Horde Wars Session 02 - Braunstein over Chrysopolis, Round 2

Three weeks ago I launched a Braunstein using Horde Wars Basic with only my kids as players, some of them quite young. The results were a lot of fun and everyone had a great time. I never intended for us to take three weeks to get back at it, in fact, I had hoped to continue it the very next day. However, a lot of busy things have been happening here IRL and we just couldn't make it work well before this.

But tonight, we launched back into it. In fact, we got through twice as many "turns" for every player as we did the first time.

Turn 2 Orders (remember, Turn 1 was in the previous session)

Dungeoness, the advisor to the Elven faction who originally controlled Chrysopolis, had lost the city to the Orc forces of Logen. Having retreated to the Elven village of Eymethyr, she decided she wanted to conscript some youths from the village in order to rebuild the elven forces, for she had only 54 troops left.

Fant, the second-in-command of the thieves' guild next decided he wanted to try and take the original orc base away from the orcs if he could, but he didn't know where it was precisely and had to spend a turn trying to find it.

Andromeda, the head of the assassins' guild offered a contract to Logen to take out anyone he might want assassinated.

Logen, the orc who had taken Chrysopolis from the elves, wanted to investigate the Obsidian Tower and sent a small group of orcs to go check it out.

Ulrik, second-in-command of the Dwarves, wary from the fact that he had been stolen from last time, decided to just set up some patrols for now and make sure no one messed with him further.

The kids had a friend over who I decided to make decisions for Agrippa the Vampire Lord of the Obsidian Tower. She wanted Agrippa to send 80 skeletons to try and take Chrysopolis. She also wanted to send an agent to the Assassin's Guild and ask for he head of the Dwarves to be assassinated.

Turn 2 Results

Dungeoness was able to pick up one new regiment of Elf Guards from the youths of Eymethyr. Not bad, though the village will be feeling the loss of those youths in its ability to produce food and other supplies.

Fant was able to locate where Fort Kreshbaz was, northwest of Chrysopolis hidden just inside the jungle.

Andromeda's offer to Logen was not taken up, but she was approached by a shadowy figure asking for the head of the Dwarves to be assassinated. Andromeda agreed to do this for a mere 100 gold. I guess she doesn't like dwarves since her last contract was for 500 gold! However, Andromeda needed to scout out the location of the dwarven base first, which she successfully did. 

Logen saw a large group of skeletons around the Obsidian Tower and fled from them, but later that same group came to the city and caught the city unawares! The skeletons weren't much match for the orcs, however, and all four regiments of rotting skeletons were taken out... but at the cost of a whole regiment of orcs.

Ulrik's patrols turned up nothing.

As noted above, Agrippa's skeletons lost the battle.

Turn 3 Orders

Dungeoness decided that she wanted to head down to the other elven farming village, Fahlian, to see if she could raise even more troops, so she ordered her forces to go there.

Fant, now knowing the location of Fort Kreshbaz wanted to try and take it from the orcs left there.

Andromeda intended to carry out her assassination contract against the leader of the Dwarves.

Logen sent yet another group of orcs to the Obsidian Tower, determined to learn more about it, and apparently thinking the skeletons were a bit of a fluke.

Ulrik decided to march 60 dwarves on Chrysopolis to see if he could take it.

Agrippa, enraged by the loss of all skeletons in the previous battle sent even more this time, 120 in all.

Turn 3 Results

The elven forces being advised by Dungeoness had no trouble reaching Fahlian.

Fant sent his thieves to Fort Kreshbaz but they were surprised by the orcs who saw them coming and set an ambush for them. Within a single round of combat, the 20 orcs left at Fort Kreshbaz took out a couple of Fant's thieves. Fant panicked and decided to retreat. I gave him an opposed d12 roll against the orcs to see if he could turn tail and run without consequences, but he failed it. The orcs cut down eight more of his thieves and so, in the end, only one thief escaped from the battle. This has reduced Fant's "Thieves' Guild" down to the leader, Fant himself, and one thief. It might be safe to say the guild is going to have to go into a rebuilding phase.

Andromeda's attempt to penetrate the dwarven base was also a failure. Her assassins were spotted right away, but thankfully they also realized they had been spotted (with a very good nat 12 roll) and decided to make a hasty retreat... perhaps to try again later.

The orcs that Logen had sent to the Obsidian Tower, just 10 orcs, found the 120 skeletons sent by Agrippa along the way. They were able to flee, but the skeletons kept pace and Logen's orcs made it back into Chrysopolis just in time. Unfortunately, at this point, Logen only had 50 orcs left in the city. He sent them all up on the wall to fire their ranged weapons down onto the skeletons. Logen's forces were able to take out 40 skeletons but in the meantime the remaining skeletons managed to knock down the city gate and swarmed in. Still, the orcs held fast and valiantly, eventually defeating all the rotting skeletons... but with only 16 orcs left standing.

Just then, Ulrik's dwarven force showed up. Logen went out into the field of battle to meet them, leaving the city behind him, but his 16 orcs were no match against the 60 dwarves who didn't even take any casualties. Logen himself was able to flee as his last orc was cut down and return dejected to Fort Kreshbaz.

Agrippa, meanwhile, has suffered an incredible loss of troops, all but 20 of his original skeletons.

It was at this point that a couple of the children had fallen asleep (the youngest ones). As a result, we could no longer continue. For those who were still awake, I had them roll d12s to see if they picked up any news/rumors of events that had taken place that their characters weren't involved in, namely, the skeleton and dwarven attacks on Chrysopolis. Everyone rolled very poorly for this, so no information is known.

At this  point, as GM, I need to contemplate what happens next. There may not be a path forward for Fant, Logen, or Agrippa other than to cause some chaos through the assassin's guild. Though, theoretically, an alliance with either the elves or the dwarves is possible for Logen. Dungeoness, whose fortunes looked poor after the end of the last session may now be in a good position to retake Chrysopolis, though the question becomes: at what cost? Ulrik's player is the youngest of my kids and barely knows what he's doing here, but perhaps the fate of the dice may work in his favor.

There were tears this time. Logen's player was not happy with the ultimate loss of nearly all his forces. Some consolation helped and I reminded him it's just a game. This is definitely a hazard in playing with young children, though I was surprised a bit at it because all the older ones (including Logen's player) have experienced character death before in AD&D.

My resolve is to continue the Chrysopolis campaign again soon, but it may have to wait until Monday, because my days are pretty full between now and then. I have a feeling that we will soon have a victor from the Braunstein and then we'll have to see how or if these characters come together as an adventuring party somehow. In my own head, when I received Agrippa's orders during this session, I thought that maybe an undead capture of Chrysopolis would give them all common cause to work together, but things didn't turn out that way, so we'll just have to see.