A couple weeks ago, Maurice and I sat down for a couple games of Mighty Armies. Totally meant to have them written up by now, but summer being what it is, things just get busy. Historicon is approaching fast, though, so gotta get affairs in order.
Both games featured his increasingly-desert Goblins taking on my Hyperborean elves. First game, we both rolled Engage! and thusly would be jockeying for victory points from destroying enemy forces.
A paucity of movement points the first couple turns meant a slow start for everyone.
Overconfident in my troops from our first outing, I tossed my Dragonman far ahead to try and drag the goblins into a prolonged melee, with enhancements from the sorceress. The Dragonman got cutdown, like, almost immediately. Disheartening! Shouldn't have put all my eggs in that one basket.
(My sorceress was tossing spells left and right, especially using bind to break up the enemy formations. That was handy.)
The ruins would prove to be the defining element of the day. Movement in or around is messes up battle lines dramatically, so we ended up orbiting it and using it as a lynchpin for tactics.
Unlike the previous battle, shooting provided little to no tactical impact. Lots of dice were thrown, but not much happened. Still working out the kinks here.
After turn six, we rolled every turn to see if the game was over, with increasing odds each turn. Added a little variability to the end-game that I appreciated.
Things really broke down after that, with units being traded for units left and right. In the above pic, you can see my general and his veteran swordsmen lining up a big charge on his remaining heavy wolves cavalry. The turn after it, I got the initiative, and with the only movement point I rolled, got the charge and took out the big beasties. Whew.
We rolled for a ninth turn, but no. In the end, the elves took the day, but it was a bloodied victory.
Second game, we redid the table for a little more openness. I kept the same force, while the goblins brought on some intimidating trolls.
Lord, my notes for this game were terrible. OK, again, six turns or so. The Hyperborean elves were going all-out for a massacre, while the goblins were looking to control table corners.
(Hmmm. The wide-open middle of the board meant a slow march right at the enemy. Might not have been our best call, creativity-wise.)
It was a monster mash!
The trolls are a big concern, as they could rampage right over the bulk of my forces. Elves are elite, and losing any main unit is a big loss.
One troll down.
And the other two follow!
But you'll notice in the pictures how few troops are left. We scramble on the last turn to get spread out and just over the border into one more corner. Nonetheless, the goblin-stomping gave me the win on victory points again.
Mighty Armies is still working out for us, but we might end up grafting some more 'meat' onto the bones, to add a little complexity. Also might look into borrowing objectives/scenarios from another game, or seeing if we can cobble together a campaign to play out. (Or these event cards!)
(And more close-up pics next time, if I can work it out.)
