Venerable Nick invited me along to the AWC (Auckland Wargames Club) today to catch up with a few less regular opponents. I was very pleased to get a game in against John Matthews. A little less green and a little more thoughtful than when we last played I certainly hoped to give John's Ogres a good run for their money.
I faced down:
Bruiser General
Bruiser BSB
Butcher with Bangstick and Scroll
Butcher
5 Ironguts with Warbanner
4 Ironguts
2 x 3 Leadbelchers
3 Yhettees
3 x 3 Bulls
A Gorger
With the Butchers hiding in a Leadbelcher and Bull unit they got the majority of the shooting love. The Cannon managed to hit one and cause two wounds before self-immolating (hmm...) but hiding in a small unit turned out to be not such a bad thing as the rest of the shooting was randomised and I either couldn't panic the units by killing Ogres or couldn't wound the Butcher (needing 5s with the Crossbows and Handguns). The Pistoliers mucked around with a unit of Bulls, eventually killing two (after I forgot to shoot with them in one turn - dick), taking the charge of the last, winning by a musician, and being rescued by the Spearmen and General who...
... charged the Yhettees and took their sweet time getting through thanks to some handy break test rerolls from the Ogre BSB (in two consecutive rounds John need a '3' on the break test and managed it on the reroll). The Yhettees lost one and broke late in the game. I couldn't catch them and the jammy buggers ended up rallying saving John a stack of points and also contesting a table quarter.
The Flagellents did what comes naturally and ran straight at the nastiest unit in the opposing army - in this case John's fluffy Death Star - the Ironguts accompanied by BSB and Bruiser General. I managed to get the Swordsmen involved thanks to an overenthusiastic Butcher flanking the Flagellents. In turn the Swords were front-charged by some Bulls resulting in a messy looking combat. I managed to kill the Butcher (who had one wound left) eventually but of course in doing so lost the bonus for having a flank (gah!). The Bulls broke and were run down but the Swords rather awkwardly hit the back of the Flagellents. John rather amusingly (for me) ended up killing all but one of the Flaggies in one of my turns and of course killed the last in his turn allowing the Swords to get in a fresh charge. The Swordsmen promptly screwed up royally, fled and escaped but were unable to rally and ended up fleeing again. In good old Empire tradition they managed to panic the Wizard and Mortar. With no chance to rally I was stoked to just hand John another 250VPs. Nice.
The Reiksguard Knights, posted on the flank, mucked around waiting for John to get impatient and charge an extremely annoying Crossbow detachment. I tried to charge the detachment AND the Knights into the smaller unit of Ironguts. The Crossbow were overcome with cowardice (failed the Fear check) and thanks to my adept placement only the Warrior Priest and one Knight (NOT the Champion) contacted the unit, bringing two Ironguts (with Great Weapons) into the combat. Although John lost the opening round of the combat the Priest managed to take a wound. The Ironguts broke in the next round after the Priest made a fortunate armour save to stay alive. They were run down which I immediately regretted as of course if prevented me from charging into the Death Star on my last turn (the Swordsmen would surely have appreciated the support of a full unit of Knights with Warbanner and under the effects of Hatred - and Unbreakability - joining in their half-hearted combat). Dang.
The Gorger turned up late and snacked on a Free Company detachment. The GW-Knights tried for a rescue and although I didn't end up breaking the Gorger survived nicely (and of course being Unbreakable couldn't care less about losing any combats). I was surprised John wasn't directing attacks at the Knights (due to having Killing Blow) but he realised this after a couple of rounds of combat and mentioned it himself. As it was a couple of Free Company died each turn and this was matched by the outnumber and flank that the Knights enjoyed resulting in a happy stalemate.
EDIT! - thanks to John for pointing out it was actually a win to HIM by just over 200VPs! Way to miscommunicate Dave. So, after all that, an 11-9 loss :-)
Tomorrow night will be my last playtesting game before the tournament (3 weeks away but work is about to seriously interfere with gaming and I REALLY need to sleep when work starts up again - completely drained for a couple of weeks at least - call it system shock after 6 weeks holiday). Poetic justice demands I travel full circle so I've lined up a game against Derick's Spiders - a truly fitting end to this run of playtesting games.
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