A Battle Near Dale

Last Saturday (February 23) was a busy gaming day.  After the Ghost Archipelago game and a lunch with elder son Norman, I came home and played out a battle on the new table.  My brother Norman (yes, it can be confusing at family gatherings) called in by FaceTime to help me out.  We played Dragon Rampant using two armies composed entirely of vintage Minifigs Mythical Earth (ME) figures.  The MEs were the first fantasy figures I bought, and I think of this as an effort to do things the way I would have wanted to 40 years ago, had I been able to paint...

On one side we had the Orc King (a three figure "reduced model unit") as elite foot, a unit of elite foot bodyguards, a pack of wolves (regular war beasts) , and two units of orcs, a lesser unit of light for, and a better unit of light foot with mixed weapons (i.e., having some bows and shooting capability).  On the other we had the allies of the Lake region, led by the Elf King (a reduced model heavy foot unit).  The elf king commanded two units of elvish light foot with mixed weapons, a unit of the men of Dale (light foot), and a unit of dwarves of the Lonely Mountain (elite foot).

Sketch of the opening moves

Overview of the start of the battle

We rolled for sides, and I ended up commanding the allies.

Aggressive as ever, the orcs rolled forward, with the wolves and bodyguard engaging the two units of elves, while the lesser orcs advanced to threaten the men of Dale, and the better orcs headed around the woods in a flanking maneuver.

The wolves attack the elves

The battle on the orcish left was bloody on both sides, and, at the end, the elves and the orc bodyguard both broke on the same turn.

That left the kings to engage each other.

Meanwhile, on the orcish right, the lesser orcs formed a hedgehog to deal with the appearance of the dwarves out of the woods on their flank.

The dwarves eventually drove the orcs from the field, but the flanking maneuver finally culminated in the arrival of the better orcs within shooting range of the men of Dale.  Unprepared for the volleys of arrows, they withdrew.

That left just four units on the table, and we rolled for game ending in accordance with the scenario instructions.

Position at end of game

That turned out to be the last turn, and, with more points left on the table (and in better condition, though it wasn't a scenario criterion), we deemed the orcs to have won.

The total time elapsed was about an hour and a half.  It would probably have been half an hour shorter if we hadn't been compelled to discuss the moves over FaceTime.  Nevertheless, it was a fun little game, and I look forward to getting a few more units done so that we can add a bit of variety to the encounters.  Two years of auction haunting have left me with a generous pile of these figures awaiting my attention.