Friday, June 27, 2014

The Duchy reunited

Day 6: Montidine takes 80 armoured foot and 160 archers south, marching towards castle Greenstorm.

Day 7: Montidine arrives and assaults castle Greenstorm, defended by Gustav with 200 archers, 40 pikes and 100 hand gunners.

Montidine and his small force approach the castle, shooting arrows at the
defenders that chose to form up outside the walls.

Archery destroys the hand gunners, Montidine and his men slay the pikemen in melee.

Montidine and his only surviving men flee the murderous archery from the castle.
 A big loss for Montidine, though he did slay dozens of the enemy.

Day 8: Gustav leaves castle Greenstorm by himself and travels back to castle G'stadt to obtain more troops. Montidine and the remnants of his army head north to castle Auvernge, but a few miles from home are ambushed by Nodron the Thaumaturgist and his twenty orcs. The only way home is through the ambush. Montidines archers are too few to inflict any real damage, so both they and their lord charge. Nodron uses both his charm spells on Montidine, but both fail. The orcs kill the archers in melee. Nodron then casts his fireball spell, obliterating Montidine.

Day 9: Gustav takes many soldiers from the garrison of castle G'stadt and marches north to castle Daventry, where the soldiers are currently without a master. Nodron approaches the walls of castle Auvernge in disguise, and manages to charm the captain into following him. Nodron now controls castle Auvernge.

Day 10: Gustav approaches the leaderless garrison of Daventry and offers to hire them into his service. They think about it, then agree.

Gustav Flaubert now controls castles Greenstorm, G'Stadt and Daventry with a total force of 500 longbowmen, 80 armoured foot, 300 crossbowmen, 120 pikemen and 100 hand gunners. Nodron controls castle Auvernge, 20 orcs and 200 crossbowmen. Facing these hopeless odds, Nodron takes his men (though many desert) and leaves the duchy, leaving Gustav Flaubert the new Duke.

This concludes my shattered Duchy campaign. I had a lot of fun, and I hope you enjoyed reading it!

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Duel to the Death at Castle Auvernge

Day4: Lorn the Swashbuckler takes 120 Armoured foot and 400 longbowmen from castle Daventry and marches west towards castle Auvernge.

Day 5: Lorn and his men arrive to attempt to take the castle and its reduced strength garrison by storm.

Montidine (on the right) and 60 knights charge out of castle Auvernge, trying to get at the
longbowmen. Crossbow shoot from the ramparts. All 60 knights die to a volley from the 400 archers.

Montidine fights the archers alone, while Lorn and his cronies march around to his flank.

Montidine slaughters many archers in melee, but their numbers ensure the battle is a draw. Lorn marchers closer.

Montidine and Lorn engage in one on one combat, watched by Lorns soldiers.

After several rounds of brutal melee, Montidine slays Lorn in a flurry of blade and blood. Lorns claim to the duchy dies with him. Lorns soldiers pragmatically swear to served Montidine.

So...Montidine now owns castle Auvernge and Daventry, with a total army of 160 armoured foot, 260 archers and 200 crossbowmen.

His main rival Gustav Flaubert owns castles Greenstorm and G'stadt, with a total army of 400 archers, 160 pikemen, 200 hand gunners and 100 crossbows.

Nodron wanders in the wilderness with only 20 orcs.

Only the fates know who will win.

Thanks for reading!

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The Battle of Castle Green Storm

Gustav Flaubert the Hero, of castle G'Stadt, has marched his retainers to castle green storm while most of its inhabitants are fighting to the north.

Gustavs force consists of 200 longbowmen, 120 pikemen and 100 hand gunners. The great god Fido
looks on the battlefield impassively.

60 orcs man the parapets, armed with longbows. 40 wait inside to defend the gate.

Gustavs forces charge forward to their quarry. The pikemen suffer 80 fatalities, but
the longbowmen quickly sweep all defenders off the ramparts.

With the battlements bare of defenders, it's just a matter of time before the
gate is smashed in. Gustav leaps forward at great personal risk to battle the
castles inhabitants.

Gustav quickly slaughters all 40 of the orcs, leaving him in uncontested control of castle Greenstorm.

It is the end of Day 3 of the War of the Shattered Duchy. Castle Greenstorm has fallen to Gustav, who now controls both his new conquest and Castle G'Stadt. The previous occupant, Nodron the Thaumaturgist, has no place to call home and only his spells and 20 orcs to rely on. Montidine the Myrmidon still holds castle Auvergne, but with many of his knights dead.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

The Shattered Duchy - A D&D/Chainmail mini campaign

Duke John had died, leaving his four vassal Barons to fight for control of the Duchy.

Baron Nodron the Thaumaturgist of Castle Greenstorm. 800 Orcs (Heavy foot) 10 hit points, knows sleep, charm person, phantasmal force, knock and fireball.

Lorn the Swashbuckler of castle Daventry. 18 hp, 200 armoured foot, 500 longbowmen.

Montidine the Myrmidon of castle Auvergne. 20 hp, 200 heavy horse (knights), 200 crossbowmen.

Gustav Flaubert the Hero of castle G'stadt. 15 hp, 400 longbowmen, 240 pikemen, 200 hand gunners, 100 crossbowmen.

Day 1: Nodron takes 700 orcs and marchers north towards Auvernge.
Day 2: Gustav takes 200 longbowmen, 120 pikes and 100 handgunners towards Castle Greenstorm, hoping to storm it while Nodron is away.
Day 3: Nodron and his Orcs reach castle Auvernge, Montidine brings out his knights to fight, while leaving his crossbowmen in the castle. Gustav also reaches castle green storm, garrisoned by 100 orcs.

Battle Report, battle for Castle Auvernge.

Nodron the Thaumaturgist with 700 orcs vs. Montidine with 200 knights and 200 crossbowmen.

Montidine and his men. Montidine stays in the castle, wary of Nodrons Charm Person spells.

700 orcs and Nodron.

Nodron blasts the knights with a fireball, killing 80 of them. The remaining knights charge into the orcs
and are flanked.

The knights kill more orcs, but the orcs have the advantage of numbers and force the knights back,
albeit in good order.

The horde of orcs presses closer to the castle, taking causalties from crossbowmen. The knights retreat
into the castle and dismount.

Nodron casts "knock", magically opening the castle gate. Brutal fighting ensues as only 20 men vs. 20 orcs can fight through the gate, and superior numbers don't count. Eventually Nodron calls off the attack and retreats, taking heavy crossbow causalties. The knights remount and pursue.

Nodron and only 20 orcs manage to escape. Montidine calls off the pursuit, knowing he'll
need all his knights to defend castle Auvernge from other Barons.

Thanks for reading, hopefully I'll get a chance to fight the battle of Castle Greenstorm soon.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Field of Glory - for some

500 points Field of Glory - Later Medieval Scots (Britain) vs. Hundred Years War English (Britain)

Scottish
3 Troop Commanders
4 BG's of 8 Spearmen each
1 BG of 4 Scottish knights on horse
1 BG of 4 French knights on horse (slightly better than the Scottish knights)

English
2 Troop Commanders (I accidentally deployed 3, and one did nothing all battle anyway)
3 BG's of 4 Dismounted men at arms
4 BG's of 8 longbowmen each

500 pts is a fairly small game for Field of Glory, but when playing in 28mm the armies fill my 6 foot table from end to end.


Engish right flank.

English left flank. The unfortunate forest in the middle of the
deployment zone split the army in two.

Scottish right flank. The pivotal Scottish men at arms are on the left of the picture.

Scottish left flank. French men at arms anchor this flank. In spite of being rated
Superior, they performed much more poorly than their Scottish counterparts!

The English stay put turn after turn, until the Scottish arrive in longbow range.
The Scottish units suffered some minor disruption and a base loss.

Bring the pain! Scottish men at arms smash into English archers. In the back
ground some Scottish spearmen flee.

The archers break, the  Scots pursue them right off the table...

...while the French men at arms fragment, doing very poorly.

But Scottish spearmen, showing much more heart than their French allies,
break English men at arms and kill their commander, leaving this flank without
leadership.

After trampling the English archers, the Scots knights flank charge the English
left  flanks men at arms, causing fragmentation and enough attrition points to win.

Victory to Scotland! The Scots ended the game with 3 out of 6 attrition points, 2 from broken French knights, one from a fragmented unit of spearmen. The English lost all 7 of their attrition points for a loss.

I really like Field of Glory. It's a great way to get a bazillion figures on the table and still finish fairly quickly! Thanks for reading, hope you liked it.