Blades in the dark - a night raid for Ilium: A Game of Heroes

As sleep descended on the Trojan camp outside the walls, only the occasional cough from the sentries broke the silence. But out in the darkness, among the wild dogs, Achaean sea wolves stalked the night.

This week Andrew and I gave the Night Mission scenario for Ilium: A Game of Heroes a run through. Based very heavily on book 10 of the Iliad, it sees two heroes set out in the darkness to attack the enemy camp and steal a team of horses.

Andrew ran Odysseus and Diomedes (bottom of the picture), sneaking into the camp near the contingents of Sarpedon, Asteropaios and Aeneas. All of the prone models are asleep, with only a single promachos from each contingent keeping watch. 

The three sentries have restricted actions and a maximum move of 4" per turn. As Diomedes and Odysseus made straight for the chariot in the centre of the camp, the Lykian sentry (keeping guard for Sarpedon) was alerted and called the alarm, waking most of his own contingent and even the closest Paionians from Asteropaios' contingent as well.

Odysseus ignored the rising camp, and hopped straight into the chariot, looking like he would ride off immediately to secure 2 kleos for stealing the horses and leaving Diomedes to deal with the mess.

Sarpedon and Diomedes joined in a duel - Sarpedon managing to get in a good hit to cause three wounds but then taking two hits in return, leaving him in poor shape. Meanwhile, Odysseus circled around and charged the chariot straight through the Trojan camp, scattering promachoi as it went. 

However, the wily Achaean king was soon surrounded by Paionians. Their leader, Asteropaios, threw his two spears, hitting Odysseus with both. One bounced off Odysseus' armour, but they other found its mark and bit deep, dealing a grievous wound. One of the Paionian warriors then launched himself at the Achaean hero and finished him off, Odysseus falling prone to the ground.

Diomedes managed a final blow against Sarpedon, bringing the Lykian down. Glaukos, as royal kinsman, stepped forward to assume control of the Lykians, surgeing forward to protect the fallen king's body and prevent Diomedes from making a run for the chariot. Diomedes hurled his spear and felled a Lykian warrior, but then was charged by Asteropaios. Two of his promachoi seized hold of the body of Odysseus and started to drag him back to the main line of the camp. In the distance, Aeneas' contingent were finally waking to the tumult.

As the final turns came around, Diomedes managed a succession of well aimed blows to fell his second hero of the night - Asteropaios - causing some of the Paionian promarchoi to scatter into the darkness. Frustratingly one of those who did flee had been one of the pair carrying Odysseus's body and that hero was dropped once more to the ground. The remaining promachos, unable to carry the hero alone and far from assistance, instead decided to strip Odysseus of his armour. Leaving the hero naked in the dust, the promachos managed to take his prize away, securing additional kleos. 

Glaukos charged forward in a desperate attempt to slay the wounded Diomedes, but it was too late and the Argive king slipped off into the darkness back to the Achaean camp.

***

It was certainly a very different scenario from the others. There were numerous tweaks and clarifications made to the entry in the rules but, even with all that, it still ran very quickly and smoothly. 

In the end, the Achaeans could count the night raid as a narrow victory, securing 6 kleos (+1 for each enemy hero slain, +1 per hero slain as a scenario specific rule, +1 for each hero because they were killed in single combat). The Trojans acquired 5 kleos (+1 for killing Odysseus, +1 for capturing his armour, +1 for each hero still alive on the table at the end [Asteropaios, Aeneas, and we counted Glaukos too]).