The Elvish Grail of our Fathers

[Veez]

They would work well.  Plus would save me the trouble of having to scratch-build a bunch of new figures.

[Glenn M]

Lo and behold, I went to McDonalds today, they are a bit bigger than I thought, around 4 inches tall, maybe a bit more, they are of crappy quality, but that is to be expected.

[DogOWar]

     The 4-State Militia will be playing their 3rd installment of the "Quest for the Grail" this Sat. (24th).  This will be a BIG one, 4400 pts altogether!  I'll be sure to take a few pics to share, and add some bad commentary as usual.  Wish me luck.

[troy-the-just]

well, the third and final installment is done.  A few hitches, primarily a spell problem which had me casting the same spell several times a turn, but that was corrected, perhaps too late, but it wont happen again.


BACKGROUND:  The Crystal House has secured a valuable artifact, the Elvish Grail of our Fathers.  This was done in the first scenario at a dock, which saw a small evlish force outmanuver a firstborn and devout force, board a boat and sail off.  Scenario 2 had the boat traveling through a small canyon with a bridge contested by the devout and firstborn, it was close going but at the end a firstborn attack on the devout secured and already probably elvish victory.

PRESENT SCENARIO: the Elves have reached a small outpost with the river boat and are awaiting an elvish force of 1000 points to come and pick up the grail, they will arrive 4 1/2 hours after game start.  The elvish outpost is surrounded by a wall, with 2 finished timber doors, 4" wide.  A small keep with reinforced timber door is inside the outpost, containing the grail, the grail cannot be removed from the keep by the elves until thier force arrives.  the elves can only have 10 units inside the keep until enemy units are 6" from the keep.

The elves are defending with 1250 points:

Militia      2 bands 8 plus leader, plus 1      147
Axeman   2 bands 4 plus leader         244         
Archer      1 band 4 plus leader      157         
Flying DB   1               97         
Dream Warriors 1 band 6 plus leader         177         
Silver Lotus eater               60         
Blue Lotus Eater               60         
Crystal Knight     3            216         
Total                  1152



The Devout and Firstborn deploy in their own corner of a standard battle board, each with 1500 points, only 1 will survive, I will allow dog to elaborate on the other armies.

SYNOPSIS:  All charge the gates, with the elvish archers on the wall facing the firstborn firing as they come.  The archers have some success, notably a black sister or 2 when they reach the wall.  The lotus eaters case a tempest on the devout, moving 2 units of his troops mere inches from the firstborn, the firstborn, evidently fighting back their memories of betrayal and hate of the devout, refuse to bite and concentrate on entering the outpost.  An icewall is cast in front of both doors (see mistake above).  The firstborn climb the outpost walls and make relatively short work of the icewall and door, with repulsar knights and mounted axeman.  Devout hack away at icewall while nasty tunnel crawler thing goes underground.

elvish archers retreat off the wall just ahead of firstborn swordsmen, and sisters.  more icewalls cast (see mistake above) irratating devout player as he hastily looks for rule in book that only allows 1 casting per turn, unfortunately it is not located in spell casting section.

Miltia engage the firstborn, with not much luck as axemen move to back them up with a crystal knight.  Flying dragon bane is killed by damned, and promptly has his soul sucked out.  (devout highlight reel play here)

Rule found, Devout player ****ed, agree to roll 10 sided die and have that number of walls removed, now there were somehting like 6-7, 3-4 removed.   devout player curses book layout.

Devout blow through door engaged by militia, axemen, with dream warriors moving to reinforce.  Crystal knights (2) fall back towards keep.  Firstborn hack archers, remaining numbers panic and flee.  Abyss crawler thingy emerges, tramples toward crystal knight on wait, knight dives out of way.  (devout player curses dice)  Crawler goes back undergroudn and heads for combat by gate.

Reinforcements arrive for elves:

REINFORCEMENTS- 1000 POINTS



12 AXEMEN, 3 LEADERS        366
6 ARCHERS, 1 LEADER      219
3 FLIERS            291
1 WARKILLER         117

TOTAL            993


Devout turn to fight reinforcements, (cursing the icewalls, dice, elvish player, states he needs another drink)  archers engage devout (devout player curses LOS)  firstborn charge to keep.  Cigarrette break is had.

approximately 50% of firstborn and 75% of devout force remain, original elvish forces are at approximately 75%% strength.  (devout player curses the darklord in between drags on smoke.  curses icewalls, and book layout.  states he and firstborn are toast, we should go drink while bars are still open as opposed to watching his cool figs die, agreement is had)

ok, less than a stellar win, icewall missuse certainly had an effect, especially on slower devout army, with individuals that couldnt climb the walls.  hard to tell how it would have come out if used properly, but in my defense it was an honest mistake, (it is a nonsensical rule in my opinion) and devout and firstborn had me more then doubled and never fought each other, forcing me to defend.  A bittersweet victory, but a victory nonetheless, just cant crow very loud about it, but it  was kinda funny, the Darklord has yet to smile on the die of his followers.

[troy-the-just]

forgot one thing, after my flying DB was cut down and violated:  (elvish player decides to remain behind walls and hides, idea that devout are wicked little things is reinforced)

[DogOWar]

    Pretty accurate about most things (especially the cursing).  I did eventually send 3 warbands over the wall and they were wiped out! God, I hate my dice.  When Troy's reinforcements showed up I had:

5 Jackal Crossbows
4 Dakeyes (they had been scattered by tempest)
1 Tormented (wounded)
1 Damned
1 Stalker

    I have to admit I was very frustrated about the icewall controversy.  I know it was not intentional, it just completely screwed my strategy all to hell.  I knew you would be casting that spell which is why I brought all the BIg Bad Nasty critters to the party.  What I was most annoyed with was I knew I was right about casting spells, I just couldn't find it where I thought it should be, i.e. in the spellcasting section.  By the time I found it and we decided on a compromise I had already sent 3 warbands over the walls and lost most of them.  At this point almost all of my remaining force was scattered outside the wall with 2 or 3icewalls still blocking the gate.  At this point I decided to turn around and face your reinforcements.  At this point it was 12:30 and I foresaw a couple more hours to decide this.  The next turn your new army had wiped out the crossbows and my tormented and the dragon banes were heading for the damned.  I could see the writing on the wall.  I honestly didn't see a way either Brian or I was going to win this so decided to concede.  I now wish I had decided to go ahead and stick it out ( for Brian's sake), but I was tired, irritated, and becoming intoxicated. 

[troy-the-just]

i certainly agree that DOG knew he was right, I hadnt seen that provision as it was NOT LOCATED IN THE SPELL CASTING section.  if i had, i probably would have vented it on the forum.   why is it too exhausting to cast a 1 action spell twice or 3 times in one turn, and not exhausting to cast 3 1 action spells (if you have them).  it would  make more sense that only 1 spell is cast per turn, or spells cast per actions.  I would assume that a 1 action spell is less taxing than a 3 action spell, 1/3 as taxing?? any one have any opinions on this?  it certainly affected the game in an unintentional way

[DogOWar]

i certainly agree that DOG knew he was right, I hadnt seen that provision as it was NOT LOCATED IN THE SPELL CASTING section. if i had, i probably would have vented it on the forum. why is it too exhausting to cast a 1 action spell twice or 3 times in one turn, and not exhausting to cast 3 1 action spells (if you have them). it would make more sense that only 1 spell is cast per turn, or spells cast per actions. I would assume that a 1 action spell is less taxing than a 3 action spell, 1/3 as taxing?? any one have any opinions on this? it certainly affected the game in an unintentional way

     I think its all about game balance.  While many spells are relativly inoffensive (damage wise) they can have a dramatic effect on the outcome of the battle, as we saw.  Being able to put up 3 Icewalls a turn could effectivly enable you to blockade an opponents force or even divide it in a couple of turns, as canonball suggested. 
     I know that its not "realistic" as compared to alot of RPG based spellcasting, but then its really not intended to be.  You want magic to be a important part of the game, but not THE most important part.

[troy-the-just]

i dont neccessarily disagree, but then it should be 1 spell cast per turn, period.  i dont see why i can cast ice wall and ice weapon each turn, but not 2 ice weapons etc.  but hey, maybe it should be, i dont have any killer spells, like your hole of death that can consume multiple units and warbands, or and adamantite gollum, or able to stop time etc, whose to say me being able to use 1 action spells multiple times doesnt put me on the same level as other spell casters.  ill have to do a whole survey of spell casters to really decide what my opinion is.  if all spell casters are more or less equal wiht their spells, then i say 1 spell per turn would help to minimize the affect magic has, if some have much more offensive spells then others, id say the lesser spells should be able to be cast multiple times. 

and lets not forget, these dudes are pretty easy to kill,  just gotta get to me, it is a gamble putting them on the table at all