Song of blades and heroes. Trying Magic.

Non pointy sticks.  Majority of combat is about inserting your pointy stick into the other person without them sticking you.  Some weapons are a bit more advanced.  A sling and guns takes the rock from the sharp end then replaces it with an ICMB.

Then there's the other stuff.  The cunning plan.  Those who wage war either directly or indirectly.  Wot we call magic.

I'm a bit embarrased by this.  I'm trying to get my Beach Head game finished.  Two days of hand-says-no-painting.  Normally I'd use a game like this to upgrade (if not finish) the figures (and temple) involved.  The centaurs have been hovering at the top of my to-do list for some time.  I got these when Splintered Light brought them out and they were heavily influenced by  Avatar.

New paints, more experience.  Just to prove I can do better.

First the traditional fizz bang boom types.  Back to Greece.

Treemage (89)  3 Axewielders  (96)   5 Spear  (105)   Archer (10)  300

Treemage - Personality Points 89  Quality 4+  Combat 3
Short Move, Forester, Leader, Huge, Heavy Armour,  Magic-User, Poison, Tailslap.

Axewielders
Points 32	Quality 4+	Combat 3
	Forester, Savage

Spear
Points 21	Quality 4+	Combat 2
	Forester, Shieldwall

Archer
Points 10	Quality 5+	Combat 1
	Forester, Shooter: Short

Centaur Druid,  3 Acolytes,   2 archers.  300

Centaur Druid - Personality
Points 108	Quality 3+	Combat 1
	Forester, Leader, Long Move, Magic-User, Mounted

Centaur Acolyte
Points 39	Quality 4+	Combat 1
	Forester, Long Move, Mounted, Shooter: Short

Centaur Archer
Points 38	Quality 4+	Combat 1
	Long Move, Mounted, Shooter: Medium

Tony takes the party ponies, defends (thus sets scenery) and takes first move.

Here comes my bad guys.

Take the high ground.

How not to roll dice.

But I get one move on reaction!  Zooming up that hill!

My hill.  The centaurs line up for shooting  and claim the other hill.

The mage entangles the rear centaur and the axes move in to give it a gruesome chop.

I'm here, and then they're there after morale for a gruesome death.

An acolyte runs up, throws a stick that knocks down the archer before retreating.

The mages are just a bit far apart.  My spear start heading towards the hill.

The druid makes a move but the tree shrugs off the attack.  Then gets pounded and poisoned.

The centaurs scatter under morale.  Both sides acted "realistically".

Now we move on to the "other means".  One with mastery of beasts, then the undead.   As a small  

Shugenja 102, Boar 41,  6 centipedes. 305

Shugenja Beastmaster - Personality
Points 102	Quality 3+	Combat 2
	Beastmaster, Cleric, Heavy Armour, Leader

Boar
Points 41	Quality 4+	Combat 3
	Animal, Tough

Centipedes
Points 27	Quality 4+	Combat 3
	Animal, Big, Poison

Shugenja  86, Hero 47, 3 Followers 48, 3 Archers 51,  9 rabble 73.  304

Shugenja Necromancer - Personality
Points 86	Quality 3+	Combat 2
	Heavy Armour, Leader, Necromancer

Undead Hero
Points 47	Quality 4+	Combat 2
	Heavy Armour, Hero, Undead

Undead Follower
Points 16	Quality 5+	Combat 2
	Dashing, Undead

Undead Follower Archer
Points 17	Quality 5+	Combat 2
	Shooter: Medium, Undead

Undead Rabble
Points 8	Quality 5+	Combat 1
	Undead

I don't know how I guessed this, but Tony took the hoardes of the Undead, got defend and, again, first move.

The boss with the Followers.

Hero and archers.

I surge forward with discipline.

The Hero comes on strong, knocks one down and is then demolished.

Archer moves in for a shot.

Contact with the archers and my cohesion is lost.

Here comes the first half of the rabble.

The other 3 centipedes are still fighting the archers, these contact the followers and the boar becomes the target for the rabble.

Despite facing 5, thus a -4, the boar is only knocked down, then springs up!

The centipedes destroy one, knocks down followers.

My Shugenja moves up and zaps a rabble to help the boar.

He them moves forward but gets zapped by Tony's and targeted by an archer, so retires.  The boar is pushed back breaking contact.

The rest of the rabble charge in to relieve the pressure on the followers.  A centipede is down.

Another centipede down.  I'm losing the initiative as my Shugenja keeps rolling 1 success!

That is definitely a cocked dice.

I start to eat into the numbers, as they go down there's less ganging up.

Tony sends a lone rabble against the boar, didn't last long.

The undead's numbers are beginning to crumble- less than half.  I've lost 1 centipede.

The boar rolls bad--

Pays the penalty at it's knocked down then speared!

A centipede breaks through, attacks the Shugenja!    A massive 3 vs 9.  A brutal death and all the undead sink to the ground, their enslavement removed.

Mine survives with 4 centipedes.  Cracking game.  The magicians were torn betwix group activations and magic.  They were, of course, surrounded by fools!

The one type of magician we haven't tried is the stand alone by side of leader type.