Battle Companies Battle Report - Hold the Line

This week we were back to The Falcon’s Honour, who were trying to break through a narrow mountain pass held by Etako’s Expeditionaries. We each had one normal troop sitting out so had the same points.

The objective is for the attacker to get a third of their army from one end of the board to the other. The defender has to stop them!

We rolled to see... and the Harad force got to be attackers! Uh-oh, dwarves are a bit slow. But if I could engage them my combat skills might help, and I have three archers now!

We started off quite close to one another, with the dwarves deploying in the center. Arrows and throwing axes all missed until we were quite close to one another in turn 3 when Archie finally got an arrow into The Fox. Etako’s force were concentrating all fire on the horses, knowing that they held the best chance of escaping.

In turn four the dwarves get priority and go to charge at the horses within reach, but The Falcon calls a heroic move! Etako’s also calls one... the die is cast... Etako wins out! The dwarves charge as many horsemen as they can.

As arrows and axes fly, The Fang takes out Archie while Loki perforates the Watcher of Karna!

Coming down the hill, Boggle throws an axe, takes out The Hawk's horse, then he and Diva send the Haradrim out of the fight too. The Falcon is surrounded by Etako, Skodi and Rocky and Skodi hits the man on the horse, but fate is with the human and no damage is done! Freya, the Iron Guard launches an assault at The Pincer and only a lucky fate roll saves him from her flashing blades!

In round 5 the Haradrim take priority! Some begin running (or galloping) away from the dwarves towards the far end of the mountain pass.

Thanks to his special archery skills, The Fang gallops along AND looses a shot that takes out Loki! Rhoda (the elf) misses yet again!

The Falcon shows why he's in charge of an elite battle company as he uses all his skills (including deadly poison) to knock down four dwarves and remove both Rocky and Skodi from the mission!

In round six, priority was key, as the Harad force really needed to break away further. Dwarves won priority! The Falcon uses his second point of might to call another heroic move, this time Boggle counters it... the die rolls... the dwarves win again! 

Rhoda finally finds her elven archery skills and shoots The Sparrow in the back!

Kara Longspear skewers The Wolf over Hilda Trollslayer's shield.

 Meanwhile Freya takes out The Wolf. Boggle dodges the horse hooves and gets a strike in on The Falcon, who has managed to tie up quite a number of dwarves!

In round 7 the Haradrim get the priority, but nothing can save The Falcon who is completely surrounded and falls to Diva after sacrificing himself for the rest of his team.

And the rest of the game plays out as a bizarre chase scene as Brynmor chases after Black Cloak across a board and a half! Finally he manages to both catch up AND wound the Harad archer. All the other Harad force have made it to the board's edge... but did they get four there?

Yes! Each of them gains a bonus point of xp! Yet another Harad victory! We think next time we might play the same mission, but with the opposite roles, just to see if the dwarves can walk that far!

So at the end of the game The Falcon's Honour rolled on the various tables and...
The Falcon gained Terror.
The Talon gained an extra point of might.
The Fang increased his shooting to 3+
The Pincer rolled a 12 on his injury chart, gaining a point of fate and also gained Expert Shot.
The watcher of Karna will miss the next game due to injury.

And here's a photo of the current dwarven battle company. From left to right we have Loki Lightfingers, Mighty Monty, Rocky, Archie Longsight, Brynmor Deepminer, Freya, Etako Ironfist, Skodi Strongarm, Rhoda, Boggle Bootmire, Mighty Monty, Kara Longspear and Hilda Trollslayer.

Etako's Expeditionaries...
Etako gained the special rule for Dwarves (which is useless!)
Brynmor gained an extra point of might.
Boggle gained Parry.
Skodi will miss the next game due to injury but has been promoted to Iron Guard.
Hilda Trollslayer gained an extra attack!