HOTT 52 - Week 15 - The White Witch vs The Morthbrood

The previous two games in this series have featured good and evil armies from works of literature fighting each other, so I thought it might be fun to pit the two evil magician armies against each other - C.S. Lewis's White Witch of Narnia against Alan Garner's Morthbrood. It was only when I was setting them up that I realised how similar they are. Both armies have a magician general, six hordes, two beasts and a flyer. The White Witch rounds this out with two behemoths, whilst The Morthbrood has a single behemoth, plus a sneaker and a lurker.

The Morthbrood defended, and the battlefield consisted of a range of low hills, with the White Witch advancing between a wood and a small village.

The Witch's army was forced into columns to negotiate the passage of the village and wood, although her beasts did move through the trees.

The Morthbrood formed up in a solid block, with their beasts covering the flank.

The battle opened with some Svart Alfar ambushing the Narnian beasts, and driving them back. The beasts counter-attacked and the Svart Alfar fled.

The Morthbrood advanced. With both armies having a magician and behemoths, neither wanted their own behemoths forced to flee off the table due to magical attacks from the opposing magician.

The Morrigan sent her crows to attack the Witch's aerial troops. The two groups spent most of the rest of the game eyeing each other up warily.

The Morrigan's beasts advanced quickly towards the woods, hoping the catch their Narnian counterparts off-guard and out of formation..

The two groups of beasts formed up.

The Morthbrood attacked ...

... and were wiped out. This now left their right flank exposed.

The White Witch pressed forward, aiming to pin the Morrigan's army whilst the beasts did their work on the flank.

The beasts attacked, but the Svart Alfar on that flank held them.

As the White Witch's troops closed, the Morrigan used her magic to try and drive back the behemoths in the centre, but to no avail.

The White Witch's troops charged, and the battle began in earnest.

The Morthbrood was driven back.

Attempts to destroy the Witch's giant monsters failed, as they pressed forward into the Morthbrood.

As the beasts closed in on the flank, one behemoth attacked the Morrigan.

But they were hurled back.

The Morrigan ordered up reinforcements.

The beasts continued their attack on the flank ...

... pushing through the ephemeral Brollachan to attack the Morrigan herself.

The Morrigan ordered her crows back, hoping to use them to gain an advantage somewhere, as the Witch's forces closed in on her outlying elements.

But it was too late - the Narnian monsters destroyed the Brollachan and some more hordes to break the Morrigan's army.

This looked like a fairly straightforward win for the White Witch (she only lost one horde, in fact), but a lot of combats could have gone either way - the Morthbrood came close to destroying a Narnian behemoth a couple of times - and the Morthbrood put up a good, if unlucky, fight.

Maybe I need to put the opposing Good armies up against each other.