First Edition Warhammer Battle

Padre

Member
This is an experiment I had wanted to do for a long time – like a reenactment of my earliest days playing warhammer. By that I mean playing a wargame using first edition Warhammer rules, and using only figures and scenery available at the time. I have tried to make it as ‘authentic’ as possible. There are some anachronisms along the way, but hey, it's a reenactment, and a few anachronisms always creep in, eh? Question is, can you spot them?

First some background for the 'character' I will be playing.

Let's go back more than two decades … (weird, wibbly-wobbly, going-back-in-time music)

Prologue

It's 1984, and 16 year old ‘Eddie’ thinks of himself as a GamesMaster. He even has the T-shirt.

Eddie.jpg


He has the right to wear it, oh yes, having run Traveller roleplaying scenarios for years in school and at the weekends (garage gaming for his neighbours, with a gas heater to keep them warm in the winter months). His player' characters have been everywhere, seen it all: springing prisoners from high-tech asteroid prisons to scrabbling for the last handful of bullets in Mad Max type post-apocalyptic wastelands, and much more. Two years back (about 1982 I think) he turned the Traveller combat rules into wargame rules, so that he could fight 1:32 scale Napoleonic battles with Airfix soldiers in his garden, then invading other gardens as more kids joined in. After this came all sorts of wargames, from alternate-universe WWII technological level games with hundreds of the 1:32 Airfix soldiers, to commandos attacking James Bond villains' private armies.

He could have used 1:72 scale figures, getting more for less and not needing anything like the space, but the bigger guys (54mm) just seemed like lots more fun. And they were cheap as the local shops were selling their Airfix stock off. It was heaven when the local 'paper shop' let him into the stock room to choose loads of stuff they wanted rid of, selling it for virtually nothing. It did not occur to Eddie at the time that he was in effect entering Airfix heaven just as the hobby was dying.

When he did go smaller scale it was by converting lots of Airfix tanks and planes (same cheap source) into grav-tanks and space fighters, and inventing a rules system he called, simply, ‘Sci-Fi’. Every other boy in the street got involved, and he became the envy of all them with his flying polystyrene packaging ‘Death Star’ style base, packed with hardware and troops for assault landings in anyone’s garden. This all went pear shaped as soon as the kids incorporated 'nukes' into the games so that entire garden empires could be reduced to ash. If just one missile evaded the anti-missiles, perhaps using it’s piggy backing anti-anti-missile-missiles to make sure it got through (the boys never modeled a missile without adding little defensive missiles onto it's back - thus anti-anti-missile-missiles), then what was the point of modelling and painting those armies? All one really needed was a missile launcher, what the boys called a 'silo' (in other words a deoderant lid painted in camouflage colours hidden under the flowers), and a missile. Boom!

But I don't want to show you photos of all those things, instead I want to show you pictures of the particular form of Traveller derived wargame really relevant here - what he and the lads called 'medieval'. Knights, bowmen, catapults, etc. This once involved spending weeks secretly preparing lollipop siege towers while his neighbour’s dad secretly made a castle. Days spent worrying whether or not the towers would be tall enough to reach the neighbour’s as yet unseen parapets. Thankfully they did, just, and a massive siege game taking a full afternoon ensued. All that work for one afternoon!

The figures were all 54mm, and his armies included Britains’ knights (1847 onwards, but these little fellers from the 1970s) ...

WFBReen54mmMedieval1.jpg


... and Timpo knights (producing plastic figures from 1954 until they ceased operations in 1978) ...

WFBReen54mmMedieval4.jpg


...allied with many a painted Airfix man-at-arms (bought in 1979), from longbowmen ...

WFBReen54mmMedieval2.jpg


... to halberdiers, axemen, swordsmen and morning star wielders.

WFBReen54mmMedieval3.jpg


He did not know it at the time, but these 'medieval' games were like an apprenticeship for a certain fantasy battle game that was just about to be invented and which would one day invade his world big style. So it was that in 1983, something happened that was to change everything. He bought a new fantasy wargame called “Warhammer, The Mass Combat Fantasy Roleplaying Game.”

WFBReenactRules.jpg

Warhammer first edition ©1983, Forces of Fantasy ©1984

It was perfect, and promised a whole new direction in his gaming. Very soon he was buying, molding and painting 25mm lead figures by the score, drawing maps of worlds, regions, cities and wards …

WFBReenactOldMapsMontage.jpg


… and running home-made roleplaying scenarios by the dozen. There was no actual warhammer world, just rules, races and spells. He had to make his own realms. Slowly his fantasy world grew and grew, and in amongst the roleplaying by groups of adventurers, there were battles to fight. Soon, fighting army against army would be as frequent as creeping through dungeons.

Next up, preparing for the battle.
 

Padre

Member
Preparation

November 1984

This was to be one of Eddie’s first battles using this year’s new supplement to the Warhammer Rules: “Forces of Fantasy”. He’d already roleplayed and wargamed lots with the basic rules, but this supplement brought much more to the game. It corrected some rules, modified others, and added loads of new troop types and battalions. Now he was putting together a battle scenario for two of his school friends, both newcomers to wargaming. He was going to provide the armies, the scenery, the story, as well as referee the game. Like most Warhammer players, Eddie and his mates always wargamed with a gamesmaster, just like when they roleplayed.

Scenery

Having just converted and repainted an old plastic toy tower from the corner of a castle he’d had from early childhood (King Arthur’s castle, Jean Hoffler/BIG, early 1970s)

WFBReenactTower2.jpg


… he decided the scenario would involve an evil, necromantic wizard. Of course, the tower would be the wizard's home, but Eddie wanted a little settlement for servants clustered around its base, so he needed more scenery. First there was his snap together Airfix ‘Le Haye Sainte’ 1:72 scale farmhouse model (produced 1974 – 1980) which seemed perfect.

WFBReenactLeHayeSainte.jpg


Then to add a few more buildings (for one farmhouse and yard did not seem enough of a settlement) he found out his first plaster-moulded Linka buildings (Linka, 1979 onwards).

WFBReenactLinka.jpg


These were very delicate things, made a little stronger by glueing cardboard behind the segmented wall sections, but were very satisfying hobby projects indeed. Pouring the plaster and water into the moulds, letting them dry, then very much enjoyed the act of carefully popping them out of the moulds. It really felt like you were building something.

WFBReenactLinka2.jpg


There was another piece of scenery he was wondering about, but could not decide on whether he wanted to use it – his 1:72 scale Airfix, Roman fort (available 1969 onwards):

WFBReenactRomanFort.jpg


He would make a decision whether or not to use it later.

The Army of Evil

Now Eddie had to write up the Battalion lists. He started with the bad guys, and decided that two battalions of approximately 1000 points would be sufficient for the battle.

First up was the necromancer and his Undead battalion …

UndeadBat.jpg


'Full on' necromancers (of mastery 3 or 4) cost way too much, so Eddie decided he would have a mere acolyte as the dweller in the tower. This type was mastery level 2 and would hopefully roll enough spells to make up for the still quite large points cost. Wizards get to pick their spells, but not how many they have from each level. (In the Book of Battalions, a black and white very soft covered supplement for Forces of Fantasy with example armies in, there was an army of 3 battalions called the Conjurations of the Insane Necromancer Colin. The first battalion, of 1000 pts value, consisted solely of … well … Colin.)

Eddie had to admit to not being certain how to generate the other characteristics (like Leadership and Will Power etc) for the acolyte, because the character gen' rules didn't list necromancer as an option, so he decided he would just make them up (using the character creation rules as a guideline) as he was the gamesmaster. Colin the Insane Necromancer had a full set (Int, Cl, WP and Ld) and they were all high, which can’t have come from random roles. He had also noticed that every other battalion section told the player how to generate a Leadership factor for the leader of every regiment (there was always a leader by default, even if not a champion), but the Undead battalion rules did not mention this. Maybe that was because all Undead regiments needed a Champion (a character) to lead them, in which case then he would have to create characteristics for them too. Later.

To represent the Necromancer he used a Citadel miniature of an evil elf sorcerer. She’d do, even if she was playing the part of a human male. Colin would just have to be a delicate sort of chap.

SkelbobNecromancer.jpg


The rest of the army would use a mixture of Citadel, Essex and Prince August figures. Here are the Skeleton Riders – Essex Miniatures figures (1980’s onwards)

SkelbobRiders.jpg


These were just about his favourite figures, having caused some mayhem as roleplaying NPCs. He was looking forward to seeing how they’d do in battle.

His main skeleton regiment was to be 30 strong (10 more than the maximum of 20 recommended for undead in the FoF booklet “Fighting Fantasy Battles”). But hey, it’s a fantasy world. This regiment was to consist of the newest figures he had, the latest Citadel skeletons …

1984CitadelSkeletons.jpg


… which he had painted since buying them in October.

SkelbobElite.jpg


His champions would contain a few of these new figures too, as well as a fine Mounted Undead Champion also from Citadel …

SkelbobChampions.jpg


The rest of his force would be made up of Citadel skeleton archers (with a smattering of Essex - or, actually, are they Grenadier? I honestly am not sure.) …

SkelbobArchers.jpg


… and a 20 strong regiment of Prince August moulded figures (produced in Ireland from 1976 onwards) he had made himself using lead ingots melted on the cooker in the kitchen and carefully poured into the rubber moulds. Mum turned out to be not too happy with this alchemical procedure and so later figures were to be made using a little calor gas stove in the back garden! These ones had turned out ok, he thought …

SkelbobPrinceAugust.jpg


He had more Prince August skeletons but thought he had better save these as the necromancer might actually manage to raise some during the battle.



The second evil battalion would be Red Goblins, which according to their fluff are the kind bred by wizards to do their bidding and to serve as their soldiers. Just right for this scenario:

GobBat.jpg


The leadership factors would be filled in (all D3) before the game. Once again there was a variety of figures in this battalion, though two sets of three-figure Prince August ‘orc’ warrior moulds and their ‘orc’ wolf rider mould would provide the bulk of the goblins. More exciting, two Regiments of Renown, a feature of the Forces of Fantasy supplement, would supply some elite (in the case in goblins – ‘ish’) troops for the force.

Two regiments of 30 Prince August warriors each would have standard bearers of a make Eddie never ascertained (he got them second hand from a convention stall). First the plate armoured regiment …

RedGobPlateRegFigs.jpg


… and then the red chicken boys.

RedGobShieldRegFigs.jpg


Now that’s what I call a fighting banner! These would be supported by a smaller, 20 goblin spear regiment (Eddie’s favourite of their orc moulds), each warrior sporting an ugly face design on his shield (annoyingly this can’t be seen in the picture) …

RedGobSpearRegFigs.jpg


The wolf riders were funny looking dudes, with scrawny wolves, but they made the Essex goblin hero look much better in comparison – at least he would stand out …

RedGobWolfFigs.jpg


The Regiments of Renown were all Citadel Miniatures, the models exactly like the illustrations in the Forces of fantasy book. They were Grom’s Goblin Guard …

GrommsGobGuardFigs.jpg


.. and Golgfag’s Ogres, fine and fearsome foes for any fantasy fight. :

GolgfagRuttdrogsFigs.jpg


Next: the Good guys.
 

Padre

Member
The Good Guys

Now Eddie needed to put together a force to fight the Necromancer’s evil army. Once again he would create it from the collection of stuff he’d been putting together over the last year, but this time there would be very few Citadel Miniatures figures in the army. (Note: This is not due to me not having more old figures, but because these were the figures we used at the time. The idea that you played Warhammer with only citadel figures had not yet occurred to anyone!)

This army needed two battalions – the King’s and the Baron’s. Eddie would worry about names, personalities and background when he wrote up the scenario. For now he simply needed about 2000 points of 'Men of the West'. The first would be the (petty) King’s own force, including his handful of noble knights, his royal men at arms, and large contingents of his labouring subjects carrying the longbows they are required by law to practise with from youth.

KingsBatList1.jpg


KingsBat1.jpg


The King would have a wizardly adviser with him – let’s face it, you’d want someone like this helping out when facing an evil mage and his magical army. His majesty would also ride upon the best destrier in his little realm, alongside his nobles (as was right and proper)) …

KingsBatKingKnightsWizard.jpg

These are Essex Miniatures Knights from the 1980s & a mid-1980s Citadel Mounted Wizard – obviously Gandalf of Shadowfax, although here the famous Mearas is painted … erm, well, black. (This figure is actually from 1985 when Citadel took over the license from Grenadier, in which case I’ve just revealed an historical anachronism. I said before that there had to be a few, otherwise this wouldn;t feel like a real reenactment! Or instead, and I suppose as this is a fantasy reenactment this is both possible and forgivable, I could claim Eddie has a little bit of magic about him, rather like Donnie Darko did ‘at the time’ (!), and has therefore somehow come into possession of a figure from 6 months in the future.)

The king’s longbowmen are numerous and colourful:

KingsBatLongBow.jpg

(My memory has failed me regarding the make of these guys. I did a web-search to ID these figures and turned up an image of them, but alas the caption simply said “No idea of the manufacturer”. I know I definitely had them in the 1980s. But did I have them in 1984. I think so.)

Next up, a little regiment of the royal household’s men at arms:

KingsBatMenAtArms.jpg


These are Essex Miniatures, apart from the heavily armoured fellow on the far right – he’s Citadel, from the 1983 Lawful Knights Warrior Knights of Law Speciality Set 5a:

ReenactLawfulKnights1.jpg


Eddie has the whole set, painted up, which he uses for his Warhammer roleplaying games …

ReenactLawfulKnights2.jpg


… but apart from the one already mentioned, the rest won’t feature in this particular battle.

The last regiment in the King’s battalion is a bunch of somewhat more rustic spearmen – the men of his petty kingdom’s ‘watch’ who, when not soldiering, act as forest and road wardens, gamekeepers etc.

KingsBatSpearmen.jpg

These figures are another band Eddie made from Prince August moulds, though he has messed about wit their shields and one or two have been converted a little to add a smattering of individuality. Milliput is something Eddie is finding very useful.

...

The Baron’s Battalion represents the soldier’s of the king’s most powerful vassal (his cousin), a man who governs the marcher regions and wilder portions of the King’s realm. His force is drawn from those lands, and as such is a little more ‘primitive’ than the king's, though the men are probably proportionately more rugged as a consequence.

BaronsBatList1.jpg


The force consists almost entirely of spearmen, either on foot or mounted, apart from a band of serf archers.

BaronsBat1.jpg


The baron is mounted, like his best warriors, on a sturdy little horse, but unlike them he sports rather more ‘fancy’ armour.

BaronsBatHorse.jpg


These are all Warrior Minatures’ Normans (Glasgow, 1973 onwards), but although the Baron – in the centre – is the same figure as the fellow to the left of him on the brown horse - Eddie has once again used milliput to make an otherwise historical Norman look, well, fantasy.

Eddie has been doing quite a lot of milluput conversions recently, altering quite a number of his Warrior Miniatures’ Normans to make them much more individual, better suited to the roleplaying scenarios. Although the following figures don’t feature in the army for this battle, here are three examples. Each picture shows multiples of the same figure, but converted in different ways …

ConvertedNormans3.jpg

ConvertedNormans1.jpg

ConvertedNormans2.jpg


Anyway, back to the battalion. Next up is the real backbone, the bulk of the baron’s force – three regiments of massed spearmen. 80 altogether: 60 armoured men at arms, and 20 lesser warriors without chainmail.

BaronsBatSpearRegiments.jpg

Once again, these are Warriors Miniatures' Normans, as are the last regiment below.

Finally we have the serfs, carrying normal bows and somewhat less flamboyantly attired than the rest of the army, being in undyed linen and wool (weirdly white and bright – well, that’s fantasy worlds for you).

BaronsBatLightBow.jpg


Next up, the scenario.
 

bug16

Member
Love it! :grin:

Those Prince August models certainly take me back to heady days of melting down wonderfully cast Citadel and Grenadier models into rather dodgely cast Prince August models. That may seem like madness now but at the time it made a lot of sense. I think. ;)
 

Padre

Member
Planning the Scenario

Eddie is setting this battle in his own invented Warhammer World, to create some background history for the lands around a city named Covahesh. The current ruler is King Rathard II, and Eddie decides this will be an historical battle from the time of Rathard II’s great grandfather of the same name, King Rathard I (the ‘petty king’ described in the above army lists).

Covahesh sits upon the Lonir River, just north of the Great Tumel Forest and west of the Plain of Lisbal. Baron Clarynn, commander of the second battalion, is the ruler of the eastern parts of this plain, his fiefdom stretching northwards from the plains to the foothills of the Byralz mountains (an area known as Mansoo), and south and east as far as the Uthral River, including the western mounds of the Green Odoth Hills.

Covahesh.jpg

(This map is, like the figures, from 1984. I have too much stuff, especially when you consider I haven't used this map, or the ringbinder file it was a part of, since 1985!! In 1986, or thereabouts, I magically turned this region and its neighbours into part of the Border Princes - a lucky match in terms of shape and nature. Thus I entered the actual Warhammer World.)

This all fits the sort of regiments the King and the Baron lead. The Baron’s riders are from the plains, his footmen from the settlements in the hills. The King’s handful of knights rule fiefs closer to the city, and have brought some of their vassals, while the smaller regiment of men at arms and longbowmen are from the city itself.

The ‘good’ Characters

King Rathard (Hero)

WS..BS..Str.T...W...I...A
6.....5...2...B...3....8..2

Using the Player Character rules from the basic rules, he rolls the following other characteristics for the king

Cool (2D6) 8
Intelligence (1D10) 9
Will Power (1D10) 2
Leadership (half D6, round down, add 1 if rank = knight or greater) 2

The stats seem to indicate a quiet, scholarly type, who is sometimes brave enough to ‘bear hardships’ but more like a martyr and not in the heroic way that inspires soldiers to follow - his Leadership of 2 is not enough to mean his stats add any modifiers to Fear, Terror or Morale rolls. The lack of will power does not indicate much in the way of determination, however, so probably the sort of man who changes his mind a lot, and leaves things incomplete. Yet he does have the basic stats of a hero, so he must be young, fit, from a family of warriors. And his title alone, being a king, means he will add +2 to morale tests of the unit he is leading.

KingPosing.jpg

King Rathard I outside one of the city gatehouses, attired for war in the latest fashion armour, wearing the yellow and blue colours of his House. This gate is guarded by men at arms who serve the king’s knight seen here on the king’s left.

Baron Clarynn (Mighty Hero)

WS..BS..Str..T...W...I...A
..7...5....3...C....3...11..3

Cool 6
Intelligence 2
Will Power 6
Leadership Factor 3

A leadership factor of 3 will have an effect, but such a low Intelligence means if he were a PC in the roleplaying version of the game he could not learn more than one skill! This guy is pretty thick! His other scores are average, so one can only assume men are inspired by him due to his Mighty Hero physical attributes and his fighting prowess on the field of battle.

BaronPosing.jpg

The brutish Baron Clarynn rides out on a hunt at the head of his retainers.

Eddie likes these characters, and didn’t feel the need to ‘nudge’ the results of the rolls (a GM’s prerogative, he believes). A weak-willed but young and clever king makes him think of his O Level Eng’ Lit’ Shakespeare studies and King Richard II. Whereas, Baron Clarynn just sounds like a thug. And why not?

The Bad Guy

The troublesome minor-necromancer, one Master Hobollig, has occupied and repaired (as well as his goblins could do so) the ruined tower of Baal in the eastern reaches of Green Odoth. This used to be the home of a wizard who was lord of the relatively treeless valley between Bendaw forest and the hills. Eddie has already decided he wants this necromancer to rely on something other than his own necromantic skills (which, as he is only an acolyte, are limited) to give him command of such a force. Perhaps it is something to do with the tower, which is the reason the necromancer occupied it?

An idea is forming in Eddie’s mind. While that idea brews, we had best take a look at the Necromancer:

BaalTowerandNecromancer.jpg


Master Hobollig is an acolyte necromancer. Some stats are derived from the entry in the Forces of Fantasy supplement, others are derived from the basic rules Characters and Magic Book, with a bit of GM interpretation needed where things are not clear (Like how a Wizard’s Constitution is his Will Power + 2D6, but is also 2D4 x his mastery level +4, but is also listed simply as 12. In truth, these aren’t exactly contradictory – the first refers to starting player characters, the second to random NPC generation, the third to the Undead Acolyte entry for the battalion. But they do mean you have to think a bit about what you’re doing.)

Master Hobollig

WS..BS..Str..T...W...I... A
..4....3...2... B.. 2....7....1

Cool 7
Intelligence 10
Will Power 4
Leadership 1

Mastery 2
Constitution 12

Non-necromancy spells – 1D3 at Mastery Level 1 (1), 1D2 at Mastery Level 2 (2)
Level 1..Windblast (24”, knock unit to ground, preventing shoot/move next turn)
Level 2..(a) Lightning Bolt (24”, Str 4)
..........(b) Mystic Mist (once/day, 12” diameter, slows units caught to 1” random movement)

Necromancy spells - 1D2 at Mastery Level 1 (2), 1D2-1 at Mastery Level 2 (1)
Level 1..(a) Command Undead (extend control range to 24” for 3D6 turns)
..........(b) Hold Undead (forbid them to approach within 12”, lasts 3D6 turns per mastery level)
Level 2.(a) Raise Dead (summon 2D6 zombies or 3D6 skeletons once per day)

Hobollig got lucky with the rolls, even getting a Level 2 necromancy spell. Eddie decides he can let them all stand. A player (or GM) can simply choose the spells from the list, but the necromantic lists are short (three level 1 and two level 2!). Eddie picked Hold Undead simply because it suited the story – it was the spell Hobollig would learn before even approaching the Tower of Baal. From the stats Hobollig seems a very cunning sort of fellow (maximum intelligence for a human), and has the maximum number of Necromancy spells available to him at both levels, so he has studied the art well so far.

Back to that idea. Eddie wants the scenario to revolve around defeating Hobollig, obviously, but wants to incorporate the location as part of the victory mechanics – to make it more than a simple army versus army battle, and to explain why Hobollig has occupied a tower within reach of natural enemies.

The Tower of Baal

BaalTower.jpg


This ancient, yet unexceptional, tower was once occupied by a wizard of great repute. He spent his entire life studying the art of alchemy and (secretly) the darker arts of necromancy, yearning to find not just an elixir of life, but a potion that reinvigorated the dead, returning them to life. Finally, he fashioned a chymical compound which solidified into a solid lump of visibly energetic matter. When he channelled magical power into it, however, all hell broke loose. The scattered corpses he had been using for years in his experiments, discarded and left to rot throughout the tower until some were almost entirely skeletal, all burst into un-life – each and every one filled with hatred for the necromancer who had imprisoned, starved, tortured, killed and then horribly reinvigorated them with incantations. Infused with tremendous energy they attacked him and tore him to pieces.

After this the valley became a hellish place of nightmares, depleted of all living things by the nightly bands of meandering undead that issued from the tower. As the years went by, the power of the necromantic stone diminished, until only ghosts inhabited the shadows of night and life could return to the valley.

Master Hobollig learned of the place, sifting through garbled myth and legend to ascertain the truth concerning its location and past. He came to the tower to se if he could make use of the stone himself to boost the power of his own necromantic conjurations and spells. His approach to experimentation was rather more cautious than the ancient necromancer (helped by the fact that he was still – mostly – sane). He slowly, carefully re-empowered the stone. After several quiet months, during which his growing band of red goblin and Ogre mercenaries guarded the valley from unwanted incursions, or curious travellers, he has finally learned how to allow the stone’s energies to flow in a controlled manner, so that he retained mastery of the undead that were so invigorated.

Then, just as he was congratulating himself and wracking his brains to try to recall what it was he wanted to do when he had control of an undead army (he had carelessly forgotten along the way!) he learned from his mercenary goblin scouts that an armed force was approaching from the west.

The Battle Scenario

King Rathard’s wizardly adviser knows about the history of the Tower of Baal, and has (correctly) assumed that something remains there that is empowering the necromancer’s incantations. He has told the king that if he can get inside the tower, he can destroy the source of the necromancer’s power. For this he has prepared his own alchemical mixture to pour upon the stone and shatter it.

Victory will thus be determined by whether or not the stone is destroyed. If it is destroyed, the Undead have to start taking two Instability tests per turn instead of one, or, if it is night, one test instead of none!

The wizard will need successfully to cast ‘Detect Object’ once inside the Tower, then spend a turn getting to it and destroying it. He has told the king and baron about the stone and his mixture, so that if he was to be incapacitated the king or the baron could try to do what he intended, though if they do try they have only a 4,5,6 chance of succeeding – considering they don’t have his magical sense or knowledge, and they don’t have the Detect Object spell.

The king’s forces will attack in daylight, as undead are not subject to instability at night. This is a crucial part of their plan. Normally a GM must roll 2D6 to determine how many turns of the battle will be fought before twilight (2-12 spread, average of 7), but considering that the king’s forces are deliberately trying to attack early in the day, Eddie decides to increase the minimum and average number of turns by rolling 4D3 instead (thus a 4-12 spread, with an average of 10). Twilight lasts two turns, after which darkness proper falls.

So, Eddie now needs to prepare the ‘good’ wizard prepared for this particular mission. Time to roll up stats and choose spells.

Acolyte, the Wizard Raccaltacc

WS..BS..Str...T...W...I...A
.4....3.....2....B....2...4...1

Cool 8
Intelligence 8
Will Power 7
Leadership Factor 0

Mastery 2
Constitution 14

Spells – 1D4 at Mastery Level 2 (3), 2D4 at Mastery Level 1 (7)
Level 1..Windblast (24”, knock unit to ground, preventing shoot/move next turn)
...........Blessing (gives person touched a saving throw versus non-magical wounds)
..........Cure Light Injury
..........Detect Hidden Doors
..........Detect Object
..........Fireball (1 ball per mastery level, attack strength 2)
.......... Flight (12” flight)
Level 2..(a) Aura of Protection (4,5,6 saving throw on all wounds on wizard)
..........(b) Hold Door (only Balrog, Great Demon or ‘Smash Door’ spell can break down)
..........(c) Aura of Steadfastness (unit immune to fear/terror, +2 to morale)

Next: The actual battle report.
 

Padre

Member
The Battle, Part One

(Author’s Note: Due to the nature of this project I was going to write this purely as a description of the game and rules, but all three players asked me to write it in my usual ‘story’ style, putting game notes in italics. All three said they don’t read dice-roll and measurement style reports. I bowed to their collective wisdom and proceeded accordingly.)

As the sun rose in the sky that morning, the valley in which the Tower of Baal stood was quiet.

ReBatTerrain.jpg


Yet beyond the western slope all was haste and activity as King Rathard’s army marched as fast as their legs (or their mount’s legs) would carry them. The king had ordered that they must reach the valley as early as possible in the day, thus the army had decamped and begun its advance shrouded in darkness. Knowing the nature of their foe meant this was a frightening time, for the dark was to the undead what daylight was to the living, and so when the dawn came a cheer went up from the army. Less than an hour later they had arrayed themselves and advanced in line over the western shoulder of the valley.

(Note: As per the modified rules for the scenario, 4D3 determined the turns of daylight remaining, during which the undead would be subject to instability – 9. After this would be two more turns of twilight during which battle could continue but the undead would not be unstable, and then darkness would fall and the battle would surely end. So, an 11 turn game then.)

King Rathard rode almost at the centre of the army, and almost directly in front of the Tower of Baal. Baron Clarynn and a company of his mounted men at arms rode behind the king’s noble guard. Nearly all of the king’s own footsoldiers (both his men at arms and one of his longbow regiments) were upon his majesty’s flanks.

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(Note: With deployment anywhere up to 6” from the player’s table edge, the first edition rules didn’t really allow for any depth. As to why the longbow on the far right of the picture are apparently 10” in I have no idea. No-one noticed on the day, so I reckon no-one noticed in our fictional 1984. Or, maybe, no-one cared – it looked right and they were still a long way from the tower.)

The longbow had been ordered to head towards some high ground near the centre of the field from where they might pour arrows upon whosoever they wishes, while out on the very right flank of the army the other of his longbow regiments had been ordered to take advantage of the high ground there right from the initial deployment.

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To their left and below them, the Baron’s second body of riders trotted forwards, slowed momentarily by his regiment of light spearmen. The Baron’s two large regiments of armoured spearmen flanked the King’s main battalion. The Wizard Raccaltacc had decided to advance very cautiously indeed and so rode forwards alone, hidden by a covering copse of trees which he intended to creep through and have a look at the situation at the tower before deciding exactly what to do.

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To his left the Baron’s archers marched in their cheap tunic of undyed wool, while upon the wizard’s right there was the loud fluttering long banner belonging to the King’s more rustic soldiers.

Master Hobollig commanded his forces as best he could to array for battle. The goblins, typically, proved somewhat wilful and contrary in their ways, either forgetting or ignoring some of his commands. Whichever it was, the necromancer was already wondering if he might regret employing such base creatures for his army. In fact it occurred to him in a moment of madness (or clarity) that if he had poisoned their beer the night before he could perhaps now – with the power of the magical stone within the Tower of Baal – have been commanding an equal sized army of zombies, which may well have improved their ability to follow orders.

(Note: The evil forces were divided between Damien and Simon, who both played the role of 14 year old lads from 1984 very well indeed. I myself congratulated them on their authentically stupid arguments several times, especially the way Damien, who commanded the undead, mimed going for the goblin general’s throat every time Simon turned his back.)

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Hobollig found himself outside of his tower arraying his forces when the enemy marched over the hill in to the valley. (Note: The GM hadn’t thought about that when he set up the scenery, and the 6” deployment meant no-one could start in the tower. If a player had asked to do so, for common sense reasons, Eddie would have allowed it, but the players in question were too busy arguing about deploying over the line that had been agreed.)

Most of the skeletons were arrayed on the right flank, with Golgfag’s Ogres very close to the Tower itself. Master Hobollig intended these hulking brutes to stand before the tower and prevent any access. The goblins were massed mostly on the left, with Grom behind them ready to shore up any weak spot that might appear in their lines.

The two little companies of wolf riders took up position on the far, far left, with orders to distract and draw away any forces that might advance up that flank. (Note: The Forces of Fantasy book told Eddie that Red Goblin wolf riders were grouped into little units of 5, so he did so.)

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Master Hobollig, standing with his armoured skeleton guard, now turned to look to his left, and wondered whether Golgfag’s impressive warriors could be relied on the hold the tower.

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And so the battle was to begin.

[Note: As per the rules we tossed a coin for who got first turn. I was a little bit surprised that in a game of piles of dice they rules said toss a coin. There was a moment’s panic as we realised we might not have an authentic coin and the whole experiment might have to stop there and then, but then I found a penny piece dated 1977 in my pocket and it was ‘GAME ON’)

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King Rathard gave the order to advance cautiously, all the better to assess the disposition and intentions of the foe, as well as to see what might be required to gain access to the tower. Out on the army’s right flank a little more haste was being exhibited as the Baron’s second regiment of riders moved directly towards the two tiny wolf-rider units, who seemed a weak foe indeed to their eyes. Archers and light Spearmen did what they could to keep up.

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(Note: This was the first movement phase, another would follow, because everyone was so far from the foe they were thus allowed a second move.)

The Baron trotted forwards behind the King and his knights, still wondering at the King’s supposed wisdom in holding him back until an opportunity arose for him to make a dash for the tower in support of the wizard.

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On the other side of the field Master Hobollig’s forced jigged hither and thither into what seemed to them the best form in which to receive the foe, while the Necromancer’s long dead horse warriors came up on the right flank at a pace, perhaps drawn by the weak magical aura emitted by the wizard Raccaltacc (adorned as he was in magical tokens and amulets, with wizardly spells sitting on the very tip of his tongue). Golgfag the mercenary Ogre led his ‘Rutdroggs’ past the tower, the regiment splitting in two then reforming in front of the building. Behind them Master Hobollig fumbled with his keys as he let himself into the tower – he intended to watch the rest of the battle from the comfort of a window seat.

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On the wicked army’s left, however, considerably less zeal was being exhibited, as both bodies of wolf riders, very much contrary to their orders, turned about and headed off towards the safety of the rear of the grey stoned farm building.

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(Turn 2)

Spurred on by the sight of a foe so easily dismayed as to flee almost before the battle had begun, the Baron’s riders out on the right continued their advance as once more the two foot regiments to their rear did their best to keep up, with some of the longbowmen loosing hurriedly aimed shots at the fleeing wolfriders.

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Meanwhile in the centre of the field the King’s first longbowmen reached the summit of the little hill and immediately set about loosing a volley of arrows at the massed regiment of heavily armoured goblins before them, killing two.

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The Baron’s archers also tried a shot at the skeleton riders (Note: As the riders were not yet within 6” they did not yet cause fear, thus no test was necessary in order to shoot at them. Also there was no modifier for moving and shooting, not when you use your own legs anyway!) The archers all then continued their advance (second movement phase).

King Rathard, his white steed’s yellow barding being easily discerned by his soldiers, came on slowly and surely. Upon his majesty’s immediate right was knight keen on hunting with the crossbow. This fellow, who had entered the field with his bow already spanned (Note: An old house rule we always used back in the 80s), let fly with his quarrel but to no effect.

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Why the death of two plate armoured goblins should so annoy the spear wielding regiment next to them no-one else can ever know, but annoy them it did, for the spear goblins turned and charged smack into the flank of their nieghbours …

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… killing another two of them.

Note: Failed animosity led to this fight, and the lack of anything akin to charge arcs meant that the angry spear goblins simply turned on the spot and charged. Interestingly it was now that we discovered some text that might well be one of the first Warhammer Fantasy Battle rules contradictions …

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RAW thus indicates that the angrier one mob of goblins becomes concerning another mob, the less likely they are to attack. It was obvious that the rules meant for the modifier to be used on the second roll, not the initial one. Also note how the rules go on to explain what happens after a few battles – indicating that these little lead guys are meant to remember grudges from game to game to game! Cool!

While the large foot regiments engaged in their bloody disagreement, the wolf riders scuttled further behind the farmhouse, desperate to hide themselves away from the Baron’s riders. (This was entirely Simon’s decision, as he wanted to role-play what his little guys would be likely to do.)

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As the skeleton horse came on, their purple and red banner fluttering as they did so, its sound almost totally lost amongst the sound of cracking, tendon-less joints …

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… Master Hobollig, having stood muttering incantations just long enough at the first floor window, cast the ancient spell commonly known as ‘Mystic Mist’.

(The spell needs one movement phase’s worth of rest to cast – he had climbed some stairs in this turn's first movement phase, but had rested in the second and thus could legally cast it. 4 points of Constitution later and the spell was automatically cast. Units within the mist move 1” at random, although I do recall we had house rules about units getting out with the aid of members who were already outside!)

The magical mist now formed immediately before the wizard Raccaltracc, its thick miasma extending far enough to cover some of men at arms and archers nearby.

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The Wizard Raccalltrac, wholly engulfed in thick, swirling mist, simply chuckled. (As did Ant.) He knew exactly what spell he would cast next.

End of Turn 2. Up to 9 more to go!
 

Thantsants

Member
Wow - so much properly old school goodness!

The battle report, background and maps are all amazing but what I really love is the tales of inter-garden warfare - that musy have been a brilliant street to live on :lol:

I never realised how much I miss my old Britains knights and cowboys and injuns!


Which bit of South Yorkshire do you hail from by the way? I reckon we'll need a bit of a Yorkshire meet up at some point. Vapnartak in York might be a good idea... :mrgreen:
 

Padre

Member
Not South Yorkshire, just south of you two. I hail from West Yorkshire.

Yeah, my childhood was ace. I was the oldest boy in the street and all the others just followed my lead, thus we had about 5 dedicated wargamers, in the sense that 10-16 year old kids before Warhammer and without any real historical rules could be. We just made our own rules. If it rained the garage floor would become a weird region where 4 or 5 WW2 tech level countries all bordered each other, locked in a forever war.

When is Vapnartak?

And ... long question coming up ... am I right in assuming the word 'Wapentak' written all over my 17th century Yorkshire maps is a variant spelling of the same word? (Originally bashing weapons and shields together as part of a meeting, became the subdivisions of the three Ridings of Yorkshire, equivalent of the 'hundreds' in the south)?

No idea why I am asking now, here. Stream of consciousness I suppose.
 

Padre

Member
Battle, Part Two

(Turn 3)
Most of the King’s army continued their advance, except for the two regiments caught up in the mystic mist with the wizard who halted at Raccaltracc’s command. “Hold fast I pray thee,” he cried, “I shall clear this momentarily.” Thus he began the preparations necessary for the spell he intended to cast.

The bowmen still outside of the mist saw no reason not to shoot, which they did – though to no effect. The longbowmen let loose much more impressive volleys (every man in the regiment on the hill able to shoot) yet between them killed only one goblin.

Then came the wizard’s magical command, summoning a windblast to disperse the magical mist completely. (Note: Eddie the GM decided a magical wind should indeed blow away a magical mist.)

On the other side of the battlefield the goblins continued to act in a typically unhelpful manner, with the wolf riding hero leading his little unit in a brave attack on the rear of the other wolf rider unit. Presumably he did not like them taking the lead and intended to show them what happens when they get in his way.

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As a result yet another goblin died to a goblin’s blade! A somewhat more glorious charge occurred on the evil army’s far right flank, as the skeleton riders hurled their mass of bones and rusted armour into the blue liveried spearmen on the hill.

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Somehow the spearmen found the courage to stand in the face of this onslaught, even calmly deciding that they would not countercharge as the peak of the hill was a good place to be in a fight.

(Note: The spearmen passed their Terror test with a roll modified with +2 due to their Leadership factor of 4. Skeletons cause Terror when they initially charge or countercharge men. But now another rules conundrum became apparent. Things that cause Terror also cause Fear – in fact so much so that the Fear test is taken with a -1 DM. But if you pass your Terror test on 8+ it says you are ‘uneffected’ (the writer meant unaffected, but this was printed before spell-checking programs). If you are unaffected by Terror then surely the Fear thing doesn’t happen? BUT if you are affected by Terror you run away (either dropping everything as you do so, routing or until you are 2 foot away). So, if you are affected by Terror, Fear tests don’t come into play ‘cos you’re already running - which means the Terror causes Fear rule makes no sense.

We thought perhaps the Terror causes Fear rule was meant to apply when Fear causers push the enemy back, as then the 'afeared' are automatically routed, but as that happens automatically without any die roll then the -1 modifier was still redundant. Once more, the rules left us foundering.

Worse still, the rules say that when you fight an enemy you fear then you suffer a -2 DM to hit. But if you fail a Fear test, you run, or don’t charge in the first place, thus you're not fighting anyway, and otherwise you’re ‘ok’, which makes one doubt the -2 doesn’t apply.

Aaargh!! In all honesty, I think our 2012 mindset was getting in the way –I don’t recall an issue with these tests back in 1984, yet here and now, with experience of 2nd to 8th ed rules, suddenly it all seemed unclear. We were looking for clarification that perhaps would not have occurred to us in the GM-guided games of 1984. ‘Eddie’ simply said he would adjudicate as per individual situations. I do vaguely recall undead being perceived in the mid 80s as very, very hard to beat.
)

The spearmen, their shafts wedged against the ground by their right foot, received the charge as a solid block, killing two of the bony riders. But then the skeleton hero (Note: who was the only one of the four that rolled great stats on the skeleton hero chart – 6 stat lines possible, from truly awful to truly awesome) set about the men with his rusted blade and killed three of them. Thus the men’s courage failed and they broke and fled, pursued by the skeleton riders who failed to inflict more harm on them.

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(Note: Combat resolution is based on number of casualties alone, no other factors. You auto flee when Fear causers push you back. Pursuers gain two free blows, one as the enemy breaks, another as they catch up with them. But the riders failed to kill anyone anyway.)

Luckily, what with the King, Baron and the Wizard Raccaltracc being close by (Note: giving morale test modifiers to units within 15”) the other units on that wing of the King’s army did not falter at the sight of the spearmen’s flight, but rather steeled themselves for what they themselves might face.

Once more the King’s army advanced, for the most part cautiously, towards the foe. The woollen clad archers slew two of the armoured skeleton warriors ahead of them, while the two Longbow units combined their efforts to kill two more of the armoured goblins in the centre. Raccaltracc now threw a fireball at the skeleton hero leading the armoured skeletons but failed to fell the ancient warrior, merely burning some mould off his bones. Another spearmen fell to the skeleton horsemen on their heels, after which the undead riders managed to halt their pursuit (Note: Must then spend their next first movement phase reforming their ranks and files, being able to move in the second mvmt phase.)

The goblins’ general animosity towards their own kind was now becoming rife: the plate armoured goblins squabbling amongst themselves (D6 fighting each other!) while the large foot regiment supposedly advancing to protect the army’s left flank now turned about and charged the squabbling wolf-riders in the rear. Three units were thus engaged in fighting not the enemy but each other!

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The skeleton archers now felled a mounted man at arms in the Baron’s personal guard, while the Baron’s spearmen continued their flight away from the field of battle.

Still wary of the forces directly defending the tower …

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… the right of the King’s army advanced once again in a cautious manner.

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But out on the far right, keen not to lose the opportunity presented to them, the Baron’s other regiment of riders charged into the rear of the squabbling goblins:

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Huzzah! Yet their well executed charge somehow failed to hit home (May have been something to do with Uryens rolling his own dice – he still hasn’t mastered rolling even close to average never mind anything good. One day, I presume, he will cross the fulcrum balancing his life's worth of good and bad luck and thus do marvelously well with his rolls from that point on.) and the goblins not only turned to face them but killed one of the riders! This came as a shock and the riders were pushed back. The goblins took the opportunity to expand their frontage to eight.

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Elsewhere, the King’s men rejigged their lines and formations to ready themselves for the fight in the centre of the field. (Note: 2nd movement phase is after combat.)

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The wizard Raccaltracc, meanwhile, had ridden to join the white archers nearby, just after they had felled another armoured skeleton. He cast the magical Aura of Steadfastness on them so that they would not fall foul of the fear that had afflicted the blue spearmen.

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Those blue spearmen were still fleeing – they would, if they did not halt soon, leave the field of battle altogether.

As the goblin wolf riders continued their idiotic melee, killing another three of their number, the mounted riders managed to hold their own against the goblins this time (This was a draw, so the ‘push back counter’ – as the players came to call it – was reset to zero) The skeleton riders moved closer to the left flank of the archers with Raccaltracc, while the skeleton archers felled a lone green spearman.

Master Hobollig, watching all with interest from his window, and noting the reluctance of most of the foe to close with his warriors, laughed, then calmly cast a wind-blast spell at Baron Clarynn and his riders, which from the way in which they had pushed to the fore seemed to be the only unit that seemed particularly keen to engage in a fight.

End of Turn 5
 

Padre

Member
Battle - Final Installment

Turn 6

Having cast the spell ‘Aura of Steadfastness’ on the white-clad archers (actually done at the end of the good guys’ turn 5), the wizard Raccaltracc and the archers wheeled cautiously to their left and let loose a volley at the terrifying skeleton riders mounting the hill beside them. They felled one rider, undoing the magic binding it together, and so sent a scree of bones and ancient armour sliding down the slope. (No missile die modifier for moving and shooting!) Seeing that the loss of one of their number was not going to stop the undead riders, the wizard Raccaltracc summoned up a windblast to prevent their continued advance. The archers cheered at this, suddenly feeling a lot better about their predicament.

Upon the other side of the now windy hill, however, the blue-liveried spearmen were in much worse spirits as they finally left the field of battle altogether. The strange breeze did carry the sound of cheering to them, but it was transformed by their own dark fear into an awful sound. They would not come back.

In the centre of the battlefield the King’s army once again advanced cautiously, moving into positions from which they could launch their charges - that is, should they ever find the courage to do so!

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One regiment of spearmen, the men of the King’s Watch, moved more boldly than the rest and thus found themselves somewhat isolated ahead of the main line, heading towards skeleton archers and armoured warriors.

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Having noticed the advance of these spearmen, a sight which gave him no small feeling of pride, King Rathard looked instead to his right and saw that he had three regiments of foot poised to attack two of goblins …

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… though it annoyed him that the whole battle line was not shifted to the left, for as it was he and his knights were facing a regiment of red cloaked, great-weapon wielding skeletons rather than being able to make a dash for the tower. It also worried him that his wizardly servant Raccaltracc was busied in the rear, when he really ought to be up at the front looking for a way to reach the Tower of Baal himself. After all, it was Raccaltracc who carried the necessary magical potion to destroy the stone within.

Behind the farm the wolf-riding goblins continued their bloody struggle, their champion being wounded as another rider was killed. The plate-armoured goblins in front of the farm also found themselves uncontrollably angry with the spear unit next to them (who had killed several of their number in an earlier struggle) and charged into them – in their hatred they were utterly heedless of the multitude of enemies closing in on them. Perhaps ironically, it was one of their own number who was to die in the ensuing melee.

At least Grom was still thinking about the foe and his orders, so he moved his little guard into the Tower of Baal to set about preparing its defence, should such prove necessary. This pleased Master Hobollig, as did the fact that the goblin regiment on the far left of the field stubbornly held their ground against the mounted men at arms (Another draw). No horsemen were going to outflank his force. Not yet, at least.

Amazed to see that the goblins were fighting each other, the light spearmen decided this was surely the moment for their strike and charged the plate-wearing regiment of goblins before them …

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… while the longbowmen off to the side rushed into the farmyard intending (if possible) to use it as a petty fortress from which to shoot at the of from relative safety. Already several of the men at the fore were eyeing up the barn to their left, and wondering how easy it might be to tear through the slate roof.

The King’s Watch spearmen closed that little bit more, having been ordered to draw the foe away from the tower if possible, and bravely trying to do just that. Elsewhere on the field it seemed all the goblins’ internal squabbling had got their blood up, for they now fought ferociously. The regiment tangled with the Baron’s flanking riders brought one of the men own, and in so doing actually pushed the horsemen back! (Note: 2” push back and lapping two goblins around each flank.)

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The plate-armoured goblins fared well too, their blades working better against the foe than they had against other goblins. They also pushed the light spearmen back.

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The goblin spear warriors by their right reformed to ready themselves to receive a charge from the massive regiment of green and red liveried Baron’s spearmen, keeping themselves neatly aligned with the skeleton regiment further to the right.

Raccaltracc, although beginning to worry concerning his reserves of magical power, once more wind-blasted the skeleton riders, but this time the enchanted wind interfered with the archers’ arrows and they failed to hit a thing.

At the rear of the field, Faddgit (the goblin hero riding a wolf) now decided enough was enough, left the two last wolf-riders hacking away at each other and rode off alone towards the Tower of Baal. He was beginning to wonder if he would get ever be paid by Master Hobollig considering his two companies of wolf riders had done nothing more useful than kill each other! Meanwhile, the spear goblins, now that the other goblins were busy fighting the foe, decided to put their squabbles as side and advanced a little towards the foe, maintaining their alignment with the red-cloaked skeletons.

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Now either thrusting all around or slashing furiously with their swords, the Baron’s riders behind the barn began slaying goblins, killing enough to unnerve the greenskins and so push them back. (Back 2” and goblins lose their lapped round guys back to the main body.) In the centre of the battlefield, however, it was the light spearmen who were losing ground, pushed further back by the plate-armoured goblins. (One more push-back and they would rout.)

Only slightly annoyed at the crashing sounds and cursing coming from Grom’s guard in the room below him, Hobollig saw what Raccaltracc was doing and decided two could play that game. Once again he summoned his own windblast and once again he halted the Baron and his riders in their tracks. But he could only stop one regiment, and so it was that King Rathard was able to lead his knights in a charge at the skeleton warriors (No bonus to the Terror test due to Rathard’s low LD stat, but they passed anyway) while the Green Spear regiment hurled themselves into the goblins.

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The ensuing fights went in the men’s favour, the knights killing four skeletons, their warhorses trampling another two. The skeletons fell back a little, pushed by the sheer force of the impact. They were not alone, as the goblin spearmen at their side were also pushed back. Perhaps emboldened by the sight of their comrades’ attacks, the light spearmen now found the courage to fight on, and refused to budge back further. (Note: Draw, resetting the ‘push-back’ counter.)

Out on the left, however, something unexpected occurred: the large regiment of King’s Watch spearmen, at last truly seeing the horrible nature of the foe close up, lost all their courage. To a man they dropped their spears and shields and fled from the battlefield as fast as their legs could carry them. (Note: Failed Terror test when within 6” of skeleton archers, the result they rolled = drop everything and run away. Quite a fail!)

While the white class archers shifted their aim from the wind-blasted skeleton riders to Golgfag’s ogres, wounding one, the longbowmen in the farm, occupied the barn and (as the GM agreed was possible) they began smashing the roof open from inside in preparation for shooting again. Raccaltracc, however, now thought it best to conserve what magical reserves he had left, for he would need to cast spells once he entered the tower. Thus the wind whipping at the undead riders began to ebb away.

(Note: It was now the bad guys’ 8th turn, and yet again Damo rolled ok for Instability. That’s eight passes in a row, and all the time Uryens was kinda relying on at least one fail causing upset in the enemy’s lines. Eddie reckoned Damo rolled dice like Tommy played the pinball machine – ‘played by sense of smell’ … or something. Also, notice also the pertinent film references here, for Tommy had been around for 9 years by 1984? This is a properly authentic re-enactment.)

The last surviving goblin wolf rider now decided to attempt to leap the high gate of the courtyard and attack the longbowmen inside. Unsurprisingly this ambitious intention failed and he ended up in agony below the gate, the wolf having thrown him and ragged him with its teeth for such a stupid action. (Note: The GM decided that Simon could try this, succeeding on a roll of 12 on a 2D6. If he failed he would receive a strength 3 hit. He did fail. He died. Once again Simon had deftly played a daft teenager to a tee. (That sentence was fun to type!))

As the brave goblins at the rear once more held their ground against he mounted men-at-arms (another of many no-score draws), and the plate-armoured goblins did the same against the light spear, the spear goblins were pushed back by the green spearmen and so were the red-cloaked skeletons by King Rathard and his noblemen.

Important Note: It was just this moment, almost 9 turns into the game, that something dawned on all us re-enactors at the table – a very embarrassing ‘slip’. We had been playing 8th ed. style casualty removal – i.e. 2nd rankers step forwards so that the front rank always gets all its attacks. Of course this is not how it was in first edition. Nor, and this is the embarrassing part, did it do so in editions 2 through 7. In other words I had played the old way for about 25 years and here in this game I forgot entirely how it was done. Oops! When we considered what had gone on so far, however, we decided the results hadn’t been too out of kilter with what they should have been. It was possible that the good guys (with better Initiatives) could have pushed back or routed a goblin regiment back a little bit sooner, but not likely enough to make us want to start the game again.

Finally released from the wind, the mounted skeleton champion and his two companions now came charging down the hill into the white archers. Two bowmen fell to the champion’s deadly blade, while one skeleton rider was slain, but because of the steadfast spell still affecting them, the archers refused to run. (Note: Without the spell they would have routed, as you always run when defeated by a fear causing foe!)

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Laughing maniacally, and beginning to feel that the battle had become nothing but a game in which to pass the time until darkness fell and the enemy would surely flee in terror, Master Hobollig continued directing his windblast at Baron Clarynn and his riders so that they still could not approach the tower.

Turn 9, Last turn of daylight. After that, only two turns of twilight and then … the long, dark night.

King Rathard’s forces where now either unable or unwilling to move, being in combat with the foe or ensconced just where they wanted to be with their bows. Nine longbowmen could see out of the smashed roof and so began taking pot-shots at the Ogres. Although their aim was off, a better-aimed volley from the other longbowmen on the central hill did fell an ogre.

Even now, after a long and hard fight, the Baron’s riders behind the farm could not push back the goblins (yet another scoreless draw), but in the centre of the field, the fight was going more King Rathard’s way. The light spearmen finally routed the plate-armoured goblins, and so chased after them (their two free blows getting them no kills!) …

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… then the King and his knights also routed the skeletons chasing as they fled alongside one of the Tower of Baal’s outbuildings.

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(Note: We could find no rule anywhere that said skeletons do not rout after 3 push backs like most troops. Goblins last only 2 turns, Elves and dwarfs longer. But nothing about undead, so we assumed they do exactly what 'average' troops do. Immune to psychology wasn't yet invented. I wish I could remember if we had played them as immune in practice. It might simply have seemed self evident to us at the time.)

The green spear regiment was not so fortunate, however, and was pushed back yet again by the goblins. So too were the white archers facing the undead rider and champion, but as Raccaltracc was still with them, his Aura of Steadfastness protected them from fear. Not that the wizard intended to stay with them any longer, for he cose now to cast his flight spell, which lifted him and his horse (‘Why not the horse’, said Eddie when Uryens asked) towards the centre of the field.

(Note: No rule about having to stay with a unit if they are in combat, though the wizard was not actually in base to base contact, which made it seem ok to us 2012ers. Very flexible these old rules, eh?)

As soon as the wizard landed, the lone goblin wolf rider champion charged him, though whether it was the wolf who made the decision to do so or the rider no-one could say. (Here you can see the wolf rider doing one of those old Oliver Hardy style glances at the camera as if to say “What?”)

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The Baron’s riders at the rear were beginning to tire now, both they and their horses feeling the onset of darkness, and they were finally pushed back again by the goblins. The green clad spearmen managed to hold their ground and not be pushed back again …

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… while the white archers also, even with the magical aura lifted from them, somehow found the courage to fight on some more.

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Baron Clarynn, his regiment’s ranks thinned by the enemy’s archery, and still held by the windblast, could only watch as a large regiment of armoured skeletons approached him.

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King Rathard now knew the battle was surely lost: Raccaltrac was trading blows with a wolf-rider and the Baron was blocked, leaving only him and his knights free to try to take the Tower; but Golgfag and his Ogres stood menacingly before Baal, and inside were Grom’s guard.

ReBatPic44.jpg

(Actually Grom had popped out for a pee just at that moment – you can see him by the side door.)

But the final nail in the coffin, the straw that broke the camel’s back, the last straw, etc and what not, was that darkness was now falling, and what little illumination the twilight offered would soon be snuffed out entirely. There simply was not enough time to get into the tower now (Note: only with two turns of Twilight left), even if the monstrous guards could be overcome.

With an exasperated cry, King Rathard turned to his noblemen. Remembering the words from an enjoyable book he had read recently he shouted:

“Gentlemen, the day is lost. This is not our time. To stay here would be folly. Disperse, I command you, and order the retreat of my army. Save all you can, and save yourselves. For you have done me proud this day, and I will never forget …

But his knights had already gone. And within moments, everyone was running.

“Oh,” said the King.

Game conceded at end of turn 9, with only two turns of Twilight left. Everyone assumed that Baal would become bonkers at night if master Hobollig was still in possession.

…………….

Game over.

A ‘smashing’ foray into the world of Warhammer past. Thanks go out to Uryens, Damo and Simon. They all played their parts so well I could almost swear they never grew up. I might do this again. Perhaps in another 28 years time? Or ... there was talk of reenacting later editions too. I skipped 4th and 5th editions (didn't like them and carried on with 3rd) so it would have to be 2nd or 3rd edition next. It'll be some time though, as I am embarking on a new Warhammer project just now. In fact, must get back to painting!
 

Just John

Moderator
Bravo that man - that brought back lots of memories. My dad was a mechanic so he used to bring me home loads of those old lead weights from tyres and I would turn them into orcs, elves & dwarves. Ah the good old days when we weren't concerned about sculpt qualities and parents saw nothing wrong with a young boy, gas cylinders, fire, molten metal and toxic fumes.
 

Thantsants

Member
Wow again - that was brilliant. I can't profess to remember First ed. at all as it was some time before my time so its been really interesting to see how it all started.

Looking forward to seeing your next foray into 2nd or 3rd ed.

Padre":2bk9beyx said:
When is Vapnartak?

And ... long question coming up ... am I right in assuming the word 'Wapentak' written all over my 17th century Yorkshire maps is a variant spelling of the same word? (Originally bashing weapons and shields together as part of a meeting, became the subdivisions of the three Ridings of Yorkshire, equivalent of the 'hundreds' in the south)?

No idea why I am asking now, here. Stream of consciousness I suppose.

Vapnartak is on Sunday 3rd February. I've always thought it a strange name but never looked into it.

Must be something along the lines of what you suggest - found this article from the Press

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/archive/1999 ... ing_words/

Recon in Pudsey isn't bad either, although obviously much smaller - thats on Saturday 1st December.
 
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