In LW 107, page 34, I gave you the background to a scenario that I fought as a role-playing wargame. Below is a report on the action taken from The Chronicles. Despite the moonless night, Dango Hearteater could clearly see the rooftops of the border post and the battlements of the tower. He could occasionally make out the sentry as he moved around no doubt thinking of his warm bed. Dango turned and gave the signal to his waiting troops. Silently they moved out from the high ground where they had hidden all day. (Point A). The Beastmen moved south to the hedgerows that bordered on the Newin river while the Orcs and Warriors moved towards the wood that was on the northern side of the bridge. This they reached without being seen by the sentry on the tower. Once both forces had signalled that they were in position, Dango signalled his wolfriders forward. Unsure of what the noise was, the sentry failed to sound the alarm bell until the first of the wolfriders had reached the bridge. A wild shot from the sentry's crossbow went wide of the target. At the same time the beastmen slunk down to the river's edge. One entered the water and waded across, their gods were with them, they had found a crossing point straight away. The others began to cross. The sound of the alarm bell brought the two sentries from the gate-house tumbling into the road. Seeing the fast approaching wolfriders they bravely fired their weapons, (a crossbow and arquebus) dropping the leading rider before they died amidst thrusting goblin spears. The sound of the alarm bell and the shots also awoke the occupants of the Dwarfen mine. Brendin Stumptoe, the leader of the miners, at once realised that the Border post was under attack. Shouldering his axe he headed for the post followed by his three companions. As the Orc infantry began to cross the bridge the occupants of the tower opened fire on them from the battlements dropping two into the river. In his eagerness to get a target one of the soldiers fell to an orc arrow as he leaned too far over the wall. By now the Beastmen had reached the wall between the barn and the barracks. As for the Adventurers, they had assembled in the main hall of the inn and were hotly discussing their next action. The soldiers in the barracks were barricading the guardhouse doors to prevent the orcs from getting into the compound. The Adventurers decided to help them. As they left the inn the first of the Beastmen jumped over the rear wall. Quickly Rezak, the Adventurers Magic user, cast a Ravine spell at the base of the wall. This opened up a bottomless rift ten foot long by three foot wide. The leading Beastmen tumbled to their deaths before those behind could stop or leap the ravine. The soldiers at the gatehouse had to defend themselves as the wolfriders leapt over the walls. The orcs began to smash the barricade down. The compound was full of struggling humans, Beastmen, wolves and goblins. Before long, some of the Adventurers began to get wounded, Felix, a swordsman, died to a spear thrust in the back as he fought off two opponents. Meanwhile on the north side of the river bank a tall shadow detached itself and turned its misshapen head to where it could hear the sound of desperate fighting. His name was Lugg, a wandering troll. He decided to walk on and investigate. The Dwarfs had eventually reached the cover of some hedgerows from where they could see what was happening. As he peered through the foliage Brendia could see, not ten feet away, the back of an enormous minotaur. A dark hatred began to burn inside Brendin as he remembered back to his giant killer days. A red mist seemed to cover his eyes as, screaming his clan war-cry, he charged the surprised Minotaur. Dango had little time to react as the Dwarfen axe hammered into his left thigh. Screaming his rage Dango crashed his studded mace into the Dwarfs head crushing the life from him. Brendin's companions, surprised at the suddenness of Brendin's attack, now felt their surprise turn to anger as their leader was slain. Shouting thei, war-cries, they charged the Minotaur. Dango felt again and again the bite of the Dwarfen blades as he swung his mace wildly around. At first the Dwarfs were lucky as Dango's swinging mace missed them, but it only took one hit to cripple even the stout Dwarfs and eventually Dango's great strength prevailed. The four Dwarf corpses, lay at his feet, their blood mixing with his own. Despite his fatigue, Dango felt the blood lust overcoming him and he fell to his knees to devour the bodies. Lugg came upon a group of armoured warriors in the woods. Their leader managed to talk him into helping them by promising him as much furniture as he could eat! All he had to do was climb the man tower and kill all at the top. This he set off to do. In the compound the wolfriders had been forced back. Just then the gateway crashed in and the Orcs crashed into the compound. Of the Adventurers, Bianca, the half-elf, and Guido, the thief, were dead. The last of the Beastmen had been slain just before the Orcs entered the compound. Seeing that they were outnumbered and now on their own, (the officer of the guard and the last of his men had disappeared under a mass of Orc warriors) the surviving Adventurers barricaded themselves in the inn. The Adventurers had one last chance, Rezak prepared to cast a spell that would allow part of pure "Chaos" to be summoned. This substance would destroy anything that it touched. It could only be controlled for one turn after which it would move around randomly sucking in anything it touched into its black centre. The vorpal hurricane of Chaos caught the Orcs by surprise, sucking the life from the three who were too slow to move out of the way. The rest fled to the gatehouse as the vorpal moved through the barrack buildings totally destroying it, and into the Mewin river. On touching the water the hurricane disappeared in a violent explosion. The surviving Adventurers saw none of this. As Rezak had cast his spell they had made good their escape out of a rear window taking the rest of the inn's occupants with them. As the flames of the ruined border post light up the night sky, Lugg threw the body of the final defender of the tower from the battlements. As he settled down for his "dinner" the surviving attackers withdrew back the way they had come, laden down with booty. They had far to go before dawn. Well some of the adventurers escaped but only just. I spend a lot of time with my "people* and don't like to see them killed off in their first battle. I give my Adventurers what I call nFate Points", usually two or three, and if they find themselves in a sticky situation with only a slim chance of survival then they can use a "point" to escape. However they cannot use them in combat as the death of Felix and the others shows. As I considered Dango an above average commander, (as far as the hordes of Darkness are concerned) I made a list of Battle plans and threw a die for which to use. As for the river crossing and the sentry seeing the approach of the attackers, I used the following tables. RIVER CROSSING D6 1 Too deep, cannot cross at this point. 2,3 Crossing possible at a third of normal speed. 4,5 Crossing possible at a half of normal speed. 6 Shallows, wade across at no movement reduction. SPOTTING NIGHT MOVEMENT D10 Distance Target Moving Target stationary 12-15* 1,2,3 1,2 6-12* 1,2,3,4,5 1,2,3,4 4-6* 1,2,3,4,5,6 1,2,3,4,5 0-4* 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 1,2,3,4,5,6 Modifiers: +1 light coloured clothing +1 moving with armour +1 moonlight night -1 moving from cover to cover +1 or -1 skill of observer Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #108 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1994 by Solo Wargamers Association. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com