Age of Sigmar Threesome Action

Mannsleib and Morrsleib hung low in the air, both almost concealed behind thickening clouds over the small hamlet of Tromney.  Hector Korbin blew on his hands and scanned the distant tree line. No sign of movement, but he knew they were coming - his Sigmar-sense was tingling.
"Anything to report" the Warrior Priest called over to the leader of Felchbagz Halbardiers?
The man shook his head.
"Where's von Tanzsalle?" the priest asked. The sergeant gestured behind him with his thumb.
"In there, he's taken those two halfling girls in for questioning"
From the squeals and sounds of banging headboards it appeared the good General was taking to the task with gusto.
Korbin's attention was dragged from the General's 'interrogation techniques' by a cry from the right. His eyes snapped back to the treeline and now he could see shapes, small and scurrying, and some that appeared to be bouncing...
"To arms men - put your faith in Sigmar and we shall carry this night!" he bellowed.

What's this, TWO games of Age of Sigmar in less than seven days?
Well that's what was Plat du Jour at the Ilko Gaming Hut as General Ballroom was itching for a game with us.

Steve came up with a scenario whereby my Night Goblins and his Skaven were aiming to loot an Empire village of it's treasures. The local militia having got wind of this has summoned a small force of state troops to defend the place.
We figured that the AoS random who goes next mechanic would work just fine for the three of us and if we resolved fights in the order of who's turn was next then all would be well. Probably.

In a nod toward Realm of Chaos shenanigans Steve had decided that forces would be largely random. I think this is because he knows I have no luck with dice. And sure enough all my units were below average - where his and General B's were slightly above. So far so predictable.

My goblin "horde" 

 Gen B's men are lovely, innit?

Ready for the off

We set up and almost inevitably Steve got the first turn and wasted no time in running forward with all his men rats.

Skitter, squeek, skitter

I likewise advanced on the left flank. My Shaman unleashed a Bad Moon spell and killed a few swordsmen and the archers continued the whittling of the same unit.

The swordsmen retreat

In the Empire turn the thin purple line largely stood still, apart from the swordsmen who retreated a little into the shade of the covered market.
Those that could shoot, did.
The handgunners killed a single ratman and both cannon shots ploughed into the ground in front of the squigs.

Miraculously I won the roll for next round and advanced once more. However my shaman was now stuck in the woods and couldn't zap the swordsmen again. The archers did shoot a few more swordsmen.

The Empire responded - shooting a couple more skaven and this time the cannon flew true and killed both squigs.

 Note absence of bouncing red critters

The skaven again raced forward and their shaman tried to cast a spell but was resisted by the Empire warrior priest.
The warpfire thrower killed a few men (and we thought it was a bit scary) and then the Skaven charged home against the handgunners and halbardiers

 Charge! Charge! Stab! Stab!

In the fighting phase blows were traded with neither side managing to make much impact.

The next turn began with the Empire as General von Tanzsalle finally made an appearance on the battlefield. The second unit of Swordsmen charged home against the night Goblin spears.

In the shooting phase the handgunners shot the skaven they were fighting, much to Steve's surprise. The fighting continued with the Skaven warlord and slaves tackling the halbardiers.

My goblins got to go before the swordsmen and delivered a surprising amount of damage. In return the Empire stalwarts failed to inflict more than a single wound.

Meanwhile the Stormvermin were ploughing through the swordsmen and Gen B threw both the Empire general and warrior priest in to support them.

The halbardiers butchered the skaven slaves and did three wounds to the Skaven general - who started to spray the musk of fear.

By the way, if you've ever wondered what kind of benighted fool has the money to lack of sense ratio necessary to purchase the GW metal measuring device, I have the answer. It's a man who's just had a stroke.

Meanwhile back at the game the goblins once more attacked the swordsmen and astonishingly manged to wipe them out.
In a quest for glory one of the squig herders ran into the lake to try and retrieve the treasure concealed therein. He drowned.

Weight of numbers began to tell on the handgunners and the Stormvermin proved considerably handier than they did in most versions of Warhammer and chopped down the warrior priest.

 *Musk Spray*

In the last round of combat the Empire general was similarly cut down by the rampant Stormvermin the handgunners were wiped out and the Skaven warlord managed to chop down the halbardiers who were surrounding him.

I briefly toyed with the idea of breaking the evil alliance and turning on the Skaven, but in the end decided that the truce would hold on this occasion.

And with that the game drew to a close.

Well I actually quite enjoyed that.
Small numbers of units, not too many special rules, lots of lovely painted models and convivial company meant we had a fun game.
I wouldn't want to play with much bigger forces than this, but there was something about it that felt a bit like a very early version of Warhammer (1-3rd ed) with the small units skirmishing.
I think the scenario and the three player dynamic meant we avoided the "one big pile-up in the middle" effect.
I'm still not going to be picking AoS as first choice game any time soon, but more evenings like this are definitely all right by me.