On the 1st October, two new armies for Wars of Ozz go on pre-order for November shipping.. just in time for Christmas.

The new forces are The Army of the Ice Queen and the Army of Yule. The Ice Queens Army includes the Cruel Krampus, Winter Wolves, Savage Ice Trolls and the Dokkaflar or Dark Elves. The Forces of Yule are made up of Toy Soldier Infantry, Cavalry, Grenadiers and Artillery together with animated Teddy Bear Infantry and Artillery and Elves. The new armies come with there own mini supplement that contains army lists, reaction charts, background and an exciting four linked scenario mini campaign.

The campaign, ‘The War to save Yule’ focusses on The Ice Queens evil plan to steal ‘The Bauble of Time’ from Father Yule’s Workshops. The Bauble is a powerful magical artefact that creates a temporal bubble around Yule and his Sleigh, slowing down local time sufficiently to allow, on the longest night of the year a visit to every home with children through out the length and breadth of Ozz.

The Great Frozen North, the land of Babbo and his toys and elves has since time immemorial stood safe behind the impassable river, Fairstead Deep which is filed by tributaries running off the Cold Barren Mountains of the East. The river is almost a quarter of a mile wide and impassable apart from at the great, forty-two arch Yule Bridge. In view of the strength of the Fairstead Deep as a natural barrier, and the peaceful nature of Babbo, very few units are stationed on the border of the Great Frozen North, and most of those are positioned specifically to defend the Yule Bridge. The great strength of Baboo’s realm, of course spend most of there days happily working in the workshops that are spread across the land manufacturing the toys and other gifts that are distributed by Baboo to all the children of Ozz on Yuletide eve. However, Baboo is wise and has created a force that can be mustered in times of threat which consists of all of the Toy Soldiers and Teddy Bears that exist within the realm at that time, combined with all of the Elves that work in his workshops.

The Ice Queen, Aurora was as cunning as she was wicked and had spent many long years brooding and planning how to steal the Bauble of Time from Baboo, so a plan was hatched that was so unexpected and so audacious that it would take Baboo completely by surprise. Calling for help from the Wicked Witch of the North, between them they channelled sufficient magical energy to power a mighty spell that would freeze the Fairstead Deep solid to enable her forces to cross east and west of the Yule Bridge and surprise it’s defenders.

The Bridge Garrison on hearing the approach of the Ice Queens army, musters to defend the bridge, believing it to be the only viable crossing point across the quarter of a mile wide Fairstead Deep.

The Ice Queen has however used powerful magic to freeze the river, making it passable a quarter of a mile west and east of the bridge. The Toy Soldier garrison hurries to redeploy to meet the new threat.

On the left flank Infantry and Cavalry also redeploy. The victory conditions for the scenario are not symmetrical. The Ice Queen scores points for exiting troops of the Northern table edge. The Yule army scores points for inflicting casualties that will weaken the eventual attack on the Workshops.

The Toy Soldier battalion have moved into a position where they will be defending an obstacle if charged.

The Ice Queen starts her attack with a column of Ice Trolls and Krampu and an allied brigade made up of Gilikin Cavalry and Dire Creatures moving fast in brigade columns to the left and right flanks.

The battle was opened by the Toy Soldier Artillery, firing at long range trying to provoke the Ice Queens units to break off from the column and charge them. This proves to be a successful tactic. The Dire Tigers charge the artillery after losing a stand from artillery fire.

The combined fire of the Grenadiers and the Artillery was enough to force the Dire Tigers back Disordered, however, it was not long until the mighty Dire Bears were also closing with the Grenadiers. In Wars of Ozz each unit of Infantry or Cavalry draws a characterisation chit (to make them all a bit different), some are good, some are bad and some do not have an effect on the unit that they are drawn for. As you can see the Grenadiers are normally pretty good Marksman, but today they have draw ‘The Blind’ chit which reduces there effectivness. (Unlucky).

All seems to be going according to plan for Mike, the Ice Queens forces are making good progress and it feels like a very thin line of defenders.

The Grenadiers eventually rout the Dire Tigers. The Dire Bears attack masks the gun and the Dire Wolves and Goat Riders start heading round to avoid the positions.

On the Ice Queens right flank, the first unit slips past and heads for the table edge.

The Toy Soldiers manage to wheel and bring there muskets to bare on the second unit of Krampus who are provoked into charging the unit that fired upon them.

Similarly on the Ice Queens left flank, the artillery fire on the Gilikin Goat Cavalry, who are still in march column provokes them to charge the artillery. Unfortunately (for the artillery) the final shot of cannister as they closed was ineffective and they caused 4 casualties on the artillery crew, routing the remaining gunner.

The scenario was a lot of fun, and far more interesting for it’s asymmetrical victory conditions. In the end the forces of Yule were victorious. The Ice Queen had scored 4 Victory Points for units exiting the table, the forces of Yule had scored 3 x 2 (6) victory points for units destroyed or routed. In the next battle of the campaign units that were destroyed or routing at the end of the game are fielded in a weakened state, as four stand units.

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