Orc raid on a village with nothing but peasants as defenders?

[Cacique Caribe]

I certainly have never seen such a raid.  I would imagine it would be a bloodbath for the peasants, but it would be the most “realistic” thing too, wouldn’t you say?

Has anyone ever seen such a scenario played out?  How badly did it go for the peasants?  Did they ever stand a chance?

Thoughts?

If I ever try it out, it would probably be with these 5 sets here:

Fighting 15s

FE030 Peasants with improvised weapons

FE031 Peasants with pole weapons

FE032 Peasants with bows and slings

MP001 Camp followers and peasant infantry 1410

Battle Valor Games

http://www.battlevalorgames.com/humancivilians15figures.aspx

https://www.dragonfroggames.co.uk/product/human-civilians-15-figures-

Dan
Loads of WIPs: https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/albums/with/72157710630529376

[Etranger]

Not with orcs, but barbarians. It went about as well as expected. Of course next time the Seven Paladins had arrived to help…

[Geof Downton]

Yes, back in the days of first edition Warhammer. The orcs found the village hostelry and spent the next 3 or so rounds becoming very intoxicated and fighting amongst themselves, thereby reducing the threat!

One who puts on his armour should not boast like one who takes it off.
Ahab, King of Israel; 1 Kings 20:11

[ian pillay]

Sounds like a fun scenario. The peasants could have a hero in the form of the “black smith” to even things up 😊, but I would expect them to perish in droves.

Tally-Ho! Check out my blog at…..
http://steelcitywargaming.wordpress.com/

[Logain]

The old hex and counter game Goblin offered a strategic view of that.  The Goblin hoarders descend on villages defended by peasant militia, and the local baron has to emerge from his castle try to chase them across the country side them before they raze the villages and escape with all of the loot.

[Cacique Caribe]

Logain

That reminds me of a different hex game called Fury of the Norsemen, from around 1980.  Good times.

Dan
Loads of WIPs: https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/albums/with/72157710630529376

[Darkest Star Games]

I’ve done Goblin raids like this, but not Orcs.  I’ve used Goblins as the nuisances from the woods/mountains in numerous RPGs, but Orcs were always more of a big threat that was usually faced as an army or were the subject of raids by the PCs.

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Patrice]

Unless the peasants really outnumber the Orcs, they don’t have a chance. Although the surprise element could be interesting.

Scenarios of attacks of a peasant village by monsters (or Vikings etc.) are not rare, but most of the time the idea is:

– The peasants do not try to resist, they run away as fast as possible (that’s realistic) with their cattle and some other belongings. Or perhaps some of the stronger peasants try to resist just to gain time for the others.

– After some time, alarm is raised somewhere off table, and a party of human cavalry comes to help the village. Then the raiders must go away fast carrying everything they have taken, etc.

http://www.argad-bzh.fr/argad/en.html
https://www.anargader.net/

[Logain]

Well I don’t know… Perhaps you all are under estimating the resolve of a group of determined individuals defending their hearth and home. I’d say those peasants look pretty well fed and well armed. At least a few are sure to be old enough to have fought in the Great Goblin Wars. Living on the edge of the kingdom they’ve seen more than their share of hardship and misery. Those halberds and flails might be just the thing for splitting an orc skull or three.

[Mike]

Logain wrote:

I’d say those peasants look pretty well fed and well armed.

Logain wrote:

Those halberds and flails might be just the thing for splitting an orc skull or three.

They sound in better health and better equipped than half of a regular Empire army, let alone peasants  😛

[Mike]

This is more what I think of:

http://www.oldenhammer.com/2016/12/terror-of-lichemaster-militia-of.html

[warwell]

I have visions of a Northfield Raid type of scenario. The orcs think the village is easy pickings but then they find out that the villagers are armed, angry, and led by some veterans.

[Logain]

Mike your peasants look a fair bit more motley than Dan’s above!

I think it would be cool to secretly/randomly assign unit quality to both sides.

[Mike]

I reckon that once an Orc has entered a building they loot it and head home with their haul, playing no further part in the battle?

[Cacique Caribe]

Mike

Sounds logical to me.  However, if all they want was loot, targeting a village full of poor peasants might mot be the ideal objective for a raid.  Unless all they want is slaves, I think.  But, i agree with you on this … if they do happen across any “loot”, their primary goal would be to take off with it.

So I would say they would break off the battle and return back to their point of origin, once their loot-o-meter has reached the “full” line.  🙂

There is also a nice Town Raid Scenario discussed halfway down this page here: https://daleswargames.blogspot.com/2022/09/another-scenario-for-one-hour-skirmish.html

PS.  By the way, for those in the US, Scale Creep Miniatures seems to have the exact same feudal peasant sets mentioned in the original post:

https://scalecreep.com/product_info.php?products_id=4209
https://scalecreep.com/product_info.php?products_id=4210
https://scalecreep.com/product_info.php?products_id=4211
https://scalecreep.com/product_info.php?products_id=7695

Dan
Loads of WIPs: https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/albums/with/72157710630529376

[Cacique Caribe]

By the way, I’ve just been made aware of the following 15mm “peasants” sets available now:

– Baueda has a set of peasants with improvised weapons in their Lombard range; and

– Khurasan Miniatures has 3 or 4 sets of armed peasants in their Medieval and Crusader ranges

And I haven’t even looked at Irregular Miniatures (and others) yet! It seems to me that nowadays there is a nearly unlimited number of 15mm options for anyone wanting to play a peasant revolution game/campaign, or play out a fantasy raid on a village or hamlet full of peasants.

Dan
Loads of WIPs: https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/albums/with/72157710630529376

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