Book of War Battle Report: The Battle of Trying to get all the Rules Down

The Human army is ready to fight.

Baron Thickstone has sent a regiment into a neighboring hex to subdue whatever monsters are there and win more arable land from the wilderness. His regiment sensed the foul smell of monsters and quickly organized.

On the other side the indigenous monsters joined together to repel the outsiders and maintain their chaotic way of life.

 Army Lists

Human Army
6	Archers	42 points
7	Heavy Infantry	63 points
10	Pikemen	50 points
Total Army Cost:		155 points

Monster Army
12	Goblins	36 points
10	Stirge	80 points
1	Purple Worm	60 points
Total Army Cost:		186 points

The Monster army

Rules Mistakes:

·      I thought heavy infantry had a move rate of 9” not 6”.

·      I didn’t see that archers that stand still have a rate of fire of 2 per turn. I was giving them 1 shot per turn and then only have the unit would manage to get a shot off if they moved.

·      I thought that the purple worm got multiple attacks but it doesn’t.

·      These are just the mistakes that I’ve caught so far so who knows how badly I am messing this up.

THE BATTLE

Humans win initiative.

Human Turn 1

Movement:

Humans move up the archers stay behind the heavy infantry to provide support and the pikemen rush towards the forest to prevent the goblins from fortifying it.

I feel bad. My blurry camera really doesn't capture how epic
these miniatures look as they march into battle.

Monsters Turn 1

Movement:

·      The Stirge fly towards the heavy infantry and intercept them.

·      The goblins advance and the purple warm advances.

Combat:

The stirge attack the Heavy Infantry. I used the normal rules for combat. Movement stops when the bases touch. But I think in the future I will allow all stirge figures that can move into contact with an enemy unit to attack. Then when an enemy unit is killed replace it with a stirge figure from the back ranks to create the impression of the enemy unit getting swarmed from above and eaten up.

Anyway the stirge only manage to kill 1 soldier.

Once again my camera is really preventing you from taking in all the detail
as the stirge try to prevent the humans from taking the hill.

Humans Turn 2

Movement:

·      The Heavy infantry wraps around the stirge unit.

·      The pikemen advance forward cutting the goblins off from the forest.

Combat:

·      The archers fire killing 1 stirge.

·      The pikemen manage to kill 1 goblin using their ability to attack from 1” away.

·      The Heavy Infantry get really lucky and kill 5 stirge. Ouch!

Morale:

The stirge have lost over half their numbers this turn. If they were being controlled by the stirge mask the would not need to check morale, but here they do. They fail and rout.

This is when things really went wrong for the monsters.

Monsters Turn 2:

Movement:

·      The Stirge run away.

·      The Goblins adjust and rush into the pikemen who are not on open ground and get no special bonus attack.

·      The purple worm burrows into the heavy infantry and erupts from the ground.

Combat:

·      The goblins kill 2 pikemen.

·      The purple worm only manages to kill one heavy infantry with its 3 attacks (it should only have gotten one).

Morale:

Although the pikemen and heavy infantry both took losses they pass their morale checks with ease.

This looks cool if you use your imagination and your camera stays in focus.

Humans Turn 3:

Movement: none

Combat:

·      The pikemen kill 6 goblins!

·      The Heavy Infantry make short work of the purple worm.

·      The archers have nothing in range to shoot at because the monsters are getting massacred so badly.

Morale:  

The goblins rout.

The Humans are again victorious. The goblins flee over the despoiled part of the vinyl mat.

Monsters Turn 3:

Movement: It is a resounding defeat for the monsters. They flee off into the sunset.

Conclusions:

1. Heavy infantry is really good.

2. Stirge might be too expensive.

3. Archers by the book might be a little too good.

4. Hero units are not impactful against a lot of heavily armed targets.

5. These small battles are over really fast. This took maybe 10 minutes.

Book of War Battle Report

Tonight I played a short game of using Delta's Book of War rules. I was introducing one of my D&D players to the mass combat because my group will be taking part in a siege in a few weeks. You can see we have some very fancy miniatures.

It was a sunny day. Not at all a good day for goblin light infantry to be battling some pikemen over a nearly 60' wide bridge. That wasn't going to stop my collection of 120 goblins from charging 100 pikemen.  

Here is the initial charge. Note that the goblins are being supported by 20 light archers on a hill.
Also there are 20 peasants having a picnic by the pond in the distance.

The Pikemen were supported by 40 archers. They fired into the goblins as they charged. The goblins started to feel less sure about their charge as they faced down the pikes on the other side of the choke.

My wife is very happy that she has the upper hand over my goblins.
Luckily no units had a movement of more than 12" because
our tape measures are all at the house we are renovating.

Discretion is often the better part of valor. The goblins try to head for a nearby wood to negate the advantage that the pikemen have in the open. But alas, they are chased and cut down without mercy. My archers also rout after taking losses.

The goblins flee past the peasant picnic.

 only 10 goblins escape the pikemen. The archers rally but decide that running off the table is in fact the best course of action (not shown).

Book of War: Stirge Swarm Unit

The Stirge adapted for The Book of War by Daniel Collins:

Unit	Cost	MV	AH	HD	Notes
Stirge Swarm	8	24	4	1	Flying, Full after killing 2 units (-1 to hit), no movement cost for turning

Stirge Swarms fight under the magical control of another figure. While under control stirge swarms need not make morale checks regardless of losses. If the controller dies or otherwise loses control, The stirge will attack the nearest unit until killed or full; once full they will leave the battle field.

I have also updated the Stirge Mask entry rules for using in mass combat.


Also Purple Worm Hero Unit:

Unit	Cost	MV	AH	HD	Atk	Dam	Notes
Purple Worm	60	12	5	2	1	1	On hit roll of 6 swallows man sized/ cavalry heroes whole, instantly killing. Burrow

Purple worms can burrow underground. While burrowing, purple worms cannot be attacked by other units, can move through other units, and ignore the effects of terrain