Song of Blades and Heroes: The Blood-Soaked Fields of Ristyp

After the defeat in the Undin Woods, other orc raiding parties begin striking in earnest at villages all through the borderlands. As evening comes on, an orc warband approaches the village of Ristyp, intending to crush any opposition with the help of a giant spider. The men defending the village this time have the benefit of a warmage on their side.

The Orcs: One Giant Spider, four Orc Archers, two Orc Wariors, two Savage Orc Wariors (298 points)

The Men: One Warmage, three Archers, four Warriors (297 points)

The Battle:  The orcs advance on the village. The human defense is set with their left flank anchored on the village edge, and archers holding the woods on the men's right. The two savage orc warriors advance on the orc left toward the human archers in the woods, while the spider scuttles up the center. Two orc warriors hold the orc right flank, while their archers bring up the rear.

A human archer slays an orc warrior with an arrow as the human warriors engage the spider. The warmage moves into position to transfix the beast.

The two savage orc warriors charge the human archers in the woods on the men's right flank as the men in the center knock the spider off balance.

Before the great arachnid can recover it is dispatched – an unlucky blow for the orcs, as the general melee begins.

On the human right flank, one of the savage orc warriors is killed by a human archer, but the other slays his human adversary, splitting him from collar to crotch (gruesome kill).

Another human archer, horrified by the sight, falls back but eventually regains his composure. Meanwhile, two orc bowman are killed in melee. The orcs' resolve weakens – one flees the battlefield in panic, two more begin to give ground, and only a lone archer holds his position unflinchingly.

Seeing their comrade stand fast, the two other orcs regain their courage and rejoin the fight, though little hope is left. This becomes evident all too soon as the ferocious orc archer who stood his ground is transfixed by the human warmage and then run through by a warrior, and one of his companions quickly follows. The last orc puts up a desperate fight, surrounded by no less than four to five men, killing one and knocking down three before he himself is knocked down by a warrior and transfixed by the warmage, at which point his fate is sealed. His life, and with it the battle, ends quickly thereafter.

Epilogue: I seem to manage better with the humans than I do with the orcs.  With their low quality ratings, orc cohesion seems very fragile -- I seem to end up with orcs coming into the fight one-by-one and getting chopped up piecemeal. I may have to try and roll one activation die at a time with them in order to keep them together, act more slowly overall, and save the two-dice and three-dice activation rolls for more critical situations.