This past Saturday, we fought another tabletop battle in our ongoing Hostile Realms campaign using Theater of War. Hostile Realms is a fantasy Piquet ruleset that uses custom-made card decks to determine what actions armies can attempt on the tabletop. Better armies have better decks.
The strategic situation is summarized
here.
Undead Jed brought his undead army and he knew he was facing a tough battle against a much more numerous Middle Kingdoms (MK) army. His army was also unsupplied from the campaign actions, but we forgot to include that in the army preparation.
The mounted nobility of the MK knights were massed on the left flank under the command of their pegasus-mounted King. The center was held by 3 solid pike blocks of civic militia and mountaineers led by Jhone of Orc and her Blessed Banner. This infantry command was backed up by a unit of minotaurs and several longbow units led by a priest. The Middle Kingdom had 30 morale chips. The Undead had 20 morale chips.
As the battle began, the Rex landed between the armies and challenged the Necromancer to single combat. The Undead Necromancer wisely declined. Grinning, he pulled out a magic flute and raised a thick forest in front of the Middle Kingdom cavalry. The knights would have to fight their way around the tangled trees and through a unit of blocking wraiths of they wanted to flank the Undead. Luckily they had been given blessed weapons before the battle to help them fight the magical wraiths.
After a few card draws and Undead spell attempts, the Middle Kingdom drew their Uncontrolled Charge card. This card triggered impulsive charges by the heavily armored mounted knights on the left and the pikemen from the center command. The mounted knights crashed into a unit of Undead wraiths, destroyed it, and continued on to rout several units of minion cavalry.
The Middle Kingdom pikemen rammed their pikes into the defending skeleton infantry and began to slowly push them back. The Undead attempted to stop the momentum of the Middle Kingdom army with their own charge, but the solid pike blocks proved resolute. Meanwhile the bloodthirsty MK knights began to turn and roll up the flank of the Undead army. After several units had been destroyed, the morale chip advantage was Middle Kingdom 40 to Undead 0. The Undead drew their Army Morale card and were forced to make an Army Morale check because they had no morale chips left. They failed it by 1 and the Undead withdrew from the field.
The Theater of War campaign rules classified the battle as a Decisive Victory for the Middle Kingdom. Neither of us concentrated on capturing the various victory objectives on the table. The Middle Kingdom was determined to crush the Undead with its numerical superiority and the Undead were content to wait and attempt to gain advantage through their magic. The current National Will for the Undead was 21 (54-21). The Undead stood to lose a minimum of 22 National Will for the defeat so they lost the campaign. This last defeat weakened the power of the Undead Necromancer so his forces were no longer able to resist the might of the Middle Kingdom.
This concludes our test campaign! We will have to reset it for a new one.
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| The MK center commands. |
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| The battlefield seen from the end with the mounted knights. |
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| The Undead center. |
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| Close up the mounted nobles. |
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| The impetuous pursuers charge into melee after destroying the wraiths. |
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| Pikemen clash with the Undead center. |
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| The Rex skirmishes with some flying carrion. |
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| More impetuous knights pile into the minion cavalry. |
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| The Undead attempt to push back the pike blocks. |
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The reserve command. The Priest was never able to get these
guys moving. |
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| The pursuit continues. |
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| Skeletons crushed under thundering hooves. |
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| Long shot of the battlefield mid-action. |
