So, the newly (re)started Orc Elementalist warband got it’s first outing into the not-so-frozen city. Ty had agreed to have a game and bought a newly established Thaumaturge band.
The Warbands
My Elementalist’s Warband
As I’ve mentioned, I have taken a wizard, his apprentice, a barbarian, a warhound, two archers and three thugs. I was also bolstered by a small construct this game, which was raised by my apprentice.
Ty’s Thaumaturge Warband
Ty had a wizard and his apprentice, a Knight, two archers, a warhound and a man-at-arms.
Set-up
I arrived to a fully laid out table, with some of the stunning terrain you can expect at Axes and Ales. We rolled randomly and got The Mausoleum, using six skeletons as our statues and laying chests of loot before them. We didn’t have a suitable building, but we used some of the ruins arranged into a roughly six-inch box.
Turn One
Ty wins initiative for the turn, and starts by attempting to cast Combat Awareness on his Knight, but rolls a ‘one’, taking two damage for his troubles. Then everyone near his Wizard advances towards the Mausoleum.
My wizard casts wall, popping it across one corner of the mausoleum to hopefully block off Ty’s wizard and minions.
Ty’s apprentice attempts to cast Strength on his man-at-arms but fails, and then his group of minions advances.
My apprentice attempts to cast Push, it fails, but I decide to cut for four damage to get it off, which allows me to push one of my thugs forward 6”.
Turn Two
My notes are a little light for this turn, but from memory, Ty won initiative, and managed to cast Strength on his man-at-arms from his apprentice, but his wizard failed to cast again and took more daamge. My wizard failed to cast elemental bolt (although no damage was suffered) and my apprentice cast Leap (after cutting for four damage) on one of my archers to propel him upto the ledge with the treasure on it.
Turn Three
Ty wins initiative (a pattern is forming here), and his wizard casts heal on himself, whilst the knight grabs a nearby treasure, activating one of the statues and additionally seeing an Imp appear. His nearby archer also takes a shot at mine, but misses.
My wizard casts leap on a nearby Thug flinging him after the archer onto the elevated treasure. My barbarian activates and (somewhat stupidly) runs into the middle of the treasure room.
Nothing of note in Ty’s apprentice phase, apparently, but my apprentice tries to cast elemental bolt but fails badly. My archer fires back at Ty’s archer, but also misses.
Ty’s man-at-arms charges my barbarian and axes him for 12 damage, with the warhound leaping in straight after to finish him off. One of Ty’s soldiers grabs a treasure, and a constructu next to one of my thugs comes to life. My thug promptly punches it for eight damage. Next, my archer grabs a treasure, and starts moving away, whilst my warhound moves in to help the Thug finish off the construct he’s engaged with, but the construct proves too strong, hitting the hound for eight damage. My final thug moves in and attacks the construct, finally putting it down.
The awakened statues and imp all move towards the closest models, but no attacks are made.
Turn Four
I win initiative this turn and my wizard casts Elemental Bolt, which hits but does no damage. I then send one of my thugs to attack a construct and he dispatches it easily.
Ty’s wizard moves out and casts Glow on my archer, with one of his archers then following him and firing at my archer. Ty narrowly wins the roll, with my roll of 19 outpaced by a 21, seeing my archer out of action.
My apprentice was out of action by this point, I think, Ty’s apprentice then casts Strength on his archer, cutting to get the job done.
My archer and thug holding treasures make for the board edge, and then my other thug grabs a treasure and starts making his way out.
Ty’s man-at-arms softens up a construct, with the warhound then coming in to finish it off.
Turn Five
Ty wins initiative for the turn and his wizard moves out and attempts to fire Elemental Ball at one of my thugs but fails to cast.
My wizard casts Leap on one of my thugs getting him off the table with a treasure. The warhound attacks a construct but fails to do any damage.
Ty’s apprentice attempts to cast Glow on my Thug, cutting for five to get it off. His archer then unloads at the thug, dealing three damage.
Ty’s man-at-arms fights the construct, but loses and takes one damage. His dog goes in but is dispatched by the construct.
During the creature phase, Ty’s man-at-arms kills the construct.
Turn Six
Ty wins initiative (again!), and his wizard casts Elemental Ball on thug and hits him for 12 damage and eight on my archer next to him (I think I cursed my luck at this point!).
My wizard casts Leap on an archer, vaulting him off the board.
Ty’s apprentice attempts to cast Strength on his Man-At-Arms but fails, taking a damage.
Ty’s archer shoots at my archer and dispatches him with ease this time.
The creature phase sees the imp and my wizard continuing to trade slaps, whilst Ty’s man-at-arms kills a construct.
Turn Seven
Ty wins initiative and his wizard moves off and casts Heal on himself.
My wizard attempts to cast push on the Imp, but fails and takes a wound for his trouble.
Ty’s apprentice also casts Heal on himself.
Ty’s man-at-arms attacks my warhound but doesn’t hurt him.
My wizard fights the Imp during the creature phase and manages to kill it!
Turn Eight
My wizard moves and then casts Leap to get his orcy self off the board to safety.
Ty’s wizard attempts to cast Heal, failing but deciding to cut to cast it on his archer.
The last of my soldiers leave the table, and my hound attacks the man-at-arms, dealing eight damage but not quite taking him out. The man-at-arms returns the attack, dispatching my hound.
Post-game
After a bloody engagement in the centre of the table, it was time to see what happened to my various warband members. Starting off with my apprentice, the roll shows he has succumbed to his wounds and died, an inauspicious start to my crews campaign. The Barbarian and archer are badly wounded, and the hound and thug are also dead…. So not a great start.
Luckily, I had made it off with a considerable amount of treasure, and the rolls for this were more kind. All told, I acquired 370 gold crowns, Robes of Arrow Turning, and hand weapon with +2 fight.
My wizard also made 170 XP from the game (using the rules in the basic rulebook), so gained a level as well.
Conclusion
Well I think that my warband might have had another false start here, with the loss of the apprentice, a hound and thug as well as a badly wounded barbarian unlikely to be something I bounce back from. Luckily, I had an incredibly fun time playing, and benefited from the practice with the warband. I’m getting more excited for the tour next year as I get games and hobby in, hopefully more to come in the near future.
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