Thursday, April 8, 2010

Scott and I completed our WAB campaign last night, and what a strange finale it was. In the past few games Scott's large Norman knight unit had it's way with my warbands, so I decided to counter by fielding a single warband of 64 warriors to absorb the blow and flank it with nobles and viking pirates with 2-handed axes to close in for the kill. I also tooled up my king with a steed and 2-handed axe to challenge the Norman Comes to a duel at the beginning of the battle. I reckon that could have gone either way, similar stats but he had a lance and heavy armour on warhorse against my highland pony and thrusting spear, but I also had 3 wounds to his 2. If I went first, I would probably win, but if he went first it could have been tight...

In any case, Scott declined the challenge which gave me d3 (rolled a 3!) points to use towards battle resolution in the game.
This photo shows the Norman Comes with his minstrel (singing Brave Sir Robin, I believe) declining the challenge to face Chief Angus McLovin

These 3 points hung over Scott's head like a cloud for the rest of the battle, proving to be decisive. Basically, his large knights circled my large warband and would not risk a charge. In the meantime, my vikings and nobles chased his other units all over the board getting brutally pincushioned by bows, slingers and crossbows.


They went thataway!

I eventually forced a small unit of his knights off the board (fleed a charge too far) and ran down another unit of foot knights that fled from my vikings (fleed a charge not far enough) and that was enough points for a Scottish win.

Hooray!

But really, it was kind of a non-game. Scott never had a winning position to launch a charge (with the -3 outcome differential sitting over his head) and I never got a decent charge chance. The battle that wasn't, we never fought a melee.

Next up: 15mm Dacian DBA army on the bench in preparation for MayDay.

2 comments:

  1. Looking at the results of a single combat it's probably good I didn't fight it as the winner still gets a number of +1's to add to combat resolution and the loser would have to roll panic for every unit. Which would have meant I probably would have lost most of my shooters (except for maybe my trusty crossbowmen).

    Regardless, I still felt like I was playing a Warhammer Empire gunline army. Except without all the misfires. Reminds me of a game against Chris' Chaos army where I had 4 misfires in 1 turn. I did not win.

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  2. Yep, if you lose the challenge it is even worse than declining - losing the challenge would likely mean a complete defeat instead of a marginal defeat.

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