Warband - Grudge Match

The rules were as a standard battle, but the generals gain firce and impetuous (glad I didn't buy that for my General) automatically, with the intent to 'off' the opposing general.
As the Finns say:Kauna ottelu 
 A three (and a half) player encounter on Thursday night, with Jarkko and Son as the Undead, Mark as Barbarians and myself with the Dragonmen.

Jarkko & Son Undead
Vampire Lord wth powerful and regenerate (D6+1)
Necromancer (D6)
2 x skeletons with regenerate and skirmish
2 x skeletal riders with regenerate, one with skirmish
1 x Dire wolves
1 x Bat Swarm

Mark
Chieftain D6+1
Shamen D6+1
Warriors x 4
Buffalo riders x 2
Scouts x 1
Sand Worms x 1
Berserkers x1


Mad Lemmey
Baron D6+1
Dragon Priests D6+1
Warriors with powerful  x3
Warriors  with fire & impetuous x 3
Knights with fierce, powerful and impetuous x 1
Ogres and Giants x 1

A few thoughts on those armies, Mark is a great fan of massive armies of low quality troops, hence the fact he has NO upgrades! Jarkko and son were building to survive out of the bases I own, as they had just bought the rules for themselves. My list was a revision of the last game (where I was pants)!

We rolled for scenario and it was 'Grudge Match', and then we promptly ignored the deployment rules! ;) Terrain was the next consideration, Jarkko plumped for 3 small woods, as with a largely skirmish based army, he could chose to ignore it. I chose two hills and a piece of impassable, hoping they might provide a convieniant anchor for my force. Mark chose a river and a road...

This is not good! River count as impassible, and he had the only shooty stand on table! Also the river goes down first, the road last. We were sunk!

The river ended up splitting the table into three (not quite how the rules work, but it made it a lot more fun). One of my hills didn't bother to show up (roll of 6) and all Jarkko's woods ended up in his sector, mostly out the way (he rolled a 5, so we got to chose where it went). Mark then placed the roads in a typical Milton Keynes Roundabout!

The deployments - showing the roads and rivers - we were just setting up the terrain here.

Deployment, I went for a split, the front left tasked with taking and holding the far left river crossing and holding the undead, while the right-hand column was going to try to hit Mark's flank.

The first move (sweets were a mix of love hearts and milk-chocolate-spogs).

MArk and Jarkko both went for the river crossing between them. Jarkko with his skeletal riders and Mark with his barbarians. This was going to prove to be a long term fight, as both units were going to be supported by their generals points throughout their fight.

Mark's forces close on the crossing, he was now backed up be his buffalo riders. Meanwhile, on his right, he started sniping at Jarkko's bats with his scouts.

Jarkko sent his skirmishing riders to his right, while my Giants & Ogres crossed the river, looking for targets. Meanwhile, Mark had added his riders into the fight at the ford with the skeletons.

I crossed both river crossings, Jarkko's bats, after attempting a flank attack on Mark's engaged buffalo riders, were broken and routing!

My Giants & Ogres headed off on their own to attack Mark's barbarians, only to get swamped by his foot. D'oh!
Jarkko's general lurks behind the woods, adding their support points to the ongoing scrap at the river.
Mark put his buffalo riders out in front of my column, this was going to be a bottleneck that would cause me all sorts of issues!

A wide shot!

In the woods, my knights met Jarkko's riders, as my warriors prepare to flank him. I also got a flank attack Mark's riders, but it came to naught! Jarkko's mage was sniping at my front line, but failing to score any hits.

The Giants and Ogres perished under three units of Mark's barbarians, but Mark had me contained at the crossing.

And was threatening my flanks too!

In the wood, Jarkko's riders were in trouble.

Mark then brought in his Sand Worms on my warriors, I was being pushed back! But his Barbarians broke and disintegrated (they had fought for three rounds on 1 morale point, with the general backing them up with boost points).

Which meant his general was next in line to face the Skeletal riders!

An impetuous unit of mine ended up wedged in the river fork! Jarkko sent his Dire Wolf pack and his general to his right, trying to stem the advance of my troops. His skeletal riders at the ford had disintegrated, but had bounced Mark's general was pushed back too; and I had managed to push Mark's Buffalo riders back too, but this bottleneck was never going to break!

I had to do something about Jarkko's advance, so, my knights were gifted 'Aspect of The Dragon', where they could fly and get out of the woods quick!

The other ford was a MESS! The warriors had been broken by Mark's worms. The Vampire Lord of Jarkko and son was moving awfully quickly towards me!

My knights pile into Jarkko's wolves! That Vampire was worrying me though...

Jarkko brought his skeletons forwards to stop Mark expanding over the ford.

My forces fall back, a couple of units of warriors try to pick on damaged units of Mark's, but they had taken too much damage themselves, and were about to break.

Skeletons and Buffalo Riders met at the ford.

There was a warrior unit there a second ago! Jarkko broke them with his Vampire Lord in one turn! Somehow, his wolves had held my knights too!

My knights, and two more units of warriors broke vs Mark, and it was all over! I had shattered. Jarkko had lost 197 points. Mark less than 100!!!

Great game, at the end Mark's tactics worked brilliantly. Jarkko found the real offensive strength of his army in the Vampire Lord, who polished off three of my units in three turns! Great game, great giggles!
Next week, Graham, an even older friend, is using the undead vs my Taurians!!

Bit cluttered at the end, sorry!