I don't get a chance to play the D&D Miniatures game as often as I would like. I live on a lovely mountainside in rural south-eastern Australia, but it's a little way to the nearest of my friends who plays the game. I also have a job, so that accounts for more time not spent playing miniatures. Oh, and I also enjoy playing or running a regular D&D 3.5E RPG set in Greyhawk, and I also play Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne or San Marco when I get a chance...
All of which boils down to this: I play D&D Miniatures once a week on a Friday afternoon with my friend Julian. Julian's spent nowhere near as much money on the game as I have, but he still has some pretty effective figures and warbands, including an Ogre Ravager that I dread.
I normally design four warbands - one of each alignment - on the Thursday night, and I try to take into account the "Dread" Ravager. I thought you might be interested in seeing some of the warbands I've designed, and my reports of how they fared against Julian's warbands.
Chaotic Evil
(99 points)- Eye of Gruumsh (Cmd1, 44 pts)
- Carrion Crawler (19 pts)
- Orc Warrior x4 (12 pts)
- Orc Archer x3 (24 pts)
otherwise known as "I'm going to fill you full of holes whilst you fight my Crawler" or "Ogre Ravager kills lots of orcs"
Versus: Julian's LE Urthok warband (lots of goblinoids, plus a Bearded Devil)
Scenario: Moral Victory
- I should note that we roll all our scenarios randomly from the tables in the Miniatures Handbook
Victory Condition: Eliminate enemy commanders
I won terrain initiative, and placed a Shrine with the walls facing his corner. The Carrion Crawler ended up on a tile immediately facing his Assembly Tile (rubble). I won initiative, and tried charging Urthok with the Crawler, alas I missed!
The bearded devil was lured around the north side of the centre, along with the rest of Julian's forces. I engaged with my lesser orcs, and my Eye of Gruumsh used its superior speed to move around the south and directly engage Urthok. Although it took lots of damage, it made its Morale Save and managed to kill Urthok.
Victory to me!
Lawful Good
(99 points)- Cleric of Order (Cmd5, 24)
- Gold Champion (51)
- Stonechild (12)
- Gnome Fighter x2 (12)
otherwise known as "I've got a really high AC, let's see if your Ogre Ravager can hit me now!
Versus: Julian's CE warband - Abyssal Maws, Drow Wizard, White Dragon and other strange beasts. (No, he doesn't have enough Maws to make the snowball deck!)
Scenario: Quick Boon
My Gnomes were quickly eliminated, but the Cleric managed to cast Shield of Faith on the Gold Champion. I made the mistake of moving the Champion into the middle of an Abattoir, and he was quickly surrounded. I achieved the Quick Boon, though, gaining the +20 extra points.
The Champion started eliminating enemy figures and eventually caused the Dragon to rout, but an unlucky critical (about the only way the Champion could be hit!) eliminated him. The Stonechild eliminated the last of Julian's figures bar his commander before being killed by the Drow Wizard, before it was just the Cleric of Order vs. the Drow Wizard.
They got into melee, and the Wizard was defeated - my cleric had only 5 hit points left. Victory to me again!
Lawful Evil
(98 pts)- Human Blackguard (Cmd6, 46 pts)
- Hellhound x2 (20 pts)
- Kapak Draconian (11 pts)
- Human Executioner (15 pts)
- Goblin Sneak (6 pts)
otherwise known as "I'm going to flank your ogre ravager or fill it full of holes from a long way away"
Versus: Julian's other LE warband (Blackguard, 2 Azer Raiders, Kapak Draconian, 2 Hellhounds, Water Elemental)
Scenario: Contested Ground.
This was weird - the two bands were almost mirror images, except he had 2 Azers + Water Elemental vs. my Executioner and Sneak. Julian won terrain initiative and placed a Treasure Room tile in the centre, the openings facing him. This wasn't going to be good.
It got worse... I was absolutely defeated here. I kept missing, and my figures were too easily drawn out of position and killed. I was hoping the hellhounds + Kapak + Blackguard could get into some flanking positions, but the scenario and terrain placement made that impossible. At the end, most of his figures were still alive and all of mine were dead.
Game Score: 2-1, my favour.
Chaotic Good
(100 pts)- Copper Samurai (Cmd2, 32)
- Drunken Master (20)
- Jozan, Cleric of Pelor (4)
- Lidda, Halfling Rogue (4)
- Elf Spearguard x2 (12)
- Nebin, Gnome Illusionist (18)
- Elf Archer (10)
otherwise known as "blur can be really annoying to your Ogre Ravager" or "I'd like to roll a natural twenty one of these days!"
Versus: the CE Ogre Ravager band of Julian (Thankfully, he only has one Ravager, it is supported by a Drow Cleric, Orc Warrior and Minotaur).
Scenario: Tide of Battle (current leader wins initiative).
I managed to set up the terrain so that I'd be able to position my archers away from the centre and fire into battle whilst my Spearguards stayed out of melee contact. My Drunken Master died to the Ravager + Drow's slashing darkness; I eliminated the Minotaur and the Warrior, but my melee troops were dying and I wasn't hitting enough.
Eventually, I was left with just the Copper Samurai vs. the Ogre Ravager and the Drow Priestess. With his superior point score, Julian made me move first in the first round, then on the next round he moved first - thus gaining two rounds in a row. Unable to escape, the Samurai died to the Ravager's blade. Although I'd managed to reduce the Ravager below half hit-points, it had made its save.
Nebin had used all his spells; alas, the color sprays had failed to elicit even one stunned figure, though I think that the drunken master did survive one blow from the ravager from blur...
Game Score: 2-2.
At that point, we called it an afternoon.
I hope you enjoyed this article. It's likely you'll be hearing more from me in the future.
Until then, may you roll 20s and your enemies roll 1s!