Fantasy Wargaming is one of my main interests. The traditional mixture of the medieval setting with that magical element appeals. A genre that allows your imagination to create your own heroes, histories and fantastic places. Also, like many wargamers in the U.K., there is the influence of Warhammer with its gothic backdrop. However, my love for writing led me to create my own world, inhabited by its own unique people. Therefore, the rules I currently use for my fantasy wargaming are Fantastic Battles because of their design flexibility. A fuller discussion on fantasy wargame rules and why I chose Fantastic Battles can be found here.
Ozbeg the Maligned
Ozbeg the Maligned was not the most impressive of Great or White Orcs, but what he lacked in physical prowess, he made up with his cunning and his royal birth. His granduncle (Bulad the Bloody) was the last great kaumn (King of Kings) of the Western Umbarji (my Orcs). As usual, Bulad’s death in a raid against the city of Letharac led to the fragmentation of his empire. Ozbeg, a younger sibling of a minor concubine, inherited a small domain around the southern peaks of the Howling Mountains. A lordship that was on the fringes of the now-defunct empire. Reverting to the old Umbarji traditions of plundering and burning, Ozbeg provided his followers with the essentials of life; honour, war, blood, slaves and plunder. While his forces raided and slaughtered, Ozbeg continued to sow seeds of discord amongst his brood brothers. Slowly but steadily, Ozbeg’s horde grew from hundreds to thousands. His hunting lands gradually extended into the great northern plains of the Mammoth Steppes.
Lu’Lak -The Blood Shaman
Ozbeg attracted numerous orcs to his banner as his land grew, including the Blood soothsayer Lu'ak. Lu’ak saw in Ozbeg the potential for wealth and power and proclaimed him the living embodiment of Gijak Creveetor, the Umbarji creator god. The proclamation was heretical, even by Umbarji standards and potentially brought Ozbeg directly into conflict with his siblings. However, most were too far away and too busy fighting themselves to be worried about snotling like Ozbeg. Ozbeg’s semi-divine status attracted many discontents to Ozbeg’s banner. A lighting campaign to the south forced the lesser Umbarji (Goblins) tribes of the Bitter Forest to acknowledge Ozbeg’s hegemony. Ozbeg's ambitions turned to the south to the land of men and ogres. He started to raid the trade road, and the villages and hamlets clustered around the Lake.
The Attack on Marshport
The grass sea had just started to turn to bone-white in the summer heat when a bedraggled runner appeared in Strom Ironheart’s encampment. The man had come from the township of Marshport, where the Amber Way met the Lake's northern shores. The story the messenger told brought dread to Strom's soul. Raiding was a way of life on the Wilderness Steppes. Zebra riders attacked Elk people, Ogres tribes plundered their own and human kin, and occasionally the Umbarji appeared from their mountains to create havoc. However, the story of the Lake-man was different. He told of a strange rhythmic heartbeat that pervaded the night, a strange howling that he swore was in a demonic tongue. Then an incredible feeling of dread before the Orcs swept through the township. Left for dead, he watched his kith and kin, stripped of all their processions or being herded into the night. Those who stumbled were skewered and left to the birds and wolves.
Strom had seen the carnage of a Umbarji raid before, but they had never been bold enough to attack a lake settlement in recent years. However, it was still grazing season, and even if it was more daring than he would expect, one raid did not require the Great Summons.
Autumn Raids
During the autumn months, when the first snow flurries occurred, the Umbarji raids became a torrent. The lifeblood of the tribes, the caravans that crossed to the Steppe, faced constant attack. Even Lakeside, the largest township on the Lakes, had to fight off Umbarji raids.
Rumours from merchants said that a great Orc king once again led his people. For Strom, a young warrior, when Blud wreaked his chaos, his old gut rumbled with fear, and it was now the time to blow the Horn and summon the tribes.
To Battle
Storm and his fellow chieftains had decided on caution because several tribes had yet to answer the call of the Horn. They decide to march to the ruined Blackthorn Abbey, where the Umbarji could be contained before they could damage the Wilderness Steppes trade routes more.
Battle Strategies
Strom planned to hold the centre and Shalak Hill that protected his left while threatening the inevitable Orc advance. The mighty Bison Riders on their right-wing would be the tribe’s offensive arm. They would overcome the Umbarji left and then threaten their central battle.
Ozbeg considered his options limited because he had already sent a third of the host home with the booty taken from the lakeside communities. His interests were to gain the relic within the abbey and to please his warriors, who wanted more blood. The massacring of merchants and their families had proved an unfulfilling pursuit. Therefore, Ozbeg's strategy was simple; use the meat grinder of Umbarji axes to smash through the centre. Let the boys have their blood reward while trying to refuse his flanks to the enemy. The manoeuvre would please his warriors and distract them from the mission to ransack the ruins in search of the relic.
Order of Battle
Opening moves.
The battle opened with a rapid Umbarji advance, with the untried Ear Slicers (Umbarji had not severed the ear of their first kill, sometimes referred to in the human tongue as Youngbloods) leading the advance, keen to earn their first trophies. Strom held the Tribes position in the centre while probing the right and left flank.
An exchange of missile fire opened hostilities, but surprisingly, the first fighting occurred on Skalak Hill. The Zebra Riders had clashed with the over-eager Forest Goblins. As swords clashed, magic crackled across the battlefield as the two battle lines advanced. Ozbeg, at this point, seemed to have the advantage because the Ear Slicers charged forward into the human's shieldwall that managed to hold. However, Rhino Riders on the right flank were slow and could not bring the Umbarji left flank to battle. Would the human centre hold out to allow the Bison Riders to start rolling up the Orc battle line?
Crunch Time
The Ear Slicers pressed forward, impervious to the Thangrian's (Hawkmen) fire, who tried to disrupt their advance. Inevitably, Umbarji crashed into the shield wall of the Stag Tribe with their guttural battle cries and their hunger for the kill. The central battle contact had come too early for Strom, so he threw in his mammoths to halt the Umbarji centre. Soon, the whole centre was engaged in ferocious fighting. Meanwhile, the Umbarji elite entered the abbey's crypt and searched for the relic. The only good news for the humans was that on Shalek Hill, the forest Umbarji chieftain had been killed, and his command was routed.
The Meat Grinder Arrives.
Finally, the Bison Riders brought the Umbarji Gore Riders to battle. A brutal melee followed as both sides tore each other sheds.
However, as tusk and spear clashed, the struggle in the centre was concluding. The Ear Slicers finally gave way to the human shieldwall. Still, for the Stag tribe, the respite was short as the Lu'ak commanded the Bonecrusher's forward support with his magic. The charge quickly broke the shieldwall, and the human started to flee. Strom became caught up with the flight, having suffered a deep axe wound to his sword arm as he tried to lead his men to safety.
The Tribes Centre Collapses
However, Ozbeg had little inclination to pursue; his Bonecrushers had been badly mauled. At the same time, his cavalry arm had routed. Besides, he had the relic and now knew that the human tribes were fragmented, something to discuss later with his warlords.
The Story Continues in the Shadow War Campaign
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