Mortal Gods, first games

A fire crackles, sending sparks up towards the stars, he looked around at the other fires at their campsite, and knew tomorrow night there would be less shadows around the flames, maybe even less flames. He had preyed to all the gods he could think of, he was meant to have a patron deity, but after this many years in the field, and countless fights, he could not remember which it was.

"Oh cheer up Polykratos, we've known they were coming for weeks, it's our job to stop them," A hearty hand slammed into his shoulder. Leandros was never one for gloomy introspection, "By this time tomorrow, the boys will class themselves as veterans, and you'll again be the toast of Thespia. The joy of being from Thespia, and not being aligned to the main belligerents in this eternal war, is that everyone seemed to think we are fair game. Maybe if they left us alone, and concentrated on each other, they might finally get this row sorted!" He chuckled, helping himself to bread from the fire side.

You could not fault this Lochos for their conduct, in the last two villages they had passed through, the locals had been left considerably richer then when they had arrived, paying one old crone more than the odds for her wine. Not their usual plundering and thievery, unusual. Would their enthusiasm overcome their lack of experience? Still, he had sacrificed to the flames, preying he and his band would survive, and the flames had greedily lapped up the portion of meat he had given up.

Another figure lifted himself up from a log at an adjoining fire, wrapping his cloak around himself, Tychon the archer came across. The half dozen rabbits and the partridge he had bagged on the march today had certainly lifted the men's spirits, and maybe they were a sign Aphrodite was watching over this little band. Certainly, when they had read the omens from their entrails, the news could only be positive, maybe that was why the boys were so light humoured. In the distance, he swore he heard a lyre and a set of pipes start playing, how the boys managed to carry them around, he never knew.

"We shall see what tomorrow brings..."

I had gone up to the wonderful Boards and Swords for a weekend of MeG, but due to a drop out I was the odd man out. Organiser takes the bye... Saturday I painted, Sunday my old friend Pete (and his amazing wife Helen) came all the way up from Leicester and as I organised the last two rounds of Derventio, we also played two cracking games of Mortal Gods.

Game one vs Pete's Atheanian Lochos

We started with a 300 point game. We randomly rolled our scenario and set up, and it was a take and hold scenario. Three items of interest have been left near the ruined temple. I held two, Pete one. You score 1 point a turn for each you control, but on turn 6, the final turn, you get 3 points per objective.

I put my hoplites to the fore to absorb the damage, while Polykratos, the slingers and Tychon guarded the rear objective by the well. Pete's amphora of supplies rested safely behind the old walls.

My first rolls! My hoplites smash into Pete's peltasts. 

Tychon unleashes his firepower! He targets Pete's 2-in-C who is getting rather close, so he steps up to 10" (which allows him to count pegasii as hits on his dice) Aphrodite does love him! Blessed also by Apollo (a handy Omen card turn 1) allows him extra range, and scores a massive 5 hits. Pete, needing shields, rolled the bottom left two dice, as he is a hero, the pegasus counts as a save.

He really, really did not like Pete's hero! He rolls, on four dice to wound, a total of 5 kills! Man alive, he is good! Libations to Aphrodite tonight. 

 If you take a courage test, and pass, your character comes back on half wounds, but taking a wound card. These are 'interesting'! 

For Pete, it was especially interesting.

He passed his courage test.

He pulls a card.

He died!

Pete swings in his hoplites and slingers to join the fray, finishing off my hoplites in short order too.

I managed to kill off one quickly with sling shots. My hopilite on his own was feeling a little outnumbered.

Thankfully,  Leandros knew how to deal with Pete's slingers, that was enough wounds to finish off  that group as they started with two wounds each, eight hits is going to cause enough...

The top of  Pete's forces suddenly look a lot more Spartan (shame they were Athenians). 

 

Leandros pulled an omen, and this did not bother him in the slightest, that was his intention anyway! The black coins show he's had his activations.

My light hoplites move towards Pete's, while my loan hoplite wonders if he will survive. 

Well, for a single bloke, he's doing okay! Especially as in the next turn Leandros and he wipe out Pete's hoplites!

 Light hopilites bounce off each other, without as much of a scratch happening.  

Pete sends his Lochargos into my hopilites, as a brutal attack. He aims to polish off my hopilites (yum). He's through my hard outer shell, could I hold?

 My remaining heavy hoplites tries to eliminate Pete's remaining peltast, lurking in the ruins.

 A push and shove, with my light hoplites getting slowly shoved back. Meanwhile heroes duke it out, as I try to keep Pete making a dash for the centre objective. Thankfully, this gives my archer a clean line of sight too.

 Pete's Lochos breaks cover, I eliminate his light hoplites, and then push his general well away from either of my objectives. 

As the game ends, I am 18 points up to Pete's 9, a clear win. A hugely enjoyable fight, and I definitely got the hang of the rules!

Resting on his haunches, Polykratos watched his me gather themselves together. "Well, that saw them off! Men, get yourself together, we need to recover the last set of treasures!"

Game 2: vs Mercanary Greeks

We reset for our second game. We upped the points to 400, which for me meant an extra light hoplite, an extra peltasts, and upgrading my hoplites to 'Experienced' (makes them better in all fights).

We ended up with a fun scenario randomly generated, Pete had to hold onto the treasures until turn 6. I had to take it off him. He rolled for deployment and ended up bang in the centre, which was going to make my life REALLY difficult!

I deployed my archer Tychon, the slingers and my peltasts on the hill, in an effort to pin cushion Pete's troops with an extra shooting die per turn. 

Pete handily points out quite how hard his hoplites are compared to my peltasts! He saves every hit. Drat!

 The hoplites muller my peltasts (failing every cpourage test out of four does not help). Seeing this, Tychon fails all four dice of his courage test, and legs it to safety behind the hill!

I close in from my side of the table, hoping to get in amongst Pete's troops and recover the precious treasures. 

The omens fell against Pete, meaning his general (carrying the treasure) could not attack or else risk taking wounds himself. 

Leandro sees a way through and takes a courage check to charge Pete's boss.

A classic blitz play!

I was, at this point, somewhat distracted by the excitement of the game and having to score the MeG competition too, but after Lendros' blitz, Polykratos is free to pile into Pete's general and finish him off in heroic one-to-one combat (although he came back), spilling the treasures out across the field and into the rough going.

Allowing his to regather the treasures and move further away.

And even though his hero was finally cut down, Pete's peltasts gathered up the goods and scampered away!

A well deserved win for Pete, but, even with my awful deployment, it was a tight game right to the end. I almost had the treasure, but had no one to swoop in and pick it up! Oh well.

Two fantastic games, I really appreciate Pete showing me the ropes, and once this stupid isolation goes away, we will play more! My archer proved himself to be well worth his points in game 1, and the slingers in game 2.

Polykratos wiped the sweat from his brow (who though bronze helmets in the heat of Greece were a good idea). 

"Damn them, they got away with it!" he moaned.

Leandros, patching his many wounds, looked round at him and smiled. "Two things, one, the boys are no longer green,"

"And?" Polykratos shot him an evil look, now was not the time to make light.

"Secondly, those jars, well, confession time. Those jars were full..."

"Yes, of the temples treasures!"

"Of oil and grain! They stole the wrong ones!"

It was one of the few times Leandros had ever seen Polykratos not be able to stand through laughing...