I have run a fair number of Fantastic Battles Games, but it has been about 9 months since the last one and this was the first one I have run at the Ottawa Public Library. The game ran fairly smoothly, other than a minor hiccups, involving refreshing my memory on some rules. We had designed this game s a 4 player battle with 4 forces of 500 points each organized into 2 armies, the Good or Heroic Army (High Elves and Human) versus the Evil Army (Undead and Dark Elf). We actually ended up with 5 players but it worked out just fine with a brother and sister team running the Human forces. They were both new to the rules as was the player operating the Undead, but they all soon become proficient in playing game.
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| Turn 2 |
Rosters
The Forces of Evil consisted of:
Undead Characters and Units:
1 Liche Lord / Mage Lord
1 Red Wraith Lord / Captain
1 Blue Wraith Lord / Rogue
1 Wight Lord / Captain
3 companies of skeleton spearmen (expendable)
3 companies of skeleton crossbows (expendable)
2 Companies of Wraiths
1 Company / Swarm of spiders
Dark Elf Characters and Units:
1 Sorceress Queen on foot / Mage Lord
1 Mounted Witch Lord / Captain
1 Assassin / Rogue
3 Companies of Heavy Knights on Cold Ones
2 Companies of Black Rider Scouts with crossbows
2 Companies of Dark Elf Scouts with crossbows
Evil Army break point = 5 companies (Expendable units don't count towards the break point)
Forces of Good Consisted of:
Human Characters and Units:
1 Warlord
2 Captains
1 Mage
3 Companies of Pike and Shot
3 Companies of Halberds
2 Companies of Knights
1 Bombard
1 Scout company
High Elf Characters and Units:
1 Warlord
1 Mage
2 Lords/ Captains
2 Companies of Elf Spearmen
2 Companies of Elf Guard with Spearmen
1 Company of Elf bow
1 Company of Elf bow
1 Company of Elf light bow Cavalry
1 Company of Elf light bow Cavalry
Good Army break Point = 9 companies
Both sides suffered some losses at the start due to mishaps, but nothing overly serious, although enough to make the skeleton spreamen hesitate and recover for a turn. Both sides advanced into combat.
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| Advancing to combat |
The Cold One knights with flank support charged in to attack the High Elf Spearmen in the field, taking some very minor crossbow hits on the way in. The Dark Elf scouts preceded the knights, taking out a High Elf Archer unit with missile fire from the woods. The Dark Elf scoutt then attacked the High Elf speramen on the flank while the Cold One Knights engaged them in the front.
The battle in the field between the High Elf Spearmen versus the Cold One knights soon drew in the Human Cavalry and a major battle continued on for 3 turns with heavy casualties on both sides. We expecting the human knights to inflict heavy damage during their flank attack on the Cold One Knights but the opposite happened and the stubborn Dark Elf knights got the better of the humans.
On the Evil right flank the Dark Elf Black Riders dispatched an enemy High Elf archer company, but were then driven back by High Elf light cavalry and spearmen but the Dark Riders suffered no losses.
There was a big battle on the hill in the centre with the skeleton crossbowmen putting up a valiant effort before being destroyed by a unit of Human Halberdiers. This left the forces of good controlling the hill in the centre.
On the far left flank another big battle took place when a unit of Human Pike and Shot was engaged to the front by Undead skeleton spearmen and attacked oy a swarm of poisons spiders on one side, and wraiths on the other flank. A timely Dark Elf Prophecy spell helped the Undead kill the captain of the Pick and Shot unit, but not before the Humans routed the skeleton spearmen. However the Shot and Pike unit was badly weakened and could not withstand the flank attacks of wraiths and poison spiders who routed them. The Undead controlled the left flank.
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| Battle on the left flank: Undead forces killing the Pike & Shot unit |
I had thought a third round of combat between the High Elf Spearmen and Cold One Knights in the field would decide that battle but the Elves clung to life in the 5th turn. We thus ended the game after 3 hours / 5 turns. The Human Halberdiers on the hill and the Elf Spearmen in the field just barely had enough resolve remaining to survive. If either of them were to have been broken it would have resulted in a route of the Human-Elf alliance.
Losses were as follows:
Evil: 1 Captain, 3 skeleton spear companies and 3 skeleton crossbow companies. (all expendable units so worth no victory points to the Good side)
Good: 1 Human Captain, 3 Human Pike & Shot companies, 1 Human Bow company, 2 Elf Bow companies, 1 High Elf Light bow Cavalry company.
(A total of 7 victory points for the evil side)
Since neither army was broken this would be considered a marginal victory for the evil forces.
Conclusion and Comments on Tactics
The Dark Elves and Undead both found magic very helpful including prophecy and haste spells, whereas magic seemed less impactful for the Humans and Elves. The Human cannon was intimidating but was not able to live up to its reputation, only inflicting minor damage, whereas the Human Pike & Shot unit was very deadly. The Skeleton spearmen while being routed nonetheless played a key part in destroying the Human Pike and Shot unit by pinning it and allowing other units to attack its flanks, and this proved to be a good tactic. On the other hand placing the skeleton crossbowmen should have been placed behind cover rather than on the hill, which proved to be a mistake as they were unable to inflict enough missile fire damage on the advancing Human halberdiers before being engaged in melee, in which the Skeletons were completely outmatched and doomed (even with the hill bonus). The small single company units used by the Elves, and to a lesser degree the Human forces, while very maneuverable, proved too fragile to have a major impact on the battle. Ultimately it was the large cavalry and infantry units that decided the game, especially the Cold One Knights.
The new players seemed to learn the rules quickly and enjoyed themselves and we look forward to the next game later this month.
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