Round ONE
Seighild (morning star) and Esau (sword+shield) fan out, creating space for Dock (spear+shield), Freya (spear+shield) and Archie (2h-sword) to join them in a 5-man front line as the Hydra gives a terrible hiss/roar and thunders toward them!
Clem, Bargle, Esua, and Glitch amble up behind the line, preparing to loose their spells/missiles at the opportune moment...
Spells/Missiles
Spells/missiles land at the half-way point of the move, at which point the hydra (MV 9") is less than 20ft away from the line. Esua, Bargle, Clem, and Glitch are throwing spells/missiles, so let's dice for the order they fall in: 4d6=4, 2, 6, 5. It's Clem, Glitch, Esua, then Bargle.
Clem the friar has followed Seighild to now touch her with a
Protection from Evil spell.
Glitch (aptly named) throws a fateful sleep spell at the Hydra. Sleep affects 4-14 normal figures (or one heroic figure with up to 4+1 HD) so it will have no effect on the hydra. Unfortunately for Glitch sleep is indiscriminate and must affect the number of figures indicated, starting with those nearest the target.
This could be "very bad" (TM) for the players. 2d6=3+2=five figures affected (a mercifully low roll). Freya, Esau, Dock, Archie and Bargle all drop into an untimely sleep.
Which also means Esua and Bargle are ensorcelled before they toss their lantern bombs.
Melee
A 6-headed hydra fights as a 6th level fighter (FC 6 men/hero+1).
In today's irregular circumstance it is attacking five ensorcelled players, plus Seigheld (who is shielded by Clem's PfE).
All the players are normal tier, so this is resolved as normal combat. (If a player figure had heroic FC, I would have resolved their individual dual as fantstic combat, and the rest as normal combat).
The First Blow
The spear rank would ordinarily have had the first blow. But, since the players are indisposed, the hydra has the first blow.
For the five ensorcelled players: Housten, we have a problem. How to deal with slept opponents?
OD&D is tacit on attacking magically slept creatures as far as I know. Albeit, M&T does say players can attack sleeping dragons for one free round at +2 on the (presumably 2d6) attack dice, but that's naturally sleeping dragons. The AD&D PHB says magically slept creatures can be automatically slain, but it also says slapping or wounding creatures will wake them. So it appears there is room for wounding versus slaying. Let us presume the difference is that a semi-intelligent monster might merely wound, where an intelligent man-type could slay.
I will call it +4 to hit on a d20 and two dice damage (i.e., equivalent to a thief's backstab attack).
Attacks are against F, E, D, A, B, and S in that order.
Hydra (6 men) 6d20=16+4, 17+4, 17+4, 5+4, 8+4, 15~PfE.
Freya (AC2) is hit; 2d6=5, 4 hp.
Freya slain!
Esau (AC2) is hit; 2d6=6, 3 hp.
Esau slain!
Dock (AC2) is hit; 2d6=1, 5 hp. Down to 3/9.
Archie (AC3) is missed.
Bargle (AC5) is missed.
Seigheld (AC3) is missed.
Technically, PfE reduces the Hydra's HD by 1 (vs Seigheld only) so a single hydra head alone has no effective attack against her in normal combat.
Return Blows
Only Seigheld (2 men) has the chance to reply with her morning star. 2d20=9,20! A hit. d6=5. Hydra is down to 31/36 hp.
Seigheld was missed, and she hit, so she will have the first blow position next round.
Morale
If there were any non-players on the player side they would check morale at some penalty for suffering this awful start. However, PCs are not subject to morale dice; only the player's own best judgement
S&S says sleep lasts for 4-16 turns, but PHB says that slapping or wounding will awaken sleeping figures. Let us be "kind" and assume that being attacked/trampled by a six-headed hydra is enough to awaken the surviving ensorcelled player figures. They will have to scramble up and re-arm, so they will have second blow position next round.
@mushgnome what orders?
