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| The Initial Set Up |
As promised, here is the report of this morning's battle between a small band of mounted orcs accompanied by a giant and a slightly larger band of crusaders supported by a host of angels.
As my previous post explained, this was my son's first game of Mayhem and I was seriously rusty as I haven't played for over a year and didn't find the time to fully refresh myself of the rules.
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| The Orcs and Giant Move Forward |
Rolling command dice to decide who would start, the orcs won and ordered a general advance.
The mounted archers took the high ground supported by the giant. The mounted lancers advanced rather more hesitatingly. One unit of archers took a shot at the crusaders' crossbowmen but to no effect.
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| The Crusaders Stand Firm |
The crusaders took their turn and rolled a command die of 1 - that could have gone better! Clearly, led by the abbot and monk, the crusaders were seeking to follow the way of peace.
All units remained steady. One unit of crossbowmen returned fire against the mounted orc archers and did enough to cause them disorder.
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| The Advance Continues |
Move Two
Having rallied the mounted archers, the orcs and giant continued to advance. This time both units of mounted archers fired at the crossbowmen but again with no success. My son started to question the d20 roll for a bow when crossbows have a d12.
This time I decided to use the default for command points rather than risk rolling another 1.
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| The Abbot's Hunting Dogs Attack |
The abbot sent in his trusty hunting beagles to take out the the troublesome mounted archers and managed to disorder them.
One unit of crossbowmen fired on the other mounted archers while the other crossbowmen fired at the giant but neither had any success.
Both my son and I were having dreadful luck with the dice rolls and that was going to continue throughout the battle.
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| The Giant Strides In |
Move Three
Again the mounted archers rallied and fired upon the crossbowmen throwing them into disorder. The other archers fought off the hunting dogs and destroyed them with a 1.
The giant decided to charge into the waiting spearmen and also succeeded in causing disorder amongst them.
Things were looking dodgy for the crusaders, we thought.
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| The Giant's In Trouble |
Time to take a risk - the command die is rolled and fortunately I got a high enough number.
Both the crossbowmen and spearmen rallied and then both units of spearmen set upon the giant. The spearmen rolled a 1 and the giant rolled a 10, rewarding the giant with nine damage tokens in one fell swoop.
Meanwhile the crossbowmen took another shot at the mounted archers and finally wiped them out with a natural 1.
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| Orc Archers to the Rescue? |
And that was all
the crusaders could do that move. Initiating combat against a
fear-inducing enemy drained a lot of command points. However, the giant
was rendered all but useless with all those damage points. It would need
10 command points to activate or risk being wiped out by taking a
damage roll.
Move Four
The remaining orc archers charged into the rear of the flanking unit of spearmen but only managed to disorder them.
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| The Giant Falls |
Meanwhile the lancers continued to advance but far too late for the giant.
The spearmen rallied and turned to face the archers.
The other spearmen attacked the giant and inflicted another damage token, causing the giant to roll. Having to get less than 13 on ten dice...
Yup, he was a gonna.
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| Knights in White Satin |
Finally the knights and angels got involved in the action.
The angels swept down upon the orc lancers and did absolutely nothing. The knights charged into the rear of the orc archers and wiped them out.
Now the crusaders were well and truly on top. The orcs were down to less than 50% of their strength and we were playing the breaking point rule would have to role a command dice to see if they would continue.
This time they passed.
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| The Tables Turn Again |
Move Five
Fortunately for the orcs, they rolled a high command die score too and went into overdrive.
One unit of lancers took on the angels and wiped them out with a 1. [I really should have remembered to designate them as a horde - the same thing happened to them in my first game].
The other unit hit the spearmen and destroyed them; then the knights and wiped them out to and then hit the crossbowmen.
Now it was the crusaders in trouble again. Just one unit of crossbowmen left so the breaking point rule applied to them too.
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| The Score Evened |
The crusaders passed the test and the crossbowmen attacked the lancers and beat them.
Now it was just one unit each.
Move Six
Both armies passed their breaking point roles even with the increase in the number od dice.
The two remaining units squared up to each other and swapped slogs against each other. Firstly the lancers disordered the crossbowmen and then the crossbowmen rallied and disordered the lancers.
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| Victory at Last! |
Then in Move Seven, having passed their third breaking point roll, the orc lancers attacked the crossbowmen but received a natural 1 against them and popped their clogs.
Game over, Man, game over.
And a good time was had by both of us. I think that we both loved the way the battle swung from one side to the other and back again.
Next time I will designate those angels correctly and I think that my son has worked out not to send in a giant without a bit of support.
And on that subject, it was the first time that we had used one of the "ready-made" monstrous creatures and I think both of us weren't entirely happy with its profile. I wonder why Mr Spivey decided to "pre-create" the three monstrous creatures, rather than offer factors to allow players to create their own monsters as they understand them as he has with all other troop types.
Any way, it looks like we'll be having another game soon
