Erin of Wite sent out his Screech owl familiar
during the night and located the small warband led by the ogre Nakug and his
dimbulb younger brother Yokug, that have been tracking his traveling party. The
warband is closer than expected and instead of trying to travel through the night,
Erin has set up a defense on a hill by an abandoned farm. His fortified Keep is
only a half days travel away and if his troops can avoid, or hold off an attack
from the roving warband until full light, they can make it to the safety of the
Keep.
Dawn is
approaching… along with the warband.
The defense. The abandoned farmhouse and the company's supply cart is to the lower left. Archers and Erin of Wite with bodyguards man the center hill. Chainmail infantry are defending the gap to the left and light infantry on the gap to the right.
Waiting for the warband. The archers need to have a good day.
1-50% 1 warband element arrives
51 - 80% 2 warband elements arrive
81 - 00% all 3 warband elements arrive
Goblins on Wargs accompanied by giant bats emerge from the East and spot the company on the hill.
The goblins send a rider to warn the rest of the warband, and then charge the hill.
The wargs fall short in their charge on their move so can't attack this round. The bats, with longer range surround the company and attack, doing minor damage.
The archers wheel and in an awesome volley take out 5 bats, as the light infantry moves up to close the gap between the hills and engage the wargs. The lone warg rider has made contact with the remainder of the warband and leads them toward the battle. The next round the wargs and riders with spears take out both a light and chainmail infantry. They strike back and fell a rider.
Nakug's orc element emerges from the woods to be confronted by a wall that will delay their movement. Yokug and his goblins come in from the East led by the returning Warg rider.
The infantry and wargs continue to battle inflicting damage on each other but no fatalities. The archers turn their attention from the bats, which have become a mere annoyance compared to the threat coming across the field.
The archers take out 3 orcs, but the infantry cannot drive back the wargs and regroup to face the advancing orcs and goblins.
The archers take out another orc as the wargs and infantry are still slugging it out in the gap.
Nakug and the orcs move around the hill to try and flank the archers but find little cover. Yokug, taller than the goblins, is a prime target and takes 5hp damage from Erin's bodyguards crossbow.
During Nakugs flanking move the archers wheel and deliver a 10 hp damage volley at Yokug, and Erin hoping to turn the tide, releases a magic missile spell at Yokug and scores 5 damage.
Yokug makes his morale check despite taking 20hp damage in one turn. His goblins have crested the East hill and are moving in behind the light infantry. Nakug and the orc use their move to assault the archers' hill.
Too close to shoot arrows, the archers strike at the orcs with daggers with minor results. The wargs have finally fallen in the gap, but the goblins are too numerous and have the infantry outnumbered and surrounded.
The bats inflict small wounds on Erin, but enough to fell him and the orcs and goblins close in to finish off the infantry.
Obligatory victory photo for Nakug and Yokug's scrapbook as they seize the company's cart full of supplies and treasure.
I used the Odd Encounters skirmish rules for this combat and the Target 20 system ( new to me) really helped speed up the play. I randomly generated the locations and movements of the warband since this was solo play. I anticipated more maneuver by the infantry, but they really got bogged down in the gap with the warg riders. When you roll a bunch of single digits on the d20 thats what happens! If they could have taken out the warg riders they could have moved back and consolidated and let the archers do some damage. Erin had a web spell I was planning on using in one of the gaps to disable some of the warband, but that advantage never materialized.
