Brettonians 4 (Return of the Realms)

As in, this time, they didn't panic off the board before they had a chance to move :)

To be honest Nick's Skaven put the fear in me when playing Bretts. Or, to be more precise, the Jezzails, Warp Lightning Cannon and magic phase put the fear in me. Nevertheless last night I had the chance to get in some more practice against those diverting little ratbags and Nick obliged.

The key moment of the game was spotting an opening Nick had left to the General's and BSB's Clanrat unit's flank. The Grails took their chance, charging two Globadiers who were unable to stand-and-shoot (Banner of Chalons this! ha!), chose to flee and the Grails hit the Clanrats where it hurt (that is to say, in the flank) via the 'Enemy in the Way' rule. With static 4 (outnumber, banner, BSB with Warbanner) it wasn't going to be clear cut but the boys in pink and yellow (what the hell Antony?! Such manly colours!) did me proud with 3 wounds from their charge (3 models able to attack). With flank, 1 rank and their banner the Ratties were down by 2, fluffed the test and reroll and were run down. I had the chance to get A LOT more stuff involved in this combat but the Men-at-Arms, overrunning from a nearby combat, stopped 1 inch short (curses!) and my General, solo charging into the flank of the Plaguemonks, failed to do enough damage to break them (a good overrun would have put him in the back of the Skaven General's unit).

So 2 misplaced Globadiers and a space just wide enough led to Nick's rapid demise. A counter-charge by some Clanrats into the flank of the Realm bus and the front of the Errants failed to impact, the Errants beating their opponents and running them down, the Realms also beating theirs and turning to face for the continuing melee. The Brett General was charged in the flank by the thrice-damned Censer Bearers and the Hippo took a wound (failed toughness test on a 6!) but despite breaking from combat managed to outpace both pursuing units. In my turn the Pegs (who had been quite busy dealing with Slaves... groan) rear-charged the Plaguemonks and the small Realm unit charged the Censers. The Generall rallied. Two Realms died before any combat could take place (I friggin HATE Censer Bearers) but they were still soundly thrashed. The Pegs overran into Jezzails who in turn had pursued some Yeoman who had embarassingly failed to make a dent in them with their charge. Bit of a mess it was.

Nick called it at the start of the 5th - the Warp Lightning Cannon had one shot into the Errants before they charged. I had given the accompanying Paladin the Virtue of Immune to Panic from shooting and magic missiles (an EXCELLENT virtue! Also makes the unit hate missile troops!) so the Cannon would be inevitably charged. On his extreme right Nick still had 4 Jezzails, a full-strength Clanrat unit and 1 Globadier (who has somewhat amusingly rallied right in front of the Clanrats, preventing them from moving). I'd lost both Yeoman units, a couple of Realms from both units, a Grail Knight, almost 1/2 the Men-at-Arms and an Errant but had three quarters (and one contested) and 3 banners.


A good game for Brettonia, especially after the beating Scott gave me on Sunday (still burns a little).


Nick will be back on Friday and I'll be subbing a trillion models to run a Vampire Counts army against him. I'm sure psychology will prove to be fun in that battle :)