The Battle of Skag Moor

The following action takes place immediately after the events mentioned in the previous blog post.

The witches had followed the trayned band column back to All Hallows where they witnessed sentries being posted and a burial party detailed for the fallen musketeer before the rest were given permission to fall out and return to their homes and lodgings. Elsbeth Graves, Abigail Roseberg, Raven Winter, Hazel Knotley and Aggie Stone then took up positions around the village to watch for any comings and goings, while Old Mother Bankes, Violet, Bronwyn Pickering and Agatha Blackwood made their way to Skag Moor to await Mikhail's arrival.

The Vampyre's plan was simple - he would conceal the main part of his force in the woods behind Skag Hill, while Delcroix took the mercenaries forward to engage the sentries at All Hallows. Whichever "side" the village idiots were on in the accursed 'Civil War' currently afflicting the country, they would assume Delcroix's men were "the enemy" and muster the rest of the troops and engage them. Delcroix was then to lure them out of the village by carrying out a fighting withdrawal to Skag Hill, and the trap would be sprung!

Deployment.

The mercenaries (who have taken 2 casualties during the withdrawal) can be seen here on Skag Hill, with the Trayned Band (and village militia) hot on their heels and about to enter the table. Mikhail and Old Mother Bankes, Violet, Bronwyn and Agetha are behind the hill, with the nocterlinger in the woods to their right and barghests among the trees on their left.

Yes, I've "compressed" the salient features from the map onto a 3'x3' table and I've used to Aldi grass mat offcut with felt roads and river along with some 'bottle brush trees and pan scrubber marsh - Old Skool or what?? The sabot bases are new though, a cheap find on ebay that I've only just painted and textured, and ideal for using 'skirmish' minis in formed units.
Turn One.
The All Hallows company marched on in good order, and espying the enemy atop Skag Hill, Captain Jessop drew the men up from their column of march into line formation. Despite his best efforts, the good Doctor Hugo failed to curb the enthusiasm of the militia (the term "clubmen" didn't arise until later in the war), who disordered the left of the formation when they pushed through the musketeers, so keen were they to take a position at the front.

Convinced his opponent has simply taken an over confident stance on high ground, Jessop concidered his own disposition and was confident that the woods to his right, and the river Erewash to his left, with the marshy ground on its northern bank gave him secure enough flanks to proceed with the engagement.
Up on the hill, Delcroix gave the order to fire to the mercenaries under his command, but at this point they were intent on throwing insults and generally goading their opponents down on the road (which is probably why they failed their activation test - thus passing the turn back to the Trayned Band).
Turn Two.
Ignoring the shouting going on up on the hill, (which no-one could understand a word of....), both sleeves of shotte gave fire, cutting down several of the malignants, and the pike block began its advance. The village militia also regained some semblance of order and wheeled to face the enemy.

Upon receiving such a heavy salvo, the mercenaries wavered and were forced to retire (failed their morale test). Mikhail immediately stepped forward to bolster the men's courage - or remind them of the terms of their contract!.........

The witches made their way along the edge of the wood towards the riverbank and right flank........

.....and the barghests broke from cover and headed for the trees to the left of the enemy line. 

Turn Three.
With the hill vacated, Captain Jessop ordered a general advance along the whole line, but lieutenant Hargreaves had spotted the barghests and instructed his unit of shotte to wheel as they advanced and face this new threat.

With the mercenaries fighting spirit restored, Mikhail entered the wood to his left....

....and emerged in man-bat form on the far side! (What is it with vampires and their dramatic entrances?!)

The barghests abandoned their plan of a 'sneak attack' through the woods and charged directly at the musketeers who were now facing them.

Tooth and claw were met by mortuary swords and butt ends of muskets in a fierce struggle,

where casualties fell on both sides in even numbers, (two each), and the barghests were forced to retire.
The nocterlinger now shambled forward from the cover of the trees and climbed Skag Hill, while the witches took to their brooms and flew along the course of the river Erewash.

Turn Four.
With the barghests momentarily driven back, lieutenant Hargreaves ordered his men to give them a volley of shotte and was happy to see another of the beasts fall - their numbers were now much reduced (to half strength in fact)
The second unit of muskets also gave fire as Lieutenant Timpson ordered his men to engage the approaching horrors which had appeared on the hill. (The nocterlinger took their first two casualties, but thought nothing of it - I suppose being part zombie they never thought much of anything really! I'd decided they wouldn't be subject to any of the morale tests that "normal" units would take during the game.)
With the crash of musketry to either side and black powder smoke in his eyes and nostrils, captain Jessop led the pike block onto the hill slope - not realizing, or not caring that he had been led into a trap - the militia however, were no longer so keen on being in the front, and decided to hold their position! (failed activation)

Unfortunately, remaining below the crest of the hill, the militia never saw the witches approaching until it was too late - not that they could have done much about it anyway, but perchance it would have been less of a surprise. The airborne quartet lobbed down thunderbolt grenadoes into the hapless formation, causing seve casualties and forcing them to retire, wavering to the point Doctor Hugo was struggling to keep them on the field.

Over on the other side of Skag Hill, Mikhail stormed into the pike block. 

The vampyre's brutal attack and superhuman strength took down three of the pikemen, though he received a wound himself. The nocterlinger joined the fight, but with markedly less success - only causing a single casualty but taking four themselves. Failing to get past the 'point of pike', they fell back and regrouped (they'd also now lost half their number)

Turn Five.
With the militia wavering and pikes still locked in combat with the vampyre, it was down to the musketeers to try and resolve the battle.Hargreaves men finished off the barghests and Timpsons brave boys took down another nocterlinger.

The pikes however were unable to inflict any further damage to the vampyre, while he took down two more of their number, causing them to waver and fall back.

At this point, Mikhail was beginning to contemplate calling off the attack, but Delcroix had spotted Captain Jessop in the front rank of the pikemen, taking aim himself, he ordered a volley from the mercenaries. Mikhail charged the musketeers and the nocterlinger shambled down the hill slope and into the pike block.

From their aerial position, the witches could see the tide of battle turning and ignoring the militia, flew straight towards Timpson's musketeers - the only remaining 'whole' unit of the opposing force, and also the only threat to the witches themselves IF they managed to fire a salvo of muskets at them!

Turn Six.
This all out attack by Mikhails forces was too much for the All Hallows company. The witches grenadoes had inflicted three casualties and caused the musketeers to waver - despite desperate rallying calls from the officers and NCO's, the Trayned Band and accompanying survivors of the militia broke and fled.

Epilogue.
Mikhail had underestimated his foe, and though the fleeing survivors would be hunted down (which will be another story), he realised that not only must he recruit replacements for the days losses, but he would need more and better troops for the defence of Fernbeck House.
The Trayned Band had fought hard against the diabolic enemy, but its remnants were now scattered between Skag Moor and All Hallows. Captain Jessop needed to round up as many of the men as possible and hopefully save the remaining good folk of the village - to be continued.

For this company level game, I took these rules.......

...and added a splash of these for flavour......

.......and came up with Dragon's Lament   The Pikeman Rampant    something I've been wanting to try for quite a while and I'm pleased to say, it worked rather well and gave a thoroughly enjoyable game.
They share the same core mechanics I've previously talked about here :- The Pikeman's Lament AAR and here:- Dragon Rampant AAR, so I've pretty much stuck to the narrative of the battle.

Thanks for dropping by and thank you for reading. Sorry for some of the blurry photo's being even more blurry than the rest of them - sometimes it's hell being a front line journalist when you get caught up in the action!

Between AAR's

I did it again didn't I?   
When will I ever learn to STOP trying to predict what the next post will contain??
I said something along the lines of it being a 'celebratory' kinda thing to mark the passing of the blogs second birthday - well, it sort of fits the billing, especially if you're beginning to think we're turning Japanese here at TWA towers, because (drum roll) I've decided it's high time to revisit two of the other story lines and find out what's happening with Brad and his group in the zombie apocalypse, and where Old Mother Brookes flew off to from Arithdale in the England Upturned campaign.

I've mentioned before that there's no "script" for these story arcs, so whatever happens is as much of a surprise for myself as I can make it, but still making 'sense' instead of being a series of random encounters. I use "Mythic" and "Decision Trees" to help with the process, and if you missed it the first time, here's a link "Anatomy of a game" 

First off, let's see what's happening in the zompocalypse, where Brad and the gang had driven into the town of Lorenzo on a supply run that had gone terribly wrong. A sizeable horde of zombies had turned up, and there were some other survivors already looting the store. The group managed to rescue the guys from the store, but they'd simply run off without saying a word!
(a result of the ATZ:FFO "Meet & Greet")
After re-grouping, they decided to check out a small warehouse complex, where they ran into another group of survivors and yet more trouble from zeds! Luckily they beat off the undead (though not before losing Nate), and yet again the strangers ran off without a word!!
(exactly the same "Meet & Greet" result)
Grieving for the loss of their friend, and more than a little angry and confused by the other survivors actions, the group went on to secure the warehouse yard and buildings, which is where we left them here:~ "A Place To Lay Your Weary Head"

Caught up? Let's see what happens next then!
The first thing I did was to list all the reasons I could think off to explain the reason both of the other survivor groups acted the way they did, then rolled a dice to select which option. (No, I'm not revealing the list yet, I've kept it in case the group runs into another 'strange bunch')
With the motive for what had happened established, the next thing was to establish the rationale for what would follow, so again I drew up a shortlist of feasible options and then let the dice gods decide.
The result immediately gave me the next part of the campaign:-

Zac and Travis were up on the roof doing their guard shift when they heard the sound of a vehicle approaching. A brown UPS van pulled up outside the gate and two guys got out and unloaded a small pile of crates before the driver got back in and drove off. The other guy went around the side of the warehouse building and got in the yellow van parked there, fired it up, and drove off after the UPS van.
It all happened so quickly that the sound of the departing engines had disappeared before Travis managed to get down to the ground floor and report the incident to Brad.
Checking the coast was clear, the group examined the crates and found they contained dried and canned food - and a note.......

Back inside the warehouse, Brad gathered the group together to tell them about the note and decide what they were going to do next........

..... to be continued.


Now, the other story that I've been itching to revisit is that of Old Mother Bankes after her unexpected visit from Captain Jessop and the troops of the All Hallows trayned band at Arithdale. You can catch up here:- "An Ecounter At Arithdale"
Again, I've used Mythic and Decision Trees to find out what's happening, but this time I'll spare you the details!

Old Mother Bankes flew straight to the ancient "Nine Ladies" stone circle at Ladygate. Here, she convened a meeting of the members of the Ladygate Womens Institute coven (the witches have a spell which in an emergency, can instantly summon the coven to the circle), and told them what had happened - especially the part where they had shot poor Josh! Of course, she had no idea where the soldiers had come from.
It was quickly agreed that the rest of the witches should follow the soldiers while Mother Bankes reported occurrence to "His Lordship". 

Climbing aboard their brooms, the witches set off, and it wasn't long before Old Mother Bankes was re-telling her tale to the Vampyre Mikhail and his lady Milyena.

Mikhail was furious! He knew that the outbreak of civil war could present serious threats to his presence here and threaten the 'masquerade', but he thought he'd taken sufficient measures by enlisting the help of the witches, and by creating a ring of "ghost towns" around his estate to ward off any 'unwanted' visitors.
This incursion by a sizeable body of militia spelled trouble - especially if word of what they'd encountered at Arithdale were to spread.
He told Old Mother Bankes to find her companions and report back to him when they find the soldiers destination. Turning to Milyena, he told her to summon Delcroix, and inform him he had need of his servives and to ready the Nocterlinger.

So there, dear reader, we have it. A bit of a departure from my "normal" posts and no AAr's I'm afraid, but the campaigns STILL progress and if you're still with me at this point, many thanks for your time and as always your comments, queries or questions are most welcome.

Night Attack.

The hour of the ox.
A lone samurai stands guard outside the compound gate belonging to lord Toji, unaware of the mortal danger posed by the unseen shadow approaching silently along the wall behind him.

Within seconds the samurai lies dead, and after slipping the garrotte into a concealed pocket, the assassin signals to his companions who emerge from the shadows to join him at the gate.

Slowly and oh so quietly, the gate is opened and the lead members of the group enter the small compound,

the tired samurai guarding the front of the main house fails to spot the movement in the shadows, and falls to the ground after being hit in the neck by a deadly and rapidly acting poisoned dart!

Everything is going to plan as the ninja now split into two groups to launch simultaneous attacks on the barracks and main house - their target and his immediate advisors will die this night.

Lord Toji however has been warned of the attack and is fully awake and prepared!
As the doors slide open, Shoda Kizaemon (a senior advisor and sword master) and Azumi Yasoma leap forward with flashing blades into the startled would be murderers -

while over in the barracks, the two shinobi expecting to find a couple of sleeping guards are also shocked to find three fully awake and fully armed samurai warriors ready and waiting for them!

The fighting is fast and bloody, Shoda Kizaemon and two of the samurai guards are cut down, but all five ninja also lie dead.
After the attack, Azumi and the surviving samurai remain with Lord Toji to await the first rays of the morning sun, when they must go and pay their debt of gratitude earned this night.

A little scenario I've played through today as part of the campaign story line, and a token of compensation since I'm going to miss the blog's anniversary.
I'll be away tomorrow and won't get home until Friday, so apologies in advance for my late replies to any comments or queries. The gigs came in at short notice, and have kinda messed up my plans for a "celebratory" post, so I'll make sure I do a belated one asap!
Oh yes, you may have noticed that I've tidied up the blog labels (as previously mentioned, the format was driving me up the wall!), and Blade Runner, England Upturned, Sengoku Jidai, The Dark Conspiracy and Zombie Apocalypse now take you to the respective narrative campaigns - which is where I hope to be focusing from here on, with far less Blether and Painting & Modelling!

The last of the Sengoku fantasy minis.......

..... for now!
Yep, I've reached that happy/sad point where I've painted ALL of my accumulated mythical beings for my Sengoku era fantasy setting - happy because it's always satisfying to clear a painting queue, but sad because there's still gaps to be filled (though of course the challenge of filling those gaps will bring its own rewards)

I've already shown the Tengu minis from the Forbidden Fortress boxed game, but to join them here's the Dai Tengu from Zenit miniatures - a multi-part model, after priming and base coating him I unfortunately knocked him off the paint table! His left hand, head and wings were broken off in the fall but the repair job is acceptable for "tabletop standard"!!

This female ninja just HAS to be the worst Reaper Bones mini in my possession - I dunno if she's an old sculpt, but the proportions (especially her head) are just too 'spindly'. That aside, she's a welcome addition to the ninja collection.

These Reaper Bones "Turtle Men" have been pressed into service as Kappa, and in my minds eye fit the bill - they're a bit chunkier and more ferocious looking than some traditional images, but hey, whose fantasy world is this anyway??

The last of the "Creature Collection" are this pair of Reaper Bones Kitsune - again a slight deviation from some traditional images, but perfect for how I see them for my campaign in their fox form.

So, no more mythical beasts for the time being, but it nagged me that apart from the 4 heroes in the Forbidden Fortress set, I only had 'historical' minis in my human population -  what about a pair of 'High Fantasy' heroes?
Reaper to the rescue again with this onna bugeisha and samurai!

The customary group shot to finish and show size comparison, with the crafty male kitsune and stealthy female ninja hiding in the trees!

Thanks once again for dropping by, and for anyone wondering when the next AAR is due - now the painting's on pause, SURELY the gaming can resume!