The Merridale Massacre

Despite suffering a major defeat at Redwick, the Dark Lord kept sending his minions into Anarendor. Faced with overwhelming odds, the garrison at the dilapidated frontier outpost of Fort Ormill decided to withdraw to a more defensible location.

However, as they neared the village of Merridale, they ran into an advance party of the Dark Lord's orcs.

The knights charged and wiped out the orcs, opening the road to safety. But then more orcs appeared on the left flank.

The knights continued to press forward and two companies of levies followed close behind. On the left, the orc hordes launched devastating attacks while another horde appeared to the south (top of the board)

Game note: My WISER rules include a horde rule. Any horde that is destroyed will reappear on a roll of 4-6. Thus, the horde destroyed by the knights reappeared to block the levy.

The lines stabilized on the left but the orcs to the south crushed the levy. And more orcs appeared from the west (right).

The orcs pressed harder, however, and two companies of levy were cut down.

One company of levy hurried down to the road. They had nearly reached safety when they ran into a band of the Dark Lord's Iron Legion.

The Iron Legion smashed the levy while the foresters (archers), who had been largely silent through the battle, ran for safety.

The foresters made it but the remaining levy were massacred.

Thus, the Dark Lord finally had a victory.

Game Notes

• The scenario was #13 - Escape from Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames.
• The army of the Dark Lord included 4 orc warbands, 1 orc archer unit, and 1 company of the Iron Legion (infantry). The Anarendorians had 4 levy, 1 archer, and 1 knight.
• The objective was for the good guys to get 3 units off the board while the enemy appeared at various times and points on the board. I managed to get 2 and was very close with a third but the Iron Legion arrived just in time to win the day.
• I often worry that my WISER rules won't work with OHW scenarios. I include activation rolls which Thomas doesn't. This can prevent the troops having enough turns to make it to the objective. Fortunately, that was not the case this time. Unfortunately, not enough of the good guys got past the enemy.
• Currently, the Anarendorians are still winning the campaign with a 2-1 score in battles won.
• With this session, I have managed to complete 3 games toward the 6 x 6 challenge within 2 days. Because I go back to work tomorrow, I don't expect to continue that pace.
• I am also one game closer to playing all of the OHW scenarios. I began that challenge in June  2015 and have been making slow progress.