Donnybrook AAR: Goblins and Halflings, FINALLY!

 It's been a long time coming, but the pair of 28mm fantasy armies I've been collecting finally got a chance to slug it out last evening While the Assad regime fell and Georgia fought hard to win the SEC. I picked up the Donnybrook rules in early 2023 and after a quick read-through realized they'd probably be excellent for what I was hoping to do with these forces. So there we are, two new armies, a new set of rules.... let's see what this is all about.

Ziggy chose the Halflings and selected his four units - Drilled Pikes and Archers, Recruit Cavalry and Elite Highlanders. He also had a mounted Commander. For my Goblins I chose Recruit Spears, Archers and Cavlary and Drilled Orc Warriors to accompany my Mounted Commander. I set up the tabletop as a farmstead with some nearby woods. We just played a basic "kill em all" scenario to familiarize ourselves with the rules.

A full view of the 4x4 battlefield. Granted, that picture was taken after a turn or two of movement, but you get the point.

The Halfling Highlanders take possession of the chicken pen and coop! Minis and MDF buildings courtesy TTCombat.

GRRRR! My Orcs charge in. "It'll be eggs for dinner boys!"

But as luck would have it, the 'Fling pikes were in position to react quickly, throwing the Orcs back and saving the poultry!

Feh. I only accounted for three of 'em.

It wasn't all bad news though, my archers and spears did manage to account for the Halfling archers in the field. This interaction was not well-documented in photos.

Meanwhile, over on the right flank, the Wolf-riders and Goat-riders prepared to do battle.

Things were very evenly-matched and first-round results were a tie. Both our commanders were involved in the engagement so the stakes were high!

My archers and spears lined up, ready to take the chicken pen. The archers peppered the pikes reducing them to just two troops. Surely eleven goblins could take down three halfling nutters, right?

Before that question could be answered, the goat-riding stunties on the right had a terrific second round of combat. One failed morale test later, my wolf-riders and commander were off the table. The rest of my forces slunk back from whence they came. Curses! Just when things were looking quite doable. 

Damn fine game, we had a great time and it was worth the sporadic painting and collecting effort of 20 months. 

Thoughts - Donnybrook is really good. I was curious how the card activation and random turn length would work out and I got my answer. As with all things random, the law of averages takes hold and everyone gets a fair shake by the end. Dice and other mechanics are simple and effective. Troops die really quickly if they don't have armor or cover, much like Blood and Plunder. We didn't think about using cover heavily given the rank & block nature of the forces but lesson learned! Unarmored troops die like dogs in melee, just ask the halfling archers.

I want to add a few extra units to each side in the next game and start playing around with magic and magic-users. There aren't any magic rules in Donnybrooks but after playing a game, I feel confident that I could put something together with little trouble. I also need to look at applying the different faction traits to my forces - Donnybrook includes faction army-build information that I ignored but those faction rules could easily be applied to halfling and goblins. I just need to see what looks like some that would be appropriate.

I did paint this scatter terrain up yesterday before the game. I've had them since Skirmish game con last March. 3D prints. Always useful!