Introduction
The wind whipped through the trees as the very land itself wept for the lost territory of the Hag’s realm. In the North, the Hag could feel the dwarven metal clawing, digging, and biting into her forest, as if they bit and tore into her. When she then sensed men and horses pushing into her woods, she fell into a rage. “Wake the twins, wake the ancient watchers,” she shrieked to her homunculous. The twisted creature tittered with excitement, shuffling out from the wood hut. The Hag glared off to the North; soon these interlopers would learn, these short gains on their part would not be worth the lifetime of suffering she would bring.
For this battle, we agreed that we would play 2000 points of Invade, representing Chris’s forces trying to push into the woods due to their decision to side with Mike’s Forces of Nature against the Hag, while Jake’s forces attempted to push him out. We would each have three strategy cards from the Battlefield Cards deck to add some unknown elements to the game.
Jake’s List
For my list, I decided after the failure of the first game the Hag would have woken up more of the dark guardians of the woods, including the terrible twins, each representing a Horror. I still wanted a large chunk of my force to be scarecrows, as this felt appropriate, and I would continue to use the Hag as a Banshee as it fit so well.
x2 Legions of Scarecrows
X2 Hordes of Butchers
1 Shadowhulk
x2 Mind Screeches
1 Screamer
1 Horror (Baby Kade) with Blood Boil
1 Horror (Candy) with Alchemist Curse
Banshee (The Hag) with Zephry Crown
My general plan was to try to use the legions of Scarecrows to push into the invade zone, have Butchers on the flank(s) for damage. If possible they would use terrain to bunker up and receive charges/counter punch. The main pain from my list would be coming from barrages of magic and mind screeching. Hopefully it would be enough; the addition of two more magic casters, one with Blood Boil, gave me some additional impact.
My strategy cards weren’t too exciting, and never really came into effect :/.
Chris’s List
After the Legion’s defeat at the hands of the treemen, Gnaeus Sallustis was all too eager to lead his forces south against the darkness in the swamps. We decided to play 2000 points so we could represent the full strength of the legion on the march.
Shield of the Golden Horn
Men-at-Arms with Spears Horde
Men-at-Arms with Swords Regiment
Men-at-Arms with Swords Regiment
Priest with Bane Chant
Holy Lancers
Paladin Knight Regiment with Maccwar’s Potion of the Caterpillar
Paladin Knight Regiment
Gnaeus Sallustis
Abbey Contingent
Sisterhood Infantry Horde
Sisterhood Panther Lancers Troop
Paladins of the Blades of Onzyan
Paladin Foot Guard Regiment
Paladin Foot Guard Regiment
Dictator Christos on Warhorse
My strategy cards were all nerve based — two cards allowed me to add a point to a nerve roll I or my opponent made while one card allowed me to subtract a point from a nerve roll. I forgot all about these til Jake complained in Round 5 or thereabouts that his cards were worthless! I used them then, and they were fun if not overly important.
Setup
Here is the board after setup. Chris set his infantry line in the center, anchored by the castle on his left flank, and all his fast stuff was wide on the right. Jake used the woods to “bunker” his Butchers, put one legion of Scarecrows, and the bulk of his shooting, in the center. The other legion is set up on the far flank to march (shamble) uncontested toward Chris’s deployment.
Turn 1
Turn 1, as most turn ones go, was largely uneventful. Jake dealt some light damage with his Screamer, and Chris pushed up with his units. The slower speed of Jake’s list hampered him here, letting Chris reach the center line, while Jake’s forces still lingered behind.
Turn 2
Jake continued to shuffle for position, moving some units within charge of the human knights, and then lined up all his shooting to focus fire on the horde of spear infantry in front of them. The combined shooting of the Horrors arranged against Chris was devastating, dealing a combined total of 16 damage! But sadly it wasn’t enough to break the bold humans…
Chris’s turn saw a number of charges, including a massed charge against the legion of Scarecrows in the center. With a four-way charge against the Scarecrows, and one of those a flank charge, the horrific constructs stood little chance and were routed.
Luckily for the Nightstalkers, the Butchers survive the combined Basilean charge, opening a number of juicy counter charge targets for the following turn!
Turn 3
Things are beginning to look bleak for the Nightstalkers. Jake sought to even the odds a bit, lining up several shooting targets, and multi charging into the unit of knights.
The plethora of shooting targets paid off, with Jake routing not only the spear horde, but also the regiment of swords. Unfortunately, in Chris’s turn he would now be in range of the Nightstalker Mindscreeches. In addition, the double charge into the Paladin Knights, while putting a great deal of damage on the unit, failed to rout them, only wavering them.
Chris began to collapse onto Jake’s flank and pushed into the Mindscreeches in the center. The wavered Paladin Knights failed their Headstrong roll and backed up, letting Gnaeus and the Lancers into the Butchers. He also bogged down the Shadowhulk with a plucky charge by the regiment of Paladin Foot Guard — after the Dictator narrowly survived a combat round against the beast! Across the board, the forces of the Hag begin to waver and break up, with the Butchers on the right flank broken, and both Mindscreeches disordered, halting their shooting.
Turn 4
Turn 4 opens with Jake’s Butchers being surrounded on the flank, while the ranged shooting is mostly shut down. Without many options, the surviving Butchers go into the wounded Paladin Knights attempting to back away from the combat and the Shadow Hulk goes into the Paladin Foot Guard who had raced to the aid of Dictator Christos. The shooting that was available in the center went into the other regiment of foot guard but only did a few wounds, while Baby Kade, who had been teleported behind Chris’s lines early in the game, finally saw a good return on Alchemist Curse, bringing the second regiment of knights up to 9 wounds! They held, however, and Iron Resolved back down to 8, while the foot guard held against the Shadow Hulk in the melee phase.
In the bottom of Turn 4, Chris sends the foot guard back into the Shadow Hulk and goes after the Mind Screeches again, sending the Sisterhood Lancers into the flank of one. Gnaeus Sallustis backs up to bring his meager healing powers to bear and to allow the Sisterhood Infantry and Paladin Knight regiment to fit into the front of the Butchers,
The combat phase went well, with the Butchers and one Mind Screech going down. The Shadow Hulk predictably held.
Turn 5
Things are looking mighty bleak for Jake at the moment, but the Hag hasn’t given up hope. The Shadow Hulk rampages through the Paladin Foot Guard and takes them out, while Baby Kade’s Alchemist Curse melts the remaining Paladin Knight regiment.
Dictator Christos, maddened at the slaughter of his Paladin brothers, rushes toward the Shadow Hulk, while Gnaeus decides he’s seen enough of Baby Kade and the remaining line units go after the Mindscreech. Miraculously, the Dictator puts a wound onto the Shadow Hulk and misses the rout by 1. What’s this, a Panic in the Ranks card!? +1 to the nerve roll, and the Shadow Hulk is routed! Sadly, though, the brute’s Mindthirst feeds off the Dictator’s bravery and is safe on the long-shot reroll.
The Mind Screech goes down, and Baby Kade is slapped around a bit by Gnaeus and Nakir.
Turn 6
In Turn 6, the Shadow Hulk slaps the Dictator around, but he miraculously survives. Jake rolled a 4 to rout on 10 damage, +1 for Brutal = rout. Thankfully, the previous turn Jake had reminded Chris of his strategy cards, and Chris played a -1 Nerve check card to keep the Dictator in the game — and the Shadow Hulk on Jake’s side of the table!
Gnaeus finished off Baby Kade, and the surviving Paladin Foot Guard, with some assistance from the Panther Lancers, drive the Hag into the mud — the witch is dead!
At this point Jake was willing to concede. Chris rolled the dice for a 7th and it wasn’t to be, leaving the game at 3 US for Jake to 9 for Chris.
Conclusion — Jake
The ranks of armored humans tore thru the last of the bog beasts, their gleaming metal splattered with mud, but their eyes lit with a fiery determination. Flying over the battlefield Zorida saw the Dreamer fall back into a portal, the horrors Candy and Baby Kade scamper into the underbrush. This battle was lost, and with it, another section of her precious woods. But, the lives of humans were short, and Zorida and her ilk had an eternity; the human settlements would soon be swallowed by the woods again, and the agony she would inflict would serve to give years of entertainment… on another day.
Well, that is another loss for the Hag. The nice things about losses is that there are always a lot of learning points.
First, I played sloppy. I gave flanks where there was no need, missed combo charges, and just generally didn’t keep a tight line, like is necessary against an opponent of Chris’s caliber.
I think one of my problems is that I have a difficult time visualizing things as easily on Universal Battle compared to in person, so I make rushed and sloppy moves, giving my opponent openings I should never have, such as flanks on a legion of Scarecrows.
I made the same mistake in this game that I made in my last one, putting a slow unit like Scarecrows off to the side. I thought it seemed like a good idea, US 3, pushing up the side in Invade, seems good. But Chris had so much US in his list he just could ignore it and tear the rest of my army apart. They would have been much more valuable in my center line.
The Banshee with the Zephyr Crown is nice, but I need more practice with using Windblast, I never felt like I was getting the subtle benefit of pushing units places. Looks like I need to reread Greg’s article on Windblast found here.
Moving forward, my goal is to get at least one win this campaign, and to stop splitting my forces up so badly! Time to return to the woods and summon some new terrors.
Conclusion — Chris
Gnaeus Sallustis continues his record of having never been defeated on the field of battle! Overall, the game went according to my plan — anchor the center and push hard on the flank with my faster units, with the Sisterhood horde as backup there to finish anything the knights couldn’t get to. Jake’s list suffered a bit from having as much shooting and fewer US/scoring units than I did, so I was able to just push forward into the Invade zone and knock a few units out.
I agree that Jake ought to have put the other Scarecrow horde in the center, as I was happy to let them get by me while I went on against the rest of his army. My infantry had a lot of US, but not necessarily the number of attacks needed to take out multiple Scarecrow hordes, so the center could have been much more of a stalemate.
Overall a good game that came down to about half my army facing down the two hordes of Butchers, which allowed me to crash the flank and secure the victory.
