This game was intended as a short primer to
Fantasy Rules 3rd edition.
Unfortunately, none of my players showed up, but I decided to run the battle solo
anyway to brush up on the rules, I hadn't played a game in several years.
This game was intended as a short primer to
Fantasy Rules 3rd edition.
Unfortunately, none of my players showed up, but I decided to run the battle solo
anyway to brush up on the rules, I hadn't played a game in several years.
Because this was supposed to be a training game, I set it up pretty much as simple as possible, e.g. there were no spellcasters at all, and only one monster. Which turned out to be a good thing, because my recollection of the rules was rather rusty.
Both armies deploy in a main line with flanking forces and a bit of reserves. Feudals set up crossbowmen and the cannon on a convenient hill. Initially the game did not involve many surprises, both sides advanced steadily towards the terrain objective in the middle. It was obvious the feudals were going to reach it first, but would they be able to hold on to it?
Unbelievably, the initial exchange of missiles favored the Friends of Feta, as the feudals
managed to blow all their shooting rolls. Maybe it was the humid weather... The temple steps
slowed the hoplites the the degree that it was actually the feudals who charged in first.
Unfortunately, neither side was really prepared for fighting inside the temple and the larger numbers of the hoplites, especially the elite spartans, slowly began to grind the halberdiers to dust.
Meanwhile, in the sidelines, greek cavalry charges a couple of longbows in the woods. This battle will prove to be mostly inconclusive, and essentially takes these units out of the fight for the battle. This is a good deal for the greeks, since their sub-par excuse for cavalry costs half as much as trained longbows.
On the other flank, the centaurs lure the mounted archers into a patch of forest where vily
Theseus pulls out a couple of Dragon's teeth and summon Dragontooth warriors from the ground.
This crafty move surprises the feudals, and their cavalry soon heads for the hills. Unfortunately,
the undead are slightly on the slow side, and doubly so when caught in the woods with their
formation messed up... They never make it out of the woods in time to contribute to the rest
of the battle.
With his infantry line crumbling, Charles finally sees some opening for his knights and charges in. Initially this causes some gaps in the hoplite lines, but Timoleon consolidates his defence inside the temple. The knights fail to make headway against the stone steps. Even pulling the crossbowmen into the fight does not change the result, as the hydra finally flanks Charles who gets finished off by brave spartans and even blows his character results roll... and that's the final nail in the coffin.
A resounding 1100 - 440 victory to HeMBLA.
I was really rusty. I had to leaf through the rules a number of times, starting with missile
ranges and other simplest things. In the end, I think I made a few mistakes here and there,
but the ultimate result was mostly set by my poor planning for the feudals.
I failed to utilize the great missile superiority they enjoyed, I should have stood back a bit and softened the hoplite line before going in. Unfortunately, the temple provided them cover and a very irritating terrain modifier for the knights, basically making their best troops useless in taking the objective.
Editor's note: All the pictures.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
Copyright 2003-2021 Mikko Kurki-Suonio
Sucks!
