Wrap up
The hordes of King F'yar surround the desperate defenders that still resist at Orc's Drift
A peculiar challenge for this year, mixing all those entirely different miniatures. However, a fun one to complete, because it demanded me a bit of planning ahead on the different approaches but also allowed me to switch a little bit and do not feel burnt. I still remember the gazillion goblins of my first orc army, while miniatures that I love to paint it started to feel a bit tiring.
In this case, go back and forth between the orcs, dwarfs, the villagers and different flavor of elves was a little bit less repetitive.
And I wanted to make a proper wrap up of the campaign playing some scenarios. Unfortunately I had few time to play the entire campaign as I was in the field for several days but we could play the battle at Kacha Pass and the crossing of Ashak Rise.
Scenario 1: Kacha Pass
The small wood elf garrison at Kacha Pass guard three major in-roads of the region. The patrols have been intercepted, but the company of wood elves still resist and has also in captivity one half-orc spy with knowledge of the composition and movements of the armies of the Grand League.
The orc horde moves along the path in order to assault the entrance of the compound and block any potential scape route with the half-orc spy by the elves.
Guthrum Mane does not need to assault the entrance while he can breach a new one. The picture includes only three elves without the proxy for the rest of the elf miniatures, 10 enemy archers in total that were alerted by Guthrums roars and noisy stomps. So I flanked the compound also with the archers for support.
First turn for the elves. My friend prepared the scape with the half orc spy just in case he could not force the withdraw of the large orc mob coming from the South. The archers at the gate rise their bows and pointed toward the large blob of greenskins.
Again, the picture is without the proxies but there are 10 archers, with a larger footprint so more of them could shot the first turns until the innevitable combat come to them.
An impressive dice roll will hurt a lot for the orcs.
I always thought that the campaign is almost impossible for the defenders as the orc numbers are almost unstoppable for all the scenarios. But man was I wrong, the elves are lethal when they aim right and the casualties pile up pretty fast.
fortunately for me, the orc mob relentessly continues forward, coming for the elf garrison.
Well, some of the newly painted orcs during the current challenge were able to be in play for a turn.
The elves caused some havoc in the flank, but the orcs were able to resist.
Guthrum Mane is not happy that their friends, who happens to give him all the alcohol he needs, are hurt. He crushed the wall and was able to tackle those pesky archers.
I forgot to take another picture in my second turn but I reorganised the flanking orcs just to move near the main road so their bows can contribute in the hunting of the elves trying to sneak the half orc spy.
My friend in his desperate turn tried to move fast towards the border with the spy and continue shooting. This time however, less orc casualties meant trouble for the orcs defending the gate.
The orc mob was able to get to the gate and engage the elves there. Herndil Merl felt that turn as well as several other elves. So practically you can see the rest of the elves without the need of proxies anymore (Herndil was the banner, he will be gone after this picture). Erdolas avenged his friend and slayed several orcs, further depleting the horde.
Guthrum slayed the rest of the elves defending the southern wall and I decided that as the main combat was going good for the orcs, start razing the stockade as the spy and 4 wood elves surely will scape. My orc archers are not as good as the elves afterall.
In his turn, my friend got the spy and his captors closer to the border and failed to kill my commander. Which left me with an easy option to win. The orcs finally razed another building and Guthrum joined the combat to stomp completely the rest of the elves. I razed the outpost after that as the elves were just able to escape with the spy. Poor Erdolas gave his life trying to kill the horde but he could not beat Fangor Gripe just by a bad dice roll, because he was reduced to a single wound.
The orcs walk with less than half of their forces for the last battle nonetheless.
Scenario 2: Ashak Rise
The Severed Hand orcs move to assault Ashak Rise en masse. The greedy dwarfs are still mining ore there despite the rumors of war against the goblins again. The rush for gold in the River Canis is unavoidable.
We modified this scenario because we measured our small skirmish table and found that it will be unfair for the orcs. As they will crush the dwarfs nonetheless but have no space to try to get to the baggage train as they'll have to waste a turn for each dwarf patrolling. In the original scenario there is some room to maneuver and try avoiding the greedy dwarves going kamikaze so their gold is safe.
This change is a more boring, normal defence scenario which may be less hobhounds killed (bad for the good guys) but increasingly heavier casualties for the orcs as they will get to fight an entire front row of dwarves, instead of going after units of a single engineer or three engineers.
The key to this scenario seems to be the complete roadblock of the bridge crossing, so I placed several orcs and the hounds slightly to the West. I'll try to cross the river with this mob instead of using the bridge.
The large mob will cross in a column so it can fit the small passing. Oh look, invisible hobhounds! I don't have wolves or anything to proxy them for now so I have to left them in the pictures because of their footprints, not like with the wood elves.
I realised that I commited again another mistake given that I didn't play for a loooong long time. I would have better deployed the hobhounds front just to flank the dwarfs hoping to snipe the baggage train and that sweet sweet gold.
The dwarves are so few that the only option for my friend is to divide them and expect that some good dices and their resistance blocks the entire orc mob.
Both our second turns will be moving. This is my turn, I tried to cross with the orc flank and they're passing very very slow. The hobhounds reorganised and are behind my main horde, forming a column. It's in his next turn were I spotted the terrible mistake as he started moving his baggage train to the road and I have nothing for pursuing them at the time. By the way, one orc finally fell from a crossbow hit. He was pretty unlucky both turns with his small shooting phase.
The mistake required me a bold move and charge the small batch of dwarves with the main horde instead of going for his heroes. That will make troubles for the small unit, but I needed to get rid of them and try to get for the baggage.
Unfortunately, bad dice rolls and their heavier armour means that the entire unit is blocked. I was completely misguided by later editions were other rows of the unit contributes. Now I am left with Hagar Sheol doing the heavy lift for this bunch of idiots.
Grashak Kra moves the hobhound preparing for getting to the baggage train in future turns.
We forgot to take pictures of the next turns besides we just started the action. As a summary, my second orc unit just got oblitarated by Osrim Chardz and his companions and he almost got me in the flank of the orc horde. He sacrificed one of the mules to save the rest of the baggage train with the gold bags.
At this point we thought of another clever option that would have made an entirely different outcome, even the victory of the dwarfs by points. Maybe the next time some dwarves may hide some of the bags behind the house while the orcs advance, as some of them do not have anything to shoot.
That way the sacrificial baggage mule could get the orcs nothing in return. With the casualties piling up for the orcs, that way it makes this scenario much more difficult.
The wrap up
This has been a fun project as I said. The mix bag of miniatuers made it more easy to get done without getting tired at some point.
I have got almost all the orcs I need for the scenario. Well, in reality I can play the orcs and expect to field every survivor in the final scenario. As I found to my surprise that the orcs do not have such a large advantage I think they got. They'll probably win all the scenarios easily, but the casualty count start to rise pretty fast. That can be problematic in the Orc's Drift against Brommedir elves, as well as trying to get through the heroes.
Now, some pictures of the armies with the miniatures painted in this challenge as well as some of the orcs from my first OWAC.
Hope your liked as much as I like the final results for all the units.
Now, in numbers:
For the armies of the Grand League
Osrim Chardz and 11 dwarf engineers
Commander Brommedir and 14 of his elves
Erdolas Thringal, Hernril Merl (banner) and 9 of his wood elf folks
13 militiamen from Linden Way as well as the storekeeper, his wife, the stable owner and his assistant, the baker, the busker, the inn keeper, his father, his daugther and a serving wench.
The heroes at Orc's Drift including Bertolac, Fembreth and Beli.
The orc hordes of King F'yar
Grashak Kra, the still unemployed hobhound handler without hobhounds from the Severed Hand orcs.
Fangor Gripe, 10 additional orcs and the rock giant Guthurm Mane from the Vile Rune orcs.
Magyar Ironfist, the shaman Bagrash and 15 Kwae Karr orcs.
And finally, King F'yar in his wyvern.
Sadly, I have to get the final photos before a work trip so there is no mighty Ansell pose with the complete challenge as we forgot in the session and could not reshot :(
For the next challenge, I'm preparing something special and definitely I will continue with a Fantasy theme. Maybe even with my own rule of "finnish an army before trying to get something else" and doing some kind of story to follow while getting done some of the dwarf units that are still unpainted from my collection. A bunch of 4ed to 6th ed miners, slayers, thunderers and war machines.
Until next challenge,
Adrian’s out
