Defense of Orn's Crossing - Battlesystem Report

Here is a battle that I did with Battlesystem today.  It wasn't a large battle, but it was to recreate a battle that happened in my game world.

The situation:
Orn's Crossing is part of the newly formed Khulzad Alliance.  The Khulzad Alliance was formed between the dwarves of Khulzad, and the humans of the surrounding lands who have been caught in a struggle between surrounding kingdoms.

The kingdom of Herinoch decides to take back part of the lands and sends a force to capture the strategic fords at the town of Orn's Crossing.  They send a force composed of some heavy infantry, and a large number of mercenary infantry.

The forces

Herinoch Army
Army Commander
20 Heavy Pikemen
40 Light Infantry (2 units)
10 Light Cavalry
3 sergeants for the light infantry and cavalry

Khulzad Alliance

12 Medium Infantry
10 Medium Archers
8 Medium Cavalry
A dispatch was sent to the dwarves who have dispatched a unit of 20 Heavy Dwarves along with the regional commander.  (They will arrive on turn 4)

The Battle
Turn 1
Both sides enter.  The Khulzad medium infantry are in the village, and the archers and cavalry are arriving.  The Herinoch army enters and starts moving towards the fords.

Defenders deploying

Infantry and cavalry moving in at the top.

Archers moving in

Herinoch army approaches

Turn 2
Everyone keeps moving.  The Khulzad Medium Infantry deploys near the ford.

Cavalry charges into village.  (Archers in village)

Turn 3
The defenders all reach the village and deploy.  The defenders decide to be bold and deploy their cavalry on the other side of the river.  They are hoping to charge some of the attackers and delay them long enough for the dwarves to arrive.

Cavalry charging to ford

Herinoch is closing in!

Turn 4
The Khulzad cavalry charge the Herinoch cavalry.  The Herinoch cavalry attempt to countercharge but are not able to motivate themselves.  The fight is fierce and 4 of the Herinoch cavalry fall, but they manage to bring down 1 of their attackers.

Cavalry charge!

To the north, the dwarves sound their horns letting their allies know that they have arrived.

Finally the dwarves arrives.

Turn 5
The Khulzad cavalry try to disengage, but the light cavalry stays with them, but it costs them a lot as 4 more of the light cavalry fall, but they kill one of the Khulzad cavalry.  They also hold the cavalry down while the heavy infantry move forward to engage them.

Cavlary fight

Overview of the battle

From another angle

The Khulzad archers fire on the light infantry who are nearing the river, killing one.  The dwarves continue to march towards the crossroads.

Dwarves moving as fast as they can!

Turn 6
The cavalry battle continues and the Herinoch cavalry looses one more, and they break and run.  Still, the heavy infantry with their long pikes now engage the Khulzad cavalry an kill 2, but their morale holds.
The Khulzad archers send another volley towards the advancing light infantry, and 2 fall.  The others fall back a little to regroup as they decide if they want to advance into the storm of arrows, and the infantry on the other side of the river.
The Khulzad dwarves are moving as quickly as they can go!

Infantry nearing ford

The cavalry gets trapped!

Turn 7
The Khulzad cavalry try to disengage, but the Herinoch pikemen swarm them and butcher all but one rider who routes and manages to get across the river. 

Things are bad for the cavalry!  Infantry nearing ford.  Where are those dwarves ?!?

Rush to capture the fords

The Khulzad infantry and archers see the terrifying slaughter, and both panic and run leaving the fords open!

Routing cavalry!

Everyone runs!

Turn 8
The dwarves quickly move through the village and deploy on the far side facing the river.  The Herinoch light infantry see that the fords are open and rush across as the rest of their army moves up behind them.

The Khulzad archers suddenly realize that the town is about to fall, so they stop and turn to fire a volley at the advancing infantry, and a devastating volley it is!  5 of the infantry fall in the river.

The fords are falling!  Finally dwarves!

The commander of the Khulzad infantry is trying desperately to rally his troops, but they are continuing to run.

Turn 9
The commander of the Khulzad infantry finally calms his troops and gets them to turn so that they can rejoin the fight.  The dwarf commander challenges his troops to charge the infantry who are swarming across the ford, but the dwarves are just too tired to move.
The Herinoch light infantry hold their ground as their allies move up, but the Khulzad archers target them once more, this time killing 2.  This is too much for the infantry who break and run.

The infantry are fleeing, but the fords are in trouble

Turn 10

Crossing the river.  It is harder to cross away from the fords, but still fordable.

More infantry cross the river now.  The Herinoch pikemen advance into the dwarves.  A pitched fight erupts, with the dwarves taking down 3 of the pikemen, but loosing 4 to the longer reach of the pikes.  They fall back to regroup.  As they fall back the Khulzad archers fire on the pikemen to cover their retreat.  They manage to take down 2 of the Herinoch pikemen.

Herinoch is across the river!  The dwarves and pikemen join battle!

Farther down the river the second unit of light infantry cross the river.  The commander of the Khulzad infantry tries to get his troops to charge, but their confidence is still shaken.

Turn 11
The dwarven commander once more is not able to get his tired dwarves to charge.  The Herinoch pikemen advance back into contact and continue to punish the dwarves.  They kill 4 while the dwarves drop 2 of them.

The Khulzad infantry finally realize how desperate their situation is becoming, and charge the light infantry who is now across the river.  Still, their confidence is not great, and they only kill one of the infantry while they loose 3.

Khulzad infantry vs Herinoch light infantry.  Bloody battle!

The situation is looking bad for the Khulazd alliance.

Turn 12
The dwarf commander catches sight of the Herinoch commander and charges him through the swirling battle.  The leader of the Herinoch army smiles and spurs his horse forward.  The two exchange a few blows but can not bring the other down.
The dwarves see their leader fighting and advance back into the pikemen.  4 more dwarves fall, but they kill 3 of the pikemen, and this time they fall back from the fight.  The Khulzad archers take advantage of their withdrawal and fire, killing 2 of the pikemen.

The Khulzad infantry regain their composure and press into the light infantry killing 4 of them.  The light infantry are only able to bring down 1 of the Khulzad infantry.

Turn 13
The two army commanders are still locked in combat, and the dwarf manages to bring down the Herinoch leader's horse.  Now they are on even footing!
The Herinoch infantry regroup to charge but hesitate.  The Khulzad archers fire on them again killing 2 more, and now the pikemen decide that they have had enough and retreat.

Herinoch attack starts to crumble.  The two leaders are locked in battle.

At the same time the Khulzad infantry continue to hammer on the Herinoch light infantry killing 3 more and loosing 1.  Now the light infantry sees their other allies falling back, and they also break and run.

The rest of Herinoch flees.  Khulzad survives!

The commander of the army of Herinoch sees his army fleeing, and realizes that he is in serious danger, so he throws down his weapons and begs for mercy.  The dwarven commander thinks for a moment, and raises his axe, but decides to take him prisoner instead of ending his life.

The survivors of the battle, and the two leaders facing off.

Aftermath
The battle was a tough fought one.  It teetered back and forth at several moments.  The worst was when the Khulzad cavalry broke and cause the archers and infantry both to break.  It looked like it was over then, but the archers were able to rally, and they were the deciding factor in the battle!

Short Batrep - Raid on Village - WHAA

Here is a brief battle report for a small skirmish using Warrior Heroes Armies and Adventures...

The situation is this.  A band of raiders have moved in from Grierland to raid a small village in Mirilandi (My own game world).  Mirilandi has a small garrison at the town, and has gotten word that the raid is coming, so they are quickly trying to deploy their people.

The raiders are emerging from the woods to the west of town, and moving in.

This picture shows some of the attackers moving out of the forest.  Some of the riders had already moved off to the south.

Here you can see the defenders lining up on the west side of the town.

As the riders moved around, some of the defenders moved to the south to meet them.

 The attacking infantry quickly swarmed the defending infantry.  The defenders had 4 archers, but they proved highly ineffective.  They killed one attacker at the outset, then didn't help for the rest of the battle.

The attackers realized that they could not bring all of their forces to bear on the west, so they sent all of their cavalry to break through in the south.

Fighting on the west turned bloody fast, but the defenders held strong and quickly killed four attackers without any losses.

On the south side, the raiders cavalry charged, but the defending infantry held better than expected.  One defender went down, and one rider.

To the west, things went bad for the attackers real fast.  A couple of defenders went down, but the attackers were falling left and right, and soon broke and ran.

To the south, things were touch and go.  The initial cavalry charge was held against, but they kept coming, and two more defenders were soon down.  Then, the village commander and his aid attacked, and they were able to hold, killing a couple more cavalry, and soon the rest were fleeing.

Infantry gone, and leaders are now engaged.

Two dead, and the rest second guessing as they see that almost all of their friends are gone!

Bye bye.... Loosers!

The battle was a lot of fun to play out.  The attackers were all Rep 2 or 3, while the defenders were all rep 3 and 4.  It played out pretty well, but the attackers kind of messed up on their initial deployment.  I don't know if it would have made any difference, but they tried to send the bulk of their forces to the west, but realized that they streets were too narrow to bring any significant numbers to bear.  So they redeployed the rest of their cavalry.

The defenders also had incredible dice rolls which kept them from suffering very many casualties.  Still, things could have changed at almost any time.

I did make one modification to the rules for this game.  I let the defenders form a shield wall which gave them a +1d6 until the wall was broken.  I think that it worked out ok.

New 15mm Dwarves Comparison

It has been a while since I have posted.  I was away for most of July, but I am anxious to get back to gaming!

I just recently picked up some of the new Splintered Light dwarves, and have to say that I absolutely love these guys!  Splintered Light Dwarves

The dwarves have great detail and a lot of character.  They fit very well with most of my other 15mm figs.

Here are a couple of pics.  The first has a Demonworld elf and a Chariot Miniatures halfling.










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The next is a closer pic with just the elf.












Here is a group shot with a DW giant.







This final shot compares other manufacturers. 
 

The first mini is the old Reaper Shadow Corp fig (Now Blood Dawn).  The next is a Splintered Light dwarf from the Splintered Lands line.  The next is Black Raven Foundry.  I think that the next is Irregular, but can't remember for sure.  Then the SLM Dwarf.  to the right of that dwarf is a Mighty Army (from Rebel Miniatures), then Tabletop fantasy (from 15mm.co.uk), Peter Pig, and finally Chariot Miniatures.

The dwarves are probably a little too large for most 15mm, because they are almost as tall as my humans, but it is so close that it won't be noticed.  I would gladly use the Mighty Armies, Splintered Light and Tabletop Fantasy in the same army.  I think that SLM is the best detailed of the three, but it is barely noticeable.

Troop Weapons & Tactics test game

I've had the game Troop Weapons & Tactics for a while, but have yet to use it, so I set up a basic game for my daughter and I to play to test out the system.

This is an American platoon advancing to capture a crossroad. 

The Americans had the following.
1 Platoon leader Class 2-1D6, with the special ability Dead Eye (He can act as  a sniper)
2IC, Class 2-1D4+1

Command Unit, 1 4 Man BAR team, 3 riflemen used as scouts, 1 .30 cal team, 1 60mm Mortar team

1st squad - 9 men lead by class 3 -D6+1
2nd squad - 9 men lead by class 2- 1D6
3rd squad - 10 men lead by class 1 - 1D4

There was an extra squad attached to assist with the operation - 10 Men lead by a class 2-D4+1

The Germans had
1 Platoon commander, Class 2, D6
Command group had 1 sniper, and 1 MMG team

1 squad 8 men lead by Class 3 - D6
2 squad 10 men lead by Class 2 - D4+1

2 MMG support teams
 (All of the miniatures are 10mm by Wargames South and Pithead Miniatures)

The Setup
The picture below shows the initial setup.  The Americans were advancing from the right, and the flags mark suspected German positions.
Two American squads advanced up the road.  Another squad advanced through the fields to the right of the road.  The command team under the leadership of the 2IC set up behind the hedges to the left of the road.  The attached squad advanced on the far left.

Almost immediately the Americans ran into trouble.  The command team sent the scouts to check out the first line of hedges to the left of the road.  The marker there ended up being a German squad, and the squad LMG opened up, and the scouts were all killed instantly.  The attached squad moved to the hedge in front of them and started firing on the German positions in front of them.  The command unit set up along the hedge in front of them, and the .30 cal and BAR team started firing on the German positions.  The mortar team tried to fire on them but couldn't get the range right. 

The units on the road advanced as far as they could.  They reached the area immediately on the left flank of the Germans.  The American right squad advanced through the first field without any problems.  The flag to the right of the road was a bluff.

For several turns the Germans and Americans exchanged fire across the hedges, but it was largely ineffective.  The German sniper in one of the buildings at the farms opened up on the infantry on the road.  There were no casualties, but the Americans were pinned down and were afraid to move.  The American right squad spotted movement in the hedge across them (The marker to the right of the main advance and almost all the way to the village).  They opened fire and managed to get a luck shot, killing one member of the German squad's LMG team.

The American platoon commander moved forward to get the men on the road moving.  They managed to get a crossfire on the German squad that had stopped the advance.  They inflicted several casualties, and when half of the squad fell back, they fired on them in the open wiping them out.  The attached squad then rushed the remaining squad firing as they ran.  The remaining Germans instantly surrendered crying out for mercy!

This Picture shows the Germans who had broke cut down in the middle of the field. 

The Americans continued to rush up the road while  one squad crossed the last field to the left of the road.  The German squad and the American squad (Who is just out of the picture at the bottom) continued to exchange fire.  It caused both squads to keep their head down, but no casualties.  The American mortars finally start to make a difference.  The mortar start hitting around this squad, finally suppressing the German's squad LMG.

That's when things went really bad for the Germans.  One of the American squads flanked the last German squad along the road.  One of the German MMGs was deployed behind the German Squad and opened up on the Americans - Only to have their gun jam!  The next turn the Americans opened fire on the German squad and caused several casualties.  At the same time, the American squad on the right flank charged the Germans.

This next picture shows the melee that began.  At the time there were 3 Germans left, and they were pinned.  The Americans rushed at them.  2 were wounded by incoming fire, but they killed two of the Germans, and the last man (who happened to be the squad leader) surrendered.  (This picture shows the aftermath of that fight)

 These last two pictures show the end of the fight.  The German MG was jammed, and there was an American squad in front of them and one on their right flank.  They decided it was time to bug out

.

This picture shows the German commander directing a MG at the stone house.  They had tried to fire at a target down the road off of the left of this picture.  They caused the squad to have to change their underwear, but there was no permanent casualties.  While they were firing there, the American squad in this picture arrived at the hedge row.  They opened fire and at that short range they killed two of the MG team, and left the commander and the last gunner wounded.  They decided an American POW camp was sounding pretty good.

That was pretty much the battle.  There were four largely undamaged American squads closing on the village, and all that was left was one MG and the sniper.  They decided to go back home at that point.

Observations from the game
Early on I was hitting a lot of "Tea Breaks" after only a couple of cards, so things were moving slowly.  The Germans were doing a lot of suppressions, but not giving very many casualties.  The Americans were pinned down for a long time, until the units on the road could finally flank the German's in the fields.  At that point they quickly KOd the Germans in the field, and things fell apart rapidly for the Germans.  Their MMGs didn't prove to be very effective, but it was mostly because of the American tactics.  The one place where it should have made an impact, the MMG jammed.

I played this same scenario before with Arc of Fire, and the Americans got chewed up pretty bad, and weren't able to take the objective.  It was frustrating that the Germans could barely hurt the Americans!  I love I Ain't Been Shot Mum, but I still have to figure this game out!

A short break from 15mm - Stargate figs

I have these Stargate figs from Eureka Miniatures from before they were told to stop making them.  I painted several over the last couple of weeks, so here are a few pics.  I have painted the bases black instead of flocking them.  That way they won't look so out of place if they are used inside buildings.  I think I will do that with all of my Sci Fi figs.

I just realized I never did the eyes on the boss guy!

Stargate team with Jack O'Neal leading the way.  (Haven't finished the bases yet)

Building 15mm houses

I have been working on some more houses.  I built these houses with balsa wood, and then coated with spackle to represent the plaster.

This first building is a small wooden shed.  The thatch is spackle shaped with an old paint brush.

This one is still under construction.

 

This is my town Inn.  For this I have used some plastic sheets shaped like wood tiles for the roof.

Backside of the Inn.

This one is still under construction.  In fact, it is still wet.

The same building from the side.

This one I have used a piece of cork board to represent plaster covered stone.

Here is a group shot with some 15mm figs to show the size.  The building int the front is a open air forge.

Another shot.

All of the ones that I have built so far.