Battle in the Mists of Time

Sir Blanque - swordsman and handsome, dashing noble half mer-person

Marion - stabby stabby dagger specialist; Nihrain who currently carries the Runestaff

Destiny - Menastrai sorceress covertly raised on Melnibone

Bomilcar - Weeping Waste nomad from a chieftain's family

I've shamelessly stolen the title for this blog post from Iain at Caveadsum, because it's cool. The characters have been asked to help in the defence of a small Menastrai/human town from marauding Melnibonean forces, and each of them has been given command of a small group of local warriors, a mixture of humans and Menastrai:

I put together a combination of my Cry Havoc battle mats to set this up over several small tables. The mats are 2D, and some of the details are obscured by the unit cards I employed to make running a larger combat more manageable, but I hope you can make out most of what is going on here.

We are looking northwards in the first photo. The river comes from its source in the mountains to the northwest, and curves southwards, cutting a gap in a major ridge line to the north of the settlement. Sir Blanque is in charge of a detachment guarding the farmlands to the northeast, at the far top right of the photo as you look at it. Bomilcar is located on the main northern hill just to the south of that position, in charge of a detachment of archers. Destiny is next, running the defence of a small tower outpost from its crenellated roof. In the centre is the main part of the town itself, with a forward group of troops tasked with defending the bridge, and reserves under the local lord's direct command. Marion is lurking around the buildings here, doing what she does best. To the south are various other groups of troops - these are mostly humans with a few Menastrai archers.

The defenders are not sure where the attacks will come from, so they have had to spread themselves rather thinly; the arrival of the party has been a major source of relief. Not only will they bolster the numbers, but the morale effect is considerable since they are clearly experienced, well-equipped warriors.

The second photo (above) is a closer shot of the southern part of the defences. In case you're wondering, the Menastrai archers are facing off board in case any of the enemy crosses the river further downstream and tries to outflank the town. The characters think this unlikely because the attackers won't know about their arrival, nor how well defended the place is, but there is no point in taking risks.

Photo number three shows the northern part of the defensive deployment, in and around the fields and farms, along with Bomilcar's commanding position on top of the hill. Destiny's little outpost is at the centre left of this one as you look at it.

I hope you can make out Sir Blanque's figure in charge of the farmland defences; he is exhorting the troops just as the bad guys start to make an appearance.

For the purposes of the set-up, I adapted the first scenario in the old Tablets of Fate trilogy from the Forgotten Realms setting, which you can find on Drivethrurpg here if you're interested. I never really got into that setting, and the three modules that make up the mini-campaign left me relatively cold. However, the basic idea of important things falling from the sky can be useful, and the attack on the locals is reasonably well laid-out, so I used that as the basis for this session.

I didn't take any more pictures because I was too busy running this as quite a large scale combat. However, here's a taste of how it went:

• The Melnibonean forces attack at three points. The first thrust, as you can see from the final photo, is aimed at the farmlands across the bend in the river. This group is a bunch of sort of Chaos beast men things, led by a fearsome gigantic four-armed monstrosity.
• The second comes through the woods to the north of the bridge, using them as cover. This is a unit of well-armed human servants of the Melnibonean army, led by a Melnibonean nobleman brandishing a greatsword. He has an additional special force in the form of four animated slabs of pure leather armour, similarly wielding great swords. This is actually the most powerful group.
• The third heads straight for the bride, and is composed of two strong units of human servitors, led from the back by a Melnibonean sorcerer.
• The three forces are deliberately not co-ordinated to arrive together. The northenmost unit is designed to grab the attention of any defenders, while the main force infiltrates through the woods; the attack on the bridge is given a 50% chance of success by the two Melnibonean leaders. At least, that's what they think based on the little information they have about the defenders. Of course, they know nothing about the player characters.
• The relatively unarmored beastmen in the northern thrust have a bad time against Bomilcar's archer unit on the hill as they approach the river. Sir Blanque leads his force in a charge against the beasties as they struggle through the water, but the attacking force's morale breaks as their enormous leader finally goes down, riddled with arrows, and Sir Blanque rather gloriously decapitates the first of their number to make it to his bank. Bomilcar's men have a lot of fun putting arrows into the backs of the routers; not many of them get away as they run for their lives.
• While this is going on, the disciplined approach of the two units aimed at the bridge worries the defenders. Quite a few of the attackers go down under a hail of javelins, but not enough to stop them reaching the bridge itself.
• The main thrust through the woods reaches the river bank across from Destiny's outpost. Her defenders have a hard time trying to hit the attackers with any missiles through the trees, although she does eventually manage to take out one of the slabs by removing its head with an excellent arrow from her Melnibonean bow. 
• Everything reaches a crescendo as the lurking Melnibonean sorcerer unleashes a pillar of flame onto the defenders at the bridge. There are only eight of them, and two are killed immediately; another two go down, severely wounded. The rest retreat into the village, as indeed was part of the plan should things go badly here: draw the enemy into the buildings where the rest of the militia are waiting with their lord - and Marion.
• At the same time, the main assault force starts to wade across the river, and the three slabs teleport onto the top of the watchtower, taking on Destiny. She is hard pressed against all three of them, and takes a couple of nasty hits that are fortunately blocked by her demon armour. One of her troopers is severely wounded at the same time.
• Just as it looks as though the attackers are going to get through, Sir Blanque appears from his victory at the north. Pointing towards the river, he invokes his patron, Straasha. The waters recede, leaving the attackers coming across from the forest mired in mud. Then there is an almighty roar as the river crashes down on them almost like a tsunami, bowling them over. The wave continues right through the bridge, destroying it and the force trying to cross it. The carnage is appropriately awesome.
• Marion makes her move, shadow teleporting to a tree near the enemy sorcerer. Her ambush wounds him as his demon armour disintegrates, but it's enough to save him; he teleports right out of there

The aftermath is quite impressive too. A small units of reinforcing Menastrai lancers arrives, but as it happens they are unneeded. Marion uses the Runestaff to save the lives of the wounded men; all in all, only the two who were directly engulfed by the fiery pillar have been killed. The majority of the enemy have been drowned, though; half plate armour does not mix well with a rushing wall of water.

The Melnibonean nobleman who led the main attack across the woods survives because he made it across the river before Sir Blanque's battle-winning intervention. He offers his sword to Sir Blanque in recognition of his sorcerous prowess - "We did not think this locale would have such sophisticated defenders," he says.

It turns out that he is one of Destiny's ancestors; there is a persistent family story of a dukeling who went missing in action at the beginning of the Great War with the Dharzi; now Destiny knows what actually happened. They accept the man's parole, and he agrees to accompany the remaining locals to Anakheera as they evacuate their town.

The Menastrai are impressed, recognizing the Runestaff as a major artifact. The reinforcing lancers have some news about the strange meteorites in the sky, too. One of them definitely came to earth near the central Menastrai capital; the other seems to be near Anakheera. The problem is that the main Melnibonean invasion force is heading straight for the capital city. 

"Right! So that's where we're going too," says Marion. Sir Blanque agrees; "We need to get to those things from the sky before the Melniboneans arrive!"