DR Bugbears vs Rohan

I popped up to CHCH for work yesterday so took the opportunity to take up some figures and have a game of Dragon rampant vs Ian in the evening. We played 32 points and though a tad rusty quickly got into the swing of things.

I ran my bugbears

1x Elite foot general

3x bugbear warbands (bellicose foot)

2x wargs (lesser warbeasts)

1x ettins (large warbeasts)

Pretty much everything in my army had wild charge

Ian ran the stoic defenders of Rohan

1x elite riders general

1x elite riders

1x heavy riders

2x heavy foot

1x light missiles

The battle started well for the bugbears and their allies, managing to defeat or badly damage both cavalry wings of Rohan while the infantry stood on the banks of the river and watched on and their glory hungry general and his amtes met their maker and the bugbear warlord was feeling confident the victory was in his grasp. Alas, once the cavalry had been dealt with by the wargs and ettins the Rohan infantry showed a bit more mettle and stoically defended the river bank vs the waves of bellicose bugbears. Slowly they were driven back but counter attacks and missile support finally put paid the bugbears and the bugbear army literally melted away.

A fun game and each army played very differently. We were both a bit surprised at ho robust Rohan’s heavy foot were and they really turned the tide once the cavalry had been delat with.

Next time I’d probably look at a little missile support but overall as really happy with the way the bugbear army played.

A horde of bugbears emerge out of the northn wastes and head towards an undefended ford, the ford of Isen?

Before the bugbears can reach the ford a force of Rohan cavalry and infantry arrive to stop the incursion. 

A force of wargs drives the Rohan light cavalry back on the hill. In the foreground the bellicose bugbears head for the ford.

On the other hill the other pack of wargs also drive off the Rohan cavalry after discovering the usefulness of being uphill (i.e +1 to armour, pretty damn handy)

The riders of Rohan are driven back.

But they come back for more.

 Then the ettin wades in too.

After several rounds the ettins and wargs prevail, killing the elite riders and the Rohan general. The bugbear warlord now smiles and senses victory. Momnts later the rohan archers finish off the ettin which had 5 wounds. 

Time to send in the bugbears. This should be a doddle but alas the bugbears are about to learn why the heavy infantry are so good on the defence.

Anglo-Saxon battle tactics ##1: Find a hill and sit eon it
Anglo-Saxon battle tactics #2: Find a river and site behind it

And that is it, the Saxon battle tactics manual.

 Slowly the bugbears force the Rohan infantry back. 

Things are looking good but somehow...

It ends up looking like this. The Rohan infantry saw off wave after wave of bugbears and in the end retained the ford. Who needs cavalry?

Thoughts
It was a great game. 32 points made for a good sized game with a nice variety of troop types. We both made a few tactical mistakes but learned heaps and were both impressed at the resilience of vanilla infantry... when defending river banks.

I hope to get up to CHCH for another game soon.

Craig