The Battle of Just Before Christmas

The Norcaine (Dark Elves form Spellforce Universe) launched a major attack on the empire a couple of years ago but the invasion broke apart without a fight as the invaders’ indigenous Dark Elven allies defected to fight in the Expedition of the Four Lords.  In the end it turn out that the great battle never happened.  Some of the dark elves remained overseas to fight as mercenaries while the rest slowly stream back into the empire.  Disappointed by the lack of combat, Hag Queen Helle plan to let her troops vent their frustrations by attacking the government troops themselves!  Messengers were quickly sent to enlist any Norcaine that still remain in the vicinity while funds were raised to hire mercenaries. 

Numbering to approximately 2000 soldiers, the Dark Elven force plan to seize the coastal city of Reval so that they can celebrate Christmas and weather the winter months in the city.  In addition, it is also part of Helle’s strategy is to score a quick success on the empire so that she could raise the profile of her warband and attract more fighters to her “cause”.

However her intentions were not unnoticed.  Back in Constantinople, bureaucrats are mustering a task force to put down the rebellion.  Officers within the Imperial Army congratulate themselves for this perfect excuse to test the effectiveness of the newly enlarged regular army.

Who will celebrate Christmas in Reval this year?

 

And so it is.  My 1^st scheduled “floorhammer” after so long.  It will not be a game of WAB nor WHFB but rather a hybrid of rules.  I will be using the main WAB rules plus the WHFB 8^th ed magic rules and the following two house rules.

Flank charges:  A flank charge will only negate the flank of the enemy of the unit strength of the flanking unit is at least half that of the flanked unit.

Step up:  When an infantry unit suffer casualties, members from the 2^nd rank is allowed to step forward to fight, in the case of spear armed infantry it will be the 3^rd rank.  This is to simulate soldiers stepping forward to fight in place of their fallen comrades.  Note however that if the 2^nd rank(or 3^rd for spear infantry) is also eliminated before the unit strikes back, the next unit (3^rd rank or 4^th in the case of spears) does not step up.  The combat round in a game of WAB-WHFB represents only a small moment in real time and if the offending unit is so vicious to eliminate 2 ranks of troops, the 3^rd rank will not have sufficient time to react.  (I know the logic behind this rule is contentious but let’s see how it goes.  Infantry in WAB only gets 2 ranks the most so I see the need to have some mechanism to make them more effective.  I am not so keen on the “fight in 2 ranks” as I feel that it makes great weapon or halberd troops too effective.

The testing of the above two rules is the main reason for the game.  To test the rules well, I need to have decent size armies on both sides, with lots of CC troops.  My Historicals and my Dark Elves will serve this purpose well.