Romans against lizardpeople

I didn't think I needed reminding, but after playing my War of the Rohirrim campaign, I remembered that Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game is a profoundly good game system. As an excuse to play more of it, I decided to run a game of a Roman legion army against a lizardfolk army, but using Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game rules. This is the battle report.

Story

Long ago, the Greek hero Perseus defeated Medusa, and delivered her head to the goddess Athena. Athena mounted the head upon her shield, and took it to many battles where its deadened gaze proved no less potent against the goddess's enemies.

Millennia passed, and eventually Athena grew tired of the hideous visage, and discarded it back down to the land of men. The snakes upon Gorgon's head had grown strong over the course of many battles in the immortal realm, and so they slithered to a swamp, the head trailing behind them. There, a shaman of a forgotten people, the foul lizardfolk of Eschenwald, discovered the head and took it into his care. He poured healing salves on the severed neck, and when the mouth finally began to move again he fed it medicines and herbs. Slowly, the head regained the colour of life, so the shaman sent his warriors to find the head a suitable body. They returned with a beautiful woman they'd kidnapped from a Roman fort. The shaman beheaded the noblewoman, and placed upon the body the head of the Gorgon.

Having regained her voice and powers, Medusa pronounced herself ruler of the lizardfolk, and they willingly became her servants. By raiding Roman forts as well as any Germanic tribe in the region, Medusa's influence grew. Her shaman's powers of biomancy and necromancy grew too, and lizardfolk born to appear as humans (called purebloods) were seeded into the surrounding human encampments and forts.

But recently one of the pureblood's true nature was revealed to Legatus Aragonius by a Vestal priestess. He has gathered his legion and secretly marches on Eschenwald to clear out the lizardfolk and whatever foul monster leads them.

Legio Aragonius

The Roman army contains 338 points of infantry and cavalry (equites).

Infantry

• Aragonius (160 points, Aragorn stats): Armed with a gladius and shield, with Heroic Resolve, March, Accuracy, Strike, Strength, Defence, and Challenge.
• Legionaries (9 at 7 points each, Warriors of Minas Tirith stats): 3 pilum, 3 gladius, 2 banners, 1 battle horn. Has Shieldwall, granting +1 D when in melee beside another legionary.

Equites

• Florus (75 points, Theoden stats): Expert Rider, Horse Lord, Stand Fast! 12", with horse and shield. I have a mounted and unmounted model for him.
• Mounted legionaries (4 at 10 points each, Son of Eorl stats): Has +1 Attack when Florus is within 6".

Lizardfolk of Medusa

Medusa's army contains 327 points of lizardfolk and, obviously, the very powerful Gorgon herself.

• Ssagrat (100 points, Shagrat stats): Lizardfolk shaman with no active magical powers, but has raised 2 lizardfolk from the dead.
• Undead lizardfolk (2 at 10 points each, Morgul Stalker stats): With Stalk Unseen, you must be within 6" to target or charge this model.
• Lizardfolk (9 at 8 points each, Mordor Uruk-hai stats)
• Medusa (135 points, Witch-king of Angmar stats): Lots of magical powers and effects, including Transfix. Bears the Morgul Blade (any successful wound kills its target instantly) and the Morgul Crown (free re-roll of 1 dice when casting).

Round 1

Medusa rolls high on priority. Ssagrat declares a Heroic Move, so his army advances a full 12".

The Roman equites charges into the line of lizardfolk, while Aragonius and his infantry head for the north edge of the forest in an attempt to flank whatever monster (actually monsters, little do they know) lurks within.

During the fight phase, Ssagrat obliterates a legionary and his horse. His fellow lizardfolk don't have quite the same level of success. The Roman equites gain +1 Attack when Florus is within 6", so they're each dealing 2 Attacks, and each of them succeeds. They each also have the Knock to the Ground ability, so when they succeed on an Attack the enemy is Prone. Only 2 score a Wound, so that's 2 lizardfolk removed from the battle.

Round 2

The Priority Roll is a tied 6, so Priority goes to the Romans. Florus rides past the prone lizardfolk toward a nearby and lone lizardfolk warrior at the edge of the woods. His primary goal is to get into the forest to hunt down the monster.

The rest of equites ride up to the prone lizardfolk, eager for an easy kill. Too bad they've forgotten that they have priority, so the prone lizardfolk are going to stand up as soon as it's their turn.

One infantry squad moves to the nearest prone lizardfolk, and the other continue to circle around for a northern approach to the forest.

On the lizardfolk turn, the prone lizardfolk stand to fight, and a few more leap from the forest at the approaching Roman infantry. Deep within the forest, the undead warriors move to protect their queen.

Florus's horse rears and he catches a glimpse of something through the branches. Snakes writhing and hissing, staring at him as if ready to strike. The disturbing thing is, the snakes are growing from the head of a woman, who he can just barely make out. Of course, Medusa has just cast Sap Will on him. She boldly spends just 1 Will point to make a single roll, and rolls a 6. On a d3, she rolls 2 to drain 2 Will points from Florus. Florus has a choice: Spend 1 Will point to resist a drain of 2 Will, or accept the loss. Focusing on success, it seems to make sense to try to resist. After all, he could reduce the loss down to just 1, right? Well, yes but he'll have spent 1 to do it, and that's assuming he succeeds. This is all hindsight, though, and he makes the wrong choice. He attempts to resist and rolls a 1. Now he's spent 1 Will and lost 2, leaving him with 0. No more resisting spells for him, which is obviously exactly what Medusa intended.

At this point, Florus is probably a dead man riding. Obviously Medusa's next spell is going to turn him into stone, and he won't be able to do anything about it. But that's for the next round. Now it's time to Fight.

Most of the equites win their fights but fail to Wound any lizardfolk. Of course, Ssagrat wins his fight, and similarly fails to Wound the Roman he's fighting, even after he spends a Might point to re-roll.

Florus is up against 2 lizardfolk. He wins his fight against the first, but fails to Wound it. He loses the fight against the second, but uses a point of Might to create a tie which is converted to a win because his Fight is higher than his opponent's. He rolls a 5 to Wound, which kills the lizardperson.

The Roman infantry wins their fights, and Aragonius also kills a lizardfolk soldier.

Round 3

The Romans roll high for priority, and the battle descends into brutality. A contingency of Romans charge the lizardfolk front line, while one infantry unit circles to the north to finally reach the border of the forest. Florus disengages from his quarry and makes a dash into the forest. One undead lizardfolk warrior charges into the infantry, and the other charges at Florus. This is gonna get messy, I think.

At first, it looks like Ssagrat loses his fight with a Roman equites, but he spends Might to boost his roll and wins. He rolls very high to wound, and kills the soldier.

The Romans do well this round, with the equites and infantry removing 3 lizardfolk from the battlefield. Florus manages to win his fight against his undead foe, and removes the undead lizardfolk from the board. The infantry on the north edge of the forest don't have the same success, but their mighty shieldwall protects them from any losses.

And then Medusa fixes her gaze on Florus. She spends 2 Might points and rolls a 5 and a 6, so her spell is successful. Florus has no Will points left after the previous turn, so he loses 2 Wounds. He has 1 Fate point remaining, so he spends it to absorb 1 point of damage, but he only has 1 Wound remaining. Luckily, he's mounted on his steed, and just at the last moment his horse rears up and directly into the path of Medusa's stare. The horse turns to stone, and Florus quickly slides off of it, now on foot.

Round 4

The Romans win priority again (3 to 1). They of course charge the lizardfolk, one and all. Florus even charges Medusa.

The lizardfolk are Broken because their battle force is at half its starting strength, so they must make Courage tests. Most lizardfolk fail, including the undead lizardfolk in the forest. Ssagrat, one brave lizardfolk, and Medusa are all that remain. It doesn't bode well for them, but then again Medusa is pretty deadly.

And so is Ssagrat. He slays another equites, and his one remaining soldier remains standing after his duel, as well.

Florus spends 1 Might on a Heroic Strike, and still fails to best Medusa in a duel. And then she rolls a 6 to Wound, striking him with her petrifying blade. It cuts into him, and from his wound his flesh quickly turns to stone until Florus is entirely overcome. He's the second addition to Medusa's small collection of warrior statues.

Round 5

Unlike Warhammer 40,000, there's nothing in the rules that says a Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game only lasts 5 rounds, but coincidentally this feels like an appropriate final round. Medusa is never going to fail her Courage test, but then again she also wouldn't stand her ground indefinitely until defeated.

The Romans win priority again, and Aragonius finally heads into the forest. I had a rule declaring the forest difficult terrain (and cover), which makes Aragonius too far to Charge at Medusa. He can meet her half way though, so that's what they do.

This duel is going to decide the victor.

The Servant of the Emperor raises his sword, and the Legendary Gorgon raises her poisoned blade. The weapons clash, and they both roll 6 to Hit. Aragonius's Fight value is 6 to Medusa's 5, so he wins the duel, but fails to Wound her.

It hardly matters. Medusa suddenly becomes aware that Florus's head-on attack was a diversion tactic. Aragonius is a powerful enemy, and most of her fledgling army is either dead or has fled. Her eyes glow until they burn the air around them, and Aragonius must look away for fear of ending up like Florus. When he looks back, Medusa is gone.

Game retrospective

Well, Aragonius charged into the rank and file just as Medusa had planned. She wanted her front line to trip up her enemy, and they successfully managed to delay the army's most powerful hero from reaching her. That said, I don't know that Aragonius would have survived several rounds with Medusa. She has powerful magic, and she'd have done her best to sap his Will and then turn him to stone, just as she did Florus. And Aragonius didn't have a mount to add to his Wound count the way Florus did.

Medusa's greatest weakness, it seems, was that most of her army was weak. A bunch of lizardfolk were no match for the mighty Shieldwall of the Romans. Aragonius's greatest weakness, I think, was that he didn't team up with Florus early to pursue the greatest threat. It's hard to test that theory because, in the end, the Romans technically won.

However, the Romans didn't slay their monster. They may all have to fight again some day. For now though, I've at least proven to myself that Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game is as fun set in Middle Earth as it is set in mythical ancient Rome. I look forward to playing more of it, because it really is a great wargame.