Halflings and wood elves battle at the ford - 10mm Fantastic Battles

Captain Smithwicks rallied his militia and dished out a third serving of Hearthshire's finest travel-stew. The lads at the front of the unit were pre-occupied with the elven shieldwall bearing down on them but, sure, at least the rear ranks appreciated the sentiment...

This week I met up with Roger to run him through a game of Fantastic Battles. Over recent months he has amassed a huge army of wood elves and it was time some of them meet their doom against the finest halfling regiments of Hearthshire. The photo above shows the intended deployments before rolling for mishaps. The halfling battle plan relied on guarding the riverbank and using it to disorder the elven attack.

... and here are the disastrous dispositions after mishaps. The elves (top from left) had some bow armed glade riders and ents who were slightly late, a unit of rangers, massed archers, stag riders, a shieldwall and finally a wild hunt on the flank.

The halflings (bottom from left) had some hyper-enthusiastic treefolk and a skirmishing company of wardens, more treefolk, a battery of catapults, the Hearthshire hearthguard, truffle-hunting pig herds, poultry-riding scouts, kitchen-militia, archer militia (on the hill) and enthusiastic yeoman cavalry. At the very back along the board edge is the much less enthusiastic cockatrice.

Halfling battle-plan out the window, the first initiative chit pulled in turn one was for the halfling units out of command. The cockatrice was rolled for first and decided to fall back... of the table - and the beast was gone. That was a little bit demoralising to say the least. The enthusiastic units on the halfling left started to pull back out of the river, while the rest of the halfling line advanced to meet them half way.

Roger's elves also advanced along their entire front, and the arrow-storm (with chance of occasional catapult stones) began.

On the halfling right, the elves advanced hesitantly, showing undue caution around the halfling poultry scouts. On the extreme flank, the halfling yeomanry swung their ponies around to threaten the flank of the wild hunt.

As the stag riders finally charged the poultry, they evaded backwards, leaving the elves exposed to missile fire (the following turn) from both the geese-riders and the halfling militia archers. The elven spearmen engaged the kitchen militia, and the wild hunt swung to face the yeomen who then barrelled into them, encouraged by the halfling librarian who empowered them with his wisdom.

Over on the other flank, the elven arrows scattered the halfling wardens, and so infuriated the treefolk and hearthguard that they all attempted to cross the river (rather than hold the river bank as was the intention!). The elven magic-user repeatedly entangled the truffle-hunters, preventing them from activating. Every. Turn. Now I know how Jim felt a few weeks ago when I did the same to him!

In the river, the elven ents engaged the halfling treefolk. The second unit of treefolk, who managed to cross through the river where they were finally scattered by arrow fire.

... and back to Captain Smithwicks and his kitchen militia. They managed to hold on in their fight with the elven spearmen/shieldwall. The elven stag-riders managed to engage and rout the poultry, but were left so weakened that a final volley from the halfling militia archers made them flee the field. The halfling yeomanry managed to hold off the wild hunt, but were also left so blown by their struggle, that they played no further role in the battle.

In the end, it was the struggle of the river trees that settled it. The treefolk and ents fought on until their ultimate mutual destruction, killing the halfling warlord and eveln rogue in the process and almost certainly damming (and damning?) the river. The loss of the treefolk brought the halflings to breaking point, and the battle was over, leaving Roger and his elves bloody, but victorious.