Back in May at Wormaster I played an excellent game against lovely chap Neil and his very nice Chaos Dwarf army. You can read the report here.
Over the course of the game we discovered Neil lived near to some of the places I sometimes visit with work and so I suggested if I was ever in the area I'd see if he was available for a game. Last week the stars aligned and I spend a very hot day to the south of Birmingham and once work was out of the way travelled a short distance to Neil's house for a game of Warmaster.
Neil offered me a choice of armies to play and I told him I'd never faced Beastmen, so that's what he chose. I decided my Empire were due a spin out.
I was using a new camera to me and it didn't entirely play ball - mostly by only having a very narrow depth of field which means some of the following pictures aren't great - user error I'm sure.
The Empire artillery assemble.
The whole field of battle
My right flank was full of knights. Opposite fields. Something of an error.
I was planning to use the hill and tower to anchor my left flank.
Two units of these big lads. I was quite scared.
The game started badly for the Empire with the entire left flank stalling.
Though the general did manage to get the woods secured.
Interesting exercise in focus and depth f field coming up...
Beastmen crest the hill in the distance.
The artillery stand ready.
My metal models kept sliding down the hills.
The cavalry occupied the wheat field.
On turn two I unleashed a charge against the chariots - and threw in the character.
The other cavalry watched things unfold...
I'd managed to get the heavy metal models up onto the level surface.
The knights bounced of the chariots - I'd blunted them, but left myself in a mess.
The cannon confused and drove back some of the beasts.
The Dragon Ogres took advantage of my rashness.
Nom, nom, nom, tasty knights.
One survived and lined up the remaining chariot.
There was something of a face off on the left - weird enchantment had stymied the Minotaurs.
Then some ambushers appeared. Exactly like Andy's ones hadn't in the game last week.
At this stage my right appeared to be being eaten by Dragon Ogres while my left was about to be overrun.
The DO's tried the second unit of Knights.
As the Gors crashed into the Thin Blue line.
And the Minos raced up the hill.
The Dragon Ogre attack was rebuffed and one unit destroyed - but another remained and I was still worried.
Over on the left the missile troops did rather more damage than I expected. Before dying.
The Mino's found uphill fighting tough going.
Desperately I ordered the cannon around.
The dealt with the flankers, but surely the Minos would plough through the handguns and onto the vulnerable artillery?
In the centre both sides threw forward their reserves.
Against all the odds the handgunners held on.
The fight on the hill ended in a drawer. In other action not captured on film the remaining knights with the assistance of the pistoliers destroyed the second unit of Dragon Ogres. The Beastemen were a single unit away from breaking and with the last stand of Minotaurs the closest target to the Empire artillery we deiced to call it there for a narrow and unexpected Empire victory.
A really good game - I'd forgotten how resilient the Empire army is - it's quite a grind though to win with them - they lack a bit of punch!
Neil was a splendid host and it wa great to encounter Beastmen for the first time.
Already looking forward to another visit down to that part of the world
We didn’t see enough Warmaster back in the day, nice to see you got a game in, lovely armies there.
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