Orcs

18 x Regulars

Hero

18 x Regulars

Hero

9 x 2-Handed Weapons

Chieftain

1 x Scorpion Rider with Lance

24 x Spearmen

16 x Bowmen

Chaos Shaman

11 x Goblin Wolf Rider Allies

16 x Greater Orcs

2 x Giants

Scenario

We used the standard AoA scenario; each of us picked 2 victory conditions for the other to achieve, and we set up the terrain by mutual consent.

Dwarven Victory Conditions

Control Forested Hill in center of table

Destroy Unit of Greater Orcs

Orc Victory Conditions

Kill Champion in Pike Unit

Destroy Unit of Dwarven Halberdiers

Initial Deployment

Map before Turn 1

The vastly outnumbered Dwarves deployed in a tight battle line. Both crossbow units began the game in skirmish formation. The 3 Earth Elementals formed a complete screen in front of the crossbow unit on the left, protecting them from the anticipated Orc Bow fire on that side.

The Orcs were hampered in their deployment by their sheer numbers; they were pretty much going to have to deploy in a solid wall, so it was just a matter of choosing what went where. They deployed one of their bow units near the forest in the upper right hand cover, planning to seize the terrain and use it for cover while shooting out. The stout unit of Greater Orcs was positioned so that it could contest the Dwarves for the terrain objective in the center of the table.

Although the map doesn’t accurately depict it, it should be noted that the unit of Goblin Wolfriders was just a little bit too long to fit between the forest and the forested hill; no matter how it angled, it would need to slow down to pass between these terrain features.

Initial Advance

Map after turn 3

Both armies advance more or less forward. The Orcs move the unit of bows on their left flank into the forest, and begin firing at long range on the Dwarven Halberdiers, to little effect. On their right flank, the Orcs advance their bows only on the first turn, and then hang back to fire without the penalty for moving; they kill a few Dwarven Pikemen, but are prevented from shooting at the much more vulnerable Crossbowmen by the intervening Earth Elementals. Note, however, that the Crossbowmen will not be prevented from firing through the Earth Elementals themselves, because a missile unit is allowed to fire through a single intervening friendly unit, if it is in skirmish formation.

The Goblin Wolfriders have their advance slowed a bit by having to move through the central terrain feature. The Orc Shaman cast Aura of Chaos on them, and they began mutating hideously; over the next several turns, they became berserk, grew extra limbs which provided additional attacks, became stronger, and in general began to resemble something from your worst nightmare. Unfortunately for the Orcs, they also suffered from madness on one turn, and killed several of their own members.

Other than that, the advance of both armies proceeds smoothly.

The Dwarven Army Advancing

The Wolfriders Try to Squeeze Through

The Armies Draw Near

Map after turn 6

As the armies draw near, things begin to go awry for the Orcs.

First off, the Scorpion Lancer charged over the hill and into the unit of Dwarven Crossbows. The stout Crossbowmen held their ground and killed the Lancer with missile fire; however, it did keep them from taking a shot at the wolfriders, who otherwise would have presented a perfect target on that turn.

Meanwhile, on the Orc right flank, the Dwarven Crossbow unit was proving unexpectedly formidable. After wiping out a unit of regulars (11 casualties in a single volley—almost double odds!), they found themselves on the next turn with a clear shot at a Giant; as expected, it died in a single volley. With the regulars in rout and 3 undamaged Earth Elementals posing two threats at once (first, as a screen preventing the Orc bows from firing on the fragile Dwarven Crossbows; and second, menacing the center of the Orc line, and threatening to enter the coming fray for the central terrain feature), things weren’t looking promising on this side for the Orcs.

On the Orc left flank, things weren’t looking much better. One of the Dwarven wizards was able to summon an earth elemental, which it used to partially shield itself from the bow fire coming from the woods. The Halberdiers gleefully engaged the Wolfriders, who had been depleted a bit by their previous spell of madness. In response, the desperate Orc commander ordered his bowmen out of the woods, and into hand to hand combat with the summoned Earth Elemental.

Orc Bowmen In the Forest

A Brave Scorpion Lancer Dies in a Blaze of Glory

Dwarven Pikemen Take on the Wolfriders

The Endgame

Map, around turn 9

The end comes swiftly for the Orcs.

The Dwarven Wizard attached to the Pike unit manages to summon another Earth Elemental to guard the unit’s right flank; it manages to effectively tie up the giant. Meanwhile, a unit of Orc Regulars does manage to impact the Pike unit’s left flank; unfortunately, they can only get a couple of figures into contact, and the rest are easy targets for the combined fire of the 2 Dwarven Crossbow units, and they break after a single turn of combat. The Orc chieftain throws his own unit of 2-handed weapons into the vacated spot, but it is too little, too late.

While the Orc commander has desperately been trying to surround the stout Dwarven Pikemen that are relentlessly taking possession of the hill, they have been decimating the Greater Orc unit, which constitutes one of the Dwarven victory conditions (possession of the hill itself being the other). Things already look grim indeed for the Orcs, when the almost pristine unit of Dwarven Halberdiers has their wizard use Mass Earth Meld to magically appear to the rear of the Greater Orcs (not shown on map, as it was the last move of the game). After resolving this combat and watching the Greater Orc unit be destroyed, the Orc commander offered his surrender; he did not need to see sole possession of the hill demonstrated, as the following turn would have seen 2 crossbow units and 3 Earth Elementals join the Pike Unit, Halberdier unit, and Earth Elemental already there.

Dwarven Pike vs. Greater Orcs, for possession of the terrain objective...

... even the arrival of the Orc Chieftain’s personal unit wasn’t enough to sway the battle in his favor

Conclusions

The whole battle took a little bit under 2.5 hours, which we were both pleased with. If Mike had owned enough Orcs to field a 5000 point army, we would have played at that point level; I imagine the battle would have taken another hour or so, since this would have not only meant more units to maneuver, but also adding another victory condition for each player. This is one of the features I really like about Armies of Arcana: reasonable play times, even with hundreds of figures per side.

Using several missile immune monsters (such as elementals) to act as a “screening force” for your own missile troops can be very, very effective, particularly when you consider that you are allowed to fire through the elementals yourself! It isn’t unstoppable by any means, but if you can manage to do it while maneuvering the elementals to a place on the battlefield where they pose an immediate threat in addition to being used as a shield, it can be devastating.

Unequal numbers of spell casters on each side can be a problem. The Orc situation deteriorated rapidly once the Dwarven army had focused enough power to begin summoning Earth Elementals. Unless you have a compelling reason not to, we would suggest using the same number of spell casters on each side, just to avoid a worst-case scenario where one side really gets hammered by magic; with equal number of spell casters, the magic system really is quite balanced, so why even take the chance that your game won’t be?