SoBH AAR: An encounter by the pond

I had some time on my hands, so for some post-lunch entertainment I decided to play a game of SoBH.

Having been away from this game for a while, I decided to keep it simple; a pitched battle between the Barbarians and the Undead.

 You can see both of the warbands line-up in the previous post : Link

The Barbarian warband is crossing a marshy plain, moving south towards the spot revealed to their shaman.
Wulfgar, who had been scouting forward of the rest of the band, comes over to Ymar, obviously out of breath. "We have a problem chief" he manages between the his attempts to catch his breath.
"What have you seen to make you return to us with such alacrity?" Ymar demanded of the hunter.
"A Group of the risen dead, Ymar, they are coming this way" the hunter replied.

The warband comes face to face with the undead horrors as they both arrive at a stinking pond.

      Moving towards the pond, and the warriors, are the risen dead that Wulfgar spotted.

                                               The two warbands form their battle-lines.

Having the advantage of spotting their enemy first, the barbarians take the first move, and lady luck is on their side! All the barbarians manage to activate, with 2 or 3 successes each!

 Clearly wanting to put their best foot forward, the Undead warband advances to meet the barbarians. They too have great luck, and activate all but 2 models with 2 actions each.

              The battlefield after the first turn, no engagement yet, but plenty of lucky dice rolls!

                     They say that the dead travel fast, and these recently returned certainly are!
Cloven Skullsplitter, the undead second in command, is the first to engage an enemy. He charges Rorik Stoutblade, their heavy blades clash and rorik is pushed back by the force of the blow! 

 Ymar seizes the opportunity as it presents itself, and he charges Cloven! He swings low, to take the legs from under the skeletal warrior, but Cloven is a veteran warrior and he smoothly knock the younglings blade aside before his blade bites into Ymars side.
The Barbarian leader collapses, the fight knocked out of him. First blood to the Undead! 

                      The shock of seeing their leader laid low, everyone but the hunter recoils!

 Start of the 3rd turn Rorik is the first to snap out of the shock, and with a bellow he charges the skullcleaver. His sword swung in a deadly arc, his undead opponent is lifted of his feet, and he crashes to the ground.

 Cloven attempt to defend himself from his prone position, but he can't avoid Rorik's blade..
The Death Cultist moves in to try and take down Rorik. His runeblade carves right through the barbarians mail shirt, skevering him.

 4th turn, you can see some of the movment that happend outside of the cameras focus.

In the far right end you can see just the hunter fighting Gutslasher, one of the undead warriors.

 A better shot. The hunter and Gutslasher is locked in a deadly struggle, probing the defences of the opponent.

 Crowkiller, the Undead marksman, gives cause for his name when his shot goes wide. Egil, the barbarian berserk, laughs at the feeble attempt.

Piercer, the skeletal spearman, decides to back up Gutslasher, who's having a hard time taking down the hunter Wulfgar.
Assur, the barbarian shaman, finally commits to the battle. He only rolls a single success however, and he moves into close combat with Crowkiller.

                                    Close-up of the fight in the Woods. Sorry for the blurry pic..

                                                             And the fight by the pond.
       The 5th turn was just starting, and the Barbarians were itching to get back at the Undead.

 Wulfgar was in a bind, fighting 2 opponents at once. A spear-thrust he blocked without much trouble, but gutslasher took advantage of the distraction and slashed at the hunters abdomen, wounding him.

Assur struck Crowkiller, splitting him down the middle, while Egil charged in to hack away at the Wight, leader of the Undead band, but only manages to knock him down.

                                                                            Turn 6.                                
                     Egil fights like a man possessed and knocks down the Death Cultist as well.

Gutslasher pushes the advantage, wanting to disembowel the already wounded hunter. Wulfgar fights valiantly, but his wounds and being outnumbered is too much, and he gets slashed open.

With the hunter out of action, Assur realizes that the battle is lost, he gets his downed comrades and fall back to the camp, while Egil acts as rearguard.

Undead Victory!

It was an fun game, but after the initial lucky first round, the Barbarians were plagued by low rolls and actions. They did hold on to the bloody end though, and after some needed rest and time to lick their wounds, I'm sure the sinister Undead won't have seen the last of the Barbarians.

This was the first of what will hopefully be many more battles of SoBH. There might even be a Campaign..

That's it for now!