Battle of the Wild Things - 10mm Fantastic Battles

Over the long-weekend, Roger and I managed to get in two 1,000 point games of Fantastic Battles, picking two armies from our collections and rolling a die to decide the match ups. For the first game, Roger's Wood Elves and their woodland minions took on my Beastling highlanders commanded by the Red King. 

The Red King arrayed his beastling forces in a defensive position, with a levy unit on each flank, the bog trolls and skirmishing slingers in the centre, supported by a two-company unit of mjowls and two individual moohemoths. A three-company unit of chariots and a captain were sent on an off-table flank march round the right flank.

From left to right (in the photos), the wood elf line was composed of a wild hunt, tree shepherds, minor tree spirits, giant bears, greater tree spirits, a forest dragon, and some giant eagles. He used the Night March strategy, deploying 3bw closer to the beastling lines.

Mishap rolls saw the woodland army remain in good order other than the giant bears who were overly enthusiastic and deployed forward of where they were supposed to be. Among the beastlings, the red levy on the left were so enthusiastic that they found themselves among the woods - not good for a shooting unit with long spears - while the yellow levy on the hill on the right arrived stricken with disease. 

The opening turn saw the first melee engagement. On the right, the giant eagles swooped from their hiding place among the trees and charged straight into the yellow levy on the hill. 

On the left, the captain attached to the red levy tried to get them back out of the woods but counted on neither the tree shepherds' great speed, nor the expedient use of an elvish blink spell. The living trees bumped straight into the rear of the levy and scattered them after only a single round of combat.

In the centre, the bears received several turns of missile fire from the bog trolls and slingers, greatly reducing their resolve. Meanwhile, the rest of the woodland army advanced. The beastling mjowls flew over the top of the slowly advancing minor tree spirits to start threatening the wood elf rear. 

By the end of the second turn, the beastling chariots had arrived to the rear of the elves, but the elves had advanced so rapidly that they were left with no one to fight! A slow turn about the woods began. 

In the centre, the beastling slingers fell back allowing the moohemoths and trolls to engage the weakened giant bears, and while the tree spirits also attacked the bog trolls, they were themselves charged in the rear by some timely-summoned fungal shroomlings. Over the course of the melee, the wood elves lost their giant eagles, giant bears and minor tree spirits in one foul swoop. 

Meanwhile, the tree shepherds and wild hunt were making their way closer round the front, and the beastling chariots made every effort to take arrive before the fight was over. The mjowls and the forest dragon sort of, flapped about a bit in the middle...

Then the dragon struck, attacking the moohemoth carrying the beastling magic-user, killing it quickly, but not before more shroomlings were summoned into its own flank. On the beastling left, the bog trolls formed a kill circle/tortoise formation to hold off the tree shepherds, and the slingers and yellow levy converged to hammer the greater tree spirits with missile fire. 

The tree spirits rushed forward into the skirmishers who chose to stand and fight, taking a battering, but causing enough damage in return to scatter the trees, thus bringing the elves to their break point and finishing the battle with a convincing (and rare) win for the Red King - 5/11 for the beastlings, 10/9 for the wood elves.