Legendary Greeks versus Legendary Norse

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This was a playtest of the “a few sides of A4” initial version of my suggested To The Strangest rules: a fantasy version of the popular To The Strongest Ancients/Medieval rules.

Rather than go pure fantasy for this first playtest, I went with fantasy versions of a couple of my existing Ancients armies: Hoplite Greek and Viking. These translated quite nicely into Legendary versions with the addition of a few specialist troops, such as the Medusa and Hydra for the Greeks, and a large (pun intended) contingent of Jotuns or Frost Giants for the Vikings.

First up were the Legendary Greeks. Four commands:

1. Poseidon (Senior Officer and Demi-God)

   • The Medusa (Character with Distance Weapon, Dread)

   • The Hydra (Character with Regeneration)

   • Four Heroes

2. Manipules (Attached Officer, Heroic)

   • Two units of Athenian Hoplites (Deep)

   • Two units of Psiloi (Lights with javelin, Raw)

   • Camp

3. The Minotaur (Attached Officer, Heroic, Shaman)

• Minotaurs (Hulks, Veteran)

• Cyclops (Giants)

• Centaurs (Cavalry with bows, Veteran)

4. Bellarophon (Attached Officer, Mounted, Flying)

• Pegasus Cavalry (Cavalry with javelins, Flying)

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Facing them were the Legendary Norse. Perhaps unwisely, they had loaded up and gone with three commands:

1. Knut (Attached Senior Officer, Shaman)

   • Two units of Huscarls (Shieldwall, Deep, Veteran, 2HCCW)

   • Archers (Lights with bow)

   • Five Heroes

   • Camp

2. Ragnar (Detached Officer, Heroic, Shaman)

   1. Three units of Jotun [Norse Giants] (Giants)

   2. One unit of Dvergr [Norse Dwarves] (Shieldwall, Shaman)

   3. Camp

3. Sven (Detached Officer, Heroic)

   1. Two units of Werewolves/Werebears (Warriors, Regeneration)

   2. Two units of Fyrd (Shieldwall, Deep, 2HCCW)

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Here’s a pictorial battle report, with comments explaining how the new rules for unit types, magic and flying work…

The Greeks outscouted, helped by the Pegasus Cavalry, who get bonus scouting points for being able to fly.

Here are the Pegasus Cavalry: the two eagle markers showing that they are currently “up there”: flying so high that they cannot affect or be affected by events on the tabletop.

As not much else was going on, Poseidon tried blasting one of the enemy units with waterspout. As a demi-god, he had the range and power to doit on his own, but he should have waited until the opposition had used up some of their magic first as an enemy shaman was able to deflect the waterspout…although it took him most of his magic to do so.

Realising that their camp was vulnerable to aerial attack, the Norse rushed some light archers back towards it. Here you see two successful activations followed by an initial fail, but two magic points from the Jotun Officer/Shaman (in the background, top left) smoothed their path and turned the ‘5’ into a ‘7’ allowing them to move again.

The position after each side has had a turn.

The Jotun hold the Norse centre.

At the start of the Greeks’ second turn, magic is replenished. Poseidon draws a five…

…allowing him to replenish to seven magic points, only one less than his maximum.

Almost immediately, Poseidon is called upon to aid one of the Hoplite units as it charges a Jotun. Their drawn attack card was a ‘3’, but Poseidon adds his power, and three magic points, to turn it into a ‘6’ i.e. a hit.

Pity the Jotun saved!

It’s the Norse turn two now, and the Jotun in the red cloak has drawn an ‘Ace’ for activation. Not a problem: the Jotun Officer/Shaman send s a magic point his way…

…and the ‘Ace’ becomes a ‘2’.

Bottom, left: you can see how the Jotun Officer/Shaman’s magic points dropped from three to two.

The Jotun hits and the Hoplites draw a ‘2’ for their save. They turn to Poseidon for help, but he only has one magic point left (at least until he can replenish) which is not enough to turn the ‘2’ into the ‘6’ needed for the save.

Several Hoplites fall under the Jotun’s mighty blow as the rest wonder why their god has (albeit temporarily) abandoned them!

The Pegasus cavalry are hovering way over the enemy camp, waiting for the right moment to strike. A bit like paratroopers, they can take the empty Norse camp (the longboat without the sail) by swooping down into it before the Norse archers intervene, but can they then hold it…as those Dvergr dwarves in the other camp, and their Shaman, are bound to intervene?

A close up of the Norse camps.

Meanwhile, back in the centre, it is still stomping time!

The Norse are running riot on the left wing…

…but the Medusa and Chimera are about to close with the Norse were-men on the right.

The Medusa is a “Character with Distance Weapon” i.e. she is so powerful she counts as a whole unit on her own and gets an automatic second attack once each turn (like a repeating Lance!) from her petrifying glare!

Here she has activated on a ‘9’ and scored two hits, and the already wounded lycanthropes in front of her are about to become a mini statue-forest!

The Hydra has also done good work, and both were-men units have been destroyed. But what’s this? The Hydra has been wounded!

No matter, at the start of each Greek turn, the Hydra regenerates and loses a point of disorder i.e. another head grows from the stump of the old one!

The Norse were-men could have done the same at the start of their next turn, but they were killed before they had a chance to regenerate: the power doesn’t work from “dead”.

You don’t mess with the Medusa and Hydra!

Meanwhile the Pegasus Cavalry have used a difficult activation to drop from “Up There” to “Down Here” and are about to throw some javelins at the flank of the Norse lights.

The Greek right wing is falling back. The Minotaur Officer/Shaman has been lightly wounded, and the Cyclops have taken a hit.

In the centre, helped by Poseidon, who now has some magic points back, the Hoplites have rallied and, aided by the psiloi, have started to fight back against the Jotun in the red cloak (who has just been hit by javelins from the lights).

More Greeks close on the two Norse Huscarl units holding their right wing.

Overview

Having exchanged missile fire with the Norse lights, the Pegasus Cavalry perform another difficult activation to actually land in the Norse camp. They gain three coins, but can they keep them?

Meanwhile, the Medusa is working her way through some Huscarls, but has taken a hit herself.

The Cyclops are almost dead…

…and a magically aided attack from the Fyrd finishes them off.

Not sure it’s going to make much difference: Hoplites, the Medusa and the Hydra eye up the Norse camp as their next target.

The Jotun in the red cloak is about to fall as well!

Meanwhile, the landed Pegasus Cavalry are fighting a desperate defence in the middle of the Norse camp.

Is it a camp too far?

The red-cloak Jotun finally falls, and the four coins he represents are enough to break the Norse, despite their success on their left.

Final overview

An exciting clash and a good test of the rules. The magic works really well - there’s never enough to do everything you want! - whether you concentrate it into one place (Poseidon demi-god) or spread it out (the multiple Norse Shamans). The Flying rules also worked well, although a better test will be when both sides have units that can fly. The only thing I think I do need to do is to look at lives and points for Characters and Giants.

Next test will feature the Gendarme (Knights, Longbowmen, Dragons!) versus Undead!