Mighty Armies Game Played Today

I had the privilege of two friends joining me for a couple of games of Mighty Armies today--Mike Renegar of Rebel Minis and Jeff Racel, who is also here in Atlanta.  We had a great time.  Mike and I played a game as Jeff was arriving, with Mike wanting to try out a Robin Hood themed army he had come up with. It is a nasty and fun little army with lots of shooting.

Pre-Battle Set-up

The second game was a three way with Mike playing the Robin Hood army, Jeff playing a dark elf army, and I played a wolf clan army.  The goal was to nab the captive sorceress from the village in the middle of the table and whisk her off the board.  The village was the same distance from all of us but we failed to take into account how far Mike I were starting from each other as compared to poor Jeff stuck in the middle.  We did establish a few ground rules since Mike had scouts and I had light cavalry, we said a regular infantry unit had to be the one to contact the prisoner and get her off the table.

Early Stage of the Battle

As the battle began, the wolf clan cavalry raced down the left flank towards the village and Robin Hood scouts, who had moved into the village.  The main battle lines of the three armies moved forward.

The Wolf Clan Battle Lines Approach the Dark Elf Forces

The dark elves split their forces into three battle groups with one moving towards the Robin Hood line and the other two shifting toward the wolf clan.

Fresh Meat!  Or Not. . .

On the left flank, the wolf cavalry and wolves lost two stands to Robin Hood shooting but managed to kill one stand and then maneuver into position to attack the final scout unit in the village.  After surviving two rounds of bowfire, the group charged and. . .TIED!  The next combat the wolves. . . LOST!  Losing the battle pushed the remaining unit into the building behind it and, bang, the whole group was lost.  Robin Hood's forces still maintained control of the village and the scout began holding it for another RH group to come pick up the prisoner/prize.

The Forces Close

Meanwhile, the dark elves learned the hard way about the power of RH's bowfire, with the three of the four units in the battle group moving against RH getting peppered with arrows.  They did manage to eliminate the third RH scout unit and one unit made a solid show of trying to snipe one of RH's units but to no avail.  RH sent one unit over to nab the prize while the main group moved toward the center, where the wolf clan forces were facing off against the remaining dark elf force.

Robin Hood with Friar Tuck and the Merry Men

Things Look Grim for the Dark Elves

After some fancy unit management by the dark elves and the wolf clan forces, the main battle lines closed.  The resulting combat left the wolf clan victorious and the dark elves facing away from the enemy and neatly trapped between RH and the wolf clan.  The dark elf sorceress was off to the side waiting for an opportunity to wreak havoc and the wolf clan crossbows and 1 warrior unit moved to try to counter RH's attempt to get and escape with the prisoner.

At this point, the wolf clan won initiative and rolled a two.  Mike and Jeff both expected me to hit the dark elves from the flank, likely wiping out that group and all of Jeff's forces with the exception of the sorceress.  I knew that doing that, however, would open me to Mike's withering fire and so I left the dark elves alone and move my crossbow unit up, successfully shooting the scout unit and then moving on to take out the unit holding the prize the next turn.

The dark elves realized that the best chance of victory lay in sending the general and dragonman against RH's forces and so did that.  They managed the victory and RH was suddenly on the ropes.

The Wolf Clan Warriors Make a Break with the Prize

 The wolf clan managed to snag the prize and began moving her towards the edge of the board as the rest of the wolf clan forces tried to buy time.

Poor Robin May not Escape This Trap

 After eliminating the dark elves in front of him, the remaining RH units, the heroes and Tuck moved forward.  Both spellcasters began trying to stop my weasely little warrior unit with bind spells.

Run!

The rest of the game ran pretty much as it looked like it would with the wolf clan warrior getting off the table.  There were several moments of excitement, however, as the dark elf sorceress blasted the wolf clan general, 1 warrior unit, and a werewolf unit, who were busy gloating over Robin's corpse.  

The Final Battle for Robin Hood

Overall, the game was a lot of fun and really highlighted one of the things I love about Mighty Armies.  It is really exciting to see key moments coming and going with the roll of dice.  Really, any one of the armies could have walked away with the victory and there were multiple moments where we expected one result and the unexpected suddenly occurred.