Fantastic Battles - 10mm Ratkin vs Wyld Elves

Taking advantage of decent (enough) weather and a long weekend, I was delighted to join Andrew in his out-door office - the table set in the open double doorway - for our first game since last summer. As the attacker, he commanded his Ratkin, and I took the defensive with my Wyld Elves, out for their first game.

On deployment it became obvious that these two armies were very different. The massed ranks of the ratkin dwarfed the elite elven force. The elves used the ambush strategy to allow one unit of rangers with an attached rogue to deploy in the rough terrain on the ratkin right flank.

Rolling for mishaps, the elven quartermaster ensured that the pointy-ones got off very lightly, with only one unit - the ambushing rangers - suffering from disease. The ratkin suffered far worse with abundant disease and two late units (a unit of assassins with an attached rogue, and the big bell carrying a rodent magic-user).

My overall strategy was to use my fancy rangers to do some fancy shooting, but while I sat back trying to shoot, the ratkin took their time and rallied off all of their Resolve loss from the disease.

Andrew, being Andrew, then did what Andrew normally does and charged his giant warlord character-company towards the shooters on the elven left flank. I was confident that my own magic-user with a level 2 entangle spell would be able to halt his charge just short of contact and allow him to be peppered with poisoned arrows. 

Unfortunately, in the following action phase, a ratkin initiative meeple was drawn from the baggy first, and he charge in to pin the rangers in melee before my magic-user could activate.

Then the ratkin gas globardiers joined the combat just before the giant eagle swooped in to peck at the giant rat's flank. Both elvish characters in the area, a captain and the magic-user, decided to join the melee too to buff the rangers fighting capacity.

On the far side of the battlefield, the ratkin assassins, after suffering several turns of shooting, closed with the ambushing elven rangers. The elvish rogue called out her ratkin opposite with a champion's challenge and started a one-on-one duel. 

In the centre, elvish shooting routed a large unit of ratkin rabble, and the elves started a cautious advance.

The elven stag-riders and the Wyld Hunt started a slow shift to their right to confront the rats of the centre - and a second large rabble unit which was coming in from the ratkin left.

At about that point, decisions were made, initiative meeples were drawn, things happened, and somehow I ended up with the stag-riders in the flank of the ratkin verminguard, but with an exposed flank and rear of their own. The Wyld Hunt had previously gone charging off after some skirmishing ratkin with flame belchers and were awkwardly unable to lend much assistance.

The central elvish rangers charged the ratkin magic-user on his big bell and, with the assistance of a tree shepherd, quickly destroyed it.

After several turns of combat, the duelling rogues on the elven left killed each other, just as the rangers finally broke and fled. The elven army is so small that every unit really counts so this was quite a blow, but at least the ratkin assassins were now out of command on the edge of the battlefield.

Yet worse was to follow on the elven right as the rat-god warlord managed to scatter the rangers he was facing, including the attached magic-user and captain. The great beast then feasted upon the fallen pointies and restored his own lost resolve before turning to take on the eagle.

In the centre, the stag-riders were still attacking the flank of the verminguard, but were pinned in place by the giant rat wheel in their own flank, and the ratkin rabble in their rear. The Wyld Hunt caught up with the flame-belchers and over-ran them promptly. 

The captain with the rangers from the elven centre charged the ratkin jezails that had been a minor nuisance throughout the battle, but failed to destroy them.

And at that point, it was all over. The verminguard defeated the tree shepherd who'd been holding their front, preventing them from reforming the face the stag-riders. With him gone, they immediately reformed and, combined their assault with the wheel and the ratkin rabble, overwhelmed the stag-riders. 

The elven army was in ruins. Only the rangers and captain on the hill (still in combat with the jezails), and the warlord with the Wyld Hunt, still stood in the field of battle. The battle was hardly a walkover for the ratkin, but once the melee in the centre had been joined, there was only one direction of travel. Better luck next time pointies. Better luck next time.