Bridgehead of Fantasy

The other night, I decided to play another round of Age of Fantasy and pit the medieval humans (Chivalrous Kingdoms) against the Tanitians (Dark Elves). For a scenario, I chose scenario #5: Bridgehead, from One Hour Wargames. 

The forces had around 800-850 points I believe.

Using OHW for the scenario setup required some adjustment - instead of using the turn arrivals, because AoF only has 4 turns in a game, I used each sides activations for unit arrival. This worked pretty well.

Victory for the scenario is that there is to be no enemy unit north of the bridge, but for AoF, which uses the conceit of objective markers, I put 4 markers down in the vicinity of "north of the bridge" that would effectively mimic the same thing.

The Chivalrous Kingdoms started the game with a 10-figure unit of foot knights, north of the bridge. 

This resulted in something of a log jam - which is not atypical even when using One Hour Wargames rules. Although the High Champion had "War Duty" which allowed him to command the foot knights to move towards the woods to their left (war duty allows him to command any unit within 12" to move 6" even if they have moved already), he himself was blocking everyone behind him.

The silver archers ended up in a crowd with less-than-ideal lines of sight.

End of Turn 1.

The Dark Elves/Tanitians concentrated their deployment on the flank behind the thick jungle. An unfortunate decision as this greatly hampered the advance of the infantry. The Abyssal Beast (elephant) arrived in a boulder field which hampered its movement as well.

Seeing the advance of the Black Guardians to the north flank of his foot knights, the High Champion charged into the fray. 

Unable to do anything resembling damage, the High Chamption braced for a terrible counterattack. Indeed, it was devastating - the High Champion, struck down. With the Dark Warriors still struggling through the tangled jungle, the foot knights turned to face their flank and crashed into the Black Guardians. Overwhelmed, the Guardians were wiped out to a warrior.

Retribution!

This left the Snake Lady to deal with the foot knights in the absence of "the lost battalion".

Her magic was strong and brought down many, but it was not enough. She too fell.

Meanwhile the mounted Realm Knights crossed the bridge to attempt to intercept the Abyssal Beast. 

This seemed like a good idea. Until it wasn't.

Run away!

Although the Dark Warriors finally clashed with the foot knights, neither was eliminated. Meanwhile the silver archers rained arrows from a nice safe distance, however ineffectively, at the Abyssal Beast, who lumbered about undisturbed. 

Both sides had lost their leaders and both sides were fairly well whittled down. Realizing there was nothing to gain and everything to lose, the sides broke off (end of the 4th turn)

Neither side met the OHW condition for victory. The Dark Elves controlled two objectives, one was contested at game end, and one was completely ignored by both sides because the random arrivals (per the scenario) had led to a lopsided deployment for the Dark Elves. 

So, at least in AoF terms, the Dark Elves/Tanitians won.

I have decided a final battle is needed to determine the overall winner, and so the lizards/Saurians will face the Tanitians/ Dark Elves in the near future.