Tonight was the second ever session of the LUNAR club, and it went really well. Lots of people, lots of games, lots of fun! There were games of Mordheim, The Old World, Combat Patrol, Magic: The Gathering, Unstable Unicorns, Hanabi, and quite possibly other ones that I didn't see or wasn't aware of.
I had a game of Mordheim against B's goblins (with Troll!) and then a 750 point Escalation League game with my Maiden Guard against K's terrifying Chaos Warrior army. I lost the first and won the second, which was cheering! Then after that myself, P, T, E, and A played (and lost) a game of Hanabi.
Anyway, here's the relevant After Action Reports...
Mordheim - Wyrdstone Hunt - Goblins versus Cult of the Possessed. This was B's second game in the campaign round, and I - having already played both mine - put up my Cult as an NPC gang, meaning they didn't gain any experience or do any post-game things.
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| Deployment - the goblins spread out, with a group of sword and shield armed hench-gobbos led by a Boss on the left, the troll and Big Boss in the middle, and two hench-gobbos with bows led by a Boss with bow on the right. The cultists, on the other hand, clumped together in the middle. The two chunks of wyrdstone (represented - still - by dice) were fairly central |
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| End Goblin Turn 1 - with no targets in range and nothing to charge, the whole warband ran forwards. The Troll passed its stupidity test, because the Big Boss was yelling sufficiently loudly to penetrate its hugely thick skull and sink into the handful of brain cells long enough to get it moving |
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| End Cult Turn 1 - the cultists split up, with a Magister, Possessed, and Mutant moving to the left and the remaining Possessed and Mutant heading towards the closer Wyrdstone shard on the hanging platform |
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| End Goblin Turn 2 - disaster strikes! The Troll looked blankly in front of it, unable to quite comprehend the increasingly frantic yelling of "GET IT YA ZOGGIN' FICKO" from the Big Boss. The long-range charge into the Possessed, it seems, was not on the cards. The goblins with swords kept moving up, the Big Boss hid behind the Troll's enormous bulk, and the goblins with bows picked a wound off the Possessed at range! |
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| End Cult Turn 2 - the stupid Troll's ambling forwards in the previous turn had brought it into charge range of the Possessed, who promptly ran screaming and gibbering into it at full pelt. The other Possessed ran forwards while the Mutant on the right moved to climb the stairs towards the Wyrdstone. On the left, the Mutant moved to head off the sword-goblins, and the Magister hung back a little. In combat, the Possessed didn't do much to the Troll, but the Troll vomited on the Possessed, knocking a wound off (and critically hitting)! |
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| End Goblin Turn 3 - animosity meant that the Big Boss stood back from the combat, yelling insults at the Troll for failing to kill the Possessed quickly enough. The sword-goblins and their accompanying Boss all charged the Mutant by the corner of the steps, while the bow-goblins and their Boss fired ineffectually at the injured Possessed barrelling towards them at speed... The combat did not go the Troll's way, and the Possessed dispatched the hulking monster with a flurry of blows from its claw and various appendages. In return, however, the goblin Boss stunned the Mutant with a critical hit, enabling one of the sword-goblins to step in and take her Out Of Action. Champagne and medals all round! |
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| End Cult Turn 3 - the Possessed on the left leapt into the Big Boss, whilst the Possessed on the right sprinted screaming into the Boss with bow. The Magister moved up a little to try to get off a spell, while the surviving Mutant ran over to the Wyrdstone and grabbed it. The Possessed handily dealt with their opponents, knocking down the Big Boss and taking the Boss Out Of Action before either could fight back |
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| End Goblin Turn 4, End Game - the sword-goblins charged into the Magister, and the bow-goblins, passing their Fear test, charged into the Possessed. The Big Boss shook his head, and stood back up, ready to 'ave anuvver go (maybe he should have stayed on the ground)! The Possessed promptly did him in again, taking him Out Of Action with another critical hit... but that wasn't the last critical hit! One of the bow-goblins, armed with a dagger, rolled a 6 to hit, a 6 to wound, a 5 on the Critical Hit chart, and the Possessed gurgled wetly and was taken Out Of Action! By a WS2 S3 goblin! The shame! As for the Magister, well, she didn't last long either - the Big Boss took her Out Of Action without breaking a sweat. After that, I voluntarily routed, leaving the field and one Wyrdstone to B and her goblins |
The most amusing part of the post-game sequence was B's Big Boss rolling a 16 (Multiple Wounds), followed by 43 (Full Recovery) and 46 (Fill Recovery)! Happy that I could hand B's goblins a victory, and glad that I didn't have to suffer any terrible consequences from having three out of five Heroes go Out Of Action, I moved on to my 750 point The Old World game against K and his Chaos Warriors.
We played War In The Shadowlands from the Arcane Journal: Razing of Westerland with a fixed length of five turns. I brought my experienced army - now bolstered with a Battle Standard Bearer and some more troops in each regiment - and K brought his scarily large Chaos Marauder army, which boasted a Level 2 Wizard, a Marauder Chieftan, a big block of T5 Marauders with great axes and full command, a big block of normal Marauders, and a blender - I mean a block - of Bezerkers with two hand weapons each.
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| Deployment - the two blue dice are objectives, which we promptly ignored for the whole game. The Maiden Guard are laid out in a firing line (or will be, once the Tears of Isha move up onto the hill), while the Marauders are mostly hiding behind the T5 Marauders! The Berserkers are in reserve, in Ambush |
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| In order to decide who gets to go first in this scenario, each player nominates a 1-wound Champion from one of their Infantry or Cavalry units, and the two Champions then fight to the death. Winner's army goes first, loser's army goes second and has a dead Champion! Raliemne, champion of the Tears of Isha, stepped forwards to challenge the brutal, fur-covered Norscan... |
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| ...and slew him in the second round of combat! Elven skill and Ithilmar blades proved too much for the foul champion of the Dark Gods, and Isha smiled on the Maiden Guard |
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| End Elf Turn 1 - having won the fight to go first, the Tears of Isha along with Commander Aeilliniarie and Finelle the Herald moved up onto the hill while the Eyes of Isha shifted forwards to get a better firing angle. All three regiments loosed their bows, firing into the 20 Marauders with great axes at the front of the enemy army. Seven fell, in all, their bulky bodies collapsing to the ground transfixed by shimmering red-fletched arrows |
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| End Chaos Turn 1 - unable to act with any subtlety, the Chaos force marched forwards. Their wizard unleashed The Summoning, causing seven S4 AP1 hits on the Eyes of Isha, immediately reducing them to just three Sisters of Avelorn! That was a shock, and underlined how important it is to have a wizard of one's own to provide magical defence; the Fated Dispel just doesn't cut it... In retrospect however this was incorrect, as the wizard, tucked safely behind the Marauders, had no Line of Sight to my Sisters of Avelorn, and should not have been able to cast the spell. No matter! A learning point |
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| End Elf Turn 2 - enraged by the slaughter, the Maiden Guard raised their bows and loosed again, reducing the T5 Marauders to just five! |
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| End Chaos Turn 2 - the Marauders facing off against the much-depleted Sisters of Avelorn tried to charge but failed - the Stand and Shoot reaction however did kill two of their number, leaving just the command group. The Berserkers arrived, much to my consternation - that was a very close and very scary unit - while the other Marauder unit advanced behind the wood, hoping to hide from any incoming arrows. The wizard tried to cast The Summoning again, but failed |
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| End Elf Turn 3 - the Heart of Isha shuffled around, presenting their front to the threat on their flank and retaining sight of the Marauders behind the wood. Both they and the Tears fired into the larger unit of Marauders in front of them, reducing them to just six - 11 dead in a single round of shooting! Meanwhile the Eyes of Isha killed the musician from the T5 Marauders and braced themselves for the inevitable charge... |
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| End Chaos Turn 3 - the turn of charges. The Berserkers lunged into the Heart of Isha, which stood, shot, and reformed, killing two before the foaming barechested Khornate worshippers slammed into their shield wall; while over on the right flank the champion and standard bearer charged into the Eyes of Isha. Just before combat began, the wizard managed to cast The Summoning again, on the Tears of Isha - how many hits? 12 S4 hits please. 10 of the Maiden Guard fell to the terrible creatures, but the survivors simply recited the lament for the dead and stood, steadfast, on the hill. The Sisters of Avelorn were unable to kill either of the Marauders as they came forwards, but in the ensuing combat the standard bearer was slain along with almost all the Sisters except the champion, who merely Gave Ground. Over on the left flank, the Berserkers rolled badly and killed just two Maiden Guard after losing two of their own to the Elven spears - a drawn combat! |
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| End Chaos Turn 4 (I forgot to take a photo at the end of my own Turn 4, so a quick recap of that - Commander Aeilliniarie charged out of the Tears of Isha into the T5 Marauder Champion, while the Tears of Isha as well as the Herald fired at the wizard, but only managed to cause one wound; the Heart lost their combat against the Berserkers and were pushed back; the two champions and the Commander on the right flank fought hard but failed to wound each other) - the remains of the Marauders in the centre charged the Tears of Isha, whose shooting as they came up the hill reduced them to the Marauder Chieftan, the Standard Bearer, and the Musician. The wizard cast The Summoning again, but this time a Fated Dispel saw the dark incantation fail. In combat, the Berserkers pushed the disciplined Maiden Guard back and back, but they held on, just remaining on the table and frustrating the enemy. The Tears of Isha, striking first, slew all except for the Marauder Chieftan, who fled 12" right past the stunned wizard, who looked up to see, in front of her, some very angry Elves - the Commander had finally managed to kill the Marauder Champion, and the Sister of Avelorn champion had run forwards, eager to kill the foe and revenge her warriors |
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| End Elf Turn 5 - the Commander climbed back up the hill to get a better line of sight, while the Tears and the champion of the Eyes stood still to make their shots count. They calmly and methodically dispatched both the Marauder Chieftan and the wizard, avenging their fallen sisters as they did so. Meanwhile the Heart of Isha eked out a drawn combat, with the champion challenging, and then killing, the Berserker champion in single combat - the last turn was about to come, and it felt like the game was in the balance |
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| End Chaos Turn 5, End Game - the Berserkers, Frenzied to a man, slew the last of the Heart of Isha who had slowed them down and bled them for the last six rounds of combat, and then promptly pursued 2"... which was just enough to leave the board, as the base of the rightmost front ranker slid over the board edge and pulled the whole unit off the table! The day belonged to the Maiden Guard, but it had been a bloody toll indeed |
In the end, I won 674 to 385 VP, and even though neither of us had paid any attention to the objectives K would still have lost by a good 190 or so VP even if he'd held both objectives for as long as he possibly could have. In the aftermath, I rolled Insurmountable Losses for both the Tears of Isha and the Heart of Isha regiments (which is appropriate, given one suffered 100% losses and the other a mere 85% losses) and Terrible Losses for the Eyes of Isha. This means that both regiments of Maiden Guard lose all their XP and Veteran Abilities, and the Sisters of Avelorn keep their XP but lose their existing Veteran Ability. Ah well! That Ld 9 was nice while it lasted.
Tomorrow, I might even do some painting. Who knows what'll happen, eh?
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