Another Skull Rollers warm-up.
This time, late into Saturday night at Andy's place. His list is for this game was illegal and a trail, so don't try to copy it folks, his legal list is, however, awesome. This was another learning game for Andy, so took a lot longer due to us talking through each move and options within.
To quote General Melchett
"It's an barren, featureless wasteland out there!"
Actually, it's not too bad! Two bit of 'magic terrain' a wood, a town and a coastline on the right (which is why is the table looks narrow, it's only 5' wide). The tapes we preplaced by Andy to show deployment depth. My initial deployment, anchoring to the right, one toe in the sea, with loose bowmen in the magic terrain to the rear and an ambush (guess what?) in the woods.
Oh flibberdygibberts! My ally has decided not to play today. Not what I need when 1700 points isn't showing any moral fibre. This puts a severe spanner in the works.
Especially when you are facing of such well painted troops that fills the table like that! Andy has three archer units in the town, a wall of spears and four units of serious chariots. I'm trying to bring that lot down with only 7 effective units! (Andy's chariots aren't finished yet, but I'm sure they will be as awesome as the rest of his painting.
My cavalry ambush, using what little cards it had (yes, he is a talented commander, but this was his best cards out of 4)!
Cards for turn 2. When you have two yellows and a green, and still can't move your ally, it's a bad day! On the left, the four zebras are my cavalry command. Just when you need decent movement, the gods laugh at you!
The chariots are bearing down on the end of my line. Those are my loose, superior, skilled, powerbows holding that behemoth of superior long spear battle chariots coming at me, fast!
End of turn 2, and I am scrambling fast with my spears to try and hold this one together. My superior spears have switched sides from the right to the left of my powerbows. One cavalry unit had managed a wheel, the other, small move forwards. My allies stuck, Andy walks forwards with a solid line, as his mass of chariots aim to shoot the gap. I even brought forwards my normal bows to try to slow the tide.
Andy goes for a massed charge, 6 units group charge against 4. Shiiiiiiiit! Him charging me is slightly better than me charging him, as he also has integral archers (+1 is charged, but no benefit if he charges). Brace brace!
It looks beautiful, but man it;s big and it's going to hurt! On the left, my powerbows slowed and hurt one units severely. My two units of spears would have to take the hit.
Posh biscuits provided by Rosemary, absolutely scrummy!
The unit that was hit by the bows, Andy had to pay his way through the arrows, but fell short. Fluffy stands firm.
Fluffy stepped right to join the fight on the right, as my cavalry tried to catch up with the chariot wall.
The spears in full fight. Average spears and superior bows vs average spears. He had 30 here, I had 20. After impact and melee, I was down to 16, Andy was down to 24 and his talented general was degraded to competent, In fact, one of his units went straight to half strength.
And STILL my allies won't come and play!
OH COME ON! Pleeeaase!
Over on the left, battle chariots have a target firmly in their sights, as do the cavalry and the chariots. Even my bows decided to try and be clever, but Andy had the deck and was able to move his heavy chariots out the way first.
My superior spears, having decided to charge, realise their mistake. They will count as moving when those battle chariots smash their flanks.
Chariots and horse smash together, spears meet spears, chariots meet the flanks of spears. Ohoh! However, Andy had spotted a rear follow up charge on my superior bows and was about to kill a base.
Actually, that didn't go too badly! He only killed one spear in the flank. They dealt out a kill on Andy's spears to their front too, hero types. My 8 horse managed to kill one of the 6 chariots. Andy's other battle chariot unit lined up opposite my loose, average, bows. This could be fun!
Fluffy in the fray deals out kills on the spears (superior melee experts with general vs long spears with general, buzzsaw time) .
The chariots break. One cavalry looses a base.
Suddenly, a lot of things happened! Three spear block of Andy's collapsed. Three KaB tests for the centre unit as a unit on each side broke, plus the general with the unit died, so three yellows equals a skull and two slows, typical. Andy's luck was not great, but he had taken out my two average spear units at the same time. (6-4)
Oh, my superior spears, flank charged, turned to fight. Suddenly, I'm up. However, Andy has discovered the charge while in contact rule, and his battle chariots still have the flank of my spears next file in their sights. Dumdumdum!
Centre, what centre? The only positive of this is Andy contacted my allies, so they only need a yellow to fight normally now.
A red, now, really, I've been waiting all game for a red, and now I don't actually need one, a yellow would have done (moan moan moan). Time to fight! 😂😁
Andy's battle chariots, after losing a base to KaBs, charge my bows, who do a kill in defensive fire. All I need is a wound and I'll break them.
And with only two bases, Andy smashed me to pieces! How? Easy: Loose in the open, +1, Long Spears +1, Superior +1, Battle Chariots charging, +2. So that's 5 up, and this causes a skull and a wound, and that's a shatter which gives Andy a double red dice as his second base benefits from shatter. That smashes my unit. (6 all)
The battle chariots smack into my second rank of superior spears. Leaves me with 3, and the unit breaks on 3.5 losses!
Just to show what Andy can do. Double red on that charge.
This used to be a unit of 6, now down to 3.5, whereas I used to be a unit of 4. I'm superior short spear, Andy is just short spear, and I caught him in the flank. Unfortunately, I was not as successful as he!
Ha! Black dice for the win! A wound inflicted.
Fluffy and the boys, despite taking a flank charge earlier, take on and beat another spear block (8-6)
And somehow, my beaten up spears manage to break the battle chariots without dieing themselves (10-6)
Oh it was all going so well, when one of my cavalry broke (10-8, and I'm now one unit away from breaking)
I'm in trouble, Andy charges my cavalry, who stupidly have their back to him and will have to run away. My spears are out of line, my bows cannot shoot anything. I've got nothing to catch him. My allies are just grinding away at his spears, but nothing much is going to happen there.
I try to deal with his javelinmen with my 8 of allies. Unfortunately, we lost 2 bases to defensive fire on the way in, and another one in impact, against one base of his!
And they break! This end the game on 10-15,(as 10 is the highest you can score if you lose, it shows how close this game was).
The scene at the end, it's a bloody game this one, but an absolute classic. This is an army to watch! Andy has 7 TUG units left, I have 4. A well deserved win for him. 😀
What to do differently, not much! A reticent ally and bad cards you cannot control, I still managed to inflict a lot of damage, but I threw away my average bows and a unit of cavalry in silly attempts to gain points, but you live and learn!
To quote General Melchett
"It's an barren, featureless wasteland out there!"
Actually, it's not too bad! Two bit of 'magic terrain' a wood, a town and a coastline on the right (which is why is the table looks narrow, it's only 5' wide). The tapes we preplaced by Andy to show deployment depth. My initial deployment, anchoring to the right, one toe in the sea, with loose bowmen in the magic terrain to the rear and an ambush (guess what?) in the woods.
Oh flibberdygibberts! My ally has decided not to play today. Not what I need when 1700 points isn't showing any moral fibre. This puts a severe spanner in the works.
Especially when you are facing of such well painted troops that fills the table like that! Andy has three archer units in the town, a wall of spears and four units of serious chariots. I'm trying to bring that lot down with only 7 effective units! (Andy's chariots aren't finished yet, but I'm sure they will be as awesome as the rest of his painting.
My cavalry ambush, using what little cards it had (yes, he is a talented commander, but this was his best cards out of 4)!
Cards for turn 2. When you have two yellows and a green, and still can't move your ally, it's a bad day! On the left, the four zebras are my cavalry command. Just when you need decent movement, the gods laugh at you!
The chariots are bearing down on the end of my line. Those are my loose, superior, skilled, powerbows holding that behemoth of superior long spear battle chariots coming at me, fast!
End of turn 2, and I am scrambling fast with my spears to try and hold this one together. My superior spears have switched sides from the right to the left of my powerbows. One cavalry unit had managed a wheel, the other, small move forwards. My allies stuck, Andy walks forwards with a solid line, as his mass of chariots aim to shoot the gap. I even brought forwards my normal bows to try to slow the tide.
Andy goes for a massed charge, 6 units group charge against 4. Shiiiiiiiit! Him charging me is slightly better than me charging him, as he also has integral archers (+1 is charged, but no benefit if he charges). Brace brace!
It looks beautiful, but man it;s big and it's going to hurt! On the left, my powerbows slowed and hurt one units severely. My two units of spears would have to take the hit.
Posh biscuits provided by Rosemary, absolutely scrummy!
The unit that was hit by the bows, Andy had to pay his way through the arrows, but fell short. Fluffy stands firm.
Fluffy stepped right to join the fight on the right, as my cavalry tried to catch up with the chariot wall.
The spears in full fight. Average spears and superior bows vs average spears. He had 30 here, I had 20. After impact and melee, I was down to 16, Andy was down to 24 and his talented general was degraded to competent, In fact, one of his units went straight to half strength.
And STILL my allies won't come and play!
OH COME ON! Pleeeaase!
Over on the left, battle chariots have a target firmly in their sights, as do the cavalry and the chariots. Even my bows decided to try and be clever, but Andy had the deck and was able to move his heavy chariots out the way first.
My superior spears, having decided to charge, realise their mistake. They will count as moving when those battle chariots smash their flanks.
Chariots and horse smash together, spears meet spears, chariots meet the flanks of spears. Ohoh! However, Andy had spotted a rear follow up charge on my superior bows and was about to kill a base.
Actually, that didn't go too badly! He only killed one spear in the flank. They dealt out a kill on Andy's spears to their front too, hero types. My 8 horse managed to kill one of the 6 chariots. Andy's other battle chariot unit lined up opposite my loose, average, bows. This could be fun!
Fluffy in the fray deals out kills on the spears (superior melee experts with general vs long spears with general, buzzsaw time) .
The chariots break. One cavalry looses a base.
Suddenly, a lot of things happened! Three spear block of Andy's collapsed. Three KaB tests for the centre unit as a unit on each side broke, plus the general with the unit died, so three yellows equals a skull and two slows, typical. Andy's luck was not great, but he had taken out my two average spear units at the same time. (6-4)
Oh, my superior spears, flank charged, turned to fight. Suddenly, I'm up. However, Andy has discovered the charge while in contact rule, and his battle chariots still have the flank of my spears next file in their sights. Dumdumdum!
Centre, what centre? The only positive of this is Andy contacted my allies, so they only need a yellow to fight normally now.
A red, now, really, I've been waiting all game for a red, and now I don't actually need one, a yellow would have done (moan moan moan). Time to fight! 😂😁
Andy's battle chariots, after losing a base to KaBs, charge my bows, who do a kill in defensive fire. All I need is a wound and I'll break them.
And with only two bases, Andy smashed me to pieces! How? Easy: Loose in the open, +1, Long Spears +1, Superior +1, Battle Chariots charging, +2. So that's 5 up, and this causes a skull and a wound, and that's a shatter which gives Andy a double red dice as his second base benefits from shatter. That smashes my unit. (6 all)
The battle chariots smack into my second rank of superior spears. Leaves me with 3, and the unit breaks on 3.5 losses!
Just to show what Andy can do. Double red on that charge.
This used to be a unit of 6, now down to 3.5, whereas I used to be a unit of 4. I'm superior short spear, Andy is just short spear, and I caught him in the flank. Unfortunately, I was not as successful as he!
Ha! Black dice for the win! A wound inflicted.
Fluffy and the boys, despite taking a flank charge earlier, take on and beat another spear block (8-6)
And somehow, my beaten up spears manage to break the battle chariots without dieing themselves (10-6)
Oh it was all going so well, when one of my cavalry broke (10-8, and I'm now one unit away from breaking)
I'm in trouble, Andy charges my cavalry, who stupidly have their back to him and will have to run away. My spears are out of line, my bows cannot shoot anything. I've got nothing to catch him. My allies are just grinding away at his spears, but nothing much is going to happen there.
I try to deal with his javelinmen with my 8 of allies. Unfortunately, we lost 2 bases to defensive fire on the way in, and another one in impact, against one base of his!
And they break! This end the game on 10-15,(as 10 is the highest you can score if you lose, it shows how close this game was).
The scene at the end, it's a bloody game this one, but an absolute classic. This is an army to watch! Andy has 7 TUG units left, I have 4. A well deserved win for him. 😀
Comments
Post a Comment