Human-Elf vs Orc-Human Rebel Showdown!

Following the last battle in the Campaign for the Darkened Wood, where the human faction successfully transported several magical (radioactive?) stones through a beastman-infested swamp. The beastmen attacked from different sides and never achieved local superiority, ultimately getting overwhelmed by superior human numbers.

The human success in that battle gave the human king the resources to attract a wizard to their faction. Who looks more than a bit like Gandalf.

And now the human rebels, who attacked and killed one of the king's taxpayers out for a stroll in the woods, know that their days are numbered. The human rebels join forces with the Orcs and Goblins and mount an offensive against the humans. The human king allies with the Elves to confront the human rebel-orc & goblin force.

In the photo above, we setup and we have the orcs on the top right and the humans and the elves on the top left and the rebels on the bottom right. The rest of the captions have been provided by my boys, who played the game with me.

Here is our line of orcs protecting the rebel archers.

This is a group of orcs with a champion.

This is a rebel squad with some archers and their leader Robin.

The Orc line.

This is just anther picture of the champion with three spear men and three orcs.

Here is the squad of rebels in front of orcs.

Here is a closer look at them.

This is a picture of a squad elves ready to provide cover fire for the humans.

Here is the picture of the humans with their wizard in the front of the elves.

Here is our other squad of elves.

Here is our squad of elves with the elven leader.

This is a birds eye view of the humans front line.

Here is another birds eye view but for our wizard.

And here are our human spear men.

Here is a closer look at our spearmen.

Here is a closer look at the humans hired wizard.

Here is another look at our spearmen.

This is one unit of archers, kings guard and spearmen.

This is another look at the humans and elves together.

UMPH! A man falls to the ground almost immediately. 

The elves fire a volley of arrows.

Two rebels die by the volley of arrows.

Then the elves make quick thinking and move towards the kings guard and spearmen.

The other elf squad has fired a volley at the other squad of rebels.

And another rebel falls dead to the ground by another volley of elven arrow.

The champion and his men move toward the kings guard, the spearmen and elven archers.

The rebel archers fire a volley and hit two men of the kings guard and one spearman.

The orcs draw a jack that helps them in close combat.

Now one orc dies and two of the kings guard are shocked.

Now the other orcs attack the front line.

Now the big line of orcs moves 6'' toward the human archers.

Oh no! The big line of orcs finally gets to the human archers and another one is killed.

Now the swords men are in close combat and losing.

It is a blood bath for the humans but the orcs are doing almost the same.

Two spearmen are dead, and the wizard is unprotected.

Now the wizard has to protect himself.

The elves unleashed a deadly barrage of arrows on the rebels again and the rebels start fleeing.

Now one of our elven archers has been shot dead by rebel fire.

The wizard has been hit by rebel fire and is running.

Now in close combat the elven archers are not very good so two of them died.

Now the rebel squad that is fleeing has moved another 6 '' and are trying to go faster.

And it's almost safe to say that the elves and humans have won.

We counted the loses and the elves lost 3 men the humans lost 9. The human rebels lost 9 men and the orcs lost 10.

This proved a bloody conflict for both sides. Ultimately the elves and humans prevailed, their wizard survived, and the orcs and human rebels had to flee the field.

Beastmen vs. Humans, Savage Worlds Showdown!

Picking up where we left off a few years ago in the Campaign for the Darkened Wood, the human kingdom had just come out on top in a three-way battle versus the Elf-Dwarf coalition and the dastardly Orcs. While the Elf-Dwarf gang and the Orc mob duked it out to the death, the humans rushed in, grabbed several magical (radioactive?) rocks that had fallen from the sky and would be useful in enticing a wizard to work for the human king.

Now the humans have departed with the loot and are making their way back to human lands. But first they must pass through a stretch of swamp. The swampy green ground on either side of the path through the swamp imposed a movement penalty on the humans. 

Any beastmen that may be in the swamp were immune to this penalty, owing to their swift movement and long legs. And the beastmen were hoping to get the meteorites from the men, in order to lure a necromancer to join their faction and add legions of the undead to their cause (any excuse to dust off old Warhammer skeletons).

We played this with the Savage Worlds Showdown! rules, using the excellent cards from Fistful of Lead for activations.

The column of human soldiers filing through the swamp.

Led by the brave and trusty Captain Trent, along with a scout hired to lead the convoy back to the kingdom of men.

Captain Trent close-up.

And a close-up of the local scout, a Norse woodsman who is handy with a bow and knows these woods well.

The convoy has advanced halfway across the board without incident. So far, so good...

...so what! Beastmen emerge from the nearby woods, charging toward the column of men.

Two beastmen charge the rear of the column...

...and one of the human soldiers goes down immediately, the victim of a nasty axe blow.

The humans rally and wrap around the beastmen, hoping to put their superior numbers to use, even though they are inferior to the beastmen in one-on-one combat.

Two more beastmen charge into battle further up the column.

The two beastmen at the trail of the column both have yellow Shaken counters.

One of the beastmen at the end of the column goes down, overwhelmend by the numbers of the human soldiers.

Things are looking better for the beastmen in the middle of the column, where they have temporary numerical superiority, and the human scout is wounded and has a yellow Shaken marker. But then a fortuitous initiative card removes the Shaken status.

Things go south for the beastmen at the back of the column, with both beastmen brought down by superior human numbers.

One of the beastmen in the middle of the column goes down from a lucky blow.

The beastman will breaks, and one of them runs off.

Human archers try to shoot the fleeing beastman, but miss.

The beastman runs off to live another day!

Things have gone very poorly for the beastman chieftain, who is one wound short of death.

The beastman chieftain flees sucessfully, expending all remaining Bennies (free saves) to get off of the field alive.

The beastman faction has been reduced to two beastmen. So much for getting a necromancer to build up their numbers. We decided to retire the beastmen as a going concern in the campaign. Any time they might appear from here on out would just be the two surviving members of their faction.

As a review note, the Savage Worlds Showdown system does account well for the weight of individually inferior combatants swarming superior ones. Had I appropriately accounted for this prior to moving in the beastmen, I might have changed how I deployed them.