(My mates report can be read HERE)
Following the course of a river, Orcs Hussars, scouting ahead of the main body, came upon a Ferach and Todoroni force marching exactly towards the army. Rushing back to report to their General, Rat-tavish, he organised his troops as best as his average experience would allow, following direction from his C-in-C.
After he had set his troops up, the Ferach deployed in front of the Orc Army
In the opening exchanges, the Orcs moved forwards, with the Royul Orc Ariellerie taking a shot at the Ferach lancers that had deployed to their front, scoring hits on them
To General Rat-tavish's eyes, the Ferach seemed to fly around the battlefield at great speed, changing formation and moving without difficulty. They even had the audacity to shoot at his gallant Hussars
For the remainder of the battle, the Ferach always had the upperhand over the Orcs in terms of movement, it seemed as though the Gods of Initiative were smiling on those pointy eared plonkers all day.
Ferach Lancers charged gallantly into the ranks of the 64th Regiment (2nd Stuffedshire), and a violent melee ensued for nearly the whole battle between these 2 units.
Having tried desperately to ensure that his Division was within his command at the start of the battle, General Rat-tavish failed to deploy his elite Rifleorcs and Dragoons properly, leaving them floundering in their deployment areas. The Rifleorcs attempted to march forward and then fire at the advancing Elves, needing to avoid the lowest of rolls on the dice of luck, however, it seems their Officer was off drinking tea and they became disorganised, and their fire was largely ineffective. Fortunately, their colleagues in the artillery were able to keep up a hot fire on the advancing columns, and the 64th kept the Lancers busy.
Meanwhile, in the centre, the 80th Regiment (Stuffedshire Volunteers) were keeping up a hot fire against the pesky Elf skirmishers which had started taking potshots at them from the woods, forcing them to retire for the rest of the battle
At the same time, the 7th Orc Hussars charged gloriously into the ranks of the Elf Line facing them. Surely nothing could go wrong? Well, they may look good, but the Hussars failed to make any real impact on what should have been an Elf bloodbath
Things were in the balance on the Orc left, with the Hussars taking a real beating, and being forced to retire.
The combat still raged in the centre, with Elf Columns starting to come into play at this stage
As the 80th Foote moved by the flank to attempt to fire on the Elf colum, they got themselves disorganised in the process, leaving their fire completely missing the juicy target of the Elf column. .
On the left, Ferach heavy cavalry moved up to enter the fray, and an epic cavalry clash took place leaving all 3 regiments battered and bruised.
The Orc Rifles finally managed to get themselves into some sort of order, and started to do what they do best: causing casualties! 5 hits in one round of shooting. The most effective shooting of the whole battle.
As the battle drew to a close, the 64th finally beat off the Elf lancers, but horror of horrors, the Orc Foote Artillerie suffered the indignity of losing casualties to none other than a light gun being fired by flipping frogs!!! A fact they will probably never live down.
And so it ended, as night fell. As both sides withdrew to their encampment, it was determined to be a very slight victory to the Orcs.
Overall, this was a great game. We had immense fun, even though we were both new to the rules, and it took some time checking as we went. More battles will certainly be fought in the near future!
