A force of two thousand orcs is advancing on the village of Dunport. The Player Characters are Jassipus, a half-orc barbarian, Hethlic, a human fighter and Cuffy, a Halfling rogue. The villagers place Hethlic in command of the village’s defences. He thus assumes the Command position. Jassipus joins the village warriors on the front rank, taking a Combat
position. Cuffy elects to be Independent, knowing that there will be plenty of bodies to loot.

Dunport’s defences are practically nonexistent. Fortunately, Hethlic ordered the construction of a simple berm several weeks ago and the villagers got to work. It is not much, but it is better than nothing. The Games Master rules that the shoddy berm is a defensive emplacement worth +4 to battle checks when defending. If the orcs want to try to take it – as they almost certainly will – they will have to hit a target number of +6, which will not be easy.

The Games Master assesses troop strengths. The orcs definitely have the advantage. There are more of them and they are well armed. He assigns the orcs a troop strength bonus of +2. The orcs are obviously on the offensive and the humans on the defensive.

The army is on the horizon. The Player Characters must now choose their risk levels. Hethlic will command from the field, so he chooses Low. Jassipus is eager for glory and chooses High. Cuffy decides that he will wait out the fighting in the village tavern and chooses to be uninvolved. The Games Master allows this, as the tavern is at the centre of the village and far from the fighting.

The battle begins. Before any battle checks are made, the combatants begin to fight. The Games Master rolls the encounters for Jassipus and Hethlic. Jassipus faces three orcs, who he slashes to mincemeat with his axe. Hethlic has a javelin thrown at him, which causes him a minor injury.

It is time to make the first battle checks. The orcs’ general is Black Tongue. He is a competent warrior but he is not a tactical genius. Hethlic, on the other hand, has served in many campaigns and has a good grasp of tactics. Hethlic has a command modifier of +2. Rather than whittling down the enemy from afar, the orcs decide to storm the berm right away. They will need to beat Hethlic’s result by more than five to take the berm. Black Tongue, being an orc, decides on a reckless attack, gaining a +3 bonus to his battle check, at the cost of a –3 troop loss penalty on later rounds. He decides that it is worth it. He may lose troops, but the troop loss penalty is slightly less than the benefit that the berm is giving the humans.

Hethlic rolls an 8. Adding +2 for his command bonus and +4 for the berm yields a result of 14. Black Tongue rolls a 16. Adding +2 for his troop strength bonus and +3 for his reckless attack gives a final result of 21. This beats Hethlic by six, more than the five that Black Tongue needed to accomplish his objective.

With a roar, the orcs rush over the berm, driving the beleaguered humans back, though dozens of them are killed in the charge.

The result on the battle check outcome table is ‘inflicts 2’, so the defenders of Dunport are now suffering a –2 troop loss penalty to their battle check.

It is now time to roll for battle encounters. Jassipus is right in the thick of it as the orcs make their bloody charge. The encounter result gives him the option to strike at a crucial target (a major officer or a minor hero). He takes the major officer option. Since the orcs only have one major officer, who is commanding the whole side, Jassipus finds himself facing Black Tongue, the enemy general! There are three orc warriors along with him, too. It is time for Jassipus to start cleaving.

In the fight that ensues, Jassipus kills Black Tongue, though he is sorely wounded in the fight. The orcs are over the berm but they have lost their commander. They will be subject to a –2 penalty to their battle checks from here on.

Jassipus decides to make the most of his victory by attempting a morale boost. He holds the head of Black Tongue high where the human troops can see it and roars as only a barbarian can. The morale boost is resolved as a Charisma ability score check (DC 20). Jassipus rolls 15. This is modified to 20 (-1 for his poor Charisma ability score modifier, +4 because he has killed the enemy leader, -2 for the defenders’ troop loss, +4 for the orcs’ troop loss) which is just enough to boost the morale of the men around him. The defenders of Dunport will receive a +1 morale bonus to their battle check next round.

On the next battle round, the Games Master rules that since the orcs are now in the village, nowhere is entirely safe. Cuffy is therefore given a Low risk rating instead of a rating of None.

Battle checks are rolled again. Hethlic scores 10. With modifiers (+2 for his command bonus, +1 for the morale boost that Jassipus provided and –2 for troop loss) this becomes a result of 11. The leaderless orcs score 14, modified to 10 (+2 troop strength, -2 for being leaderless, -4 troop losses). The defenders have the tide of battle, but it is not sufficient to make a significant difference. The humans stand their ground.

In the battle encounters phase, Jassipus encounters three more orcs, hungry for revenge. His wounds from his heavy fight earlier on prove too much and the orcs defeat him. He is left to bleed to death in the mud. Hethlic escapes encounters, while Cuffy finds himself confronted by a marauding orc; one sneak attack later, the orc is dead.

The third battle check is made. Hethlic rolls 17 and the orcs score 13. Modifiers adjust these scores to 18 and nine. The defenders, rallied by Hethlic, are starting to inflict significant casualties. The table reads that the attackers suffer troop loss (-1).

The Games Master rolls for encounters for each remaining participant. Hethlic has to fight off two orcs, while Cuffy meets none. He slips out and begins searching the bodies of fallen orcs.

At the start of the next battle round, the humans are now on a total troop loss penalty of –2 and the orcs on a penalty of –5. This means that the orcs must make a rout check next round. The orcs roll eight for their rout check, modified to six (+2 troop strength, +2 for being on the offensive, -2 for being leaderless, -4 troop losses). The initial rush of their charge has worn off and the humans’ superior organisation is beginning to tell on them. They suffer 1d3 troop loss; the Games Master rolls a three. Dozens of individual orcs are picked off and looters break away from the army. The orcs now have a total troop loss penalty of –8.

Each side now makes its battle check. The humans roll 15, the orcs 12. These are modified to 16 and four. A further troop loss penalty is inflicted on the orcs (-2). The Games Master decides that the orcs have had enough. They choose to go on the defensive, falling back from the town.

Hethlic now has the option of pursuing them. He decides not to. If the orcs retreat all the way to their camp in the woods, then they will have bonuses to their defence. The humans are in no mood to continue fighting. They have managed to survive and that is enough for now.

The battle is over. Both sides have taken heavy casualties. Even on the rounds when the humans suffered no troop loss penalty, they were still losing warriors. The weary task of clearing up the bodies and repairing the damage now begins.