The raid of Grimgob - Dragon Rampant AAR

The Southern Realms are scrambling to meet the latest incursion by the Orcs and Goblins north of Feuraten.

Forces of the Southern realms assemble to prevent the Orcs crossing the Feuraten river.

In this case the scenario was rolled up from the One Hour Wargames book, a great little resource for creating an instant narrative. There are two fords on the river, which count as rough ground for fighting but don't hinder movement. The rest of the length of the river can be forded at half the unit's movement rate.

The battle takes place in the Praetoriate of Feuraten, one of the provinces of the Southern realms that has suffered heavily from Orc incursions in recent years. This latest raid is very large, and led by Grimgob in his mighty chariot.

Map of the Southern realms, showing the direction of Grimgob's raid.

Aware of a build-up in Orc activity, the Southern realms have gathered a force in Feuraten, which has been dispatched north to hold and defeat the Orc raid.

The two forces line up against each other

Orcs go first and immediately all move forward. No mucking about when you're green!

On the southern ford the artillery takes pot shots at each other.

Grimgob isn't mucking about. He crosses the river at the northern ford and is instantly met by the Langwierig knights, whose wild charge is activated. 

Grimgob beats back the knights, and the Orcs begin to cross the river. The Schiffsplatz handgunners fire a volley, but the there is something very wrong with the command structure of the Southerners. 

Goblin spider riders make short work of the Feuraten Scouts, who fail to evade.

Grimgob pulls back as the Orcs charge in. The knights are destroyed, as are the Geradefurt spearmen, but the Orcs lose 2 units themselves. Not that Grimgob cares that much.

Oh dear. Gazboom the Shaman goes boom!

And the Goblin archers are shattered by the first volley of the Englenholz handgunners

At the southern ford the goblins have crossed the river and charge the artillery, which is destroyed.

Another double 1, another wizard disappears in a puff of smoke!

The Goblin scouts lure out the Knights of Durranach and fight them in rough going. The result is unbelievable...

The end of the battle - only the battered Englenholz handgunners are left to cover the retreat of the Southern army.

This was a very fun game. The two sides were each 40 points, which is a good size for a battle. I used the flank rules written by Dan Mersey and available on the Dux Rampant forums. This puts a whole new level of tactics into the game without complicating it much at all. It makes it feel like a bigger battle game. The artillery is my own design, costing 4 points and needing a 7+ roll to reload as an order, which keeps it less effective than it would otherwise be if it was simply heavy missiles. It has armour 1, defence 6 so doesn't handle combat very well, as it shouldn't. As it was, the artillery did very little this game, mostly because the Southern realms kept failing their command rolls before I got a chance to reload it.

The double 1 for magic is my own as well - snake eyes and your magician is incapacitated by magical feedback. I can't believe they both went that way though!

Where will Grimgob head next? West to Dunzell, or south to Feuraten itself? Hopefully we'll find out soon!

Nate