10mm Fantastic Battles - The Green Terror

Skrotrot the goblin king took his lads for another long overdue outing this week, facing off with the army of the Byzernian Empire - a combination of well equipped formed infantry and cavalry, supported by whisky-infused, axe-wielding weirdy beardies. The game was Fantastic Battles, the scale was 10mm, the stakes were high, and the tension was real.

As the attacker, my goblins elected to come on from the side where a large water feature constricted the battlefield by about 1/3. This allowed me to line up the bulk of the forces with a secure right flank, retaining a captain with two units of wolf-riders and a battle wagon off-table on a flank-march around the left.

Jim's Byzernians deployed with a solid centre - cataphract heavy cavalry flanked by shieldwall/long spear formed infantry (none of which looked appetising for my squishy irregular army. On the Byzernian flanks were wild irregulars and skirmishing cavalry, while the galloping flame-thrower war-machines filled the gap between the woods and the hill.

Rolling for pre-battle mishaps, my ogre mercenaries were a little late and one giant was suffering from disease, while one Byzernian heavy unit and his skirmishing kern were both slightly enthusiastic. The kern's stimulants left them proud and berserk, while the goblin madcap unit turned out to be completely uncontrollable thanks to the mushroom-eating, toad licking lifestyle.

As the battle opened, the Byzernian light cavalry began a sweeping progress around the woods, while elsewhere the lines started to close. The ogres moved slowly, creating a gap in the goblin line.

In the woods, the drunken kern and goblin spider-riders exchanged throwing weapons, each causing a worrying two Resolve loss. The Byzernian rogue leading the kern escaped any harm, but a lucky javelin killed the goblin captain outright, leaving the spider-riders leaderless and vulnerable.

In the following turn the spider-riders impetuously turned tail and started to retreat and only the use of the goblin shaman's hast spell managed to turn them back to face the kern before they were charged in the rear. And that haste spell was really needed to get the ogres moving faster.

As the lines continued to move in towards the centre of the battlefield, the goblin flank march arrived on the table. Having made their way right around to the rear of the Byzernians, they burst forward towards the rear of the flamethrowers. 

As the ogres struggled to catch up, the Byzernian priest blinked the cataphracts forward. They were aimed at the madcaps, but overshot the target and ended up in combat with the ogres.

A round of melee in the woods saw the spider-riders scatter, while the kern were only kept in play by the presence of their rogue. The cataphracts gave the ogres a mauling, while the flame-throwers badly scorched the trolls facing them before the trolls had a chance to close.

In the centre, the various units began to form a swirly scrum. To the left the Byzernian kern started to wheel into position to threaten the goblin left, while to the right, the massed horde of goblin warriors burst out of the shelter of the water feature to charge and completely overwhelm the Byzernian unit facing them.

As the trolls closed with the flame-throwers, they were joined by the goblin shaman and his unit of bat-riders. It was a quick melee. 

To the rear, the Byzernian archangel tried to halt the wolf-riders but was himself hit in the flank by the goblin battle wagon and was quickly driven from this earthly dimension.

Being a sneaky blighter, my goblin rogue leapt away from the trolls to take an ineffectual stab at the human emperor. He quickly realised that the odds weren't quite as overwhelmingly in his favour as he thought, and soon ran off to join the trolls again. 

The wolfriders reformed to hold off the Byzernian mounted skirmishers (returning around the woods) , while the large goblin horde struggled to make their way back towards the battle after driving off their opponents. This was made especially hard then the unit was blinked into the water feature.

Now everything hinged on the scrum in the centre. It was perhaps the most scrummy scrum in the history of the game with most units in combat with multiple foes to front, flank and/or rear. Skrotrot and the emperor both threw themselves into the melee. Skrotrot's wyvern proving more effective than the emperor's unaccompanied foolhardy charge into the rear of the bat-riders.

But in the end, the weight of goblin numbers was too much for the Byzernians. As units started to falter, and then scatter, the scrum collapsed leaving, for the Byzernians, only a single infantry unit standing. Despite the distant presence of the Byzernian skirmishing cavalry, it was all too much and the battle was over. 

In the end the goblins lost 8 companies against a breakpoint of 12, while Byzernia lost 13 against a breakpoint of 10, so a good result for the boys in green, although certainly not a one-sided affair.