Savages from the far north - two more OGAM games

Last week saw my Artemisian chorus take to the stage once more to take on the vile Hibernians from the far north (and then off to the west a bit). Artemis was accompanied by Atalanta and my heroic centauris, as well as the Kalydonian Boar. In support were my eight hypaspists, four satyr archers and four dryads. We played two games and used the same forces in each.

In the first game, set among some Grecian ruins, I put Artemis and her dryads in the wood in one corned, with the hypaspists and Atalanta nearby. The satyrs and centauris were across the stream while the boar was hiding at the back of another woods. Unfortunatley my satyrs turned up to the game drunk and, with a Q5 proved very hard to activate throughout the game.

The Irish had a werewolf and a large unit of slingers posted just out side the boar wood, a unit of armoured nobles and two small units of unarmoured nobles by the river, along with a druid and their foul god Lugh. Off in the ruins was Cu Chulainn in his chariot. 

Using foul play and druid's charms, my opponent was able to either add/remove a piece of terrain, or else switch the location of any two legends on the table. Forgetting that the Kalydonian Boar was suffling through the woods behind his slingers, he switched his werewolf for Atalanta. Atalanta appeared adjacent the slingers, and the werewolf just beside my hypaspists.

First blood went to Atalanta who, supported by her old porcine nemesis started to destroy the slingers through a mixture of archery and melee.

Here the slingers can be seen being pushed back across the stream while the werewolf kept running between Atalanta and the hypastpists, never actually committing to combat.

Cu Chulainn came trundling round behind the ruins to take part in a co-ordinated attack on the hypaspists, slamming into their left flank while the armoured Iriah nobles took them in the front and wolfie finally entering the fray on their right flank.

Up till this point, I had been having too much fun with Atalanta and Artemis had failed to do anything. As Cu Chulainn lost his combat and recoiled, Artemis shot him down with ease.

Unfortunately, in the centre of the table shortly afterwards, Lugh, encouraged by many invocations from his followers, dashed into short range and made a mighty aimed shot with his spear at Atalanta. He rolled a 1! It wouldn't have been too hard to escape this shot unscathed, except that I rolled a 2 and took a spear in the head for my troubles.

I seem to have stopped taking photos after the loss of my wee archer. The end result was that I had neglected to use my goddess until it was too late. By the time I got her moving, I was heroless and down to only one unit who could still invoke (the hypaspists), but they were engaged in a melee which kep pushing them off towards the edge of the table. In a fateful move, Artemis was killed by Lugh and could not be re-summoned. The hypaspists fled on her death, and it was all over.

****

In the second game, there was a nice wood in the centre of the table. Thinking I'd be smarter with deployment this time, I set up everything except the centauris and hypastists inside it. Most of my stuff could shoot and I was excited about getting nice little ambush bonuses.

Then that bastard of a druid (at least I heard his parents weren't married, might have just been a rumour) made my wood disappear. Instead of being the wood of dreams, it became the field of despair. Sigh.

This game was much faster and more bloody with all six legends on the table being killed off in the first couple of turns. The first to go was the Kalydonian Boar, spitted on Cu Chulainn's magic spear. But then the ginger Irish hero was soon shot to pieces and everyone carried on much as before.

Artemis was the first god to die...

But then summoned back straight away, she in turn took out Lugh.

This god-slaying continued for a number of turns, each death causing one of more of our mortal units to slowly retire towards table edges.

In the end, the last active figures on the table looked like this. All I had to do was to roll a 3+ to summon Artemis back and it was going to be all over for the Irish. I rolled a 2. Two turns in a row. In the end, the damn slingers shot at my hypaspists and caused them to recoil off the table. Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory...