Minarian Campaign

[Malebolgia]

What a great topic. Love those maps and the narrative reports. Keep them coming, they are fantastic

[Dan55]

Sorry for the delay everyone, the elves weren't ready.  They claim they were having trouble with their makeup.

Battle of Direwood Keep

The Antagonists



View of the elven army from the Imperial lines.



For the Woodland Realm - High Prince Adillh himself, an ancient elf lord - veteran of a thousand battlefields.  He hadn't been seen outside of Elfland for a century, but was determined to guide his troops safely to the Muetarian front.  His army consisted of 2 mounted units of elven nobles, 4 units of longbow, 3 units of auxillary spearmen in addition to himself (hero) and his personal pack of wolves (beasts).



For the Empire of Muetar - another general working his way through the upper ranks, excited by this chance to prove his worth.  His troops were the usual mix of knights and supporting foot, although with some mercenary knights attached in place of the light cavalry.

Starting with this battle Horde units will be marked with the standard infantry map code "X" as I will be needing "H" for Hero units (as well as "B" for beasts).

The Deployment



The elves deployed in a line, with their longbow on the left to take advantage of the open fields of fire and their camp behind them in a sacred grove.  They also placed a longbow unit in Direwood Keep to help the garrison.  Prince Adillh planned on a slow advance with his cavalry on the far right in the cleared area beyond the Direwood.  He also intended to take advantage of the apparently undefended enemy camp if possible.

The Imperial general took one look at the wall of longbows and came up with a complex plan, to use the passes through the Direwood to get onto the elven army's flank and roll it up.  His knights would file to the left and advance while the infantry would move up slowly in order to be in position to support them when they broke free.

The Battle



The elven army moved slowly forward with their cavalry advancing into the cleared area beyond the Direwood.  The Imperials began their slow movement forward while their knights shift around the woods.



The mercenaries keep an eye on the camp.



The elven cavalry spots the Imperial knights and correctly guesses their plan.  They move up to block them while the knights are constricted by the woods to try and prevent them from deploying into the open area.  The Imperial skirmishers reach the edge of the woods but can do nothing to help.  The elven cavalry charges and stops the knights.



Several turns of back and forward motion on the near flank finally sees the knights push out into the open.  The Imperial general finally ordered knights into the woods in an attempt to break the deadlock.  It took so long that the Imperial infantry have been waiting in position for several turns.  Prince Adillh and the longbowmen have advanced into position but their supporting auxillary spearmen have kept back in the trees.



Unexpectedly, the elvish cavalry try an ancient elven combat trick that completely stuns their opponents.  A unit of Imperial knights goes down.  Prince Adillh sends his wolfpack crashing into the Imperial blades, and he himself attacks the crossbowmen.



The wolves rout the Imperial blades.  Prince Adillh falls back to keep from being flanked by the skirmishers and calls his wolves back with him.  The elven cavalry regroups to gain time before facing the knights.



The Imperial knights charge the elven cavalry aided by a unit of skirmishers, but the elven spearmen have finally arrived and intervene.  Prince Adillh and his wolves go at the Imperial line again, while the longbow move up and fire at the Imperial retainers, left out of the battle until now.



Another unit of Imperial blades goes down and the skirmishers, caught in the midst of a huge melee simply disappear.  The Imperial army retreats.  The elven cavalry receives Prince Adillh's admiration at their refusal to give up in the face of the Imperial knights.  He credits them with winning the battle.

What actually happened - a lot of give and take in the cavalry clash, but the Imperial foot were completely outmatched by the hero and beast units.  The "ancient elven combat trick" was rolling a "6" while the Imperial player rolled a "1".

[Dan55]

The Aftermath

On the western and northern fronts the intended imperial expansion had met with disaster.  Both imperial armies had been solidly defeated and forced to retreat, the western army actually ending up back within the borders of Muetar.  Emperor Herrott II resisted calls to replace the two generals involved for their failures, and instead decided to allow them time to learn from their mistakes.  As long as they didn't repeat them.  It was only their first times in command after all, and besides - difficulties had been allowed for.  That was why both armies had extra troops.  They would come in handy now as they replaced the losses suffered.

The Elven king seeing this, slipped away to return to Elfland to hurry forward his own re-enforcements just in case they were needed.  He left the army in charge of his second in command.

Meanwhile the Miviorian army followed up its retreating opponents and approached the Muetarian border.  In the north the Immerian armies began to concentrate.

In Pon things were looking better for Imperial Muetar.  Suddenly and unexpectedly the defenders of Crow's Nest castle requested terms for surrender.  The Muetarian generals had expected to be tied down by the siege for quite some time.  Obviously the civil disorder in Pon convinced the defenders that there was no help coming for them and that they'd best make terms quickly.  The Muetarian generals jumped at the opportunity, immediately agreed to generous terms and the castle changed hands.  This would free up a Muetarian army for use in the west.



What actually happened - we are using the Retreat Before Combat rule for defeated armies.  A defeated army must retreat while conforming to the criteria for this rule.  At Crows Nest castle another one of those low probability events took place.  The Imperial player rolled dice (a d6) for his siege result and rolled a "6 - castle falls" on his very first try.  In the actual boardgame this would result in the destruction of the castle, but instead we're playing that this merely reduces the castle's strength by 1 (kept track of via the plundered counters).