Sagot leaned heavily on his polearm for for a minute, just a minute. He couldn't let the troops he was leading think he was tired. A Repulsar Knight of the One King is never tired, he thought. He straightened up and smiled his biggest smile at them, despite the weight of his armor, and saw them refreshed. They had to win. There was no alternative.

He had driven them forward through the night, with only small rests like this for less than half an hour, at best. The dawn covered the ground with a thick mist. Sagot could barely see to the trees, where the Chronomancer was meditating on the day. The Chronomancers at Aregath had seen a vision of a tool to help them in their current struggle against the Obsidian Elves, a weapon of great power left over from a previous age, to guide them to the next.

...When the Firstborn first revolted against the Triad, a number of the escaped slaves ran north, and were taught to fight by the Sons of Kronos. Leaving as slaves, they were returning as an army. The Blackbloods took advantage of this easy ground north of Calamon to assault their main force. The fight was brutal; the Firstborn were greater in number, but Blackbloods are never easy foes. It raged for an entire day into the night, and as they fought, the dark sky became filled for just a few minutes with stars, shooting across the sky. All fighting stopped and swords fell, as the combatants stared in wonder at the beauty above them. When the sky darkened again, the armies looked down at each other, and could not continue after what they had just seen. There was no more fighting that night, and the battle was resolved swiftly in the morning. The Burning Star Order took the sign as a reflection of the great destiny of the Firstborn, and this was probably one of the deciding factors for the Emperor to withdraw from the Triad. That battleground became known as the Field of Fallen Stars...

At least that's how Sagot heard the tale. Now he was told to lead this mixed band to the historic site, and guard the Chronomancer as he searched for whatever this secret artifact was, which may or may not be there. They only had a few troops with them, to hopefully slip by the grey eyes of the Elven scouts.

The highlands that surround the Field of Fallen Stars were dotted by low hills and light forests. Sagot looked around, and realized where they were. In their rush to make it to the ancient battlefield, they had marched through the night, and now, weary and hungry, they walked into an ambush. He could hear the Elven armor clink and swords unsheath, maybe the sound of a Dragonbane flying above. But he couldn't see them for all this infernal fog. He shouted for the crossbowmen to begin scanning the skies as he rallied the swordsmen to protect the Chronomancer. All thought of weariness left the troops, like mist fading in the sun. In a short while it would not matter. Their Elven pursuers would be dead, or they would.

FORCES:
The Ambusher gets 1500 points of the army of his choice. The defender gets 1000 points of the army of his choice.

SETUP:
On a standard 4' x 4' table, the ambusher has two deployment zones on opposite sides of the board, each 8" in from the sides, and 8" deep into the table. The ambusher may put as many points on either side as he likes.The ambusher should make an attempt to put as many of his troops as possible out of Line of Sight of the defender.

The defender gets one deployment zone, 12" deep into the table, and 10" in from each side.

No unit may start within sixteen inches of an enemy unit.

For terrain, I suggest a couple signifigant hills, some light forest. Nothing major. Definately nothing that will impede the defender too much. And, of course, a roll on Nazgul's Climate Table to see where the battle takes place (conveniently, mist can occur anywhere.)

THE BATTLE:
The ambusher must try to wipe out the attacker, or at the very least stop him from crossing the board. The defender must try to cross the board and exit on the other side, and take out as much of the attacker as possible. The defender can claim victory if he can exit half of his forces off the opposing table edge before the enemy wipes him out.

Other than that, the battle is fought very much like any other battle, with the exception of the mist (Mist rules follow at the end of the scenario.) The mist starts the game at Class Four. At the beginning of each turn, roll to see if the mist dissipates to the next highest level.

Class Four to Class Three  =   6 - 20
Class Three to Class Two   =  10 - 20
Class Two to Class One     =  15 - 20
Class One to no mist       =  18 - 20

MIST RULES
by Indigo [sstaten@erols.com]

Mist is a sort of terrain feature, but is not represented on the tabletop by any specific model or piece of scenery. Rather it affects the entire table, and might be thought of a more of a climate effect than anything else.

Specific scenarios will dictate how much mist is on the table. An early morning battle, for example, could start with level 3 mist, then on turn 3 drop to level 2, on turn 4, drop to level 1 and on turn 6 have no effect at all on the game.

Mist comes in 4 "levels" or "classes" of effect, defined below. Each level puts a restriction on Line of sight, and modifies spotting and MW to hit mumbers. These modifiers are in addition to any normal modifiers for range and cover.

Class 1 Mist
Max LOS: Infinate
MW/Spotting Mod: -1 per 6 inches

Class 2 Mist
Max LOS: 24 inches
MW/Spotting Mod: -1 per 4 inches

Class 3 Mist
Max LOS: 12 inches
MW/Spotting Mod: -1 per 2 inches

Class 4 Mist
Max LOS: 6 inches
MW/Spotting Mod: -1 per inch

Models with the Sense Presence special ability can ignore the effects of mist.

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