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A sea slaughter and Einar’s end

Posted September 5th, 2013 at 11:37 AM by Sylvano the Wasabus
I have had two bad battles in a row in our big game.

The first was a sea slaughter. A large Japanese fleet with a small undead contingent, about 710 points total, attacked a combined Einar and Arc fleet of 495. The Einar/Arc fleet had been in the area to cause trouble but Einar’s home outpost was threatened and so the fleet was struggling to get back there in time to help in the defence. 495 points might mean the difference between winning and losing.

But luck was against me. Our fleet movement on the main graph map is subject to 20d. 1-5 is no movement, 6-12 is regular one square and 13+ is double move- good sailing we call it.

The Einar/Arc fleet floundered in the water while the Japanese/undead grew closer and pounced.

I was trying to be optimistic. Sometimes with luck you can do enough damage to enemy army to make it rather pointless- a sort of tactical victory at the cost of your own army. If I could kill enough points at least it would mean something.

Arc floated two ballista ships and Einar one cannon ship, water elementals and Tandros Keel in a little boat all his own. Not exactly an awe inspiring force, but it was the best we could do.

Japan and the undead on the other hand went all out- ten ships, including three fire ships manned (ghosted?) by phantom knights, six artillery ships and one attacking ship with a squad of angry kozuke.


Our battle board map charting outposts and armies

As it happened Einar/Arc got first shot. But one cannon and one ballista jammed (they need 7+ to fire) and the other ballista caused no damage. A water elemental dove forward and took out a phantom knight though, leaving one of the fire ships uncrewed.

Japan opened fire. All of their artillery succeeded and took out crew- so much so that they decided to not use the fire ships and instead try to capture the enemy ships at sea. They began to engage.

Einar did manage to take over the abandoned fire ship and turn it against the Japanese but that was our only success. I had great hopes for Tandros Keel but the Kosuke went after him. He killed one and then suddenly he was the sole survivor of the Arc/Einar force. The other two Kosuke attacked and killed him.

Japanese/Undead losses were minimal, and by the time they took over all of the now deserted Einar and Arc ships and cashed them in their losses were zero. That’s right, nothing. An entire 495 point Einar/Arc fleet destroyed, and the Japanese/Undead took no losses.

But that was just the first ring of the death bell for Einar. The next turn a large undead force finally reached Einar. I had recalled several little Einar armies in haste, trying to shore up the outpost, but we only had 435 points. The undead army was 900+. But sometimes land battles are better than sea battles. And as owners of the outpost, we were entitled to setup up a defense rather than enter the map. The Undead would be coming in through a starting zone.

I’d had good luck with this before and had turned away a superior Undead force previously. I tried for sort of the same army. The map was ruins on grass and Einar fielded two fire elementals, two earth elemntals, Kurrock hiding behind a ruin, a cannon and crew, a squad of archers, and a squad of Tynxaurs- furry centaurs with defensive agility. The Tynxaurs carried one barrel of boiling oil as well.


Cannons, ballistae, boiling oil waiting...

The undead flooded in. My son had taken a whole lot of zombies and three zombie hulks too, plus Marcu,, Benito (a custom vampire) and Taelord. I was able to dump the oil, engage with the Tynxaurs, fire the cannon, and set things alight with the fire elementals, dropping eight figures. It was a good first move but many of the downed figures were zombies, so likely I’d be seeing them again.

I tried to focus on the figures that wouldn’t be coming back- the zombie hulks (they are essentially large zombies and can transform downed large figures into zombies but alas I had no large figures in the battle) I had dumped the oil, leaving three hexes of lava and then the zombies tried to push the Tynxaurs into the lava. The poor beasts resisted and fought back well with defensive agility but there were just too many of the enemy.

Taelord led the charge and I got a point blank shot at him with the cannon, which wounded him. A fire elemental seered him and then finished him off. I managed to take down two of the zombie hulks, Taelord, Shiner, and Marcu before the Einar forces were eradicated. The zombies were at full strength. All tallied he was down 280 points.

But what of it? Einar’s main outpost is in undead hands and almost all of the Einar forces are destroyed. They have one outpost left and perhaps 80 points there. They’re doomed. In the bigger picture this entire front is falling and the Central Alliance, heavily engaged in the East fighting the Orcs, is completely exposed and vulnerable to the Japanese/Undead threat. It’s the beginning of the end for the Central Alliance I fear.

My son is happy, because he favours the orcs and undead but I am saddened because I back the good guys- Einar, York, Arc, Jandar, Templars- all the way.
Total Comments 6

Comments

Old
ZBeeblebrox's Avatar
Awesome! (Not about Einar) But your campaign is just awesome!
Posted September 5th, 2013 at 12:59 PM by ZBeeblebrox ZBeeblebrox is offline
Old
Tornado's Avatar
Cool. Could you explain the map in a little more detail.
Awesome campaign. We had something like that going for Battletech, way back in the day.
Posted September 5th, 2013 at 02:52 PM by Tornado Tornado is offline
Old
Sylvano the Wasabus's Avatar
The map is the world. White is water. Islands are different colours to represent randomly selected terrain types- forest, swamp, grass land, ruins, etc. Each outpost generates 20 points and is represented by a coloured push pin. Every faction has their own colour. Armies and navies have a coloured push pin and a scrap of paper with the armies name on it. Victory by World Conquest....
Posted September 5th, 2013 at 04:04 PM by Sylvano the Wasabus Sylvano the Wasabus is offline
Old
Arch-vile's Avatar
Your campaign looks really neat, thanks for posting.
Posted September 5th, 2013 at 05:16 PM by Arch-vile Arch-vile is offline
Old
Mars1912's Avatar
Hi, I'm new to this site but I went back and read all of your posts. I really enjoy all the battle reports from your "big games". Thanks for writing such an amazing blog.
Posted September 8th, 2013 at 08:34 AM by Mars1912 Mars1912 is offline
Old
Taeblewalker's Avatar
Good times!
Posted February 6th, 2021 at 07:34 AM by Taeblewalker Taeblewalker is offline
 
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