After a bit of break, war has broken out again on the continent of Petaudia. Ethonia's ambitious count, Zacocia IX, has launched an invasion of the Celerian Marches, attacking the small barony of the East March, ruled by Baroness Eblis VI. The attackers have to cross the high Trygon Mountain range to reach the East March and the defenders hastily sent delaying detachments to hold the main passes. The first action took place in Waldo's Pass.

The table was not my usual type: i decided to make it look more like a mountain pass. You can see the result in the pictures. I used an old curtain draped over tins of paint (anyone remember doing that when they first started wargaming?) and scattered sand and gravel to break up the bare surface. The slopes counted as difficult ground, so movement was slow off the road. The gravel heaps were screes, so gave cover. The tower was bought many, many years ago, the manufacturer long forgotten to me. I used Dragon Rampant rules, with a few "house amendments". The figures are mostly Essex 25mm metals, with Grendel dwarves (still the best dwarves I have ever seen!), plus some odds and ends, e.g. Grenadier, Perry, Gripping Beast.

The defence had to hold the tower and the barrier for as long as possible and then pull out without having suffered more than a third of its strength in losses. The attackers had to take the tower and barrier and prevent the defenders getting away easily. These objectives made it pretty easy to play the game solo.

In the event, the defenders achieved their objectives successfully. They lost and then regained the barrier and held the tower until the attackers were hammering on the postern gate on the east side. They then pulled out before the attackers could catch them and without suffering severe losses. The attackers were somewhat hampered by the fact that their force included quite a lot of cavalry, which was of little use in the barrow pass.

The East March defence had one unit of peasant longbowmen in the tower, one unit of crossbowmen at the barrier, one unit of dwarves and one unit of mercenary light cavalry, along with one command stand - the Lord of Bonese.

The Ethonian attackers had one unit of spearmen and one of crossbowmen from the Barony of Tarpeia, led by its baroness in full armour (colours are green and red) plus a strong force of Leucadian mercenaries (colours are black and white): one unit of knights, one of men-at-arms, one of medium cavalry, one of spearmen, one of crossbowmen, one of longbowmen and one of swordsmen/axemen, all under their commander, Symmachus the Tall.

Oh, there was also a random roll each turn to allow the appearance of a "wandering monster" (in D&D parlance!). I have decided my individual monster and creature models rarely get an outing on the table, so this was a way of doing so. In this case, a stone giant. A '6' on a die meant it appeared, which it eventually did, but its actions were then controlled at random. It ended up throwing lots of rocks at the West March defenders of the watch tower, but otherwise did not have a significant effect on the battle.

Anyway, here are the photographs. The quality is a bit varied as I was in the garage for this game - loose sand and gravel is not welcome in the dining room!

Waldo's Pass, looking from east to west.

The old watch tower.

The mercenary light cavalry from the East March.

The crossbowmen holding the barrier.

The peasant longbowmen in the tower.

The defenders' commander, the Lord of Bonese with his standard bearer.

The dwarves, allies of the East March.

The leading attackers - the Baroness of Tarpeia and her spearmen and longbowmen.

The Leucadian mercenaries start to enter the pass.

Symmachus the Tall, the Leucadian commander, is the command base on the left of the picture.

The stone giant makes its appearance half way through the action.

The Leucadian swordsmen/axemen - a mixed race unit of half-orcs, dwarf, goblin,

elf, humans and a wolf!

The dwarves are about to retake the barrier as the Leucadian swordsmen and axemen reach the tower and start trying to break down the postern door.

The peasants evacuate the tower.

Leucadian knights - not much  use in the narrow pass.

The defenders are pulling back.

The attackers pile up beyond the barrier and watch tower.