Twilight of the Orc. AD&D Mass Combat, Fort Fenrir Troops versus Orcs

In the AD&D campaign I currently play in, we ran out of time to carry out a mass combat within the session. So, the DM put the forces on the board for people to play out in downtime through the docketing approach pioneered by Serious DM, and discussed in Umbros.

Without going into everything, our party had been making our way through the wilderness, when we came across a raiding party of two-hundred or so orcs. Luckily my ranger Huckleberry Finnegan was with the party and so allowed for the party to escape without detection. Forthwith we retreated to the nearby Fort Fenrir, which rallied troops to pursue the orcs. Evening was falling when the force caught up with the orcs, so the DM ruled the orcs were not disadvantaged due to sunlight. Starting range was 13″.

But, as said before, we had no time in the session, so we docketed the conflict. Here is my attempt for a conclusion.

I just had a limited amount of information.

I embellished a few more details below. Chose a scaling of 1:10.

Next up terrain. I know it was set more or less in a forested hex, with a river to the east. I decided to use the Chainmail approach.

The result here is the Fenrir forces drew two forests. The orcs drew a pond, a river, and a marsh. Just like orcs to hole up in a bog. I determined the orcs were on the defensive (Fenrir is chasing them), so got to place terrain first. Since the campaign’s big river is to the east I ruled the “river” was more of a decently gullied stream coming from the pond and marsh. Orcs defensively chose to place the stream between them and the Fenrir forces with the marsh along the northern edge of part of the pond and stream. To cross the stream and gully, I rule they must stop at the stream, then cross the stream and stop, and on the third turn climb the gully to move regularly. This will turn out to have important effects later on.

I rolled randomly for the size of the forests and got one small forest and one large forest. Fenrir chose to anchor the west flank with the large forest along most of the edge. The small forest was placed on the southeast of the board.

The defending orcs set up first. They placed their crossbow troops behind the marsh. Then lined the rest of their forces to defend the stream bank.

Fenrir, set up with their Light Infantry shielding the crossbowmen on the left flank, the Light Horse (with crossbows) next, and the Medium Horse, which screened the heavy infantry. Then the Longbows. There is a wrinkle with the longbows. One of the two longbow units is really a Phantasmal Force created by the Illusionist Max. Within the Phantasmal Force are the assassin Deadleaf and the Ranger Huckleberry Finnegan — each also armed with a bow.

I played it all out on paper, with the moves as indicated.

Round 1

Initiative was tied (4,4).

The whole orc force moved up to the riverbank, except the crossbows stayed put behind their marsh.

The Fenrir heavy infantry passed through the ranks of Medium Horse to approach the stream. The Medium Horse stayed put. The Light Horse moved into the western woods to attempt a flanking maneuver. The orc crossbows fire on the screening light infantry but all miss. The Fenrir Longbows fire on the orc axe troops and score one hit for 1 hp.

The orc Subchief is placed between the axe troops and the sword & spear troops. Deadleaf takes a couple of long range shots. Both miss. Huckleberry tries a couple of shots. One hits for 6 hp.

Round 2

Tied initiative again (1, 1).

The orcs do not move.

The Heavy Infantry move up to the riverbank. The Longbows move up to face the orc swords & spears across the river. The Light Horse continues to pick its way through the trees and dismounts in the woods flanking the orc crossbows. The Medium Horse stays put.

The orc crossbows fire on the screening light infantry and hit for 2 hp. The human light crossbows fire and miss. The heavy crossbows reload. The Longbows fire on the orc Swords & Spears. They get three hits for 13 hp (eliminating two of the four stands). Both Deadleaf and Huckleberry fire on the orc subchief, but both miss all their shots. The orc Swords and Spears unit makes a successful morale check — they stand.

Round 3

Orcs win initiative (6,4)

This is a critical point. The orcs originally chose the river to try to force the Fenrir troops to come to them across the rough river bank. But, I reckon the damage the Subchief has taken from arrows plus the damage the Swords & Spears already took from the Longbows has hit home the idea that just standing to take longbow hits isn’t a good idea. The options really are to retreat or attack across the river. I figured orcs are naturally aggressive, so give the odds of attack 60/retreat 40. I roll they attack.

The axe orcs move across the stream to engage the Heavy Infantry. The Swords and Spears do the same but must stop at the stream bank. Unfortunately for them, the Longbows are not directly at the stream bank and cannot be engaged. The orc forks also move to the stream bank.

The orc crossbows fire on the Light Infantry screen and achieve 4 hits, for 14 hp damage. This wipes out the Light Infantry. The orc axes attack the heavy infantry and have no luck hitting.

The Light Horse (on foot) move out of the cover of the woods. I rule that this requires a roll for potential surprise for the orc crossbows. The result is the orcs are surprised for one segment. The Light Horse crossbows twang away to hit 5 hp damage. This eliminates a quarter of their unit triggering a morale roll. Despite relative advantages, they roll poorly, which triggers a retreat for the orc crossbows.

The medium horse moves east to face the orc forks. The Longbows fire on the forks but miss. The Phantasmal Force fires on the Swords and Spears but misses. Deadleaf and Huckleberry both fire on the orc Subchief — all miss. The Heavy Infantry attack the axe orcs for 2 hp damage. The orc axes make a successful morale roll.

Round 4

Orcs win initiative again (4,2).

Orc crossbows retreat. Orc Axes hit the Heavy Infantry for 8hp triggering a morale check — the infantry holds. The orc forks move up the streambank. The remaining orc Swords and Spears move up the streambank and engage the Longbows (but miss). The orc Subchief is now close to the Phastasmal Force. I rule he can make a saving throw to see through the ruse, and he makes it. The result leaves Deadleaf, Huckleberry, and Max exposed on the field of battle. The Subchief charges in to attack whom? I roll randomly; it’s Huckleberry. Apparently the rage of being deceived gives the subchief impetus; he hits Huckleberry for 7 hp.

The Light Horse march east to occupy the area previously held by the orc crossbows. The Heavy Infantry attack the axe orcs and miss. The human crossbows fire on the axe orcs from the flank and hit for 1 hp. The Longbows draw swords and eliminate the last (brave yet foolhardy) axe orc. Huckleberry draws his sword and strikes the Subchief, killing him at the same time Deadleaf does the same.

The Medium Horse charge the orc forks. Their lances outreach the forks, and thus the Medium Horse attacks first. They roll over the forks, scoring three hits (damaged doubled by the charge) for 37 hp damage. It’s overkill; they eliminate four of the six fork stands.

At this point, two of the four orc units have either been eliminated or forced to retreat, and their leader, the Subchief, has been killed. I deemed this requires a force-wide morale roll. The result is they flee. The result of fleeing is engaged units get a free attack at +4. This wipes out the remaining forks and axe orcs.

It’s a great success for Fort Fenrir. The Light Infantry was wiped out and they Heavy Infantry took some serious lumps, but otherwise there are no casualties. Of the PCs, only Huckleberry was injured. He’ll be fine with a week’s rest.

In addition, they have captured a number of the orc leaders, assistants, and guards. These likely will be interrogated before being executed. It will be up to the Fort’s leadership. And, it remains to be seen whether those orc crossbows manage to escape entirely.