Ilium: A Game of Heroes - somewhere in the Bosporos in the 8th year of the war

This week we were putting the settlement raid mission through its paces again for Ilium: A Game of Heroes. The Achaeans were once more on the offensive, raiding a small Trojan-allied settlement somewhere in the Bosporos. The game was set a couple of years before the fall of Troy, and would see Penthesileia and Hektor fight side-by-side.

We rolled for the attacker/defender, with the Trojans and their allies being the defenders. The Trojans began with Penthesileia, queen of the Amazons, holding the centre of the village, with the Achaean kings, Menestheus and Idomeneus, already on the outskirts.

With the weight of numbers in their favour, the Achaeans pressed forward. Menestheus personally killed two of the Amazonian promachoi next to the village well, while the Achaean bowmen focused their fire on the Amazonian archers on the roof tops.

Soon, the nearest two houses in the village were alight, with only Penthesileia and a single Amazonian warrior standing the way of the Achaean flood.

However, the Amazonian warrior refused to die. She and an Athenian shield-bearer stood toe-to-toe, turn after turn, with neither being able to strike a killing blow against the other. Her position between the well and a (burning) building meant that there was no space nearby the allow the Achaeans to bring their numbers to bear. 

Penthesileia advanced over the bodies of her fallen followers to engage Menestheus in single combat, thereby blocking the other approach through the centre of the village. Behind her, first Hektor arrived with a body of Trojan reinforcements - storming into the centre of the board - and then Asteropaios followed with his Paionians who proceeded to skirt around the side of the village to take the Achaeans in the flank (the right of the photo). 

Two of Hektor's promachoi slipped between the buildings on the other flank to cut off an Achaean torch-bearer (the left of the photo above). One received a flaming brand in the face, but the other, at least, stopped the torch-bearer from setting a third building alight.

At that moment, the gods intervened. Apollo swept down from Mount Ida and released a plague among the Achaean ranks - two of the eleven promachoi succumbed immediately to the sickness.

While Menestheus and Penthesileia continued to duel in the town centre, the Trojan notables (i.e. Achaean hostages in waiting) proceeded to escape slowly towards the Trojan baseline.

Not a moment too soon, Machaon arrived from the left flank, his men surrounding Hektor's promachos and potentially opening the way for the torch-bearer to play havoc with the remaining building on that side. Machaon himself and the rest of his contingent passed between the buildings to charge Hektor's men in the flank and rear. 

Asteropaios and Idomeneus, who had each been leading their contingents towards the right flank for their own encounter both abandoned their plan and turned to re-join the fray in the centre.

The tussle between Hektor and Machaon heightened as the two heroes engaged each other. An opportunistic counter attack by Machaon caused Hektor a nasty wound, but he soon reciprocated and both heroes proceeded to their blood on those around them.

As Asteropaios and most of his men returned to the village centre, Penthesileia gibed Menestheus before striking a killing blow. Sadly, her warrior promachos who had done so much to hold the other side of the well finally fell to continued Achaean attack. 

 

Meanwhile, a single Paionian archer continued to skirt the village to shoot arrows into the last of the Achaean torch-bearers. He had been toiling for most of the attack, trying unsuccessfully to set the building on that flank alight.

Asteropaios stepped forward over the body of the last Amazonian warrior to confront her killer, while Penthesileia advanced on Idomeneus. 

Although she carried wounds from her previous fight, two successful blows and a counter attack left the king of Crete as food for the dogs. Almost all of Idomeneus' promachoi fled as their king fell, and those that did not were soon killed by the Paionians.

To the rear, Hektor and his men finished off Machaon, leaving all three Achaean heroes dead. While Penthesileia and Hektor would both carry scars from their wounds, all three Trojan heroes lived to fight another day.

The total tally of kleos was 8:2 in favour of the Trojans, a decisive victory for the noble defenders!

I've also received an author's proof of the book which is looking well. There are a couple of formatting issues to contend with, but we are well on track for a (very) late summer release. :)