Monday 9 February 2015

Warhammer Campaign Empire versus Bretonnia

Thursday night saw my return t the North Notts Palais des Jeux after a considerable interlude.
Steve and Matt have pressed on with the campaign in my absence, but this was to be my first game.
Sadly I have wasted the intervening weeks and instead of getting my Empire force painted I have instead painted a Lion Rampant retinue and my usual random assortment of models from other periods and scales. And so it was that the force I threw down was a little unprepared, both in terms of my not having read the rules (no change there) but, far more unforgivably, many of the models were *gasp* unpainted. Sorry everyone, I've let you down, I've let the hobby down but most of all I've let myself down.

 The knights. Mostly painted.

 My battle line

 Beastly Bretonnians

The slightly whiter than they should be Wissenlanders

However we decided we'd play anyway.
We rolled up Dawn Attack, each staked a village and away we went.
Most of my troops ended up in the centre, which was a little cramped and the nearby altar of Khaine, making me frenzied, was a bit of a worry but nevertheless I trusted to Sigmar as the perfidious snail-munchers settled down for a short prayer.

 Four dead. And it only cost me a third of my army to do it.

 For the Lady!

We're finished. All of us.

The knights swang around the swamp to bear down on the Bretonnian lances and the handgunners pushed up to close the range. The winds of magic blew and the Bright Wizard gathered the power to himself. The first attempted spell was foiled by the Bretonnian magic user, but the second unleashed a powerful ball of flame, roasting four knights alive in their silvery armour. Unfortunately the wizard lost control of the magic flux and the resulting explosion wiped out ten of his spearmen companions. All of which was too much for the rest of the unit and they fled headlong from the field, taking the mortar crew with them.
Oh.

Let us, ow you say, chaurge!

The Bretonnian knights advanced and the archers closed the range. The Bretonnian mage unleashed the might of the Dwellers Below and several noble knights were dragged to their doom whilst the trebuchets and archers killed a few more. Things were not going well.

In my turn the knights moved close to the Bretonnian line whilst a volley from the handgunners killed a total of no Bretonnians whatsoever. The cannon pinged a couple, but then it was back to Steve.

The Bretonnian horse duly charged both my depleted knights and my cannon.
Once more the Dwellers were summoned from beneath the ground and this time they dragged away my general as well as all but three of the knight unit.
The resulting combat saw the demise of the cannon and the champion, the sole survivor of the knight unit, turn tail and flee.

 Like a spectral general. Which, ironically, he would be seconds later

 Easy viande for eurz!


The militia seized their chance and hurled themselves at the flank of the knight unit, however even frenzied their puny weapons were unable to penetrate the thick knightly armour, though their nerve held despite the casualties they took.

 I'm off!

'Ave it!

The handgunners fled from the other unit of knights, skillfully dancing across the swamp with no casualties. However this left them in range of both the trebuchet and the archers, and the sole survivor decided to live to fight another day. The combat once again turned against the militia (though at least they killed one knight) and they too duly fled and were run down.

Oh.

The field belonged to the Lady!

That was all a bit painful. A very unlucky miscast, combined with not really knowing the army at all made it all too easy for Steve.
But it was good fun as always and good to be back with Warhammer after a little lay off.
I'm now inspired to get more paint on the army before the next game.

You should now go and read my opponent's version of events here

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