Clash at The Oak and the Well Inn

Let's have a look at the second battle my brother Ivan and I played fielding my growing collection of orcs and undead. You can see the first report HERE.

Ivan’s undead:

• Wight Lord Ladislaus (mounted Skeleton Champion)
• Wight Champion Nandor (Skeleton Champion with army standard)
• Sandro, Master Necromancer
• 10 Stitched Zombies
• 10 Skeletons (Drained Soldiers) with hand weapons, banner, musician, and sergeant
• 10 Skeletons (Drained Soldiers) with halberds, banner, musician, and sergeant
• 10 Grave Guard (Skeleton Guard) with cursed heavy swords, banner, musician, and sergeant
• 5 Zombie Wolves
• Bat Beast

My orc forces:

• Morgul, Knight of Black Fortress (counts as Black Orc Boss)
• Orc Boss Hagob
• Fimbul, Master Shaman
• 20 Orcs with hand weapons and Scary Shields, banner and sergeant
• 10 Orcs with halberds, banner and sergeant
• 5 Black Orcs with great weapons, sergeant
• 3 Trolls (count as Brute Orcs)
• 10 Orc Shooters with bow, banner
• 10 Orc Shooters with bow

Once again, Ivan has written a report of the battle from his perspective, while I took scenic photos of key moments from the encounter. Enjoy!

In a small clearing where two forest roads meet there was The Oak and the Well Inn, a favoured resting place for weary travellers and itinerant merchants. Its beds were comfortable, drinks plentiful, and barmaids comely. The inn was now approached by two figures, one wearing a tattered red robe, the other riding a skeletal steed.

The rider addressed his companion, his even voice tinged with impatience. “Pray explain this detour. We could have been halfway back to the fort by now.”

“I heard whispers of a deal taking place here. A peddler in arcane relics is selling something I wish to possess,” came the answer. “I have plenty of treasure from our last battle and it needs spending, haa-haa.”

The mounted warrior shifted in his saddle, his blackened armour clanking disapprovingly. “Foolishness. You would barter our ancestral riches for trinkets and baubles? To compound my misery, you have led us into an orcish trap. Look yonder: the orcish host is already besetting the inn.”

The footslogging lich strained his empty eye sockets, finally spotting a familiar band of orcs. “It would appear so. I recognize them from our last engagement, but they seem to have gathered in the same numbers. We will see how this ambush goes for them.”

The two figures were joined by ranks of skeletal warriors and a pack of rotting wolves. As the orcs and the undead clashed in the clearing surrounding the inn, the red-robed lich stayed back, patient. He caught sight of disturbing designs painted on the shields or a large orcish mob: grotesque faces, leering half-moons, and crimson unblinking eyes.

As malign inspiration struck him, the grinning lich waved a hand and uttered an incantation in black speech:

İ̶̞̩̰̼̣̳̣̃̃̕͘͝ă̸̡̧̜̩̼͉̒̂̃̄͗͠!̵̺̞̬͓̈́̿͗ ̵̹̼̥̥̝̔̒̀͗͝I̷̯̯͓̥̙̣͉͌͗́͑͑̓̕ā̴̘̋̀̍͜!̵̘̲͖̓̒̑̐̂̈́̓ ̵̣̱̼̳͋̂́̚͜l̴̤̞̻̉̍̓̕͜͝͠a̸̜͇͙͉̗̚ë̷̳̟͚́͋͝ͅn̸̟͈̹̟̱͉͌ͅa̷̮͐͒̊͂̊͝

Suddenly, the shields strapped to the orcs’ arms came alive: biting, spinning, and erupting in a hail of blood and splinters. By the time the dust settled, out of a score of orcs only three escaped the carnage.

The lich smirked, “H̶a̸a̷-̵h̷a̶a̸.” The chaos of battle continued raging around him.

For our second battle using One Page Rules, we decided to use the same armies, 1.080 points each, but switched to Age of Fantasy (dropping the Regiments part). We were more confident in our knowledge of the rules, so the game flowed smoother. This time we also used tokens to denote when a unit had activated, was fatigued, or was shaken.

In addition to controlling objectives, we also chose three secondary goals that are more focused on combat: winning melee battles by a large number of wounds, causing enemies to fail morale tests, and destroying units in melee.

This game went heavily in my favour. I got lucky and managed to cast the Curse spell twice on the same unit, causing a total of 17 casualties and crippling one of Ana’s strongest units. Her spellcaster, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be able to get a spell off. I also remembered to use the ambush special rule, allowing the bat beast to swoop down on orcish archers while my zombies held one of the objectives away from the action.

Ana made a few minor strategic blunders which, when coupled with some rotten rolls, resulted in her defeat. She deployed her trolls on one of her flanks, undoubtedly trying to secure the objective there. She then realized that I had no troops on that flank, so the trolls would have to join the main battle or be unused for the whole game. However, when they finally charged my wights near the middle of the board, they actually lost that combat due to bad rolls and were left shaken.

Overall, the second game was lots of fun, just like the first. We will definitely be adding slight campaign elements such as character progression, magic items, and side objectives for future scenarios. We will also be reworking our armies a bit, adding units from different factions. Ana kept forgetting to use her trolls’ regeneration ability, only to later realize that they did not in fact have it as they were using the profile of big orcs. In the future, they will be using actual rules for trolls from the goblins faction.

As the orcs retreated, the red-robed lich stalked the debris of battle. The ground was littered with corpses, broken bones, and tattered banners. Eventually, he stooped low to the ground and picked up a yellowed skull in an ornate helmet.

“A needless risk, like I stated before,” the skull croaked. “Just kill the merchant and take the relic so we can begone from this place.”

“You are just sour because you were bested in combat. Why would I deprive myself of a supplier of magical artifacts? Besides, the seller will surely lower the price when he learns how I protected him from a horde of bloodthirsty orcs, haa-haa,” said the lich as he sauntered through the inn door, cradling the wight king’s skull under one arm.

Back to Ana.

After this fight we'll be modifying and expanding our rosters. Next time our armies march into battle, they’ll each sport a new hero and a couple of new units. I have a few dozen models to paint in order to make that happen. In the meantime we’ll be playing a skirmish or two.

Thanks for reading, hope you liked it. And as always a big thank you to my Patreon supporters!