Halloween -Day 2

The king held an impromptu war-council in the field before the Northgate itself.  There were two ways over the river, and he needed to organize his force to cover both approaches.  He decided to send a lighter scouting force  across the ford, while the main body crossed at the bridge.  The troops were starting to move when the sound of distant drums reverberated down from the hills. 

The Rangers moved swiftly towards the bridge to observe the approaches from the North.  The outriders and Red Knights galloped for the ford.   

The defenders rush to secure the river crossings before the oncoming host.

As they neared the river, distant dust clouds resolved into dark figures upon the horizon.  A great host of green-skinned warriors were descending, hauling a great siege engine with them.  

The King considered this gravely.  "There are too many of them to do battle with the forces we have now.  The Red Knights  must hold the ford at all costs.  We will grind down the main body with arrows as they try to near the bridge.  Move quickly now..."

The King assembles a powerful striking force 

The archers on the gate fired volley after volley at the goblin archers as they prepared engage the defenders at the ford.  Meanwhile the Rangers fired their own carefully aimed shots into a slavering beast that ran at the fore of the Orcs nearing the bridge.  All motion seemed to stop, however, when the catapult gave out a fierce crack.  A great boulder rolled through the sky and exploding with a crash against the  base of the wall to the west of the gate.  Archers plummeted from the battlements as a great gash appeared in the walls edge.

Realizing that he could not wait, the King order his knights forward to engage the goblins at the bridge.  His outriders moved swiftly, but were pounced upon by the monster.  

The Outriders are driven back, as heavily depleted goblin units finally force their way across the bridge.  

The monster snarled and tore at riders, their horse driven back out of fear.  Meanwhile, though savaged, the first goblin spears crossed the bridge and fell upon Rangers in a fierce melee.  Things looked bleak for the great king, but his knights shouted out a war-cry and fell upon the green masses in a righteous fury.  

Duke Daud and his knights relieve the beleaguered Rangers, as the last of the Outriders fall before the  goblin spears.

King Mason enters the fray

Duke Daud crushed the goblin swordsmen, allowing the last of the Rangers to fall back the gate.  The Kings guard gave a volley of fire into the goblin spears as they charged into their mass as well.  Sensing a sway in the battle, the King chose this moment to enter combat himself.  

In the West, the red knights fought a valiant last stand.  Wave after wave of goblins crashed into them at the ford.  The knights fought fiercely, but the numbers began to tell.  

The knights crash into the lead group.

Sensing victory, they charge forward into the goblin mass and are quickly surrounded.  The outriders would continue to watch impassively

As the battled raged, all eyes looked to the south as another great stone pounded into the wall.  With a crash, the wall collapsed taking more archers with it.  A great rent opened in the wall and another monster charged toward the gap to exploit this weakness.  Fortunately, the first of the King's foot troops had just arrived, and they raced to fill the gap with their swords and shields.

The wall is down!

Rawr!

   

The king spotted the Goblin general breaking from the battle towards the hole in the wall.  Calling his guard to him, he charged this strange savage.  The goblin turned and raised his battleaxe to strike at the King's horse.  With a flash of sunlight, the kings sword swept downward with crushing force.  The general's battleaxe was cleft in two as the sword stroke continued into the creatures chest, killing him in a stroke.  The remaining goblins turned and fled back into the hills.

The goblin General turns to face the king

We all knew how this would end...

Wiping the foul  ichor from his blade, the king swore softly to himself.  "What must I face next from these foul lands?"

As if in answer gave the howl of wolves in the distance.  There was an unearthly tinge to this sound, something... disturbing.

*My son really surprised me with this scenario.  Ordinarily he is very aggressive, charging everything he sees.  In this case his first response when I unveiled the next panel, was to move all his heavy groups inside the wall, and only sending the rangers to hold the bridge.  As the game developed, he decided stopping the Orcs at the bridge might be easier.  Especially as the  catapult started hammering away at his walls.  I originally intended it to add drama, to force him to go after it before it knocked down the wall.  Now, he will have to defend his broken walls from the coming hordes.  His highlight of the game, however, was in the battle with the Goblin general.  He was expecting a climatic battle, and then "Yahtzeed" with five Swords on his combat roll.  Game over in one stroke...

*One added rule we used for this scenario was the random arrival of reinforcements.  He would receive a new unit at the beginning of each turn if he rolled a "command" symbol on a die.  Each turn we increased the number of dice to be rolled until a unit arrived, when we reset the dice.  He managed to only roll command symbols on two dice on the fifth turn giving him two units of foot knights

Other rules
*We are using the dice from Command and Colors, but not the cards.  Heavies move 1 and lights 2 hexes.  (+2 for mounted units)  Shooting is 2 dice, melee is 3, 4, 5 for l,m,h.  The King king also fights w/ five dice, the Goblin general with four.  The monsters have 4 hits and 3 attack dice.
*Most of the above bordered on a level of complexity too great for the target audience (1st grader), so Dad modified things on the fly to maintain action/fun.
*The rangers roll 2 dice for their shots, re-rolling a miss
*Generals and Heavy knights can ignore any hit on a roll of a "Command" symbol
*Units deployed in skirmish ignore one hit per command.  Their shooting is reduced by one die.
*The catapult (2 dice) hit the wall on a Sword or Red Square .  On a command symbol it did one hit to a unit on the wall it was targeting.