A Hill To Die On

You know what I need in my life? 

Another ongoing campaign.

Therefore, after our Flight to the Ford game at the weekend, Matt and I decided to get a Battle Companies campaign started. I opted to run with a Rohan warband.

Introducing...Leofric's Muster:

Leofric Fasthelm - Leader, Throwing Spear & Shield

Grimleth - Sergeant, Sword & Bow

Heruthain - Sergeant, Axe & Shield

Balca - Warrior, Axe & Shield

Deorfa - Warrior, Sword & Shield

Gram - Warrior, Throwing Spear & Shield

Freaor - Warrior, Sword & Bow

Matt brought along his Goblin Town 'horde' which I'm not sure if he's going to name as I suspect he doesn't want to get too attached.

We randomly generated our scenario as A Show of Strength. I think this favoured me as the winner would be determined by how many wounds our leaders inflicted. 

Leofric was probably going to have a much easier time wounding Goblins than the Goblin Chief was going to have against men with shields.

Aware that a pack of Goblins were marauding close to their village, Leofric mustered his warriors and led them in pursuit of the foul creatures.

Aware of his ranged advantage, Leofric opted to draw the Goblins on to him with bow fire, rather than attempt to chase them down.

The Goblins took the bait but used cover to their advantage to avoid taking early casualties from the men's bows.

However, Leofric had chosen his ground well and the last dash across the open saw some Goblins fall with arrows or spears embedded in them.

Nevertheless, the gibbering tide kept advancing.

The lines clashed but the Goblins had been whittled down to a point where they could not outnumber the men across the whole line.

The initial charge was repulsed and Leofric, holding the place of honour on the right flank had already begun his tally of wounding blows.

The battle wore on and some of the Rohirrim were dragged down by the Goblin Chief and his henchmen. And yet, for every man that fell, another Goblin succumbed too.

Ultimately, Leofric led the final charges on the surprisingly brave Goblins. Driving them away from the village. If not for good, then at least for now.

A fine victory for Leofric's first battle and he led from the front, wounding four of the gibbering horde, whilst the Goblin Chief managed to inflict two wounds against the more heavily armoured men.

After the battle, it was discovered that Balca has been injured and would need to miss the next battle, but Heruthain and Deorfa would make full recoveries.

Leofric was made a Knight and  rewarded by his liege lord with a fine horse for his heroism and will now be a terror to the foes of Rohan as he also gained the Fearsome Charge trait.

Grimleth the Ranger's deadly accuracy also gained him notoriety, but this was compounded with how he had stood heroically in a shieldwall, without a shield (he gained Defence +1).

The Goblins didn't gain any skills, but only one of them died of their wounds, although a couple were injured.

And so we're off on a new campaign. It looks like games are small and fast and so we sould be abke to gey a few done in a night. It will make fir a good option when several if us are available at the same time.

In other unrelated news, I've ticked off another box on the Hobby Bingo card as I finally managed to get into the new Element Games store in Sheffield for some supplies, which I suppose counts as supporting my local gaming store.

No more painting done though for now, however, I'm now on my Easter holidays, so I should be getting on with things soon.