Legiones - Turn two - the killing starts.
Initiative roll. Amerindians 3 Northmen 1 - Amerindian win.
Turn two started well for the Northmen with the Elves activating on Advance and the Elves in contact adding a black card to get the extra point of movement for one of the units to retreat both to the village. From here they shot at both the Shaman and then due to killing the Shaman in one go they also hit the Thunder Eagle. The shooting at the Shaman was particularly effective though it consumed a Red 3 for rerolls. In total 4 4 4 5 6 for 6 hits! The Shaman managed just 1 block even after using a black 2 for defence rerolls. The Shaman was dead. At least in the material plane.
This is a disaster for the Amerindians and really he should have stayed in cover last turn even if it would have given up the 5VP for the objective he contested with the Bear. The Northmen have now gained 3VP for killing him and have left the Amerindians in a hole. As a bonus they also inflicted 2 damage on the Thunder Eagle. The Northmen then drew a plot card as their Army special rule gaining a useful Forwards/Surprise attack and discarded the Deep Raid plot.
The Amerindian response was less spectacular but helped to sort the mess out on the flank. They also had a plan of sorts. First the lone Apache next to the Northmen Warchief was activated and using Skirmish dodged out of trouble to a shooting position on the other side of the hill from where, with a good roll, he put 3 damage on the Huscarls in the fields. This was better than hoped as the Huscarls made only 1 block even after rerolling a 1 for Brace 1 and another roll for Support.
Now though the Amerindians played the Tactical card Conch which allowed them to activate a second unit immediately unless cancelled by an enemy tactical. Activating the Mounted warrior unit the y were moved up to surround the Bear before he could go mental on the troops. The Amerindian chose to start with the furthest attacker so that any retreat by the Bear would be blocked causing an additional damage and a roll of 2 4 6 6 meant 5 hits. The Bear rolled 1 4 5 for respectable defence but the failure to retreat cost another damage totalling 4 damage. Long story short ,the Bear was killed by the mounted after retreating from the second attack and allowing the third mounted warrior to shoot at Skilled 1!. This was really important as it gained 3 VP a new Plot card of Flank which is very achievable and the removal of a unit which would chew up a troop unit every turn.
Easy come easy go says the Northmen Shaman who is activated next and tempted to just summon another Bear. However he decides to cast Hasten on the Troll to move it around the fields into an attack position. The Troll takes a HP of damage for this but otherwise is fine. For his second action he Summons a Huldrar. These are a support piece with no real killing power like a bear however they are 4/5 move, Ethereal so can pass through anything and have both Lure and Confuse spells. This will be very useful in the hill battle.
Turn two for the Amerindian was also busy as they activated the Warchief. He Commanded the Bear and Thunder Eagle into better positions for his first action then attacked the Huscarls directly in front. Sadly there was nobody else worth commanding within range so his third Command of Command 3 went unused
These Huscarls were pushed back with 3 damage and the Warchief followed up Cleaving on to the Huscarls who had been wounded by the Apache earlier in the turn and despatching them easily even with a disadvantaged Cleave attack, This added 2 more VP and gained another card.......which was then rejected as was another Assassinate.
Activation cards are already starting to be in short supply for both sides
Northmen
Amerindian
Northmen turn 3 started with a charge by the Troll towards the Bear in the centre looking to kill or weaken it so as to get a Bounty VP. This did not go well though as the Troll failed to inflict a single hit so the Bear did not move and just shrugged, stopping any Unstoppable follow up.
As bad as this Troll performance was the Thunder Eagle performance which followed was just as poor. Activating it flew over the Warchief and attacked the Huscarls from the other side to avoid any sneaky shooting from the Hunters. Great plan, poor execution as like the Troll the Thunder Eagle fluffed it's flame attack and literally nothing happened.
Another Flyer now joined battle as the central Valkyrie flew in to attack the Thunder Eagle and did slightly better, easily passing a Terror test and then managing a 5 6 after rerolls for Skilled 2. Some opponents have Terror 1 or Terror 2 and an attack on them requires a test using Willpower. In this case the Valkyrie rolled 5 dice and needed 2 'hits' of 4 5 or 6 to pass Terror 2.
The Thunder Eagle managed one block in return and then retreated away from the objective. This puts the central objective in Norse hands again.
Fee fi fo fum, I'm a giant and here i come! To great acclaim and whoops of joy the Giant who had been contesting the objective in the field with the hunters now ran across to batter the Huscarls! As a massive creature he ignores zones of control.
Unfortunately the whoops turned to groans as his 5 dice attack was 1 2 2 3 3...even worse the Huscarls had declared Last Gasp as they only had one HP left and felt doomed rolled1 3 6 which became 1 5 6 after Brace and Support rerolls. The Giant was then driven off with 3 damage to cower behind the war chief. This was Not as planned.
Into the gap created flew the second Valkyrie using flight to avoid zones of control. Having used both actions on move it was unable to do anything else. The centre now looks nailed on for the Northmen as well as the objective in the field.
In a move which has gamble written all over it the Amerindians activated the remaining mounted Warrior unit edging off the hill and leaving only one unit in contact with the objective. They then peppered the Huscarl unit hoping that Skilled 1 would overcome Brace and Support. It did but only just. The first round of arrows got two damage through but the second include a couple of 6s and finished off the huscarls with nothing to spare.. The Mounted warrior on the hill next to the objective cannot shoot as he is in hex contact with an enemy unit.
Left with only one activation card the Northmen have few choices left. It would be nice to kill the totem in its own deployment zone with the Hunters or shoot the Giant however the need to secure the centre meant that the Huldrar was pushed its single action (summoned) into the gap caused by the loss of the Huscarls. There seems to be little the Amerindians can do in response other than use the so far unactivated Apache to take a 4 dice disadvantaged shot. This seems a very long shot.
Amerindian turn 6 concentrates on trying to get some damage on the Northmen warchief by shuffling the Warrior bow across so two of them get shots off. Once again however the Warchief shrugs off all hits and its all a bit of a damp squib.
With no cards left for the Northmen it is now effectively a free move for the Amerindians as they still have a card left. Did somebody say Longshot? The Apache Skirmish their way into position and shoot off a storm of arrows in the direction of the Huldrar. Once again though it is just in the direction of and not actually at....No hits at all.
And so turn 2 fizzles out with a whimper'
In terms of points the Northmen gained 13 victory points holding 2 objectives (5 VP each) and having killed the Shaman at the start of the turn but achieving no plot cards again. added to their first turn score this totals 16 VP
The Amerindians hold only one objective but have killed 2 Huscarl units and a Bear for 7 points and hold one objective (5VP) for a total of 12. Additionally they played the Plot Flank for 1 VP. Added to their turn one points they are now on 23VP.
So at the technical half way point how are things looking? For the Northmen I still feel they can win this as they have uncontested control of the field objective and lots of killing power in the centre. The Shaman can feed another Bear or something into the Hill fight and the Trolls have made no impact yet.
The Amerindians have problems as they are Shamanless and have less killing power at range and close up. Once the Elves and Hunters start shooting things are going to die quickly and with the Northmen likely to get 10 points for objectives again they might just rack up enough killpoints to get to Sudden death 40 next turn. This was always going to be a tricky scenario for a mobile force against such a hitty force and they have done well to be ahead at this point.