First play of the Valley game.

I have just finished a game of Valley of the Four Winds. My opponent was my Son who smashed me completely yesterday at the Awful Green Things From Outer Space. Today though, I got my revenge... just.

I was playing the forces of light. In the opening I moved the Farrondil and Gondemar troops into defensive screens and galloped a Cavalry unit down from Farrondil to Gondermar to collect the Swan Bones. At the same Time I despatched three units round the North End of Lake Lume aiming to start Investigating the locations up there.

The fight along the edge of the Swamp and the line between the Gondermarians and Forest Orcs was a genuine bloodfest with the number of counters dropping fast.

Once the Swan Bones reached Farrondil the Farrondil forces started pushing against the skeletons forcing their way across the bridges aiming for the Bell.

Gondemar was seriously low on troops as the Marsh men relentlessly attacked. So much so that the forces defending their Western border against the Orcs was perilously thin.

The Farrondils in the forest were chased down and put to death by the Orcs. The Hero however managed to slip into the woods and began to dance around the Orcs looking for the Pixies.

When the Forest Monster appeared the Hero's dance became even more erratic. When the pixies did finally appear they were immediately decimated by the Orcish hordes who hit them from two directions.

In the Plain of Darkness the Bell was in danger, just as an Orc found and freed the Dragon. Suddenly I didn't know what to do with my Farrondil troops. I needed them to battle the Skeltons but I also had to fend off this Wyrm! I clustered the troops around Farrondil Castle and continued to send the reinforcements out into the Plain of Darkness.

The Dragon laid into the troops defending the castle burning them into mere used tinder. When a blinding bit of luck happened and I was able to get the Swan Bones to the Bell and destroy it. Now I could turn all of my troops westwood and aim to get to the nest of the Orcs.

I left only two troops in Gondemar just to protect the reinforcement point, also just three troops left in Farrondil, the orders were march West!

Just then, like Bard of Lake Town a Farrondil archer brought down the mighty Dragon. My joy was short lived as the Orcs released the Pterrorgulls up in the mountains. Suddenly The white city of Farrondil was in danger again...

My luck continued however and in a blinding piece of Riverdance like footwork the Hero dodged the enemy ZOC's and dived into the Orc nest for a win.

So what did I think? There is a lot going on in theis game. I like the way the forces that feel huge at the beginning are whittled down and you soon have trouble getting the troops you require.

All of the special counters and special abilities are a headache to handle but I reckon a couple of games in and I'll have them all down.

I did have a few questions about the rules but we just made up rulings on these issues as we went along.

It was a fun little game but as another has said in these forums, it's not one I'll be playing too often.