Redcaps Corner is still in the process of procuring briks to use as terrain, so for this battle, generic table-top terrain was utilized (but all of you should be used to that if you are following my batreps). A couple of photos are blurrier than is typical of my photography; I hope you can look past those cause I played all night with a POUNDING headache. Still a wonderful game.
Turn 0/Setup
Rev's setup. This is all of my Dragon Guard except for a squad of dual-wielders, a third squad of spearmen, and the mages. My flanks are pretty balanced and the Dragon Cannon is getting a maiden voyage. The Dragon knights are set up on the far right for reasons that I'll explain later; in retrospect, I should have loaded that flank with the griffin too, but where getting ahead of ourselves. CC weapon masters supported by my wizard hero take up the middle. All spearmen are screened by archers.
Here are my opposing flanks. To the left is Redcap's force, consisting of some pretty sweet undead. Most of them have some pretty buffed out stats too, so I'm not overly eager to engage any of his combat units without softening them up first. I didn't get any close-ups, but his crossbowmen are really pretty.
Ted's force is to the right, and this worries me. He has a skele-chief-mobster hero who is supported by military personnel and imperial gunners. Anyone carrying a gun in his army (everyone) is treated as having an assault rifle
. AAAAnd, there is an insanely armored transport and a sniper in the building. Another freakin up-hill battle. There probably should have been some Benny or Penny action to compensate for tek-level disparity, but we overlooked that for this battle.
Usually I let my wizard ride the griffin. Today, an armored champion gets to mount the beast with a wicked spear for crazier charging action!
Here is a closeup of Redcap's [edit] skeletal hero (maybe it was a specter...I can't remember).
Turn 1
So first turn, we are all pretty far away from each other, so mostly just moving into range. Griffin starts building hopping. You can see i'm pushing pretty far forward with the Dragon Knights; that's because Ted's riflemen are on that flank. I want to get in as fast as possible to try and take some of the riflemen down.
The undead on the left and the mob on the right also move foreward.
Again, here is the setup that my knights are trying to counteract with speed and lances.
Turn 2:
Dragon guard continue to push forward.
The spear-persons reform in order to move round this building. The archers are really excited for battle.
Redcap also pushes forward and is sort of bottle-necking in this gap...which is making my griffin champion drool right now. You can see his pile of fast-moving crossbowmen get cover behind that fence...
And obliterate one of my archer lines.
Ted also moves forward into cover. You can see his sniper (which gives me grief all game, and the armored transport that is shielding lots of his guys.
Turn 3
The griffin charges in at his skeletal hero who finds a lucky redshirt nearby. This was a blunder, though because I forgot that my griffin is a full-mind and I didn't roll his attacks...stupid...
On the right flank, my knights are running down a bunch of riflemen. Their armor, hp, and special ability are really helping out here. You can find all that information in the Bonus Materials section. But...i don't expect them to last long...
My wizard casts a spell to double the movement of the CC Weapons Masters, who promptly assault the undead archers. And, yeah, those archers just start melting. I'm pretty exposed with them, but I'm just trying to eliminate a really annoying ranged squad.
But Teds response is to start gunning them down
The undead archers also try to withdraw from combat, which leads to the death of 1 or 2 more. Redcap might have also lost one to missed shots from the assault rifles.
Countercharge by the specters. Who pretty much snuggle my griffin. This is two games in a row where the griffin is just housed. Makes for some nice death scenes, but I'm really expecting more out of him. Champion counters and kills a guy.
...and this is why...against modern weaponry with autofire...medieval can't have nice things. Totally gunned down! On the plus side, I think I took 5-7 riflemen with me. Sniper did miss a shot at these guys and tagged his comrade in the back of the head.
The [edit] skeletal champion attempts to resurrect some of his fallen skeletons. However, the spell goes awry, and these "zombies" are raised from the dead...and not with friendly proclivities toward the [edit] skeletal champion...
Turn 4
Seeing the griffin downed and their golden champion pressed on all sides by the undead, the spear-persons make a push forward; absorbing the champion into their unit. Archers can be seen taking cover behind the corpse of the griffin, and you'll notice too that the skeletal champion rode foward, slew the raised archers, and is now in a duel with the blue wizard.
To the right, spear-persons reform to fit through the gap, archers move forward, and the flame cannon begins sloshing through the marsh.
The hammerer champion continues to slay undead crossbowmen. As of this picture, his squad has eliminated all but one!
Once again, the skeletal champion attempts to raise zombie archers to do his bidding...and again, only 1 is raised AGAINST him. All game, I made opposed rolls vs. feats like a champ!
Combat ensues with the spearmen and the specters; by now, mummies have joined the fray and a pile of spear-person dead begins to mount. The spear-people are, however, consistently obliterating undead units in the chokepoint.
After some assault rifle fire, the hammerer champion is slain. Alexei's (not-Ted's) army moves forward, as do a unit of armored skeletons. Also notice the fellow on skiis. He has a bomb...
Which he throws at Dragon Guard lines!!! Luckily, they all had saved actions, and a combination of low damage rolls and successful bailing means that all of the figs who are lying down are actually just disrupted
For some reason, Alexei's marines choose not to mount any horses; instead, they begin using them for cover.
Turn 5:
Why are all the skeletons suddenly scattered? Well the dragon cannon (not pictured here) had moved out of the marsh and fired a Dwarf-fire rocket at the squad. 1 or 2 became toast, but the rest successfully bailed out of range as well.
CC still rages at the left edge of the board. 5 figs are left in the spear unit, while redcaps melee fighters are reduced to just 2 (maybe three).
Blue wizard and skeletal champ still duel; you'll also notice how far the flame cannon has moved forward, giving it a decent survey of the field. At this point, the wizard may also have lit the skeleton on fire, but I forgot to garnish him with OTC flames. I was a major fan of the jolly roger lance, btw.
During the opposing turn...with 3 men left alive...the spear unit and gold champion have cleared the left flank of undead! (with the exception of one crossbowman who is hiding near the center of the battlefield).
Nevertheless, the skeletal champ finally succeeded in a feat roll, granting him 3! zombie archers to the wizard's 1! Uh oh...
Toward the center, you may recall that ski man had thrown a bomb at my squads to the right. Well Alexei tries the same tactic twice more. But to his surprise, the blue wizard used a reaction spell to summon a gust of wind that blew the bombs back in their faces. Suck on that, jetskis!
In consternation, though, the chief-mob boss reinforces the skeletons in the center...
while the personnel carrier reinforced the chief-mob boss...
shooting from both took out 2 archers.
...
Boys and girls, that is enough for today. I've got some more photos of the game that I'll try and catalogue and upload in the next few days. Hopefully this will hold you over until then.
All the best,
Rev
