Orcs Strike Again (Swordplay)

Rake's Corner suffered another orc invasion, this time to try Swordplay Final Version. I controlled a raiding party of three orcs against the town militia (rep 3 or 4, warrior or missile class). I used the following custom force table to generate the militia:

Roll 1d6:
1 = rep 5 dwarf leader (medium armor, one-hand weapon)
2 = rep 4 archer (light armor, longbow)
3 = rep 3 archer (light armor, longbow)
4 = rep 4 warrior (light armor, one-hand weapon)
5-6 = rep 3 warrior (light armor, one-hand weapon)

The orcs are Bazug (star, rep 5, warrior, using a one-handed sword and shield), Crog (rep 3, warrior, with one handed axe and shield) and Dwem (rep 4, warrior, with two-handed pickaxe).

Here's an overhead view of the board. The red markers indicate the starting PEF positions. My objective is to loot the magic shop (the light-colored building on the other side of the canal.) The enemy activity level (EAL) is 3.

At the start of the battle the PEF at the center of the board moved towards my orcs and resolved as three figures: one rep 4 archer, one rep 4 warrior and one rep 3 warrior, triggering an In Sight test.

My orc leader went first, charging the human with a sword. He lost the melee round but avoided damage thanks to his star power. The archer ducked back at the same time that my orc with the pickaxe charged the swordsman. They locked in melee and, surprisingly, the orc was taken out of the fight. The other orc ducked back.

On the turn after the first combat was over, my orc leader moved forward, causing the two other PEFs to resolve and triggering an In Sight test. One PEF was nothing but nerves but the other turned out to be eight militia and dwarves. The following picture shows the troubled situation in which my orcs put themselves.

Interestingly, the five figures involved in the In Sight test rolled two successes, so all actions were simultaneous. My orc wanted to move away but the two melee fighters wanted to charge, so I rolled on the charge table and, since they got more successes, I assumed they were faster. One archer ducked back and the other missed a shot. I then proceeded to resolve the fights against the two enemies, and luckily the orc managed to take both the dwarf and the human out of the fight.

On the following turn I activated and decided to make a run towards the objective, rather than continue fighting. I left the other orc hiding behind the building, otherwise he'd probably trigger another In Sight test and die. The orc leader entered the magic shop while the enemy forces got a 6 on the initiative roll, thus being unable to activate. Now I needed two turns to loot the place. The enemies split in two groups moving around the tall building to catch my orc. He moved, triggering an In Sight test and was taken out of the fight by an archer.

As I left the shop after looting it, I triggered an In Sight test. The two archers missed and another militia ducked back. I took a fast move check and ran towards the board edge. The militia was close to surround me. I made another fast move check and started to run but caused an In Sight test. Since the orc got the most successes, he could act first and his action was to get out of the board. Victory!

Conclusion

Just like the final version of Chain Reaction, this new Swordplay has been further streamlined (in the good sense.) For instance, the new melee resolution pretty much doesn't require looking up a table anymore, and the In Sight mechanic requires less reactions as well. The armor system has changed a little, with armor class numbers that I didn't really see applied in the rules -- maybe it's something coming with Warrior Heroes: Legends?