'I returned to my bench where the stranger remained ,
to hear the rest of the tale of grim Greggor Bane ,
Of a young man at sail with a great beast to tame,
That his name may mean riches and glory and fame.'
'The stranger leaned close and fixed me with a stare,
and it made me on edge as his eyes held me there,
'The rest of this tale', he began 'is the truth now I swear,
for the truth is i seen it, its true i were there!'
I looked at him aghast, 'you were part of the fleet?'
he pulled at his drink and said with a wink,
'you can make up your mind i really do think,
we must get on with the rest before this place runs out of drink!'
Now it was not just Greggor that hunted the beast,
a foul witch named mallora wanted it for a feast,
for such things gave her power when parts she did eat,
and she was down to her last pair of manticore feet!,
The local tribes lived alongside the beast,
and had learned they and he could co-exist,
so long as no one awoke it at least,
so they made it their work to see it never released.
Greggor lead us on a great hunt for the monster,
and Mallora yelled at her Orcs, 'for darkness sake FASTER!,'
the locals formed up to prevent a disaster,
each looking for their own sake to contain the creature.
So through twisted trees we came on a clearing,
and Greggors fine horse took to rearin',
for against us stood savages silently sneering,
and then came the orcs whooping and jeering!,
A stand off it was at the mouth of a great cave,
Inside we could tell the beast was contained,
and we prayed to the gods this desolate place,
would be the field of glory and not just our graves!.......
So this is it!, a three way blood bath at the mouth of the cave of the Rum-Pum-Allorey!. I almost gave Dragon Rampant its first run out for this one (for i know own a copy, so am only about 6 months behind the rest of the gaming world!), but i decided to do another game of Kings of War to see if small forces worked in that rule set. I picked 3 forces of roughly 500pts, 2 used the Kingdoms of men army list and the orcs used amazingly the Orc list. I also had the beast itself which was run as a Greater Earth Elemental.
Anyway, the forces:
Greggor Banes glory hunters:
From the left: Crossbow troop, Regiment of Knights (the pink knights of death!), Greggor Bane (General on horse),Sheildwall Regiment. (minis by strelets, zvesda and a call to arms)
Malloras' Orc horde:
Rear: 2x Orc Ax regiments, Front from left: Skulk troop, Mellora (human wizard with bane chant2 spell), Gore troop. (minis by dark alliance and ceaser)
The tribal warriors of 'shhhhh, dont wake the bloody great rampaging beast you bloody ingrates!'.
Clockwise from front center: Wizard, Sheildwall Regiment, Earth Elemental troop, 2x Bowmen troops. (minis by Hat, ceaser and games workshop).
The den of the deadly Rum-Pum-Allorey and surrounding areas (not a dining room table or anything!):
The beast is sleeping in the cave at the top of the picture, the local tribesmen are creating a defensive barrier in front of it. The orcs burst on to the scene from the left and Greggors force from the tree line in the south.
As normal i have used coloured bases for each force, Greggors force are on blue with black trim, The locals are on green with red trim and the Orcs are on black and green trim.
The beast itself is hibernating in its den, it will be awoken by excessive noise from above, at the end of each turn i will test to see if the beast wakes. To do this i will roll 1d6 and add the total number of charges executed that turn within 8 inches of the cave. If the score is greater than 6 the beast will come out of its cave and attack the closest target!, it will then charge or move toward the closest unit it can see.
The objective for the Orcs and Greggors force is to kill the beast and kill the opposition. The locals need to ensure the beast survives and drive off the enemy forces.
THE SAGA OF GREGGOR AND THE NASTY WITCH TYPE LADY!:
The action begun with the Orcs surging forward towards the defenders, the thought of the bloodletting that lay ahead (not to mention Melloras wrath) spurring them on. Greggor roared his battle cry and sounded the charge. The Orc gore riders worked round toward the flank of his force so he ordered the sheildwall to block them off. As one the defenders gave a loud(ish) sssshhhhhh!!!! and readied their weapons, the bowmen peppering the oncoming enemy with arrows.
Opening moves
Greggor urged his knights to charge the Elementals facing them, only to be rebuffed as the foe stood firm!
CHARGE!
The Sheildwall braced against the Gore riders
CHARGE!!
The rest of the Orcs moved to engage the locals, an Ax regiment attacked the local sheidwall.
Errr,........charge??!!!!!
While all this went on the cave remained silent.....but that would change!. The Knights charged the Elimentals again, this time the attack was enough to fell the (super)natural foe, opening up a gap to the monsters home!. The Crossbows let fly at a troop of bowmen sending them packing!. The Orcs ganged up on the tribesmen between them and the cave, Mellora added her magic to her charges, the extra power helping the Orcs to wipe out the human scum!. Suddenly the local wizard looked quite lonely!........then the ground began to shake!.....
The knights ride down the Elementals, the cave remains quiet.......until....
Deep underground came a chilling screech, the earth rumbled and the cave shook as a sleeping beast decided it was time to complain about the bloody noise!. At the mouth of the cave the wizard stood, an incantation on his lips, lost in his own works......behind him the foul creature emerged!
Not a morning monster!
And promptly ate the wizard!. RROOAAAARRRRRRR!!!!!!!
With the beast on the rampage and the local force wiped out it was a race between Greggor and the witch to claim the beast!.
Mellora spurred on her orcs, they slammed into the beast weakening it but being flung back!. The creature screamed in rage and charged the closest orc regiment killing most and scattering the rest!.
Seeing his chance Greggor attacked!. He sped into th back of the beast while it chewed on some dead Orcs!.
With a mighty swipe of his blade he opened a deep gash in its back. The monster lurched forward, then rocked back before finally.....
TIMBER!!!!!!....(which makes a nice change from charge!).
Over the din of battle Greggors men saw the beast fall and let out a cheer!, the day was theirs!. Greggor lifted his visor and punched the air, the beast was dead!......Then, across the field his eyes met hers.
The witches eyes glowed bright jade and Greggor could not lift his eyes from hers. He began to feel warmer, he broke out in a sweat. Soon he was rending and tearing at his armour as his flesh began to burn!.
He fell from his horse with flames licking from the gaps in his plate. The witch stepped forward, and laughed. (In actual fact she used a fireball spell but thats a little boring isnt it?)
The position at the end of the battle.
'I listened engrossed to the story unfold,
and the blood in my veins began to run cold,
i looked up at my host and something occured,
'if you were there how did you get home?'
He looked in my eye and said 'its true i was their',
But which side was i on?', then i noticed his hair,
growing fast and long as he sat in his chair ,
and his eyes began to glow with a wicked jade flare,
'Oh there i was in victory,
the beast and the day belonged to me,
and now my pretty you too will see,
The fate of young Greggor when he crossed me!'
My skin felt quite pickly, i began to itch,
'WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING YOU EVIL BITCH!?!'
But the fire grew hotter and gloated, the witch,
'You are only a bar snack...... but will do in a pinch!!!'.
So ends the saga of Greggor Bane, all that remains is to say HELLO to the fantastic Paul of Pauls bods a brilliant blog full of 1:72 goodness!. Paul is the latest person to contract the madness that causes individuals to detach from all sanity and become a member of this humble blog!. Welcome sir!.
Anyway, till next time.......
Nice :)
ReplyDeleteI particularly like the monster (bleeding version) and the scenery effect te represent the spell of heat/firewall.
Sad to end as a bar snack :D
Thanks phil, i has the effects department working overtime on this one ;)!. The monster was made buy my mum as an easter gift for my daughter, she knows nothing of its new identity....yet!!
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