Some impromptu Lord and Lands

I hadn't seem my good friend JB in a while but he managed to come up into the hills this week. We had no fixed idea of what we were going to play, but my wee lad suggested we play Lord and Lands, insisting JB lead his Legion of Super Evil.

JB's Legion set up in a tight cluster with only his spider riders off on his left flank in the woods (top right of the photo). My halflings were much more spread out. Foolishly I had slow halfling militia on my left flank, and slow tree-folk on my right flank. Even more foolishly, I intermixed the slow bowmen, with even slower artillery. 

After the opening couple of turns, it became clear that my maneuverability was going to be questionable (with the exception of my poultry patrol skirmishers), and the Legion of Doom were going to play hard to get, refusing their right flank. The wee dude left us at this point for bed time.

Eventually I got into a position where my halfling skirmishers and poultry patrol could start shooting, and before they could do anything, the night elf ballistae fired off a single volley and eliminated one of the halfling skirmisher units. In response I advanced my halfling yeomanry - who were then charged by the elvish dread knights. Then I sent in the cockatrice against the night elf crossbowmen, and suffered several hits from closing fire.

In the ensuing melees, hits were suffered by all parties, but sadly the halflings took more damage. The cockatrice suffered an enveloping charge from the second unit of night elf crossbowmen, and the spider riders scuttled up beside the elvish knights to support there fight against the halfling mounted yeomen. The remaining halfling skirmishers turn to try to ad their support to the melee, but unfortunately, they would never quite get there thanks to the elvish firepower which poured into their flank the following turn.

Meanwhile, the poultry riders were being "right bastards" on the other side of the battle field. They proved, yet again, that skirmishers are very tricksy in this game - swooping in, throwing sticks and stones, falling back, firing closing shots, evading, and shooting again. 

The goose riders managed to cause one hot on one unit of skeletons, maul another, and completely destroy two more - one of which included the night elf commander. In the centre, the cockatrice and one of its crossbow-armed foes rout each other, allowing the halfling catapults (finally in range) to smash the other crossbow unit. Unfortunately for the stunties, the catapult as then itself targeted by the elvish ballistae and destroyed. The previous turn, the halfling wizard had also been dispatched by a well placed ballista bolt. The halfling yeomen were easily defeated by their elvish foes who then swept on to attack the tree-folk who had finally emerged from the woods on my right. The game at this point was very much in the balance: my halflings were one point away from breaking, JB was two units away from crumbling. 

... and then this happened. Those were JB's attack rolls against my poor tree-folk. With six hit points, they were already teetering on the edge of routing. But that attack from JB, that was just brutal.

So it came to pass that the first time in six games (playing both Lord and Lands, and Kings of War 2), the glorious halfling militia of Hearthshire were driven, defeated from the field of battle. They will return, but what they need right now is a good chowder, a pint of something mildly carbonated, and a wee lie down.