It was with much amusement that I faced the father of my Round Two opponent. Having done for the younger Williamson and also dealt harshly to a Brettonian army the previous day I very much hoped to give Neil a good hard game. I also made a mental note to provide the TO with a 'coincidental' funtimes draw should he play in a tournament that I'm running in the future :)
Neil's Bretts were VERY different to Henry's. Peasant units to the max - I think I'd finished deploying my entire army before a single unit of Knights had been placed!
This game developed on three fronts. On my left flank Neil had rather curiously deployed a large Realm bus with BSB (the good old static 7 one with Virtue of Duty and Warbanner) against all my cavalry, the Crossbows and a Cannon. With good diverting and bait/flee options the Knights were outmanouevred, shot to bits and pieces and eventually pounced upon by the Reiksguard who ate them for breakfast (or at least a late lunch).
In the centre my infantry blocks were facing a two-pronged attack coming around a large forest in the middle of the table. A small Realm unit came around the left and hit the Spears. They were chased off by static res (7 from my guys including a detachment flank charge) and the Spearmen also dealt with a second mini-Realm bus, capturing their second banner of the game (but failing to catch either unit in pursuit).
On the right of the forest Neil was discovering how incredibly annoying Empire detachments are. With a combination of redirecting and fleeing his General's unit hit the Swordsmen and were smashed and fled (failed to catch them too though - bugger!). An extremely unfortunate unit of Mounted Yeoman hit the Flagellents (still can't figure out why) and were beaten to a bloody pulp. The Flagellents were then charged in the rear by a unit of three Grail Knights (three!) which kept them occupied for the rest of the game.
That left Neil's Pegasus Knights who took two cannonballs to the face. The suriving Knight charged at my suicide Wizard but the cowardly (and wise) sorcerer narrowly escaped and managed to rally.
Unfortunately, poised to decimate Neil's units with fresh charges from my blocks (into his Knights) and the Knights (into Peasants and the Treb) we ran out of time. Somehow we'd only managed to get through 4 turns! I found this very frustrating and realised immediately that I'd missed out on another couple of battle points (at least!) and that this would cost me in the washup. The next turn would have seen be grab another 300-900 victory points with the odds very firmly on my side (Brettonians REALLY don't like getting charged by static res 5-6 units!). A 14-6 win z9that could have easily been an 18-2) and ultimately a disappointing game despite the entertaining detachment heroics in the centre.
Having faced two Brettonian armies I had a little joke with my mate Mark McCall that I might as well face the third one at the tournament. Funny... the joke wasn't nearly as funny in reality...
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