Not technically the last, but it's the most interesting.
My merc company was going well. We had done a decent number of missions, people were leveling up, and we'd had very few casualties. We've even had some success against raiders and had picked up some mail armor. I see a Caravan Escort going the way I was planning on heading anyway, so I pick it up. It's not too long and I don't anticipate too many problems.
It goes ok for a while. The first half of the trip is uneventful, but as the sun sets we get ambushed by a group of bandits. Tough fight, but we get through it without any losses. A few of the men are a bit wounded, though, so I'm hoping the last leg of the journey is quiet.
Night has fallen but the caravan presses on. We are going through a mountain pass that follows a heavily forested valley when we get ambushed. It's deep night and I have no information on who attacked. I considered ditching the caravan, but I'd feel like an idiot if it was just few bandits or a small direwolf pack. So we hold formation, form a shield wall, and see what comes out of the trees.
Orcs! I've never fought orcs before, so I expect a tough fight. At first I just see a single Young Orc, who is wearing very little armor, and a few more heavily armored warriors. But 4 vs 12, we should still be able to handle it.
We handle the initial attack ok. We don't do much damage, but neither do the orcs. The trees make it a bit hard to get the full formation to bear, but it also keeps one of the orcs out of the fight as well. I send a flanker down to draw that one off while we try to whittle down the orcs in front of us. And then the final orc shows up. A berserker, who leaps to the front of the fight and lops the head off one of my shieldmen in a single strike. We focus fire on the green beast, but it just won't go down. The rest of the orcs then charge the line, stunning several warriors and one even using the gap made by our slain comrade to slaughter one of my pole users.
Our defenses start crumbling as our resolve wavers. We start losing warriors left and right, including the flanker who had gone around the side. The orc he'd been trying to tie up charged him, stunned him, and then slaughtered him before he could do anything at all. People start to try and flee, only to be cut down in the attempt.
In the end the entire caravan was slaughtered, with a single archer fleeing for his life from the carnage.
With little gear, only one soldier, and a purse far too light to try and rebuild from, I retire that company to try again with a fresh campaign.
At least this time I will have a better idea of what to expect from orcs.
Author
Topic: How did you last die? (Read 2413762 times)