Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift test scenario #3 Linden Way

With another lockdown lifted, I got a chance to test scenario number three from my reimagining of the classic Blood Bath at Orc's Drift campaign. This time the villagers of Linden Way had to escape while a small visiting army tried to hold the little town against yet another invading horde. As with the previous scenario's I first had to reinvent the table layout as wargaming tables have shrunk (while quite ironically the models keep on growing  #scalecreep). Here's the Linden Way table for the Blood Bath at Orruk's Drift campaign.

Linden Way reimagined for a smaller table. I made an improvised lake by cutting a plastic tab divider to shape and covering the edges with moss.  

The third scenario features a small garrison town called Linden Way. The Free Guild that's usually stationed here has been called away to stop the invasion elsewhere. Instead a different army, transiting towards yet another battlefield, has to protect the villagers and the hamlet itself. To complicate matters there's a small lake at the edge of town that's home to a tentacled monster. Luckily the lake is easy to avoid. The same cannot be said of the mad hermit Barrachus living just outside town. She's prone to fits of rage about perceived 'noise' at the best of times. No one knows how she'll react to an army fighting on her doorstep. 

Barrachus stirred from her cabin, already quite miffed about the noise of an approaching army.

After setting up the table it was time to pick some reasonably suitable models. For Barrachus I chose a classic chaos sorcerer (she is called a he in the scenario, I just changed the text here to fit the model we used for the battle). For the civilians we used a large blast template with nine reasonably unarmed looking models as the 'wound counters'. I planned to paint some civilians for this, luckily no new models where added to the lead pile for this particular not quite achieved project. 

Although it looked as if the civilians had been rounded up for transport to a Black Ark, the Dark Elf commander assured is this was merely for their safety. 

The armies deployed as per set-up rules. We had quite a laugh about the suspicious private reasons the Dark Elves had for 'protecting' the local captives civilians. The Skaven arrived on the small edge with a unit of Gutter Runners infiltrating the table and a unit of Rat Ogors accompanying a Warp Grinder to tunnel in somewhere. The Dark Elves had to fit within the improvised pallisades. As per rules one unit garrisoned the watch tower (a repeater bolt thrower). A second unit (Darkshards) garrisoned the large inn. A unit of Cold One Riders and Malekith on a Black Dragon set up on reserve.

After a lifetime of backstabbing and payment of many warpstone tokens Grey Seer Squasqueenaaaa ended his career slowly being pulled into a tentacle invested lake. All because the noise of the pretty bell drew the ire of a resident hermit. 

As the battle got started things seemingly fell apart quite quickly for the invading Skaven. Barrachus' rage about the disturbance of the peace was simulated by dividing the table in six squares and having her teleport every hero phase to a different square. After each teleport the closest unit got teleported to her previous location and the second closest unit got blasted by an arcane missile. If she teleported to the same square, the nearest unit would be teleported into tentacle lake. As (bad) luck would have it, the Skaven Grey Seer on Screaming Bell got teleported into the lake. This unit cannot move without at least ten Skaven around it. With the army literally on the other side of the table, the Grey Seer was powerles to move and slowly started to sink into the lake. You could just imagine tentacles hungrily reaching up to grab the tasty rat on top. This seemed to disturb the Grey Seer no end as all his attempts to cast Cracks Call and destroy the Watchtower ended in miscasts. 

A well placed blast from a Warp Lightning Cannon made short work of the inn while Clanrats with torches set the garrison building on fire. 

Meanwhile on the main side of town a blast from the Warp Lightning Cannon (and improved demolishing rules) made short work of the inn. A couple of Darkshards died in the collapse. A unit of Skaven Clanrats managed to set the small garrison building on fire. Withering fire from repeater crossbows and bolt throwers combined with the lack of a morale bolstering Screaming Bell made rather short work of most of the Clanrats. Luckily a Dark Elf priestess was not quite in favor with her gods as she kept taking wounds instead of casting buffs. 

Whether the civilians ran from their Dark Elf captors protectors or the invading Skaven army is hard to say. The Gutter Runners didn't bother to ask them either way. 

All was not lost however, as the Dark Elves had rather foolishly told their wards to run for Orruk's Drif unescorted (it couldn't have been an escape attempt by the civilians now could it?). A small group of Gutter Runners popped out of their hiding place and attacked. Throwing stars and a follow-up charge made short work of most civilians. A unit of Cold One Cavalry popped in from the table edge but failed to make its charge to save the remaining civilians. Perhaps Dark Elves aren't the best choice to protect the innocent. Something about lack of motivation or inclination may play a role there.

Six Rat Ogors entered the fight through a tunnel, planning to make short work of the Watchtower. A single Dark Elf (albeit one mounted on a black dragon) made short work of the entire unit. 

Even with the civilians dead, the battle raged on. A large unit of Rat Ogors popped out of their tunnel only to meet Malekith himself. The Dark Elf lord made short work of the Ogors and the accompanying Warp Grinder. Barrachus teleported a unit of Dreadspears right into the Skaven ranks, the unit was killed by rat swarms, concentrated Jezzail fire and some help from a Verminlord. A second unit of Dreadspears was annihilated by a Storm Vermin charge. Even with the carnage inflicted on the Elves, they still had the upper hand from a combat perspective. Their units where slowly but surely taking out the Skaven. 

Both sides kept hacking into each other. But as the sun set both generals could have agreed the murder of the civilians gave the Skaven the win. Could have agreed is the right term. The Dark Elf general was a warpstone bullet riddled corpse on a balcony. The Skaven general, held by hungry tentacles, watched the lake claim his Screaming Bell. Oh the ignominy of war!

Unfortunately for them the sun set and the battle ended. Both the invaders and the defenders took heavy casualties. One building in Linden Way was destroyed and a second was still burning. The pile of dead civilians decided the battle in favor of the invaders. The moral of this part of the story is either protect your civilian wards or don't send Dark Elves to save civilians. I'll leave it up to you, dear readers, to decide which one should apply. With all three skirmish scenarios tested (and modified) I think I have a small scale narrative campaign ready on the shelf for the happy day when we can have multiple gamers (and games) in a single room. I'll leave the final scenario (Blood Bath at Orruk's Drift) up to chance for the day itself. All in all I can safely state that testing scenario's is quite useful. Now back to painting and modeling.