Ilium: A Game of Heroes - more daggers at dawn.

Fine tuning the Ilium rules for various scenarios, we returned to the Night Mission last week with the Trojan cousins, Helenos and Aeneas, sneaking into the Achaean camp to steal the horses of the Cretan king, Idomeneus.

The Trojan heroes arrived at the edge of Machaon's campfire (top right). Having the good fortune to activate both heroes before an Achaean so much as coughed, they stealthily killed three of Machaon's sleeping promachoi and his sentry, ensuring that no warning could be raised in the first turn.

They next sprang on Machaon, taking him by surprise and wounding him before he had even stood up. The Thessalian lord tried to fight back, but it was to no avail and he fell to the combined attacks of the Trojan princes.

As Helenos finished off the last of the sleeping Thessalians, the cautious Athenian sentry from Menestheus' camp caught sight of the Trojan prince. Helenos fired his bow, but it was a very literal shot in the dark and went wide. Idomeneus' sentry noticed Aeneas at the same moment and shouted the alarm, waking the Cretan king and his retinue.

Leaving the piled Thessalian dead behind them, the Trojans sprinted closer to Idomeneus, keeping some distance between them and Menestheus' camp. Idomeneus ran forward and caught Helenos with his throwing spear before the Trojan remembered that he'd seen the outcome of the raid in the flight of the birds the previous sunset.

As the Cretan promachoi assaulted Helenos from all sides, he used his fore-knowledge to avoid the worst of their attacks. Aeneas skirted the group and killed a Cretan archer, opening a clear run at the Cretan king's chariot team.

Aeneas leapt aboard the chariot and started it moving, leaving his cousin Helenos to hold off the Cretans. As the weight of Cretan attacks began to tell, Helenos challenged Idomeneus to a duel. Seeing no other honourable course of action, the Cretan king accepted, forcing his men to step back and take no further part in the melee.

Helenos took up a defensive stance, blocking Idomeneus' incoming attacks, while Aeneas ploughed forward, attempting, and failing, to crush the newly awoken Athenians below the chariot's wheels.

As the final turn arrived, so did Rosey-fingered Dawn, starting her journey across the heavens. Aeneas managed to drive the chariot off the table and Helenos, having satisfied himself that the night had gone as foretold, slipped quietly away back towards the Trojan lines.

Tyche had clearly smiled on the Trojans this time, enabling them to massacre Machaon and his Thessalians before any of the other Achaeans knew they were there. The Trojan's earned four kleos for their night's work (two for killing Machaon, and two for stealing the horses), while the Achaeans, deserted by the dice gods, only secured two kleos (for the survival of their two living heroes). A clear Trojan victory by all accounts.