Empire packed quite the punch. The objective was simple: destroy your enemy. I made some errors (again) using my warboss solo which led to his early demise. Fanatics did a lot of work, but it wasn't enough. The Empire flagellants were crazy strong too, putting out a ton of hits and being relentless on the battlefield.

A lot more stuff has been painted since this battle report; and I'm hoping to be done soon. My poor playing has helped form a narrative for my warband that I'll expand on in Part 2. Battle March has recently came out and the crowd here is pretty hyped for the format. Looking forward to playing more TOW in the coming months!

- Mike

A Narrative Campaign in 10mm: Session 0 and 0.5

I'm back from my summer hiatus! I started this blog at the beginning of the summer, and quickly got sidetracked. A majority of my time was taken up with traveling for work, and then starting a new job and getting acclimated to my new responsibilities. 

One project I was excited to start at the beginning of the summer was my Warmaster Dwarf army. I was able to get my hands on a large lot of original, 10mm, metal dwarves and the Union Gang, my local crew of wargaming buddies, were eagerly planning a narrative campaign.

I made it a goal to get to at least 750pts of dwarves ready for our kick off. I decided that the foundation of my dwarf army would be:

• A General
• 1x Hero - Armed with a Sword of Fate
• 2x Clan Warriors - Super tough brick of frontline troops. Great at absorbing hits, dishing out wounds, and bogging down enemies
• 1x Troll Slayers - Crazed naked dwarves that pack a punch. I would attached the hero to them in the first game to buff up their attacks. They have a thematic rule that if they survive a battle, your opponent gains points. So its important to kill them off!
• 1x Rangers - Great ranged skirmish unit that can pursue foes.
• 1x Thunderers - Ranged unit with some armor penetration

At first 10mm seemed intimidating, but the new challenge was really enjoyable. It took me a little longer than I liked to finish 750 pts. I wanted to mix in different colors for each unit, and make sure their beards varied, but in the end I was really happy with how they turned out.

In late September I headed to my buddy Tory's clubhouse with my freshly painted dwarves to kick off our narrative campaign. 

We decided to use the Mighty Empires ruleset to assemble our campaign map. To do this, we had a pile of terrain tiles and took turns placing down tiles starting with a center mountain. Each of us placed a new tile adjacent to two or more place tiles. One of the edges of the newly placed tile had to match the terrain type of one of the tiles it is aligned with. This led to a really fun, collaborative, world building session. As a group we built rivers, mountain ranges, coastlines and even placed down points of interest like an abandoned necropolis, bridges, and a wizard's tower which added flavor to the world and provide our factions with bonuses for seizing them.

The before and after assembling our campaign map

Once completed, we laid down our capitol cities which would control the immediate 6 hexes surrounding it. 

Glückspilz - Empire (Tim)

Tittypit - Chaos (Jerz)

The Iron Dwells - Dwarves (Mike)

Axegrind Pass - Dwarves (Beard)

Baltimorath - Dark Elves (Tory)

The Pit of Buboes - Chaos (Erik)

We also included 2 capital cities, Britannica and Vermouth's Rest, that would be reduced to single tile City-States for any players who wanted to jump in for a casual game.

A Baptism of Blood

Once our map was built, we decided to play a 2v2 game. An expeditionary force of Dwarves from the Iron Dwells had met with the forces Glückspilz at Emory Outpost to entertain the idea of a trade pact. It was at that point did a raiding host of Dark Elves and Chaos descended on the backwater settlement to raze it to the ground.

The forces of dwarves and men form on a rocky hill as the attacker approach.

The Chaos warband gathers on the edge of Emory Outpost, eager to lay waste in the name of foul Gods.

The bloodthirsty dark elves of Baltimorath arrive in support, ready to slaughter and enslave.

The two forces clash in the streets of Emory Outpost. Buildings burn in the twilight while blades clash and shields splinter.

The defender's left flank was held valiantly by the dwarf Troll Slayers and Rangers.

Though they ultimately perished, the Troll Slayers cut down a unit of mounted dark elves and spearmen.

The battle ended in a stalemate. The attackers razed 3 buildings and the defenders managed to cut them down until they retreated. 

The process of building our campaign map and kicking it off with a little 2 vs 2 battle was a lot of fun. The battle allowed for a lot of emergent narratives. Do I bring the fight to the forces of Chaos? Do I write the name of Glückspilz in my book of grudges for using my dwarven warriors as a meat shield? And the Troll Slayers and their last stand against the elves; do I seek vengeance? 

 I'm definitely looking forward to the next games in this campaign!